The Harris Place: Christmas 2013

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Christmas 2013

Of course we had to do a little photo shoot in front of the Christmas tree :)

Madelyn's 1st Christmas! I can't believe this sweet baby is already 5 months old. Time has gone by so fast. We have LOVED having a baby around the house again. She is just too cute and too fun for words :)

This was our little make-shift Christmas card that we sent out via email this year. To get our family together included cutting and pasting from 3 different pictures, without having a good photo editing software :)

We had a nice and relaxing Christmas this year. We just stayed at home and it was just our little family. On Christmas Eve we watched the Nativity Bible videos, played a new board game that we opened, watched Mickey's Christmas Carol, sang some Christmas hymns and the kids opened their new pajamas. On Christmas morning we played with Santa presents, ate a yummy waffle with fruit and whip cream breakfast, watched Joy to the World (about the birth of Christ) and then opened presents. Dal was very excited about the new legos and angry birds star wars game set that he got.


Braelyn was very excited about her new doll house and doll family and Lambie from Doc McStuffins. I love the excitement that kids have for Christmas, it makes it so much fun! 2013 was a very eventful and crazy year for us and we were blessed very much. We look forward to 2014 and all of the new adventures that it brings. I am going to copy and paste the email that I sent out giving our family and friends a recap of 2013 so that I have it here too.

Dear Family & Friends,

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and that this new year brings many wonderful blessings your way.

2013 was a very eventful year for our family....

I spent most of the year doing clinical hours at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital while completing my Masters degree in Medical Dosimetry. I had an awesome experience there and I loved it!
One week after I finished school our sweet baby girl Madelyn Lily was born (August 2nd). She is such a fun and happy baby. Dalyn and Braelyn adore their baby sister and love trying to make her smile and laugh.
We bought a new car to better fit our growing family (a 2013 red Nissan Rogue) and we love it!
We moved to Rock Springs, WY because I got a job as a Medical Dosimetrist at a new cancer center that is being built there. (In case you are wondering what in the world a medical dosimetrist does: I work with cancer patients who are going to have radiation therapy. I work with a CT scan of the patient and draw in the healthy organs near the tumor so that we can track radiation dose to them and then I design a treatment plan on the computer determining where the radiation will enter the patient at and from how many angles in order to hit the tumor with the right amount of radiation and spare the healthy organs nearby. It is very interesting and challenging and I love it!)
We have loved living in a smaller town, the friendly people, my five minute commute to work and we have met some great friends here.
They also have a nice college here and Jake is getting things arranged to teach a class or two next Fall.
Dalyn (almost 8) finished up first grade in a Chinese/English dual immersion program in Utah (he loved it!) and then he started 2nd grade in Wyoming (unfortunately they don't have dual language immersion programs here) and he really likes his teacher and has met some nice friends. He has developed a love for reading and continues to love creating with legos and "imaginating" as he likes to call it :) He is excited to get baptized in a couple of weeks.
Braelyn (just turned 5) went to preschool in Utah and loved socializing with all of the kids. Here in Wyoming she has been a very good helper to Daddy taking care of Madelyn during the day. She loves to hold Madelyn and likes to sing to her if she is sad :) She is also already very excited to start kindergarten next fall.
Madelyn (almost 5 months old) has brought so much joy to our family. We had forgotten how fun it is to have a baby around. She loves watching her big brother and sister be silly and making her laugh. She has the cutest smile and she has been sleeping through the night since she was two months old, which makes us happy!

We feel very grateful for all of the wonderful blessings we have received this year. We love this time of year to celebrate the birth and life of our Savior Jesus Christ. We love Him and are so grateful for Him.
We wish you all the best and are grateful for the part that you have played in our lives.
Merry Christmas!
Love,
Tasha, Jake, Dalyn, Braelyn & Madelyn

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Some Dalyn Cute Moments

Dalyn says and does the cutest and funniest things sometimes so I thought I would make a running list to remember some of those moments...

