I gotta have more COW BELL!!!

What a DAD right??? Playing ROCK BAND DRUMS with his baby girl on his lap!

Qua-ah with his poor bandaged hand (or as Reagan calls it, "his poison hand")





So to Celebrate Qua-ah finally getting out of the hospital after 8 days...we had a little Welcome Home Gathering for him so he could be surrounded by his family and have some REAL food...mmmmmm gooood. And it wasn't long before ROCK BAND was hooked up and the fam started ROCKING the walls of the Harrison home. We even got Carl singing..WHOO HOO! But when "Don't Fear the Reaper got started" Blake RAN down to his drum set and brought up his cowbell...oh yeah!!!


It's always a great time when we're together as a family!!! We are soooo blessed to be so close to my side of the family...to be a part of this truly great group of people who know what it's like to be "Family". After everyone leaves and the house is quiet, Blake can always be found with a sweet smile on his face. And he always says something like..."see, this is what a real family is like." I couldn't agree more. The kids always look forward to "Qua-ah" (grandfather in Hopi) stopping by for a quick game of UNO or JENGA or sometimes a long game of Disney Monopoly. Reagan especially loves doing her homework with him and telling him "make sure you sign Qua-ah, not Carl".
And Kaitlin has found a new passion for sewing with my mom Oma, she always gets so excited for the new pieces of fabric that Oma shares with her.
Thank goodness for these completely wonderful people in our lives. My kids have the best Aunts and Uncles, who always bring their wonderful spirits into our home when they stop by.
We don't have to worry about "the stench of contention" or the gossiping and drama that some people just need to make them feel important when my beautiful family is here. Goodness and love and respect for each other... this is family! And that is why there are often a bunch of gorgeous brown people parking their cars in front of our home and walking through our open door!

6 more days!!!!!!!!!

She's lucky she's so cute...

Every family needs a Bette!!! She is the biggest, sweetest, beautiful little NUT in the world! I was talking to Mike one night while he was at our house and we were laughing our faces off because of how crazily silly she is and I think it was then that I realized that it was probably because her name is Bette. I've never seen any sweet little girls with names like Emily or Sarah (which I love...) act as nutty as my little Bette Spaghetti.
So Thanksgiving night after everyone left our little "after party" I was sitting on the couch in our family room just relaxing and holding the baby when I got that feeling of dread that you get from realizing that it has been a little too quiet with a 2 year old in the room. When I got up enough courage to look behind me into the kitchen...there she was with her hands just swimming and squishing around in a bowl of the yummiest cream cheese frosting for Lia's super delicious pumpkin cookies. I didn't know what to say so I just stared at her for a minute waiting to see what she would do...and what comes out of her mouth with that cute little grin on her face??? "Mana Mana!!!" (You know, that Muppet sketch, "Mana mana doo doo da doo doo"...if you don't know what I'm talking about look for Mana Mana on YouTube.com)
I was laughing so hard!!! I often wonder what the thinking process in her 2year old little brain is like. I imagine it went something like this:
"Uh-oh, I'm totally busted...Okay she's looking at me but she's not saying anything yet...she's still looking at me...how do I get out of this............Oh what the heck............MANA MANA.........Okay she's laughing, I kinda thought that would work."
Every family needs a Bette!

Blake's Birthday

So it wasn't the complete surprise that I was going for but Blake couldn't have been more happy about his birthday this year. There were only two things that he really, really wanted while I was preggers with Ava- He wanted me to send him out in the middle of the night for some absurd craving and he also wanted the phone call while he was at work saying "It's time to come home, we're having our baby today!" . He's never gotten the phone call because I've either gone into labor in the middle of the night or been induced. The poor thing never had a chance to get his phone call. So I was determined that whatever time of day I went into labor this time I would wait until Blake was gone so I could call him, (even if he'd only been out the door for 5 minutes). Anyway, that plan kind of got messed up when he was with me at one of my appointments and I had flunked my first diabetes test and with that the doctor said that if I did have gestational diabetes then she would most likely induce me early. So Blake of coarse asked if we could have the baby on his birthday...and whaddya know, she said that would be fine. So, Blake was banned from any more Dr.'s visits from then on and because I passed the second diabetes test I told him that the plan for being induced on his birthday was off, which technically it was because at every visit she would tell me that I definitely wasn't ready, whoo hoo! Then when I was talking to some friends they were like "just schedule being induced on Blake's birthday, send him to work and give him his phone call then" Brilliant!!! SO that was the plan. I had a photo shoot before my Dr.s appointment the day before Blake's birthday so I wouldn't have to find an excuse to get out of the house to get to that...everything was going according to plan. I was so excited until everything fell apart at Blake's work and he was going to have to end up going in and working practically all night long. What the CRAP? Anyway to make a long story short, I guess the reaction on my face made Blake think that something was definitely up and the little stinker got it out of me. So... he didn't get his phone call but knowing that we were going to have our baby on his birthday was more than wonderful!

