FINALLY ... a GIRL!

Finally we have a GIRL amongst the Harrison grandkids! My sister, Charity, had a baby girl ...

Diana Catherine yesterday! She weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz.!

She felt SO so light ... and warm and cuddley!

Here we are "meeting" for the first time ... (about 5 hours old!)

Little Diana...

Charity and Diana cuddling!

and her tiny toes-ies ... my favorite!

Benjamin was HEART broken and sobbing that he didn't get to go with me to see her. He's been praying for THEM for days ... and is now praying that she is growing and that we will ALL get to go see her this weekend! The kid LOVE LOVES his cousins!

Happy Valentine's to the Laundry Room!

Our Laundry Room was happy to get it's Valentine's gift (as were we)! Our poor dryer was on it's last leg - and I even held out doing laundry for a few days as we waited on these!

AND for the record ... Jonathan HAD to be the first to try them out!

Tellus S'more!

Just a quick post of a day last week! We spent the morning with the Hurdles at the Tellus Science Museum! The boys loved finding gems, fossils and especially uncovering the dinosaurs!

Here are Tyson and Benjamin digging...

Here is Benjamin in front of a cool helicopter...
AND ... for our "craft" of the day ... we made these s'mores ... lollipop sticks, marshmallows, melted chocolate and graham cracker crumbs! I got everything ready - but Benjamin was able to do everything else himself!

Snow FAMILY!

So exciting ... we got LOTS of snow last Friday and after putting Micah to bed - Jonathan, Benjamin and I played for a long time until Benjamin was so so cold (although he wouldn't tell us!) He was so sad and crying as he thawed out! Poor kid -- should've dressed him in his ski clothes on day 1!

Jonathan pushing Benjamin in our "sled!"

Benjamin making a snowball to "get dad!"

I had this awesome "VISION" of taking so many fun pictures of the kids in the snow the next day ... but both boys were crying and cold before I could even get started - so I gave up (very disappointedly...) and these are the few pictures that we have of the AWESOME snow!

Micah almost ready to go outside...

Benjamin and Micah in the snow house!

Micah escaping back to the house - or somewhere off of the cold snow ... as you can see - Benjamin is already out of our snowhouse!

Our 4 snow people really were so fun - and they even had a snow house behind - made of HUGE blocks of packed snow (thanks to Jonathan and the recycling bin) ... but the picture is on Sunday morning heading out to church (see ABOVE) ... maybe we'll get lucky and have "GLOBAL WARMING" again next year and get lots of snow!

ps... a few "I spy's" -- see the golf club next to the Jonathan snowman, "Micah" is standing next to Rachel, some of the grape "eyes" have fallen out ... and oh - Jonathan was originally STANDING ... guess he got a little tired!

SKI Trip and MORE!

Our ski trip to Utah ...

and visiting friends was so much fun this year!

Here's Benjamin and I on the chairlift at Alta...

We got to visit Hannah and Mia (and Hayden and Brooks)! Benjamin had so much fun playing with the boys!

Here are our kiddos - minus Hayden: Benjamin and Micah AND Brooks and Mia!

I also got to go to dessert with some of my bestest friends: Emily, Shelley and Laura!

Here's another fun picture of Benjamin and I together - about to get on the chair!

One of the few group pictures I got ... Mathew, Lindsey, Jordan, Travis, Me and Christopher! Unfortunately ... Travis broke his collar bone the FIRST morning - poor guy! He was a trooper and hung out in the lodge after x-rays etc!

Here are Jonathan, Benjamin and I ALL up on skis -doesn't Benjamin look like he's sandwiched between us!

I love this picture of Benjamin and Jonathan!

Here's Me and Lindsey headed up on the chairlift at Alta!

A favorite picture of Jonathan and I at the top of Alta! The weather was AMAZING but we kept our faces mostly covered so we didn't get sunburned!

Here's a fun picture of most of the gang in front of us!

