My little Harmon :)

The Harmon Family LOVES food. I think a big part of that being is because their family is so big, food is a big part of any get togethers. Madsen has definitely inherited this love for food. He has always been a big eater, I mean ALWAYS. When he was a baby I had so much milk that it would hurt sometimes and I learned how it might feel to be a cow. He hasn't ever really been picky, now that he's getting older he does try and decide what he feels like eating at the moment, but thankfully I've never really had to worry if he is not getting enough to eat. Part of this Harmon passion for food is that it is relaxing to them. Madsen feels the same way. If he is the least bit tired before a meal, you can be sure that he will probably start falling asleep while eating. Well, he barely made it through dinner tonight and the only reason he stayed up for dessert was because it was one of his favorites, chocolate donuts. It was so hard for him to stay awake while eating his precious donut, but he did it until he took that last bite and then he was a goner. So we finally got it on video, sorry if its kind of long but I promise it'll make you laugh. The combination of nodding off and getting super cute and affectionate make me laugh and love this boy so much. I'm so grateful for all the fun and loving moments I get to have with him.

Jumping

While my family was here we went to check out the Hamilton Place Mall, which only 20 minutes from our house and is currently the biggest mall in Tennessee. It was big! There was a cool bungee jumping stand, and Emmanuel and Madsen were really excited to try it out. Both boys were a little nervous at first, but they loved it! Madsen laughed so hard practically the entire time that he got the hiccups. After he got off he begged to have another turn. I would have let him since it was actually pretty inexpensive, but there was a long line and we didn't feel like waiting in it. But we do intend to go back someday and see if they're still there. :)

Daddy's Boots

Madsen trying to wear my boots.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

So obviously we're behind on blogging, but I'm happy to report we are pretty much completely moved in except for 4 boxes! Couldn't have done it without my family. We had a good trip from Utah and made it even faster than we had anticipated. It has been amazing to get settled into our new home and enjoy time during the holidays with my family. We had a great Christmas, with lots of fun presents from Santa. I'm especially grateful for Santa bringing Madsen his new kitchen. It has been soooo nice to have him busy in his kitchen and out of mine! We were even able to visit some Chattanooga sites, in between unpacking and all the holidays. We enjoyed the Tennessee Aquarium which has an amazing butterfly exhibit. Madsen and Emmanuel loved it and it was so fun to see them excited about holding different butterflies. We had a great New Year's get together with the Cuthbertson family and enjoyed lots of good food. Tamales and ponche, my favorite! Thanks to all the good food I've been eating for the past week and half since my mom got here, I can say the baby bump actually looks like a round bump now. Overall we have been very blessed this past holiday season and we are very thankful to everybody who has helped with this move and the past 4 months. We love you all and wish you the best in this new year!

Moving

CHATTANOOGA

Almost there!

Well, today is my last day of finals, Josh flies in this afternoon, and we're packing up our moving truck tomorrow! I can't believe we're already here at this point. I'm so excited to have my little family back together. So I just focus on that right now and not how sad I am to leave my good friends and Provo. It's all I can do to keep myself from crying. I hate goodbyes!!! :'(

Our little wrestler

So 2 weeks ago Madsen, Kristi, and I were able to go watch Jeremy wrestle at a tournament in Evanston. Madsen has watched his uncles wrestle before but not since last year, so this time around it was a whole different experience. This time we were even able to watch Jeremy from practically right next to the mat. He did amazing, against some tough competition. We were really proud to see how hard competed, even if he didn't get all the results he wanted. Well Madsen really loved watching Jeremy. He was yelling and cheering for him the whole time. The next day we were at Papa's house and Travis and Trenton were wrestling, Madsen was watching them super closely and getting kind of anxious and I thought nervous. All of a sudden he runs to the boys and pulls them apart. I thought to myself, "oh, my sweet boy got nervous about them hurting each other." But as soon as he pulled them apart he turns to Travis and says, "Travis, wrestle!" and proceeds to lunge towards Travis and start reaching for him. He was so into it that it went on for probably 10 minutes, before the kids started a movie, but Madsen was not done. He just kept following Travis around trying to get him to keep wrestling with him. So I guess its official. My sweet little baby boy is longer, instead I have a rough and tough big boy toddler. :) Well, a plus is we're good friends and going to live close to a previous State Champion wrestler, and his family of wrestlers, so I guess Madsen will have a good personal coach. :) The one bad thing is we're trying to teach him that not everybody wrestles :/

