I will never forget

When we mixed in a little bit of applesauce with your usual rice cereal. Half of the time you wouldn't even open your mouth. The other half you made pretend gagging and throw up faces just to see if we would stop. We didn't.

That one night when the only thing that would get you to calm down was to watch our elf yourself video over and over again.

How in our ward, all of the old people (which makes up about 75% of the ward) know you as - that cute little baby with the very HIGH PITCHED scream

How you love to look out of the window ALL of the time.

Monthly FHE Recap

Here are the highlights of our monthly FHE with my family

The lesson is about the Nativity and Jesus being born.

And look, here are Joseph and Mary. What is Mary riding?

Tanner (age 3)- A pony!

And what happened to Jesus after he was born?

Adam (age 3)- He died.

Um, yes- but before that he was actually wrapped in swaddling clothes.

So what are the gifts that the wise men brought for baby Jesus

Megan (age 5)- Uh, gold and some good smelly stuff and .... more gold?

Adam (3) And I feel his spirit all of the time!

So what do you do when you feel his spirit?

Adam- I go to bed

Needless to say, we learned a lot this evening at FHE.

Traditon, Tradition!!

Because Christmas would not be Christmas until we have elfed ourselves.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ever not in the mood to update your blog? Ya- that has been me for like the past month, oh well.

First, and most importantly is that Kyle, Grandpa Harrison and Grandpa Hawkes all have a big BLACK mark going across their names. Let me explain. In the past I have been harassed by the above people because I like to put the headband/ bow on McKayla. I don't do it everyday- just on special occasions. And take my word for it- it is like non stop harassment. I keep telling them that not only do I think they are cute but that it a sure sign to other people telling them that McKayla is a GIRL. So, yesterday we went to our ward party and I went against my usual level headed better judgment and left the bow at home.

Everything was going smoothly until the following was said. "Hey, I would give up all four of my girls just to have a little boy like yours!"

Then, not ten minutes later, "Hey, that is a really cute little boy."

And that happened not once- but TWICE.

The sad thing is that not only did I hear those remarks but McKayla did too- AND WE HAVE BEEN CRYING EVER SINCE!

So now and forever more will McKayla's head be adorned with one of her cute bows when we go out in public.


Moving on....

We went to Texas for Thanksgiving and I will admit that both Kyle and I were rather nervous about the whole plane ride with a four month old thing.

But, I am so happy to say that she did so awesome and has proved herself to be a great traveler- which she gets from her Harrison side -of course.

She slept for the whole plane ride there and almost the entire plane ride back. And because I was such a proud little mommy I couldn't help but brag to the man who sat next to us by telling him that he was so lucky to be sitting by the best baby on the plane. He WHOLEHEARTEDLY agreed- of course.



Shelling the pomegranates for Thanksgiving salad and jelly. A Harrison family tradition- unfortunately I was a bit under the weather that day- cough cough- and wasn't able to participate. Maybe next time.



Two boxes of pomegranates were shelled- it took forever but I am sure that everybody was so thankful for the tip that Kyle and I learned from Food Network {Hit the shell with a spoon and the seeds will pop out better} to make it go faster.



McKayla was a good little helper



Some of the many pies....



And the pie maker!



Getting ready for the plane ride to come back home.


It feels a little like Santa's workshop around here. Hopefully we {mostly I} can get everything done on time!

3 months

How could I not post these pictures. They are way to cute to keep to ourselves.

Yes, we are a bit obsessed.

Last Weeks Recap

Last week sure was a busy one, and with this the start of the holiday season I don't think that we will have that much downtime for awhile. That's okay though- we love this time of the year.

It got so cold over the past couple of days. We didn't our little squirt to freeze and thankfully I remembered that we were given this-



We call it her snowsuit. We were given this before she was born when we lived in Nevada. I remember seeing it for the first time thinking, " There is no way that my kid is going to wear this. Not only is it not that cute but she is going to look like she is a member of the KKK!!



