Our Visit With The Arnolds

Us and The Arnold's

So our dear friends and neighbors from Atlanta come to see us last weekend and spent the day with us. It was so much fun and so good to see them. Of course we are all grown up now and have kids of our own and it was really surreal to realize it, but again just so good! We had the best time, ate some bbq, played outside, had a lot of laughs and made more great memories. It's wonderful getting to reconnect with people you grew up with.

Amanda and Alyssa have two boys each also. Their are 7 and 2, and my boys had a blast playing with them!

Joey and Brayden (Amanda's little one)

Koltin (Alyssa's little one)

Sean and Trenton riding Bullseye

Joey, Dad and Amanda on the swing... before they broke it! :) ... No seriously.. they did!

All of us with our youngins

And again.. notice Alyssa's husband Richard is in this one and Amanda's Husband is missing! :)

Is It Revival Season Already?

When did this happen?? Wasn't it just January and I was still unpacking boxes in the new house?? Now it's almost June and my little man is going to be 4!!! This is insane. I agree with that Kenny Chesney song more everyday with the "Don't Blink"... cause literally, you blink and you miss a month!

This month, like every other month in our lives has been chaotic, but fun. I actually did get not only a card for mother's day this year but also a present! I got a new book in my series that I read that come out the week before mother's day. That's right.. after three mother's days getting nada... and finally getting James nada last year for Father's day to prove a point, to be mean, for payback, when I had went yet another year with no recognition of any kind whatsoever that for 19 months of my life (YES... nineteen!!! Cause Jameson was late... very very late!!!) I made those little human beings running around and keeping me up every night... James finally got the picture and got me something. That or either he really has his heart set on some new fishing gear for father's day, so he realized he better do something this year to not have a repeat of last year. Yeah, I know.. it's the latter.. but whatever I got a card and a book!!

Jameson Reeling Something In

He also managed to get me a birthday card the next weekend, granted it was on my birthday and he come home from work and got the boys to sign it in front of me, he still remembered.. so that's what counts! I also got some beautiful ferns (that I went and bought and told him he got me for my birthday to ensure that I got something .... hehehehe) to adorn my country front porch and I love them!We also went fishing down by the lake as a family and had so much fun. Joey actually caught something called an Alligator Ghard (?? or something like that ??? - I'm obviously not the fisherman of the family)on his first cast. It was massive, broke his line, and looked like a snake coming up it was so long and had some massive teeth, but thankfully it got away on its own, before it got too close (and I had a heart attack). James of course pouted the rest of the trip because his one year old son caught a fish that he has never been able to!!!! :) Me and Jameson caught some little lake fish, and it was a lot of fun. James caught nothing... that's what happens to sore losers! ;) Karma!

Sorry for the sideways pictures - blogger is driving me insane!!! 

James baiting Joey's hook

Jameson.... being Jameson!

We made it through all this May chaos and even through the outdoor singing in which I thought I was going to die of the heat in that tiny tiny kitchen area, but Thank the Lord (and Bro. Hugh) we had a fan this year and my clothes were only halfway sticking to me by the time the singing started! It of course did nothing to help get the smell of the peppers, onions and jalapenos i managed to spill on me, but what can I say.. they decorated my outfit quite nice, and c'mon.. I've got a 3 year old and a 1 year old.. does anyone expect me to be anywhere without stains and crazy messy hair?? No, I didn't think so either!

Jameson "Walking on Water" - or so he said, since he can reach the bottom! :)

Eli and Jojo hanging out in the pirate pool

The birthday girl

I barely made it to Carleigh's b-day party the next day, and then barely made it through it.. oh goodness it was hot, and all those kids swimming in the pool and me with all my clothes on and sweating.. it was not fun!!! Of course.. leave it to Carleigh who instead of traditional birthday cake had a two tiered lemon bundt cake from that place in Jones Valley. One word... HEAVEN!!!! Seriously! So delicious!!!! I despise lemon.. or lemon tasting stuff except for Mountain Dew, and this case was fabulous!!! I even liked the icing some, and I don't do icing at all. I ate some of it though before passing it to Kay was there to finish off my icing.

Another sideways pic - Joey disguised as Optimus Prime ;)

Now that we finished off the May birthdays, it's time to start on the June ones! We're getting ready for Jameson's Avengers Birthday party next weekend! He's so excited and I'm so thankful he's into something that is popular and easy to find stuff!

