Johnny...I feel terrible that I didn't get a Christmas card out to you. To make up for it, Mike and I thought you might enjoy watching our Family Christmas Video.
We miss you and love you!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Harrison Household Happenings
So it has been a while since I last blogged. Lots of things have happened since Thanksgiving. I'm going to give a brief overview of the things that have kept me from blogging:
LOGAN:
*Logan has mastered coming down the stairs...WOOHOO! It was really frustrating sometimes when I was carrying things down and he couldn't follow me. Now I have a little shadow everywhere I go. :D
*Korben was sick and the doctor recommended that we give him popsicles in order to keep him hydrated. Logan felt that he deserved a popsicle too, but he couldn't quite figure out how to hold onto the stick...
I don't know if this face is because his hand is freezing, or because he is so excited, but either way it is cute.
* The newest Logan development happened a few days ago. He started climbing onto the table from the chairs. I knew he could do this, but never imagined that the little Houdini would figure out how to escape his booster seat in order to get onto the table. This is how I found him one morning after I had gone upstairs to answer the phone. I didn't move a single thing before I took the picture-look how far away his chair is from the table! I don't know how he managed it without cracking his head open on the floor...
* We were able to pick up Logan's compression glove...and after only 6 weeks of waiting it was only one size too big. Rather than send it back (again) I hand stitched it myself. It is working beautifully. I'm sure you will see it in future pictures...I just don't have one of it yet. It's blue and made out of a thin fabric and is held together a little below his wrist with Velcro.
KORBEN:
* Right after our trip to Idaho/Utah, Korben developed a horrible cold. He had the nasty croupy cough that makes you want to cry every time you hear it. We thought he was starting to get better when one Sunday night he had a temperature of 104.8 degrees. We rushed him to the urgent care clinic where they ended up doing chest x-rays to check for pneumonia. Luckily he didn't have that bad of a cold, and after a steroid injection that helped clear up the swelling in his throat, he recovered a week or so later.
This is a picture of him on one of his sick days. He had a hard time sleeping on his back without coughing, so opted to sleep in the middle of the floor on his tummy instead.
As a side note, Korben has had an EEG, an MRI, given blood, and done chest x-rays all in the last 4 months and has been stellar through all of them. But if you try and give the kid Tylenol...that's where he draws the line and can conjure some super human strength that takes two adults to overpower. Poor kid.
When Korben got all better we put up the Christmas decorations. He helped by dancing around in the Santa hat.
* Most of you were e-mailed about Korben's autism diagnosis, so I won't go into details. We are happy to finally have an official diagnosis and ready to do whatever it takes to help him. One sign of autism is that Korben has many moments where he gets panicky over things not working the way he thought they would. He is getting better at not throwing tantrums when this happens, and lots of times now he just says (in the cutest concerned voice imaginable),"What's happening?!".
It makes me giggle every time.
* Another cute Korben phrase is, "Hi There!" He picked it up from a show and it makes everyone just adore him.
He's such a sweetheart!
KATE:
*Shortly after the trip, I got a package in the mail from Kimber. (After reading the Twilight Series again over the past few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that Kimber must be a vampire...I mean how else could she do all the stuff she does and still have time to sleep at night?!) The gift was just what I needed after taking care of sickness for two weeks and then getting sick myself. She recommended that I simply take some time for me. She sent my favorite candy (Peanut M&M's and Swedish Fish), a few good books to read, and a gift certificate to one of our favorite restaurants (Red Robin). I was able to take some me time and read one of the books in an afternoon, blaze through my candy like it was illegal, and really just take a break. So, thanks Kimber. Love you!
*After taking some time, I was ready to get back to work on a project I have been doing for one of my 10 hour YW projects. I decided to make a Christmas video (pretty much the same as The Fullmer Family Christmas Video) that has scenes from Christ's life as well as short testimonies from the youth about Christmas/the Atonement/the Resurrection, all put to music. I blew through ten hours of work early on, to say the least, so this has been one of the big reasons for not blogging. I have loved working on it though and the finished product is awesome. I get chills every time I watch it and hear the youth testify of Christ. I wish I could put it on the blog for all of you, but it is 15 minutes long. So just imagine a youth video that leaves you with the most powerful feeling of the spirit.
*This week I got a new set of contacts. The last time I got contacts was, oh, only 6 years ago, so the prescription was only a full 3 points worse. :S I feel like my eyes have gone high-definition. It's awesome.
