On The Mend

This week hasn't been my favorite week of the summer for us. We've had a sick boy and that just effects all of us. I mentioned in my last post about his fever and ear infection. He now has had a few rounds of vomiting and several rounds of diarrhea. I've been so worried about his hydration. He LOVES milk and I knew restricting it would be a challenge.

But he's doing ok with less milk and his diarrhea has improved. He's still not back to normal but today he is doing much better. He's cutting molars on top of everything so it's just been a frustrating week for him. I'm ready to have my rowdy boy back!

Sister has had a good week. She's enjoyed her days at home with Daddy and went to play with friends yesterday. She has probably been in a swimsuit everyday this summer, she thinks a swimming session must happen every day :) Even though it's summer and we are more laxed on bedtime and naps, she has still enjoyed napping on Daddy.

He has some of his color and energy back. He wants to be outside as much as possible. He gets that from his mama.

Georgia had a dentist appointment on Tuesday. No cavities and good brushing for the win! Her dentist said her teeth look great and to keep up the good work.

She was a big girl and was the best patient they had all day :)

I'm looking forward to a fun, long weekend celebrating the Fourth. Our county fair is this weekend so I'm sure we will go a few nights for carnival rides, funnel cakes and square dancing. The heart of summer is my favorite.

Slow and Steady

After some busy weeks of VBS and our beach trip, we were ready for a slow down and we got it this weekend. I was craving just being at home, playing in the yard, sleeping in (7-8a) and not having anywhere to be. It was the best! I will admit I caught myself saying that all I did this weekend was prep a meal, serve/feed a meal, clean a meal, repeat. I wouldn't have it any other way though.

This describes our weekend nicely. Lots of crazy, happy, noise and rides in toy vehicles. They are loud and proud.

Mamaw Carolyn (Georgia Grace's great-grandmother) found her old snickerdoodle recipe that she used to bake with my sister and me when I was little so a baking date was scheduled. She was SO excited for this! She hoped every day last week that it was her day to go to Mamaw's house to bake cookies! P.S. Prissy pose all courtesy of GGH :)

We celebrated Aunt Paige's birthday last week and yes, we are still waiting on Baby Bo. She has progressed beautifully but he's hanging tight and as impatient as we are we're even more fine that he is staying put and growing. It won't be long now!

My sister sells Younique beauty products and creates videos of how to use the products. Georgia loves watching them and pretends to make them at home. The other day she was giving my sister-in-law a "makeover" and told her she had this special cream and "it is the best thing you've ever put on your face!". I think she could sell ice to an eskimo. Anyway, she was featured in one of Aunt Paige's videos! She loved doing it and it was the cutest. I see more makeup videos in the future.

Our sweet neighbor friend Evan played with us this weekend! We can walk back and forth between our yards to visit her and she is a BIG help to me when she comes over to play. Georgia thinks Evan is the coolest because she goes to big school and I think Jack has his first crush  :)

Y'all you're doing it wrong if you don't eat your ice cream outside with a hose spray down afterward. I think this boy had five baths this weekend.

Thursday night he had a super high fever, 103.2, so I called to get an appointment with his pediatrician the next morning. He had a left ear infection from getting his ear wet while swimming and his throat was a little red. He never developed a rash so we were able to rule out Hand Foot and Mouth disease thankfully. He gets ear drops twice a day and hasn't had a fever since Friday morning. We're so thankful he is feeling better! A sick baby is just the very worst.

Even though we stayed home for most of the weekend, we didn't let the grass grow beneath us (literally). Marcus worked all day in the yard on Saturday. We love our 2+ acres and 50 oak trees but it keeps us busy keeping everything up. My previous days of working out have been replaced with picking up sticks in the yard, pulling weeds, climbing 15 stairs 832 times a day and chasing babies all over the said 2+ acres. The fruits of our labor makes it all worthwhile.

It's mind blowing to me that we are halfway through 2016. The days are long but the years are short. We've got an exciting week coming up as we start our Fourth celebrations and continue to wait for my sweet nephew. These longest days of the year are also my favorite days.

Georgia Grace at 3 1/2

Our girl is changing so much these days and I want to remember just what she was like at 3 1/2. Truly each year with her it just gets better and better. Every age milestone we reach becomes my new favorite age for her. As much as I have enjoyed these first 3 1/2 years I know it's just going to keep getting better and better.

At 3 1/2, you love dancing. You started ballet back in the winter and it was a great first year. I think we will have several more years of dance in our future. We might try ballet and tap in the fall.

