Too Quiet, But OK!

Tonight after giving the boys their bath and putting them in their pjs I left them playing in the playroom to finish up the dishes. It got really quiet and I got really worried. I quickly put the dish down and headed to look for them. Here is where I found them


That was a nice surprise. Just sitting around reading (aka to them looking at pictures) together. Taking that one picture started an impromptu photo shoot where Logan wanted to give his big cheesy closed eye grin and then take a picture "by me" (alone).

Picture of Austin taken by Logan - not bad for a 2 year old!


Now when a camera is around Logan grabs his "baby" and says cheese! I Love it!








Then came the trouble - playing under the train table meant someone was going to cry. However tonight they were all smiles. Love these boys!!!

First September 2009 Weekend

Oh, how I love fall. It is my favorite season for more than one reason! I met my husband 8 falls ago! We met in September 2001. I thought I loved him then; eight years, two babies, and a blessed life together later I realize that our love just keeps growing. I bet eight years from now I will look back and say "and I thought I loved him then."! More reasons for my love of hall other than my sweet husband: football, halloween (candy), apple picking, fall festivals, Austin being born, leaves changing, cooler weather = UGG boots will be worn soon,and I heart all fall decorations. I am now up to my neck in all my fall decorations; rearranging, reusing and possibly more buying!
So that is why I love fall...here are the little peeps that make fall even sweeter!





So that was our little Georgia photo shoot while watching the first Georgia game - Logan would say "GOOOO Dogs" and "hut, hut, hike" and "run faster!" He knows some plays from playing with his daddy! Why is it everytime I take a picture one of them is looking away!

Sunday we went to our friend Ryan's birthday party. That was fun. Daddy took care of the babies and mommy had a beer or two:)

Monday was Labor Day. The boys and I spent the morning hitting all the local Labor day sales - that was well worth the many "No Mommy" I heard everytime I entered a store!
Then we headed to my parents for an early afternoon dinner.












Tomorrow the boys and I head to MOPS for the first time. Very excited and a little nervous about leaving them in someone else's care. They will be seperated for the first time. I know they will be fine, I think I may shed a tear or two (but not infront of the babies)!
Saturday Brian's parents will come over to watch the boys so we can go out. Before that we may do a little furniture shopping (YAY!!!). Sunday if it is nice maybe the Yellow Daisy Festival or maybe just hanging around the house. Brian has been working A LOT and could use some down time. Next weekend Logan will attend Sesame Street Live with his grandparents, Suwanee Days is a festival that we will go to on the 19th, and then the Kisgen's will be in town to celebrate Carter's first birthday on Sunday. So excited to see them. Love getting our kids together. The fair starts next week also, something we will for sure go to this year, not for the rides, but for the animals. Before kids I would have never gone to see the stinky animals, but the joy on their little faces will make the smell worth it!
Oh and fall TV is gearing up and that makes me a happy girl! The last weekend of the month will end with the Duluth Fall festival and the Chili Cookoff (Brian loves this and we missed the last two years). I will post pics of my fall deco soon. Oh here is my new favorite wall (thanks mom for making this wall possible)!

Happy fall, Go Steelers, Go GA Bulldogs, and War Eagle (for Mike, Kevin, and Bailey)!

Love for Secondhand Britax

I LOVE this car seat. It is the Britax Boulevard. It holds children up to 65 lbs! So we now own two of them! It retails for 300 ish. Being the stay home mommy money saver that I am, I decided to "shop" around for these seats. I found Logan's in a consignment shop in Suwanee and Austin's on Craigslist. I will just say they were each under 150! More than half the price for one. Being secondhand there are questions that need to be asked. How old is the seat? Both are newer than 06, Has the seat been in a crash? Neither have, Smoker or Non-smoker? of course both from NON SMOKER, and condition? Being a clean freak, perfectionist these both had to be close to immaculate and they were!

Two of Everything

Having babies so close in age requires a lot of baby things. I had to laugh when I saw the boys eating lunch the other day. I never thought I would have two highchairs in my house at the same time!

