Typical Evening with 3 Boys!!

End of the Year Soccer Party!

Brody and Wade had their End of the Season Soccer Party last night....They had a blast, playing on the playground, eating pizza and ice cream, and of course, receiving their medals...

Way to go Zoo Crew!

Coach Phillip, the crazy squirrels and crazy boys...





Sweet, shy, but incredibly happy Wade:



Confident and ready to take charge, Brody:



2 proud boys!



It was a special night, indeed...

What a Difference a Year Makes!

What a difference a year makes....

Brody Lee, 1st day of VPK 2012, August 20th:


Now...last day of VPK 2013, May 18th:


Wade Aubrey, 1st day VPK 2012, August 20th:


Now...last day of VPK 2013, May 18th:


Together:

2012:


2013:


2012 with Mrs. Cristy:


2013 with Mrs. Cristy:


2012 with Mrs. Monica:


2013 with a (very pregnant!!) Mrs. Monica:

Last pick of the season!

We ended our Memorial Day/ Birthday/ Family filled weekend at the strawberry patch with Uncle Scott, Aunt Allie, Caden and Ensley. It was kind of too late in the season to be picking berries, but the kiddos still had a blast doing it...and loved the strawberry ice cream afterwards as well!

Our baby is 2.

Oh my...how did this happen? My baby is already 2 years old. It is happening too fast.

I feel like just yesterday we were eating Nana's 8 layer cake and helping you toddle at your first birthday party...I now chase you everywhere! Ah, yes, nothing speeds the clock like motherhood.

These past two years have been the most fun, exhausting, memorable and challenging years of my life. Each milestone is bittersweet, as you are my last boy to accomplish them. Sometimes I wish I could keep you little forever. At the same time, I love watching you discover new things. I’m trying so hard not to forget what your lion “rawr” sounds like and how you squeal at the top of your lungs when you are excited or how much I enjoy our nighttime routine...you will not fit in the crook of my neck for forever. I’m trying not to forget how you like me to sing ABCD to you or how much you love bathtime or how much you love to dance to Gangnam Style. See, I’m storing these memories away, tucked snug and tight in the back of my mommy brain under lock and key. I have a feeling they might come in handy later in life, when dancing with mommy will no longer be cool.

And while this past year has brought remarkable changes, you are still the same rambunctious, remarkable little boy I fell in love with at first sight. Your Daddy and I joke a lot about your “spirited” and CRAZY disposition. You aren’t the kid who sits quietly and plays – or the kid who lets us sleep in – or the kid who calmly sits in a shopping cart – or a kid you can distract with a simple toy. No, you are the little boy who figures out how to climb out of any situation, opens doors he knows he shouldn’t and laughs with glee as he runs from me in any populated, public place.

The truth is, we wouldn’t have you any other way. Because spirited people get stuff done. They don’t take no for an answer and they don’t give up on what they believe in. I hope and pray that you, my little boy, laugh in the face of “no,” keep fighting for what you want and never let any dream die.

I love the way you confidently announce what you want to do – you, always absolutely certain of what you want. I love your curiosity – how you always ask, “what’s dat" and "what's dis??”  I love the way you say “please” and “thank you" and "excuse me" and "sit down momma". I love the way that your sweet smile rises and your eyes light up when you are SO excited that I think you might explode! I love the way that you are always on the move – dancing, twirling, running, spinning, climbing – a ball of energy, a blur of activity and life — my blur. our blur.

Thank you for providing endless (exhausted) smiles. We love you so very much Jickity Jackers....you are our sweet Jackie!!!

We celebrated you all day Sunday with all the family that could come! A big thank you to you all for helping us create memories :)

He was WAY into opening his presents this year!



We got all Clampett style and had a kids splash park in the front yard...complete with 2 pools, a slip-n-slide, a water table and even the soccer goal, for good measure. (We cannot set all of this in the backyard because it slopes and is quite un-even.) Oh, what the neighbors must have thought!!







And it would not have been a proper party with out cake and ice cream! We also found out that you absolutely LOVE 7 layer dip, when you scraped a huge handful out of the dish and stuffed it in your mouth...



We loved spending time with Uncle Dave and Rebecca, too!!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my forever baby boy!!

Water Table

The water table arrived from Crazy Aunt Lowie & family for Jack's birthday...so we let him open it a day early :)

Looks innocent enough, right?


Well, enter the hose....and yes, people ask me all of the time if our boys are really always smiling...yes, they are. Blessed beyond belief!

Sweet Ensley turns one!

Our Niece, Ensley Anne, turned 1 on May 13th and we all gathered to celebrate the following Saturday! Allie did such a great job at putting together her "tutu" birthday party...I loved all of the little details! Her highchair was made into a giant tutu, there was a lollipop tree, strawberry flavored water, pink M&M's and Oreo's and the prettiest, pink cake you ever did see...

Sweet girl followed in her cousin Jack's footsteps and didn't really care one way or the other about her smash cake. They were both extremely anti-climatic and both feel right asleep after the whole ordeal!







