My little Trick-or-treaters

Here are my little trick-or-treaters this year! Aren't they too cute?? Okay, I know, I'm biased ... but there's nothing like the sight of your youngest son waddling around the neighborhood in fake dreds ... the only thing cuter is when that same son later got a sucker stuck in the dreds, creating a moment of near panic the likes of which Jack Sparrow certainly never endured. And I'm super proud of Ninja Turtle Gabriel as well. He was sooooo excited about his costume and he did such a great job of staying in character, as you can tell from his pose for the camera. We only lasted about an hour at trick-or-treating, and then it was home for some warm soup, apple cider, and the grand "Candy dump" so that mom and dad could check to make sure everything was safe and the boys could survey their loot.

The finished product

Here are this year's batch of pumpkins! Nate's is the spider, mine is the Halloween tree, Gabe's is the pirate ship and Asher's is the trick-or-treating monster. I carved the little one with Rhylah's name. We had a great time carving them up -- and even toasted the pumpkin seeds with a little salt and butter. YUM! What fun!

The Great Pumpkin Hunt

Here are a ton of photos from our trip to the pumpkin farm this weekend. It was VERY cold ... too cold for a tractor ride, but we still managed to have fun picking out our pumpkins and playing in the hay maze.

Gabe stands by the wagon, guarding the pumpkins.


Asher gets friendly with a goat ... he didn't notice it until the thing was already nibbling at his pocket, at which point he FREAKED out!


My boys! The reason there's no photo of Rhylah, is because she was stashed in the sling I was carrying since it was so cold.


Asher by the barn. Check out those baby blues!!


Silly Asher!


Asher looks for his pumpkin.





Gabriel and Asher pose together.


Asher tries to lift his pumpkin. He was not successful, but he gets an "A" for effort, that's for sure!!


Not exactly a hayride, but not a bad way to travel to the pumpkin patch!

Mr. Sour Cream

We were in the middle of eating dinner tonight ... tortillas with cheese and sour cream ... when we looked over at Mr. Asher to see him looking back at us like this. Someone had some fun with his sour cream during dinner!!!

Oh, what a night!

Just when you think nights are going well... you learn to never trust a hunch. Here's a rough estimate of our night last night...

11:45 p.m. An exhausted mommy and daddy go to bed after feeding Rhy, who has decided only to eat for 10 minutes at a time today, before falling asleep so soundly that she can NOT be awakened to finish eating.
1 a.m. After just reaching REM sleep, mommy is, as usual, the first to be awakened by Rhylah's cries. She kicks daddy and mumbles, "Go prep her." Daddy gets out of bed like a champ to go change Rhylah's diaper before brining her back to mommy for feeding.
1:10 a.m. Rhylah poops herself. Mommy takes pity on daddy's snores and changes the diaper herself.
1:20 a.m. Mommy feeds Rhy a little formula after her feeding, to get her to sleep better.
1:25 a.m. Rhylah poops herself. Mommy changes the diaper again.
1:30 a.m. Rhy is wide awake and blinking at mommy with eyes that say "Please don't put me back in my crib!" Mommy snuggles Rhy in bed, up on a pillow between mom and dad and tries to sleep.
3 a.m. Mommy still hasn't slept. She asks daddy to put Rhy back in her crib.
3:20 a.m. As daddy drops off to sleep, Gabriel yells in his sleep and daddy leaps into action to get him out of the upper bunk and to the potty before an accident occurs. Yay daddy!
4 a.m. Rhylah wakes for a feeding, daddy changes a diaper, mom feeds Rhy and falls asleep watching the CBS morning news... carries Rhy back to her crib in a state of near-sleepwalking.
5 a.m. Ash wakes up with a bad dream calling for mommy. Mommy to the rescue.
6:30 a.m. Daddy gets up for work.
7 a.m. Boys wake up mommy and we all start our day.
The sad thing is that despite all of this, I'm still getting better sleep than when I was 9 months pregnant! Unbelievable, eh? And who knew that your kids could be most demanding while they were sleeping!!!

Just some photos

Asher poses by the window.


Rhylah camps out on the carpet for some floor time.


Asher gives the baby "Kiffes."

I had some fun today, shooting some photos of Ash and Rhy as we spent the day together. Enjoy!

Top 3 laughing baby´s

This short YouTube video is guaranteed to make you grin!!! I thought it was hilarious!

The Return of Sock Monkey

Here I am in 1979 with my Sock Monkey. Check out how big my eyes are! I think I'm afraid it's going to eat me or something!


Miss Rhylah in 2007 with her newly aquired Sock Monkey.


"Are you talkin' to ME?" The Sock Monkey tradition continues...

