Austin's baby pics.... 6 wks old

Molly's blessing

We made a quick trip up to see the fam and be at Molly's blessing over the weekend. The blessing really sweet. Rach and Ty are doing such a fantastic job at welcoming parenthood. It is so fun to see these two babies together. The little girl bump that Nichole is growing will soon join up in the baby fun! It's pretty amazing to watch your family grow.

Update on the boys

LOGAN:

Big brother has been busy! Logan is well into 5 yrs. old now and loves his independence. He is very helpful with Austin (when he wants to be) and can get him too coo and laugh away. I am amazed at the connection the two have already established. Logan really values his friendships and loves playing with Reese, Brynn, Taylor A, Kai, Talmage, and Jaxon. He misses friends from winchester but is meeting new kids in the ward and new school! Logs is an official kindergartner at George Washington Academy. He is in school from 8:15 until 2:45, 5 days a week! No bus system means a really, really long pick-up line, but mom and dad love that we get to drop him off in the morning. Okay, we love seeing his excitement but dread the early wake-up schedule! Ugh. Logan adores Mrs. Jones almost as much as having cold lunch and 3 recesses. He has reading and math homework every day. The uniform requirement keeps Logan from wearing his eccentric ensembles out of the house, thank heaven! His maturity and love for responsibility have surprised me. Don't worry though, the whining and sassiness occasionally scream out, reminding me that we have got to keep up on the sleep and attitude adjustments :-0 But so far so good on the full day kinder concept. I hope he stays as enthused about learning the following months as he has this first 2 weeks.


Soccer starts this week, but Logan is looking most forward to our month for the boat. He really gets a kick out of wake boarding and knee boarding. He also still has this crazy love for dancing and listening to music! It's a phase that doesn't seem to be phasing out. He spends a lot of time with his ear phones in and discovering new music and new moves. He tells EVERYONE that he is going to be on America's Got Talent and that he'll get through to Hollwood. Dream big bud, there is no harm in it whatsoever.  Speaking of an imagination, Logan has a spy club complete with a master, secret missions, weapons, and most importantly, magical powers. And on rare occasions, he shares the secret missions with us in order to provide an explanation for the ropes down the banister and fireworks in the bathtubs.


Austin:

He eats when he wants, sleeps as long as you agree to hold him for, and spits up on nearly everything and everyone that comes near him! He loves his binkie and his dad's voice. Aussie is a mover and groover, never holding still. When you talk to him his arms and legs go crazy! He's my little bobble-head toy. He takes prevacid in the morning and Zantac at night for reflux, and is doing better on medicine. Aussie needs to be vertical all the time. And he's quite the climber- during a common stomach attack moment, he can climb clear up my chest and out of my hands. I started noticing that his gags and coughs and grunts were more than noise at about 5 weeks. His fussiness has always been around eating rather than a time of day. I'm so glad that we have medicine to help the little ones that have a hard time handling their food! He starts to pull off and cry to tell me to wait a while before trying to feed again, so I feel like he is a pretty easy read, unlike Logan was. He fusses and rips a lot of gas, but doesn't scream incessantly like poor Logan did! He snacks all day eats good at night and in the early morning. Speaking of night, he does well. Bed at 10:30ish, feeding at 4:30ish, and awake at 7:30. He has taught me how unimportant a regimented schedule is for us, and how much better we do to just go with the flow and stay in tune with what's going on with his little tummy. Aussie started to smile on cue at 6 weeks, and at 8 weeks started sharing his sweet ooohs, aahs, oows, and ooahs. SO FUN! I am really trying to soak up this time I have with him during the day. I have high hopes to conquer the sleepiness and get to the gym with him in the mornings! Mommy needs some muscle so that I can pack this guy around all day!

A few more pics from Mikey

Thanks to Mike coming down from school for a weekend and bringing some of his gear, we were able to monkey around with some construction paper and get a few shots of the fam. Mike uses film and a very old, very vintage camera to take his pics.

Austin- First 4 weeks of Life

Some say I resemble a little old man :)

I was so quiet when I arrived! I was just tricking my mom for a minute~

Those beautiful blue eyes finally opened today!