Where Has Time Gone?

How did we go from this


To this so quickly?



I was taking pics today for Austin's 1st birthday invite (he turns 1 in Oct) and Logan hopped up to show "his baby" love!

On the same note, how does it seem like just yesterday Austin had his first outing


To him riding in his big boy seat holding his own bottle


Time really flies when your having fun...

Our 10 Month Old Boy

Happy 10 Months SWEET, SWEET baby boy Austin. You have so many sweet qualities about you, but in honor of 10 months I will share 10 things that make you so delicious!

1. You smile with your eyes
2. You waved bye bye today.
3. Although you have no teeth, you LOVE to eat anything and everything, even a skittle from big brother Logan
4. Speaking of Logan, you can't get enough of him. You follow him everywhere and you want to do, eat, have everything the same as him!
5. You get wicked mad when a toy is taken from you - you ball up your little fists and shake you are so mad.
6. Those mad and sad moments are few and far between the laugh that explodes from your belly throughout the day.
7. You are a mover. Crawling is your fastest means of going these days, but you are cruising around furniture and even letting go to stand with no hands for several seconds!
8. You sleep on your belly with your hands under you. Sometimes I go in your room and pick you up and just hold you, my little angel baby.
9. Your favorite things start with B: bottles (again food), blanket, brother, and you guessed it Barney.
10. You bop up and down to music and wave your hand in the air.

Mommy and Daddy and Logan love our little bit Austin! In two months we will celebrate your first year of life and you will get your own little cake - I know you will love it!
xoxoxo

Recap

Well today is the 14th of August, tomorrow my little bit Austin will be 10 months old. It goes wayyy to fast. He is a little lover and melts every one's heart daily. He says "nnnnnnn" while shaking his finger, like he is saying "nononono." It is hysterical. I actually video taped it, if I can figure out how to post it on here I will. So the beginning of August we went to the beach. Long story with lots of pictures that is for a later post. Also for another post is our fourth of July pics. Man am I behind.
After a 9 day trip to the beach it took most of last week to get unpacked, rescheduled, and debeached! I had a quick hair appointment and few errands and a visit to the in laws was about all we could take! Lots of rest and regrouping was required for all of us.
This week we were back at and we even made it to the gym four out five days - whoop whoop! I only worked out for 25 minutes to get the babies adjusted to the gym and being away from mommy with other adults and lots of children! Each time I go to pick the boys up they are together playing. They are inseparable. I had to tell the ladies that Logan often holds his ear or his brother's ear as comfort. We are working on not having the addictive pacifier as much. Potty training is a no go for now. Interest comes and goes. Before baby 3 arrives he will be pottied trained (no not pregnant, I am just saying)!
School started this week, for like ten minutes I thought "I really miss it." Then I was like "hello you have it made!" I am fortunate to stay home and so grateful! I am going to be doing a few things to make some extra money from home - but it is more on my terms and my time and for my furniture/new bigger suv fund!
Logan is a complete talker. He sings his abc's with me, sings "I see the moon, the moon sees me, god bless the moon, god bless me" clear as day, twinkle twinkle, wheels on the bus (with the motions of course), the barney song, and old MacDonald. Brian does the bedtime reading (such a good daddy) and taught Logan animal sounds the other night. A really cute one is when we ask "what does a skunk do?" and Logan responds while holding his nose, "p u!" Logan tells everyone "I Logan (wogan) this my baby!" Love that boy!
We celebrate Brian's sister, Donna's bday on Wednesday. Thursday we met my friend Janelle at the pool, made cookies, had a business meeting, visited with mom, today my sweet in laws will be keeping the children over night so my husband and I can have a very over due date night! Tomorrow we'll hang around the house and Sunday I think if the weather permits we will go out on the boat. Yes, most days I would agree that we live a great life (especially when we are having our daily family dance party)!