~We had eaten at a buffet and Dal loved it. He said "If I'm ever really hungry again just take me to that place where you pay for the first food and then get the rest of the food after that for free." That's a good way to look at a buffet :) (10/2012)

~Dal was doing something and being impatient and I said "Dal, you just need to be patient." He said "Mom, being patient is such a waste of my time." I understand how he feels :) (10/2012)

~Jake was having a bad day and was in a lot of pain. Dal said "I'm going to say a prayer for you daddy." Then he said "Dear Heavenly Father, this is important, my daddy doesn't feel good. Can you please help him feel a little better. Please. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" It was the sweetest, most sincere prayer I have ever heard and it touched my heart. (6/2012)

~Dal's kindergarten teacher's birthday is coming up and I asked him if he wanted to make her a birthday card. He got really excited about it and these are some of the things that he was thinking about writing..."Happy Birthday Mrs. Bryan! You are now older than the old number you were before your birthday. Birthdays are a special celebration. Birthdays are special because you are older and bigger." (9/2011)

~ On our way to church today Dal told us that he asked his friend Sadie from school what church she goes to. She told him that she goes to the Kid Church. Dal told her ..."I go to the church of the Son of God" :) (4/2011)

~Dal has decided that when he grows up he is going to have 4 kids- 3 boys and 1 girl. Their names are going to be: Junior, McQueen, & Robin (as in Batman & Robin) for the boys and Sally for the girl :) (4/2011)

~On our way to church today Dal was talking about his friend Cash and said "Cash says he doesn't like church so he doesn't go. But I want to invite him to come to church with me and help him understand how important it is to go to church. Then I will tell him that he came from heaven and that I came from heaven too." Dal is just the cutest little missionary! (2/2011)

~Dal is so creative and imaginative. He has bigger sized lego blocks and he makes those into any toy or character imaginable and then sets up his room as whatever world or place that fits with the theme of his creations. It's so fun to watch and play with him in his toy world. (9/2010)

~Dal came home from preschool and told us he had a new girlfriend. So we started asking him questions and found out that they hadn't really played together or even talked for that matter he just said "She just looked so beautiful." So I guess because of that he decided that she was his girlfriend :) (9/2010)

~The other night when I was putting Dal to bed he said "Mommy. The Holy Ghost is so cool. I'm going to listen to the Holy Ghost and I am not going to listen to Satan!" I thought that sounded like a great plan. :) (3/2010)

~So Dal came home from preschool and told us that "Conner made a bad choice and squirted my girlfriend." We asked him about his girlfriend and he told us that a girl at preschool told him she wanted to be his girlfriend. We asked him what he said and he told us he said "Ok, but not really." Then we were asking him more and he said "Um, never mind. I don't want to talk about it anymore." On no, barely four years old and it already begins! :) (1-25-10)

~When I take Dal to preschool they always practice writing their names when they get there. Today he wrote his name really fast and crazy like and his teacher said "Well maybe you will be a doctor when you grow up", and Dal said "No, I'm going to be a prophet." That's what he has decided he wants to be when we grows up :) (12-16-09)

~I heard Dal saying his bedtime prayers and part way through he said "Heavenly Father, I love transformers. I know they are expensive so please help us to have more money so that we can buy transformers because they are really fun." (11-20-09)

~The wisdom of a three year old: Dal and I were hitting some of the community trick or treating events and when we got to the last one I told him that after this we were going home. He said "Good. I'm tired. All of this walking around getting candy makes a little kid like me tired." (10-31-09)

~We were reading the scriptures and trying to teach Dal about the second coming, when Jesus would come again. Dal's response: "When he gets here, I'll show him my Batman toy."

~Dal was building a tower with legos and I asked him to do get his shoes on so we could go somewhere. He said "Mom, you're sweet, but here's the thing, I am building a tower of power."

