Christmas Recap

It's December 27th, and my Christmas decorations have been carefully packed and put away. After a whirlwind of weekend family parties and activities; I'm ready for a fresh start. Packing up the Christmas decorations and deep cleaning the house seemed like the perfect way to end the busiest season of the year. Although we stayed close to home, it still involved a good deal of traveling. We spent Christmas Eve with my husband's family, Christmas Day at home then drove out to see my Grandparents, then spent Monday with my family.

Christmas is exhausting.

I am resolved to spend the week between Christmas and New Years with my husband and kids, relaxing and soaking up the last bits of this holiday season. We have much to be grateful for and I'm thankful for the friends and family that made this Christmas holiday special for us. With the new year just around the corner, I'm looking forward to a fresh start and new memories to be made.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Harrison Family 

18 months

Alara @ 18 Months

• She is a little monkey! Alara will attempt to climb anything and everything. She climbs in and out of her crib, up and down the playground equipment and all over our sofa. We haven't had any major spills yet - fingers crossed! She keeps me busy. 
• She loves to talk. Alara's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. I love hearing her call Lucas "brother" and now she says "hug," "brush" (toothbrush) and "I luve you." 
• She's an animal lover. Dogs at the park, birds in the sky and random stray cats never escape her notice. She gets so excited to see and play with animals. 
• Alara is 24 pounds and 14.6 oz, and is 32 inches tall. 
• She has been waking up in the night, and often early in the morning. I'm hopping after the newness of having her crib rail removed she will go back to sleeping though the night. 

cheez-its and church

Good Morning, and Happy Sabbath.

Last Sunday, I was asked to help decorate our church for the Christmas season. While unpacking the balcony garlands I took a trip down memory lane to one of my most embarrassing moments in church.

I laugh now. But not so much then.

I was in third or fourth grade. My family always sat front and center in the left side balcony (Sierra Visit). Our pastor was in the middle of a riveting sermon. He was hitting his points and driving home the importance of living a grace filled life. (Or something like that...I really don't remember what he was talking about). I do remember that I had squeezed the majority of my body through the iron rods of the balcony railing and was haphazardly leaning over the edge while stuffing my face with cheez-its. Back in those days, the balconies did not have the protective glass that they do today. As I was munching and crunching, curiously peering down at the congregation below gravity suddenly took over and I dumped the entire box of cheez-its over the side of the balcony. I'm not sure what the people below us thought as it rained small square cheesy crackers...but I can only imagine. The funny thing is that our pastor didn't even look up. I'm sure he must have noticed that it was raining crackers, or at least heard them hit the ground - but as far as I can remember it didn't phase him at all.

After I dumped the crackers, I dove for the ground and just laid there until the service was over. Frozen. Embarrassed. Ashamed. All I wanted was to disappear. Once the service was over, my mom took my sisters and I to the car while my dad went downstairs to clean up the mess.

My parents never scolded me, or gave me a hard time (until years later....).

The next Sabbath, we returned to our place in the balcony (without snacks) and I sat there very still. On the railing the pastoral staff had placed a large placard that read "Keep Children Away."  My dad took a black sharpie marker scribbled out children and wrote  "Pharisees" in its place.

We didn't attend church for a couple of weeks (not because of the cheez-its or placard). However, when did return to church the balconies had glass covering the iron railings. I don't know if I'm the reason why the church suddenly decided to get glass to cover the railings (its safer) but to this day that is how my dad tells the story.

The end.

Fulmer Family Photo shoot

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you are all suffering (in a good way) from turkey comas and an overstuffing of pumpkin pie. Last Sabbath, I did a photo shoot for some good friends of ours. My husband has been friends with Bob since elementary school and I met Allison in high school. This fun loving couple wanted updated pictures and I was happy to oblige. 

A big shout out to my sweet husband for editing for me. 😊 

new dress

Sometime during the summer I found this adorable fabric in the sale bin at JoAnn's and knew that it wanted to become a dress. Today, I finally finished that dress. I'm happy with how it turned out and I think it looks adorable on my little model.

something adorable this ways comes...

Happy Halloween from an adorable pioneer girl and a brave stormtrooper. We aren't huge fans of Halloween around here, but I do enjoy dressing the kids up. Instead of trick-or-treating, we spent the evening camped out at Dadi and Dada's house passing out candy to all of the neighbor kids and their parents. Both kiddos did a fabulous job ensuring that everyone elses kids were hopped up on sweets for the evening. 

And now on to a more enjoyable holiday...Thanksgiving. 

pillows

pumpkin patch

We celebrated my Dad's 52nd birthday today at the Peltzer Pumpkin Farm. Besides the 80 plus degree weather, it was a beautiful afternoon. The Peltzer Pumkin Farm is such a fun place to pick pumpkins. In addition to having some of the best pumpkins around, they have pig races, train rides, a corn maze and panning for gold. Doing fall activities makes me so excited for the cooler weather. We picked pumpkins in t-shirts and tank tops. There were a few ladies wearing scarves, boots and sweaters...but honestly in 80 degree weather I'd rather be comfortable. We had fun spending time with family, celebrating my dad and playing in the pumpkin patch. 

16 months

My sweet baby Alara is 16 months today. It's been a while since I did a baby update, so bear with me. 

