Harrison's Reading Nook

I found Harrison reading behind the rocking chair in his room. He was being so quiet I didn't even see him at first!

Ava Rebekah Knight

The Happy Family!

Ava Rebekah Knight 7 lbs. 7 oz.

Born on December 20th at 7:57 am 20 1/4 inches

Amanda (looking great after getting no sleep last night) and Ava Rebekah Knight! Sorry about her hat all you Clemson fans.

My little dare devil...

Harrison was determinded tonight to climb into his crib. What was he after?!?!? His "bobbie" (pacy). At least this was better than this morning when he jumped out of it! That was quite a startling way to wake up. No bumps or bruises - he was just a little scared!

2 Good Newes (Meredith I don't think that is right - sorry)

1st Great News! - Amanda did get a room today and she hopfully will have Ava today!

2nd good news ! - I found the lost milk. It was inside the seat on Harrison's Mickey Plane ride on toy!

Good News and Bad News ~ I have 3

Good news! - Harrison is drinking milk!!!! He would never take formula and hasn't taken more that one or two sips of milk since I quite nursing him. He eats yogurt so I think he is getting some calcium but I have just been wanting him to drink milk too. This week he did (only chocolate milk but we will work on that). I am very excited!

Bad news! - Harrison has lost his milk cup from this morning! I have looked high and low and cannot find it anywhere. I know it still had some milk in it and I am hoping I will be able to find it before I smell it ~ gross.

Bad news first this time - Ava has not been born yet today and she might not even be! There are no available labor and delivery rooms available in the hospital yet. I guess LOTS of people were making babies last spring! They are waiting for a call at 2 pm to see if anything has opened up.

Good news - Ava is still nice and warm in her mommy's tummy!

Good news - Harrison's black squeaker shoes arrived today and he will be able to wear his Christmas outfit to church on Sunday!

Bad news - he has them on right now and LOVES them and the squeaking might drive me crazy :)

I hope everyone is having a great day! My birthday has been wonderful so far ~ I have had so many calls, emails and messages on facebook that I have stayed smiling all day! I plan on going shopping in a little bit which makes me smile too!

Exciting News

Ava (John and Amanda's baby girl) is coming tomorrow!!!!! I am so excited to meet and see her I can hardly wait! It is also very exciting for me because she will be born on my birthday! I cannot think of a better gift.

Amanda went to the doctor today and the plan is to induce her tomorrow at 6 am provided there is a room available. Please pray that a room will become available tonight so everything can go as planned. This is especially important because tomorrow is the last day Amanda's doctors will be on call until the New Year!

Check back soon ~ I will have pictures up as soon as I can.

Ok... Come on

Hey I know there are several of you out there that are looking and not making any comments to my blog! I get very sad when I check up on it and there is nothing or just one or two from my regulars (Mer, Steph, Jackie and mom thank you all so much for you sweet comments ~ they mean so much).

I know it is usually pics of Harrison and what he has done but at least say Hi or somthing so I know people are looking!!!

Thanks!

My little Christmas present

While I was wrapping gifts today I put a little bow on top of Harrison's head. I thought he realized it, but I guess he did not! He had it on his head for over an hour until he was bouncing up and down on his zebra and it fell off. He looked down and saw it and said "Uh oh". So cute ~ I was laughing at him so he picked it up and tried to put it back on his head. He makes my day everyday!!!

Here's a few pictures of him totally unaware.

Side note ~ He LOVES his ball pit as you will see!

We even changed clothes with the bow on his head!

Christmas Card Picture Taking

Well we have just had a very busy afternoon trying to get a picture of Harrison for our Christmas card. I know I am very behind on that this year, but that is kind of my theme for this Christmas season ~ I only got my tree up last night!!!

Soooo..., it is very challenging trying to take a 1 year old's picture by yourself! We decided to just have Harrison on the card since it is so hard to get us all together and find someone to take our picture. I thought this would be no big deal but after a scratched up toe and wrist, filthy and sweaty clothes and a head full of dead leaves from a tree I have changed my mind. Here are a few of the "mess ups" I hope you all get a good laugh!

"I do not want to take pictures today!"

This is my laugh-cry"Oh, did you want me to look at the camera?!?!"

"Mom, it is 80 degrees, why am I wearing a hat?"

"Look mommy, take a picture of that!"

"Get me out of these leaves!"

"How about this face for your Christmas card"

"Oh, a dandilion!"

Yes I know, this one is kinda cute except that there is a dandilion stem sticking out of his mouth! Don't worry he did not eat the fuzzies and he did not bite the stem.

In awe...