~Dal has a little friend that lives close and comes over to our house often. They play together almost every day. About two days had passed and they hadn't seen each other and then Zach came over and Dal opened the door and excitedly said "You came, you came!! Zach, I was so worried about you!"

~Dal has been on a super hero kick lately, so sometimes when he's at the playground and other kids ask him what his name is he says "My name is Super Duper Super Hero!" It's pretty funny. The other night I also heard him praying that he could be a super hero like Larry Boy. (6/09)

~We were reading out of Dal's picture scriptures and we read about Elizabeth and Zacharias who prayed to be able to have a baby and then she got pregnant with John. Dal asked "Did you pray to have baby sister?" I told him we did and then he said "So I can pray to have lots of baby brothers and lots of baby sisters!" I thought it was funny but thought that it was only a passing thought for him, not that he would really take it to heart:) Then a couple nights later when he was saying his bedtime prayers he said "Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that I can have lots of baby brothers and lots of baby sisters!..." It was pretty cute...but then I thought, uh-oh...hmmm, let's define the meaning of "lots":)

~Out of the blue Dal asked me "Mommy, do you have a puppy in your tummy?" I told him that I didn't and explained that I only carry babies like baby sister in my tummy and that mommy dogs carry baby puppies in their tummmies. I asked him why he asked and he said he asked because he wanted a dog and was wondering if I was going to have one. (He has enjoyed having his baby sister so much and knew that that's where she came from, so I guess he assumed that if he wanted a baby puppy that I would have to have it too. :) (5-13-09)

~In an effort to help Dalyn say his prayers at night I told him that when he prays and thanks Heavenly Father for things he has or got to do that day then it makes Heavenly Father happy. So last night after he said his prayer he jumped up and with both arms in the arm he shouted with glee "Now Heavenly Father is so happy! Heavenly Father is so happy!" I'm sure he was :) 4/12/09

~Dal was in the bath tub and he got out and I asked him what he was doing. He said "I just have to see if I'm so cute." He then pushed the stool up to the mirror so he could see himself, took one look and said "Yep, I'm so cute." Then he got off the stool and got back into the bath tub and continued playing with his toys in the tub. I got a good laugh out of that one. (2-19-09)

~When Dalyn found out that I was taking Braelyn to the Dr for her first check-up Dalyn yelled in a panic-stricken voice "No don't take her back! I want to keep her!" It was pretty cute. I reassured him that we would not be taking her back and that we would get to keep her forever. He was quite relieved. He loves his baby sister.

~Once when Dalyn was holding Braelyn she started rooting around and found his hand and stuck her tongue out. Dal laughed and said "She's trying to lick me!" He then thought that they were playing a game where she was trying to lick him. He just kept laughing and laughing.

~When Dalyn first saw Braelyn he just stared at her and said "She is so small. Her hands are so small. She doesn't have any teeth" He was pretty observant.

~We went to the school playground on Saturday to play and Dal found a jump rope that had been left on the ground and he was trying to swing it and he wanted me to jump. I told him that I couldn't jump very good with baby sister in my tummy. So then he wanted me to climb the little rock wall with him to get to the slide and he said "It's okay mommy, baby sister will hold on tight." It was so funny and so well thought out, and yes I did climb the little wall with him. (11-1-08)

~Dal was busy playing cars with his daddy and they were each in character having the cars talk to each other and I had to tell Jake something so I was talking to him. Dalyn repeatedly kept telling me "Mommy, don't talk to daddy anymore!" (I was distracting Jake and Dalyn wanted his full attention while they were playing.) After telling me to stop and I didn't Dalyn then came and took my hands and said "Mommy you go to sit in time out" and he led me over to the chair and had me sit down. I thought it was really funny so I sat there for a minute to humor him.

~I stubbed my toe on the door and said "Ouch" and Dalyn looked at me really concerned and said "Mommy?" So then I told him that I hurt my toe. He said "Okay. I'll come kiss it better." Then he came over to me and got down and kissed my toe. (It was so cute!) After that he said "Are you okay mommy?" And of course I told him that I was now. Even though my toe still hurt there is something about getting a kiss better that just makes it all okay. Amid his craziness he is such a thoughtful kid.

