Christmas Cuties....

We had planned on taking a family picture on the day of our Church Christmas Program. The 4 older kids all had a part in the program and would be all dolled up! Well it turned out that Mariya had the flu that day and we were not able to get a picture. The kids took turns getting the flu for the next week or two. We ended up trying to get a pic just a couple days before Christmas and had NO luck! The boys were grumpy because they were still recooping from the flu and pink eye and it seemed like out of the 57 pictures that I DID take, some one had their eyes closed or something!! We came up with a few cute ones, so I thought I would post them!

Their poor little pink eyes! I am so glad they are feeling better now. They are my little cutie guys but you can see they still had a touch of it.

Merry Christmas!!!

Small Update.....

I know it has been just short of forever since I posted last! We have had a very crazy hectic week! The flu has hit our family hard. NOT the 24-hour flu....the 4/5-day flu!!! So Mariya kicked it off and then Bryson, followed by Nevin and then Nolan. Ashton, Taelyn, Dave and I have NOT gotten it! (knock on wood) I am faithfully praying that we DON'T! Like I said, the recovery time is not short, so I don't want anyone sick on Christmas! Wouldn't be the first time though!

The EXCITING news around the Harris' house is that we sold our house!!! I can't believe it. As you know we bought a "fixer-upper" in August and we put our house on the market toward the end of October. We expected for it to be on the market for a while. We were hoping in the spring we would get an offer. NOPE! God has other plans! Caught us totally off guard but we are thrilled to say the least! We only showed the house twice and the second person came to us with an offer immediately. We have signed the agreement and now we have to go through the house inspection and all of that. Hopefully that all runs smoothly and we plan to close on January 30th! Our new house is not live-able at this time, so we are going to move in with my mom and dad for a while so we can work on the house. We are focused on the kitchen and paint and carpet for the rest of the house. We had planned to do most of the work on the house ourselves but we are exploring some other options to speed up the process. Wow....God never ceases to amaze me! Praise the Lord!

Now we are ready to enjoy these last few days before Christmas with some crafts and baking!

Happy Holidays!

How can you NOT fall in love with these Baby Blues....

I NEVER dreamed I would have a blue-eyed baby. Now I have two!!! Ashton has a handsome brown/green eye combination. Taelyn and Mariya have beautiful dark brown eyes. Bryson has pretty green eyes. This all makes sense because my eyes are brown and Dave's are green. Our parents have the same as us, as do our brothers and sisters. When Nolan and Nevin were born, they had blue eyes. All of our kids did. All of our kids' eyecolor had changed by the time they were 6 months old. So we waited and watched. Sure enough...both Nolan and Nevin's eyes actually stayed blue! And they are simply beautiful!

Here are some pictures of Nolan monkeyin' around at the kids' Christmas program. He is just a doll baby and I fall in love with him everytime I look into those blue eyes!

New Twins added to the family!

My mom (aka Grandma) just got new puppies! They are 8 week old cocker spaniel puppies! My dad, who is generally anti-dog, finally caved and let my mom get not one, but TWO little cuties!

I especially love the new dogs at Grandma's house!!! We have NO animals here at the crazy Harris household. We do not plan on getting any pets any time soon! BUT we do enjoy getting to play with our relative's animals! We have Aunt Jami's pug, Frankie. We also have our cousins animals....3 dogs and a cat that we can enjoy! It works for me!

The new little pups are so cute, so I just had to share some pics! My kids are head-over-heels for this little doggies!

Two little girls....their names are Bella (left) and Roxy (right).

This is a terrible picture of me, but it is one of the only good pictures we got of Roxy! She is a hyper little fiesty gal! She wouldn't sit still long enough for us to get a good one!

Bella is a sweet little cuddly girl. She is pretty low key, but she does like to wrestle around with her sister every now and then!

My pretty niece, Laney and my sweet Tae spoilin' Bella!

Of course, the girls had them all dolled-up!

My handsome nephew, Chance with Bella.

Bryson LOVED holding Bella. Roxy wasn't his style though!

Little Mama Taelyn. She's got the touch!

