Family Picture

Below is our recent Family picture. The picture of Brad is from his 5 year pictures that we did in June, and the ones of Gabi and Sam are their 3 year and 6 month pictures! This is going to be my last family picture in my twenties!

Sam

Our Sam or as Gabi likes to call him (Sammie Whammer) is getting so big so fast! He is crawling around the house and not just crawling...he is zooming. In fact if crawling was a competitive sport, I am pretty sure he would have a gold medal. It is like all the sudden a force unknown to man is propelling my sweet, cute, adorable, yummy little guy forward at a pace not even a mother of one could keep up with...let alone a mother of 3!

Just today I found him in the bathroom twice, the hall once (scary), and he even scooted into the kitchen while I was doing stuff in there today.

He has discovered cords in outlets and has made best friends with them. He likes to tug on them and try to put them in his mouth. I promptly move him away and try to distract him, but ladies...you know what its like to have a man on a mission and they are not easily swayed. Sam is determined to hang out with those cords and no toy is going to satisfy that hunger!

It makes me remember all those trips to the park with Brad that involved me chasing after a little boy who couldn't decide what to play with next and constantly moving from one end of the park to the other. I daresay I am about to be one busy momma! I can only pray he crawls for a long time and doesn't decide to walk anytime soon. Although I just can't seem to stop smiling when I see him or hold him and think we are so incredibly blessed to have this little motor butt propelling around our home!

At the request of Lynnette I am posting some more pictures of my little guy. I sure wish you all could see him, because in person he will make you melt...you can't even begin to stop smiling when you see those cute cheeks, blue eyes and old man hair...I would bet anything on it!

I promise to update more about Brad and Gabi but it is late and I have to do some work, but please rest assured that the things that come out of their little mouths and minds is constantly keeping us in stitches. Seriously, I think my kids may be the funniest people I have ever met in my life!

Love to all!

Catching Up

Okay so it has been TOO LONG since I updated my blog. I have been reading other people's blogs and keeping up with all of you because I love and miss all of you very much, but I have not kept anyone updated on what is going on with us.

First, Gabi is 3! I mean how is this possible. There are too many things to love about Gabi to possibly list out here, but suffice it to say she is still sassy and sweet and we love her so very much. Last night we were saying things that make us happy and Gabi said, so sweetly, "I am happy when daddy is home!" I guess that tells you how much we see Brad! He is working hard for our family, during the week at his residency and then on Saturdays at another pediatric dental clinic so our kids are missing their time with daddy! It was so sweet.

Gabi has started preschool and the 1st week she liked it, but then she was over it. She cries and cries when I leave her and she actually almost ripped my hair from my head yesterday when I dropped her off. I am seriously considering not taking her next semester if this keeps up, because it is breaking my heart. She says/screams "I want to stay home with you and Sam!" Its not like I am doing anything...so she could be home with me, we just thought for socialization it would be good, but 2 days a week for 2 hours is proving difficult. She is happy when I pick her up so I will keep this under evaluation.

Gabi is also in gymnastics again and she likes it. It is a small class of kids and she has a hard time walking away from me, it takes a minute, but then when she is sure I am going to stay and watch she does better. I think it is really strange that my children have no problems leaving me to go with their dad or go play at Mrs. Welsh's but if I leave them anywhere, that is a completely different story. Gabi really struggles with this. I feel bad for her.

Brad is in a 5 day pre-k program at a really good program called Footsteps. He is doing so good and making alot of friends. His teacher seems pretty great and he comes home with tons of stories about his day! This is a first for me to have Brad so talkative about school. He tells me what they did and what they made and he will even get upset if he doesn't have any crafts or worksheet in his bag to show me. The school is very big on positive reinforcement and Brad is really thriving with all the positivity he is getting! I think he is such a pleaser, he loves to help me around the house or to hear that he is doing a good job. He does get upset if Gabi gets praise for something she does, and immediately will try and either do the same thing or do something different to try and get it equal praise.

Brad is really a good big brother. He and Gabi do fight, but if anyone else had the nerve to mess with her, he would be all over them. Even us...if she gets in trouble for something he just looks at us as if he is going to pounce on us at any moment.

Sam is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO stinking cute! I mean seriously, I can't believe he is 6 months old and in so many respects I wish you could have your 3rd kid first. I look back on the things that stressed me out with Brad and think how ridiculous I was. I stressed and worried and was tired about everything with Brad...and it wasn't Brad after all....IT WAS ME! Poor Brad...he will always be the trial and error kid I guess...but we do love him so, and I pray we do somethings right!

Sam is starting to get on all 4's and rock back and forth...I don't know how I feel about this. I don't know what 3 kids will be like once he can walk/run from me. Right now it has not been bad. It is more work, sure, but I don't know how to describe him other than just yummy and sweet and we are soaking up every minute of his yumminess! He has a smile that will literally just make your heart smile wide and big!

