Cheese, Please!

We are going on 5 days now...all Reese will eat is cheese! Except for at breakfast time, I mean, the girl does have standards: she eats only oatmeal for breakfast. Not eggs, not pancakes, not french toast. Only oatmeal. Anyway, I regress. For lunch and dinner I offer her everything we eat, plus some used-to-be-favorites but nope! She will only eat cheese. Sometimes she will trick me and take the non-cheese food out of my hand like she is going to put it into her mouth, then suddenly she throws it on the floor and scrunches up her nose like she is telling me, "SICK!" So, every day I get out the cheese, cut it into bite sized pieces, and let her have at it.

2 days ago we ran out of cheese. All I had was string cheese. I cut it up for her and she looked at me like, "what is this?" She gathered all her pieces, took one big handful, and threw them on the floor. For two days I tried to get her to eat string cheese. She wanted nothing of it. Finally, exasperated, I pushed a piece of it into her mouth--Guess what? She liked it. She realized it was cheese too. So now the only choice she wants is: orange or white?

Silly girl. I have an opinionated on {two!} on my hands. I wonder where they get it from?

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Wow, what a week! Things have been getting a little crazy here. My vinyl business is really picking up speed these last couple weeks. It has been really fun to fill all these orders and to see what projects others are working on. The only downside is that my house has been neglected. I do only the essentials--the rest has been having to wait. It is finally starting to drive me crazy. I need at least 4 hours to dedicate to some serious house cleaning. If anyone wants to donate their time and energy and come clean a messy, child tromped on house, CALL ME! I might even offer you a snack or something--if I can pull myself away from the vinyl!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

Happy Birthday, Mom! We miss you!! Hope you are having lots of fun!!!

Shout out to MARLANA!

Hey Mar-

Just wanted to let you know I am thinking of you! And I lost your phone number--can you email me with it?

The Sweet Stuff

I think I have stated before that Devin is a very, very smart boy. He will hear something and think about it for days trying to make sense of it. Occasionally he will ask questions to gain a better understanding, but mostly he is a contextual thinker. He runs it through his head over and over, until he is certain it makes sense, and he is right {about whatever it is}.

Lately his wonderings have been about the gospel. Devin listens to the scriptures on tape at night before bed. A little over a week ago, he started listening to the New Testament. Along with this came many questions and observations--mainly about Jesus Christ's crucifixion and Resurrection. One day we were in the car and I was listening to the Book of Mormon on CD. It must have sparked his memory of the New Testament and all the things he was trying to work through in his head, because suddenly he had many questions. Good questions. He asked me why "the mean men" killed Jesus Christ. He asked me how they did it. And he asked me why they did it. I turned the Book of Mormon off, and began answering his questions as best I knew. One of the things I explained was that Jesus died so we have the chance to repent of our sins. I then went through the steps of repentance with him. Devin was quiet the whole time I was explaining to him. When I finished with the steps of repentance, he quietly said, "When we repent, Jesus will make us more righteous." Nowhere in my whole shpeel did I say those words. I was/am so humbled to have such a remarkable little spirit, with such a remarkable understanding of the principles of the gospel. He strengthens my testimony every day with his observations and desire to learn and understand the gospel.

Now, those that know my Dev know this: he is very cunning. He is known to bust out with the sweetest "I love you" right after he has gotten into some big trouble. He is known to give kisses freely after he has done something he knows he shouldn't. Well, he has added on to his cunningness. The past two days after he does something his dad or I ask him to apologize for, he quickly says "sorry" and "Jesus will make me more righteous!" Who can be angry with that?!

Reesie's Birthday Pictures

I decided not to do a huge cake--I made these flower cupcakes instead. {Thanks, Mandy}

After a lot of help from her over-eager brother, the present is finally unwrapped!

Not interested in opening presents--I just want to clap!

Marshmallows are yummy!

Still working on it!