"I said I do not want to wear this hat!"

Don't ask...

"Don't bother me, I'm sleeping"

"Huhhhh..."

PERFECT ~ except his eyes are closed!!!

And last but not least my secret to keeping his pants up for the pictures ~ the infamous chip clip!

So 1 hour and 61 pictures later I think I might have 1 picture that will work for the Christmas card! Hopefully they will arrive before Christmas...

Sad :(

Well, it is Sunday night again and Mike just left for a busy week in SC. You would think it would get easier for me when he leaves but it has really just gotten much harder. Tuesday will make 1 year that he has had this job in SC and we have been without him during the week.

Everyone please pray extra hard that our house will sell before Christmas and we can be together! I don't even care if I have to pack up and unpack all my Christmas decorations!!!!!

We appreciate all the prayers that have helped to keep us going this long ~ we know we couldn't have made it without them ~ Thanks

McAddenville

We went to McAddenville Friday night. It is a small mill village in NC and almost everyone who lives there decorates with lots of lights for Christmas. I haven't been since I was very young. I think the last time I went was with the Moores. We walked through the town instead of driving through which I highly recommend! It was so fun to be cold and see all the lights and hear everyone driving past shouting "Merry Christmas!". The church in the town passes out free hot chocolate which was a nice warm treat since it was actually cold Friday night! Here is a picture of us in front of one of the big trees!

Thanks Perrin!

Hey Perrin,

I just wanted to say thanks for my new sweater! I looked very handsome in it today at church!

I hope we get to see each other over Christmas.

Love,

Harrison

The True Meaning of Christmas

I am VERY behind on getting my Christmas decorations up this year so I am not getting everything out. I was very excited to get out my Willow Tree Nativity though since I have all the pieces (except for a few new things they have out this year ~ hint, hint if anyone still needs to get me something for Christmas :)

I think this is such a pretty nativity, I almost feel like I am there when I look at it. It is a wonderful reminder to me of the true meaning of Christmas!

I want to add a little greenry to dress it up a little more but I think it is beautiful just like this too.

High Falls Park and Dauset Trails

Saturday we had a picnic lunch with Mike's parents and John and Amanda at High Falls Park. Jack and Ginny came down to see John and Amanda because they cannot travel until Ava is born. We met up with them at the park and then headed to Dauset Trail. It was a beautiful place with rescued animals. Harrison loved seeing all the animals and we had a great time together with everyone!

Harrison with his little bear ears!

We hiked a little to see the falls ~ too bad you can't see them b/c they are behind us!

A friendly alligator giving a little turtle a ride.This bald eagle had a badly damaged wing. It was beautiful and very big!

Dauset Trails

Isn't this a beautiful place? I would have loved to have a picture here but we were too tired to do it.
John and Amanda were making us all laugh!

For John and Jessica

Go Tigers!

Finally Home!!!

We are finally back after a little longer (but wonderful) visit to SC for Thanksgiving. We left on November 19th and returned last night November 29th. Ten very busy days with family and friends! I know I will never be able to remember everything that we did over those 10 days and unfortunately I did a horrible job of taking pictures this trip but I will do my best to remember some of what we did and post the pictures that I did get!

Ok, so here it goes... Monday we got to mom and dad's house right before dinner. We had dinner, Harrison played (he remembers everyone!), went to bed.

Tuesday we just hung out at the house, Harrison and I went to lunch at Schlotzsky's Deli with dad and John and then mom and I rode out to Julie's house so mom could see Max and Jake and I had some things I needed to give to Julie.

Wednesday we spent most of the day cooking and getting ready for Thanksgiving (this made Thanksgiving really easy b/c everything was ready and just needed to be cooked!). We ate dinner at Mike's parents house that night and Harrison got to see Uncle Mark and Aunt Casey. Mark had not seen Harrison since August (H. couldn't even crawl then) so he had a lot of changes to show his uncle! Mark is at the Maritime Academy in Maine and was home for Thanksgiving. Harrison's cousins (Jack and Charlotte) were also over and Harrison had so much fun with them too!

Thursday we had 2 HUGE Thanksgving dinners!!! They were both SO delicious and I ate WAY too much ~ who didn't? We took a walk around the farm that afternoon and just relaxed with family the rest of the day.

