I had to document this...

Before she starts walking, I had to put this one in the files: Ada's Famous Bum-scoot.

She does crawl, but only when she feels the need for speed. Jennabee got hold of the camera and recorded this unbeknownst to me:

Two Reasons to Party!

This New Year's Eve, we had another reason to party--Ada's first birthday! I've been looking forward to having her birthday/New Year's party all year long.

Some people ask if I'm bummed that I couldn't hold on to her for one more day in hopes of her being the New Year baby at the hospital. I can honestly answer "NO!" Being able to claim her as a 2007 tax deduction was a much more profitable gift than any prize the hospital would have given us.



The celebration began by eating carrot cake cupcakes with pink and white frosting (Jennabee insisted that Ada's cupcakes have pink on them), singing Happy Birthday, and opening presents. Then I put Ada to bed and the New Year's celebration began!

We played "limbo" and I found out I can go a lot lower than I thought, but not low enough to beat my sis-in-law Angela who amazed us all!


We also had jumping contests and Joe and his brother Jeff proved that white men CAN jump:


The night was also filled with lots and lots of Wii. It was so much fun watching Grandma cream everybody doing the ski jump on Wii Fit! She's got some serious balance. All of the kids (except Ada) stayed up til midnight. How an early bird like me gave birth to a bunch of night owls is beyond me!

Happy New Year everyone!

Short Hair and Blue Eyes???

My sister-in-law Aubree gave me a great haircut last week! It's shorter than I've had it in a long time. I'm deathly afraid of going any shorter than this for fear of a "fro" like the one that haunted me as a young teen.





In the picture you may notice that Ada's eyes look really blue. The other day I was feeding her some baby food and the sunlight streaming through the window made her eyes look a beautiful clear blue. But when I took a picture, the flash made the blue look kind of a muddy with brown specks in the middle, which makes me think they are going to turn brown after all. I was hoping we might end up with one beautiful blue eyed babe after five beautiful brown eyed kids. Joe has blue eyes and it would be fun for at least one of our kids to have his eyes. I'm not giving up hope, but the chances seem pretty slim.

No flash= clear blue eyes:

With flash=muddy blue eyes with brown flecks:

What do you all think?

Keeping My Head Above Water

Things have been pretty crazy around here.

Right now my boys are rocking out to ABBA's "Dancing Queen" on the karaoke machine, and Ada and Jennabee are napping, so I finally have a few minutes to write.

Here's the very quick run down of recent events:

Ada's first two teeth finally made their way out. I'm pretty sure she's been teething since she was three months old. Even though they have broken through, she's still waking up every one to two hours every night. That's worse than when she was a newborn. I think she's starving and it's time to break out the rice cereal. The doc says not to start until she's six months old, but I think 5 1/2 is close enough.

We're getting ready to move into our house but want to paint a few rooms first. Joe started painting our very first room after 11 years of rentals, and I LOVE the colors. I'm so relieved that it looks nice. You never know how the little color swatch will turn out on a big wall. One funny story about this is that when I brought the paint home and Joe looked at the little color dabs on top of the lids, he was convinced that it was going to look terrible. He decided to paint it anyway and a couple hours later he called me and said, "Where are you? You've got to get over here quick, this room looks GREAT!" I promise a picture when it's all done.

Joe's youngest brother graduated last Saturday and we successfully survived the ceremony with six kids in tow. It was during our dinner time, so Joe smuggled in fruit snacks and bagels with cream cheese and salami for the kids. The people in front of us couldn't help but turn around and look once they caught a whiff of the fragrant salami. It also helped that the ceremony was virtually speech free. Congratulations Jeff!

We finished homeschool for the school year--kind of. We still do "summer school" where the kids read, play math games on the computer, and practice penmanship. They love the easy schedule. My sister-in-law Jana, who also homeschools, sent me this great math games site where kids can race other kids anonymously online by doing math facts. My kids are addicted.

Sadly, on Monday I got a call from my dad telling me that my grandpa, who just turned 77, passed away that morning. He was a really great man and deserves a post of his own which I plan on writing soon. On Friday I'm going back to my roots in Southern California to attend his funeral. I'm glad that I'll get to spend some time with my grandma, dad, sisters, and other extended family while I'm there. It's been too long since I've seen them.

Blessing Day

Last Sunday, Ada was blessed at church. It was so nice to have my dad and stepmom come since they live in Southern California and we don't get to see them very often. My stepmom made the beautiful blessing dress that Ada is wearing in the picture. And of course Joe's parents, brother, and sister live in the same town we do, so they were able to be a part of her special day too. You would think she had been blessed with sleep because every night since then she has averaged 8 hours! It's been wonderful.

We stayed up late and played RISK with my dad. Joe tried to wipe my dad off the board with his legions of armies, but thanks to my dad's lucky rolling of the dice, he dwindled Joe's forces enough for me to take them both out on the next turn and I WON!

This picture was taken towards the beginning of the game, when we were all still being nice to each other.

One Month Milestone

I....have been.....a zombie. But this morning I have a breath of new life. A breath of new hope. Last night, the night that marked her birth exactly one month ago, Ada slept for five hours, from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. This is HUGE for her! We started out with her waking every two hours and after I nursed her, she would not go back to sleep. It was not fun. Then she graduated to waking every three hours and went right back to sleep after her feedings. That was better, but I.... was still...... a zombie. Let me tell you, five hours makes a DRAMATIC difference. I feel like a new woman this morning. Thank you Ada!

Special Delivery

She finally arrived! Ada Elizabeth Harris was born at 1:42 am on New Year's Eve morning, 9 days early. Sticking with our tradition of using family names, we named her Ada after my great great grandma on my dad's side, and Elizabeth after my great great grandma on my mom's side, both very neat women.

She weighed in at 8 lb 2 oz, my heaviest baby thus far, and is 19 1/2 inches long. Notice her chubby cheeeks and double chin.

The two sisters have had a chance to get acquainted. When somebody else is holding Ada, Jennabee says, "Hey, that's MY baby!"

I'm so happy to have her in our family. I wonder everytime I give birth if I can really love a new baby as much as I love the children I already have. As soon as they put the baby in my arms and I hear that first tiny cry, there is no doubt; my heart just swells with love for my new child. Welcome to our family Ada, we all love you!