The life of a Harmon!

So once again, it has been too long since I have updated my blog, and so I am going to give you all an update that I know you have been dying for :) and do it fast, so this is not long. and warn you again, that we still don't have a camera, so no pictures :(

So since I last updated...

1. The girls finished school

2. We went on a much needed amazing vacation to Clovis for 1 week. It was so much fun to see all our friends, and their families, and Brads parents. We love when we get to spend time with them. We went to the cabin for most of the trip and had a blast swimming, and shopping, and celebrating mothers day. can't wait to do it again :)

3. Girls camp happend :) I got called as the ward camp director, and to say I LOVE! my calling is an understatement!! I had so much un planning, and preparing, and going up to big bear with the girls, can't wait for next year :)

4. Summer started in Palm Springs! It is SO hot where we live! I was so ready for summer to get here, and now I am counting down the days until it ends. lol 118 degrees I believe is what it was yesterday....anyone want to come and visit?

5. We registered the girls for 2nd grade, and Eizyn for kindergarten :0!  So if you are sitting there wondering, " I thought they were homeschooling?"  I am here to officially say, that I have absolutely nothing against homeschool, but boy do I respect people who have the ability to do it and stick to it. because I FAILED lol I even had the help of the charter school, and yup...no go!  Homeschool is not for us! so back to public school next year. Glad we gave it a shot, and now I know :) lol

6. My sister graduated college! She is now free of time, and single. So if anyone knows any really good boys, let me know :)

7. I am a Vegan.  This is a very new thing we are trying, but I LOVE IT! I thought it would be really hard to eat this way, and it is not. We are doing it as a family, for health reasons. My parents are here and doing it as well. And I really needed my kids to start eating better, so we can stay healthy the rest of our lives. ( we will eat meat on occasion, for those freaking out about this, but mostly a plant based diet) And we had the best dinner last night. We did a shepards pie, but lentils and tomatoes, onions, carrots, peas, with potatoes on top. so good. and since we aren't eating ranch dressing, and that is the only dressing I eat, we found a recipe for a cashew herbed dressing, that is creamy like ranch with no vinegar! SO GOOD!! We are adjusting, and the kids are doing better. My parents have lost some weight, and thanks to the stupid depot shot (that a whole new story), I have not lost any weight yet, but I am staying positive. I haven't gained anymore weight this past week so that is 1 step ahead I guess :)

So that is mostly what has been going on around here. I love my life right now and where we are at as a family and a couple. I love Palm Springs, and I am so glad Heavenly Father wanted us to be here. It is so awesome, and a really great vacation area, so come and see us! If you come in the summer, it is SO cheap too!

These next few months we are looking forward to our fourth of July party we are having, the kids starting school on August 1st. Shelbi and Savanna turing 7 August 1st. Brads parents coming down in August for family pictures, going to Utah for my cousins weddings in August, and in September we are going to Lake Tahoe with Brads family, and some people from Brads work, to he can do the tough mudder http://toughmudder.com/....

Love  you all hope you are all doing well :)

The Harmons

Most annoying sound

Has anybody wondered what the most annoying sound in the world is?

More annoying than nails on chalkboard, squeaky shoes, snoring, or metal on metal?

DOVES!! you heard me right, has anybody heard a dove hoo hooing? it almost sounds like an owl, but WAY more annoying. We have a dove that thinks his home is on top of my chimney, he sits there practically all day and night, hoo hooing, and then it echos through the house down the chimney ALL DAY LONG!!!! I have never been one to have violent tendancies, but i swear this bird is about to get a death wish...

MOST ANNOYING SOUND EVER!!

Camping and girls night in!

Over the weekend we had a blast! We were supposed to be going down to Fresno for a wedding and to visit Brads family, and very sadly it didn't work out, so we decided to make the best of the 3 days off work Brad had anyways :) On Friday night Brad had a scout camp out he was supposed to go on since he is in young men's, he decided to go and take Eizyn with him. To say Eizyn was excited, is a major understatement, he could not wait to sleep outside, and get to spend some 1 on 1 time with daddy! it is all he talked about for days. He was such a big helper and helped Brad get everything together that they needed, and off they went.

Well since Brad was gone we decided to do something fun with the girls, and have a girls night it. We gave each other facials, and pedicures. Shelbi and Savanna had so much fun doing this, and thought it was so cool. Shelbi gave me a big hug while she was soaking her feet in our plastic tub turned foot bath, and said, "thank you so much mommy, this is so much fun!" Here are some picture via my web cam, for you to enjoy of our night together :)

Saturday after Brad got home we shared stories of our night together, then Brad decided he wanted to have a camp out with all of his kids, So he set up our really big tent in the backyard, we bought smores, and had a really fun night. Mommy stayed outside for the first part of the evening, and then chose to sleep inside the house with Skye :) But they had another really great night

More pictures via my web cam

My mom and Brad cooking smores

Shelbi eating her smore

Eizyn!

The tent, and Shelbi dancing in front

Silly faces

Skyes famous surprise face, it is normally so much more exaggerated than that

Savanna wanted a kiss in front of the camera

More kisses!

Daddy blowing up the mattress

This is how the Harmon children camp in the backyard...