Nolan was LOVIN' the dogs! I think he is going to be my little veterinarian someday!

Ashton with a wiggly Roxy!

My nephew, Coy givin' some love to Roxy.

I had to post this pic so that you can get an idea of how little they are!

A Nativity Scene from a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

I LOVE to decorate the house for Christmas. We have everything from cartoon-ish snowmen to country Christmas decorations. I particularly like to focus on Nativity Scenes. We own 3 or 4 of them. 2 of them are put out for the kids to play with. One set is wooden and the other is a Fisher Price Little People set. I like to let the kids be hands on with these. Generally they stay in the same location, they just get rearranged. One night as I was picking up, I noticed I was missing the "stable" for one. I went back to find my highly creative girls acting out Jesus' birth.....WITH STAR WARS FIGURES!!! They've got some WILD imaginations.

I guarantee that you have never seen a Nativity scene like this one....

CAST

Han Solo as Joseph

Padme as Mary

Wicket the Ewok as Baby Jesus (aka Jesus Loves Me Baby)

Slave Leia, Luke Skywalker, and Boba Fett as The Three Wisemen

Mace Windu as The Shepherd

Leia as the sheep

Anakin as the cow

Logray the Ewok as the donkey

4 year olds are ALWAYS right....

We will every now and then rent a movie on Tuesday night. Sometimes Dave has to do the Sports section, so he'll go to work for most of the evening. I had asked the kids if they wanted me to rent "Wall-E" or "Horton hears a Who". I THOUGHT all 4 said "Horton Hears a Who". I was mistaken. Bryson, my recently turned 4 year old, did not.

Here's our conversation:

Bryson: Mom, when are we going to watch Wall-E?

Me: Oh, Bry...I didn't rent Wall-E. I rented "Horton Hears a Who".

Bryson: Aaawww....I wanted to watch Wall-E! (very whiney voice)

Me: Well, maybe next time we can get that one.

Bryson: But I like robots and I wanted to watch Wall-E because it has a robot. If you go up to the store and get it, and put it in the dvd player, I will show you the robot.

Me: Well, not tonight buddy. We are only watching ONE movie and we will stick with the one I already rented. I will keep Wall-E in mind for next time.

Bryson: "Horton Hears a Who" has a robot too.

Me: Noooo.....I don't think that show has a robot.

Bryson: Yeah, it does. In the very begining. You will see it.

Me: No buddy, this one is a Dr. Suess show. You know...like Cat in the Hat?

Bryson: Yeah....and it has a robot.

Me: No, it has silly lookin' characters. I think it even has an elephant. It will be really funny. We'll pop popcorn and watch it in just a little bit.

Bryson: Yeah....and when we watch it, you will see a robot. You know, like C3PO on Star Wars.

Me: C3PO isn't on this movie though.

Bryson: Noooooo.....not C3PO, just a robot LIKE C3PO.

Me: Bryson, I really don't think there are robots in this movie.

Bryson: (very polite tone) Mom....can you PLEASE quit saying that there are no robots???

Me: Okay buddy.

We watched the movie and he loved it. He actually sat for the entire thing, which Bryson is not one to usually SIT at all. Never another word about robots. =)

Huh??? You said what????

Having 6 small children in the house is quite entertaining in and of itself. Dave and I constantly catch ourselves cracking up at the things that our kids say or do! Many of their mispronunciations are so cute that they end up sticking around for quite a while! Actually, Dave and I find ourselves using some of these on a daily basis. Nevin and Nolan, being 2 years old, have developed some of their own language.... ;) Mostly for my records, here are some of the cute things they say now....

"Wah" ..... instead of "yeah"....not sure where the "w" came from. Nevin started it and Nolan now says it too.

"Meet-me" .....this is for "blankie". Again, Nevin started it, Nolan now uses it as well.

"Read it tee" ..... this is what Nevin says for "read it to me" when he is comin' at us with a book. I guess he combines the "to me".

"Punk punk" ..... Nolan originated this one for "pumpkin".

