Spektorific

I was watching a movie the other day that had a Regina Spektor song in it. I had forgotten how much I enjoy her music so proceeded to go on a Regina Spektor youtube journey. I came across this song that had me laughing so much that I wanted to share it.You simply can't help but smile. :)

Mike & Kate

Korben has known our names for a while now, but for some reason he has started inserting our given names into everyday conversation:

1) Korben can't find Daddy and says to me, "Where is Mike Harrison?"

2) "Daddy? ... Daddy? ... Daddy?...MIKE!

3) After seeing that he needs a password to get onto my laptop: "Kate I need the password."

4) When he wanted to skype with Daddy: "Kate I want to video talk with Mike."

It is so cute that I have a hard time correcting him. It's about 50/50 right now as to whether I will be Mommy or Kate. Is this just a phase, or should I be more assertive about correcting him?

Scripture Stories

Tonight's scripture story was Nephi building the ship. After I told the story I started our review. I asked Korben what God told Nephi to do and his reply was:

"God told Nephi to build a rocket."

A rocket? Apparently, the only "ships" he knows about are the ones that go into space. After barely controlling my giggles I explained that "ship" meant boat. He didn't seem quite as impressed with the story after that. I can't blame him - Nephi building a rocket ship? Now that would have been pretty sweet.

Happy New Year!!

2011. Wow. Hopefully 2011 is a better year for blogging that 2010 was.

We rang in the New Year with Kath & Jed & Fam. We played games till the countdown and then blew on our party horns and drank our sparkling cider. Pretty basic. Simple. Enjoyable. Fun. Hopefully 2011 follows the same theme.

December 2010

GAK!

December was full of science projects. We decided that we needed to have fun activities for the boys during the cold winter months so they didn't go stir crazy. Our favorite experiment to date was making GAK. This is an A+ project in my book since it is clean, cheap, easy and provides endless hours of fun.

Gingerbread Cookies

Kara invited us over one night to make gingerbread cookies. The boys were stoked - first that they would get to see their cousin Max, and second that they would get to play with the rolling pin! Korben swiftly took over the duties of putting the cookies on the cookie sheet, and Logan was ready with fistfuls of flour - which made for some white dough and some very flour covered boys. It was a great night with family complete with very yummy cookies.

Temple Square

Mid-December we decided to make a spur of the moment trip to Temple Square. We ended up going with Kath & Jed, Mom & Dad Harrison and our nephew Andrew. The crowds were huge and with 6 boys to keep track of it was a little nutty; however, it was absolutely gorgeous and well worth fighting the crowds. The boys were in awe of all the lights and the nativity on the reflection pool took our breath away. We tried to get a family picture in front of the temple but the boys wouldn't cooperate - some day it'll happen right?

We were able to see the Christus - which Logan calls "Jesus in space". I loved seeing how the boys reacted to seeing the Statue of the Savior - it was so sweet how they were being so rambunctious and then immediately were quiet and reverent at the statue. The night should have ended there since it was bedtime and all, but we ended up going to Kathy's and making waffles instead. Our spontaneous trip ended up lasting all night. It's memories like those that make me so grateful to be by family again. Our First Snowman I'm sad to say that at 5 and 3, our boys had never made a snowman. We did have one snowfall in November, but the snow wouldn't pack well and the boys were devastated when we couldn't make a snowman. So when we had a storm a few days before Christmas with perfect packing snow, the boys could not be stopped from building the perfect snowpal. Daddy was good enough to oblige them with a ginormous snowbuddy complete with carrot nose, cardboard arms, and erector set parts for eyes and smile. He was immediately their buddy - as you can see from the hugs. Unfortunately the rain came that night and our snowman ended up being a melted blob by morning. Hopefully our next one will last a tad longer.

Harrison Christmas Party

On December 23rd we hosted the Harrison Christmas party. We ate yummy treats, had a talent show and watched "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" (1966 version). I adore Mike's family. They know how to relax and have a good time. One of the talents that night was performed by Doug's family (Mike's brother). It was so silly and fun and well worth being posted.

