A Happy Day

I am pregnant and due early December. I am a bit hesitant to announce it to the blog world already, but I thought I would let people know since the grapevine seems to be working very well today.     :o)     Besides, I am already huge and it is better than people thinking I have put on a lot of weight recently.

Obviously, Maddie is already calling it her baby sister, and Josh keeps talking about his baby boy. We'll see.....

Springtime again!

Maddie and I played hookie at school and went to see the Hannah Montana movie the day it came out. She loved it, and I didn't hate it as much as I expected.

There are hundreds of little caterpillar nests all around Red Rock, so Maddie and I keep going up to watch them grow, and eventually become cocoons and then butterflies.

We also got to go to my cousin, Kim Howey's, wedding at Red Rock. She looked lovely.

Karen & Juli Harris happen to be the best holiday tradition people I have ever met. They are wonderful at following through on the cheesy holiday traditions, like decorating egg cookies and painting eggs. They have totally rubbed off on me so every year, and every holiday, I try to keep it going for the next generation of Harris girls.

Maddie has been counting down the days to Easter for the last two weeks. She woke up early every morning, came into my room, and with huge eyes, would say, "three more days til Easter!" Of course, the day it was actually Easter, she slept in from partying too hard the night before, and Josh and I had time to shower and get dressed and then we eventually just woke her up. How sad is that!?

We feel kind of bad that she is the only kid, so I made Josh promise to act like a kid too to make it more exiting for her. Here they are racing down the stairs together arguing over who will find more eggs.

Every holiday, dads all across the world are stealing from their kid's stash....

And here are our Easter dresses for Church.

And Maddie got a new suitcase for Easter. I would say she was getting too big to share mine anymore, but as this picture shows, she is still pretty tiny.

Stop! Don't shoot!, and the ups and downs of motherhood.

Josh and I had a really awesome, once in a lifetime opportunity to go and tour the FBI training academy with a friend of ours. For fear of my life, and as not to paint a target on myself, I kept the pictures to a minimum and will keep my mouth shut about what I did and did not see. It was very, very cool, and it waged a debate between Josh and I about who would make a better agent (me, obviously). And it was a beautiful time in the area because of all the cherry blossom trees and the cherry blossom festival in DC. 

I'm sure any mother who reads this entry will agree that there are ups and downs to being a mother. Hugs, kisses, loves, watching them grow, firsts, and learning new things are all pluses. Barfing, poopy diapers, late nights, early mornings, spoon feeding, sick babies, tantrums, not so much....

Well, I recently had a day of high and low. First, Maddie had a dentist appointment. Once we were out in public I realized that my daughter was wearing red lipstick, a very short cheetah print dress, and pink cowboy boots. Embarrassing..... And then she had her check up and her dentist said she has great teeth, but that I need to be brushing them twice a day for her because she is too young to do it herself. I immediately planned to feed her dog biscuits that clean dog teeth. That is so lame to have to brush your kids teeth twice a day..... I left feeling like the worst mom ever. (Half because I don't brush her teeth twice a day, and half because I want to feed her dog biscuits.)

But luckily, later that day was her parent teacher conference, where she received raving remarks and scores. Top of the class in every subject, very sweet, great social skills, everyone loves her, best in show...... (Oh wait, I keep forgetting I'm talking about a kid, not a dog....), and her teachers said they know that it is because of our great parenting that we have such an amazing kid. Phew.... I was afraid they thought I was a crackhead for being late sometimes, letting Maddie dress and do her own hair (see above), and always seeming to forget something. 

Of course, just as I was feeling all cocky, I woke up the next day and realized I had forgotten to do laundry and didn't have any groceries because I had been out of town. So she had to wear the same undies and I had to pack a NutriGrain bar for her lunch. Crap. Back to square one.....

This is not an April Fools Joke...

Josh just sent me this picture from his iPhone with the title of "crap."

Luckily he knows someone at Ticketbusters.com.   :o)