My Baby Girl is 7!!

I cannot believe that my baby girl is now 7 years old. It was just yesterday I was in the hospital in labor, wasn’t it. What happened to the past 7 years?!!

We have a tradition of taking her out for breakfast on her birthday and she always chooses IHOP. So the kids and I got up early that morning and went to eat pancakes before heading off to school. After school she opened up her presents from Mommy and Daddy. We bought her a new lamp she has been asking for, a pink baseball bat, and a pink scooter. I think by far she loved the scooter the most. She has already been riding it all around the house and up and down our sidewalk.

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, we had her Candy Shop party. I made giant lollipops to create “Lollipop Lane” as the kids entered the house. The backyard was also decorated with giant lollipops. Inside the house was a candy table with M&Ms, sour balls, Pixie Sticks, suckers, and candy popcorn. It was candy heaven!!

 

Alanna and her cousin Lyric in front of the balloon wall. I took a picture of each girl as they arrived at the party. The pictures are so cute and something we will treasure forever!

 

Alanna and her friends had a great time playing Twister.

 

The candy shop table with the birthday cake.

 

Alanna’s friends were so funny as she opened the present. It was just like a bunch of women at a baby shower. You know how we all oooooo and ahhhhh over each and every baby gift. That is exactly what these girls did with each of her presents. It was great!!!

Definitley her mother’s daughter…… this girl loves to get gift cards and go shopping!!

 

Papa, Nana, and Sebastian were worn out. My parents came up early that morning to help get the party set up and I think I over worked them. Not really J

Here is the beautiful birthday girl with her precious friends.

The funniest moment is when Alanna was opening her presents from Nana and Papa and of all her presents, money, and gift cards, Nana asks her what her favorite thing she got was. Alanna says “My Justin Beiber Card!!” She is such a silly girl! But that silly girl is very loved. J

 

Christmas 2011…..

Sorry this blog post is so late. I realize I have not even put their Halloween pictures up, but I promise I will try to get a “look back at 2011” post up very soon. Maybe this weekend. Life at the Harris House has been extremely busy!! Last weekend, I never stopped going, it was one thing after another. Thankfully I did squeeze a date night in with my handsome fireman husband. J

So, let’s look back at Christmas. Things went by so quickly it is almost a blurr. Thank goodness for pictures. A mommy is so busy at Christmas that it is very important that you have those pictures so you can look back on your holiday and remember what happened.

The weekend after Thanksgiving the kids helped us decorate the tree. Every year they each get to pick out their own ornament at Hallmark. This year, Sebastian picked out a ‘Mater’ Disney Cars ornament. His birthday party this year was a Cars theme. Alanna picked out a Barbie ornament, which was perfect for her. Alanna has really gotten interested in Barbies and anything dress up. She is a girl in every way!!

 

Alan lifted them each up to put the star on top of the tree. This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas; decorating the tree is a wonderful family event.

In the advent calendar this year, Alan and I put slips of paper with fun family nights instead of candy every night. One night was looking at Christmas lights. Alanna and I had gone to the candy store earlier that day so we picked out a piece of candy for them each to eat while looking at Christmas lights. We went out to Deerfield in Plano and the Christmas lights were fantastic. Later that night, I decided that starting next year, we will have a stop at Starbucks before we look at lights so that mommy will have her coffee while enjoying the lights. Don’t you think that is a great new tradition!! 

 Our first party of the season was the Jones’ Christmas party. It is an annual party that we have with Alan’s grandfather’s side of the family. Alanna and Sebastian don’t know most of the family very well, just because we only see them once or twice a year. They had a really good time, though. They opened presents and Alanna even passed out some of the presents this year. Sebastian hammed it up and everyone just thought he was the cutest thing. He is such a performer when he wants to be.

 

The next party was the Harris/Jones/Lewis party held at our house this year. I love hosting parties and cooking dinners for people. I get that from my momma, I think.

Next stop, my home town: Paris, TX!! It was time for Christmas with my family. This is another of my favorite parts of the holiday. My family does Christmas BIG!! And I love it!! Momma (Nana) cooks a dinner, then we blow out the candles on the birthday cake for Jesus. Nana always lets the kids help decorate the cake too. Then we read the Christmas story out of Luke, Papa reads a Christmas story to his grandkids, we sing Christmas carols, then we open up our presents. No matter how old I get, I always get excited when Daddy gives me my card and present just from him. What can I say, I’ve always been a daddy’s girl and I always will be. Alanna is exactly the same J!!

