Cookie monster

I also wanted to post a picture of Micah. Here she is...

...looking a little scraggly after a long day of play and a handful of cookies, but precious!

Sum, Sum, Summa time

As summer approaches and the school year winds down, I have to be thankful. I am so thankful that Peyton did well in Kindergarten this year. She has grown to LOVE reading and has a true gift with numbers. She has also made lots of friends and become quite independent. I cannot believe how much she has grown and learned. She will have a Kindergarten graduation program next week and there will be a lot of singing. I have enjoyed listening to each and every song over and over and over again.

I will be working summer school for the first month of summer break, so Kris will have both girls to himself. I assume they will fill their days with trips to the sprinkler park, playground and friends' swimming pools. I am fine with all of their traveling while I am at work because frankly I am getting TOO big and it is getting TOO hot to enjoy such pleasures. I am officially 25 weeks pregnant with baby number 3 and I am really beginning to FEEL every bit of it. maybe I will post a picture of this round belly next time...

Baby #3 is a...

GIRL!

Another beautiful, precious and wonderful girl! The ultrasound went great and everything looked perfect. I was super worried about this ultrasound. I had over thought everything and feel so blessed that we have another healthy child headed our way. Micah is too young to understand any of it but Peyton was less than thrilled that it was another girl. She had decided she wanted a brother since she already has a sister. When I told her the baby was a girl she made a sour face and said, "Awe!" But she has now decided that girls rule, boys drool and she is ready to step up to the plate once again as the World's Best Big Sister!

Photo Dump & Catch Up

 It has been a ridiculously long time since I blogged. In my last blog I was dreading Peyton's first day of Kindergarten and Micah's first birthday. Now, the school year is almost over and my sweet Micah is 19 months old. So, I figure I need to catch up in photos and information.

Micah's first birthday party was sweet and simple with just a few friends and family. She loved her cake, especially the icing. A friend and I made her tutu with material from the fabric store. It was super cheap and not difficult. I bought her onesie from Target, on clearance for $3.00, before she was born. I could not pass up that deal.

 Peyton began Kindergarten and has absolutely loved every single day. She is such a sweet girl and growing up so fast.

This is the FIRST day of Kindergarten. I cannot believe how young she looks in this picture compared to how she looks now.

 When she arrived home, her grandmother had bought her a cake to celebrate. Peyton thinks every special day needs a cake. Who can argue with that?

A couple of months later Peyton had her 6th birthday and it was a costume/Halloween themed party. Peyton decided she wanted to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid. The costume prices were terrible so my friend Abby and I made this long tutu and paired it with a tank and cheap wig. Bam! Ariel.

Micah was a ghost and looked adorable! Just made a tutu, attached some sticky felt and googly eyes and Bam! Ghost.

My friend Holly, had her sweet baby dressed as a shark. She said she really wanted to dress her older son as a bloody surfer but her husband brought the hammer down on that idea. :)

Just a week later we had our annual neighborhood Halloween fun. Our entire neighborhood comes out for Halloween. We have our fire pits lit, tables of food, and of course buckets of candy. We always have a great time. My favorite costume was a  homemade Lego. Box, solo cups, Bam! Lego.

After Halloween I started on my living room makeover. I hated our TAN, blah, living room. I chose a paint color and decided I wanted a console table. My mom is super crafty, handy and talented. She taught me how to build the table and we did it all by ourselves! It was pretty amazing to see how many men stared at us like we were a couple of stupid women at Home Depot. I wish we could have showed them our finished product and told them to "Suck it!"

Finished table

 Finished paint and new chairs

 It stayed warm for quite a while this Fall so we were able to sneak in several zoo days. The Memphis Zoo is awesome and the girls LOVE to go as much as possible. You can feed the giraffes, ride a camel, pet a stingray and much more.

 Then when it got cold we spent some time inside playing.

