A Blue Christmas

Yeah, yeah, so I've been TOTALLY uninspired, and overwhelmed with TOO MUCH to post about (is it possible to be both at the same time? If your name is Sarah Harrison, then I guess so!), so I've chosen the 'present' option (ala president-elect Obama), and decided to not post anything at all!
Once I get my rear in gear, There will be much to post about. But for now, just a little tidbit for you all:

The week of Christmas, the hinges on my cell phone broke. I was so sad! I totally love my phone! But there was so much to do and so little time, so I just decided to baby it until I could do something about it. Well, this evening, all I heard was a little 2-year-old voice in the bathroom saying "uh-oh!" And you know that's never good.

Turn's out I left my phone in the bathroom counter (so I could hear it ring when Bryan called during kids' bathtime). Lincoln decided my phone wasn't broken enough and that I obviously didn't need to focus my energy on folding laundry, so he put the poor electronic device out of it's misery. My sorry little Tiny Tim of a phone is now snapped in half. Whomever sent me that text message around 8pm tonight, sorry, I didn't get it. I'm sure you can see why:

(In all seriousness, I know it truly wasn't his fault. My phone was on it's last legs anyway. If you opened it the wrong way, it was gonna bust apart like that. But I sure was pretty sad regardless!)
So now, I am using an old Blackberry Phone that's probably older than me (Bryan got it from some guy back east a few years back). And did you know that if you have a Blackberry you HAVE to have an internet package on your cell phone plan? Okay, maybe I'm the last person to know about that. But Hello? An extra 30 bucks a MONTH for features I wouldn't use anyway??? Geesh! That's like an extra tank of gas for Bryan's truck! Can you tell that I wouldn't have an I-phone? I am way too cheap.

So, just pure sadness. Not only do I have to pay for extra goodies that I won't use, I'm paying for extra goodies on an outdated phone. But the good part is that it's only a temporary fix until we figure out if we really are switching cell phone carriers or not. And yes, I am that trivial. :)
On a good note, {cross your fingers and toes} it seems that our Christmas Miracle just may happen! We are selling our car! But just in case our buyer doesn't come through, if anyone knows of anyone else looking to buy a Honda, let us know; we have one to sell! You can email me for details.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas Cards...

Are now becoming Happy New Year cards this year! I don't know why I thought I had more time... haha there is never more time.

Anyway, if you want one (and you totally do; don't be shy!), please email me your address at bah_gaucha {at} yahoo {dot} com.

If I don't hear from anyone I will be sad and whip out the tear-stained cheeks. No one wants to see the ugly cry. So send me your addys! :)

we all learned something today!

I love the rain.
I hate that my kids stay inside all day because of the rain.

This afternoon after lunch, I put on the DVD Robots for Lincoln so I can straighten up and get other things done. I am in the bathroom for something like 6 nanoseconds, and while I'm exiting the facilities, I hear this:

"scribble scribble scribble"

Yeah, that can't be good.

I come into the kitchen, and find Lincoln with a black sharpie pen in hands, decorating the refrigerator door in black. That was AFTER he already did it in red.

What did we learn from this, class?

Mommy learned that Nail polish remover takes red sharpie pen scribble off of your refrigerator door! It does not, however, take off black sharpie pen scribbles. Rubbing alcohol only lightens both. (Geeze, they weren't kidding about the permanent part)

Lincoln learned that sharpie pen awards him with a swat on the butt and early nap time.

Orion learned to just lay low and keep eating your fishie crackers in these types of situations.

Daddy learned to not bring it up after the fact. Or, at least he will when he sees the scribble marks...

We have a little walker!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Last weekend he really got the idea of walking and has been practicing ever since. He's doing great!

Letters and shapes

Lincoln with my bro Jared (J-RAD)

Have I mentioned to anyone before that Lincoln is an evil genius? He is. Really. Okay, less on the evil, more on the genius. I'm not saying that because I'm his mommy and I'm supposed to. I really think that he's uber smart!
We have been working on shapes and letters for a little while, seriously not long at all. I used to
sing him the ABC's song when he was really little, so he knows how to recite his letters (the whole song, actually. It's really cute; he sings at the end: 'Now I know my A, B, C, D's...'), but I haven't gotten to the point yet of matching the letter shapes to the letter sounds, let alone upper and lower case.
But last night, he really surprised me. We were reading his bedtime story, 'The Story of Christmas'. After we were done, I was tucking him into bed, the usual routine, then he grabs the book, points at the cover, and says, "That's a 'H' "..... um, what was that? How do you know what an 'H' looks like??? Then he proceeds to name practically every letter on the book cover!
So I'm thinking, "This kid is the next Einstein", and I'm asking him what that letter is, what that letter is, etc. I wanted him to spell out 'story', so I asked, in procession, what each letter was. And this was the outcome:

mom- what's that letter? (I asked this before he recited each letter)

S - T - Circle - R - Y


HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
So much for being Einstein! :)

Too Adorable

We must be cruel, or my boys must be adventurous. At any rate, I found these older videos and I couldn't help but post them!


Lincoln at 1 year



Orion at 9 months (this was taken on a phone so the sound is pretty bad. But you get the idea.)