"Boozer" ..... Ok...follow me here. This is their word for "ghost". Get it? BOOOO? Bryson used this last year, and it has hung round. I have had many embarrassing moments in the Halloween isle at Walmart when the 3 little boys are all yelling "Look! There's a boozer!" We also have a beanie baby ghost, Nevin gave him his name... "Boozer Boo".

"Jesus-loves-me baby" ..... this is what Nevin calls our "Baby Jesus" in our Nativity Scene.

"Man-Man" ..... Nolan's word for "snowman".

"Choo Choo Pizza" ..... this is for "Jocko's Pizza Inn". They have a train theme throughout the restaurant. Again...I think Bryson came up with it and it has stuck with us!

"Beet House" ..... this is for the "Beef House"....a steakhouse that we frequent.

"Hamburger House" ..... this is what Nevin shouts out when he sees those golden arches!

"Am I Am" ..... this is for the Sammy Hagar song, "Sam I am". The boys LOVE this song and request it as soon as they get in the van. Soon after it starts, you hear.....

"Turn it Bup!" ..... this is how they say "Turn it up!".

"Harvester" ..... another favorite song of theirs..... "International Harvester" is frequently requested! They just blurt it out!

"Children. Parents." ..... We have a children's CD with Christian songs. Nevin knows all the words to "Children obey your Parents".

"Lightning Keen" ..... this is for Lightning McQueen". Big fans here at our house. =)


Here are some "oldies" that have stuck around.....


"Yeah-yeah" ..... Ashton would say this with such excitement for "yes". If you asked him if he wanted some juice, he would say "yeah-yeah!".

"Mud-tie" ..... this was for "muddy". Ashton would say "Oh no, my shoes are all mud-tie."

"Abre" ..... the girls loved Dora so they never used the word "open"

"Basketti" ..... this is the girls' word for "spaghetti". I can remember calling it that when I was young too!

"By purpose" ..... this is used by the girls still. Instead of "ON" purpose! You know...."She kicked me by purpose!!!" Some days I hear this more than others!

"Apples juice" ..... obviously "apple juice". For some reason, Bryson always pluralized "apple"...it makes sense!

"Buh-tar" ..... this is for "guitar". Bryson LOVES "buh-tar" songs!

"Comm trooper" ..... used instead of "Storm" trooper. Bryson is really getting into Star Wars movies these days! Chip off the old block! =)


I am sure that their cute little voices saying them is what makes it so cute, but I had to get some down before I forgot them! I have many more, but that will have to be part two!

My Studious One.....

Nevin, my spunky 2 year old, LOVES his Thomas "puter". I will give that computer most of the credit for him being able to recognize almost all of his numbers and a lot of his letters!

Sometimes he likes to just go into his office, with his laptop, and have some alone time...

FIRST SNOW....By the numbers....

1 ..... number of snows we've had this season

6 ..... number of kids at the Harris house that were DYING to play in the snow at 7:30 a.m.

12 ..... number of ears that needed covered before going out

60 ..... number of fingers wiggling their way into gloves

24 ..... number of socks to keep their feet "toasty warm"

6 ..... number of winter coats that got buttoned, zipped, and velcro-ed

2 ..... number of parents worn out from the "getting ready" process

45 ..... number of minutes to prepare a family of 8 for the snow

8 ..... number of smiling faces ready to have some winter fun

3 ..... number of sleds we dug out of the shed

2 ..... number of little guys who had their "first" snow experience

2 ..... number of snowmen that were built

4 ..... number of snow angels that were made in our yard

1 ..... number of slushy rivers on the side of the road from the snow melting so fast

3 ..... number of little boys playing in said river

2 ..... number of gloves that went MIA during our outing

16 ..... number of rosy red cheeks ready to go in and get warm

30 ..... number of minutes that were enjoyed in the first snow!

Worry ends where faith begins.... (WARNING: LOOOOOONG POST AHEAD!)