On Christmas Eve, the four of us got dressed up and attended the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at church. I always love this, another one of my favorite parts of the season. What can I say? I really love Christmas time!!

That evening we had a nice little dinner at home and had our own family Christmas pajama party. We got our nativity scene out and acted out the Christmas story, then we opened our presents from each other. I got a new cast iron skillet, which I later used to make some awesome fried chicken. I also got a new Canon Rebel T3 camera!!! It takes the most awesome pictures!! The kids got too many things to list! The best present, I think, is what they bought each other. Alanna picked Sebastian out some trains and Sebastian bought Alanna a few new outfits for her Disney Princess dolls. I love that they want to buy each other things. 

On Christmas morning, I woke up when I heard the kids in the living room. Santa had apparently been to the house that night and left more toys. I still haven’t found places to put all these presents that the kids got. I need to take a trip to IKEA to get some organizing bins and tubs. Anyway, Santa brought Alanna a set of all the Disney fairies and a Barbie doll that you can actually color and wash her hair. She came with a working sink. Sebastian got a wooden train track and a new set of Hot Wheels cars.

    

After a breakfast of orange sweet rolls, I got busy cooking my sweet potato casserole and an apple pie. Both requests from Alan. We headed up to have Christmas dinner at the fire station, since fireman don’t get to have holidays off. They have to fight fires while the rest of us celebrate. When we got there, Alan was, of course, out fighting a fire. The kids were very excited to see him come back. Thankfully the tones did not go off during our dinner and we got to spend it with Alan. After we ate, Alan took the kids out to see the fire engine and the ambulance. You would think as many times as they have seen it, it wouldn’t be amazing to them anymore. But it still is!!! 

After a little while there, the firemen got another call for a house fire. So, off Alan went again. I’ve seen him bunk up and get on the engine before, but every time I see him drive away on that engine, my heart falls to my feet and I immediately begin praying. Even thinking of it now, my heart begins to hurt a little. I am so proud of what he does, though!!! I did get a good picture of him getting ready to fight the fire with my awesome new camera.

 

State Fair of Texas

One of our favorite fall family outings is the State Fair of Texas. As soon as school started the kids started asking when we were going to the fair. Alanna started talking about corn dogs and the dog show as soon as we started planning Sebastian’s birthday party. She associates his party with the Fair coming right after.

The first thing we did this year was something new. We went to the butterfly house where we saw lots of beautiful butterflies around and even found some catterpillars. Alanna got her face painted. They told us to come back laterer in the day when it was warmer and we would see more butterflies flying around.

 

Next we ventured out to find Big Tex. Sebastian kept saying he was scared of Big Tex. We followed his voice until we finally found him. We knew that the corn dog stand was close by!! The corn dogs are always our first food item to get along with a big cup of cold root beer.

The kids wanted to ride a few rides, so that was our next stop. WOW, the rides are expensive these days. Most of the rides were 6 – 8 tickets per person, which with both kids came to 16 tickets per ride. The tickets are $.50 a piece!! Mom and Dad gave the kids a limit on rides. J

The favorite ride was a race car ride. It went really fast around corners and you could hear Alanna and Sebastian laughing and giggling during the whole ride. It was wonderful to watch and worth every ticket we had to spend.

 

They rode a few more rides, then we got more food! The main reason Alan and I go to the fair is for the food. Isn’t that why you go? I wanted a Belgian waffle and Alanna wanted to try a caramel apple. We bought strawberry milk and sweet tea from the Borden’s spot and met Elsie the cow and her calf. Later we got more food. We ate a fried snicker and a funnel cake. We visited the petting zoo, the little farm, and watched the bird show. Last stop was the car buildings. We looked at all the cars and Alanna found her jeep that she wants.

Sebastian watering the plants at the little farm.

 

Alanna got a butterfly on her finger.

 

Alanna’s Baptism

 

 

This summer, on June 18^th, Alanna prayed and asked Jesus into her heart. It was a day of rejoicing in our family!! She is so precious and has talked about being a Christian every day since that day. She has also been very excited about being baptized and has asked at least once a week when she will be baptized. She first went to a four week class at our church called Young Christian’s Class. This was a wonderful class and they taught the kids things such as the importance of prayer and the reason we get baptized. They gave her a prayer journal that she fills out at night now.

