Easter Joy

We bought some candy for Nathan & I - which Harlow loved.  (Seriously don't know how this guy knows exactly what sweet things are the moment he sees them, even if he's never seen or tried them before.  Its like he has a little built in radar for the sweets.  Thanks to his Dada, of course)  But for Harlow instead of candy we got a big blue ball which he loves...but the ball got totally upstaged by the Rollos candies.

Tonight we went out to Grandma and Grandpa Henderson's house with Spencer & Angie, and Nathan & Colleen's families where we had a big Easter Egg Hunt.  Colleen was so great and even had eggs set aside for our little Harlow Boy so Daddy and he got to go a huntin'.  The Easter Bunny also brought a sweet spiderman couch and rocketship backyard swim for our little guy :) it was fun being with family and celebrating all together.

Easter is an interesting time - I guess holidays in general are.   The world commercializes them so much so as to take all special & spiritual meanings out of them.  It seems like we can on longer simply celebrate the holiday...let me explain that better...we have to make more and more of an individual effort to bring Christ into our homes with these holidays, it doesn't just happen.  WE CHOOSE TO LET CHRIST IN OR IT JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN!! I am grateful for the time we took out to remember our Savior, His sacrifice and resurrection but I know we could have done more.  If we  are not careful and prepare then all the sudden we realize the holiday is behind us, gone, and a memory, with little to show for it.  I want to re-challange myself to be the Mommy, to be the one on top of seeing that the true meaning of our special holidays comes through and is the center of our celebrations!  It's one of my jobs and I want to rise to the call and bring the light of Christ into my family more!

Pinewood Derby

A pinewood Derby for his College, the same day as the Jiu Jitsu tournament - see his metal.  Nathan was told that the track was going to be certain dimensions but when we got there it wasn't as tall as they had said so Nathan had to adjust his Air Plane Prop Propelled car.  Once that thing was adjusted to was like a rocket, creamed everyone and still wasn't short enough, almost breaking the finish line and timer.  It was sure fun to watch all these engineers pull out their cars but I must say, for engineers some cars were totally not impressive...Nathan's is not included in that group, his really was fabulous!

13 Months

Oh Harlow!

Kisses

When Whitney was opening up her mission call Harlow was handing out kisses left and right. Truth is, Whitney's girl friends all got in a line and he gave a kiss to each one in turn :) What a ladies man!
(*by the way, he's a lip kisser...no cheek action for this dude.  He plain doesn't know what to do if it ain't on the smackers themselves)

Guatemala

Whitney opened up her mission call tonight.

I was at our RS birthday dinner.  Helga Laing came and spoken to the women about Blooming Where We're Planted & how each of us are special.  I left early, relying on my committee to clean things up

We arrived a little early so we helped get family on google+ group chat and had fun messing around with Whitney and her friends.

What a wonderful time. Opening up your mission call is like nothing else.  It is so thrilling and as you sit and hold the envelope you just think, "oh my goodness, my life is about to change forever and in this package holds where I'm going to be living the next year and a half of my life!"  It could be anywhere!!

 She received the call to serve in the Guatemala, Guatemala City Central Mission, Spanish speaking and will report to the MTC in Guatemala on August 7, 2013.

Whitney is very excited! totally blown away at Guatemala and is nervous(in a good way)  She's been reading a missionary blog of someone who is serving in Guatemala right now.  Earthquakes and volcanoes seem to be a fairly regular occurrence.  I look forward to reading her letters as I'm sure they will be very interesting :)

My little, beautiful, blonde haired, blue eyed little angle of a sister is going to serve the Lord in and the people of Guatemala! I am so amazed by the woman she is and has become.  She is my example and hero.  I love her with all my heart.  Hearing all these scary things about Guatemala (not gonna lie) has me a little nervous but I know that Lord will protect, lead and guide her.  If anything did happen to this wonderful little sister of mine I honestly don't know what I'd do...I'd pretty much fall apart...so don't let anything happen to yourself Whit or bad news for me..

"BA" = ball

Harlow has said his first word - Ball!!

