Heidi Carolina Harris

That is the first time I have "written" our soon-to-be new addition's name! So yes, it's a girl!!! I can't even begin to explain how thrilled I am. We went in at week 16 and the doc told us he was 75% sure it was a boy. Nonetheless, I left that appointment more certain than ever that it was really a girl. We waited 2 more weeks, and confirmed my (and Mariah's) secret wish: IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!! I was very convinced at first it was a boy. Certain. Absolutely positive. Then around week 13 I really started thinking that maybe it was a girl. That thought became a hope and the hope is now a soon-to-be reality! Turns out Ben was secretly wishing for another boy; he would rather deal with a dating son than a dating daughter. I told him we first need to get her here before he even needs to begin to worry about that:) And Mariah is "done with boys!" In her opinion, we, the girls, have been out-numbered since Mitt joined our fam. Ben, Mitt, and Max vs Me and Mariah. Well, Mariah Girl, we have evened things up! I am so thrilled for Mariah to have a sister. I think 5 1/2 years will be a good age difference, and most sisterly-issues (sharing clothes, who gets the car, etc.) will be blissfully avoided. But she will still have the opportunity to have a best friend for life, like my sisters are to me:) We went in today for our 20 week ultrasound and everything looks great. She was sitting indian-style in the breech position, and when the doc showed us her face, she gave us all a big smile. That's my girl! I can't wait to meet you Heidi! You have brought so much joy to us already:)

So I need to name my kids right away. It helps me get to know them, or at least feel like they are real even before I can hold them in my arms. And unlike my sisters, we have yet to change a name of one of my kids once we have decided:) (My nephew Drew spent a few days as Austin and when I first met Logan he was named Conner) So admittedly I chose Mariah's name; Ben and I completely agreed on Mitt's. Still love those names everytime I say them! So I decided to let Ben take the main lead on Baby Girl #2. He has always said he loves the name Heidi. Everytime I have ever asked him about if he likes a girl's name, he replies, "You know what name I really love? Heidi." You know what Benny, I really love it too. I have only known a couple of Heidis, most importantly my high school friend Heidi Kirch Poelman, who I still adore though I don't see her hardly at all. So thankfully I have a good Heidi-reference; if my Heidi is like the Heidis I have known, we are in for a treat:)

So the middle name. Well, some of you know, we are moving to North Carolina March 1! We are so excited to go-it-alone with just our family and have a fun adventure for 4 or so years! Ben is going to start up his own pest control company. Thus, Heidi will be born in North Carolina, so Carolina (which we originally were going to use potentially as Her first name) became our logical (and we think darling) choice for her middle name:) Ever since watching Nicholas Sparks' movie "The Notebook", I have always wished I could someday live in North Carolina. It just seems so beautiful and romantic with the trees and lakes and lighthouses and porched-houses. Ben and I just got back from our first visit to Charlotte, and we loved it. It smells like pine trees and it is wooded with huge trees and pines all over with giant areas of grassy fields to break things up. It is softly hilly with and very clean. That description doesn't even come close to justifying the beauty, so you will just have to come take a trip to see for yourself:) The people were so friendly, most neighborhoods have swimming pools as well as lakes and wooded backyards instead of dozens of neighbors like in our current neighborhood. Utah will always be home but we are anxious to make North Carolina our new home for a few years:)

Semi-Annual Family Pictures

We went to Camera Shy yesterday to get our semi-annual family pictures. We had the best experience! I made our appointment in the morning, went in for pictures at 5, was home, pictures and copyright-released CD in my hand by 7, new pics hung by 7:15. What a way to do it in the Fall! I decided it would be too cold for my kiddos to be outside, good and happy, while smiling for a photo shoot. So we went this route, saving the outside shots for Spring. Kim, don't think you are off the hook! This was just the quickest and easiest way this go around, plus I bug you too much with asking you all the time to take pics! Anyway, here are some of my favs.

To My Little Birthday Man

Dear Mitt Man,

I can't believe you are already 1! How fast time flies:) Just wanted to tell you how LUCKY I feel to be your Momma. From when I first learned you were a boy, I was pretty nervous to see if I would love my boy as much as I love my girl. It was new territory for me! Imagine my surprise when I first met you in the hospital room (after a long and horrible labor, but you were worth it even then) and I absolutely fell head over heals from the moment I laid eyes on you. My first words about you were, "Oh, he's so cute!" Which believe me, that is a rare thing right after birth:) The nurses took you to check you and weigh you, and I was just so anxious to get you back in my arms! I was lucky enough to be able to join Daddy to watch your first bath, and experience with you most things only daddys are lucky enough to see. When it came time for "sleep," the nurse asked me if she should take you to the nursery and just bring you in when you were hungry. I surprised myself when I told her No Way! I needed my boy with me all night long. Right from the beginning. From those first moments I have been so very in love with you, though you were quite naughty:) I know you can tell just how much I love you when I look you in your huge brown-in-the-middle-green-on-the-outside eyes that are colored just like mine. I can tell you feel the same about me:) When Dad tries to claim you as a Daddy's Boy, inside I just think he doesn't know what we communicate to each other words unspoken. You are the happiest, smiliest, giggliest baby I have ever known. You are so sweet and loveable with everyone. I love your strawberry blonde hair and your chubby man belly. You are WAY MORE than I could have every prayed for. I love you Mitt Man, happy first birthday!