I was at Target last night, having some time to myself, when I stumbled across something that stirred some memories. A sock monkey. I remember my sock monkey as a child, and immediately remembered a favorite photo from my baby album of me "wrestling with my sock monkey." That's exactly how my mother labeled the photo. Of course I HAD to buy the thing and take a similar photo with Rhy. It was too much fun to pass up! So the tradition continues!

Meet Rhylah

Here is some rare video footage of Rhy with her eyes open. The reason she doesn't look particularly thrilled is because she just had a bath -- an experience she has yet to come to terms with. Enjoy!

Dining Room Makeover

The old dining room, complete with red walls and old furniture.


The new dining room, with new, lighter paint and new furniture. What a difference!


Our new buffet. My farvorite part is the wine rack, which we already stocked with some of my dad's best from his vineyard. We even have a 2004 Concord in there dad! :)


An overall view of the dining room ... note Rhylah's spot in the corner. We keep the pack'n play set up downstairs for afternoon naps and diaper changings! I also love the new high chair, which you can barely see in the corner. We ditched our old plastic one.


Some of you may recall that we remodeled our basement with my last pregnancy. What used to be a dark, dank hole with molded carpet and wall-to-wall cupboards was transformed into a new guest room/living room/office area that was much more functional.
Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones that get us going on projects, or just the idea of nesting, or getting ready for change ... but we recently finished the remodeling of our dining room.
In the first photo, taken last summer on the Fourth of July when Nate's dad, Bruce, was visiting for the day, you can kind of see what it used to look like. Dark red walls, no carpeting, no curtains, and an old set of dining room furniture circa 1945 (ish) that was lovingly taken into my first home while still in college. The set belonged to my grandparents, and when my grandma died, it got passed along to me. It served us well for some years, but the chairs were falling apart and the table and buffet had seen better days as far as dents and scratches go.
We repainted the room a few weeks ago, using this awesome Ralph Lauren faux finish called "Candlelight" that reflects a shimmery quality that only shows when the light hits it just right. Then we dressed up the room with new drapes, a carpet, and dining room furniture off of Target.com of all places. We got the whole set, plus a buffet, for what Crate & Barrel wanted for just the table and chairs. I wasn't expecting exceptional quality, but was very surprised at how wonderful it is! We are extremely happy with the results. All that's left to do is to run to Pier 1 and pick up some accent pieces for the table and buffet top! What fun!

My tax dollars at work...

Asher and "Reel-ah!" sit while he "holds it!" (he never asks to "hold HER" just "HOLD IT!!"


Me and Rhylah snap a photo before I give her her first bath at home.

Today was the first day that it was just me and the kids. We got up, I got them dressed, fed and ready for school and we all piled out into the car to drop Gabriel off. Then Asher, Rhylah and I headed home, for a pretty much uneventful afternoon -- I even managed to get a few small household tasks done -- cleaned the kitchen, organized the bills .... etc. Asher has been adjusting pretty well, so that's good. He always wants to "hold it!" (the baby) or give her "Kiffes!!" He adores loving on her. Which is sweet.
Then, after a nap, it was time to go pick up Gabe from school, and I walked out of the house, with both kids and my phone, shut the door... and realized my keys were inside. Not only that, but Rhylah didn't have a coat on (due to the fact that our nurses drilled us, last time around with Asher, about how you're not supposed to put them in coats in their car seats, because it "interferes" with the funtionality of the car seat...okay....yeah...sure) and it was a chilly day. Needless to say, I freaked out. Our neighbors weren't home, Nate wasn't answering his phone.... so I wrapped Rhylah in my sweatshirt and did the only thing I could think of ... I called 911. In moments, a firetruck, with full fanfaire, sirens blaring, came whirling around the corner. Yeah. True story. The firemen hopped out, with their handy door-bashing implements ... apparenlty they had been told there was a baby locked alone INSIDE the house. Ummmm... no. In fact I specifically told the dispatcher "Both kids are with me!" At this point, I was SOOO late for getting Gabe from school, but luckily, Nate had called back and had managed to phone Trinity and Gabe was sent to the "after school care" room to draw pictures and wait for mommy. I had managed to get the kitchen window open and a fireman quickly sqeezed through it and opened my door. I felt so stupid, and repeatedly apologized, but they seemed fine with it, and even gave Asher a fireman's badge sticker. I'm not sure I'll get a bill for the service, but I'm thinking this might just be my tax dollars at work. And you know what the weird thing is? Though all of this, I kept thinking ... "Thank God I cleaned my kitchen this morning!" Yeah, like that matters!
So the next time I'm feeling cocky about successfully juggling three kids at once, I'll have to remember this lovely story and our friendly neighborhood firemen, who helped me out when they really didn't have to.
Gabriel however, asked me if I could be late everyday, since he had so much fun in the after school room -- drawing pictures and eating cookies.