I have noticed more with Sam how for the most part, people love babies and can't stop smiling when they see them. When I take the kids to the store, normally Sam is in the bjorn and people just make over him, or will give me a smile and tell me how sweet my family is. Of course, there is the occasional 'you are crazy look' or 'your kids are too loud' look, but I normally just ignore those! He really is such a sweet baby and it makes me sad that our family doesn't get to experience our kids moments because I can tell you they are the funniest people I have ever met in my life hands down. Being their mother is pretty wonderful. Although as any mother knows, having children can feel like a contradiction, because while you love them to pieces there are moments/days when you can't seem to get away from crying/fighting/screaming/fits and the bliss of motherhood is harder to feel! As you can probably tell it is quite in my house right now so I can really relish in how happy my kids make me, the trick is trying to remember that when they are screaming! :-)

All in all we are doing well. We are liking our new townhouse and the area. It is getting colder and I do not look forward to the winter in the next couple of months, but nothing beats the Fall. I would live in the North forever just for the Falls if I could transplant our family up here with us.

So there is our update! Much love to you and your families!

Cute Huh?

This is Sam 99% of the time. He is 4 months already and so stinkin cute, who knew how much fun a 3rd baby would be!!!! :-)

We are moved, YEAH!!! Now we just have to get used to sleeping in a new place...funny how all our stuff is here, but it doesn't quite feel right just yet. Everyone is doing good, we are trying to find parks and stuff to do closer so the kids and I are busy with that!

My brother and sister in law came up to help us move and it was so much fun...they were loads of help and we had a great time. I plan on posting pictures and about our trip to NY soon.

I think my days as a poem composer are over, although we do get to move again in 22 months so I might get the creative juices flowing around that time again.

Moving

So we are in the process of moving, and I thought I would take the opportunity to write a poem about my thoughts, feelings and experiences with moving 1 hour down the road. I hope you enjoy it and get the full scope of how I feel about moving.

Moving
By: Katie Harris

It Sucks!

In the Family

This is Sam looking so stinking cute! He is a great baby and we love him so much. Brad and Gabi love him too and it is really fun to see them play with him. The love to make him laugh and smile and coo...and as a mom its so fun to see my kids get excited like I was excited when they did those things.

This is Betsy and I at Bounce U watching our kids bounce! I am going to be SO sad to move away from the Lees Family. They have been such wonderful friends to us and it makes me sad to know we won't be able to hang out with their family as much! We love the Lees!

Tonight when we got home, I was closing the blinds and when I came back upstairs, Little Brad had put on his daddy's scrubs and shoes and was running around pretending to be a Dentist! He thought it was so funny and then Gabi wanted to do it and after I took their picture, we put scrubs on Sam and got a picture of all 3!

I am one blessed wife and mother!

We are moving and Gabi and Brad are ALL about helping me out. I felt so bad for Gabi the other day because she was trying to help and I had just asked her to not pick up a certain box and when I walked back in she had picked it up and when she saw me she dropped it! It happened to be fragile and so I yelled, 'Gabi, I just asked you not to pick that up' to which my poor emotional roller coaster daughter started crying and said, "I just wanted to help mommy!" Now seriously, how can you stay mad at that...I felt so sorry for her.

So I am trying hard to let them help me...and for me to have more patience with them because they do really want to help out and they are just kids, but it is frustrating when I could do it so much faster without these little hands. I guess when they are teenagers I will long for the days when they wanted to help me do everything, so I am going to try and take it all in stride!

Child Abuse, Sam, & Swimming Lessons

So below you will see pictures of my poor son who looks like he has been beat up. The poor kid had a rough few days and his face and body have the marks to prove it. We started out with a goose egg just below his eye when Gabi punched him on the trampoline!!! That's right my sweet little Gabi hit him in the face. She admitted it without hesitation and I am not sure if that is because all the kids had already said she did it or if she did not think it was that big a deal. Either way I have no idea how she managed to give him a black eye, but she did. Then she bit him the following day because she wanted a toy he had and he told her she couldn't have it. that was on his stomach!!! Then I scratched him taking a piece of paper from him, in the nose, you can't see that mark, but its there right in the front part of his nose. My thumb got him. Then the last instance was also yesterday when he was pretending to be a horse with Gabi and he ran into the wall. He came to me crying and said the wall hit him...then I saw the big slice on his nose where he lost the skin! He has really been thru it the past few days. I told Brad at swim lessons everyone would think he had been beaten!!! His eye looks so bad now that it is bruising up...I think this may be his first black eye. I figured if one of my kids would give the other a black eye it would have been the other way around.

I just wanted to add a few pictures of Sam. He is smiling all the dang time!!! He is such a sweet little baby. He coos and makes noise all the time now like he is talking to us and laughs in his sleep. It is a cute little chuckle!

We started swimming lessons today and both the kids did great. I was a little worried, but I think there is safety in having your sibling there. Gabi was totally fine and walked right over with no hesitation and Brad did the same. It was fun to watch them. Gabi wanted to be by Brad and they both have friends in this class this year. Ben and Belle are twins and Brad and Gabi have been very fortunate to have made friends with them this year. They are great kids and we have had lots of fun with them so it is nice to have them in our swim class as well. Gabi is in a tiny weenie yellow polka dot bikini, but tomorrow we have to wear a whole piece because her shorts kept falling off of her!!!

I think they looked hilarious in these goggles at the house!