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."

Too much booty in the pants

So yesterday, Micah had on cute little bloomers and her fat rolls oozed out like a shar pei. (See below)

See the resemblance?

I kept taking pictures of her as she crawled away from me. Of course if my mom was trying to take pictures of my booty I would probably high tail outta eyeshot too. But I still managed to get a couple more shots.

Then I had Peyton bear hug Micah so I could take a picture of my two ladies together. As you can see, Peyton has hot pink hair spray in her hair, not because we went to a punk rock concert, but because we went to a birthday party. And of course Micah is giving me the "stank eye" for making her slow down for another picture.

Parties, Feedings and Hair Pulling

June 2012- We had a fun and busy weekend. I helped throw a baby shower for a precious friend on Saturday. I was throwing the shower with my pals Laura and Holly so all I had to do was bring cupcakes and a floral arrangement. Upon researching the cupcake situation, I found out that Gigi's would charge about $80 for 2 dozen and a couple of other trendy cupcakery shops in town would be charging at least $50. I decided that no ones taste buds are too refined for Betty. (Betty Crocker)

I made these boxed cupcakes and used a fancy Wilton icing tip with my store bought frosting. Guess what! Everyone loved them!

I made this arrangement with store bought flowers and 4 lemons. If I can do this...anyone can.

The shower was gorgeous. Holly and Laura decorated their tails off and Angie (the mommy) received a lot of precious baby girl things. Since Angie already has two rough & tumble boys she was really excited to get some pink frilly stuff.

In other news, Micah refuses to stop growing. She has finally begun to feed herself the bottle. She is 10 months. Peyton never fed herself a bottle. She flat out resisted being independent as far as feeding goes. She's 5 years old now and I am pretty sure she would still let me feed her a meal if I was willing.

Here is Chunk feeding herself.

Aerial view of Chunk feeding herself.

Micah is also ready to walk at any second. She is standing pretty independently and was using this toy (see below) to walk around the house. I say "was" using this toy because I have taken it apart and put it in the closet. This toy is SKARY! The wheels roll super fast and after about the third time of watching my child's head bounce off the floor like a rubber ball, I decided to dismantle it. I am sure the toy manufacturer will be sued soon by someone who's kid gets super hurt. They can have the money, I'm smart enough to put the crap away.

And last but not least, Peyton continues to be the coolest big sister ever. I am pretty sure Micah will snatch her bald soon because she loves to pull hair (bully) but Peyton is so patient with her. I can hear her now, "No Micah. We do not rip people's hair out. That's not nice."

Summer Time!

One of the greatest joys of teaching is...summer break. Yep, I said it! The best part of the job is the part where you are NOT working! I do work summer school every year though and it is a great time! Summer school is only about 20 days long and it is a compilation of some of my favorite teacher friends. We actually truly enjoy our 9 hour days together.

Here is an example of Summer School fun.(During the summer the wonderful custodial staff buffs our school floors until they look new. This means that all of the classroom belongings end up in the hall.)

While I am working super hard at summer school, Kris is entertaining our sweet little ladies. He is truly so wonderful with them. The fact that the kids both are dressed, fed and happy is incredible but he actually manages playdates and trips to the pool too!

Sweet Micah ready for a swim!

Peyton and our neighbor Caden running through the sprinkler.

Our precious P swimming like a fish!

9 years old

Our marriage...is 9 years old. I made Kris look at our wedding album with me lastnight. We laughed at how skinny and young everyone was. After we finished looking at the album I said, "Just imagine if we would have known then, everything we know now." Kris sighed and opened his eyes really big. It's truly amazing how a marriage and so many years can bring so many blessings and struggles, but overall an incredible amount of love. I wouldn't change a thing about the last 9 years truthfully because I like who we are today.

June 7, 2003- 

Here is Kris...being a fool.

Here is me...I thought I was ALL grown up.

Kindergarten?

What in the hell is going on? I feel like this kid was just born and now she has to go to a giant school and ride a bus and eat lunch out of a sack and tie her own shoes and and and.....DEEP BREATHS. I am having a difficult time with the whole Kindergarten thing. I think anyone who knows me would describe me as overprotective, nuts, paranoid and other things when it comes to the safety of my kids. I am usually a really laid back person BUT not with my kids. I stay in mama bear mode. So of course Kindergarten sounds like a cuss word right now. Peyton is so excited about graduating Pre-K and moving on so I try to mirror her excitement even if it is a mask for, "Oh, crap! I am freaking out in here!"

This is Peyton at 2 years old. This is the kid I FEEL like I am sending to Kindergarten.

But THIS is the child that IS going to Kindergarten. A beautiful, kind, energetic, independent little lady. I am proud to be her mother.

The school that she attended for PRE-K worked so hard on a program for the PRE-K graduation.We are really going to miss her teacher, Ms. April, who was an absolute angel to our family.

The kids were precious and sang songs, danced a little and basically just acted cute.

Seeing Peyton in her little cap and gown made me have some weird future photo montage in my head where I imagined her in my arms after she was born, then her in her Pre-K cap and gown, then high school cap and gown, college, a wedding dress, her own kids running around her...It's crazy because this is it. This is your life and these little milestones make you wonder, Where did it go? That moment when you think If I could just hold on to this forever...But then the baby needs her bottle and Kris can't find his keys AGAIN and Peyton wants me to watch how high she can jump...

So, you keep moving.

Whoa baby!

Micah is growing way too fast for me! With this being the SECOND child I am a true believer that kids grow up too fast. enjoy it while you can, and all of those other obnoxious sayings people pelt you with when you have your first kid. I decided to enjoy every moment this time, not get overwhelmed or frustrated over teething and other things that last for such a small amount of time. So far it has worked well. I figure I will wait and be annoyed when they turn 12 and start rolling their eyes and stuff. So I have enjoyed everything and wanted to share a few precious moments I have captured with the phone:

This picture shows my favorite 'trick' that Micah does. When you ask, "How BIG is the Baby?" She raises her arms over her head and we say, "SOOOO BIG!!!" My mother-in-law taught both the kids this trick and it is freaking adorable!

Here's ol chunk smiling up at me from her stroller.

 Micah with her daddy. She looks just like him.

 Here is one of the pics made of Peyton & Micah for Mother's Day.

Warrior Dash 2012

About one month ago I participated in a Warrior Dash in Jackson, MS. It was one of the most physically difficult things I have ever done! My friend Debbie and I prepared as much as we could before that fateful day. The race was about 3.5 miles and was through EXTREMELY muddy trails and included over a dozen obstacles. My favorite obstacle was a super high wall that we had to climb over. I freaked out the entire way up and then Debbie freaked out the entire way down...TEAMWORK!!! We were super proud of ourselves for finishing. Then we went back to the campground and had a dinner of Chex mix and Goldfish crackers with wine. It was a blast and we also raised money for St. Jude. :)

Here is a picture of before the race. Look how clean and dry we are...

Now this is a picture of afterwards... Keep in mind we had already been rinsed off with a fire hose before this picture.