Gymnatics

Shelby decided that this fall she wanted to do gymnastics. After making sure that is what she really wanted we drove out and registered. Of course, I was so excited and immediately had to remind myself not to live my life through my children (you know those parents who do that and they are so annoying) because I loved gymnastics when I was growing up. I took it for about 6 years and always dreamed of being in the Olympics, but when I realized how hard those athletes had to work for that I quit and gave a try at swimming and after a few years of swimming they started wanting us to get up early to practice before school started even in the winter!!! There is no way I was getting in a pool in the winter, especially in the morning before school, so I quit and then once I got to high school I enjoyed playing several different sports; but enough about me....back to Shelby.

Anyway, I wasn't able to be here to get her ready for her first day so I left that up to Pratt. Evidently it didn't go very smooth. First there was a melt down over her hair. She is very particular about how you brush it and when you brush and what you do with it after you brush it so the first fight went down over the hair. Then when they got to the gym Shelby decided that she didn't want to leave her daddy and had a melt down over that which ended with the coach holding her hand and basically dragging her away. So much for all the enthusiasm that was around leading up to this day. In anticipation of the smiles that would be on Shelby's face as she prepared for her first day I asked Pratt to take some pictures and instead of a smiling, excited little girl; Shelby gave us her angry teenager look....oh dear, makes me wonder what her teen years will be like:)

Last week went much better and I am sure that today will be even better. She is more excited now and when I dropped her off last week she didn't even think twice about going on in and getting started.

Just wanted to do a quick update on my mom...she is doing wonderfully! The surgery went very well and she came home last Monday from the hospital. She is recovering nicely and the doctor called to say that the biopsies came by negative so that was great news because we got confirmation that the cancer hadn't spread!!! In a few weeks they are going to do one round of radiation just to be certain that they get it all.

Reading

Last night we were driving home and from the back seat I heard Shelby reading from a book that my mom had given us from her school. It is a book that has each letter on a page with that letter in words on another page to help children learn phonics. Here is a list of the words she read all by herself:

ant, fan, mask
cat, crab, cut
desk, dog, sad
egg, net, pelican (she had a little help on this one)
fern, flag, frog
gum, gorilla
hug
dig
jet, jogger
basket, king, sink

She has been working on sounding out short three letter words, but I was totally floored and proud when she started busting out the blended sounds of some of these words. I have no idea if this is what normal 5 year olds can read or not, but to me it is huge and I can't wait to see all that she has stored up in that mind of hers!!!

And then some other things.....
Last week and this week is practice school at the Montessori school. Last week Shelby went with all the other returning primary students and this week JP is going with all the new and rising toddler students. Since all the other schools are in session some of us got together after carpool for practice school last week for a picnic down by the river. It was great fun and I was so glad to get out for a bit. These last few weeks have been so hot and we are all getting a little stir crazy being inside all the time so it was a welcomed outing. All the children had so much fun and you couldn't ask for a more beautiful setting. Here is my attempt at the group shot. I am sure someone else got a better picture with their camera, but this one is kind of fun. We are missing Carson and you can see a little bit of Tucker behind his sister.


Along with the heat keeping us indoors, we have also had a ton of thunderstorms lately. We love to play in the rain, but not the lightning so we haven't gotten any playing in the rain shots this year like we usually do. Finally one day last week the rain came alone and so we went out to play. JP got all geared up and when we got outside the rain slowed and then stopped:( Nevertheless, I was able to get this picture of my little man before he took off the rain gear.

Potty by a Tree

I just walked out the check on the children and as a came around the corner I heard JP say, "Look mom, I potty by the tree." There he was with his little pants pulled down pottying on the bush in front of our house!!! It was so cute and I don't ever want to forget that little voice saying, "Look mom, I potty by the tree."

He was so proud and I was too because he didn't go in his pants!!

The Grand Finale

This is a big week in for my family. As some of you know, we found out that mom has cancer at the very end of June and this is the week that she finally has her surgery to hopefully remove it all. Of course, as in everything, we are trusting the Lord to sustain us through this and since we know that He is in control I can say that we have all been holding up pretty well. Oh, don't get me wrong, we have had our moments, but then God lifts us up and gives us the strength to carry on.

So last night we had a kind of celebration for making it to this week and a kind of closing finale to our mini family reunion. As in any Harris family gathering, we laughed a lot and just enjoyed being together. Here is a picture of our crew minus Pratt as he so wonderfully and graciously stayed at home with the children (Thanks honey! You are the best!!!).