The most touching part of the night was after everyone headed home. Korben was sitting on the stairs crying and when we asked him what was wrong, he responded with, "I miss my family". This was the first time that Korben had ever called them his family instead of his friends. Just another good reminder of the importance of living near our family and the positive effect it has had on Korben. Christmas Our Christmas was fantastic. The boys had an advent Santa that they put cotton balls on for each day as a countdown. Every day I would hear, "Only___ many days left till Christmas!" I loved that they were anticipating the holiday. Korben even learned about Santa at school, so we implemented Santa's cookies and gifts this year. We had been undecided about whether or not to do Santa until he came home so excited about it. We wanted to make sure that the boys knew what Christmas was really about, so talked a lot about the nativity. Mom gave us a nativity set a few years ago that has each piece in little wrapped boxes and the boys loved opening the boxes and hearing about each person. After we had talked about them, Korben wanted to tell us the story. He set up each of the pieces as I had until he got to the "people that watch the sheep". Then he said, "Mommy, the people that watch the sheep can't see Jesus!" and turned the Baby Jesus so that he could be seen. Then he said, "Oh no! Now Joseph can't see Baby Jesus!" and ended up changing everyone so that they were in one straight line to see the Baby Jesus. It was so precious that he cared so much. When we finished playing we asked him what Christmas was about. He paused and then said in a very "duh" tone, "Jesus". Logan didn't quite understand who all the extra people were. He knew who Jesus was, but Mary was mommy, and Joseph was Daddy. I'm not sure if he thought they were us, or if it was just easier to remember them as parents. Either way, they loved the nativity, so thanks Mom! Christmas morning was so fun with the boys. They were excited for their gifts but were good enough to sleep in for us so we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn. Aren't they cute little dudes?

November 2010

Korben Gets Glasses

November started with a letter from the school saying that Korben had failed his eye exam. We were instructed to have an eye appointment done. I can't say that I was surprised since my eyesight is so horrible, but I was surprised at how bad his prescription actually was. I was very impressed with the eye doctor and it was neat to see how they conduct an eye exam for someone so young that can't answer the "that's better, that's worse" questions.

We were also impressed that it only took 2 days to get his glasses in even with his nearsightedness and astigmatism. His glasses are adorable on him as you can see:

A few things we have noticed since he got glasses: 1) Immediately after we picked the glasses up he looked at the ground and said, "Mommy the road is broken." I looked down and sure enough, the road had a lot of little cracks in it. I couldn't believe he had never seen things like that. 2) We can't remember a time when Korben has been able to see a plane in the sky. When we would point to one, he would just look around with really no idea of where the plane actually was. We have been attributing this to autism, but a few days after he got glasses we were laying on the trampoline and a plane flew by. He pointed directly at it and said, "Look Mommy, it's a plane!" It made us wonder what else we have been counting as an autistic trait that may not be. 3) We soon noticed another change: Korben has rarely been able to get something for us when we point to it from across the room, but since getting glasses he has been able to get anything we have pointed at. So, not an autistic trait, just a result of poor eyesight. Playing in the Leaves A November in Washington consists of LOTS of rain, and BEAUTIFUL greenery. Something it doesn't consist of are a lot of leaves on the ground (at least where we lived). So when all the trees around our house started losing their leaves, our boys thought it was about the best thing in the world. They would go out daily with the neighbor kids to gather the leaves in a pile and then swiftly destroy that pile. This lasted until I got worried about huge mounds of leaves being buried under snow and bagged it all. It was all sorts of fun while it lasted though. Mike's Job Mid-November, Mike & I were shocked when he was laid off from work. It was very unexpected, but we were given a good severance and are positive that new work will come our way. In a lot of ways it has been a blessing. Mike has gotten to spend some great quality time with the boys - so much that I think they will be devastated when he does find work. It is also nice that he isn't in the salesman atmosphere anymore. He doesn't miss that aspect of his work at all, and as a result is looking more toward the IT jobs rather than the management jobs. Thanksgiving Our holiday was wonderful. We spent the actual day with Mom & Dad Harrison and had a wonderful meal. Then we had a Fullmer family gathering at our house with Mom & Dad, Jake & Jess, Kara and Joe & Lucia. Jake brought his XBox Kinect and we all got quite the workout. We had another fantastic meal, played lots of games and laughed a lot. The kids got to play outside because the weather was great, which was wonderful since that night we got dumped on. Tidbits In November Korben started being very adamant that he hold the sacrament tray when it was passed to him. Even if we were on a side row, he would need to have his turn "passing" the tray back to either Mike or I. One Sunday I tried to just hold it for him while he got his bread and he exclaimed, "Mommy, I can do it myself!" Just the beginning of many "Do it myself comments".