• Her favorites activities are climbing - the more dangerous the better, pillaging purses and exploring the backyard. 
• She loves to sing. It's a talent that she didn't get from me. 
• She loves animals. All animals are "bow-bows." I really hope that she likes horses too. I'm looking forward to introducing Alara to the wonderful world of horseback riding. 
• Her favorite toys to play with are stuffed animals.
• She adores her brother. 
• She has a scrappy side. I've already had to pull her away from her brother several times...she grabs his hair, bats at him and when she doesn't get her way she'll cry loudly. 
• She can say "Mama" "Daddy" "Ball" "Go" "Uh, Oh"  " Stuck" and "Bye-Bye" 

door project

Over the summer it was pointed out to me that our front door needed a face lift. The door needed to be sanded, re-stained and sealed. I hate sanding. I hate the feeling of wood dust on my skin, the way it gets in my hair and up my nose. No matter how many times I shower after I sand, I still feel dusty.
But, as much as I hate sanding...I love the look of freshly stained wood. I worked during nap time..slowly sanding by hand.. removing the dust and grim. The after picture is the result of many weeks of hard work and I'm pretty dam proud of how it turned out.

happy birthday dadi

We spent a special day celebrating a very special Dadi at the Safari Park. The day was quite the adventure. It rained off and on and the park had a power outage. Due to the lack of power, many of the restaurants and larger animal exhibits - tigers, lions and gorillas were closed. Oh, and the bathrooms were as dark as dungeons. 

While in bathroom, an older lady was sharing with her friend how when she was a little girl they didn't have electricity in their home. Every night, she and her sisters would light kerosene lamps and or use candles. It's hard to imagine life without electricity. Not sure if I would want to.

With the cooler weather, the animals were active. We enjoyed watching the elephants splash around in the water, rhinos taking mud baths and giraffes galloping across the savanna. 

Even without the power, it was great day. Happy Birthday Dadi. We love you. 

real rather than perfect

"What would happen if we shared our real rather than our perfect?" - Nichole Nordeman 

Today, I had a moment of real rather than perfect. 

I'm not a fan of sharing the real. I like the perfect. 

This morning, I bravely got out the craft supplies for the kiddos. The plan was to make fall sun catchers. Prior to starting this project I checked pinterest for ideas, supply lists and samples. Pinterest had many exemplary examples with adorable children dressed in their finest sitting around gorgeous craft tables. I'm not sure who dresses small children in their finest for crafting, but apparently some people do. At our house, we craft in our pj's - that is if those under five are wearing anything besides their underwear at all.  

Lucas was excited to start. However his excitement was short lasting. And Alara just wanted to see how many pieces of tissue paper she could shove into her mouth before I'd notice. We were able to make at least two sun catchers before the kiddos decided that enough was enough and it was time for something else. 

I'm embarrassed to admit, but I got frustrated that my children weren't crafting like they were suppose to. As if there is a right or wrong way to craft! Our sun catchers didn't look like the examples provided by the perfect mama's with their perfect kids sitting around their gorgeous craft tables. Ours were real. But instead of embracing the real, I threw an internal tantrum striving for that unrealistic perfect. And sadly, by striving for that unrealistic perfect I ended up stressing myself out. What was suppose to be something fun and simple ended up being something more. 

So here I am sharing my real.

So what if our sun catchers didn't turn out as expected. I think they are better. They have personality. I am going to enjoy those flawed but beautiful sun catchers created by a two beautiful children.

receiving blanket quilt

This receiving blanket quilt took about two months to finish. Being the sentimental person that I am, I couldn't bring myself to give away and or toss out Alara's receiving blankets. I do not have an infinite amount of storage space, so I knew that I needed to do something special with the blankets. And after many hours of cutting, sewing, and more sewing (and many episodes of Gilmore Girls) I finally finished. 

It's really soft, cuddly and I'm in love.   

Arizona Road Trip Day #3

It's our final day in Arizona. We spent the morning at Oak Creek Canyon at Slide Rock Park. We hiked around the park, swam in the creek and made mud pies. After lunch under a lovely apple tree, we drove to Sedona. While in Sedona we went to the Red River Crossing Park and enjoyed more swimming, walking and beautiful views. We left earlier than planed due to an incoming thunderstorm, and made the long drive home to California. 

Thanks for the memories Arizona, till next time.    

Arizona Road Trip Day #2

I had a hard time narrowing down which pictures to post. The Grand Canyon National Park was gorgeous! The weather was perfect - partially cloudy with a high of 80something and a cool breeze gently moving about. The views were stunning. The air was clean. And the wildlife was abundant.  

We started at the visitors center and hiked the Rim Trail from Mather's Point to the Village. Then after lunch we picked up the trail again and hiked up to Maricopa Point where we boarded a shuttle bus to Hermit's Rest. As much as I wanted to hike the whole trail, the kiddos were getting tired and it was getting harder and harder to push the stroller on the uneven trails. However, even from the shuttle bus we were able to enjoy the stunning views of the Grand Canyon. 

To get back to the Village from the Hermit's Rest we took the shuttle. Alara was not a happy camper. It was seven miles of pure cranky, angry, hangry, fussy baby time. She was not happy. I avoided eye contact with everyone on that bus..including the driver...and I'm certain that several of the young childless couples sitting nearby suddenly decided that maybe kids weren't such a good idea. 

Ahem. 

Once we got back to the car, both kiddos fell asleep and we were able to enjoy a quiet drive around the park. Our journey ended at the Watch Tower where we all got out and watched the start of the sunset (kids didn't want to sit still) before heading back to Flagstaff. 

Good way to end a long day.