On top of everything else in June (10,000 birthdays, decoration, father's day, ect.) I realized all the revivals are starting up too, and I'm so not prepared for that. I haven't heard all the ones Bro. James/Bro. Matt are running this year, but I hope since the kids are getting a bit older we can visit more than we have been. You know, like make it 2 places this year instead of one! :) No, literally.. that wasn't a joke! Feel special Big Cove, you were the only revival we made it to last year besides the Branch! But I'm feeling the pressure to get everything done in the house before revival, thankfully ours is one of the last, so I've still got about 8 weeks to finish it all up, but I know they'll go by in a flash too! Better get to making that list! Hope James is ready to do some painting!!!

Proud Moment

This is all about my wonderful moment with my son, Jameson, in which I realized that he is SOOOO my kid, and that he is growing up all at the same time. 

Not to sound like Heinz Doofenshmirtz or anything, but I feel like you need a bit of a back story to fully understand on our daily routine. I get up, get ready, load them up and take them to Granna's before I go to work in the mornings. They are still half asleep and have inherited from their father that you don't talk to them until they talk to you! I'm good with this because quiet is always a good thing. However, they like to listen to music. So the last 3 slots in the CD changer in the car are reserved for there CD's and is switches up from a mix of things like Phineas and Ferb Soundtrack, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Elmo, the Wiggle's, ect... you get the point. 

So back to the point... on the way to Granna's yesterday morning we were listening to some Mickey, well Goofy blast off countdown song to be exact, when Jameson speaks up and says "No, I don't want to listen to this.. I want to listen to that other song!" I asked him which song he was talking about and he was like.. you know....

and he starts singing... 

"by the time the bar closes... and you like falling down.. carry you home... taaooonnniiggghhtt.."

It was so adorable first off because.. hello, my child.. singing.. too cute anyways, but then to sing a pop song instead of a Wiggles song.. priceless!!! Who cares if he missed half the words.. I was proud!!!

Of course I switched it over to one of my CD's, and we sung "We are Young" on the way to Grannas and it was wonderful not starting my day off with kiddie music. Joey was just as excited to listen to "mommy music" and was bobbing his head back and forth and hitting the last work of every line and very much exaggeration his .. tonight! :) I realize how pathetic this is and sad, but I was excited my child picked good music over Mickey Mouse and he's still 3! I think that show true musical taste! 

I did have flashbacks to when Carleigh Madison was about that age and I can remember her bebopping in the back seat with me to "Umbrella" by Rhianna. "Ella, Ella, Ella!" So cute! And a refreshing change from the Wiggles "Cold Spaghetti" we had been singing prior!

Well now that I have this song stuck in your heard you can enjoy this sunshiney day!

And remember.. Nananananana, Carry me Home Tonight!

Growing Boys

 Happy May everyone! Not much has been going on at the Harkins' house other than watching things bloom outside and spending evenings and weekends outside with the boys trying to run off some of their energy! They are growing like weeds though! Especially Jameson! He's gotten so big and tall and is losing his little baby look. It's so depressing.. tear tear! Of course he's still as goofy and dorky as ever.. since he is so much like his father.. :) I'm not really sure what he was doing in this picture other than being in his underwear and it appears some sort of dancing... ?? Who knows?? 

He is very excited about the Avengers though.. surprise... surprise... and we get a summary of all of them and their weapons, super powers, and so on at least 5 or 6 times a day. 

He's very excited about our upcoming trip to the zoo in a couple of weeks and I am too. Last time we went was last Labor Day weekend, so I think they'll be even more into it now. 

Joey is finally starting to talk even though it's very hard to process most of the time, we can make out the majority. Mostly he asks for bites or Toy Story! :) Yes, apparently every child has a "Toy Story phase" and Jameson graduated out of his just in time for Joey. Thank goodness we have all the toys and movies already! We're hoping to start the potty training process this month, so maybe by June we will finally get to quit buying diapers for the first time in over 4 years! Yayyyy!

We are still very excited about James' Uncle Michael receiving the Holy Ghost a couple weeks ago it was SOOOO wonderful, and we had two yesterday morning at church that was so wonderful too. I'm hoping this will just be the beginning since we have so many at church that need it and are so close. 

 

That's pretty much for us though. Sorry I haven't blogged much its just finding the time. I have been reading every ones and even though I'm still completely appalled at Drea for not knowing who P.Diddy is I always enjoy all the post and the pictures, but I'm going to get some work done, so I can get some reading time since I'm currently attached to the new Sookie Stackhouse that come out last week. 

Thank you Charlaine Harris for delivering a new novel every year in May just in time for mothers day and my b-day so I have an excuse to buy it for myself! :)