Your favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, strawberries, ice cream and cheese. You also love candy and junk food. We try to keep that to a minimum but you sure know how to slyly sneak in the pantry for some fruit snacks :) You don't have a big appetite and most meals we have to make you eat. More meals than not it ends with a "five more bites and you can get down" HA! What I would give to not want to eat!

You are always ready to go somewhere. You think every day should include a trip to someone's house or a trip to the store.

You are a girly girl if there ever was one. You request to put on makeup everyday. You want to change clothes 5,394 times a day. You have shown very little interest in sports but you do say that you will do three things when you are a big girl: dance, cheerlead and play baseball :)

We bought you a baseball glove, baseballs, a bat and a tee a few weeks ago. We are going to let you play teeball in the fall if you want to.

You are very well-spoken for your age and rarely gets things confused. But when you do, it's adorable and I keep a mental note. Here are a few recent mixups:
-Salisbury steak is raspberry steak
-When something happens that you don't like, sometimes you will say "thumbs down"
-You use the word principal instead of prince. You can tell you're around a lot of educators.
-We were watching a ballgame and a timeout was called. You asked, "Why do they have to go to timeout?"
-If you're sleepy and cranky, you will say the opposite. Me-"It's a beautiful, sunshiny day", Georgia-"No, it's nighttime"
-You have a deep passion for birthday parties. As we were on our way to one and I was telling you what you were going to do at the party you exclaimed, "This is going to be the best birthday party alive!"
-A few months ago you asked, "What in the name of Weaselton is going on?" Note to self in 10-20 years, Weaselton is the name of the town on Frozen that a mean Duke governs. Hilarious.
-Your "th" sounds like a "s" so "thing" is "sing" and "I think so" is "I sink so". Precious.

You are all about safety right now. You want to know every night before we go to bed if the alarm is set and you need reassurance that there are no big bad wolves, mean queens or big spiders that will get you. You also want someone to be with you at all times. Just a few months ago you would play in your playroom all by yourself but not right now. I'm sure it's just a phase.

You strongly dislike bedtime. You don't require a lot of sleep for your age and would stay up until 11 if we let you. But you love your big girl bed since you transitioned from your crib a couple of months ago and you sleep through the night every night. You have been my all star sleeper from the very beginning.

You have a big heart. Tonight you caught lightning bugs and even though your jar had holes in the top, you knew it was possible that they wouldn't make it through the night so you decided to let them go.

You still miss Owen. I worried that you might not be able to remember him since he was in your life when you were so young but I'm confident that you will. We all miss him. There is a void in our life now without him here.

Jack is your best friend. You both light up in the mornings when you see each other for the first time. Days you are apart from each other you will tell me how much you missed him. You fight and fume like all siblings but you're already very loyal to each other. Watching you grow up together is a blessing.

When you get upset with me, you will say "I'm on Daddy's team" and vise versa. We tell you that we are one big team, Team Harrison. Go team! :)

We still have ourselves a teeny mini little girl. You wear 2T clothing and a size 8 toddler shoe. We joke that you will be in a carseat until your teenage years. You may be little but you're healthy and perfect just the way you are.

You will forever be a Daddy's girl and it makes me super happy (not jealous) because I want your relationship with him to be strong. Y'all are similar in so many ways. I hope you always appreciate what a loving and doting father you have.

You are also my mini me in many ways. There's just a little bit of resemblance there :)

You would spend hours in the tub and all your money on playdoh. You love to watch your shows (The Lion Guard, Peppa Pig, Max & Ruby) and youtube videos of singalongs and toy reviews. You prefer when the attention is on you but graciously let your brother have it ever once in a while. You are agreeable and have a soft temperament that's highlighted with grace and beauty. You really are the whole package, Georgia girl.

I can't begin to explain how proud you make me. It really feels like a dream come true that I was chosen to be your mommy. You are everything and more than I had hoped for in a daughter! I wonder so often what will God's plan be for you. I know that your future is being prayed for now and we will be there to support you and love you every step of the way!

I love you forever and always, sister. You make me the proudest mommy.

Life Lately

I'm sharing a collection of photos from the past couple weeks before and after our beach trip. We're back home and finally unpacked and settled in to life at home. We're enjoying no schedule, playing in the yard until dusk and a little extra sleep in the mornings :) Even Jack has been on board with it.

I'm not one to jump on a trend usually but all those curlformer videos sold me. I failed to get an after picture but they do work! I'll be sure to capture it next time. I was really amazed at how curly they made her hair.

We were tired and dragging a little but we finished our bible school week strong! We averaged 210 in attendance each day and had several professions of faith. I have seen His hand at work this week. I'm thankful for a church that puts such a strong emphasis on community outreach. God is good!

This is her "Georgia" cabbage plant. It was about the size of her head when they planted it in Aunt Shanna and Uncle Jake's garden. Amazing!