Friday Mike, Harrison and I went and did a little Christmas shopping. We didn't go too early so it wasn't too crazy and we got some great deals for some presents ~ I can't tell what the deals were until after Christmas!!! Next, we went over to John and Jessica's to help put up their lights on their house. Last year John almost fell off the roof so this year he decided to get some help! When we got there the house was full of smoke due to an overflowed pound cake from yesterday that started to burn when they cooked some bagel bites! The smoke was just pouring out of the stove and despite having doors and windows open nothing was really helping. John and Mike finally took the whole stove outside on the porch to let it clear out out there! It was rather exciting. The lights looked great too! Mike and John had a plan in case John fell off the ladder. If John started to fall he was to scream "Armegedon", jump backwards and lay out flat and Mike would gracefully catch him ~ it sounded so exciting I was kind of hoping John might fall ~ ha ha. That night John and Jess babysat Harrison while Mike, mom, dad and I went to see Enchanted. It was a great movie and very funny. The beginning starts out as a cartoon and turns into a real movie about 20 min. into it ~ I thought Mike was going to kill me during those first few minutes!

The only thing I can remember from Saturday was that I shot Mike's gun. He wanted me to learn how to do it since I am here alone all the time. It was rather scary but I guess it is good to know how to do. That night we ate at Mike's parents' house and Harrison had loads of fun with his cousins again playing the piano and watching the dancing cows with Pap-pap.

Sunday we saw Meredith, Keith, Jackie, Steph and Perrin for just a second before we went to church. I hope we will get a longer visit with them over Christmas ~ Harrison has so much he wants to show them!

Monday I went through some things at grandma's house and spent some time letting Harrison play with her.

Tuesday we visited Julie, Max and Jake. Julie was needing some help sorting through baby clothes (putting up 0-3 month, packing up 3-6 month summer and sorting 3-6 month winter, packing up 6-9 winter for later and 9-12 month summer for Jake, packing up 12-18 month clothes and labeling for Harrison to borrow, organizing 24 month and 2T winter for Max and packing up 2T for summer for Max) it was very confusing and along with taking care of all three boys took us quite a while. We also sorted and packed things to store in the attic that they were not using. Tuesday night we went to dinner with mom and dad at the Monsoon Noodle House ~ delicious! We met up with John and Jessica, then we walked around Dickens of a Christmas where we saw so many people that I had not seen in a long time. I saw several people from Roebuck (church growing up), Mr. and Mrs. Houghton (she was my fifth grade teacher and her daughter Tara is one of my friends), Mrs. Swofford and her family (she was John's 3 and 4 K teacher ~ imagine her surprise when she saw John the little boy who had to keep Pooh Bear under his desk at school or he wouldn't come, Jamie Lawhorne (who is getting married at the end of December) and her mom almost all of Jessica's family except Cassie who was at the hospital having a baby! We missed Steph, Jonathan and Perrin this time, but we saw them shopping on Friday. It was a really great time!

Wednesday we went back up to Julie's house and kept working on sorting and packing stuff. We planned on leaving this day but plans always change and we stayed one more day!

Thursday Harrison had his first "real" playdate! We went to the mall and met Julie (Max and Jake), Elizabeth (Caleb and Alexa) and Suzanne (Will). The kids played on the little playground and the moms talked (or least talked as much as you can while watching 6 kids!) We went to lunch at Ocharlies then went back to mom and dad and started packing. We got home last night around 10 and it was so nice to sleep in my own bed!

We had a wonderful, busy visit but are glad to be home so we can decorate for Christmas (I know I am behind!) We can't wait to do this all again at Christmas ~ although I am praying our house will sell before then (I don't even care if I have to put up and take down decorations twice if we move!)

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday ~ we all have so much to be thankful for! Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Four generations!

Sorry there is food in his mouth ~ but isn't that smile the cutest!

Playing the piano with Jack and Charlotte ~ it was VERY loud!
Jack, Harrison and Charlotte on the piano.
Pap-Pap with all his grandchildren (except Ava who isn't born yet!) watching the dancing cows. This is Harrison's favorite thing to watch, notice that he will not take his eyes off the screen for a second!

Playing outside at Grammy and Pop's house.

On the swing ~ he could do this all day.

P.S.

Harrison is back to 2 naps a day! I don't really know why?!?! He is always so tired around 10:00 and if he doesn't get a nap he is a crabby baby! I think he might be growing. Last time I put him on our scale at home he weighed 21.5 pounds. It would be great for him since he is still such a little shrimp~ but at least he is a cute shrimp!

Harrison's New Hobby

Harrison is in love with books right now! He will sit and look at them for minutes a day (that is a long time for a 1 year old!). Really though he looks at books all the time and is constantly bringing them to me or Mike to read to him. He picks one up and carries it over to one of us and says "Dis" ~ which means "read this".

Grammy, Mom and Meredith you would be so proud!

Here is the little scholar "reading" to himself.