TTHR

"Take the High Road" has been the Stewart family motto for as long as I can remember. My parents would call out "TTHR!" to us as we left the house growing up. When we would ask what we should do in certain situations my parents would simply say, "TTHR." It can be applied to almost every situation or confrontation we may find ourselves in. We have yet to make up our own Harmon family motto, and am not sure we can think of a better one. I still keep this motto in mind and try to apply it in my life. I think I have used it more in this past month than at any other time in my life. It can be kind of hard to do some times. :)

Alex + Abbbey

We drove down to Utah last weekend for the whirlwind wedding of Jefferson's sister Abbey to Alex. She is the last sister to be married off (in 6 months all three of them got married). We stayed with Sam and Nikki and were able to hang out with them and Summer and Josh and their girls the first night we got in. We wish we got to see them all more, but duty called.
Abbey and Alex were married in the Jordan River temple. It was a surprisingly beautiful day for a January day in Utah and so pictures weren't so bad outside. Abbey and Alex looked beautiful and so happy. We absolutely adore Alex and they truly are a perfect couple. After the ceremony we grabbed a bite to eat, changed and freshened up and headed to the reception.
The reception was beautiful. Abbey's colors were creams and golds. She made all her nieces matching headbands that were absolutely adorable! I wish I had a picture of all of them together! My brother came and took some pictures for them and it was fun to spend a few more minutes with him. Here's a few shots from the reception. I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have any candid ones of my family or anything.

Happy Beginnings Abbey and Alex!!! We love you!

Abbey's side:
Tay and her cousin Kaleeya (Kaleeya is just a couple weeks older than Taytum):
Abbey + Alex and all their nieces and nephews (all from just me and Ashlee):
The plethora of bridesmaids:
Harmon side women:Wedding ring shot:

Update

We recently had Bentley and Taytum evaluated by some therapists for various reasons. Bentley for her size, lack of gross motor skills, and some screaming issues that accompany eating. Taytum for her speech, or lack thereof.

They both qualify for therapy and I am feeling very relieved about it. We should be starting up in the next week or two.

My friend is a speech therapist and gave me some exercises to do with Taytum and she has grown a ton in her vocabulary and annunciation over the past couple of weeks. It is fun to hear her more and more.

In other news, Taytum was counting these big beads on one of our baby toys tonight all by herself (I was pointing at each bead) and she counted all the way to 11 by herself! I was really proud of her. I have never heard her count before. She also wore underwear tonight for about 4 hours and went in the potty once and had one little accident. I can't quite decide if I want to commit to potty training yet. We have a couple of trips in January. Maybe February?

Blogger Problems

I have a whole slew of posts waiting for pictures to be posted but I cannot get blogger to upload my pictures normally! They are all streaky and discolored. I have been trying for a week now to get a picture to load normally. It is driving me crazy!!! Anyone else having problems? Grrrrr.

Peirced.

We did it, finally. Bentley got her ears pierced today! She was such a champ! I went by myself with Bo-Bo while Jefferson was home with the other kids. Bentley was being so smiley and chatty right before she got them pierced... and right after. She cried for maybe five seconds, literally, after they were pierced, and then she was back to being smiley and happy. So cute!
Before:After:

Utah Baby Blessing

We were able to go to Utah a couple weekends ago for my niece, Everly's, baby blessing. It was a fun filled, frantic weekend. We got in Friday night and enjoyed a little pizza party with Sam and Summer and their families' and my parents. There was a little Just Dance involved, and it got a little out of control. On Saturday morning we went out to breakfast, did a little shopping, and then hit the Children's Museum in downtown SLC.After the museum we went to my niece, Reece's, dance recital. It was super cute. Then we headed to temple square to see the Christmas lights. It was perfect because just a couple weeks before we were watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and they showed Temple Square and Andi said she wanted to go there and see all the lights. It was freezing cold, even bundled up, but we loved seeing the lights and the nativities from all around the world. It truly is an amazing sight.
Saturday we hung out at my sisters until it was time for church. My brother did a beautiful job on Everly's blessing. After church we headed home.We were so glad we got to be there. It was a fun time! Welcome to the world Everly Jane!

Christmas Spirit

We are so excited for Christmas in our house, and have been for weeks! My kids are always asking for green and red everything... the green plate, the red cup, the red and green markers... They want Christmas music on 24/7. Andi will come into my room first thing in the morning and ask if I'll come turn on Christmas music. We'll be playing in the living room and she'll say, "I think we should turn on some Christmas music." The past few days Carter and Andi keep saying, "Don't my ears look pointy?" They are trying to convince me that they are turning into elves. It's really cute! They love finding Jingles every morning. This morning he was caught in a marshmallow fight with Woody. It's been magical around here. I love the ages of my kids.