The Dad's switched up the babies of the family for a little one-on-one time :)



All of the kiddos played on a huge blow up slide and obstacle course and literally fell into their sleeping bags at the end of the day.

Happy 1st Birthday EAH!!

End of the Year Celebration

Brody and Wade celebrated the end of Pre-K on Saturday, May 18th! (Since 1/2 of the children will be staying at their current school for one more year and the other 1/2 will be going on to Kindergarten, they have started calling this the "End of the Year" program, instead of graduation!) It was a really sweet presentation that their class put on...from strutting their stuff with their shades, to singing a song that brought tears to my eyes...I cannot even imagine standing there again next year, watching my little guys really graduate and head off to elementary school!








This is the song that did me in...

I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise with a capital "P"
I am a great big bundle of potentiality
And I am learnin' to hear God's voice
And I am tryin' to make the right choice
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be.

I can go anywhere that He wants me to go
I can be anything He wants me to be
I can climb the high mountains
I can cross the wide sea
I'm a great big promise you see!

I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise with a capital "P"
I am a great big bundle of potentiality
And I am learnin' to hear God's voice
And I am tryin' to make the right choice
I'm a promise to be anything God wants me to be
Anything God wants me to be!

Before we know it, we will be attending his End of the Year celebration too!

Random

This is what I get when I ask the boys to "pick up"....They put everything ON TOP of the toy box. :)

The dog days of summer have officially begun...yay for popsicle stained tee's and lips!




It is completely acceptable at The Harrell home to eat snacks underneath an umbrella...

Boys will be boys

Just a typical school night with the Harrell Boys! Daddy + Water Hose + 3 little guys = endless fun :)



This was absolutely hilarious. Jack was holding the hose and kept putting his mouth on it... and didn't realize that Todd was turning it on and off, giving poor Jack Jack no warning, as the water came flying out, flooding his mouth and splashing his face. He did this over and over again, cracking up the entire time!



And a video...


They had so much fun....Love having all boys!! (And, yes, Brody is naked and Wade only has a shirt on. Our poor neighbors!)

Mother's Day

This years Mother's Day was probably my best one yet....Todd and the boys went all out and showered me with love and attention, all weekend long!! Flowers kept popping up...my favorite breakfasts were made...an impromptu strawberry picking happened...we enjoyed Hawaiian icees (my favorite)...Homemade cards were delivered with such pride, that I teared up!! It was a spectacular weekend and I am so blessed to be able to have Brody, Wade and Jack call me Momma. A few (horrible quality cell phone) pics from our lazy weekend:





And the only pic taken of me, the entire weekend!!!!! Oh well...this shows our real life! (I am in my jammies...)


And a sweet video of Jack saying "Happy Mother's Day", while bringing me flowers he picked...Is there anything sweeter?


Sunday afternoon, we celebrated Mother's Day with Grammie, Scott, Allie, Caden and Ensley! (My Mom was out of town...) We enjoyed the Slip-n-slide and feasted on a huge meal! A Happy Mother's Day to not only our Mom's, but also to Aunt Lowie, Aunt Gail, Aunt Marilyn, Allison, Melissa, G'ma Orr, Mimi and Grandmother!! We love you all!









One of the sweetest books about the love a Mother has for her child...



Love You Forever
by Robert Munsch

A mother held her new baby and very slowly rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she held him, she sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.

The baby grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was two years old, and he ran all around the house. He pulled all the books off the shelves. He pulled all the food out of the refrigerator and he took his mother's watch and flushed it down the toilet. Sometimes his mother would say, "this kid is driving me CRAZY!"

But at night time, when that two-year-old was quiet, she opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed; and if he was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.

The little boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was nine years old. And he never wanted to come in for dinner, he never wanted to take a bath, and when grandma visited he always said bad words. Sometimes his mother wanted to sell him to the zoo!

But at night time, when he was asleep, the mother quietly opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep, she picked up that nine-year-old boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.

The boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a teenager. He had strange friends and he wore strange clothes and he listened to strange music. Sometimes the mother felt like she was in a zoo!

But at night time, when that teenager was asleep, the mother opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep she picked up that great big boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.

That teenager grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a grown-up man. He left home and got a house across town. But sometimes on dark nights the mother got into her car and drove across town. If all the lights in her son's house were out, she opened his bedroom window, crawled across the floor, and looked up over the side of his bed. If that great big man was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.

Well, that mother, she got older. She got older and older and older. One day she called up her son and said, "You'd better come see me because I'm very old and sick." So her son came to see her. When he came in the door she tried to sing the song. She sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always...

But she couldn't finish because she was too old and sick. The son went to his mother. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he sang this song:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my mommy you'll be.

When the son came home that night, he stood for a long time at the top of the stairs. Then he went into the room where his very new baby daughter was sleeping. He picked her up in his arms and very slowly rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while he rocked her he sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.