Harker Canada Christmas '11

Why do they love to jump on my tummy?!

We spent our Christmas in Idaho with the entire family, and then as is customary, busted it up to Canada as fast as we could on boxing day. We were able to stop in Lethbridge to see Grandma Harker in the hospital, and then head over to Carmen's house for a yummy dinner with the Brewertons. Other than that, we drove fast, the roads were bare,  and Logan got good at 10 second side-of-the-road stops. Seriously. That boy has a bladder the size of a penny. I love him anyway. I look so forward to our time in both Idaho and Calgary every Christmas. I can't fathom not doing this every year for the rest of our lives. It's a lot of work, but 1000% worth all of the hustle and bustle. Living so far from family, I have grown accustomed to counting greatly on friendships to fill the voids of being away from everyday family life. I am so grateful for friends that are good, strong people. After coming home from the holidays and missing family sorely for several weeks after the new year, my appreciation for my friends has deepened. I realize more than ever, how truly precious time with family is. Christmas is undoubtedly our family's favorite time of the year, and I hope that we will always be so lucky to be able to travel to see both families every Christmas.

Mikey, Chris, Brad. Where's Ben?

Charades with zeal

Grandma Harker in the hospital with Braddo

Love my baby cesalen!!

Ben with baby Cesa

Love my Chris

Can you say "all partied out"?!!

I needed a pink fix!

Popsicles, snow, and lighting off rockets. Perfect!

Aussie LOVES wearing grandma's shoes

Here are the highlights from the holiday that I hope to never forget:

Cadrien couldn't quite make it through the 1:00 am Family Home Evening!

Thanks for the help dude!

Only Caroline can rock this.

Who invited the russians?

Cam and Logan can't hold still long enough for a focused picture.

Magic trick numero uno

Magic trick numero dos of quatro!

And he wasn't even trying to get money out of grandma!

Oh, if you could only here his voice as he proudly read this entire book without making one bit of sense!

Go Cam!

My favorite girl

A humungous woody fan

• Spending time with Val and Orin, two of my favorite people on the planet. Being in their home always feels very magical at Christmas. In fact, I think it is. There is a special potion in the air that makes you want to sleep, and sleep, and sleep!
• Watching Orin entertain the boys with his creative activities. Props to Grandpa this year for being a fantastic entertainer and referee at the same time! He took Cam and Logan on lots of rides on their little four-wheelers. He took them out to lunch. He had a new magic trick for them every day. He gave them Lego City cars and planes that they all built together. 
• Meeting baby Cesalen for the first time. What a precious little girl, I miss her. 
• Watching Brad build and launch 4 rockets, none of which ever came back down. Bummer!
• Also watching Brad live in the basement and in front of a scanner while he dug up, organized, and scanned in every picture that Val took between the years 1979-2000. The numbers were in the thousands. And now Val can free up about 1,00 sq. feet in her home :-)
• Spending a lot of time playing catch-up with my long-lost Caroline, Ben, Cadrien, and Camden after not seeing them for an entire YEAR! That can never happen again.
• Kickin' it with Chris and Mike while hearing about their Vancouver and Edmonton journeys. The boys ditched us for 2 days to attend Nathan's wedding in San Fransisco.
• Watching the guys work on the ice rink that never, ever froze. Darn it! Orin worked so tirelessly, but there is no beating those Chinook winds. The weather felt like October. 
• Watching the new Chipmunk movie with Caroline all the kids, while the other adults watched a real movie in the Imax.
• Opening presents! Let's be honest, it's kind of fun to feel like a surprised kid at Christmas. I love watching the kids' reactions to their gifts. I got a very special gift from Val- a marble statue of Christ that is now in our home, reminding me every day that the rest of the year can still feel a little like Christmas. Austin's favorite gift was his Woody pajamas! Logan was just over-gifted just like at mom's house. I hope that the grandparents will stop spoiling the kids sometime soon.

Family Pics from the Fall

Here are a few family pictures that we got taken back in November. As soon as we arrived, I remembered why I had procrastinated getting a family picture taken. I suppose it's all laughable now, but everyone was so grouchy that morning! I am stunned and amazed that we got any pictures worth printing. I think that I scarred all three boys for life in the picture department. My favorite moment was after we had reassembled a bench from our house and got the boys all posed. The camera was on a nearby rock, Brad was trying not to just run away and forget the whole thing, and I was shoving chocolate down the boys' mouths. Cue the SPRINKLERS. Ugh. Change outfits, fluff hair, continue.

