Wrestling

Mason has been wrestling since January.  This is his first match and he does some great moves but more important look at his big smile.
The video is a school district sponsored event.  The pictures with the wrestling uniform is for his Gorilla Wrestling club.

Flipping his opponent.



Trying to pin his opponent.

The line up for his group.

The first place guy had Mason in a choke hold most of the time.  I guess that is legal because the ref didn't stop him and clearly saw what was going on.  Mason just kept gagging and it took everything I had not to go pick that kid up off him.  Mason was struggling with that match and came off the mat crying.  I wanted to cry too-we may rethink this wrestling thing.  He has loved every minute of it up until that point.  He did go out and wrestle again after the "brut" and did a little better.

The very proud 4th placer.

Videos!!!!

Tirzah has been quite the dancer since about 2 months old.  This is not the best video, but she doesn't do it when I have the camera.  Plus it is hard to film her when there is such an anxious little boy who wants to be in front of the camera!

Mason got this bow for Christmas and he practices with Jacob a couple times a week in the garage.  He can now load it by himself.  Now we just need to work on aiming!


CRAWLING
The very beginning-lots of movement but not much distance.

One big day

January 19th started with Rylie saying the "crickets" kept her up all night.  We just brushed her off and said get dressed for school.  Later I went back downstairs to her room and I hear the "crickets".  It was water dripping from inside her closet to the carpet making a splashing sound actually.  We had water coming from somewhere.  The kids had been playing with the water outside a few days ago so we thought a pipe had frozen with water in it.  Jacob left for work saying call a plumber.  Later that morning our neighbor helped me figure out it was the fridge leaking.  He got is stopped and the repair man came to fix the fridge.  Then the water cleanup people came and started the dryers and dehumidifiers and tearing the floor out. 

After a day of people in and out and now a torn up floor I was looking forward to getting out and going with Mason to watch the high school wrestling match.  While we were watching the wrestling I was chatting with another wrestler's mom and Zach was playing behind me a ways by Mason.  I didn't see what happened but someone brings me a sobbing/screaming Zach with lots of blood coming from his mouth.  It was pretty crazy for a minute because Tirzah started crying when I handed her to the lady next to me while I tried to check Zach out.  It was a very big cut on the side of his lip and I decided to take him in to get stitches.  The nice lady who thought I was crazy in the first place to bring all those kids by myself now knew I was crazy and decided to help me.  I am sure glad she did because there was lots of blood and crying.

Jacob was actually at the temple but I knew I couldn't do a crying Tirzah and screaming Zach at the hospital by myself.  I had to call a friend and ask her to call the temple and get Jacob out of the session and meet us at the hospital.  Of course then everyone at that session was wondering what was going on (Thursday night is usually just people from our ward so they all knew us and asked over the next couple of days what happened!)

The hospital was another story!  The doctor said we could put Zach to sleep or just hold him down and do a local number.  At the same time I said-put him to sleep and Jacob said-just a local.  The doctor could see we needed a minute to discuss this.  Jacob won and insisted he be the one to hold him down even though I knew what would happen and it did.  He turns green and passes out for any medical thing.  So he was laying on Zach trying not to pass out while I was glaring at him for not listening to me and Zach was screaming his lungs out while the doctor was stitching up his lip.  7 stitches later the kids are all licking popsicles and Jacob is sitting on a chair with his head in his hands trying to breath. 

About 10:30 we all get home and eat cold cereal in my bedroom because our house is a wind tunnel trying to dry everything out.

 It is now over a month later and the floor is getting replaced today.  I am so happy to be moving my fridge and shelf back to their places and not in front of my back door!

100th Day of School

 The kid's each had to make a shirt for the 100th day of school on Feb. 1st.  I was very nervous about getting them done, but I think they turned out great.  We all went to Hobby Lobby (the kid's new favorite store) and picked out what we wanted to use.  I thought Zach would have to have one too so we included him, but it turns out he refused to wear it and had to be bribed into posing for this picture.  He had it off about one second after this picture.

Rylie has snowflakes (100) and the boys have buttons (Mason 100-Zach not 100).  The kids LOVED them!

Rylie's robot

A combination of dress up, art, and building.  The paper in front says "This is my robot invention" and the paper person on the blue "hand" block is the robot's baby doll.

She doesn't create as much as she used to, but when she does she goes all out!

Posing with her robot.

Mason wanted a picture too.

And everyone wanted to be in a picture together.  Yes, it is Saturday morning and we are still in pajamas.  I think she had this made before breakfast even!

New Year's Cookies

The kids both did a lot about the Gingerbread Man story in school this month and they kept asking when we could make gingerbread man cookies.  I like sugar cookies better than gingerbread so this is what we did.  I love to see the different levels of ability and ideas in each of their cookies.

Just take the picture so I can eat them!

 Tirzah hasn't had a picture up for a while so I added this one.  Her first taste of sugar (red licorice) and she was happy while I fixed dinner!

Just thought I would add this.

It is Rylie at about the same age.  It is fun to compare!

Christmas Card 2011

Merry Christmas 2011

Happy Holidays from the Harris family.  We have been in Bismarck for almost a year and amazingly enough we could be here for another year.  It is the first time in our marriage we are not packing boxes and house hunting after being in one place for 12 months.  It feels great!! 

Jacob upgraded his Safety career from the construction site to the corporate office.  The demands of corporate life were eye opening the first couple of months, but he has settled in nicely.  I think his favorite perk of the job is flying in the company jet to visit job sites across the country. He is spending lots of time with the youth in our ward as the Young Men’s president.  He also transferred to a new National Guard unit in Lehi.  It is a Med Evac. Unit and he is the 2^nd in command.  Needless to say he is a busy guy that still finds time to do dishes and give piggy back rides to bed.

