Saturday, November 01, 2008

Hello again:

We've had an eventful month!

Olivia's second tooth finally broke through on Sept. 27th, now I think she looks like the gray mouse on Disney's The Witches, so cute.
On Friday, October 3rd, we went to Cinzzetti's (http://www.cinzzettis.com/indexColorado.php) with Poppa Matt and Gran'ma Holly to celebrate Preston's 1 yr anniversary at Taco Bell.

On Sunday, October 5th, Aunt Shanna, Gran'ma Sheryl, and Gran'pa Neil came over for Fish and Chips dinner. Gran'ma Sheryl battered and fried her own fish (cod, I think), and cut and fried her own potato chips, it was awesome! Then we played Scrabble, Preston won again.

On October 25th, it was Gracie's cousin Jade's 5th birthday. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's and had a party and sleep-over at Aunt Becky's. The next day we went swimming, it was so fun!!

Halloween finally came!! Daddy had to work (he didn't work last year, so it evens out). Poppa Matt and Gran'ma Holly came over and went trick-or-treating with us downtown. The city closes off 3 or 4 blocks so the kids can go around to all the shops. They hand out hot cocoa and caramel apples ... I love living in a small town!

http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.harmon13/Halloween08
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.harmon13/Gracie
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.harmon13/BabyOlivia

Olivia "gives" kisses (she leans in and lets you kiss her).

She also holds her bottle of juice all by herself, but only when she's laying down. I have her lay on something so she's propped up like she is when I'm feeding her.

See you in a month =)

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Time for another update =)

Gracie closed her 4th week of school on Friday, she just LOVES it! She rides the bus to and from school everyday with her best friend/neighbor/classmate Olivia. She has a lot of fun in class and brings home homework everyday.

They went on a field trip to Rocky Mountain National Park on Wednesday. She said she saw a dead beaver laying on some bushes, and the Park Rangers said they could touch it. After about 10 minutes of probing, I finally understood they had a fake one with a plac next to it with information.

She's improved her reading skills and can now ledgeably write her name from left to right (she wrote it backwards for the first two weeks of school, until I had her write it correctly 30 times everyday after school).

Olivia is 7 months old today =)

She crawls all over the house, and even up the stairs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0S94ikpaM8

She fell asleep in her jumper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPNjEfZp_Go

Here's a little video of us at Poppa and Holly's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBFDA4LNRlo

I guess that's it for this month =)

Talk to you soon!
The Harmon Family

Monday, September 01, 2008

Hey everyone:

Gracie is ready to start 1st grade, her first day is tomorrow!!! She's wearing the cutest dress she got from G-ma tomorrow. She has a new purple Hannah Montana backpack stuffed with all her school supplies. She got new clothes, and 8 pairs of shoes. All of her friends from her Kindergarten class (+ a few friends from other classes) are in her class this year! The neighbor girl, Olivia (her best friend) is also in her class, she is so excited!!!

Her 6th birthday party went VERY well. We planned to have it at the park, but it had been raining for a couple days, so we had the party at our house .. our house is very echo-ie .. that was fun! We had a Hannah Montana cake, table cloth, paper plates, and napkins. We had those eyeglasses with the noses, the noisemakers with the coiled paper thingy .. only, without the noisemaker, and balloons.

Her favorite cousin Josh, Sierra, Aubrey, Paulina, and my best friend Olivia came to her party. She got a whole bunch of toys she wanted, including Hannah Montana barbies and play sets, My Little Pony stuff, an over sized coloring book, makeup and a whole lot more! She loves her music and got a lot of cd's from her Aunt Shanna.
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.harmon13/GracieSBirthday

G-ma took us out for lunch and got Old Time Pictures of the girls. They turned out great!!!
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.harmon13/EstesParkHappenings

Olivia has her first tooth! It came through on August 10th. I got a few pictures. We went to Fort Collins to visit my family; Mima, Grandpa Tony, Auntie Morgie, Uncle Justin, Great-aunt Becky, Great-uncle Charlie, Uncle Pat, Aunt Veronica, cousin Tyra, cousin Jade, Uncle Nick, Aunt Tara, Great-aunt Brenda, Ray-Ray, Great-uncle HJ, Great-aunt Jeanie, and Grand-poppa .. he's 87 yrs old! We were there for 4 days.

