Suds, Suds, & More Suds

Tucker's on the prowl again. Monday at Bev's, she was upstairs getting milk for snack time. When she came downstairs, she heard the bathroom water running. She hollered, "Parker, out of the water," as Parker is the usual culprit - only to look over and see Parker being a good boy and sitting at the table with the other good kids. Not our son! As she entered the bathroom, she saw Tucker giving himself a mini bath. He was running his hands under the water, putting them in his hair, then pumping the soap once, rubbing that in his hair, and repeating the process over and over. He was on about his third round, from the way I understand it, before he got caught! Darn adults just have to spoil all the fun! He sure did smell good though, and bubbled-up nicely for bath time that night!

Christmas parade

It's that time of year again - the annual Christmas parade. Mom & Dad came over to watch Carrie parade through with the PSU Pride of the Plains Marching Band. They came to our house first to enjoy warm chili & coneys and then we bundled up like Ralphie and headed out. The kids love parades and love getting candy thrown from the floats even more. They raked in the goods (Reese's cups galore) and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. They are still all three quite unsure of Santa, however, as evident from the picture where they all look like they have just seen a ghost! The girls were so stunned that they couldn't muster up the guts to holler out what they want for Christmas, but Molly reassured me that she would tell him "next time" at the mall - yea right!! Tucker started shouting out at him two blocks past us, "Santa, cars! Santa, cars!" I'm pretty sure he heard him hollering!

Afterward, we returned home to hot chocolate, Shake's Custard Cake, and family fun in celebration of Dad's birthday on November 24. All-in-all, a very fun evening!

More parade pictures

Busy boy . . .

Well, Tucker has kept us hopping lately! He is so funny. I thought I should give everyone a small taste of what it is like around the Harrell household most of the time - CRAZY!

The newest development around here is the addition of an artist in the family. I had to work the day after Thanksgiving, so Tyler had the kids at home with him (Bev had the day off). Tyler needed to do ONLY about 10 minutes worth of work for the day and run a man's credit card - that was it. After 10 minutes, he realized that he hadn't heard a peep out of our two-year-old, so he got concerned! Then he listens closer, only to hear running water in the bathroom. As he rounds the corner, he witnessed quite a scene. Tucker was standing on the toilet lid, leaning over the sink to turn it off and on. He had climbed onto the sink to retrieve the jar of M&M's that we are using for potty training rewards, and had proceeded to dump them into the sink. Then he realized that if he would turn on the water and get them wet, that they would make a pretty little swirl pattern in the sink - how exciting! He was painting everything in the bathroom with sticky M&M paint - you can only imagine how proud Daddy was! We have quite the little Picasso on our hands!

Other new things that he has started to do is to correct the girls after we do. Do you know how funny it is to listen to a two-year-old tell a four-year-old to stop crying or go to timeout. Of course, we don't let this go on for long, but it is pretty funny. And don't be fooled, the girls do their share of "mothering" as well. Tucker was crying that he got the wrong color of cup the other night, and Molly reminded him that, "We get what we get, and we don't throw a fit!" He turned to look at her, clenched his fists, and very firmly and loudly expressed, "I not frow a fit, Molly!" Gotta love sibling rivalry - already.

Congrats are in order!!

Today, my bestest friend called me and informed me that she "finally", as she put it, gets to change her last name!! Lori Cooper is ENGAGED!! Craig proposed to her on Thanksgiving, and as I understand it - she said "YES!" Congratulations, Lori & Craig!!! Best wishes!

Clark has arrived . . .

Today we decided would be a great day to put our Christmas stuff outside - it was beautiful out! Tyler said he even felt a little guilty breaking a sweat when putting the reindeer in the front yard, seeing as how it is an unwritten rule that it is supposed to be 10 below when you put out your Christmas stuff, apparently. Anyway, 15 trips to the basement later, and 50 questions from the overly-excited kids later, the Care Bears, stable, and reindeer had found themselves in the front yard. Usually, Tyler gets to play the part of Clark W. Griswold. However, whenever Molly rounded the corner in her "get-up" today, I nearly lost it. I think she wins the prize this year for the most Clark-like stunt so far (or maybe more like Cousin Eddie)! Either way - it was definitely picture worthy! ENJOY!