We celebrated "Aunt Ash's" 30th birthday on the 9th. She was one of my very first friends and it so loyal and loves us so well. I can't wait to see her become a mommy this year. Happy 3-0 Aunt Ash!!

Buddies. Jack thinks Granddad hung the moon and stars.

We're all about mermaids right now so a mermaid tail and swimsuit from Ma and Pa was like winning the lottery to this girl.

We came home from one body of water and hopped right into another.

Full hands, fuller heart :)

Lunch time at Gammy's is always Georgia approved



I was blessed with a wonderful Daddy and married one just as amazing. I appreciate them both in so many ways. Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day 2016. So glad he is ours!

Cousin Payton babysitted Jack on Monday while Daddy mowed and snuck this sweet picture of our Linus. There's never a blanket out of arm's length of this boy.

She couldn't wait to go see her friends after we got back from the beach so she went to AKK on Monday. She and Jack have been home with Daddy the rest of the week

Orange Beach-June 2016 continued

I'm finishing up posting about our beach trip today. It really was a great week for us. Jack had some sleeping issues but besides that everything went really smoothly. We know this beach town pretty well now so we can navigate it easily and it feels like our home away from home. Simply said, the beach is our happy place.

My beach babies. We kept them shaded and wearing a hat as much as we could for sun protection.

Enjoying a peach on the beach. She loved the beachy afternoons that were all about her!

I just knew he would not like wearing sunglasses but surprisingly he did! The smallest pair of wayfarers ever on the cutest baby boy.

Checking out the hot babes walking by.

Daddy and Georgia headed to the pool for an afternoon swim

Sister loved swimming in the resort pool too. She gets more and more comfortable in the water every time we swim.

Daddy bought brother a new hat but she got to wear it swimming. She looks like such a big girl wearing it. She's my beauty no matter what she wears.

Dressed in our beach best for supper

Posed pictures are so boring according to this girl. I have to agree!

No way she was getting through childhood without matching her mama at least once. A bonus-she thinks it's cool! :)

It's not a trip to south Alabama without eating at Lambert's. My family had never eaten there which is just un-American so we had to change that.

The kids enjoyed the outside play area while we waited for our table. The food was AMAZING (I always get the fried chicken). It's worth the wait!

After supper we shopped a few more stores at the outlet that we didn't get to earlier in the week. We were hot mess U.S.A. with no stroller and two wild Indians (one with a poopy diaper hence the fitting room location).

Wednesday morning we woke up to the heartbreaking news coming from the Grand Floridian Resort. We were just there in April and I can't grasp the grief this family is experiencing. Prayers for this Nebraska family for such an unfortunate, isolated tragedy.

We had our first rainy day of the trip. We spent the morning in our condo sleeping in and having a slow start to the day but by lunch time we were ready to break out. It was still raining but not enough to deter us.

The babies didn't seem to mind the rain one bit.

It actually made the sand a perfect consistency for sand castles. He was working hard on destroying the castles that Poppa built.

Just making the most of a rainy day at the beach

Two great dads playing with the babes and ignoring the fight over the shovel HA!

The boys building a sand castle land.

The rain moved out and it turned into a beautiful evening. We ate supper at The Hangout. It was our first time there and it was such a fun place. Georgia took a late nap and wasn't feeling it but Jack boy was.

But she was feeling it for a picture with the mermaid!

The live band played a Purple Rain tribute as we were leaving. It's one of those places you could go and stay all evening and be entertained the entire time.

Before we knew it we were spending our last day on the beach. The forecast was another rainy day like the day before but we lucked out and it was a picture perfect day!

She still lets me put her in bonnets on the beach so I'm riding that out as long as I can.

I think Jack still has sand in miscellaneous places.

Working hard on watering all the sand :)

Just a summertime strollin'

I wish I could bottle up this moment forever.

On our last night in town we headed to The Gulf for supper. There's lots of space for the babes to run around and be crazy kids.

Jack tried to go with every family there. He has never met a stranger.

When we got home, someone asked her what her favorite part of the trip was and she said the ice cream. It just goes to show you that it's the little things that have the biggest impact. All this girl needs is a scoop of cotton candy ice cream :)

Cheers to matching ice cream cones!

Georgia loves swimming so on our last night Connor took her for a night swim. It lasted about five minutes since the pool had closed for lightning strikes in the distant that we weren't aware of. The security guard graciously gave us a pass and didn't evict us :)

Marcus and I took turns driving through the night and we made it home in 8 hours. I know that's not an ideal arrangement for most people but with two babies, it works best for us. They both slept the whole way home and we still had a full weekend to look forward to when we got home.