Ella's Birthday

Last night we celebrated Ella's 4th Birthday. She loved picking out a cake and opening all her presents. Liv tried to be a princess too but couldn't quite get the crown on by herself. 

Ready for Christmas Morning

Here are the girls they got new PJ's for Christmas morning. They loved opening thier new toys. 

Here we are on Christmas Eve. 

Here we are getting ready for our Christmas Eve church service. The girls looked so cute! More pictures to come. 

Backyard fun

Here are a few pictures from the last few days. The girls have had so much fun playing in the back yard. Today Kevin worked on our leaf situation in the back yard. This fall seemed to go by so fast we didn't get them all up yet. Since we got Ella a little jeep for Christmas he is trying to get them out of the way for her. I was too cold to stay out there so Kevin built me a fire so I could keep him and Ella company. Liv was inside taking a nap inside. 



Ella loves to play like she lives in the garage. She says mom I gotta go to my house and she just stands inside the door and looks out at us and then pops out and says, I'm back. That is a picture of her coming back to visit me and liv at our house. That is her daily outfit right now. Ariel nightgown (she doesn't sleep in it, she sleeps in her silky one from the king girls) and dress up shoes. 

That is liv in her adorable little dress that I got her to wear to the staff Christmas lunch. She hasn't been fond of dresses lately but I actually got her in it for the whole day. So cute! She even kept her headband on for a while! 

Other Harris Happenings

Okay these first two photos are the 1st quarter of the Bronco's game. We kept her busy eating until she fell asleep. She likes to hold her own hamburger.

The next two are at the mall we rode the carousel and
Ella loved it but Liv wasn't too sure. She after a few times around she looked like she was going to toss her cookies and wanted off. And of course the last one is the girls getting ready to go swimming. Ella couldn't wait to go to the pool and liv just followed her because she could tell she was excited and didn't want to miss out. 

Bronco's Game Pictures

Broncos Weekend...Pictures still to come

Pictures are still to come. I have got to get all the camera's, printers, and computers all working together in my house. That's my problem with the week plus gap in the blog spot. It's just difficult to take things apart with liv around. She is into everything and definitely notices anything new I am doing. She really wants to get that apple on my laptop. It lights up and she hasn't figured out what to do with it yet. So far she has tried to touch it, bang it, and lick it. 

Anyway, this weekend was amazing!!! We took the kids to a Bronco's/Panthers game. So we drove 3 hours to Charlotte, NC and we got to the game about an hour early. So we got to see the players warming up. It was really cold so after putting as many clothes on the kids as possible I was just praying that I didn't end up in the car with them while Kevin watched the game. As fate would have it...because God loves Kevin, the kids were awesome. Liv fell asleep in the first quarter and Ella fell asleep in the 2nd quarter and we watched the game without any interruptions and the kids were all snuggled in blankets!!

I say God loves Kevin because we thought about going to this game but couldn't find inexpensive tickets or a babysitter so we had given up and then out of the blue a guy from church called with 3 tickets he wanted to get rid off and practically gave them to us. We know that God gives us the desires of our hearts and I think he knew that Kevin needed a Bronco's game.

After the game we went to our hotel which was only 8 blocks from the stadium. Downtown Charlotte is really nice. We ordered room service and then took the kids to the pool. Since we forgot Ella's floaties she was just sitting on the stairs until Kevin got the life preserver down for her and she loved it swimming around them pool until she was wrinkled. Liv didn't know if she liked the pool or not. It wasn't cold but it wasn't very warm so me and her didn't stay long. 

Monday morning we drove to an awesome mall and had a great day shopping together. Kevin knew from the beginning of the shopping experience that we had to get Ella's imagination working for us or else it would be misery. So he rented her a car/stroller and she loved it. I mean for like 4+ hours of shopping she was easy. The mall had a kids play area so when the girls wanted out of the strollers we took them there and then to ride the carousel before we left. They loved the Bass pro shop and even got to see Santa...again. 

On the way home both girls fell asleep and were perfect the entire ride. THANK YOU GOD!!

Now I am just trying to get caught up and get the kids back in their routine. 

Amazing Anniversary!

My Husband is incredible! Yes, after 8 years of marriage I am happily married! Not because he bought me diamond earrings, perfume, and other gifts but because he loves God, me and our family and is such a great example to us!  Last night we had a really fun date night...dinner, shopping and a movie! 

So yes, I got the diamonds. Yesterday morning I surprised him with a few small gifts for him and so he gave me a few gifts he got for me but wanted to save the earrings for dinner but in the gift bag for some other gifts I found the certificate of authenticity from the jewelry store and I said ooh what is this? Totally shocked he had to get them out!! Yeah! I enjoyed showing them off and wearing them to dinner! 