October 2010

I know, I know...it's been forever. This year has been a terrible year for blogging. In an attempt to do some sort of catch up, I'm going to do some monthly posts of the latest Harrison life happenings.

October 2010

1) Moving

Yes, we moved again. We weren't fond of living on Traverse Mountain and decided to look for something closer to work. We finally found a house in Pleasant Grove that is perfect for us. It is smaller and more homey and the yard is AWESOME. The best part is the brand new trampoline that the owners got for us. The boys are in heaven, and I love having a fenced yard and trampoline to send them to.

From October 2010

From October 2010

2) New School

Because of the move, Korben was transferred to a new Elementary School. He now attends Lindon Elementary. He had a rough transition at first but seems to enjoy it quite well now. His bus ride was an hour each way however, so I now drive him in the mornings and the bus brings him home. His second Tuesday at school happened to be their field trip to Hee-Haw Farms. Aside from it being the ONLY day of snow we have had this year, it was really fun to have a kiddo old enough to go on a field trip with.

From October 2010

3) Surgery

The week before we moved, I found out that I was pregnant (on and IUD). A doctor's visit showed that the IUD was missing, and multiple blood work showed that the pregnancy was non-viable (most likely ectopic). After finding the IUD on an xray, I went in for surgery (2 days after we moved) to have it and the tubal pregnancy removed. It took a bit more work than the doctor anticipated because of the amount of scar tissue from my previous surgeries. Instead of one incision, they had to make 4 and instead of an hour surgery, it took 3 1/2. They were able to remove the IUD as well as the pregnancy without hurting my tubes - a blessing I know was a result of a priesthood blessing I had had earlier that week. The pregnancy should have been too small to remove without destroying the tube, but when they got in there it was actually quite large-something that was "impossible" considering I wasn't far enough along for it to be that big. How lucky we are to have the priesthood!

Mom was a lifesaver and came to stay with us for 4 days. She didn't just see to the kids, but unpacked much of the house and got my garage in order so that we could park inside. She is a miracle woman and we were so blessed to be in Utah so that she could take care of us.

4) Sickness

After surgery, I was given a shot of a certain cancer medication to make sure that all traces of the pregnancy were removed. Unfortunately, like all cancer meds, the medication lowered my white blood count and made me more susceptible to illness. The past three weeks have been one constant sickness after another, the most notable a 4 day stint of puking that resulted in a fainting episode, a bowl dropping on my foot and a black toenail as a result. Funny after the fact, but not so fun to live through.

5) Birthdays

Mike turned 34 this year and we were able to celebrate with Mom & Dad Harrison and the Rasmussen family. We had a yummy steak and potato dinner and some good family fun. We also celebrated Logan's 3rd birthday early because of scheduling issues. He had a good time opening gifts - his favorite being his new bike. He is quickly learning how to ride and since we live on a cul-de-sac, it is a perfect place for him to learn as well as play with all the neighbor kids that are out riding nearly every day.

From October 2010

From October 2010

6) Halloween

Halloween is my favorite holiday and the one we usually go all out for. Because of the surgery I wasn't able to do as much as we had planned, but mom did help me put up all of our Halloween decorations before she left, and we did get to carve pumpkins and dress up. The boys loved picking their patterns for the pumpkins and Logan adored the guts. It was also Jared's (see caption under pic) first time carving pumpkins and he was like a little kid digging out the guts and carving his pattern. For the holiday, we attended a trunk or treat with Kara and James, and then went trick or treating the next day with the Rasmussens. Korben loved dressing up like Darth Vader and even made the sound effects with his mask on. Logan was about the cutest monkey you had ever seen - especially carrying an umbrella from door to door.

From October 2010 This is my baby brother Jared. He moved in with us after returning home from his mission. It was fun to teach my little brother the pumpkin carving ropes. :D

Phew! One month down. :D

From October 2010