My 3 Sons....

A hodgepodge of photos of the boys from May till now~

So much has gone on and more happens everyday, I'm so behind......so here is an update:

Benjamin [Michael Lee]~

age: 8 years old (5/11/01)

height: 4'5"

weight: 90 lbs.

favorite foods: pizza, watermelon, tacos, cheeseburgers and fries, pancakes, lasagna,
salad with croutons, bacon bits and ranch, sausage, cookies, Popsicles, sweet baby rays BBQ sauce, ketchup, choco milk, browies,rootbeer floats, blended creme frappuccinos from starbucks

favorite books: Magic Tree House book series and Cam Jansen series, listening to The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

favorite activities: riding bikes, skateboarding, playing with the neighbor boys, swimming,
soccer, playing corn hole, playing the Wii (at friends houses)

most recent accomplishment: Popping wheelies...he can just about ride a wheely now!

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Elijah [James Cole]~
age: 2 years old (almost 3-8/2/06)

height: 32"

weight: 31 lbs.

favorite foods: broccoli with ranch, watermelon, pancakes, salads with ranch, peanut butter, oatmeal with cinnamon and honey, eggs, chips (any kind) chocolate, choco milk, coffee with flavored cream (he calls it coppee) ice cream, brownies, cookies

favorite book: anything that i will read to him....LOVES Dora and Diego

favorite activities: anything that Ben is into (he is his shadow), playing in the dirt, collecting frogs(toads, really), making Ezra laugh, pestering Ben, making me angry--haha, riding bikes, skateboarding, playing with neighbor kids, playing with water whether it's with the hose, water table or my garden pond, helping me with any chore like making my bed or doing the dishes (he's very sweet).

most recent accomplishment: he now rides his bike without training wheels--he can even stop using his brakes without falling, most of the time....now we are trying to teach him how to start on his own.

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Ezra [Kye Yates]~

age: 10 months (8/27/08)

height:28"

weight: 16.5 lbs last time we checked at his 9 month appt.

favorite foods: bananas and sweet potatoes are at the top of the list but he eats lots of food (that is for a future blog)

favorite activities: crawling, eating anything he can get his hands on--especially paper, playing with his brothers toys, walking along furniture, cuddling and sucking on his fingers

words he says: mama (1st), baba ??? the boys think he is saying brother, bye bye (he also waves this) and now dada (finally he started saying this two days ago...I'm soooo glad)

words he signs: milk, all done, and he is trying to sign more (currently he kinda claps it as he says what sounds like more)

most recent accomplishments: standing by himself

Hilltop Christian Camp

Ben went to camp this year at Hilltop Christian Camp in Brown County. He attended their Day camps the last two years where they ease you into the camp experience for just the day. This year was his first time staying overnight (2 nights, 3 days). He had such a great time and his leader/counselor absolutely loved him. When I showed up to take him home she asked if she could keep him, of course he shook his head "yes". When asked if he was any trouble she said he was an awesome kid and that he sweet enough to give back rubs!!! What a charmer he is....in fact so much so that he ended up in a group with eight girls and they called there group "Ben and the Ladies".....the saga never ends! When asked why he was in a group with all girls he exclaimed that they picked him! Naturally, it has always been this way! In preschool (at age 4) he was in a bilingual class and all of the "white" girls (5 of them) in his class waited for him to arrive to school and then when he got there they ran off together to the playground....one the moms told me that her little girl kept writing him name in her notebook at home! Yikes! Last year, two weeks before school was out, he told me that he had a girlfriend, double yikes! This year, he is torn between two girls, Kristen and Arin. He spends his entire recess time with these girls pushing them on the swings or walking the track together! One day he came home from school and begged to be home schooled, when asked why he burst out with "Kristen Nelson keeps ignoring me!" Then a few weeks ago he told me that Arin broke his heart.....aww, that breaks my heart...then it makes me bust out in laughter....are you kidding me, I sure hope he holds onto some of this sensitivity! Back to Camp....so the theme was Jesus 24/7 and he learned a lot about the fact that he can communicate with God anytime and anywhere and also about the missions in Haiti and Honduras that Hilltop supports. He is eager to go back to camp...I'm so glad he had such a nice time.

Ben taking a pic of his dorm that he stayed in for two nights

When Elijah was told to give Ben a hug and kiss goodbye he began to cry

how sweet, he loves Ben soooo much!

Ezra- 8 months old

He crawls around like mad now and is really anxious to walk. When he was done eating grass and leaves, he crawled over to the swing and pulled himself up and chewed on the bar...great photo op!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this photo of Ezra. It may not be spectacular in the photography world but it is in my world! This is straight out of the camera, no editing involved and I am so pleased that I was able to capture his eyes in all their glory. Now if only I could remember just how I achieved this shot!

I enjoy taking Ezra's photos, he is absolutely adorable! His hair is soooo blonde and it is at that stage where it stands up most of the time and now it's getting a little too long, I will probably start snipping away soon!