 

If we're being honest his real first word was "Dada" but Harlow didn't use it exclusively for Daddy so we just couldn't be sure.  But Harlow definitely knows "Ba!"  He says "ba" and points his cute little finger right at it.  Harlow doesn't exactly know what is a ball and what's not, for example, balloons look like balls and apples, and wheels...round and circular objects - yup, all "ba"

Fun in the Sky for FHE

 A buddy of Nathan's from school, named KJ, has his private license and they had worked it out to go flying together.  When he came to pick up Nathan last night to fly we learned that there was an extra seat and Harlow & I jumped at the chance to fly with them.  Look now its a FHE cause we were able to all go together :) We flew in this small 4-seater Piper, the smallest airplane I have ever been on.  Harlow did great...He slept almost the entire time.

KJ's a good pilot; we were safe and got to do some fun zero G's, hard banks, climbs, windy landings, and see the beautiful mountains.  With the zero G's he told us it was coming and I still let out a yelp and put my one free hand up on the ceiling of the plane (like that was going to do anything for me) ...I did much better the second time.  It was dark and at first we were disappointed that we weren't going to be able to really see anything but we were gladly wrong.  The sky was clear and we had a nice full moon.  I was surprised how well we could see, it being a night flight and all.

When we got home I told Nathan "You know, I'm just not feeling 100%" but he agreed so I didn't feel like a complete dork.  A little motionsickness from the plane ride followed me over into today :( Good thing for peppermint...

 Hahaha - I love Harlow's squashed face in this picture

...he would not keep that headset on for long

Oh My Grossness!

Nathan was watching Harlow while I was doing the dishes and I hear "Lizz, I think Harlow just threw up.............oh sick!"  I came around the corner and....

from Nathan's side:
I'm watching Harlow and I look over and he has dark green puke all around his mouth and on his hands.  I look down and there between his legs is his pile of his same dark barf.  I went to pick him up and all the sudden I realized, it's not barf!  Harlow had had a huge blowout!  All up his back and down onto the floor.  Then he must have turned around so it was in between his legs...and decided he wanted to try some?....I have no idea...

We don't think he ate a lot but it definitely made it in his mouth and on his face!  as well as all over the white carpet that we just had cleaned!  Oh Harlow!  Mommy wasn't very happy while she was cleaning it up, not to mention totally grossed out!  By far the grossest thing he has ever done in his short 1 year of life!

Want to move to Vegas for this Weather

We spent Saturday with the Andersen's.  The weather was gorgeous! I got to go running while Grandpa watched his little Harlow.  I haven't been able to run in goodness knows how long; it felt very good.  I don't know how far I went but I didn't stop and that was my goal.  In our short sleeve shirts and slip on shoes we took a little walk to the park - love this weather! I told Nathan "We need to move back down here!" (but only partly in jest...)  its about this time of year when it starts getting hard for me up in Utah because it's starting to get all nice and warm down in Las Vegas.  The spring time is beautiful, bright, breezy - practically perfect weather.  While up here in Provo, is still snows come March, April and even sometimes May ... :( very sad face on this girl

Vegas Birthday Bash

With the longer 3-day President's Day weekend we planned a trip back home.  It was so much fun to finally be down in Vegas with our families again.  I absolutely love, and very much appreciate, how the Andersen's and the Rasmussen's can get together and have so much fun!  We all had a blast spending this time with each other and celebrating our Harlow Boy's first birthday.

Harlow was cute getting into his cake.  He would get scared/nervous/timid (not sure which word truly fits...) when everyone cheered and made a big fuss...finally when people got quiet and doing other things he felt comfortable to start exploring his Birthday cake.  He can be a messy kid but generally speaking he's pretty clean.  What I guess I mean is that he's not one to throw his food all over.

...blue Curious George cake?! ...we didn't have brown...yea I know... But I still think it turned out cute

Thanks to our sweet Mommies, who are incredible Grandmas!  Grandma Rasmussen gave Harlow $20 for his missionary account we've started for him, his first big ball, and travel bags of cereal.  Grandma Andersen gave him an awesome bath boat with a white bearded captain, and fishing hook and fish with curly tails to be caught on.  Amanda Pinto brought him a teddy bear which now lives in his crib.  The Yi's brought yet another signature card congratulating Harlow on turning 8 on the outside and then helping him morning a loss on the inside :).