He woke up to his Birthday sign and balloons and at 7:00 we went in to the hospital, I got some dang good drugs in my system and at about 2:43 in the afternoon our little Ava was born. She was so small and precious! What a great way to spend Blake's birthday. We had Mike and Karalee pick up some take-out from Mimi's, Lia taught Kaitlin how to make a marble cake...and we had a Beautiful little baby girl!!!

So I wrote this 3 months ago...

I thought that I would have added more posts than I have for this, my family blog... I think the main reason for why I haven't is because with about 10 days to go before we have our baby I'm feeling a bit like an old rusty car that drives down the road hoping not to hit a big bump because if I do I'm just going to break apart, hubcaps rolling away and everything. hahahaha. At least that's how I was feeling as I chased Bette from the kids school clear to the park nearby. That girl is not only a little stinker sometimes (giggling and shaking her head while I yelled "Bette Stop!"), but she is FAST. Blake was saying the other day how she is going to be so surprised when I'm not preggers anymore and can catch up to her again--- we'll see.



So Bette will be 2 years old on Thursday and I have been feeling quite horrible about the fact that she doesn't have a scrapbook to call her own!



She's so sweet as she looks through Reagan's book and asks "Bette???" as she looks at the pictures of her big sis, and I'm going "You bet that is Bette...". So my mission for the past few days has been to get as many pages of her sweet life done as possible. She is such a darling little girl! I've never seen her type of personality before in anyone. She is NOT a cuddle girl at all, yet her favorite things are stuffed dogs, pillows and soft sheets. She loves to jump off anything that she can climb onto and throw or stack anything that she can hold in her little hands. Just tonight at Family Home Evening, Reagan was saying the prayer and as she was saying her sweet little "Bless Nana that she'll feel all better soon, and bless the baby the she'll be healthy and strong...and Please bless Bette that she won't destroy our entire house.." Bette was throwing our Halloween Pumpkins across the living room floor! She is a hoot!!!



There are so many times that I think as I'm holding her (when she lets me) or just looking at her "I hope you can feel how loved you are." because she is always so go go go.



I know that she can sense that something is going on with the baby, but I don't think that she can quite grasp what exactly is going to be happening in the next little while. For the past few nights she has been falling asleep on the floor, she'll climb out of her crib so she can sleep on the carpet. I don't know if she thinks that she's getting kicked out of her crib or what, but that worries me. At least she brings her "Lillies" and her pillows with her so she can be comfy. That's my Bette, she's a little Nut and I love her with all my heart!!!

Christmas List

All right here it is... 2007 Christmas List!
(Sorry for any typos... I just cut my flippin finger with scissors hahahaha)

Dad- Alohna
Mom- Mary
Matt- Bette
Gary- Jordan
Angela- Brian
Socorro- Mike
Jake- Cedric
Josh- Jai
Susi- Qua-ah
Soni- Ckezra
Joseph- Ataylee
Mary- Blake
Kevin- Josh
Lori- Oma
Jordan- Joseph
Jai- Reagan
Jazz- Ava
Deja- Carl
Carl- Kaitlin
Atalie- Deja
Alohna- Socorro
Cedric- Lori
Cai- Kevin
Alaisa- Blakey
Ataylee- Matt
Ckezra- Gary
Cyeele- Jazz
Blake- Cai
Amy- Atalie
Blakey- Lia
Kaitlin- Sonrisa
Reagan- Angela
Bette- Jake
Ava- Bethany
Mike- Amy
Brian- Alaisa
Bethany- Cyeele
Lia- Susi

Why the title???

You know that song... I think it's a Leann Womack (spelling???) song, "That's who I am" the chorus goes something like:

I am Rosemary's granddaughter

the spitting image of my father

and when the day is done my mama's still my biggest fan

sometimes -I'm clueless and I'm clumsy

but I've got friends that love me

and they know just where I stand

that's all I really need

that's who I am.

So I'm not completely crazy about the song itself.. I love it because my Nana Rosemary ROCKS!!! Reagan's middle name is Rosemary after her, and if it were up to me I would name all my kids after her. She is such a fabulous woman with an amazing heart.

We all love her so much! I am so grateful for her sweet testimony that she is so willing to share with us. I love the sweet example that she has set for all of us, It's so nice to have someone so steady and strong to look to, especially when there are so many nut-cases out there trying to pull everyone in so many different directions....ahhhhh how great she is!!!

That's probably the reason why our family is so awesome because we have such an awesome Nana!!!

So here begins the Family Blog...if anyone has anything they'd like to share just let me know! I love you all!!! Thanks for being so wonderful, supportive, kind, non-crazy, etc., :)