~When someone is at our house and he doesn't want them to leave he'll go and block the door and say something like "It's too hot out there" "You can't go out there" "The door is locked and you don't have key" "You don't have your shoes"...or something of the sort. He's good at coming up with good reasons for people not to go. He just loves to be around people.

~Along those same lines, Dalyn used to get really creative to keep other kids from taking toys away from him that he was playing with. When a kid would come up to him and try to get his toy he would say "It's hot!" in an effort to get the other kid not to touch it and to back away. It was pretty funny.

~Dalyn and I were playing and then he stopped and got this cute look on his face, rubbed my head and said "Sweetheart, I love you." It was just too cute.

~The other day for some reason Dalyn was sure it was his birthday. He sang himself the birthday song, he found something at the dollar store and told me it was his birthday present, etc. Then when we went to check the mail we got a little blue box with a fake ribbon on it and Dalyn excitedly yelled "My birthday present!" When we got in the house he couldn't wait to open it...It was some free sample tampons from Walmart! He was so excited and yelled "A blue one!" "A green one!" and they became swords, laser shooters, rocket ships and anything else he could think of. He had so much fun with his "birthday presents". It was pretty hilarious.

~Dalyn is always looking out for others. Any time I give him a popsicle or something and he sees his daddy (or whoever else is around) he'll say "Where's daddy's popsicle?" He wants to make sure others get in on the good stuff.

~Speaking of popsicles, sometimes Dalyn gets a little creative in how he can get more than one...I gave him a blue popsicle (his favorite) and he said "Daddy wants a blue one too" so I gave him another blue one to give to daddy and then he walks in the room where his daddy is, looks at his two blue popsicles and then comes back in the kitchen and says "Daddy wants orange popsicle".

~We were sitting in church on Sunday and Dalyn unintentionally burped and then looked around him and said "What's that noise?" It was pretty funny!

Some Braelyn Cute Moments

~Braelyn likes to think that she speaks Spanish. She has learned some Spanish words and is excited to practice them. Sometimes she will come up to us or other people and say something and they have no idea what she is saying. Then she informs them that she is speaking Spanish :) (10/2012)

~Braelyn gives the sweetest hugs and kisses. I love it when she says "I love you mommy (or daddy)! You're my best friend!" (5/2012)

~We were at Wal-mart the other day and Braelyn saw a baby sittting in a shopping and she was so excited to go talk to the baby and turned to me and "Mom! I want one of these at my house!" (3/2012)

~Braelyn absolutely adores babies. Anytime we see a baby she wants to go see it and talk to it. She always says "Awww, a baby!" and "Baby's so cute!" in a cute little voice. She is so sweet with the babies too. She will be such a good mommy some day :) (9/2011)

~Braely Rae is starting to talk a lot and she says some funny things. Sometimes when she does something or asks someone to help her with something she'll look and say "Oh, perfect!" She also loves to play ball and is good at saying "play ball". The other day I was leaving for school and I gave her a hug and kiss and then she said "nuzzle!" and she rubbed her little nose on mine. She also likes me to do her hair and then when we are done doing her hair she'll run to Jake to show him and she says "Daddy, pretty hair!" (4/2011)

~During sacrament meeting Braelyn kept turning to me and holding her finger to her mouth saying "Shhh" and then she's say "Remember Jesus." It was really cute :) (4/2011)

~B-Rae can be so cute and thoughtful. The other day I sneezed and she looked at me, reached up with her little hand to touch my face and then said "Bless you mommy." (2/2011)

~Braelyn loves baby dolls. She has a baby beans doll (which used to be my doll when I was her age) and she carries it around and gives her lots of kisses and tries to give her drinks of water too. (9/2010)

