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!!