January 2018

I often think of January as the Monday of the week. Good luck we still had a lot of fun and can't believe we are into Feburary already! 

This little boy graduated from nursery and started sunbeams this January. I am sure he would have loved an extra year of snacks & toys, but he has been doing great so far! 

 The kids didn't go back to school until January 23rd (track school) so we tried to fill up that time off with some fun activities. We had a day in the 60's one week so we went to the zoo. We always love looking at the animals and the kids love climbing on the various statues.

 The grizzly bear and his sharp claws were out in full force that day. Impressive!

 Thanks to some zoo food coupons we were gived, the kids each enjoyed a bowl of dippin dots - Avery thought it was the best day of her life!

 Playing sumo wrestling. Only lasted about 10 seconds before the first child cried.

 What a beautiful site early on a school morning! I love that Jaxson is old enough to read to the other kids now.

 We threw Jaxson a pizza & movie party at the house with only his 17 closest friends! Haha, it actually wasn't as crazy as we were anticipating .... yay! I think Jaxson loved it and had the best time being the center of attention.

 Opening gifts

 Jaxson & Avery had some friends over and while on the trampoline, they started playing a game involving throwing shoes. Jax got Avery square in the face - poor girl. The black eye stayed around for a couple of weeks and is officially healed now. This picture was taken 10 minutes after it happened.

 Ice cream to cheer up the poor girl

 Day 2

 Day 3

 We got a nice big dump of snow before the kids headed back to school so we went down the street to play.

 Someone loves to eat all the snow he can see- bleh!

 The kids loved climbing on these stone structures more than sledding down the hill.

 Avery and Griffin pull these mouth pieces out pretty much every other day to do this. Partners in crime!

 Jaxson & Ryan worked hard to make Jaxson an awesome viper pine wood derby car - we thought it was the coolest car there. Nice work boys!

 This is what happens when you don't go to bed and sneak downstairs while your siblings are asleep - lucky to have such a fun Dad!

 We got to church a few minutes early - love these sweet spirits of mine! Now if we can only get Griffin to sit longer than 10 seconds during sacrament meeting we would be golden!

 Practicing dancing

 How the kids help me fold laundry

 On Tuesday nights Ryan plays football. We (I) love it when the game is early enough to go watch because I love watching him play sports.

 This is what the kids tend to do while Daddy is playing football...

 I got Avery dressed up all cute for her school class pictures this past Friday.

 Aparently she didn't take off her sports jacket before the photos (whaaa!) so this is how we will remember her in kinder. Love her even if I was more upset than I should have been.

Jaxson's Baptism December 2017

I don't know how it happened but my first born turned 8 over the Christmas holidays. It's a weird feeling knowing it happened so fast but I feel like I don't remember a lot of it - sad! I am grateful for the sweet & tender hearted boy Jaxson is. He tries to do what is right and is a great leader. I am proud of his decision to be baptized. We love you Jaxson! 

December 30, 2017. Excited for his big day!

I am grateful for a worthy Priesthood holder who was able to baptize Jaxson. We sure appreciate you Ryan! If you want to learn more about my faith, click here.

Love this family of mine. I am grateful to God everyday for the blessings he has given us and gives to us daily. I know that he is mindful of us individually and his desire is for us to become like he is. We can do this through the cleansing powers of the atonement - Jesus Christ did that for all of us! As we try our best to make righteous choices and repent when we do not, we can be forgiven.

4 generation photo with the Harbor men. 

Guh Goh & Papa with all of their grandchildren. Happiness!

Great Grandma Riley & Guh Goh

The whole Harbor clan. It was so nice having everyone there and able to come be a part of Jaxson's special day! 

December 2017 Part 2

I am so glad we were able to spend most of the holidays in South Carolina with the Harbor side of the family. We had a blast! 

We got to Ryan's house on Tuesday morning and took a long nap. We exchanged gifts and the boys went and did an escape room that evening - fun day! The following day we went to watch a USC basketball game. This is Avery sporting her new gamecock shirt from Guh Goh & Papa.

Nothing like getting your back scratched while watching basketball.

My kids loved holding baby Callie! She is 5 months now and it was so fun meeting her and her happy personality for the first time. Glad Ryan's brother Jordan & wife Christine and kiddos could make it!

Rhonda with her granddaughts.

Griffin watching Camden playing on the phone with uncle Jordan.

Ironically enough, for the majority of the time we were in South Carolina it was freezing! Colder than here in Denver for sure. We did have a couple of decent days though, so we spent them outside playing basketball, wiggle cars, and swinging on the new swing.

Miss Riley turned 2 while we were there. So glad Ryan's sister Erika & her family could be there too!!

Cousin Noah with my kiddos on the workshop roof.

Jaxson turned 8 while we were in SC. He was baptized a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints. It was a special day & we are proud of him - look at the next blog post for more pics of his baptism. We had a birthday party for Jaxson afterwards - pizza & cake! This was his request - dark chocolate, peanut butter filling, cookies n' cream frosting + candy. Yum!

How can my oldest child be turning 8?! I feel like I should still be at university ( but kinda grateful I am not...)

I love how much Jaxson gets excited about things - wound out to blow out those candles like a champ.

Bubble balls battles in the yard. Pretty sure you couldn't get more dead grass in Avery's hair.

The kids loved the new swing Guh Goh bought and Ryan helped improve!

Jaxson loved shooting hoops outside in the driveway. He shot really well on his birthday and the days following - must have magically improved overnight :)

Great Grandma Riley watching fireworks with Griffin inside because the loud noises kept scaring him.

Jaxson with Aunt Erika - nice mask toque.

Ryan & Jax lighting fireworks even though it was probably 20 degrees - brrrr

New Years Eve celebration - food, fames, party horns. The kids were excited we let them stay up until 10:30. Ryan and I went to bed by 11:15 - I guess we are lame these days!

New Years morning trip to waffle house!

Griffin had been requesting to play the pie face game all December. It was fun to see his excitement while playing. This picture shows it all.

It was nice to spend a lot of time with Grandma Riley!

We played bingo at her house - the kids loved it.

And we looked at her trinket village in the garage.

Jaxson loves it and Grandma loves showing it off.

Trip to the childrens musem!

The kids especially loved the grocery shopping area - must have seen that a lot in real life :)

Quick trip to visit Papa - what a great man!

Temple trip with Ryan's parents - such a good night!

There was a lot of cousin wrestling done between these cuties over the course of our trip

Saying goodbye to Grandma Riley - what a special lady! 

We drove up to Charlotte the night before we left - the kids loved the extra time with Erika's family, the swimming with extra bubbles, and a chic fil a dinner with Guh Goh & Papa in our hotel room. Great memories.

We got up bright and early to fly home to Denver. This girl slept for 2 hours on the flight which means she must have been beyond tired for energetic spirit to want to nap.