Wilderness Explorer

So for those of you who haven't seen the new Disney movie UP, I highly recommend it. I bought it mostly because I had a coupon that I could use to buy it (something that almost never happens) and quite a few people recommended it to me. Little did I know how much both Madsen and I would like it. It probably is one of his new favorites. He calls it the Kevin movie and asks for it all the time. Well, he likes it so much that as a joke we've started doing the wilderness explorer call whenever we play outside in the "wilderness". Well our new house is surrounded by quite a bit of trees and he loved exploring all of it. We let him roam around the yard while Josh and I stained the deck one day, having him check in with his wilderness call. It's so cute to hear his little voice call out, "cacaw, cacaw, roar!". Well as a true wilderness explorer would he tried to befriend all creatures whether they big great or small. He found an ant hill and tried to play with them. My poor little boy had his first run in with Tennessee red ants! I saw him standing up and pulling on his pants and thought something might be wrong, so I asked Josh to check on him. Josh hesitantly started making his way over to Madsen, when all of a sudden Madsen screams out" Daddy! Daddy, help me!" I just turned around in time to see Josh pick Madsen up and then clothes started flying in the air. He had ants up his pant legs and in his socks. My sweet boy holds no malice towards the ants, he just calls them silly ants for biting him and is more than happy to show you his bites and tell you about how Daddy saved him. I guess these are the kind of adventures you run into with little boys, especially in the wilderness :) (don't worry Josh has promised me that he will be extinguishing that ant hill this weekend so I won't have to worry about it in the future)

Madsen showing me where the ants bit him.

Ouch!

My cute boy who's more than willing to show you his battle scars. :)

Thanksgiving in Tennessee

So Madsen and I got the wonderful chance to visit Josh in Tennessee for Thanksgiving. We had an amazing time spending time together as a family along with visiting with Jeff, Jessica, and Kellen Cuthbertson who so graciously allowed us to stay at their house for the week. Jessica was out of town for the first part of the trip, so that left me to cook my first Thanksgiving dinner ever. Josh and Madsen helped me and together had a lot of fun cooking it. We decided to just take it slow throughout the day. I’m glad we did because it sure was a lot of work. But it was nice just to be together. Madsen is ALWAYS trying to help in the kitchen, so for him it was heaven. He was so excited about the turkey and brownies, it was so cute, he kept trying to get samples of the food, just like his daddy :) He was such a good helper, but he got wore out and without me even realizing it he cuddled up on the couch with a blanket and pillow. I was pretty nervous making dinner especially since we had Jeff's family over, but it turned out amazing! Of course silly me, I forgot to take pictures of the finished product. We also got to enjoy Grandmother and Leroy's farm and a later Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday after. They had an beautiful home, Madsen was very excited about seeing the farm. He loved the beagles, and fourwheeling, and pecan picking. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that day, so I'll have to get pictures from Jessica. For those of you who don't know, our family has had the huge blessing of finding a brand new house that we will be able to call home. So for me it was really exciting to finally see in person this beautiful house, that I will soon call home. I also got to have fun picking out paint colors, lighting fixtures, and finally seeing in person the cabinetry and flooring we've picked out. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. We have been greatly blessed to have lived in our small basement apartment for the last couple years, it has been a great home. We brought our baby Madsen home to this place, and I can think of many countless happy moments that we have had here, but I am ready and grateful for the upgrade. We are so grateful for the direction our lives are moving in. It will be sad to leave Provo and all our friends here, but we are grateful for a good job that Josh loves, Madsen is excited and grateful for a backyard to explore and daddy's green truck, and I am grateful to have a new home that we can all live in together and be one happy family again. :)

My sleepy little helper

Playing in the daddy's green truck

Our new house!

A bright, sunny, and bigger living room!

Madsen exploring around the yard.

Our own backyard.

Beautiful Harrison Bay and its close to our house!

Good friends.

My little swimmer.
Bathtub fun!

Our kitchen cabinets that got installed the day before I left.

Halloween Fun!

So we had an amazing time with our friends and kids this Halloween. I had originally planned on dressing Madsen up as Diego, but after Max got his Sully costume, Connie begged me to make Madsen a Mike Wazowski costume. I realized that this was the last chance that these little best friends would have to dress up together, so I gave in. It was more work than Diego would have been, but I'm so glad that I gave in. They looked so cute together!! I made the costume in one night, it wasn't too bad. It just took some time to figure out the size and sewing. But it only took me 3 hours and 1 mess up, not bad for somebody who's not an expert seamstress without a pattern. Needless to say our Mike, Sully, and Buzz Lightyear trick or treaters were super cute. :)( we're obvious supporters of Pixar) Trick or treating was a hit with all three boys. We had to keep a close eye on Madsen because he kept trying to get seconds when they let him choose his candy. Towards the end we realized that Madsen kept picking butterfingers, so we coached him to get orange candies ( hopefully a Reese's). At the next house he went to he was just looking at the bowl of candy and saying , "orange, orange, orange". lol. I guess we've taught him to be a good listener. It has been so much fun to watch Logan, Madsen, and Max be cute little friends. It'll sure be sad when we have to leave them behind.