Then Christmas time rolled around! It was full of surprises. First of all, I found out I was pregnant. OOPS! This was a total shock and we had not planned for baby number three. But after the initial sobbing ended, we all became very excited. God is blessing us and we will happily accept. :) Also, my mother-in-law bought me a lamp that I have wanted for a while. As you can see, I have a very classic and traditional taste. I think Santa enjoyed his view while he ate his cookies.

 We also had our family over for Christmas Eve. The picture below is Peyton with her cousin Kayla. they are precious together.

 The girls are growing, as kids do, and they are totally wonderful. Peyton is an angel and rarely gets into any trouble, while on the other hand, Micah is a total NUT! Micah is rambunctious, wild, and NOT a rule follower. At 6 years old and 19 months, I am very aware of what my future looks like. Peyton will always make curfew, rarely talk back and most likely get a scholarship. Micah will sneak out of her window, get at least one suspension, and probably get caught smoking. No matter what, I look forward to all of the memories I will make with these little monkeys and the monkey due in August.

We had a day of snow in December and tried to make the most of it. Since we don't get a lot of snow in Memphis we weren't prepared as far as clothing goes. As you can see, Peyton has plastic bags over her gloves to keep them dry. Cheap gloves, plastic bags...Bam! White trash snow gloves. 

 Micah loved her first time in the snow and threw herself onto the ground several times. I think she was a little confused on the softness of the snow.

And we survived the stomach virus of 2013, so far. Micah's daycare had the sign, pictured below, posted on her classroom door. It may have been a sad sign, but it was a funny one as well. The sharpie corrections are priceless. I feel like the words, "another one bites the dust," were being sung with each number change.

 I have an ultrasound scheduled for next week to check on this sweet little muffin and to see if it will be another baby girl or our first baby boy. :)

I guess I am all caught up with the blogosphere for now. Hopefully I can be a bit more committed and blog next week instead of in September.

Cry Baby

So tomorrow is the day that Peyton begins Kindergarten. She is so excited that I cannot help being excited too! Last night I was tucking Peyton into bed. I explained that there was only one more day before Kindergarten started. We jumped around chanting, "Kindergarten!" Then, she said, "Gimme some lovin'!" She wrapped her arms and legs around me and hugged me tight. Then she leaned back and looked me in my eyes and said, "Momma, don't worry about me when I go to Kindergarten. They will keep me safe and I will learn a lot and i will have the most fun of my entire life!" She leaned in for another hug and then whispered in my ear, "I'm growing up." Yep, that's when it happened. I cried. Tears streamed down my face and I couldn't stop them. She is such an old soul and so precious to me. I will add pictures and details about her first day as soon as I can.

Happenings of the Harmans

Just a quick update on the gals: 

Peyton swims almost everyday and she looks like the Coppertone kid.

She also loves to play with her pals, which are almost all boys. Peyton hates the "drama."

Here is Peyton with her cronie Dilon. This is their race car. As you can see, Dilon is a bit more conservative with the wheel.

Then the sillies kicked in.

I felt that Micah's update needed it's own post so read below for that.

Micah's first steps!

This little Moo took her first steps today, July 2nd, 2012. I am afraid she will never walk again because of the frantic screaming that happened afterwards. (from Mommy, Daddy & big sis)

Kids

The Harman kids are ridiculous. Like most kids, you buy them toys and they end up playing with random stuff. As you can see in the picture (see below), Peyton is playing with pom poms that are a decade old and Micah is playing with a fancy ruler.

Kids with Cheap toys

The ladies are already so different from one another. Peyton reminds me of myself, making up silly songs, doing crazy dances and generally entertaining herself. Micah on the other hand thinks Peyton is a fool and looks at her with her forehead crinkled. In that way, she is like Kris. (and of course the way she looks too)

This is Peyton's mischievious look

Micah was having a serious moment with Jack

Here are a series of pictures that show what a sneaky McSneakerson Micah is:

First, Micah rips the bow out of Peyton's doll's hair:

Next, she attempts to hide it in her toy basket:

Last, I say, "Micah!"