Even though Ella had given me a hit about the diamonds I found out that she did keep a lot of other surprises. Kevin took both girls to the mall shopping for perfume, a crystal rose, to get my watch battery replaced, a coffee mug and house shoes. Then took the girls to chick-fl-a. Which if you know my girls is no small task to do all of that. Good job Dad!!

Christmas Shopping

Yesterday we did some Christmas shopping with the family. Kevin decided we should split up to shop for each other. We split the kids up and Ella decided to go with daddy cuz he was shopping for mommy. So we looked around for a while. Liv fell asleep in the stroller which was awesome for me. As soon as we decided to meet up for lunch Ella came running for me and said, "mommy we did not get you a diamond." Kevin turned bright red and said, Ella I can't believe you said that. Kevin said no, we didn't get you a diamond. But they must of at least looked at them! Yeah! Now, I am even more excited about Christmas. 

Sometimes on Christmas eve my dad used to show us what he got for mom. One year it was a special diamond necklace and we were so excited and couldn't wait for her to open it. I am glad that Kevin had Ella look at presents.

A few Christmas Pictures

I just love the santa hat. We took some cute pictures today of the girls in thier Christmas dresses. I just can't stand it I really want to save them for a Christmas card but I'll probably end up spoiling that and sending them to everyone. It was really cold but thanks to Hilary we got them done!! Here are my little cuties.

Today's Message

Kevin spoke this morning at shift and it was really good. He started a new series called intake which is all about what you watch and listen to. He talked about Lot and how his wife and family were too interested in the things of the world and how we need to stay away from the forbidden things and stay close to God. That is so true - He challenged us to look at our life and see if there is anything that we have been too interested in that is distracting us from God.  I especially related to his message because of his example of Lot. See Lot made it out of the city but his wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. I thought about that for a while today and really asked God to help me evaluate my life. I thought about her and what was she thinking? She was Lots wife - I mean she knew better. She saw God use Lot and his family (Lot was Abraham's nephew). It doesn't matter if you are married to a preacher or in a family that has been used by God you can still be distracted if you allow it.  This is something I wanted to pass along to you. After thinking about that all day I realized that I should never assume that someone is not struggling. God has been putting people on my heart to pray for lately and I think why am I praying for that person? I'm sure that they are just fine. But I should never assume. Just obey.  I hope that you take a minute and just evaluate your life and just see if there is anything that you have been too interested in that might be distracting you from God or anything that you are watching or listening to that you should change. 

Anyway, this morning I watched Ed Young before I left and he was talking about what kind of people we surround ourselves with and it was incredible too~ He asked are you surrounded by adders or ladders? Adders are a type of snake like a viper. He was saying that adders are slithery, secretive, and gossipers and will only bite but that ladders will encourage you, and help you out of the pit falls of life. I am so thankful when I look around. Just the last 2 weeks we have had some of our family visiting from Oklahoma. My parents, my sister, and Kevin's sister and family. They are definitely all ladders for us. God has used our family to encourage us. I am so grateful for them! Ed Young was talking about how God uses pits in our life to build character in our lives. Even though I don't feel like we are in a pit right now I definitely feel like God is developing character in our life. Ending all of this Ed was talking about being loyal to God. How we depend on God being loyal to us but we continue to fall because we are not loyal to Him. That's my last thought for you - Be loyal to God this week!!

 

Christina

Family Outings

Today we went to the beach and around town and finally ended up at the mall to see Santa. What a great day with the family. Early this morning Kevin and Brian went out and got a few black Friday deals. We got a new camera and I love it.  We will sure miss all of our visitors. Karey and Brian head home tomorrow. This morning Ella said, "I don't want Karey and Brian and the girls to go back to Tulsa. I wish I could see them everyday." Tonight Karey was talking to Ella and said, "we sure are going to miss you. I wish we could stay here longer." and Ella said, "but you don't belong here, you have to go back to Tulsa and take care of ginger (their other dog)." Sometimes Ella really does understand what is going on. She knows that they will be back to visit and we will see them again soon.  

Oh yeah, Ella asked Santa for a princess castle and a big dog.  - She found a giant stuffed animal dog bigger than she is and a Disney doll castle. I think Santa can handle that. I just hope it doesn't change in the next 30 days. 

Hello, thanks for checking us out

Here we are! 

Trying to Simplify our life

Sorry for all the changes. I guess I thought that if I was ever going to change my blog name and info the sooner the better. This makes my life easier and keeps all of our info together.