But then we moved- and it is a little bit colder up here than it was down there. So needless to say, she wears it all the time now and we are so grateful to have it.




It is still a little bit big but winter lasts for a while here so it's okay!

My little brother Stan turned 16 over the weekend. I really wanted to do something that would be memorable for him because 16 is a big birthday to celebrate. So, because I am the coolest sister ever, I made this for him...






This is what we like the call the ultimate candy bar poster. Then on Friday, my mom, McKayla and I went to his school during his choir class. We peeked in and saw that Stan was sitting on the front row- even better. So we opened the door, walked in and the entire class was staring at us. Then we called Stan up to come and stand by us. We told the class that this was going to be a very important weekend for Stan and then my mom said- We are going to sing him a song and if you know it then join in. We started to sing happy birthday and the class started singing with us. It was sooo funny and we could tell that Stan was getting a little embarrassed.



Then when we were done I gave him his poster and told him that he had to read it out loud to the class. When he was done everybody was laughing and clapping and Stan dashed back to his seat. I forgot that I had my camera until then and I told Stan that he needed to come back up to take a picture with us. He wouldn't come. So then I said, "Okay if Stan won't come up then everybody scrunch in by him, and we took this...



It was pretty entertaining to say the least.


We have decided that the holidays are much funner when you have a little kid to celebrate them with you. At first we weren't going to have McKayla be anything for Halloween because it seemed like to much of a hassle. But then we saw this.....




and we just couldn't resist!!

We bought the costume and I made her the little pom poms. She was so cute.



GO COUGARS!!




Finally, yesterday was the two year anniversary of Brett's death. As a family, we have decided that we would like to take that day to not only think about him, but to celebrate his life. Kyle couldn't come because he was working. But, McKayla and I met the rest of my family at the cemetery.






This was the first time that I had seen his headstone. Doesn't it look nice!

We sure do miss him. But, we are so thankful for the gospel and the knowledge that we have that we can be with him again.

Depressed.

Yep- I think that I am going to be depressed. I went through McKayla's clothes the other day and this is what I found....



clothes that are too little for my little squirt!! It is so depressing- when they are born there is nothing that is too little for them and then they start to grow. And by the way, I am not the only one that feels like this- Kyle does too.

I cannot help but to be so cute - McKayla

Easter Bunny House

Don't get me wrong- We love living in a house. It is a million times better than apartment living. But seriously, what were the owners thinking when they decided to paint the......

kitchen bright yellow





The master bath -or girls bathroom as I like to call it- light purple. There is only a shower in this bathroom.



The master bedroom also bright yellow



a kid's bedroom bright bright pink - good thing we had a girl!



the office/ library/ craft room tanish brown. Which is the only normal color in the entire house.



the other bathroom- or the boys bathroom- light blue. Notice that there is only a bathtub



and the hallways and front room mint green- my personal favorite






In the upstairs there six completely different colors- who does that??

You may have noticed throughout all of these pictures that we have nothing on the walls. This is because of two reasons. First it that the walls are not sheet rock, they are plaster- But this is only a minor detail. The second, and most important reason is - Who has decorations to go with these insane colors?!? I certainly don't, because I am more of a warm colored person. Kyle keeps telling me that I just need to buy a whole bunch of decorations around Easter time and then everything will match perfectly.

** Not pictured- downstairs family room and food storage/ laundry room.

Multiple Blessings

What better time than now to update my blog. It has been forever, Kyle is off taking a test and my sweet baby is sleeping. Also, my sister told me the other day that if I don't update my blog than not only will she stop looking but all of our friends will probably think that we have fallen off of the planet. She might have a point.

Lately we have been feeling very blessed- there is so much that we have to be grateful for.

First- We no longer live in Nevada. Not that we have anything against Nevada, or those who live there. We just didn't like it and our dislike for it became more and more evident the longer we were there. So, Kyle applied for probably over a hundred jobs online, we scheduled interviews for the same weekend that we would be up in Utah for canning, Kyle landed a sweet job on that very weekend and we went home and literally started packing the next day. A week and a half later we were in Utah looking for a place to live. We LOVE it here!! And we feel very blessed that we were able to change our circumstances for the better when many other people are not able to.

