Just because

I sit here late at night and I know I can't go to bed until I write down all my feelings. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father who has blessed me so much in my life with so many blessings that I'm pretty sure I don't necessarily deserve. I am most especially grateful to him for the greatest blessing he has given me, my absolute best friend, the love of my life, the man who would do anything for me, my loving and wonderful husband, Josh. I am eternally grateful for him and the inspiration he is to me. I find myself a much better person because of his love, example, and encouragement for me to keep trying to improve upon myself. I am so lucky to have found the man who loves me and our little family above all other things. I love that our boys recognize the amazing and loving father that they have. It made me cry to see and hear Madsen crying as our plane took off on Monday and he sobbed, "I don't want to leave. I want to stay in Chattanooga with Daddy! Please, I want us to go home with Daddy" That is just a small look into the deep love that Madsen has always had for his daddy. We've had our ups and downs in life, we've experienced times of bounty and others of meagerness, but no matter what I can always remember so many happy memories that we created and shared together. So here's to you my love, my pledge to continue to try to always love and support you the same way you have me. You are my equal, my other half and I look forward to spending the rest of eternity right at your side holding your hand.

Love,
Your Martha


PS. Thank you for a wonderful Mother's day I'll never forget. Working next to you clearing trees for the tornado victims was so much fun and a wonderful way to spend the day with you <3

First birthday tradition

Obviously our kids are born with hair, a lot in fact. In following my family's tradition we wait until their first birthday to cut their hair. Madsen's hair got pretty long, at least we thought it did. However, Pierson somehow was able to grow his hair even longer. So this past weekend while Josh's family was in town we decided to cut it. It was really hard to adjust for me to adjust to his big boy look. Somehow time flew by way too fast and my chubby baby is growing up into a little toddler.

Before haircut shots:

This is how long his bangs were even after we trimmed them about a month ago

When you brushed out his little curls his hair was about

half way down his back. I know, out of control!

I could easily put his hair in a ponytail.

AFTER:

Are blueberry muffins messy? YES, they absolutely are. But this little smile makes them totally worth it :)

Our new soccer player

A friend pointed it out that I am now officially a soccer mom. I hadn't thought about Madsen starting soccer that way, but I'm actually excited to start this new phase in my life. It was hard this last weekend to realize that my little boy is so grown up, but it was so much fun to see his excitement to be playing soccer. We had gone to the store a couple weeks ago to get all the gear he needed and he was so excited. He anxiously waited his turn to check out and when we finally got to the register he informed the girl that "These are my shinguards to keep my legs from getting hurt, and this is my ball that I can kick hard, and these are my cleats that are going to help me run faster cause I'm Madsen Rodney Harmon and I'm going to play soccer like my Uncle Emmanuel." Then we had to keep letting him know that as much as we love our soccer stuff we don't wear them to bed, as he kept trying to convince us to let him. Finally the day of his first practice and game came and he was SO excited. He loved practicing with all his teammates and loved dribbling the ball across the field. So much that when the game was ready to start he didn't want to part with his ball and started crying. I was finally able to convince him that he would be able to keep his ball and take it home, but that he needed to go onto the field and play with his teammates, so then he waited his turn to sub in. He got out there and did so well! If any of you have been to the a little kid soccer game you know its like a group of little bees that follow and surround the ball. But my little Madsen was one of the few that would get the ball out from the group and start dribbling it down the field. He was so good at stealing the ball in fact, that his coach had to tell him to try not to take it from his teammates. haha. We discovered that he's really good at dribbling the ball, but we need to work on looking up and shooting the ball into the goal instead of dribbling past it. :) He had so much fun and was a little upset when the game was over, but was excited when we told him he would play again soon. We all had a lot of fun and we're happy that we have our first soccer player in the family :)

He was really happy that his team color was green, one of his favorite colors :)

He did good at shooting into the goal during practice :)

He's the second one in line, waiting for his turn to dribble and shoot.

My sweet baby.

It seems that my poor Pierson hasn't had as many posts of him as Madsen did as a baby. It's not that we love him any less, just time is a precious thing with two kids so my poor blog has suffered, and I'm sure its not going to change too soon in the future. Pierson is our beautiful, happy, very easy, mellow baby boy. I can't emphasize how often people are astounded at how calm and happy he is. The only time he cries is when he is hungry, or needs a diaper change and when he feels lonely. As long as he is full and we're not too far for him he is one happy boy. We're talking about an amazing baby boy who will sit in his bumbo seat and play with toys for an hour while I deep clean the kitchen. I thought Madsen was relatively easy, haha, I had no idea. This amazing baby boy gives us LOTS of smiles throughout the day and plenty of sleep at night. He has slept through the night since he was 3 weeks old. I feel extremely lucky to be blessed with such an amazing, beautiful little guy. He has taken his time to crawl, I think because he's always been happy just staying close to us, but is finally making his way around and starting to get into mischief. He thinks the dog bowls are a cool color and gets mesmerized by them. For Josh's birthday he graced us with the presence of his first tooth and the second one just a week later. I'm still getting used to seeing a toothy little grin instead of that sweet gummy baby smile. I can't believe how fast time has flown by and our sweet baby is quickly growing into a happy little boy. He absolutely loves to eat and will eat anything. He gets very upset if anybody eats in front of him and doesn't share :) He is our little chunker who weighs over 20 lbs already! He believes in giving me an arm workout everyday :) Both Josh and I have been reluctant to cut his hair, which if you can believe is even longer than Madsen's was. But his bangs must be tamed so he's getting a trim soon. He adores his big brother and it is quite apparent that they are going to be the best of friends. I'm so grateful for this sweet little boy that I have been blessed to call mine.