~ Sometimes we think B is a WWF girl in the making. When anyone is laying on the floor (especially her daddy) she loves to go up to him and do a double jump move and then a body slam. She can even pin Dal to the floor with her amazing wrestling moves and we have to go rescue him :) (9/2010)

~Today at church B-rae kept putting her hand up to her ear like she was talking on the phone and she would say "Hello, Hello" and then "Bye-bye, bye-bye" (9/2010)

~Braely loves babies. Every time we see a baby she gets really excited and says "Hi baby! Hi baby! Hi baby!" It's so cute. (9/2010)

~B loves to go outside. If it were up to her she would be outside all day long, either on a walk in the stroller, walking around exploring or going down the slides at the playground by our house. It doesn't matter how cold it is (and Logan is always cold! Well half the year at least) she always wants to go outside. She frequently brings us her shoes and our shoes to take her outside! :) (4/2010)

~B-Rae gives the best hugs. She loves to give hugs. She loves hugging Dal. And she also loves other little kids and sometimes she will try to give a hug to some random little kid she sees in the grocery store. It's pretty cute. She also wanted to give her baby cousin Landon lots of hugs last time she saw him. :) (3/2010)

~Braely Bug tries to say some words really cute...words like orange, shoes, outside, banana, etc. and one that she says really well is "All done". It's funny because whenever we eat dinner she eats her food in her high chair for a little while and then she says "All done" and wants out. Then right when I get her done she runs over to Jake and wants to sit on his lap and have him give her bites of some of his food. She is always sure he's holding out on her and has something better on his plate :)

~B and I have a book that we read together and part of it says "I'll tuck in your blanket and give you a kiss" and its so cute because she knows it says that somewhere in the book so whenever we start reading that book she turns up toward me and sticks out her little lips to give me a kiss--it's the cutest thing!

~B loves her big brother. She loves to chase him around the house, knock down his block creations and then try to help rebuild them, hide under the blanket with him and have us find them and much more. Dal is so cute with her too. He finds fun ways to play with her and he just loves her so much!

~B-Rae loves to eat. Let's face it. She's like her mother and she loves food. One of her favs is cottage cheese. She likes to feed it to herself. It is fun to watch her grab little handfuls and stuff them in her mouth. Cute Cute!

~After a nap or in the morning B loves to grab hold of the side of her crib and rock it back and forth as hard as she can. That girl is amazingly strong and I think she just might break her crib one of these days. (12-3-09)

~Some of Braelyn's Favorite Things: Hold our fingers while she walks around, watch Dalyn jump and dance (it makes her laugh and laugh), crawl up the stairs, eat anything that she can pick up on her tray and feed herself, look at herself in the mirror, be outside, sit in the grass, go on stroller rides, do the sway dance to music...etc.

~B is quite the little crawler. She loves to explore and loves to try to manuever over whatever barricade we put to the stair case. She loves to go up those stairs.

~B Rae is quite the little raspberry spitter. She must love that noise and feeling because she spits and spits and then smiles and smiles. (6-2-09)

~Braely Rae has gotten down the rolling from her back to her tummy but can't figure out how to get back on her back...so when I put her down for a nap a couple minutes later I often hear her crying because she has rolled onto her tummy and feels "stuck" so then I come to the rescue. (5-30-09)

~Braely and a baby about her age were sitting next to each other and they were both squealing, socializing, flapping their arms and laughing. It was so cute and funny! We've already a social butterfly on our hands :) (5-14-09)

~We were at church and I was walking down the hall holding Braelyn. Jake came up behind us and started talking to Braelyn telling her about his day and she just started laughing and laughing as though he had told her something really funny. It was too cute. Baby laughter is one of the best things ever! 4/12/09

~Every morning when I hear Braelyn wake up and I go to get her out of her crib I say "Good morning Princess" and she gets the biggest smile on her face and starts kicking with excitement. She's probably thinking how much she missed me after sleeping the whole night through :)

The Harris Place

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Christmas 2013

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Madelily 10 months

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