Another of Molly's Costumes

Molly's really into dressing up these days. Tonight she dressed up as a "girl firefighter", because 'sometimes there's girl firefighters, aren't there, Mom?' Every since the firetruck visited preschool, they have all been very into fire safety. I was cooking bacon in the skillet the other night and the smoke alarm went off (I'm not really sure what this indicates about my cooking)! The kids came running downstairs, freaking out a little, and Rayleigh says, "Run for the red gate!" Apparently they have been coached at preschool to head to the red gate if they hear the smoke alarm, but I had to explain that we don't have a red gate! It was so funny. We then, of course, had to create a plan of action in case of fire. It's always nice when your four-year-olds remind you about all those safety things you haven't covered. Tomorrow they'll be informing me of a recall on carseats or something - what kind of a parent doesn't think about fire safety? We better get it together, or SRS is gonna be knocking!

Signs of a good weekend . . .

There's not much that explains what a great weekend the kids had other than the looks of this bedroom! I was exhausted Monday night, and as I got to the top of the stairs to start bathtime, this was what I was greeted with. My first instinct was to go totally "Type A" and frantically start picking things up and making everything tidy as usual. Then I took a step back . . . I literally started laughing outloud. The only thought that popped into my head was, "I better get a picture of this, because these are the times when all of the kids are gone that we will look back on - and actually miss!" So for all of you who always think my house looks "perfect" - eat your heart out! Every now and then, you just have to let your guard down, and this, well this qualified as one of those times! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as we did around here!

A visit from some furry friends . . .

Emma & Olivia brought over their new litter of puppies for us to see. The kids loved it. Molly took to holding one right away. She kept warning Tucker of how "sharp" thier toenails were and coaching him on how he should pet them. Rayleigh thought it was so neat that she could hold it like a baby, and Tucker now requests a "puppy" every time you ask him what he wants Santa to bring him. I sure hope he gets that out of his head before Christmas - what's wrong with a nice Tonka Truck or something?! I think he may have to settle for a fish tank - at least it's quieter & cheaper to feed! We'll see. At this point, however, we really enjoyed spending some time with our friends from across the street - and the puppies were just an added bonus!

I'm Gonna Be an AUNT!!

Kelsey & Nick are going to be proud 1st time parents in the middle of July!! Kelsey called tonight to tell us about her "Christmas List" - of which at the end of it contained . . . a crib, 0-6 month outfits, etc. Way too exciting! I'll wait a couple of days to publish this on the site so they have a chance to spread the news first, but I was so excited that I had to type about it tonight.

She is 5 weeks along, and went to the Dr. for the first time last Wednesday. She said that they only took FIVE at-home pregnancy tests before they finally believed what they saw - they're very excited to say the least! Her official due date is July 11, 2008.

The girls are already asking when aunt Kelsey's belly will be big and when the baby will be here. It was so cute tonight. When Rayleigh walked into the room with Molly (and didn't know I was listening), out of the clear blue, she whispers to Molly, "Isn't that so exciting that Aunt Kelsey is going to have a baby!" Absolutely precious - she loves being the Mommy of any baby that will allow, so I can only imagine when we have a real babydoll to play with!

I asked Rayleigh what she thought the baby would be, a boy or a girl. She looked at me very frankly and said quite confidently, "I think it's twins!" We'll see, I suppose.