Here we are for a picture in the snow! Benjamin LOVED skiing with Jonathan in the thick fluffly snow!

Benjamin and Micah watching BYU BEAT Utah!

Here is our little family at the BYU-Utah game!

And lastly -- a SNOWFLAKE celebration when we left the Marriott Center!

The trip was tons of fun! We got to spend time with family, see friends, go to the Temple, get Micah's pictures taken, go to a BYU basketball game, eat Tucano's, Jamba Juice, Cafe Rio - what more could we ask for! Can't wait until next year! A big THANKS again to Jonathan's DAD! We had a blast!

COOKBOOK DETAILS!

So I'm going to give the cookbook a SHOT ... even though I don't have enough "BUYERS" yet... I'm hoping for more! I've got a back-up plan if we don't get enough buyers to print it ... BUT... if ANYONE wants to be a co-author and pull in their friends/family ... then we'd probably hit our 100! I'll still do all the leg work - as far as the book and collecting recipes goes ... we'd just have a bigger circle of friends! Give me a call/email - I'd love a helper!

Here are the categories:

Appetizers and Beverages

Soups and Salads

Vegetables and Side Dishes

Main Dishes

Breads and Rolls

Desserts

Cookies and Candies

This and That - which will include BREAKFAST recipes!

I would love for these to be your FAVORITE recipes ... including family recipes that you are hopefully willing to share!! Everyone is "allowed" to share as many or as few as they'd like ... but try to stay within 2-3 per category (but if you have a few extra AWESOME ones... exceptions allowed). Some ladies are just wanting to submit 1-2 recipes TOTAL while others have LOTS to share! Either way - I think it's going to turn out GREAT!

Please email me as soon as you can ... let me know if you need my email address! Our INITIAL deadline is going to be:

Friday, February 5th!

I will send out a reminder email towards the middle of next week! I'm EXCITED!

Re-cipes!

So ... I think I'm going to put together a friends and family RECIPE BOOK! I LOVE getting good recipes from friends and family - and thought it would be fun to collect them from YOU ... and put them in a book! I'm hoping to get this little project going soon ... so let me know as soon as possible if you're interested! I may bug some of you ... just because I know you are amazing in the kitchen! I will probably come up with a "category list" soon ... it would be great if everyone wants to participate! Feel free to comment or email me!!

A Snowman FRIEND!

It snowed... and along came with the snow ... came the best dad in the world home from work EARLY!

After a quick chili dinner ... it was SNOWMAN time for Jonathan and Benjamin!

Micah was so anxious to get out and help! But we just stayed bundled up inside most of the time - coming out for a quick minute here or there to bring the eyes... nose... mouth... buttons and of course a HAT!

LOVED seeing Benjamin peer into the window!

And just before we headed in - Benjamin had to give his friend a HUG!

Benjamin is CONVINCED that Santa, RED (the Elf), Reindeer, The New Years Man, the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Snowmen are all VERY real and have feelings, personalities and friends. While building the snowman - he said two SUPER quote worthy things:

1. B: "We forgot to give the snowman some food."

J: "Maybe he can eat his chocolate buttons."

B: "Yea, that will work."

2. B: "I think the snowman needs a friend... (pause)... I could be his friend!"

A sunBEAM a sunBEAM!

Benjamin is OFFICIALLY a sunBEAM in primary ... unfortunately - church is at 1:00 pm - right when he usually naps! He has melted the past two weeks... but LOVES his teacher, Sis. Seng and his class!

I am the new primary pianist ... so I've gotten to enjoy him from a distance ... and even though he's not singing YET - he is learning the songs as he has been singing them at home!

Christmas Extras!

Since we were all sick prior to Christmas... we had to push our gingerbread houses and Christmas present "for the birds" until after Christmas!!

I think it was about 20* when we hung the bird feeders ... but we fed the birds none-the-less and they are enjoying it!