MIKE:
*The picture below pretty much sums up Mike's job and life in general. The poor guy is working so many hours that he is beat when he gets home. He still tries to spend time with the kids though which makes him even more tired. This particular night, after Korben was content watching a movie in his arms, he was finally able to get some much needed rest.
*This past week has been a weird one. First there were light snow flurries that (and I'm not exaggerating) completely shut down Portland. We had 5 different doctor's/therapy appointments cancelled because of a tiny skiff of snow. The snow progressed through the week and, after mixing with rain, was bad enough that Mike and his Service Manager were in an accident on the freeway (his SM was driving and they are both okay but the truck was totalled). Today, that snow has progressed to 6 inches in our back yard. And we live in Washington. So weird. But it is beautiful outside. Korben was chanting "snow, snow, snow" all day and spent much of the day just looking out the window. Here is the view of our house as of just a few hours ago:
Okay, so the "overview" didn't end up being as brief as I had planned.
I hope that now you all feel sufficiently updated on our lives. I would like to get back into the swing of the blogging world again soon. But just in case I don't...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Thanksgiving 2008
The weekend before Thanksgiving, the Fullmer family was getting together to watch Mom and Dad perform in the Forgotten Carols, and then have an early Thanksgiving dinner together. At the very last minute, I decided to pack up the boys and make the trek to Rexburg to see the family. It worked out really well because Jessica's Mom needed to get home, so they rode with us, making the trip a little easier.
The boys (and Kylee) were awesome travelers. We drove all the way from Vancouver to Pocatello the first day because they were doing so well. The next day I continued on to Rexburg to eat some yummy food and enjoy the company of family. I took a lot of pictures, but Kimber already blogged the best ones, so you can check those out here. Here are two of my favorites from Saturday's Thanksgiving Party.
Mom and Dad Fullmer.
Mom and 4 of her 5 daughters. (We miss you lots and lots Kells!)
After staying a few days in Rexburg, I made my way to Utah to visit Mike's side of the family. Rather than only staying for a day and then heading back to Washington, Jess and I decided to stay a few extra days. This meant that we didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with our husbands, but in the end, worked out much better for the kids. (Poor husbands always come after the babies) For the next 3 days I used Kara as a hotel (sorry KareBear!) and visited Mike's parents during the day. They were so thrilled with the surprise of us being in town. We were able to get all of Mike's siblings (that live in Utah) to visit the night before Thanksgiving. It was fun to see all of the siblings as well as all the cousins. Korben had a great time with Mia, and Logan was a ham for everyone.
On Thanksgiving day, Mom and Dad Harrison treated us to Golden Corral for dinner. It was perfect for the 3 adults and 2 children...no preparation, no mess, no clean-up. It was great to spend Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad, but I really missed Mike and wished that he could have been there.
Soon it was time to head to Twin Falls. It was sad to say goodbye to Mike's parents. Korben and Logan are the youngest grandchildren on that side of the family and I think the long time in between visits is hard on Mom and Dad.
Mia and Korben playing catch.
Korben and Logan fighting to stay on Grandpa's lap.
Korben and Grandma. This is my favorite photo of the entire week.
That night I drove to Twin Falls to stay with Josh and Chelle. I was shouting for joy when I filled up our Pilot because it only cost $28 to fill it (and the gas light was on). Considering it took us around $75 a fill the last time we visited, this was worth getting excited over.
It was nice to spend time with Josh and Chelle. We never seem to stay long in Twin because it is always the stopping point on the way to wherever we are going to end up. It was a fun visit and a great rest before our long drive home. The boys slept better than they had the whole week because they were in separate rooms, Korben had a lot of fun playing with Matt, I figured out what I am going to get Korben for Christmas (a game that Matt had), and I was able to spend more time with Josh and Chelle than I have since I lived with them at 15. It was a great ending to a fun trip.
Korben and Matt sword fighting.
Taking turns on the "horsie".
Jess met up with me in Twin Falls on Saturday so that we could drive home. Neither one of us were looking forward to the drive, but the extra days of rest must have worked, because all of the kids were excellent. It only took us 9 and a half hours to get home and we pulled in around 11:30pm. It was so nice to pull into the driveway and know that I was done with the travelling.
I was so excited to see Mike; 9 days is a LONG time...I don't think I'll do that again anytime soon. When I went in our bathroom, I saw a list of days and things that Mike missed about me while I was gone. It was really sweet. I have the best hubby ever!
Thanks to all those that let us crash at your homes. Thanks for the yummy food and for lots of laughs. Love you all!
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