Dave and I have been praying for a bigger house for quite some time. We currently live in a small 3 bedroom ranch home that we bought in October 1999. We have LOVED this house from the day we laid eyes on it. No, it's not perfect. It's not a "model" home by any means. But we have put so much love and work into it! We have done most of the major things, from the furnace to the roof! Most of the inside has been updated over the years and we have made it our own! The "smallness" of our house has bothered everybody else more than it has bothered us. We have really truly been happy living here. Usually we are all in the same room anyways, so space is only an issue when it comes to "stuff". I have always believed the motto..."Love grows best in little houses." But with adding Nolan and Nevin to our crew, and knowing that we would like to have more children someday, we knew that we would need to have more space. So we started searching. We came upon many houses, but didn't feel right financially about them. We also had put an offer in on a house, only to have the sellers back out at the last minute. We had also at one point, sold our house. Then right before signing, the buyer did not get the job transfer they were hoping for and had to back out on their offer. We knew that God had a plan, but could not figure out just what it was. So we decided to take the "sit back and pray" approach.




My mom had been "eyeballing" a house in Georgetown for a while. It was a big house that had been sitting empty for over a year. We tried to call the court house to get information on it, but there was no information on record. That was in March.




In June, I picked up a small local newspaper, which I read about once every six months. I opened it to the "houses for sale" section and happened to glance over on the opposite page at the Public Notice section. That is when I noticed an announcement for a "Sheriff's Sale" on that EXACT Georgetown house! For those of you who don't know, a Sheriff's Sale is an auction sale of a foreclosed property held by the sheriff to sell the property to pay a court-ordered judgement. You buy the property...sight unseen. AS IS. You must have 10% cash down at the time of the sale, and the remainder within 24 hours. It is a big risk, but also a way to get a really great bargain!




So I started making phone calls and scouring the internet for information. I hit all kinds of dead ends. The internet was no help because laws vary by county. Everyone that I called and talked to had no information on the house besides what the taxes were and who had last purchased the home. We really had no idea on what took place at a Sheriff's Sale. It left us feeling clueless! We prayed....




We decided to take matters into our own hands one day....we snuck through the window of the house and looked around for ourselves! The house was filthy. It stunk. It had garbage and junk left in it. It needed so much work. And I LOVED it! Dave was not convinced as easily as I was. I have always been the type to look at something rough and see potential. Dave said he had to think on this one. After discussing it for a few days, we decided to just think on it and see what happens. We prayed....




We moved forward to try to get financing. We have excellent credit, which helped us, but only one income! We got approved, but it was for about $10,000 less than what we thought we would like to buy the house for. Well, we needed to sign the loan papers in order to take the cash to the sale. So basically, if the auction went for HIGHER than what we could pay, then we would have to immediately take our cash back to the bank and pay off the loan. BUT we would have to pay all of the loan fees out of pocket, which ended up being about $500. So there was a chance that we would walk away with no house and also lose $500. Wow...not comfortable with that, but was it a chance we should just take? We prayed....

The sale was to take place at the courthouse on August 7th at 10:00 a.m. We had gone through with the loan paper work and the only thing left was to sign the papers. My dad came up and helped with the kids and my mom and I took the loan papers down to Dave's work to have him sign them. We were pushin' for time and I needed to get the papers back to the bank in order to get the money. The sale was going to start and at 9:45, we decided that $500 was too much to lose and we changed plans. We kept the loan papers on us and decided to take a chance and go to the auction with just the proof of the loan and no cash. We prayed...

We (my mom and I...Dave was at work) met with the sheriff and a few lawyers in the lobby and the sale began. We asked the Sheriff if it would be ok to just have the proof of funds. He said he wasn't sure because he did not usually do this. He happened to be filling in for someone who was normally in charge of Sheriff's Sales. He said that since we seemed trustworthy, he would let us slide by as long as we had the cash to him within the next couple hours.

When it came time to bid on our house, there was only one other bid....which was an absent bid from the bank that had owned it.....and all we had to do was bid $1 over that bid!!!! It was actually almost $10,000 less than what we were approved for! What an answer to prayer! The paperwork and process went really smooth and we knew God had a hand in it all along!