With a TV :)

Side note*******

The television which was given to us for free by the gentleman we bought our bunkbeds from, was hooked up for the first time this night, about 30 seconds after i took that picture, it made a really loud noise, and went out. lol So Brad, who is the most awesome dad EVER! Took the kids outside with like 30 books, and sat and read books to them all night with flashlights until everyone went to bed :)

Then end :)

I am so bad at this....

Ok so I seriously stink and keeping this blog up to date but it is not entirely my fault this time that is was not done. lol So a lot has happened in this past month so this might be kind of a long post, so I hope you are prepared for it : )

1. First to start you off, my camera broke : ( not sure how, it has been put away, no child has touched it, I went to get it out to use it.....and the camera lens won't open. I was so sad, and am still so sad, but we will try to see if we can take it to someone and get it fixed. So if you haven't already realized what that means yet....Not only do you have this blog to read.....but there are no pictures to accompany any events from my crazy life.

2. Our computer crashed! I swear we do know how to take care of electronics, our house must have something against them though. That is the main reason that I haven't blogged any more. (at least that was my excuse for the first 3 weeks since it happened) We have had a new computer now for a while, but with homeschool, and my camera, I just havent' thought about it.

3. The next thing that happened, is my mom moved back from Mexico and moved in with Brad and I for a bit. We are so excited to have her here for a while, and so are the kids. and as Brad put is, now we get a free babysitter, and date nights once a week! whoot whoot for Grandmas!!

4. Skye turned 2! I can't believe that my baby is already 2! It is so exciting and sad when your last child has a birthday, because you know that you will never have a child turn 1, 2, 3 etc. again. : ( We had a little party for her, and Mike and Dee Dee came down, it was so much fun, and she sure enjoyed it. And is there a rule that states as soon as a child hits 2 they are aloud to turn to monsters? I swear that principle is part of Heavenly Fathers sense of humor coming out, because my sweet little baby girl, who can still be sweet, is now only sweet when SHE wants to be. ( and that is not very often)

5. We decided to homeschool Shelbi and Savanna! This is probably our biggest news that we have, There are a LOT of reasons that went into this decision, personal and spiritual, but Brad and I both felt it was the right decision as least for now. We are going to take it one year at a time, and just see how it goes. I didn't want to fully homeschool them completely on my own, and have to plan my own lessons etc. So we enrolled them in an independant study charter school. They give me all the books, and assignments etc. and then we do the work at home and turn it in to a teacher once a week. They also have enrichment classes every tuesday and thursday from 9-12 so the kids can get interaction with other kids, and they work on fun projects and reading games etc. We have only been doing it for 3 weeks now, but I really really like it. It is nice having my kids home more, and I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy doing the teaching part, but I have really enjoyed it.

6. Brad and I got free invitations to go to the Frank Sinatra golf tournament auction on Friday night. To say we had a blast is an understatement! We had the best time EVER! We sat with the most amazing family in the whole world, and I haven't laughed that hard in so long, my stomach hurt. We saw and met so many celebrities, and dick van dyke performed with the vantastix and his new wife. It was the best show ever!

7. Ok this will be my last story, and some of you who know my Shelbi personally might laugh, ans think, "Sounds like Shelbi" and for those who don't know her on a personal level, just know that I love this little girl more than life, but boy she was put on this earth to give me patience! and unfortunately, 2 days ago, my anger won out on me, and I did not have any patience. So let me paint you the picture of what happened two days ago.

It started off as a pretty good day, We had friends from victorville visiting the last few days so we all got up in the morning and ate breakfast, and we were all getting ready to head up to Yucca Valley for Hyrums birthday party. As we were walking out the door, my mom notices a picture with a heart and underneath the heart it said Bich.....So my mom shows me, and we immediatly start wondering which child wrote this down. We go to the car, and Shelbi admits that she is the one to write it, we asked what she was trying to spell, and she lets us know she was trying to spell bitch. we ask if she knew it was a bad word, and she responds, yes. So we have a talk about swear words and how we don't write them down, or say them, and because she told the whole truth she didn't get in big trouble, but she was crying and embarassed none the less. So we get driving down the road, in two cars because both families did not fit in one car. we are about half way to Yucca Valley when Shelbis friend yells , " UM SHELBI JUST BROKE THE WINDOW!" What???? I look out my mirror and sure enough the little tiny window in the back of the van that only pops out a few inches, is not swinging wide open in the wind only attached by one side ( and not the side with the lock) I pull over, and am yelling because she gets told DAILY not to play with the window!! My friend is behind me and I tell her that shelbi just broke the lock off the window, and my friends says ," i know, the peice flew off and hit my windshield and cracked it" oh yes it did, so we can't drive because the whole window might blow off, so we try to find something to hold the window on with. we finally find the string from my moms hoodie in the backseat, and ties the string through the hole that used to hold the lock, and tied it to the back of the van SO GHETTO! lol So we had to replace a windshield, and a window lock.....Not the best week I have ever had. And i did later apologize to Shelbi after she got done crying for an hour because i was so mad.