I love my boys!

a man of the cloth

We finally jumped over the edge and did it:





Orion has had a never-ending rash since around six months of age (he's a year next month, can you believe it???). I talking about a come-and-go-but-never-really-gone,-gets-to-open-sores kinda rash. It was so frustrating! I switched diaper brands several times, used every diaper rash cream on the market, and even mixed and matched the combinations of diaper rash cream to diaper brand. I used the hairdryer trick, let him crawl around without a diaper at all (gotta love my carpet cleaning awesome husband!), gave him long soothing baths, changed his diaper every hour... to. no. avail!
We figured he is alergic to the chemicals in the absorbent materials used in disposable diapers.
So, we switched to cloth. And even better, it was free!
My sister Nikki used cloth diapers for her first two (for the same reason. Darn those sensitive McBride hineys!), so she gave me all of her cloth diapers! THANK YOU! They were all in excellent condition, and well, she wasn't using them for anything, so there you go.
Can I just say that I really LOVE cloth diapers? And seriously, I NEVER thought I would hear myself even thinking that statement. I love them for the mere fact that it took only half an hour for little O's rash to be gone. completely. After months and months of endless rashies.
I love that they are much easier than I had origionally anticipated. I'm not going to say they are as easy as disposable, but using them is a far cry from churning your own butter or chopping firewood! Really, it's not like having to trek across the Rockies or something! :)
One of the best parts is that O no longer fights his diaper changes. He now loves to be changed, because I'm sure he can feel the difference between wet and dry. And Lincoln is really into them, too.(we still do disposable for him since he's on the horizon of being out of diapers anyway) He gets to wear a cloth diaper every so often, and he totally digs it, it's SO funny!
You definitely need to have a system, or cloth diapers will not work for you. Better yet, you need to have a system, or having KIDS will not work for you. :) But once you get in your own groove, it's nothing at all. I didn't think I would be able to do it effectively without our own washer/dryer. But I've found that it's really not too much trouble since it's one tiny load twice a week, and they can air dry if need be.
Cloth diapers obviously do need to be changed more often (every 2 hours; you wait 3 and you have have major leakage issues), and that can get a little tricky sometimes. But the key is preparedness. Go Boy Scouts.
We've actually gone a hybrid route, where O wears disposables for nap and bedtime. That seems to work the best for us, so I don't have to worry about leaks, or prolonged exposure to disposables.
So, I think I might do cloth for all our subsequent kids {GASP!}. We'll see. But I am really pleased with how much easier it is than 25-30 years ago when I was wearing them!

Christmas Picture Outtakes

I am not embarrassed... I know everyone goes through this. You have to take about 1 million pictures to get 'the one' that you will send to your friends and family. These three are not 'the one'. But they are funny:

Geez, how "not engaged in the photo" could a family get? I love that Orion is teething on my necklace; that would be #8 that has been broken/gnawed on. I should stop wearing jewelry! :)

Orion is spawn of Satan, Lincoln is staring off into who knows where (but with a nice smile, good for you, kid!), and I am slightly blurry. Bryan looks good, though.

And my personal favorite:

I can just see the tagline now:

"Happy Holidays from the Haggard Harrisons"

Too funny! This picture pretty much sums up 2008 for us! Maybe we actually should send this one out... ha ha, not really... :)

Back seat driver

I need to write this post today. WHAT A DAY!!! Not only am I getting over some sort of nasty winter cold, Lincoln is being more of a terror than usual. When I say more of a terror, I mean over-tired horrific tantrumed hitting screaming throwing TERROR!!! Hello, terrible two's; I was wondering when you'd rear your ugliness.


So here are some sweet memories of my little back seat driver to warm my spirits:

Diet Coke is my all-time favorite. You can just skip over the part about how the caffeine will rob my bones of calcium, make me more prone to migraines and muscle spasms, not to mention the unnecessary calories from a sugary soda drink, despite the label of "Diet". I love the stuff! And since I only drink the fountain version (it tastes different, yes it does), I only get it when we eat out, which is not that often.
Anyway, one day when I had a huge list of errands to run, I decided to stop by a fast food restaurant to get a bite for me and the kids (you can shoot me now... shameless!). And before I even got up to the window to order anything, Lincoln speaks up: "Ummmm, Diet Coke." I guess I should cut back my intake just a wee bit... I just about died laughing!



When I have to load the kids in the car, I let Lincoln get in the front seat and 'drive' for a little while until I have Orion clipped in. This has become my saving grace since we have a coupe and will not be getting a different car any time soon (so sad, another post). There was a stretch of time where he discovered the horn and would honk it like crazy. Every time after, when I would see him go for the horn, he would be warned with a 'no honking' or he would not get to drive. This little warning went on for a few days until the novelty of the horn wore off.
Weeks after that, I was cut off by someone pretty badly and dangerously, so I was leaning on my horn to show my, ahem, road rage. It may have been a bit excessive, but my babies were in the car and the mother bear in me rose up! There was nothing but quiet in the car for 10 seconds, then Lincoln says, in a really serious voice (copying my serious voice) "No honking!" He even wagged his finger, for shame... I got served! :)



I hope you got a laugh out of those! And thankfully, writing them down convinced me to keep him for a few more days... :)

*Just in case anyone was wondering, I am planning on keeping my son... it's just been a little stressful with Bryan gone A LOT. Every mom with a husband owning a business and schooling full time simultaneously totally understands my frustration when your kid redecorates your entire bathroom with pee and toilet water. The ENTIRE bathroom. But I will not dewll on that too much...