I have enjoyed arranging our new home and now moving onto the decorating part instead of repacking boxes.  I have started teaching piano again and am really enjoying my students (one of them is Rylie and she is doing great!).  Being the mom to four kids has really kept me busy.  I still find a way to travel with all of them, although Bismarck is way far away from almost everything!

Rylie (7) continues being our creative director.  If I don’t get the trash out quick enough half of it ends up in her bedroom-empty bottles, boxes, and other odd and ends speak to her in a way I just don’t understand.  She loves having a little sister and takes time every day to play with her.  Her favorite part of first grade is science.

Mason (5) started Kindergarten this fall and got the highest marks of his class (his teacher confided) this quarter.  He is often seen with a calculator in hand and you can’t drive down the road without him spelling signs and asking what they say.  Mason’s free time is spent looking at books or playing computer games.

Zach (3) is my little buddy.  Several times a day he says, “Mom! Mom!”  What, I say.  “I’m right here.” He replies while sitting two feet away from me.  His kitchen stool follows me around during breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in-between.

Tirzah (8 months) is an angel.  She has been such a sweetheart and we all adore her.  She is rolling a little, sitting, teething (her first tooth appeared today!) and laughing (mostly at her brothers doing silly things to entertain her).

We are so blessed to be where we are.  We have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives, good friends all around and family that loves us.  May your new year bring adventures and blessings to you.

With love,

The Harris Family

*Our Christmas tree is Idahoan! Our friends and neighbors the Taylors brought it back from Bear Lake at Thanksgiving. We have both decided that next year’s will be a North Dakota tree because it lost half its branches in the 1000 mile journey on top of the Suburban!

Gingerbread Houses 2011

We made amazing gingerbread houses this year.

Master creator-Rylie

 

 Focused builder-Mason

Candy constructor-Zach

Or was it candy eater-Zach?

This is the "kid" tree we set up downstairs.  I had some Christmas shopping to do one afternoon and left Jacob with a project for the kids.  They had glass balls to fill with brown paper and glues eyes and brown pipe cleaners onto to look like reindeer.  When I came home I was amazed at the creativity.  They were all different and we even had a version of "Max" from the Grinch. 

 They decorated their tree downstairs with their reindeer balls and candy canes, then set up for some serious tree admiring.

Rylie's school Christmas program

The 1st grade performed the Littlest Christmas Tree for their singing program this year.  Rylie was chosen to be one of the trees and she had a little line to say.  The music department provided all those costumes for the elves and the trees, I think they are pretty cute.  Rylie is the tree on the far right with white tights.

Here she is getting decorated by Santa's elves.

Singing one of the songs.

She loves singing and even did a duet with her dad in the Christmas Sacrament meeting program this year.  It was beautiful.

A friend Janae, Rylie and their music teacher Mr. Bonley

The performer!

Rylie's school was choosen to participate in the lighting of the Mehus Belle Auditorium tree.  Because the 1st grade was already practicing a Christmas program they were choosen from the school.  Here she is with some classmates and brothers by the tree.

Carthage Jail

We spent one morning at Carthage Jail.

I love this statue of these amazing brothers.

This quote is near the statue-

'In life they were not divided, in death they were not separated'

  Our family

Their family 

This is the downstair living space for the jailor and his family. 

The key and behavior stick for prisoners.

There were two rooms upstairs-this one with bars and another just regular room.  Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor and Willard Richards were in the regular room when the mob attacked.  "A group of men with blackened faces and guns rush toward the jail. The four men tried to hold the door against the mob, but Hyrum was immediately shot and killed. The mob forced the door open just as Joseph turned to leap out the window. He was shot twice in the back and twice in the chest as he fell from the second-story window. John Taylor was shot four times but miraculously survived. Willard Richards escaped without even a hole in his clothing." (historicnauvoo.com)

There are so many details the missionaries tell you about during the tour.  Things like the jailor moving the prisoners to a different room to be safer.  Willard Richards moving the wounded John Taylor to the barred room and hiding him under the straw mattress.  This mostly likely saved John Taylor's life because the weight of the mattressed probably stopped his bleeding.  Willard Richards being promised safety in a blessing before.  And so many others I don't remember. 

The door to the room where the mob attacked.  The hole in the edge of the door is an actual bullet hole from that day.  The rest of the door is a reproduction.

The whole presentation at the jail is amazing.  There are so many opportunities to feel the spirit starting with the beautiful paintings that you first see when you walk in to the visitor's center to the video you watch before going through the jail and finally the audio experience you listen too in the upstairs room.

 These are the paintings and Mason really wanted us to take a picture in front of them before we left.

This is outside the jail and the upstair window Joseph fell through.

Thank you so much Joseph and Hyrum for all you endured to allow my family to be a forever family.

Thanksgiving dinner

The Nauvoo sites were open Thanksgiving morning so we left the kitchen behind and headed out first thing.  We worked up a real appetite with all our walking around and were very ready for our feast that evening.

This is a picture from the window of the house we stayed at.  We were right on the river and it was beautiful.

The kid's table in the royal turret!

The wonderful chefs and su chefs.

Robyn and I both packed most of our kitchens to make this amazing feast appear hundreds of miles away from both our homes.  It was worth it!  Thanksgiving dinner and it's leftover only come once a year and we were not to miss it.