Now that's a proud grandpa Curtis

I get a lot of gas, and it makes me smile.

Our (Rachel's) beautiful angel, baby Molly!

Oh, the first month has gone by so fast little Austin! You surprised us right away with some awesome sleeping from 12-6ish every night! And your fussing at night is not too intense (especially compared to your older brother at that age), and very short-lived. After spending the first two weeks with grandma F, grandma H, and then grandpa H, we took a week to enjoy you all to ourselves before heading up to Utah County to meet baby Molly. You were great while we were there, and met the Phillips, great-grandma Joann, grandpa F, Jesse's family, and Nichole's family for the first time. I also got to show you off to sweet Tanya from the KL while we met together for too short of time. She brought baby Tiger and we enjoyed our yearly chat. You have spent your first month completely melting our hearts Aussie! Even Max is adoring you. The joy and gratitude that you've brought to my heart is unspeakable. The spirit in our home has been so strong since your arrival. You are so well taken care of by your daddy and big brother. They both get an absolute kick out of you and your gas smiles! You love being out in the smoldering evening heat by the pool. You are the noisiest little guy i've ever heard- grunting and pushing and hiccuping all through the day and night! You burp loud, and you poop loud. The nurses at the hospital called you the "singing baby" because you sighed with every breathe for your first 48 hours!

I have spent the first 4 weeks adapting to the new sleep schedule and gaining confidence in my abilities as the mommy of a fresh little baby- it seems as though I have forgotten everything! I thank the Lord every day for you and your healthy arrival into our lives. And almost every day, I get to proudly show you off to company or passer-bys at the store. I love dressing you, giving you baths, cleaning up your spit-up, and bouncing you around the house. Thank you Aussie for blessing my life! 

All about our little Austin

Boy oh boy, do I have a long list of entries to catch up on! I have a lot of typing and picture pasting to do before I can send my blog to print for my family albums. But lets start with the most exciting news, and then i'll spend the rest of the summer days working backwards! The best news ever is that the big basketball pictured here is now in our arms and sooo much more fun out of the belly!

Austin Douglas Harker greeted us at 8:02 p.m. on Thursday, July 1st. Yes folks, our baby was born on Canada Day! I had been welcoming contractions, good ones, for weeks. I was walking many steep hills, jumping a bit on the tramp, and bouncing on the boat and surfboard that 38th week to see if I could get the ball rolling faster. My body was playing tricks on me every day. I had been a 4 and fully effaced since week 37. By early Wednesday morning, I was sure that the contractions were now real labor. But the hospital sent us home  because I wasn't progressing. I contracted and labored throughout that entire day. I went back in the next morning and was now a 5, but still stuck in prodomal labor (snail-paced labor). I went in again that afternoon and was miraculously going into active labor. So my doc, being that he was leaving town, broke my water. Four hours later, little Austin soared right out. Good thing daddy had gone to McDonalds for lunch or he would have missed the whole thing- it happened so quickly at the end! The labor was quite painless :-) Little boy was not making any noise when he arrived, so the nurses had to briefly get him going. Then he was back in my arms, melting my heart and nursing for the next 4 hours- no joke! He is continuing in that pattern of wanting to nurse all the time.


Oh boy. The most precious, beautiful moments in my life have been the first time I held and kissed my two little boys. Austin's birth was everything i've been looking forward to for several years. I feel so amazed and grateful that we finally got our little baby after so much waiting and dreaming and hoping! He weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz, 19 1/2 in tall, and is perfectly healthy.

             ............Our lives have been completely changed forever now that we have our new little angel to add to the family. We are all so in awe over him and really dig the idea of having a new member of the family. We no longer get bored in the evenings. Instead, the boys really have to pitch in to keep Austin happy and me sane! I had totally, completely forgotten how much work a new babe is! But being busy has been a great change. Logan is a beamingly proud big brother. He may have had his grass mowed a bit at the beginning, but both grandma Tammy and Val made absolute sure to let him know how special he still is. Logan was completely indulged by his grandmas- no, spoiled is the operative word there. He had to face a harsh reality the day that each of them left!