Love, Momma

SURPRISE!!!!

We are pregnant again! There I just came right out and said it:) Our due date for baby #3 is May 8, so we are almost finished with our first trimester. We are SO SO SO thankful that this baby just wanted to get here! After all the struggles we had getting Mitt here, we couldn't be more thrilled than to get this baby hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifere without any effort. Mitt and baby 3 (who I am convinced at this point is a boy) will be 18 months apart, and that seems pretty perfect to me:) So as I sit here pregnant on this day, as I was last year on this same day, I anxiously await the arrival of our 3rd little person we feel so blessed to have coming to join our family! Click here to learn how to build my home.

Turning 30

So clearly I am quite the blogging slacker. Maybe someday I will actually take pictures to post and tell you all about our amazing summer and what we have been doing since our last post in June:) Well, my sister Katie and I LOVED (and finished) our 30 mile 30th birthday run. We made a memory we will both cherish forever. Starting at my mom's house in Sandy and running 3 loops, each ending back at my mom's house so we could have a bathroom and choke-down--a-banana break, was Katie's brilliant idea. So I made the route after she suggested we run "down memory lane". Starting at 4 am the morning of July 2, we did our first loop. It was 16.5 miles where we ran up by our elementary school, into our old Little Cottonwood Canyon Ward neighborhood, down by the "park" and up by "the shack" we lived in for a good portion of our childhood, and up by La Caille on our way down Dimple Dell Road and back home to Mom's. Loop 2 was 8.5 miles running the back way to Brighton High and down Highland, cutting back by Reams and stopping to run and play in some sprinklers, which was the highlight of our run for sure wasn't it Kakes:) By this point we were back to my mom's meeting Ben, Mariah and Mitt for our last 5 miles on an out-and-back run by Alta Canyon where we did swim team stuff on our way to the Life Center where we both lifeguarded all through high school. (Though thankfully we didn't have to run all the way to the Life Center, or we would have succeeded our 30 miles). I was so grateful Ben came with (and actually pushed in the jogger!) my 2 favorite little people. So fun to have them there to bring home the last five. We passed the 26.2 mile point, Katie and I high-fived that we just ran a marathon, and continued on our last 4 miles. We did it!!!! It was maybe the best 4 hours and 45 minutes of running thus far (minus the intense stomach and girl pains- maybe should have waited til my baby was older than 8 1/2 months:) ) Thanks Katie for making this memory with me. I knew you wouldn't bail even though you were crippled from mile 0!

FINALLY!

Thanks to my sis Katie, I was FINALLY able to publish that last post I originally did in April, when Mitt really was closer to 6 months old. I haven't been able to figure out why I couldn't get it to post! Anyway, thanks to my genius sister, I am now only a few months behind on news about our fam:) So far the summer is going great! Mariah is Love, love, loving swim lessons! This little girl is a fish. Don't quote my on this, but I think she will be an olympic swimmer some day! And Mitt, weighing in probably somewhere in the 23 pound range as his 8 month old self, now sits on his own and can roll over, but he is nowhere near being able to crawl, stand alone, or move that big belly of his in any way! But I sure love him:) So a month ago or so we were told (by Mariah's new preschool teacher) that Mitt's head was not just flat, that in fact his suture on the back of his head was fused. Which would mean surgery on his head including cutting his skull open and soddering the bones so they wouldn't grow back together prematurely. LUCKILY, the preschool teacher is just that, a teacher, not a surgeon, and we just found out really Mitt's head is just flat like Mariah's was! This time I really am not taking the blame though. I have been SO concerned about the shape of this kid's skull from the second he was born. I always made sure to turn his head both ways, lay him differently every time he was down, etc. so we wouldn't have to deal with yet another helmet. Unfortunately, this only enabled Mitt's head to be symmetrically flat instead of lopsided. So what's the deal with my kids? I asked the Dr. He told me some kids just have softer skulls, and that is hereditary. UGH! So ironically, hard-headed Ben and I produce soft-headed kids. Oh well! At least it is just cosmetic, and otherwise they are healthy! Ben is working hard, same as always, and taking extra daddy time as he watched the kids while I went to Girls Camp for a couple of days and did the Ragnar Relay with a group of girls. Thanks Ben! I really appreciate his willingness to support me as I do my Saturday race stuff. So far this Spring and Summer I have done 2 half marathons, 1 triathlon, the Wahsatch Steeplechase, 15 mile Draper Trail race, and the Ragnar. So Ben has definitely gone the extra mile for me without ever complaining, just being at the finish line to support me to the end! This Saturday Katie and I are gearing up for our 30 mile run for my 30th birthday (and hers as well, for 3 days this year we will both be 30, so this commemorates that milestone birthday for us both), and after that I don't have any more Saturday plans as of yet. So hang in there Ben things are slowing down! All in all, we are loving life, LOVING being a Mom to these 2 crazy awesome kids, and looking forward to a summer full of unproductivity and play!