After presents we had a small talent show where Rian, Ellie, and I all did solos for everyone.  And then, the best part, we filled the Rasmussen's house with all of our voices singing our favorite hymns.  And dang, we sounded good.  Everyone singing made my heart happy!  It felt so good!  Imagine if that's how it was in church, every person truly singing with everything they had!  It was wonderful!  Thank You Everyone!!



**For church earlier, we went to the Silver Springs Ward.  I know Mom enjoyed having her 3 girls home with her and sitting all together is the ward again.  It was nice to see familiar faces of people I admire and care so much for.  I have heroes in that ward - so thankful for their faith and the lives they've lived and continue to live.

Birthday Boy

Harlow's Big Day - Our Valentines Baby

 Happy 1st Birthday Harlow!!!

A big Thank You to everyone that was able to come, even with it being Valentine's Day and all!

Grandma Larsen for the awesome counting book
Jeralyn for his favorite gift - the shinny, helium balloon
Laing's for the puzzle
Arnetts for the Lobster, shrimp party that night
Ashton Girls for the trail mix
Leo (& Jen) for being such great friends

Our little guy has turned 1! We can't even imagine life without him!  He brings us more joy than we ever thought possible and unites our little family. Family's are truly eternal.  You can just tell that Families are the way to go, it's Heavenly Father's purpose - just feeling this love is a testimony of that!

Harlow is crawling faster every day and walks along the walls, couches, chairs....he is quick and mobile.  He has loved chasing the blue birthday balloons all around the house.  He is a good-natured little boy and has only thrown a fit maybe three times, twice of those three times were when I took our electric tooth brushes away from him - oh my goodness!  He eats so good and I just sit and giggle to myself when he feeds himself cause he's so cute!  I just want to soak up all those little moments and remember them forever!  I love being his Mommy!  He is playing with us.  He loves to be tickled and chased.  He waves to everyone at the store and by the time we leave we are friends with everyone.  They even call "bye Harlow" as we're leaving :)  Daddy taught Harlow to give kisses. His method:  ask for a kiss, when he gives Daddy a kiss reward him with ice cream, repeat until Harlow has idea firmly planted that 'I get what I want when I give kisses'.  I've noticed him point to things and if I don't respond he leans over, gives me a kiss, and the points again as if saying "I gave you a kiss, now take me over to the balloon"  haha

I hope we can always make his birthday's special and that he can feel our love!

Sledding at Rock Canyon

FHE activity: Sledding at Rock Canyon park with the Arnett Family and their 2 dogs.  It was a cold night but clear and fun.  Harlow seemed to like sledding and enjoyed watching the dogs chase down the hill after and on top of Nathan and Scott.  One of the dogs gave Nathans arm a pretty good bite.

First Hair Cut

 Yea, see this duck bill in the back.  It's been hanging over his church collar for the past 2 months and it's high time that thing is gone.  No Mullet Baby for Me!

I don't think I knew how hard it is to cut baby's hair.  Its very soft so when I cut the hair simply slipped through the scissors.  Plus, Harlow was moving all over the place so it was hard to get a good, clean shot and it ended up being kinda choppy...I don't think anyone could tell.  It was fun; Harlow actually has enough hair that it needed a cut!  My little toe head does have hair!

cause Harlow's cute!

11 1/2 months old...can he really be this big already?  I love how everyday he becomes more of a little boy.  While part of me misses the baby him...good thing we're allowed to have more than one baby.  I love this little guy!  Being a Mom & being responsible to care for & love someone else is fulfilling & satisfying that unlike anything else.

Harlow makes us laugh

Harlow loves to get into things & explore his world

Harlow loves to bounce to music

Harlow loves to give his Mommy & Daddy sweet kisses

Harlow loves to have our hearts right in the palm of his hand

Harlow loves to be the center of attention

Harlow loves laughing

Harlow loves being tickled & chased

Harlow loves dancing

Harlow loves books & turning pages as fast as he can

Harlow loves eating & biting things with his teeth

Harlow loves ice cream

Harlow loves chasing balls

Harlow loves throwing things down the stairs

 

 Wanting to get up on my lap

 "Look at my teeth - 6 - I am such a big guy"

 Look at this boy having a ball!  He's even learning how to rock forward & back to get it to rock himself.  He seriously loves his rocking elephant!  Thank you Liz & Jason for all the toys!  So nice of you & such a blessing for us!   Isn't it so cute?!

Dinosaur

Today we discovered something new about our Harlow Boy...