 

On October 15, 2011 Alanna was baptized. Pastor Trent, the children’s pastor baptized her that evening. Our family was there along with some of our close friends. What a wonderful, wonderful day! We felt so loved having so many people there to celebrate with us in the joyous occasion.

 

Sebastian Turns 4

Sebastian’s birthday party was a HUGE hit!!  He and his friends had such a fun time.  The theme was CARS 2.  During the week before Sebastian, Alanna, and I painted cardboard boxes into Lightning McQueen.  I spent most of the day on Thursday creating the cake and then Friday putting the finishing touches on it.  It was worth every minute that I put into it.  Sebastian loved his party and he tells me that his favorite part was this cake.  🙂

 

The cake

  

 The kids played on the playground most of the time. Then they raced using the Lightning McQeen cars. And of course, then my sister and I had to give it a try as well.  Alanna beat us in that race.  I didn’t even know I could still run as fast as I did. After pizza and playing, Sebastian opened up his presents. 

 

 

His expressions after every present were priceless.  I hope he never loses that excitement over things.  He got so many toys and he spent the whole afternoon playing with them and didn’t even take a nap. 

 

Besty Ross and Romance 6:23

Alanna and Sebastian have just been full of funny sayings lately.  I’m trying my hardest to keep up with their diaries, but honestly I’m not doing as well as I would like.  I’m hoping keeping up with this blog will help me to update their diary.  It’s just so much easier to type it on the computer then to get out a pen and start writing, don’t you agree!? Writing with pen is just so ‘old school’.  🙂

Alanna has been reading a biography about Betsy Ross this past week and she has been telling me all about her.  However, to Alanna she is Besty Ross, not Betsy.  It is so funny to hear her say it.  Alan asks her everytime, “is she your ‘bestie’?”  She was amazing me with all the other big words she was using and reading.  She read Philadelphia as if it were the word cat.  

Did you know there was a book in the bible called Romance?  Well, there is!! Romance 6:23 For the wages of sin is death…… Alanna is memorizing it for her Young Christians Class this week.  And, according to Alanna, the gift of GOD is eternitidal life.  She makes me laugh. 

 

 

Summer is Over…… it’s back to reality

What a great summer!!  I’m sad to see it end, but excited for a new school year, too.  The month of June was filled with fun family vacations. Alan and I spend our anniversary in Jamaica.  Then we took the kids to the beach in Galveston.  We were there with my parents (Nana and Papa), my sister, and her family.  The kids had a blast playing on the beach with their cousin.

Sebastian’s favorite part was collecting rocks and seashells.  He wanted to keep all of them and take them home.  Alanna had fun doing everything.  She enjoyed building sandcastles, jumping over the waves and riding a boogie board.

In Galveston we took daddy out for Father’s Day to Landry’s Seafood.  One of his favorite kinds of food is seafood, but mom hates it.  She got to spend the evening with her grandkids coloring, watching movies, and eating pizza.  They felt like they were at a party.  It was great.  The next day we spent almost all day at the beach and everyone got a sunburn, even me!!  That evening we broke up, girls and boys.  The girls went to rainforest cafe and the boys went to Joe’s Crab Shack.  We met up afterwards for ice cream and souvenir shopping.

Alanna and me at Rainforest Cafe

Alanna and Nana dancing along the sea wall

Nana and Papa being silly

At the end of June we went to Beaver’s Bend.  The kids love it there.  The first time we went Sebastian was not even one yet.  Alanna still remembers every cabin we’ve stayed in.  We have a great time there wading in the river, fishing, playing dominoes, and roasting marshmallows.  It is a family tradition we will share every year.

On one of the trails at Beavers Bend

Swimming in the river YUMMY!!! S'mores

 

Jamaica, mon

This summer Alan and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary.  The years have flown by, but each year has been extremely blessed.  GOD has blessed us in so many ways!!  To celebrate our wonderful 10 years together we went back to the same resort that we went for our honeymoon in Negril, Jamaica.  We had such a great time, we were sad to come home, even though we did miss our kiddos. 

Our room was beach front, so every morning we could open the curtains and see the beautiful ocean. 

The moment we arrived at the airport we began to remember our first trip and how wonderful it was. It rained a lot of the time we were there, but we still had fun.  One day we went out on a boat for a snorkeling trip.