Aunt Becky bought Olivia a Rain Forrest Jumperoo from Walmart. It is the best thing for her! It's the same idea as a jumper that hangs from a doorway, only it sits on the floor :) She LOVES it! It plays music and has animal sounds. The seat she sits in rotates 360* so she can play with all the toys around her.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51M4G0JEGWL._AA262_.jpg

She trying to crawl, and gets frustrated when she can't .. it's so cute! She's sat up on her own a little .. she's alright if she doesn't lean backwards. We're very proud!

It was our 3rd anniversary on August 26th and Olivia turned 6 months on the 27th.

I guess that's all to report
Talk to you in a month :)

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Time for another update:

On the 4th of July we went to Poppa Matt's house. He lives on a mountain and everyone
comes together for picnics and get togethers. They all organize a parade around the
mountain and throw candy on the way :) Gracie had a blast, and later, at the pot-luck,
found friends from school to hang out with.

On July 8th there was a Rooftop Rodeo Parade in Estes. My mom (Trudy/Mima) and sister
(Morgan) came up to watch it with us. There was this little pony pulling a cart with two little
kids in it, it was so cute! I got him on video neighing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbFyP078RSE (hope that works)

On July 12th, Gracie went to her 1st birthday party for her friend Sage. They played with
water balloons and face paint, she had a blast!

On the 19th, Gran'ma Sheryl, Gran'pa Neil, Aunt Shanna, and her b/f Ed came up for a
"Bubble Party" (picnic with a bunch of bubbles!). We had so much fun! Olivia felt grass
for the first time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfbEftCRieY

On the 24th, Olivia and I joined Gracie and her cousins Tyra and Jade at the indoor public
pool. Gracie spent the night because her cousins were in town, they live 4 hrs from us.
Olivia got in the water with my Aunt Becky and yelled really loud with excitement :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQXFuY_S9hs (hope that works)

On the 26th, Gracie went to her 2nd birthday party for her friend Sierra. They had a little
jumping castle and a donkey, a mule, on old dog Jake (13 yr old Pitt Bull who's sweet as
can be... he kept wanting me to play tug-of-war), a black lab puppy with white paws named
Little Bear, two cats (outside cats, that are mountain tough, but very sweet), and 2 doves.
The kids went swimming in the river (but it is only about 6 or 7 ft across, and it's
slow by their house).

July 27th... Olivia is 5 months old today :)

Gracie isn't quite ready for summer to be over (Sept. 2nd), but she is ready for her birthday!
She's turning 6 and she can ride her bike down "the hill" (sidewalk by our apts. that the
neighbor kids call "the hill").

She loves popsicles on the hot days, playing with her best friend Olivia, riding her bike,
locking it up with her own bike lock, helping mommy cook dinner, having sleepovers at Mima's
and at her friend's houses, going to birthday parties, painting her fingernails (and toenails),
putting on makeup, and reading to her parents at bedtime - she's getting much better!

Olivia's eye stopped gooping up on the 20th, yey! She's trying to crawl, but she smooshes
her face down on the blanket to push herself up with her feet, but then lays on her stomach
to get her hands back up. It's a riot!

Gracie's birthday is coming up on Saturday, August 16th. We're having a party at the same
park we were at for the Bubble Party. We're having tacos and cake and ice cream for those
of you who can join us. Check the map.

close up of the park (map)
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=104853700928243498552.00045307c366e6a4e4a4e

satellite picture of the park
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Playground%20on%20Ivy%20St.%20in%20Estes%20Park%2C%20CO%20(ref.%20map)


Preston continues to do very well at Taco Bell! It is because of him that we are doing so well!
(And my support and help with the kids, and doing office work for my dad on the side)


All my pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.harmon13
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.harmon13/RockiesGame

All my videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Peganpettal

(under the video on the right, under "playlists"
are all the videos of the girls... it's scrollable to he right)


Miss you all!