Oh a funny story: At the pool yesterday Logan was eating his pb&j sandwich. Well He set it on the chair and went back in the the pool Austin was sitting on the chair next to me and the next thing I know he is taking down the pb&j. I looked at Janelle and asked if she had an epi-pen incase he was allergic to peanuts! AHHH! He was fine. He loved that pb&j so much it was everywhere. Lately I am finding Logan sharing his food with "his baby" more and more. Today he gave him a skittle. Well our chunker munker doesn't have any teeth. He gummed that skittle to death. Oh and dog food his a favorite also. YUCK! I am pretty sure if we looked back through my blog there would be a post about Logan eating the dog food as well. It is so nasty. Austin definetly prefers table food but does still eat babyfood that I make. Today he rnjoyed green beans and potatoes with a side of strawberries and banana. I should have made my own baby food a long time ago. So easy, so good, and so CHEAP!
Also Logan is obsessed with Calliou. It is a show about a little boy with a little sister. I tune it out like I do most programs they enjoy.

Beach Bound

We are leaving Monday morning for Destin! Our plan is to leave around 3 or 4 am so the boys sleep for the majority of the trip. We are so excited! Lots of pictures to follow I am sure!
I am behind yet again in blogging. So here is a list of what I would be blogging about if I wasn't so tired at night and had more than 5 minutes to myself!
1. Austin turned 9 months on the 15th, where did the time go? He is weighing in at 22lbs! Such a chunker, I eat him up on a daily basis. No teeth; wait did I already blog about this?! Oh and he is crawling, pulling up, tearing down, babbling, laughing in complete joy at his brother, getting mad if you take things from him (Logan take the hint buddy), LOVES to eat - especially table foods, likes mom's homemade baby food, but not as much as what Logan is eating, Not really liking people he doesn't know or hasn't seen in a while, really wants mommy most of the time(I like that a lot), must be getting a tooth because he has been up the last two nights several times and he is a great sleeper - 8pm-8am with two naps during the day. I LOVE that baby so much.

2. Logan - oh my Logan. He is ALL BOY! That is the best way to put how he acts from the moment he gets up until his eyelids close at 9pm - which in my opinion is too late, but recently he has started regulating the Harris schedule. He eats what he wants when he wants, says everything I say and I mean everything, wants to play, play, and play, he isn't too into taking naps or going to bed at night. Loves to prolong bedtime by brushing his teeth (more than once) reading not one not two but five books, needing a drink of water, needing his diaper changed, etc...He climbs into Austin's crib at day break to get the party started! Today the boys were standing at the train table and Logan says "we best friends!" I MELTED and did not care that seconds later he was jumping from the ottoman to the couch because I was relishing in what he had just said. Logan is becoming a little mother hen saying things like "no baby, baby you want mommy, Austin come here, Mine Austin, where is baby's yaya, baby is crying mommy," and on and on and on. He talks so much and asks so many questions. However he is really really really rough with the Austin. He tries over and over again to lift Austin up and carry him - HELLO Austin only weighs 8 lbs less than you! He pushes Austin over, covers Austin with pillows, blankets, toys, today he hit him with a plastic golf club and I was in the room. You know he got popped and time out for that. They really can't be left alone in any room. Which is difficult with one crawling and one running, jumping, climbing. Today they were both tearing apart the train tracks that I had constructed together last night. Both boys were laughing and loving destroying the nice, neat train table. I realized that this was just the beginning of them working together to cause a ruckus! However as I rocked Austin to sleep tonight and watched Logan drift into dreamland all I saw was my two precious baby boys.

3. Working on an idea to start tutoring a few hours each week at the house.

4. Ventured to chuckee cheese for the first time with the two boys for playgroup. It was fun, CRAZY but fun.

5. MOPS and MOYC begin in late August early September. Looking forward to meeting other stay home moms and more playtime for the boys to rid themselves of the energy they suck from me!

6. Brian is working hard and trying to squeeze some golf in before the annual golf weekend.

7. I LOATH Banana Republic's return policy so I will NOT shop there ever again - seriously the Mall of GA store has made me that upset.