This is her "busted" look.

This picture is an example of what happens when I try to get a decent pic of the ladies together:

And this is how Micah crawls. One knee, one foot.



An update on the kids...

I took a couple of pictures of the kids and figured I'd share...

 Peyton making cookies while I fed Micah moo

 Concentrating, between sneaking bites of cookie dough

Chunk eating a snack

Then, last but not least, the third Harman child. Jack. Jack is our 9 year old dog that Kris bought me right before we got married. He is half shih-tzu and half shit. We love him dearly but he has all kinds of random kidney issues that always rear their ugly head when we do not have the time, money or patience to deal with it. This time it started with the same symptoms as always and we ended up at the animal hospital. With the high prices at vets offices I imagine the drs drive Porches and live in mansions made of silver and gold. They also probably wear gold grills in their teeth and shout "make it rain" when customers leave. I just cannot imagine the amount of money animal docs make. I should have been more attentive in my science classes in high school, instead of writing love notes and playing M.A.S.H. 

Sad Jack

Jack's $50 X-ray that shows where his bladder is full of stones and (if you look towards his tail) the white strand of dots is his urethra full of stones too. 



So, the doc said this will set us back about $700, which in my head sounds like "This will cost a car payment, two weeks groceries and a week of daycare."

I jokingly said, "How much will it cost to put him down?" No one laughed but me. At least Jack knows I am sarcastic so his feelings weren't hurt.

Jack is on antibiotics now and is feeling great! He is jumping and running and doing other dog stuff, so that's good.

Haircuts, swimming and a quick trip to hilarity.

This weekend I went to Atlanta to watch my pal Tony play for the Atlanta Silverbacks Soccer team. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_McManus_(soccer) I rode down with my friend Adam and we met up with our cronie Sarah. This was the best weekend I have had in a really long time. It is nice to get away and be responsibility-free for a bit. My friends are hilarious and I almost wet my pants many times this weekend. We wore custom made shirts to the game, thanks to our friend Abby. Sometimes we call Tony, Tony Bone. I am completely unsure of why or when this started, which seems to be the case with many nicknames. We made Tony wear the tank top later in the night. It was lovely.

Me and Sarah with the Silverback

Although I had a great time, I was happy to come home to the Harmans. Micah was bigger than when I left and was chattering all kinds of jibberish. Peyton learned how to jump off of the diving board while I was gone and has truly mastered swimming in the deep end of the pool. She also requested a haircut, "like momma's" while I was gone. Kris took her to Sweet and Sassy. She looks beautiful!

 Her hair is still wet from the pool in this picture but you can still see how gorgeous she looks.

Video of Peyton jumping off of the diving board:

I thought my pals with kids would enjoy this...

The artist...

Yesterday, I was flying around the house like Superwoman, picking up random wrappers, pillows off the ground, empty cups, naked dolls, 7 dusty pacifiers, and then I saw a stack of paper stapled together. I recognized the top picture as some of Peyton's fabulous art work. As I flipped throught the "book" I could not stop smiling at how adorable the pictures were. I decided to take pictures of some of them so I could share.

First, a picture of the Artist, Peyton:



Here is a picture of "Our Family." I asked Peyton why there were 3 grown ups and she said one of them is Auntie Jen. (Kris' sister)

Jesus

How adorable and touching that a five year old would draw a crayon picture of our Lord on the cross. Right after Micah was born she drew a picture for Micah that looked very similar and then held it in front of Micah and told her, "This is Jesus. He died on the cross for me. And you TOO!"

This one is my favorite. I asked, "What's going on here?" Peyton said, "That's you and Daddy on your wedding day." Sheesh! Look at what a large lady I am!

I asked her about this picture and Peyton said, "This is Micah when she came out of Mommy's belly."