 Grandma Tammy came the night Austin was born, and left 1 week later so that she could go home to dad for a few days before heading to Rachel's for Molly's birth! Baby Molly ended up coming 2 weeks after Austin. What a beautiful girl she is! Having my mom come to stay for a week is almost reason enough to have a baby for my sisters and I. She gets into worker bee mode, and nothing stops her from running around at full speed. We ate soo well, and she took care of everything and everyone.  Here's a pic of Logan not letting grandma lay out!

After she left, Logan ran upstairs and packed a suitcase because he was moving to Rexburg. Grandma Val flew down to stay a few days after mom left! We were soooo glad to have her. Logan decided very quickly that he didn't need to move after all.  He went with grandma Val on several great expeditions around town. And as always, grandma spent a lot of time with Logan playing games and reading stories. We love our parents so very much. Grandpa Orin also flew down the next week for 2 days to spend time with us and meet Austin.

For the flower enthusiasts out there

I know that I am only speaking to a very, very small amount of friends when I discuss new planting ideas. I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to flora and fauna. But I wanted to share a few things that pertain to all mountain west zoners.

• First, i've decided that a zonal geranium gives you much more color and blooms than that of a martha stewart. So why would you bother planting an ms geranium? You get the variegated leaves that don't yellow, and you get color two-tone color options that zonals can't offer. And, they don't get as leggy if you winter them over. These pots above are zonal. Good color, kind of boring by themselves.

• Next, succulents are SOOO easy to grow! Succulents include all sedums, which make fantastic ground covers. A succulent will have a  fleshy, waxy leaf that stores water like a cactus. In these two pots, i've mixed some standard sedums like stonecrop and dragon's blood with a few ornamental succulents like moon rocks and hens/chicks. They only need watered once in a blue moon, and you can enjoy them inside all winter once it freezes outside, so plant them in a cute pot! If planting in the ground, don't link them to a water source or they will rot. Also, any sedum will winter over well in the ground, just not outside in a container. The soil will get too cold. Put them in a place around your house where you can't grow anything else. They can do full shade through full sun. The only thing that will change with exposure is their color. 

• One new plant i've discovered this spring is the colored calalillies that have the white spots on the leaves. They thrive outside as an annual/perrenial and bloom well into the summer. I put this one with lobelia, which croaks fast down here unless it spends a lot of time in the shade. 

• Firesticks euphorbia is a fun succulent to grow. It keeps its orange as long as the nights are cool. 

• This pot of million bells will be hardy all summer long. I have an absolute favorite superbell called 'tangerine punch'. It's not as yellow as the terra cotta in this picture. I love it! But I couldn't find it anywhere.

• Next up on my to-do list is to plant (in-ground) a combo of elephant ears. These two varieties are called 'black magic' and 'lime zinger'. Love 'em because you can grow them anywhere, even in Idaho! You just burlap the bulbs in winter. 

•  Speaking of wrapping bulbs, thats exactly what you can do in order to get your canna lillies back every year. My favorite (below) is the tropicanna. Cannas are different than calla lillies. They grow thick and their bulbs split every year. Love, love, love them.
  

• Lastly, I have never dared to do a planter in a completely shaded area. Well, at this house, almost the whole courtyard is completely shaded. And there was already a planter hanging on the stucco. So, it got filled. Here's what I tried: I layered vinca vine, bacopa, and purple heart on the bottom. On top of that, I planted all of the begonias and new zealand impatients sideways, so that they would show forward and grow out instead of up. Lastly, I threw some violas and coleus plants on top. The second that I can find a black-leafed coleus, it will go in the back for height. So when planting in shade, no fear in using begonias, coleus, and vines- EVEN if the tag says part sun. Any tender trailing flower like BACOPA, VERBENA, SUPERBENA, ALLYSUM,  or LOBELIA, would do just fine in all shade. Yes, I am calling the 'Proven Winners' brand people LIARS:-) Happy planting!!!!