Whew! I'm lucky I survived the day!!

Our baby girl

Rhylah at the hospital -- what a cutie!

A blurry shot, but a great one of her with her eyes open!

Me and my little lady in pink -- all dressed up to go home from the hospital. I LOVE this hat on her!

Me and Rhy, (we pronounce her nickname "Rye") close up!

Rhy and her daddy -- kisses from the main man in her life!


Here are some more photos of our Rhylah (prounouced "rilla" for those of you who are wondering!). We think she's just the cutest thing ever, of course! Our stay at the hospital went rather well. We got home yesterday, and both our boys were super excited to welcome the newest member of the Harrmann household! Rhylah had a great first night in her crib, although I had a hard time parting with her, since we spent our nights at the hospital sleeping side by side, with her inevitably moving closer to me during the night to snuggle against my side, throwing an arm toward me from time to time and snuggling her little face up against the side of my chest. I'm in love, what can I say!!
In other news, Rhylah has another nickname, besides Rhy ... when Ash first met his little sister, he was greeted with a series of screams and yowls that sounded rather like an angry cat.... Asher tentatively said "Baby!" and then, in a voice of astounded wonder "TIGER!" Because apparrently, to him, she sounded like an angry cat indeed! :) So now, Rhy's unofficial nickname is "Tiger." Too fun!

Check out the pics at my mom's blog

Click here for more pics!

She's Here!

Rhylah Sabrine born oct 8, 2007 @ 7:40am. She weighed 9lbs15.9oz and was 21.5" long. Mom and baby are doing great. This photo was taken by Gabe... I think Dad's out of a job!

Just boys

Well, the boys and I spent our last morning of "just mom and the boys" in a very cool way. I woke up very early this morning ... 5 a.m., with some strange, labor related symptoms that didn't seem to get worse, but wouldn't let me sleep. So I wandered downstairs to make some tea, and (I was GOING to put my feet up and relax) ended up cleaning and baking a loaf of banana bread. At about 6:15 a.m., when it was still dark outside, I heard little sounds on the stairway and found Asher inching on his butt down the stairs, with his "white one" clutched firmly in his grasp. (white one is a blanket made by my mom when he was born - both boys are very attached to their "white ones") Within moments, Mr. Gabe followed him down the stairs, also with his white one, and the two of them made a "nest" on the couch with the big afghan and their blankets. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning, just me and the boys!


(In other, TOTALLY unrelated news, my Mizzou Tigers SMEARED Nebraska last night, 41 to 6! My dad tells me it was the first time since something like 1958 that Nebraska hasn't scored a touchdown in a football game. YAY MIZZOU! They are now 5-0. )

"That's right! Still no baby!"

Since I'm at "D-Day" status, I thought it would be funny to post these FRIENDS clips from YouTube. ENJOY!

Pardon my whining rant

Ohhhhh goodness. Only 2 days until my due date! Thank the Lord for that! Because I honestly don't think I can hold out much longer! I'm sure my three boys are sick and tired of my whining, but hey, if you can't whine when you're 40 weeks pregnant ... when can you??
I even had to leave work early last night. There I was, working at my desk, sweating profusely, when I felt the need to use the restroom...for the 20th time that day. So I casually stood up, took one step, and almost fell over, the pain in my lower back was so intense. Wonderful. With my fingernails digging into my palms, and biting my lip to keep from whimpering, I managed to waddle to the restroom, most gracefully. (yeah!) But by 9 p.m. I was hurting so badly, I decided to check out early.
So when I got home, the plan was to go to bed early and try to get some rest. But did that happen? NOOOO! Because now, at night, when I sleep on my side, my hips hurt like MAD and keep me awake all night. (Who knew that hips could hurt that badly!!) I think MAYBE, I got 2 solid hours of snooze time last night. It was ridiculous. So today, I'm in a snarky mood, sick and tired of being the size of a naval ship, and quite ready to be DONE. I keep thinking of the TV show FRIENDS (one of my all time favorite shows!) and the episodes when Rachel was pregnant and cranky and Pheobe made the comment to someone else .... "Good God man, don't anger it!" Well, that applies to me today, dear readers. I am the "it" that no one in their right mind would want to anger. I am huge, and hurting, and mega cranky.

Pardon my whining rant.

(the photo of the boys was taken last week when I made chocolate chip cookies. They're enjoying their first round of "beaters" together. I remember doing this with my sister as a kid!)