8. Going to learn how to sew before August is over!

9. Oh and I am a BIG fan of EBAY not just to buy, but I am selling also. Lots of fun and making a little extra money. "One man's trash is another man's treasure!"

There is so many times throughout the day, I stop and think "oh I want to blog about that or oh I want to take this picture to put on the blog," but then a day or two or seven go by and I forget what I wanted to post! It is frustrating. Instead of being too hard on myself (a trait that I try incisively to rid) I am focusing on how I am soaking up each day and precious moments with my family and friends and that not writing about every little thing will be okay and to let it go!

So we will be off to the beach from Monday until Saturday!

The Beginning of July 09

Well, I am behind in my posting (imagine that)! The month started off with my sweet husband's 30th birthday and his big party. Pictures and a detailed post to follow as soon as I edit, delete, and organize his bday pics!
The boys had their pictures taken back in June (Logan's 2 yr picture and Austin's 6 month - taken at 7month picture)-they were finally ready to be picked up. My mom also purchased Logan's 6th month baby parts (9pictures) as well as Austin's 6 month baby parts they were matted and framed beautifully. I will take a picture of them. Incredible. Thank you Mom! Mom says "they will only be little for a short time and you must have nice pictures of them." She is great.

****I tried to upload scanned pictures and they wouldn't upload - anyone ever try to upload scanned pics?

We took the boys to Lake Lanier Water Park last weekend and met Brian's parents up there. Of course our two fish LOVED the water and when we left they were sleepy!






My great dad, took my mom to Key West last weekend (he had her bags packed and tickets waiting when she got home from working out - he is a great guy)! So we had my brother's over last weekend. Saturday I took Logan and Austin garage sailing with Kevin and Amy. Then that night I had Mike, Kevin, Amy, and their friend Justin over to watch the UFC fight. Sunday after LLI we came home and had Mike, Kevin, Amy, Julie, and Ryan over for a cookout (hot dogs, mac n cheese, baked beans) - it was fun. Logan and Austin LOVE their uncles and aunts!

We bought some office furniture and are having the bonus room painted. I am thinking about tutoring in the fall a few hours a week. Some extra money would be great to put away. I am going to get a flyer out to schools and see what happens. Oh I have also been selling items on Ebay! Things we don't need or use. So far I have made 200.00 and I went to a gold party this week and brought some old, old jewelry that was broken or outdated. I thought I would get like maybe 10.00 - I made 102.00! It was so exciting! So we are using that money towards having someone paint the bonus room:)!

Our flowers look great (thanks mom and mom-in-law) due to all the rain! Logan wanted to wear his rain gear (thanks Kisgen family) when it was raining last week and go outside. He looked soooo cute!



Logan and Austin are playing more and more together everyday; they crawl chasing each other, Logan makes Austin dance, he tells the baby what to do, tells me what the baby is doing, hops in Austin's crib in the morning and after nap time to sit and talk to him and play until I get Austin out. Logan has such a GREAT imagination. He held up a tortilla chip, started running and said "Look mommy I am flying a kite!" Then he took his dad's level (not sure why that was in his reach)and put it between his legs and said "giddy up, giddy up" as he galloped through the house. He sings songs: Row, Row, Your Boat, Old McDonald (says the eieio and animal noises, Beyonce's "Put a Ring On It" - he sings the "uh uh oh" part - so funny and lots of other songs. Dancing is a family favorite, oh how we love to dance and laugh. I love my family. Some days I need to escape for a few minutes of mommy time but I am constantly reminded of how blessed I am.
Here are some pictures from today. Logan put my purple panties around Austin and put some toys in our new ottoman - that is not a toy box. They are busy, after rearranging toys, I found them in Logan's room with Logan saying "Baby look at the books" with about 20 books surrounding them, Logan hopped in our new ottoman that has a place for storage and tried to pull Austin in at one point yelling "get in baby!" Austin tried some dog food, Logan made me chase him to dress him, Austin played in the dogs water, Logan said "damn it baby" after I said it when I burned myself with the iron. That was all before 10am - two boys 2 and 9 months = Craziness, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Where Are the Harris'?