Family Pics

My wonderful sis-in-law Kim agreed to take Mitt's 6 month pics for us. Much to Ben's dismay, I decided to have her take some more updated ones of our whole family as well. They turned out beautifully, and here are some of my favs. By way of a quick update, we are doing GREAT! Mariah is finishing up year 2 of preschool and loving Itty Bitty Baseball; Mitt is sliding into his 7th month weighing (at 6 months) 20 lbs 11 oz and measuring 27 inches (he is in the 22 pound range by now), wearing 2T shirts and ALMOST sitting up and rolling over just front to back (it would be hard pulling all that weight around!); I am LOVING my kids and running, one triathlon, 2 half marathons and a 21 mile training run with Kim this spring under my belt, gearing up for my 30th birthday present to myself this summer: a 30 mile run which anyone is welcome to join! (so far I have ropped my sisters Beth, Katie, and Kim into it); and Ben is working hard like the great provider he is, joining me for runs, and getting caught up on some much needed sleep now that Mitt Man has finally got the hang of his new little body! Between Sassy Mariah and Edible Mitt, Life is good:)

Mitt's 4 month stats

I don't have a new picture to post yet, but seeing as how Mitt is getting closer to the 5 month mark, I figured I better update now. Mitt's 4 month checkup was another success! He weighed in at a whopping 17 pounds 10 ounces and was 25 1/2 inches tall (roughly 90th and 85th percentile respectively). He already has 2 teeth, too. This kid is an overachiever!

Making Up For Lost Time

Seeing as how our boy was only 10 days old, I never posted Halloween. Here it is. Mariah was a witch for most Halloween activities we did, but for the big night she was a lion. She and I went out after the rain had stopped and trick-or-treated for a couple of hours, just the girls! It was the BEST Halloween I can remember, running from house to house and loading up on candy, even outlasting the older kids. Love you Girl! Thanks for being so fun and full of energy! The boys stayed home and answered the door. Gotta love them for that!


Next came Mariah's 4th birthday, November 18th. She got her "salon" with lots of my old makeup and hair and beauty supplies. She loves it and loves doing her makeup whenever she wants! Since her birthday was on a preschool day, Ben and I surprised Mariah at school with balloons and cookies for the whole class. She was so happy to see us there! Then she chose to go bowling for her birthday night. On Mariah's turn, Ben would help her bowl. They made a great team, but just like on our 2nd date, I beat Ben! After that we went to Chick Fil A for dinner and play time. Mariah's little "boyfriend" Cash just happened to be there too, so she couldn't have had a better day!




Next came the annual Harris Family Christmas Tree-Chopping Trip. This usually takes place the day after Thanksgiving and involves taking 4-wheelers/snow mobiles on a day-trip to Idaho to find and cut down each family's Christmas tree. I stayed home with Mitt this year while Ben took Mariah and met up with the cousins in Idaho. Mariah and Adri are sitting on the 4-wheeler having so much fun! Ben said M was the only cousin who stayed toasty warm the whole day:) Usually we get tall, slender, beautiful trees that don't really look Christmassy to me. This year Ben surprised me with a smaller, perhaps frumpier tree that more closely resembled the Christmas trees of my childhood. Mariah is in front of it. I loved our tree! First year it felt like a real Christmas tree!


The next day, all the Harris men road-tripped to Arizona to go see the Cardinals play the 49rs. They had fun, but I think Ben MUCH prefers college ball.



Mariah took dance lessons for the first time this fall at the Legacy Center. Her teacher was Miss Shanda, and her first recital was on December 2. She LOVED every minute of the classes! And boy is this girl a performer. She pranced out on that stage full of confidence and danced her little tutu off! At the end of her routine to "I'm Gettin' Nothin' for Christmas", it was heart-warming to see her proudly wave to her family while all the other girls were exiting stage left. Girl is anything but shy! Stage fright? What's that?





Now for Temple Square. I am ashamed to say that this is the first year we have taken Mariah to see the lights at Temple Square. It was one of the best nights of the whole Christmas season! We first walked all around Temple Square before heading over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. That is one of our favorite spots to walk around in, and the only disappointing thing of the whole night was that I realized the huge Christmas tree at the entrance to the JSMB is fake! We then wandered around and happened upon the Nauvoo Cafe. We decided to have soups and sandwiches for dinner, which were delicious. It was the most magical night, and I am so glad we decided to make it our yearly tradition.








To finish out the year, Ben and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary with dinner and a movie at Thanksgiving Point (neither of us can remember the movie right now, oops!,

two trips to see two different Santa Claus's, first at our ward Christmas party,

then at Thanksgiving Point,

and before we knew it, it was Christmas morning!


We are SO thankful for 2010 and all the blessings we received, especially our beautiful and long-awaited baby boy!