The Harris Place

Friday, April 10, 2009

Sweet Moments & Sweet Siblings

I just love being a mom! Of course there are days where my patience hits its limit, days of seemingly endless cleaning up messes, and just pure craziness, but there are also many, many sweet moments and some where I pause for a minute and realize how precious this time is with my sweet children and how fast it will go. These are irreplacable years with them and I am continually reminding myself to enjoy them and cherish them as much as I can.

Dalyn is such a joy. He is so full of life and energy and is so much fun. He is also a little thinker. The things he puts together and comes up with never cease to amaze me. Lately he has really been into drawing and coloring and anything Spiderman. All the stages and phases are so fun!

Braelyn is so precious. She is just the sweetest and happiest baby. She loves to smile, laugh, squeal, socialize, etc. She is my little sunshine! (An added bonus is that she has been sleeping through the night since she was 2 months old. Now she's up to about 10 hours a night. All that great sleep makes for a happier baby and mommy:)

Many sweet moments come from seeing Dalyn as a big brother. From day one he has been the sweetest brother. He loves his baby sister so much and it has been so fun to see him take the opportunity to develop his nurturing and protective side:) He loves to share things with her (like his Sea World hat that he put on her). He also likes to make sure she's included in fun things we do, like the other day for FHE we played Candy Land and he picked out a gingerbread person for her and helped her take her turns. I love my little angels!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Rewind to Surprise Baby Shower

In thinking about sweet sister-in-laws and surprises I realized that I never blogged about my surprise baby shower that my sister-in-law Tiffany threw for me. That was something so fun and so special that I really want it documented here too. First of all, let me say that Tiffany is seriously one of the sweetest people I know. We are so grateful that my brother Collin was lucky enough to find her!

So, unbeknownst to be, for months Tiffany was planning and preparing for my surprise baby shower. She planned and orchestrated everything so perfectly! This is how it went down. It was in November, a couple weeks before I had Braelyn, and my cousin Amy (who lives here) called me and invited Dal and I over for a play date at her house (she's got three little kids) for that Saturday. So on Saturday we went to her house and when I walked in....at first I saw decorations but thought nothing of it. I thought maybe one of Amy's kids had a birthday or something and then I saw Tiffany, then my mom, then my cousins Aimee, Juli and Jenny and then everyone else. I remember first seeing Tiffany and thinking "Wait a minute, what in the world is she doing here? And my mom too? And so on. It was so surreal. I was so surprised! It took me a minute to realize what was going on. I had not even the slightest clue that I was going to a surprise baby shower. Everyone did such a great job at keeping it a secret from me (including my husband:) Once I realized what was happening I was so everjoyed! I felt so loved!

The Surprise Entrance

My friends Camille and June from my Relief Sociey presidency came, which was really sweet of them (they and Amber made an adorable quilt for me), and everyone else drove quite a ways to be there for me. Even my mom's cousin and her daughter who don't even really know me drove 40 mintues. Then some of my favorite people in the whole world (and cousins) Aimee, Juli and Jenny were there too! It was so fun to see everyone and it meant so much to me to have everyone there! It was so fun! Tiffany also had some great games planned.

Tiffany & I

My amazing sister-in-law and cousins

More relatives and my wonderful mom

We had some great food and Tiffany made a cute and yummy cake too!

It was so fun to get cute little girl stuff! It made me so excited!

Thanks again Tiffany for being so thoughtful and doing that for me and thanks to Jake, my mom, Amy (for providing her house) and all who came and made it happen. It was a day I will always remember.

Surprise Colorado Trip

My sister and brother-in-law Catherine and Christen were so sweet and generous to us and flew us out to Colorado (where most of Jake's family lives) last week (Jake's Spring Break) so that they could meet Braelyn and we could see everyone. They planned it as a surprise for the rest of the family. It was so much fun! They had invited everyone over to their house for "Haley's Birthday Dinner" and when they got there we were there. Everyone was so shocked and surprised! Catherine and Christen also planned out dinners and family get-togethers the whole week we were there. They were so thoughtful! It was so fun to see everyone!