recent random pics

my cutie bug

What a beautiful day

Sunday is magical day. Don't let me create a false memory here- there is plenty of arguing over toys not shared along with whiny complaints about boredom. But the air smells better, the birds sing louder, and the sun is brighter on Sundays. Brad gets to be ours for the entire day on Sundays, and the boys hang all over him, making sure that they exhaust him before the work week starts again. And best of all, I get to spend 2 hours on sunday with my sweet, sweet primary kids. I love them all so much, and I can't wait to see their smiles every week. Today, my sunday was needed. I just sent Logan off to church with another family, and then watched a very SICK, yet persistent Austin beg and plead in his baby babble words to go "out, out, out, ouuuuuut."Once the shoes were on his fat little feet, he started waddling out the door and up the hill that leads up and then down to the house. After hiking to the tippy top, he plopped himself down on the concrete and gazed up curiously at the birds. He then squealed with excitement over a ground squirrel and ant piles.  I love seeing my children adoring creatures as much as I do. I have really, really grown to love animals. Except the ones that i'm allergic to. (Speaking of loving animals, we have 2 california condoors hanging out here. We also have about 2 gillion birds gracing us with their presence as they make their way toward a more southern exposure. Also, we seem to have a cat who has lived in the backyard on mice for over 4 months. He is u.g.l.y. Last, we saw the cutest racoon on the road yesterday. Dead, but still cute. I'm sure the condoors will appreciate him.) ANYWAY..... 30 minutes later, he was pale and weak, ready for more sleep. I was relieved to get back in the house and ditch the sweats for some cooler clothes. Just when you think it's going to start acting like fall here, the sun keeps singing it's long, hot song. Now i'm laying here imagining how my piano number would have gone if i had shown up to church for it..... ce sera sera, right? My fingers have been misbehaving this weekend anyway. Every time I try to play, they fall over each other like they are drunk. I think i'm just nervous to play in front of anyone. I guess having a sick baby and sleepless nights isn't all bad if it keeps me from some mild embarrassment;)

Brad has been out of town since Thursday. No business this time, just pleasure. To be specific, the pleasure of scoping the mountains in Mcall with Dad and the boys for that perfect deer, and then the perfect elk. Odd, the thought of Brad liking to hunt so much. I wonder how I ever thought that my husband would resist a hobby that is so tightly woven into my genetics.

 The only single thing good about the 8 day predicament is that once the kids are asleep, I can do whatever I want. The piano plays loud. Audrey Hepburn movies come out. I even watched me some Jane Eyre last night. But the cons definitely outweigh the pros. Logan is as stubborn as a bull when dad isn't around. He runs around doing project after project. Yesterday is the perfect example. He helped me with grocery shopping. Then he had to make a recipe with the new goods. Then on to building a fort with the grocery boxes. Next was rearranging all the pumpkins to fit around the fort. After that was a science experiment. Later, after getting home from a soccer game, birthday party, and a snow cone, he wanted to go rent a redbox and go to the park to play baseball. And I did it because I am a pushover with him. Iyiyi. Not only is he exhausting, but that creative little kid can hardly bear his momma telling him what to do. He is his father's son, after all. Trying to help him with the piano is like trying to boss around a bumble bee- its just not going to happen without someone getting stung. So I let him learn on his own, and he does astoundingly well. I've wondered this week what it might be like when he's a teenager. Then my head spins and I move on with my day. I love my boys and all the struggles that come with parenthood. I'm learning a lot about God's love through my experiences with them. I can't imagine who I would be without the direction that they give to me every day.

Today is a good day to start.

I have far too many things happening in my life, too many memories being made, too many lessons being learned to not be keeping up my journal. My boys are growing and changing before my eyes, and life has flooded me with new experiences and insights. Brad's projects continue. And I would like to remember it all. So as is customary to any of my journals, I will follow this apology to self with a renewed commitment to get my rear in gear! My biggest beef with writing down my thoughts is knowing that they will be shared. I want to write for me, not for other people to read it. The accessibility of a blog stops me every time. I need to finally gather email addresses so that I can go private.
In recent news.... We went to Disneyland for fall break! Harwoods and Bergesons came along with us. What a combo, what a trip. The drive down on Wednesday and home on Sunday were as entertaining as every other year has been. The kids waffled between hilarious and horrible. Lily made it clear that she doesn't like babies sitting near her. Austin peed all over me and learned how to screech at the top of his iddie biddie lungs in order to receive giggles from the kids. Logan and Reese were rockstars until a brown crayon was broken and princess movies were voted on. Justin has a bladder the size of a nickel, and like every other trip, relies on his navigation like its his life-force. Steph gets punch drunk and is totally pleasant to travel with. Brayden and Lauren are hyper-focused, motivated drivers. "Serie", our new little apple girl, kept Brad as entertained as a kid in a candy shop. I get easily distracted when I see a mall, and then suddenly "need" a potty break. And tramadol turns me into a chatty Kathy, which is so unlike me:)