So there you have it, the last month in a nutshell :)

Hopefully next time their will be pictures :)

Anniversary, Christmas, Lice, and Cake.

I know that is a lot to pack into one whole blog post, but since I haven't posted anything beside family pictures since 2009, I figured what better way to get back into the spirit of blogging than to update you on all things going on in Harmon life. :)

So since moving to Palm Springs last year, we have met this wonderful couple the Lakes. They have 3 kids all the same age as my kids. We have grow really close this last year, and we do a lot together. :) So both of our Anniversaries are in November, and happen to be 4 days apart. So we decided we would celebrate together. We took them up to Brads parents cabin in Bass Lake, CA. We had 5 days of no kids, lots of food, lots of laughs, and LOTS of sleeping in. lol On the second night of our trip Brads parents came out and took us to dinner at Tenaya Lodge in yosemite, It was such a wonderful dinner, we were there for 3 hours just sitting at the table and enjoying ourselves. It was so nice because we never get to go to dinner without kids, especially for 3 hours. Thank you to my sister in law Brittany, and my best friend Emily, who were willing to take my kids for me for those days :)

Christmas in Palm Springs....

Our first Christmas in Palm Springs was awesome! Brads parents, Grandma and his oldest sister and her kids came down for the holidays. We loved showing them around, and had so much fun having some family here to visit us for a while. We hadn't seen Brads sister in over a year, so it was nice to get to catch up, and let the cousins play. One of the best parts of Palm Springs, is that it is hardly ever cold, and none of the pools ever close out here for winter, ever pool in heated year round, so you can swim whenever, and we did just that!! The hotel they were all staying at had a really great pool and it was perfect weather!

Christmas eve before we went to bed, we set up a camera in our living room and it had a "motion sensor" on it so as soon as it spotted someone it took the picture. lol we were hoping to catch a photo of Santa Clause in our living room.....and we did just that! The kids were all SO excited when we woke up the next morning to discover that santa had come and didn't even notice our camera

All the kids on Christmas morning :)

Ladybug Cake

So another friend of mine out here was throwing a baby shower for her sister, and when we were getting to know each other she found out that I did cakes, and she asked if I would make her sisters baby shower cake. I was very happy to do that for her. My friend Elise ( from our Anniversary trip) came over and helped me for 7 hours today to decorate it. We had so much fun and decided we should start doing cakes together we make a pretty good team.

Here is the finished product :) I forgot to take pictures of it until it was in the fridge, so ignore the ugly fridge background

and you knew it was coming......the dreadful word ever parent hates more than anything....LICE!! Seriously I don't know what heavenly father was thinking when he created such an evil bug to live on your head, I didn't really know much about it until a month and a half ago when BOTH my daughters along with 19 other first graders got sent home with an outbreak. now I am an expert on lice let me tell you! So we spent 4 hours picking nits out of the girls heads, ripping apart everybodys beds, cleaning pillows, brushes, and going back to the school to get them checked, etc. etc. this lasted for a few days until every sign of nits were gone out of the heads ( if you don't know anything about lice, nits are the eggs that the live lice leave on your head, and there is NO way to get them out easily, you literally have to search EVERY SINGLE strand of hair for a nit, and pull or cut the hair or nit out) By the third day Shelbi got sent home because the nurse found one more nit in her hair, we went home and spend another 3 hours picking through every strand of hair and searching every where on the internet for a remedy for nits, I was willing to try ANYTHING at that point, outside of hiring a company called nit pickers to come over and do the work for me, lol (seriously that is a real company) We found out that bleach in hair dye can penetrate the nit sack, and kill the egg so at least nothing else can come out of it. So when I took Shelbi to school the next morning I told the nurse if she sent me home again, Shelbi was going to come back to school the next day with blonde hair because I was going dye it.. well Lucky for Shelbi she was fine, and was nit free.

It has been a month and half since we had out whole live fiasco take place, I checked the girls heads daily to make sure the is nothing new, and what do you know? But yesterday I found 3 nits in Shelbis hair, and 2 in Savannas. OH NO! I was in shock, and so angry, so apparently someone in first grade has it and doesn't know about it, because this house is lice free. So you can guess what happend next. ....

Oh yes! Shelbi is going to be blonde. She was very excited to look like her sister, so after picking out a few more nits, washing bedding etc. etc. We bleached her hair tonight, if this doesn't keep those suckers away I don't know what will. lol (I will be dying her hair back to her original color in a few weeks)

until next time....

Family Pictures 2012

So I got rid of facebook, and I am going to make an effort to write on my blog again. I am going to try to update it regularly, and keep my family up to date on our life :)

So last time i posted pictures we had just moved to Palm Springs, I wasn't sure if I liked it out here, but WE LOVE IT HERE! I don't think we will ever move. We just moved into a house, and out of our condo, and it is so much more room for the family and so nice not having neighbors connected to us. etc. I will post pictures of the house as soon as we get the back yard complete :)

So for now here are some pictures for you, one of my best friends Elise took these family pictures for us while Brads family was out here for Christmas, and I love them :) so Enjoy and check back often to check on more updates from me, or click the subscribe button on my right hand side, and it will send you an email whenever i update the blog, which hopefully will be more often :)