 He's scared of dinosaurs!!

The story of how this came about:

Nathan was watching Harlow during Priesthood/Young Men's. they were all in the overflow for their class and one of the boys found some plastic toy dinosaurs that had been on the ground. Nathan and another leader were sitting with their ankle propped up on their other knee. They picked up the toys and put one on each of their foot, the one being propped - not for any particular reason. And started listening to the lesson. Well Nathan noticed Harlow becoming really tense and he looked down to see a Horrified look on Harlow's face. His whole body was tense and his hands started shaking. Haha

So then, of course, Nathan started experimenting with the toy and his scared little boy.

The funny thing is that we've never watched any scary movies with him, he's never seen or played with a toy like that, Nathan didn't introduce the toy to him in a scary way. No exposure to this toy, no pre-fear was there...so where did this fear come from? Where does fear, in general, come from?!

a first but sadly and most likely not a last

We have been teaching Harlow to go up and down the stairs - we have quite a few of them in our home.  He is getting better and faster everyday.  Right now we are working on turning yourself around so that you're facing backwards at the top of the stairs so that you're ready to start heading down the stairs...well this morning before church that didn't happen quite as well.

He was in the bathroom playing with toys and I stepped out for a second to help Nathan with something and Harlow came after me.  He didn't get himself turned around all the way and down he went...landing on the hard floor of the kitchen.  I felt awful!  ...you need to learn to forgive yourself as a mother/father and not beat yourself up cause mistakes happen...even though it breaks your heart when they happen.

11 Months

• Bath time is his favorite time of the day!!  Splashes water all over the place & totally loves pulling out the drain stop
• Still takes 2, 2-4hour naps a day 
• Loves to hang upside down & be danced with in your arms
• Hasn't had a food that he doesn't care for
• Eats table food really well  - so nice to just give him some of what we're eating instead of having other prep for his food
• Does this funny thing where we give him some meat, for example, and he chews on it but keeps it in his mouth and then chews some more. We'll look in his mouth after some time and its still there.  Story: So this last Sunday we had hotdogs before church and gave him small pieces to chew on.   At the end of sacrament meeting he still had the skin of the hotdog in his mouth :)  He had chewed all the other meat off it.  What it is is I think he is waiting for it to dissolve like his crackers/cereal do - plus just learning how to chew stuff that actually takes some chewing - its so cute
• Learned how to use a straw & now I feed him with a straw right out of the baby food puree jars - no mess & super quick.  Great for church & on the go - or heck, good for home too!
• Wants to pick it up & feed himself
• Likes to play with Mommy's piano students when they come over.  Likes to crawl under their legs/feet while their playing, climb up their legs, touch their bums (accidentally) while cruising along the piano bench
• He could cruise along the furniture all day
• Just recently learned how to crawl  & is very excited about it.  For awhile I thought he was going to walk before he learned to crawl but he's finally got it & is getting faster & faster everyday which keeps me on my toes
• Can go up & down the stairs
• Starting to open drawers and pull out contents
• Loves Nursing...not sure who loves it more Mommy or baby!!
• Always pulls his socks off
• Turns Off the lights with the light switch
• Has no problems going to other people
• Is taking a pumped bottle!  Yahoo!  This means we can go on dates again :)
• Is finally ticklish
• Waves
• Lifts his legs up for me when I'm changing his diapers - what a thoughtful little guy!
• Starting to give kisses
• Loves being the center of attention
• Will look back at you just to make sure you are still watching him
• Has decided that sleeping through the night is over rated BLA!  But the last three nights he has slept through the night again - Thank Goodness!
• Likes to bite things like my pants, sometimes getting my leg - ouch!.  He's bit chunks out of a ball & bath sponge.  Will bite down on something then pull it out while still biting down.  Grinds his teeth together
• Has 6 very apparent teeth 
• Likes to shake his head fast side to side, as if saying "no", pretty sure he doesn't even know what that means
• When he gets tired he hits himself in the head with his right hand
• Shows a tendency to using his left hand....we're trying to encourage his right hand so that Daddy doesn't have to buy left handed guns, guitars, baseball mitts, etc - "Life would be so hard for him Lizz!" haha
• Turns pages in his books

Nick Names: Bungy, Harlow Barlow, Mr., Harlow Boy