Second- We are no longer apartment dwellers!! We came up to Utah on a Wednesday night and we had the truck rented until that Saturday morning. Our goal was to find a decent place to live within the two full days that we had a moving truck. We looked everywhere!! We went to the Hispanic basement apartment that was painted pink and yle had to duck almost the entire time. We went to the cabin dungeon basement apartment that had horrible lighting, one bedroom and no dishwasher. We also went the the house that we thought would be good but upon realizing that it wasn't any bigger than our previous apartment we opted out. Anyway- you get the point. Then there was the house that had a was split into two apartments. We called the number and were told that they weren't renting out the top anymore- the bottom was already rented- because they had a bad experience with the last renters. Also, they were trying to sell the house and thought that it would be better to have it empty. And the rent that they would be asking for was way more than we wanted to pay. Bummer. Anyway, long story short- we got a call from the house people that night saying that they had changed their minds and they wanted us to come and look at the house. They changed the rent to be exactly what we were looking at paying for housing. The lease is a month to month, which is good for them in case they sell the house, and it is what we wanted anyway so we wouldn't be stuck with a lease. The pay for the utilities and we now occupy the entire top of the house and half of the bottom. We love it and I told Kyle that I will never be able to live in an apartment again. And the other good thing is that now we have ample room so all of you can have a place to stay when you come and visit us!!

Third- Our sweet baby McKayla. She was such a trooper throughout all of the chaos. We blessed her on September 27th and were so grateful to those who were able to come and support. She is such a good little baby. She still hates her crib but will sleep 8-10 hours every night in her car seat. We are getting her pictures taken this week and I am so excited because she is starting to have more of a personality and smiles all of the time. We sure do love her and she even sleeps on average 8-10 hours a night!!

Fourth- We finally have all of the canning done for this season. Peaches, salsa, applesauce and crabapple jelly. It was so much work but we are excited to stuff to eat for the next year.

I will post pictures of our new place soon!

Our life in a nutshell

Things are crazy-- That's what is happening.

Today we took to McKayla to get her two month shots. I DO NOT {heart} shot days. I don't know who cried more, me or McKayla. She did so well though and I am so proud of her.

Last week went went to Utah and canned our guts out. I think that I can speak for me, my sisters and my mom when I say that if we see another peach that needs to be canned we all might scream. We thought that the boxes we bought would only can around 9-10 bottles but we averaged around 16 bottles. Between the four of us there were 24 boxes filled with peaches.

Kyle and I have been looking to move out of Nevada for a while now- we do not like living in Las Vegas. Anyway, Kyle found some buyers for our business and he had some great interviews set up for last week. Long story short he landed a sweet job that we are so excited about, and we get to move to a place that we both like better. We are so excited about this change in our lives and we feel like this is what we are supposed to be doing. So we drove home from Utah on Monday and are hoping to be moved out of Las Vegas by this Saturday. So needless to say, things have been a little crazy around here. Also, this will be our third move in less that three years- you would think that we would be pretty good at it by now.

I {heart}...

This guy.....

He is the man of my dreams and the love of my life.

This little girl....

Never thought that the bond would be so great and the feeling of love and protection so strong.

Fall....

Is there any better season than this? No, I don't think there is.

Lifelong Friends.....

No need to say names because you know who you are. You have impacted my life and hold a place in my heart.

Dr. Phil.....

Nope, it's not a mistake that I schedule a feeding at the same time his show is on. Love this guy.

Book Club....

I think when it is my turn to choose a book it will be this one.

This blog....

www. makeitandloveit. blogspot. com

Two words *Creative Genius*

Making things of my own...

McKayla's quilt- It was done before she was born but haven't had a chance to post it until now.

School....

Someday I will go again.

Canning....

Next week is salsa, peaches and crab apple jelly- Couldn't be more excited.