Van update...

The van has been declared a total loss by the insurance company so they sent us a check. We received $200 more than what we paid for it so in a sense we have been able to test drive this one for almost a year, needless to say I really like the Pontiac Montana. Now the search is on for another used "people mover"....I never thought that I would say this but I LOVE my minivan! It has been so comfy, gets awesome gas mileage for it's size 22-23 mpg (way more than my old grand prix) drives like a car, seats all of us +more, and mechanically is was well worth what we paid (in my opinion). So now it's back to the dreaded used vehicle search with is so hard for me since I am soooo indecisive. For now, we plan to drive this van (it's definitely dented and we can't use the passenger sliding door but we are able to now use the passenger front door, thanks to Kenny) until we find a really good deal. Thank you for all your prayers, we would definitely appreciate more as we keep looking.

Accidents Happen...

A week ago today, Kenny and Benjamin (oh, and Lucy, our female pit bull) were in car accident! Kenny was taking Ben to soccer practice and decided to take one of the dogs with them and while he was on their way to the soccer field, the coaches daughter called to say that practice was canceled so I immediately called Kenny to tell him the news. They decided to come home a different way than usual and drive past the fire station that Kenny had wired and as they were going past IUPUC, a GMC Envoy pulled out of the college parking lot....Kenny tried to swerve out of the way but the young girl managed to plow into them and continue to drive the entire length of the van, front fender to rear fender. No one was hurt in either vehicle, thank God, in fact, Ben asked Kenny what they hit!!! Ben was actually sitting on the passenger's side in the middle....so so thankful he didn't get hurt! The other driver's front bumper was nearly torn off!
So now we are dealing with her insurance company and the body shop to HOPEFULLY repair the damages. The body shop said that it doesn't look too good since the parts aren't cheap and he refuses to do a crappy job (wow---there really are people with high standards in the biz!) so now that we have had a full damage inspection, we are just waiting for the insurance company to let us know if they are willing to repair it or total it out! We are hoping they will fix it...I really have to say that I have grown to love driving our mini van, yikes...never thought I would say that! I has been really reliable and it was extremely hard for me to make the decision to buy it and even after I agreed, I considered backing out on the guy....UGH, I really don't want to be in that kind of position with the added pressure of being desperate searching for a family vehicle since we only have the old ford truck. I'm trying to trust that God will provide us with what is best for us, it's just so hard for me to discern which direction He is leading me in!


this is the rear passenger side tire rim....can you believe the chunks that she took out!

Kenny taped around the doors since they were gaping open and we wanted to prevent rain from causing further damage!

the van is drivable but neither of the passenger side doors work so we all have to crawl in from the drivers side....thank God for the other sliding door!

mamamama......

Yay! Ezra said "mama" today and I really think that he was truly directing it to me! I could actually hear angels sing *Hallelujah* in the heavens.....okay, it was really me singing in my head! HA. Finally, one of by boys said mama first (instead of dada), I guess the third one IS the charm!
Yikes! Look what I found during nap time a week ago monday! Ugh...I'm so not ready for this!
He insists on keeping up with his brothers! I guess I am going to loose this battle of having these Harrison boys go at a regular development pace, they must be little freaks of nature! I think I will freak if Ezra starts to walk at 9 months like the other two (ok, they took their first steps in their 9th month but really walked well at 10 months). He may be small but he is definitely mighty at heart! What a joy.

Spring Has Sprung!

I am so excited to see that so many of my plants are coming up...spring is definitely here and we have had such glorious weather the past couple of weeks...I really hope it is here to stay (we do have one day coming up with threats of snow flurries but it's just one day!) My flower beds are a terrible mess since I neglected them last year and the dogs did a number on the full-sun bed in the back yard....and now the front beds are going to get torn up with Kenny's plans of adding a front porch soon. I guess I will praise them now since I'm sure I will be cursing them while rearranging it all later. LOL!
A friend had loaned me some filters to use on my camera so I thought I would try my hand at them....I'm not sure what I am doing with my camera most of the time so playing around with filters was almost pointless but I had fun anyway. I did see some differences but I didn't record which were taken with which filter...next time!

I love all Daffodils but I especially love these Tete Tete

my beloved vinca minor ground cover....it covers a multitude of garden sins!

the fairy garden keeper....Kenny doesn't really like it but it is cute my only garden sculpture

one of my favorites...Bleeding Heart, the white one is a little behind and my Ruffled Bleeding heart didn't make it :(

yay! My tulips are going to make it...I planted them last year from a pre-blooming plants!

my Common Lilac bush given as a gift from my neighbor...Grandma Hazel(nut)

this was here when we moved in and I have never look it up, some kind of hyacinth?

this little bubble bee made his way into the picture...total accident but it makes me smile :)

so then I tried to capture him....see him on the periwinkle bloom?

again, trying to be a photographer....I had a much better accident shot of him! hahaha