Cat also taught me how to make cute little flower hair clips for Braelyn's head bands and hair (once she gets some). She is so creative and crafty and I came home with some fun flower clips! Cat is so good to us. She always have been! She is always thinking of us and has done so much for us. We appreciate her more than she could ever know!

Haley & Dalyn

(This is Dal's oldest cousin, she turned 12 while we were there, but they have always had a special relationship. She is so sweet and good to him and plays so fun with him, and he absolutely adores her. They were both so excited to see each other!)

We were also there for Haley's real birthday so we got to help her celebrate turning 12

We went to the park one day and my little neices wanted me to ride the slide with them and make and train, so I did. It was way fun!

We got to meet our newest nephew Mason, who is just 2 months older than Braelyn. We couldn't resist taking thier pictures together.

He was pretty fascinated with her, or at least the fun frilly texture of her clothes.

"Thanks Mason for letting me lay my head on your shoulder. It gets heavy after a while!" :)

This is what Dal did after we got home:) Pretty tuckered out after a week of playing and then traveling. The kids were both such great travelers. Dal loved sitting on the airplane, looking out the window, waiting for them to bring him juice, etc and B slept pretty much the whole way.

Thanks again for a great trip Cat and Christen!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

An Eventful Weekend

First I thought I'd throw in a few random pictures of Braelyn. She is getting so big, so smiley and has even started laughing! She brings so many extra smiles and sunshine to my day!

On Saturday we took the kids on a stroller outing (Due to the cold weather it's been a while since we've taken the stroller out, so this was Braelyn's first outdoor stroller ride.) We went to the mall because they were having a family carnival for Dental Health month. Dal got a cool toothbrushing kit and got to play some little games.

Sunday was Braelyn's blessing. It was a really neat day. I felt so grateful to have my wonderful husband be able to bless her and then it was really special to also have my dad, grandpa, some brothers and cousin standing in the circle.

After church we all came back to our apartment and ate food, talked, laughed, played games and just enjoyed being together as a family. I love my family so much!

Dalyn & Kylie had a great time playing together. You can see the admiration she has for him :)

My grandparents and parents came from Montana...

And everyone else came from Rexburg and Provo. Everyone drove a long ways to be here to spend the day with us and it really meant a lot us to have them all here!

My sister-in-law Gabby came and represented the Harris family well :)

I am so grateful for my two sweet children and for my amazing husband. Words cannot express how much they mean to me and how much I love them. I feel so blessed to have them in my life!

Chase and little B had some good bonding time:)

What a wonderful and special day it was!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Braelyn's Pre-Blessing Photo Shoot

Braelyn's sweet Grandma Harris offered to make her blessing dress and we were excited (she made Dal's blessing outfit and it was very cute.) We had no idea what it looked like and she sent it to us in the mail the other day and we were so thrilled. We think she did an amazing job and that the dress in beautiful. She also made a super cute coat and hat to go with it. We are planning on blessing her on March 1st but we couldn't wait until then to take some pictures and post a few. Moments like these we wish we had better lighting, my sister-in-law Ashlie's camera and photography skills, and the time and skills necessary to edit them good. So these are the a'natural pics from our home photo shoot. At least we had a cute kid to work with ;) We had put her hat on wrong for the pics but we think she still looked cute:) We'll probably post more pics from the actual blessing day and of the family that comes, etc, but until then...

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

Friday, April 10, 2009

Sweet Moments & Sweet Siblings

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Rewind to Surprise Baby Shower

Surprise Colorado Trip

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

An Eventful Weekend

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Braelyn's Pre-Blessing Photo Shoot

Madelily 10 months

Kids 2014

Kids 2014

Family 2014

Madelyn's Blessing Day

Family Pic 2012

Blogger Family & Friends

My Talented Sisters-in-Law!

Blog Archive

Dal

Braelyn

Our Two Cutie Pies!

The Fam

Us in 2006

Sweet Siblings

Dal

Braely Rae

Bed Head

Sweet Kisses from Big Brother

Dalyn Jacob

Braelyn Rachel

Braelyn in her Blessing Dress

Some Dalyn Cute Moments

Some Braelyn Cute Moments