~ The Harmon Family

Harmon Girls' Update

Hey everyone:


Gracie is having a WONDERFUL summer. There are 9 kids in our little
neighborhood that she plays with everyday. Her best friend is Olivia
(not her sister), who lives a couple townhouses down. They have slumber parties and play all day.

Poppa Matt got her an early birthday present; a bike with training wheels and streamers. It's pink with ladybugs and a pouch with a zipper that attaches to the handlebars. She LOVES it! Now she rides with all the other kids.

We still take turns reading to Gracie every night, but now she reads to us. We check out "beginning readers" books from the library and we hardly have to help her, except those crazy words that don't follow the "rules" (the silent letters, like the "a" in "float"). We're VERY proud of her.

Olivia has discovered that talking with spit in the back of her throat
to make a gurgling sound is just the coolest! We can all feel her tooth,
but I can't quite see it yet. She's constantly sucking on her fingers and
drooling everywhere - that the part Gracie hates... in a loving, sisterly way :)

May 30th, she laughed for the 1st time, at Gracie being goofy. On June 1st we went swimming, but we only put Olivia's feet in :) On the 2nd, she
reached out with her left hand for her rattle, grabbed it, and shook it around for a couple seconds. On the 13th, she figured out how st suck her thumb, on the 14th, she rolled on her side, on the 18th she finally rolled over all the way. She's had a busy month.. and I didn't even tell you all I wrote down :)

Olivia rolls onto her stomach, always to the left, and back again. She is
learning to pull her arm out from under her when she rolls... but sometimes she's too tuckered out and mom helps her out. She does lift herself up enough to look around, and everyday she does it longer.

Both mommy and Olivia are learning to go through the day without me
holding her. I know, I know, EVERYONE (even strangers) said not to
hold her too much... but it's just so hard!!! So nap time has started to
become a hassle, and she tests me. She cries really hard for a few
seconds, then she's quiet, and when I don't respond, she cries real loud,
then waits. I go talk to her, let her hear my voice so she knows I didn't
abandon her, but I don't let her see me. I've only been at it for two days,
so we'll see how it works. The advice is great, but every child's different,
so you have to tweak it a little.


Talk to you all soon

The Harmon Family

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Hey guys;

Gracie is finished with school on May 30th. I can't believe the school year is over already. Preston and I are so proud of her! I just had a meeting with her teacher yesterday about the possibility of holding her back a year. She said she's confident Gracie will be alright if we had her continue to 1st grade, although holding her back wouldn't hurt anything either. Academically, Grace isn't at the same level as the other kids in her class, but she's not too far behind to be unable to catch up. 1st grade has more "structured learning" and less "play time" than Kindergarten, maybe that's what Gracie needs. She easily distracted, but this is also her first experience with making and keeping friends that she sees on a regular basis, so we half expected her to react to school the way she did... all play and no work. Preston and I think it will benefit her to hold her back. We don't want to fall too far behind if she's not ready for 1st grade. Not to end on a sour note, Gracie is doing great. She's improved a great deal compared to the levels testing she did at the beginning of the year, we're very proud!

Big news in the Harmon house... Olivia started teething! She started biting the hell out of Preston's fingers the week of April 13th, we just thought it was cute! I was letting her chew on my finger on Friday (May 16th) and felt something where her bottom front left tooth would be, but she wasn't showing any sign of teething yet besides the biting, so I thought nothing of it. Then Monday, at my mom's house, she was unusually fussy (she almost NEVER fusses). Preston looked in her mouth and saw it. We were so surprised, and happy. We gave her infant Tylenol and Baby Orajel, we quickly found out she HATES Orajel. Now she only whines a couple minutes when I give it to her.

She got her first set of shots on April 30th. Three shots and an oral immunization. She cried when they gave them to her, but once I picked her up, she stopped. I handled it better than I thought I would. Preston cried when Gracie got her shots when she was two :) Olivia doesn't have another appointment until July 1st for her second round of shots. She's getting so big. On 4/30, she weighed 10 lbs 2 oz and she was 22 1/2 inches long. The doctor said she's right smack in the middle of the line graphs of average weight, length and head circumference of a two month old. She's just a little cutie.

Talk to you all soon