Harrell's Party Cove

Today was our first official fishing trip at our new pond! And of course, Tyler caught the first fish! In fact, he caught the first three fish - all decent sized, too. The kids had a blast roaming around out there, and so did Buster! Molly had to pee first thing we pulled in, of course. When she finished, she informed me, "That's how country girls pee, Mom"! I was cracking up - who knows where she learned that one! Tyler started out weed eating the tall weeds and I followed him with the lawnmower. He hit some brush and it flipped up and bruised his thumb & cut it. About the same time, I flooded out the lawnmower and it died (in a cloud of smoke, I might add). On to fishing . . . I spent most of the day untangling lines, pulling bait out of moss, then cleaning the moss off, recasting . . . recasting . . . recasting . . . you get the picture. Three of them kept me hopping, but it was comical. Molly threw her Dora bobber off, into the middle of the pond, with her first cast. Rayleigh fell out of her lawn chair directly following her first cast (Grace), and as for Tucker - he spent most of his day guzzling as much orange pop as one two-year-old can consume in three hours! Pretty average fishing trip, I would say!

Picture 1: I am facing south . . .The large terrace on the left hand side of the pic follows the line of the creek, which is further to the left (east) where the larger trees are seen. There are six acres east of the terrace that we own that is perfect for hunting ground.

Picture 2: Facing south . . . This is what you see as you round the corner to head toward our land. Our house will sit at the end of this road. Our land starts at the end of this lane.

Picture 3: Our "Deer Creek Acres" sign at the entrance of the lane.

Picture 4: Looking south over the pond at the south end of our land.

Picture 5: The three kidos "fishing".

Picture 6: The "end" of the lane . . . looking south over the land from the far north end. The pond is located in the very rear of the picture. We will build about where the break in the cut grass (where it turns lighter) is seen in the pic.

Picture 7: From the front of the pond looking back north over the land (the end of the lane is to the rear of this picture).

Picture 8: From the end of the lane (the beginning of our land) looking back down our lane to the North. This is what we will see when we are standing on our front porch someday.

Picture 9: Our FIRST FISH!! Frame that one!

Random things kids do & say . . .

The other night, we were sitting at the dinner table. This is where most of our family conversation happens on a daily basis. Tyler was quizzing Tucker on who was a boy in our family and who were girls in our family. After that, he was explaining to Tucker that he is our "son". About that time, Rayleigh pipes in, "Then what are Me and Molly, Daddy?" Before Tyler could answer "our daughters", Molly chimed in with, "We are his ANGELS, Rayleigh!" How could you correct that? Priceless!

Also, the morning after the PSU Halloween, we were upstairs getting dressed. The girls were in their room getting dressed for Bev's, and we thought Tucker was playing in his room (what he is normally doing at this time). When I went to his room to dress him, though - no Tucker. I hollered for him once, figuring he was playing in the girls' room - no answer. So I hollered again. About that time, I hear a weak answer coming from downstairs. He never goes downstairs by himself, so I headed down to check out the scene. When I rounded the corner, what would I find but a two-year-old hiding behind the end of the couch, hovering over the bucket of candy that he had gotten the night before. He gave me that "I don't know how this candy got here" look - also priceless!

Halloween night!

Tonight was a very special Halloween for us. Both sets of grandparents got to come over and go trick-or-treating with us. This was the first year that we have gotten to do this, but we were pleasantly reminded as to why we moved closer to home. I feel like that will be something that the kids will look back on when they are older and appreciate much more than they realize right now.

Our whole family dressed up as the Wizard of Oz characters, starring:

Rayleigh as Dorothy

Molly as Glenda the Good Witch

Tucker as the Tin Man

Tyler as the Cowardly Lion

Robyn as the Scarecrow

It was so fun, and the kids thought that was so neat that Mom and Dad dressed up too. We went all around our block, then to the Drenick's (where Hailey hooked them up with extra special hand-made trick-or-treats), on to Grand Oaks, then finally finished up the night at Bev and Dave's (the daycare provider's house). The best house we visited was handing out full-sized candybars, goodie bags, and a 50 cent piece to the kids, and a mixed drink out to the adults with the kids! Tyler & I considered adopting a few other random kids that were walking around so we could visit that house again!

After we finished trick-or-treating, we came back home and all ate dinner together - taco soup and broccoli cheese soup. It was a really nice evening. Tyler & I really enjoyed having both of our parents able to be a part of our fun evening!