  We got out to the spot and had all jumped out and began snorkeling.  The fish were beautiful and the coral reef was amazing.  After about 15 minutes, the skies opened up.  The driver called us back to the boat.  We boarded and he headed back to shore.  It was my first time in a boat during a storm, and it was honestly very, very scary.  I couldn’t see land at all!!

 

The food in Jamaica is wonderful.  The fruits are always sweet and fresh.  We ate so much good food, especially fresh fish.  Almost every meal had fish, even breakfast some mornings. 

 

  Besides eating, we spent most of our time laying on the beach, swimming, and reading. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dressed up for dinner

 

A Jamaica Sunset

 

This is the spot we had breakfast most mornings.

 

The view from our room

We can’t wait to get back!!!!

 

She’s Growing Up……

My little princess is growing up way too fast.  This past May/June she has turned 6, graduated from kindergarten, had her first dance recital, and started reading chapter books.  Time is whizzing by right in front of me and I am powerless to stop it.

For Alanna’s 6th birthday she chose to have a teddy bear picnic birthday party.  We asked the guests to bring their favorite teddy bear to the picnic.  Each child got their very own picnic baskets filled with teddy bear shaped sandwiches and other teddy bear snacks.  For dessert, they were served lemonade cupcakes topped with a teddy bear under a picnic umbrella.

The girls and their teddy bears all sat on a picnic blanket underneath a picnic umbrella.  The party turned out very, very cute.

The kids having their picnicAlanna blowing out her candleFriends enjoying the cupcakes.

The first week of June, Alanna graduated Kindergarten from Hillside Academy.  I cried almost as much as I did the day she started kindergarten.  She has learned so much this year and has changed right before my eyes in so many ways.  I cannot express how proud I am of Alanna.  She is so smart and beautiful.

Alanna with 2 of her best friends, McKenzi and Elizabeth.

Alanna and her teacher, Ms. King

Hillside Academy Kindergarten Class 2010-2011

 Alanna had her first dance recital on June 11th.  She was the most beautiful little dancer there!!!  There was lots of family there to see Alanna dance.  Nana and Papa, Mamaw and Grandpa, Gran and Papaw, and Aunt Joy all came to the recital and brought flowers.  Alanna did a ballet dance to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and a Tap Dance routine to Rockin’ Robin.  I was one VERY proud momma!!

Of all these wonderful things that she has done this year, the most proud that Alan and I are of our beautiful little princess is that this summer she has accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and is now my sister in Christ.  Alanna is one of GOD’s princesses now!!!  She asks me almost everyday when she will be baptized.  It is so wonderful to see the excitement in her eyes.

 

Snow Days

I woke up this morning and could not believe how much snow we have on the ground.  The weather man was predicting about 1 inch of snow.  YEESH!!  We got more like 6 inches of snow and it is still snowing out there right now.  It was beautiful outside.  The snow was piled so high you couldn’t tell where the yards ended and the road began.  The trees were absolutely gorgeous with piles of snow on the branches.  It was like GOD took a paintbrush and painted the trees last night while we slept.  After breakfast this morning the kids and I bundled up to venture outside and play in the snow.  Alan was greatly missed at home today.  The snow was too powdery to build a snowman, so the kids threw snow at each other and made snow angels.  Just as well, because I am not really good at making snowmen.  Alan is the expert at that. 

Some friends came over from the street next to us and the kids all played together.  The two boys were wrestling in the snow.  Sebastian wanted one of them to follow him so he called the boy then said, “But don’t play fight me, OK.”  After making snow angels we went down to the hill across the street and pushed the kids down it in the sled.  They had a blast!!  It was so fun to hear them giggle.

Alanna had so much fun sledding I didn't think I was going to get her to go inside.

Sebastian had a serious look on his face everytime until he got to the bottom, then he would give us a HUGE grin!!

After a while, I finally talked them into going inside to warm up by bribing them with hot chocolate.  Alanna requested Nana’s hot chocolate, which I quickly agreed to.  So much better than the Swiss Miss powder mix!! We all warmed up sitting together by the fire and drank the whole pot of hot chocolate!! 

Yesterday, there was no snow only ice, but I let the kids play outside anyway.  They pretended to skate around our backyard, which actually did look like a frozen pond.  Every time the ice would break they would yell and pretend that they had to save each other.  My children both have the biggest imaginations ever.  I love to watch them play together.