I realized we are very bad at taking pictures. We take a million of the same one, and then think we are done. What about the rest of the day?! I will have to work on my picture-taking skills.

Update on Bedtime

Bedtime is 100x's better! Sweet Devin hasn't gotten out of bed or prolonged bedtime in over a week. I don't know what caused the wonderful change, but I am sure grateful. As soon as we complete the bedtime routine, Dev stays in bed and goes right to sleep. YAY for us!

Words

Words Reesie Says:

• hi
• hello
• bye
• momma
• daddy
• uh-oh

Words (Phrases) Devin Says {that I wish he wouldn't}:

• no!
• freak (while singing Don't Cha)
• You're making me frustrated!
• I can't!
  
• It will take too long
• There's too much
• Why?

My kids are so much fun. They make me truly happy.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, REESE!

Happy Birthday Reesie! I can't believe you are already one! You will never know how much joy you have brought to our family. Your little smile and laugh are contagious. We love you!!!!

OAMC- Part 2

Well, I did it. Actually we did it. My mom and sister were also interested in doing OAMC so we decided to cheat a bit and do a meal exchange--we each picked 4 meals and made those same 4 meals 3 times. Then we traded. So we now have freezers full of 12 meals. We decided to go with 12 for this first trial run to see how we liked it. Next time I think I will be making more. I really liked the way we did it this time. It was much easier to just go with 4 meals 3 times rather than do 12 different meals all by myself in one day. We saved a lot of time by making it into an exchange. So all in all, good experience! Can't wait to eat my yummy, no fuss meals!

Brad Returns!

Brad is back from his conference in San Jose, and boy are we glad! We sure missed him. I got to see what it would be like to be a single parent, and it is HARD! Lucky for me my babies were on their best behavior. While Brad was gone, we only had one minor emergency: my minivan broke down in the middle of a busy street! That was no fun, but it could have been worse. We are so happy that Brad is back and we love him so much!

A Favorite!

I LOVE this picture of Reesie!

Finally! A few Disneyland Photos!

We had so much fun at Disneyland! It was great to be able to be a kid again and ride all the rides. It was even more fun though, to watch Dev and Reesie's reactions to the rides and the characters. In this picture we are having a late breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. Dale came out to say hello. So did Wendy and Goofy. Dev got to be in a parade with Goofy banging pots and pans, but unfortunately we didn't get pics of that.









I call this picture "How Many Harris' Can We Shove Into an Elevator?" This is at the Disneyland Hotel. We are excited for our BIG day at the park!

{PS Count two more in the pic: Brad is taking it, and I am strategically removing myself from view on the side}


















This is in the Haunted Mansion. Isn't that such a look of fright? I asked Dev if he was scared and he said "NO! I wasn't scared! Ghosts don't scare me!" Yeah right! We've got the proof right here!
















Dev's first ride of the day--It's a Small World. He loved it! At the beginning of the day I told Brad this is the only ride I WOULDN'T ride. I remember hating it when I came last time in 4th grade! I skipped out on this one, but I am sad I did. Brad said Dev was loving it, and I think this is when he realized what Disneyland actually was. He didn't know what to expect before this.






















Look at this mug! Isn't she a doll?! This is at the very end of the day as we were sitting down for dinner. Reese ate ALL of her VERY OWN kids meal {a large portion of mac and cheese} PLUS 1 1/2 cups of chocolate milk {bad mom, I know} and she was just exhausted! Nothing like eating a huge meal after a long day. She was so ready for bed!











The day was so much fun and the kids were great. I know that we had such a good time because Grandpa Pants and Grandma Stacy were so great and incredibly helpful. They were amazing. I know I would have wanted to yank some hair out had they not been there. Vance and Stacy, my head thanks you! I look much better with hair!

We don't have many pictures that actually include sights at Disneyland...most of them are just people shots--but I promise we were there and we did have a blast. Dev is already talking about 'next time' we go and hoping that he is tall enough for all the rides.

Hope you enjoyed!