We maximized day 1 with a thorough run-through of the entire Disneyland park. Honestly, I can't say that I was a fan of space mountain or the haunted mansion. But the tea cups and Small World rocked me and Austin's world.  The little kids were brave and proudly taller than 2 years ago. Splash mountain was the group favorite. Love. It. We were EXHAUSTED by the end of the night! We started day 2 in California Adventures with zeal, and ended it at Bucca Di Peppo with 5 out of 6 kids sound asleep in various empty booths like wrapped up like little dolls in their dollhouse. Yes, it was Logan that was still buzzing. We had so much fun that day! Lots of Tower of Terror, lots of California Screamer, and a super soak on the Grizz. Aussie slept in his stroller and ran through the park against traffic, tilting his head and jabbering to every stranger he saw. Day 3- all the guys pulled out their rockstars for caffeine, the girls took a lot of motrin, we bought Aussie some shoes that would help the blisters from walking, and off to the beach we went. We showed up to Newport, saw the wave break, and quickly drove on to the State Park beach. Perfect. Huge waves. Lots of sand. The kids had a slice, and so did we. Pics will be inserted tomorrow. Braddo left the memory card at work, darnit. Any regrets? YES. Just one big, fat humungous one. Two words: Primm rollercoaster. Seriously people? Never, NEVER, have I felt that destroyed and injured by a machine. Law suit and migraine were the only things that came to our minds as we walked back to the car with our heads hung low, wondering why stupidity had briefly won over consequential thinking. No fatalities, and we learned our lesson. Here are a few pics from my phone until I download the good stuff.

Today

1. I was told by 2 women at random that life will get really complicated when I raise my boys just to have some girl come and steal them from me. Awesome ladies. Thanks for the pearl. 
2. Past conference talks are like left-over spaghetti. They just get better the more you listen to them. 
3. I still can't make a good coconut Korma curry. 3 hours later, I had enough to feed an army, a nasty smelling house, and a super messy kitchen. And it didn't taste very good to any of us. 
4. Austin can give puckered, legit kisses! And super fish sounds. So sweet. 
5. Brad thinks he might be ADD. News flash? I think not. 
6. I just told a member of the bishopric that I play the organ and can help him out of a pickle. I felt bad for him after all the rejections, what's a girl to do? Oh yeah. Be realistic. Not my forte. In this rare case, faking it until you make it may not pan out. foot. in. mouth. 

Laura Story - Blessings

Happy Mothers Day

I am feeling very grateful for motherhood today. I love being a mother to Logan and Austin more than anything else i've ever done or will do. (Being a wife can be great too, but today isn't wives day!) I love and admire and depend on my mother and mother-in-law and grandmother very much. I love watching the mothering example of all my friends and sisters as I learn the tricky trade. One mother who is special to me down here is a sweet Brazilian woman named Dalva. Every time that I seek her counsel and advice, she says, "My momma always say ......." I would just love to meet this woman who has said something about EVERYTHING! I hope that my mothers also know that I remember what they tell me and what they teach me too, and that I plan on passing it along. Motherhood, in any capacity, is the most gratifying calling to ever exist. (Again, being a spouse is that too, but not today ;)).

Mom is to be celebrated. She is the strongest, toughest, most selfless woman that I know. She is beautiful on the inside and out. She is the most phenomenal grandmother to our children. She taught me how to work hard. She taught me how to cook and keep house. She taught me about priorities as a mother. She taught me, through example, to serve your children without thinking of yourself. She taught me to desire motherhood. She taught me to love my music. She attended every recital, put us in every lesson, and earned every extra penny necessary to support our hobbies. She teaches me that you always move onward and forward. She and Nichole teach me and Rachel and Jesse how to care for our children's health. She is logical, organized, and efficient. Being around her feels like home. Who doesn't need someone like that in their lives?

Val is another woman to be celebrated today. She and mother may be polar opposites on most fronts, but they both have the amazing gift to love and serve their children. Val is the most creative, party-ready, service-oriented woman. She gives, and gives, and serves, and serves all the day long. She observes everything around her. She is sensitive and thoughtful. Everyone is her friend. She loves talking to anyone and everyone. She teaches me perspective. She is the matter-of-fact just when you need it. She teaches me to have patience. Being with Val brings a smile to my face.

 I love that my Austin has been so gracious this Mothers day as to not throw up on me. He is a very sick boy, but he's keeping it clean today:) He even cuddled and slept in my arms all night in peace. I love that my Logan painted my nails, brushed my hair, soaked and rubbed and cleaned my feet, and painted my toes. I love that he made a little book and colored a picture for me. He even set out my church clothes for me, suggesting that maybe I start wearing heels again. I love seeing how much happiness he gets from serving. I love that Brad is being patient with the kids, even though he feels really yucky.