PS. sorry the pictures aren't the greatest quality, we're currently in the market for a new camera, so all i have right now is my phone camera :/

He fell asleep doing his favorite thing, eating!

BEST FRIENDS

His crazy baby curls

Ready for a bike ride

He loves baths

If you look close you can see his two little sharp teeth.

He started doing this trick when we would blow on his nose all on his own. It was so cute and funny.

My new hobby :)

I was completely shocked when I opened up my present and found a Bosch Kitchen mixer! It has been a personal goal of mine to learn how to bake since last year. I started out making different cookies and cakes, and had decided it was time to try bread. I'll admit I was super intimidated especially since yeast and I have had our differences in the past. My wonderful husband decided to spoil me and I have been loving it. Not every batch has come out right, but I have had a few successes. Luckily I've got a good friend in our ward that was nice enough to take a day and teach me a few tricks. Thanks Melanie! I am motivated to keep on practicing and eventually I'll be a pro. I made fresh bread today and although I had a small problem with the yeast the consistency and taste were perfect so I count that as another success. I've been pretty unsuccessful at getting pictures of my baking successes before they're eaten, so they must be good, right?

Baguette anyone? Since this first time

I've made it again and they turned out just as delicious and a little prettier

The first attempt didn't turn out so good, but my sweet hubby was willing to eat a few to try and make me feel better. This second attempt however came out perfect!

Although I don't use the Bosch to make these I had to post them just

because I feel so proud of them. I've had many compliments on them

and even multiple requests for me to make them for birthday treats :)

Christmas recap

I know that Christmas was over a month ago now, but as this blog is for journaling purposes too, I feel its necessary to actually backtrack. We had a fun Christmas eve with my family and our friends the Sabogals. We stayed up till midnight playing games and eating tamales, following the Hispanic tradition and then sent the kids to bed so that Santa could make his appearance. Mind you we went to bed closer to 2 and it was still clear outside. We woke up at 9 and woke up to the surprise of a VERY WHITE christmas day! Josh and Madsen had both been dreaming about a white christmas and I couldn't believe they got their little hearts' desires, especially since everybody told us later that this hadn't happened in 30 years. Madsen was so excited to see that Santa had come and that he had gotten his #1 item for his list, his dolphin pillow pet. Pierson got a penguin one from Santa too per Madsen's request. Later our good friends the Sabogals came over and we enjoyed an amazing afternoon in the snow :)

Our Christmas morning surprise

Pierson and Tio Ervin

Madsen enjoying his stocking stuffers

My happy baby excited to open his presents

The beautiful creche/manger my husband built for our nativity set

The delicious homemade tamales

Josh and Cesar's hawaiian snow woman

She was too pretty to resisit. haha

Who says it doesn't snow in Tennessee?

Madsen and Ilyana our cute little couple :)

Beautiful little Ily

Josh's improvised snowboarding

The Sabogal family: Wilson, Jafeth, Ily and baby in the oven

Madsen and Ily absolutely loved sledding

Those mittens make holding on hard...

obviously. haha

Christmas card 2010

We Heart You Holiday Card

Christmas cards and holiday thank you cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

I am so excited to send out our Christmas cards this year! We took family pictures this weekend and they turned out fantastic. If you want a receive a christmas card from me make sure you to send me your current address. Merry Christmas everyone!

Disney world

So we went to Disney world at the beginning of the month and it we had an AMAZING time. It was so much fun to have a family vacation and be able to spend time with Mackenzie, Richard, and Spencer. We had an amazing room with a beautiful view in the Animal Kingdom lodge. Madsen was so excited to wake up and say good morning to all the animals on the Savannah. He was also very excited to go to bed every night so that as he said "I can get some rest and wake up and go to the park and see Mickey again tomorrow". Even Pierson loved all there was to see and do. He loved taking pictures with the characters. His little legs wouldn't stop kicking as he got closer and closer to the front of the line. It was a much needed family time and it brought us so much joy to see our boys having so much fun. We got to visit Josh's cousin Cami, Jon, and Ty on the way home. Even though it was a overcast and windy we decided to go walk on the beach. Madsen finally got to go find seashells on a real beach. He had so much fun with Ty, they are best cousins and can't wait to see each other again.

The amazing view from our room.

One of our many daily visitors

Our cute little mickey eared Pierson

Smiley Spencer

Madsen was so excited to see Handy Manny

So excited to drive the car himself

Poor kid didn't understand why the rides had to be over.
This is the way he looked at the end of almost every ride.

Waiting for the parade on our last night

The Wilson family

Windy day at the beach :)
It's great for your hair. Can't you tell?
Two sets of best cousins