Just Catchin' Up (and some family pics)

Just wanted to post some more pics of our little growing family, and now that the holidays are over, I am finally getting around to doing it:) Mariah is growing into quite the gal out here in North Carolina! She LOVES her full-day kindergarten, although Ben and I still aren't used to having to wake up at 6 in order to get Mariah to the bus stop by 6:40 every morning. She is doing a great job with her reading, and she and I are almost finished with the first pictureless chapter book that we have enjoyed reading out loud together! It is Roald Dahl's THE BFG, and it was my favorite from my 4th grade year. She could do art all day long, she loves "running down the hill" (said HEEL) on the way home from the bus stop, she loves going to workout at the "zone" at the YMCA, she loves playing makeup and jumping on the trampoline with friends, she loves torturing (otherwise known as playing with) Mitt and being Heidi's big sis. She has tried tumbling, karate, dance, and chearleading since we have been in NC, but is currently LOVING the time to just hang out at home after her long day at school!

Mitt is a kid that I wish the world could know:) I can't help but smile if not laugh out loud when I think of him! He speaks in full long sentences, and we have adult conversations ALL DAY long. Kid won't stop talking unless he is in an unfamiliar place, ie Nursery or at the house of somebody he doesn't know, where he is VERY SURPRISINGLY quiet and shy. He won't go play with the kids or even talk to anyone but me! But if you know him, you can't help but love him. Every Sunday his nursery teachers tell me how much they love how chill he is, and that they (husband and wife team in the nursery) go home after church and talk about how much they love Mitt. At the YMCA daycare, which he loves and requests daily, the workers always tell me how smart he is and how impressed they are with his vocabulary and pronunciation of words. He always gets stickers as he leaves because he UNASKED cleans up all the toys he played with, all the while singing, "Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share!" He gives me hugs all day long and always tells me I look cute, or my shirt is cute, or my sweatpants are cute, or my hair is cute, you get the idea:) He always asks me for hugs, and he is SO SWEET with Heidi-licious, which is what he calls his little sis, along with Sweetie and Darling. Moo-why-a (Mariah) is his example in everything, for good or for bad, and he LOVES playing with her, doing makeup, legos, lincoln logs, or his personal obsession, Thomas the Tank Engine. I never knew one boy could have such a love of all-things-Thomas, but Mitt does. He goes to bed everynight with his "friends" on his bed (all his Thomas engines and friends), all aligned and ready to drive on his train tracks, all his Thomas books, which he basically has memorized, all while he is kept warm and comfy by his Thomas slippers, blanket, and pillow pet. Can you tell I am crazy about this charming little boy of mine?

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Heidi Miss is the SWEETEST little baby! She laughs all day long, smiles her jack-o-lantern smile (2 bottom teeth, 1 top middle, and 2 on each side of the upper middle) at everyone, and is just a pleasure to have as my daughter! She adores Mitt, and it is so fun having the 2 of them together all day long and watching their relationship develop and blossom as Heidi is more able to "communicate" and move around on her own. She loves her beautiful big sister Mariah too, and she loves when Mariah picks her up and carries her around. Heidi is just learning how to crawl, and I am still getting used to having to watch what I put down on the ground, because she CAN get to it! I love this little girl and can't wait to continue to get to know her and see who she becomes!

Ben is doing great:) He actually enjoys being a primary teacher in church to the 8 year olds, who I work with in activity days in my calling! Work is busy, but he was hoping for that! He is starting to get back into regular running and exercise; he did (part of) my bootcamp class I hosted for the two of us this past Saturday, and he will be the first to admit I kicked his butt, but after the week he had traveling with his friend Tom, he needed (and deserved) a major whooping:) Ben travels regularly, which leaves me home in NC with the 3 littles, so we always look forward to when Ben gets back. One day Ben was just upstairs and I asked Mitt where dad was to which Mitt replied, "I don't know, he's probably on vacation." That's how much Ben is gone:)

I am loving it here in beautiful warm North Carolina! It is so warm!!!! Did I mention it is warm? After coming home to UT for Christmas and running in the 3 degree weather (it was actually awesome and not cold right Katie?????!!!), it was like summertime coming back to 70 degrees! We have even already enjoyed Ben's Christmas present, an outdoor smokeless firepit, as we roasted marshmallows and ate smores outside in the middle of January, and Mitt was wearing nothing but a diaper! I ran in the Charlotte Marathon in November, and it was BY FAR the best marathon experience I have had to date. I didn't even use my ipod, and I actually beat Ben and the kids to the finish line! Today I started my first sewing class, and for Christmas Ben got me the Canon Rebel T3 camera, and I can't wait to start with photography classes, starting in February! I miss my family and friends being so far away, but I just wish somehow all of them could come move here with us! Max dog is still the best dog in the world, and of the 3 kids, Heidi is the one who seems most taken with Max. Though he hardly ever runs with me anymore (narrow roads and no sidewalks don't allow room for him to join me), and he has packed on a few pounds, I think he is generally happy with his new little spot in the world.

Lots of Pictures from North Carolina & travels

Okay it is working! Here are pics from Tweetsie Railroad for Mitt's 2nd birthday as well as his birthday cake (he is HUGE into Thomas the Train right now:) ); pics from Charleston, Savannah, Hilton Head Island (look closely at the one taken on a boat to see the dolphins swimming right next to us), Fort Sumter (the starting point of the Civil War), Mariah starting Kindergarten, etc. I will blog more details later. I realize there aren't many pictures of Heidi girl, it's just that she is almost always in the Bjorn Carrier strapped to me and thus isn't her picture-ready smiley self. Next week we are getting our family pictures so I will post some good ones of her then!

Trying again...

Greetings from NC!

Hello Friends and Family! We ARE still alive and well on the East Coast! Thanks for your concern about the Superstorm Sandy; thankfully, we live 3 hours inland and didn't feel any effects from the storm except a little wind. I have SO many things to update about, but I am going to start small. Here are a few pics of things we have been doing on this side of the country! And here are our first posted pics of Heidi, who is now (shockingly) already 6 and 1/2 months old:) Okay so blogger stopped working and these are the only 3 pics I could upload. I will try again tomorrow!

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.