We are busy growing, changing, celebrating, playing, and enjoying life! Here are some highlights since I have been MIA!
Father's Day 2009 - What a wonderful day to celebrate the wonderful men in my life. My husband ROCKS as a daddy. His boys think he hung the moon and I think he is kinda great too! The three of us are sooo lucky to have him. Brian works so hard to ensure that we are well taken care of. Happy Daddy's Day to my babies' daddy! XOXOXO Happy Father's Day to my dad of course as well as to Brian's dad. We are so lucky to live so close to our families that we are able to spend the day with everyone!
Brian slept in on father's day morning until 9am! Wow BK (before kids) sleeping in was like until 2pm! Anyway we woke him up with his presents!

Then we got dressed and headed to Brian's dad for a steak lunch - I made Brian's favorite dip as well as the corn. It was yummy. We did presents and visited for a bit before getting in the car and going to spend the rest of the day with my dad. There we had a steak dinner. Again it was yummy and we definitely got our protein grams in that day! More gifts, awesome dessert, and some board games was the way we finished the evening. A great day to celebrate and honor some WONDERFUL men!
The boys have been enjoying going to the pool and lounging in their own backyard pool - with popsciles of course (or as Logan calls them ipops). Look at Austin climbing out. He is turning into a wild man keeping up with his big brother. I think Logan could live off of Popsicles (my favorite and his too are the Mighty Miget Slow Melts - No dripping, SERIOUSLY!)



Something else Logan really loves is Peanutbutter and Jelly sandwiches. He would eat one at every meal if he could. This one paticular morning I gave him ceral with milk, but he insisted on having a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. He calls them peanubutter and hearing a 2 year-old scream that word 20 times in a row,well, I didn't care that it was only 8am - peanutbutter and jelly it was!

Logan loves to point out what things are while we are reading books (in education terms this is called a picture walk - looking and talking about the pictures, but to him I am mommy so we call this pointing and naming pictures). So I found these great window clings at the dollar store and we have lots of fun (and learning) talking about the animals, the sounds the animals make, the color of the animals, etc - great one dollar purchase!

We celebrated Grandpa Harris'(brian's dad) birthday last week. What fun it was to take two sleepy babies to eat Mexican where they must have went south of the boarder to get the food because the waiting seemed to never end! After eating so quickly that we all left there with indegestion (except for Logan who inbetween throwing objects and stating continuosly that he wanted to leave munched on chips and cheese dip and cheese quesidilla and Austin ate two jars of baby food during the wait to Mexico for our food). Ahh fun times eating out with babies. After dinner we headed back to the Harris house and had YUMO Carvel cake and opened gifts. Happy Birthday Paca (that is what Logan calls Grandpa and he calls Grandma Maca - very cute even when he is screaming "I want paca I want maca I want mimi I want papa" over and over whenever I do something that he doesn't like or want to do.




This week has been busy as I prepare for Brian's 30th birthday this weekend. I will take lots of pictures and be sure to post them quickly.
Oh and we officially have another mover in our house! Austin mastered crawling this week and he is E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E, eating A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G AND E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G he finds on the floor. It doesn't matter that I vacuum daily, his older brother leaves a taril of crumbs from snacks, dog sheds in this 1,000 degree heat, and just the daily tracking across the carpet has led me to do what only a girl that is a cleanfreak by hereditary nature would do - I bought a Dyson. It's a vacuum cleaner that is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.





So that is what we have been up to. July is here, Brian turns 30, I will be working on my tan, saving money, playing with my kids, enjoying ALONE time with my husband, and losing the last 4 lbs from having two kids (I lost 6 inches in 4 weeks during the month of June)! As for the kids, Austin will turn 9 months, 3 months away from turning 1 and I am sure he will master standing up, Logan will continue to grow, learn how to do new things and learn new things to say (oh I forgot to mention that he dropped something on the ground recently and LOUDLY said "oh crap!" On one hand at least it wasn't "oh shit" but on the other hand he heard that from me - Mother of the Year!"