And it begins....

Baby sister is officially on her way - her first pair of shoes have made their way into the house.

Good Morning

6:35am - Harrison enters our room....

Harrison: Hi Mommy. I'm done restin'.

Me: Sweetie, it is still very early - why don't you play with the toys in your room for a little while?

-PAUSE-

Harrison: I don't think I understand you. I'm DONE RESTIN'!

Halloween Festivities

A trip to Jordan's office for the company Halloween lunch and trick-or-treat, where Jordan won best original costume for being a building that Spiderman climbs....

The ward trunk-or-treat and dinner where Harrison was captivated by the clown....

Carving pumpkins at home before the trick-or-treaters showed up......Harrison was disgusted by the entire process until he realized that fire would be burning inside them at the end....

We decided to stay home this year since it will probably be the last year we don't actually have to go out trick-or-treating. Harrison handed out candy and shot everyone who came to the door with webs - it was hilarious. Loved it.

Halloween lives on at our house, Harrison wears his costume everyday - during naps, to the store, at the park - everywhere.

A Weekend Away

I did it. I left town. All by myself. On an airplane back to sunny, warm Huntington Beach. One of my dearest friends was getting married - and the girls were gathering. We ate at all of our favorite restaurants, shopped at beautiful South Coast Plaza, danced and danced at a wedding celebration, reconnected with old friends - and I feel rejuvenated. Jordan stayed home with my little Harrison and they were fine. They went to a movie, watched lots of football, skipped naps, visited family, and ate their weight in M&M's. I think all three of us had a WONDERFUL time.

Conversations with Harrison at 27 months

HARRISON: Where is my black spiderman jacket?

ME: It is on the couch in the living room.

HARRISON: Mommy, how did you remember that?

ME: Because I am a smart mommy.

HARRISON: And I'M the smartest boy EVER.

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HARRISON: Mommy, where did your lunch go?

ME: It went to my tummy.

HARRISON: (Silence.......)

HARRISON: NO! Baby Sister is in your tummy.

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Getting him up from his nap.....
ME: Harrison? Do you want to go to a birthday party tonight? We need to go soon! There will be games and pizza!

HARRISON: (Stands up on his bed) I NEED CAKE! FANCY CAKE!

Baby #2 - dates to remember

5/14/09: Our four year wedding anniversary - found out we were expecting

6/15/09: Saw the baby and heartbeat for the first time

8/26/09: Felt first kicks at almost 20 weeks

8/28/09: Found out we are having a GIRL! And Harrison has decided that she can only be named one of three names:

1) SPIDERMAN (the clear front-runner)
2) GREEN ALIEN
3) ISAAC

Take your pick.

Pumpkin Harvest

Everyday, all summer, we watered and watched. Harrison grew 7 pumpkins. Not too bad for a two year old eh?

Go Jazz

Quote from Jordan: "I NEVER thought this day would come."

Meaning this: Harrison was a little tough on us at first (I have actually mentally blocked out the first 10 months of his life so I don't have an anxiety attack about baby #2). So when Jordan looked at me during the fourth quarter of Harrison's first professional basketball game and said the above quote - I knew what he meant. Our lives have never included any sort of outing with him after 6pm - EVER.

We would leave family dinners after being there just a short while because he had worked himself into a sweating vomiting tizzy, restaurants were attempted a time or two only to have one of us outside with the screamer while the other wished they were any place but there, etc etc etc.

So when Harrison calmly sat on our laps, transfixed by everything around him - for four entire quarters of basketball - we couldn't help but smile. He loved the crowd - mimicking everything that others were doing (shouting, pointing, fists in the air), the infamous Jazz Bear and all his crazy game antics, and of course the treats! The day has finally come - Harrison functions in public even late into the evening. Oh happy day.

An English Grandmother...

Happy 88th Birthday to my Nanna!

I stole the description below off of my aunts blog - hope she doesn't mind - and I hope I look as fabulous as she does on my 88th!

My Nanna is an amazing woman! She has lived in several countries and traveled all the way around the world. She is an artist. She is very good at starting over and making a new life for herself. As a young woman during World War II she served in the Women's Land Army in England. The "land girls" did the farm work of the men who were away fighting in the War. She emigrated to the United States with her husband and children while expecting her fourth child. She is the mother of five children, whom she raised in northern Utah. She is always reading and learning. When you have a conversation with her, you realize how well-educated she is. This is through her own efforts to add to her British education, which ended when she was fourteen. She then completed a 3-year apprenticeship at a hair-dressing shop. She has a lot of "spunk." While living in New Zealand, she became an art teacher under her husband's tutelage. She has taught watercolor painting in Germany and has exhibited her watercolors and stitcheries in California. Now she lives in England, the land of her birth. Her posterity totals 15 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

First Attempt

Now that we are homeowners, we attempted a garden this year. We weren't quite sure what would grow if anything in our long neglected soil - but we took a chance.

It was quite beautiful by the end of the summer (of course I didn't take a picture) but we really didn't enjoy the harvest:

Reason #1: Being pregnant, the very idea of any kind of squash or vegetable being cooked in my kitchen sent me running to the bathroom.

Reason #2: Our zucchini turned out to be orange. Pumpkin Orange. So in addition to me being grossed out by veggies in general - the thought of orange zucchini made it even worse.

Reason #3: Jordan doesn't really like squash - and we had a lot of it.

Reason #4: We planted our tomatoes too late, and only got a few cherry tomatoes and one big one off the vine before it froze.

Better luck next year I suppose.