(Mom, Katie-Matt's girlfriend, Matt-my brother, Me, Lauren-my sister, and Dad)

My dad was very impressed with the relaxing atmosphere and good food that we enjoyed at Corks and we all loved the wonderful service from Benjamin and Josh.

Mom, we love you and are praying for you!! We will be with you every step of the way. You have been so faithful to take care of us all these years and we are looking forward to being able to take care of you for a change:)

Mini Family Reunion

My brother Matt came home this weekend!!! We are all so excited to see him, especially Shelby and JP. When I asked them to guess who we were going to see this weekend I gave them a few chances to get it right and eventually told them that it was Uncle Matt!! They both got so excited and started chanting, "Uncle Matt, Uncle Matt, Uncle Matt." Then I told them that Miss Katie was coming too and you would have thought that we were having a party up in this house:)

Anyway, it has been some time, atleast several months since the whole fam has been together so this is somewhat of a mini family reunion weekend for us. Lauren got into town on Thursday (she even skipped out of work tonight to stay with us....way to go Aunt Lala!!!) and Matt and Katie rolled in last night. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Truffles and the children enjoyed all the attention.

Today we planned a day at the pool and tonight we have family pictures with Janet from Silly Goose Photography! Our day at the pool was a splashing success!!! Grandpa drove out to have lunch we us and watch us swim for a little bit, but the sun came out to play and it got hot so Grandpa left...maybe next time he will remember his swim suit-hint, hint.

So here are some pictures from our fun day in the sun......

Yesterday at the pool we watched some girls do this little cheer jump and it is Shelby's new thing. This is Shelby and I jumping in after our little cheer....

Group Shot!!! Well, almost-we were missing Grandpa and Aunt Lala:( But we will get them in the picture tonight.

Shelby had such a great time playing with Miss Katie and Uncle Matt, but I think she enjoyed Miss Katie the most (no offense Uncle Matt). Katie was so kind and pretty much did anything Shelby wanted to do.

Suns Up, Guns Up! Check out those guns! I sure hope they are registered.

JP is being a little camera shy these days, but he really has become a huge water fan. He jumps off the side without requiring me to catch him now and he loves to put his "whole" head underwater. He really had fun playing with his pal Finn. As the day wore down and my family left, Erin and I sat on the side to catch some rays and catch up; and it was so sweet to see our children playing together. I found myself in one of those moments where is was in shock that we actually had somewhat of a normal conversation and finished it without interruption while all four kids played together pretty much without incident. It is so neat to watch them grow and mature.

Real Dad

We were getting ready for church this morning and the children were going through our closets, making a colossal mess, but having fun trying on all our shoes.

JP has finally figured out that he doesn't want to put on mommy's shoes any more because they are girl shoes; so he goes into Pratt's closet, puts on a pair of his shoes, comes out and says, "Hey, hey, hey look Shelb...I'm a real dad now!"

She Got Her Hair Did!

******WARNING: The following images may not be suitable for the faint at heart. Proceed with caution!******

Last night in a rare and strange state, I got the idea to play around with my hair. I really don't know where it came from or why because as most of you know, my hair is either down or up in a pony tail and that is about all I have in the way of hair techniques. Plus I don't like it when people play with my hair or touch my hair as it tends to always make it more frizzy than it already is. While the children were showering (yes, both Shelby and JP have graduated to showers and bathing themselves...just another nail my coffin that there are no more babies around this house) I got the notion to see if I could braid my hair or put it up in two little buns; and the most shocking thing was that I actually did it!! Well, the braids definitely need some working on, but the two little buns were quite cute, if you ask me, and made me look years younger:)

As if that wasn't shocking enough for you all, Shelby comes up to me and begs me to braid her hair like I had mine. Knowing how she typically hates her hair to be in any style except down I tactfully delayed her and delayed her until this afternoon when I ran out of excuses; so bracing myself for the inevitable fighting that would ensue (everytime we try to do anything with her hair including brushing it we have a meltdown) I began to tread cautiously into braiding her hair. Much to my surprise, she stood perfectly still and allowed me to do it and an even bigger surprise is that I didn't do just any old regular braid, I got a little french braid action going!!

And without further delay....here is Shelby's hair! She wouldn't let me take a picture of her face, but I did convince her to let me take a picture of the sides and back....

(If anyone knows how to get spaces in between paragraphs, please let me know. I hit return so it shows in the editing section, but when I view the preview there is no space....very frustrating for me!!!)