This week is full of fun leading up to Christmas. Yesterday Carter's class went on the Polar Express in his class. It was really cute. They wore pajamas and set their chairs up in a train, got train tickets and then choo-choo'd around the hall, got their tickets punched and then listened to the Polar Express on cd while they illuminated the picture book with a lantern. Of course hot chocolate and cookies were served after. I felt lucky it was my day to volunteer in class so I got to watch and help.

It was also Andi's Christmas party and they wore pajamas too. Not sure all they did, but she came home with lots of goodies and seemed to have a grand time.

Today was Carter's class Christmas party. It was fun. They had a bunch of fun stations, ornament making, sugar cookie decorating, reindeer ring toss, treats, pony bead wreath making... And now we are out of school for two weeks. I am so looking forward to it. No rushing out the door in the morning. More hot breakfasts. Lots of winter/Christmas crafts. Christmas movies. Visitors. Playdates. Good times.

We have something every night this week which is going to make Christmas come even faster! Last night we delivered our friend gifts and went Christmas light looking. It was so fun. I absolutely love spending time with my little family. They make my heart happy.

Thanksgiving '11

We had such a fabulous Thanksgiving this year, like every year that I can remember. I just love my family and love that we all get along so well and enjoy spending time together. I think that is kind of rare, and feel pretty grateful that we are all so close. We made the drive to Klamath the day before Thanksgiving and hit the ground running to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. There was so much delicious food. We added smoked prime rib to the mix, and it was amazing.
So thankful for this beautiful bunch of people that I get to call family.
Christmas pajamas from Gramzee and Grandpa Paul!
All the grandkids (that were there + Everly) in their Christmas jammies:
We went on our traditional tree hunt the day after Thanksgiving. The weather was absolutely perfect, no snow+no rain+no wind+sunny= warm, dry, happy kids.
Taytum thought she would help the men get the tree on our car.
Here is the process that is now known as the "birth of the tree." Instead of hoisting this beast of a tree up over the outside balcony to bring it in through the double doors, the men did all they could to get it in the front door.... and it worked. Hudson was crying by the end of it from all the hootin' and hollerin' and cheering when it finally came through.
The men in the hot tub... no lady dared venture in there with them.
The cousins did their gift exchange sine we won't be seeing any of them at Christmas. It got them pretty excited for Christmas and the prospect of more presents.
We spent time feeding the horses, riding the john deer, and spent an afternoon at the movies and saw "Arthur Christmas."
Jefferson's attempt at trying to calm the kids down before bed. These four cousins shared a room for the first time and rather enjoyed it. They were up for about three hours the first night!
We played really hard:
We missed you Andrus family!

Boh-Boh 9 month stats

Little Bentley is 9 1/2 months! And about the size of a two month old. The weigh in:

13lbs 8 oz - not even on the charts
26.5 inches - 12%
Head circumference 17 1/4" - 39%

Our doctor isn't too concerned with her weight, but did say she would be more comfortable if Bentley would put on a few extra pounds and hop back onto that chart. Bentley will most likely always be on the smaller/thinner side (think Carter), but a few pounds of reserve would make me feel better. So operation fatten up Bentley has commenced. I started adding pediasure to her oatmeal today and the smell almost makes me queasy. It reminds me of the kiddos that I used to take care of because they always got pediasure through their g-tubes because of the high calories and nutrients in them. Anyways, Bentley seemed to like it just fine and we're going to try to get her to eat a few more high calorie, high fat foods and hope that helps. We are also trying to be aware of not affecting her taste for foods or making her a picky eater, so wish us luck!

Bentley has become such a better baby! Remember, how I always have said that I wish my babies would pop out at 8-9 months old. I am reminded now of why. She is so fun and interactive. She isn't mobile yet, but enjoys sitting and watching the other kids and play with whatever toy they bring her. She is back to her non-picky, super fantastic eating. I cut out her last feeding, which I was having to wake her up for right before I went to bed, and she's been sleeping right through, from 6-7pm to 7-8am. It is glorious!! She takes two naps when we're home to give her them. Otherwise she usually skips one and is pretty good with just rolling with it. She usually gets really giggly right before I put her down for bed. She LOVES it when I sing, or anyone else for that matter, I'm sure, but usually I'm the only one who sings to her. She also thinks it's funny to watch any one of us dance. Not sure if we should be offended by that or not. I am starting to see what a fun addition to our family this little one is going to be.

PS... I'm not sure if I've posted this or not, but those pictures are of her doing her silly breathing thing where she'll squish up her nose and breath in and out really fast. It's pretty funny.