The house is twice the size that we have now. It's a beautiful older home with tons of character! It used to belong to a popular attorney that lived in town. Everyone in town seems to have a "story" about the house. My grandma even spent the night there quite a few times when she was a young girl! Another lady shared how she took piano lessons there and always thought the house looked like a mansion. It's a shame that someone let the house go, but it worked out great in our benefit! We had to redo all of the plumbing, but the electrical and the furnace were both in great shape! We were thrilled with that! We are in the process of doing some major things to the house and that will be in posts to come!

Our "hope" is to be able to add an addition onto the house. We would add 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. We have had the estimate done and we are waiting to see how the rest of the house goes..financially speaking. If it ends up that we can not do the addition, we are totally ok with that! It's just another aspect that we are leaving in God's hands! I can honestly say that I have not stressed out AT ALL! That is a work of God! My husband has not stressed much either....that is an even BIGGER work of God! (He is generally the one that worries!)

The kids have been a HUGE help (more on that to come) and so have my mom and dad! My mom has been so generous to watch the kiddos if we need her to and my dad is right there with us doing all the major remodeling! I am blessed with wonderful parents!

In the meantime, here are some pictures to update you. They are not the best quality, but will have to do for now. DON'T PROCEED IF YOU GET SCARED EASILY! HA!

The Girls' Room...this room looks way better in the pic than it does in real life. It just needs some TLC and it will be cute as a button!

This is Ashton and Bryson's Room. It's hard to get a good angle in this room! It does have 2 walk-closets...one on either side of the room. It's a cute room and just needs some paint and carpet/rug. These are hardwood floors, they are just currently painted.

This is Nolan and Nevin's Room. Needs some major lightening up! We are going to decorate with a cowboy theme....it will be so cute!

Upstairs Bathroom....it's been slightly updated. It needs a little work, but will do the job for now!

The front of our house

The side yard

The back yard

The door that goes down to the creepy basement...

Dave going upstairs...hesitantly....

All of the kids' rooms have walk-in closets...BONUS!...

The Dining Room....this rooms needs the least amount of work. Just some paint and flooring and we are good to go. It already has new drywall and windows....

If we don't do an addition, this will be our master bedroom. It will have a bathroom and closet put in. It currently has a fireplace, but that will be torn out in order to make room for the bathroom. This room is connected to the dining room now but won't be for long! If we do the addition, this will be a toy/craft room. YaY Me!

This is the Family Room and it is huge! It doesn't look big in the pics for some reason??? But it is so much bigger than what we are used to now! This room basically needs paint and flooring and a leak fixed in the ceiling. We are on that project now! The fireplace and a few of the window panes need some attention as well.

This is the other part of the Family Room. It is an "L" shape. (Note the fireplace to the left of the picture.) This "area" will be used for toys and kids stuff. I am DYIN' to get some light paint on these walls and brighten this room up! SOOOO much potential!

The Kitchen...the scariest room of all! We knew that this room would be financially the biggest challenge! We have this room well under way and I will be posting soon on it's progress! We did debate on tying to save the cabinets, etc....but NAH....if we are going to do it, let's do it right!!! (this pic was taken while standing by the back door)

Another view of the Kitchen. I don't have pictures of the other side, but it is actually pretty spacious! You will see soon enough! ; )

This is a small, inconvenient Bathroom off of the kitchen. Yuck.

This is a big homemade "bar" type thing that is in the kitchen. Ugly.

My Favorite Blog....

Ok...I have to let ya'll know.... I soooo enjoy reading Mycharmingkids.net. It is absolutely my favorite blog to read and has been since about 6 months ago when I came upon it. (Thanks to Devin on that one!) God has worked some crazy amazing miracles in their life and Mckmama is an encouraging Christian Mom! I have sent many prayers up God's way for her little guy, Stellan!

So she is having a contest, and of course, I want to win it! She gives away some crazy cool stuff. Just to let you know, I have tied for 12th place on one of her contests! It doesn't sound THAT impressive, but I was proud of myself! So head on over and check out some good, clean, Christian fun at Mycharmingkids.net!!!

I can NOT figure this out!!!!

I have absolutely NO idea where Bryson got his GOOFYNESS from.
NONE.

Maybe from his Father?