A Spiderman Obsession

No matter where we are or what we are doing - Harrison's left hand is ALWAYS shooting a spiderman web and he is making a swishing sound. Just last week, he made it through an entire gymnastics class without breaking form in his left hand. He was of course a little puzzled as to why he was not able to hang on the bars properly, and his somersaults were quite crooked, but he stayed true and shot webs the whole time. He got his teachers, his fellow tumblers, and most often aimed directly at my growing tummy and proclaimed "I'm shooting the baby!" Fantastic.

We build all different colors of spidermen each day with legos, when he drinks any kind of juice - it is of course spiderman juice and his red football is his spiderman football. And for Halloween? You guessed it - SPIDERMAN. That is, if the cheapo Wal-Mart costume can make it to the end of October, he naps in it everyday and insists on running around in it outside every afternoon. All the while of course shooting cars, dogs, trees and people with his webs.

Coloring

Finally he will sit down and color. Most of the time he just wants to destroy the house with his T-Rex and Spiderman. So when I saw this I had to snap a few pics from across the room. I love how he is concentrating so hard - the tongue sticks out just a little. Love this little guy.

Look Mom.......I'm Uncle Matt!!!

While we were home in Ashland this summer, my brother Matt had a bandana on his head a couple of times, so Harrison found a headband that Jordan received at a 5K he ran, put it on his head and shouted "Look Mom! I'm Uncle Matt!!"

A little while later, as I was hanging a green T-shirt of Jordan's on the drying rack, Harrison runs over and says "Hey......that's Uncle Matt's shirt!" And ran off. I love that he remembered these two things he saw two months ago in Oregon. Too funny.

Harrison at the Fair

Lizzy and Heath were so kind to watch Harrison while Jordan and I went out to celebrate my birthday. Not only did they babysit him, but they took him to the State Fair. Troopers I tell ya. He pretty much had the time of his life and didn't miss his parents one bit. He rode the carousel, ate his blue juice, sat in a skid steer and an excavator, looked at all the animals (he was expecting tigers but got chickens), rode a real pony and took a ride in a helicopter. Thanks guys for letting us get away on my birthday and for making your nephew love you even more!

Legos with Grumpa

Harrison has a new love - Legos. We play for at least two hours a day and he is obsessed with them. Each day we build new versions of tractors, cars, towers, and of course Spiderman. We have been lucky that Harrison has never really eaten or chewed on any of his toys - so Legos have been perfect even though he just turned two. Thanks for building Grumpa! (and giving me a break!)

Tech Saavy Toddlers

An evening of iPhone activities as only Claire and Harrison can do it.

Waiting for Daddy

Harrison climbs up on a chair in the living room and waits for his daddy to come home from work. Sometimes he does it just minutes after he says goodbye in the morning, other times he is a little more realistic and does it in the late afternoon - each time it is precious. He shouts at the top of his lungs "DADDY! WHERE ARE YOU? COME HOME!"

Summer Swimming Fun

Pure joy...and totally fun.

Harrison and Claire.

A little one on the way....

I have been embarrassingly absent from my blog for quite sometime now - chalk it up to summer craziness, a total lack of energy, and 24 hour nausea.

Baby #2 will join us in early January - making me 15 weeks along. We are a little nervous, but mostly just really excited to give Harrison a little sibling.

High Points so far:

Harrison sitting on my lap resting his hand on my tummy saying: "Hey mommy, there's a baby in there!"

Harrison driving his tractors around the coffee table saying: "I'm going to be a big brother!"


Low Point:

Harrison pounding on the bathroom door as I threw up crying: "MOMMY! Are you okay? Are you sick? MOMMY!!"

Hopefully no permanent damage done.

Happy Birthday Jordan

Laid back Sunday afternoon + family and friends + chocolate cake = perfect

Happy Birthday Love!

Full House

My mom, my sister in law Toria and her three kids spent some time with us the past little while. Our tiny house was bursting at the seams - and it was awesome. This is the only picture I have of all 5 Clason grandkids....do you think my mom looks happy?

A Trip Home to Ashland

We spent a week in Ashland for the fourth of July - there were forklift and tractor rides, a wedding with lots of dancing, a day trip to Lake Shasta with dear friends from yesteryear...

fun with cousins galore...

dinner and fun at Lithia Park...

stories with Uncle Matt, tin foil dinners at the infamous fire pit, water parks, shoulder rides...

swings and go cart rides...

oh how we love going to Nanna and Grumpa's house!

Dinosaur Museum

My child is OBSESSED with dinosaurs. He stomps around the house, roaring as loud as he can, while jamming whatever will fit into his T-Rex's wide open mouth. It's hilarious. So we met up with some friends at Thanksgiving Point to visit their incredible dinosaur museum. Harrison was totally captivated by the entire thing. He gasped when he saw the T-Rex skeleton, hugged a small statue of a Triceratops, and couldn't get over the giant great while shark on display. Loved it.

Park City

My sister Cat and her hubby Dan were down for the weekend, so we headed up to Park City for the day. Delicious food was enjoyed, the outdoor market was explored, and Harrison was spoiled once again. I love that Main Street Park City is just a 20 minute drive from my house, what a beautiful place. It feels like you are away for the weekend, out of the city and just enjoying the beautiful, clean, mountain air. Come back again soon Cat and Dan!

Harrison turns TWO!

Harrison's outdoor bounce-house, BBQ and games birthday party quickly turned into a windy, cold, torrential downpour of an afternoon. The BBQ was moved into the garage, the kiddos were all bundled in their coats and slickers, everyone eventually ended up inside, but the party went on. Presents were opened, my little guy blew out his two candles on his cupcake, delicious BBQ was enjoyed, cupcakes were eaten while seated on the kitchen floor, and eventually the rain stopped just enough to blow up the bounce house and have a little jump before the rain began again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRISON!