An Early Christmas Gift

Her shirt says it all.

Her face says it all too.  She doesn't know what to think of her new role.

Only 9 weeks and 2 days along according to today's ultrasound.  That jelly bean in the picture below is Harris baby #2.  Due July 20th.

Quick Trip to Denver and Thanksgiving

Friday, November 22nd through Monday, November 25th we journeyed south to Denver, Colorado for a life planning training by Lance Witt.  He offers several services, including pastor's coaching, speaking and life planning, http://www.replenish.net/.  The training was for Tuff but Grace and I got to participate the second day.

Notice the Chik-Fil-A cup in Grace's hands below.  The nearest one to Billings, Montana is a quick 300+ miles away.  Boo!

We stayed with our college friend Matt and his wife Kim (remember we attended their wedding this September in Whitefish, Montana).  Matt and Kim are both Pharmacists in Denver and graduates of The University of Montana Pharmacy School.

The picture below is from seven years ago.  Matt and I are at the 2006 NCAA Division I FCS playoff game vs Massachusetts.  Tuff is on the field and its his senior year.  Great memories with Matt!  Glad we got to see him down in Denver.

We also got to see our Pittsburgh friends Joe and Kassi, who moved to Denver from Pittsburgh the same time of year we made the move from Pittsburgh.

Joe, Lincoln, Kassi, Grace, Mary, Tuff.

Kassi was due to have her second little boy on December 1st.  No baby yet that I know of.

My bet is that he will look like Joe this time.  Its pretty obvious little Lincoln took on Kassi's hair, skin and eyes traits.  Wouldn't it be fun to have a little brother with dark hair, skin and eyes like Joe?

Lincoln and Grace were born just two weeks apart and are both Steel Town babies.

They were adorably affectionate toward each other.

Dancing goofies in the video below:

  

I almost forgot to mention we took a train ride at the mall.  Pretty funny watching Joe and Tuff squeeze in the car.

All aboard video:



On our drive home from Denver, as we entered Montana I snapped this photo with my camera phone.  Beautiful sky!



When we arrived in Billings we drove straight to Cafe Rio to meet Tuff's cousin Dale for dinner.  Last year at this time we were living with Dale's family in Colstrip, MT.

Below is a picture of Dale and Grace almost exactly a year ago.  Such sweet memories at their home.

 For Thanksgiving we traveled to St. Xavier, Montana to Tuff's brother Jay's home.  Everyone was there but we forgot a group photo!

Grace and cuzzies.

Morning of Thanksgiving.

Sunday we met the Beckman's and Grandpa and Grandma Harris at Chuck E. Cheese's for Kaydee Beckman's 4th birthday celebration.

Mary, Jeri Lyn and Grandpa Jerry.

This picture was from Kaydee's birthday last year.  The cuzzies all have changed so much.

Last night and into this morning it snowed.  I mean it really snowed!  It probably snowed more the past day than it did all last winter.

Temperatures are dipping to around 0 degrees so its not necessarily enjoyable snow weather.  Bye for now and stay warm everyone!

November

November 2nd my friend Katie and I were honored to throw our friend Jessica a baby shower.  She is due any day now.  I met these two lovely ladies back in January through a small group at church.

This was a cool idea I found on Pintrest.

Grace and I started going to Barnes and Nobel story time Monday mornings.  It is very fun to watch Grace become a little more independent.  Most my days are spent with her attached to my leg.

That's Grace in the orange hat below.

At the end they give each of the kids a little Starbucks drink.  Starting them early.

A few more pictures to gush over.  They look so much alike.

The next few photos were taken the first week of November.  Shortly after Grace was born her Auntie Roberta made her a special outfit (the moccasins are an add-on from my mom-brand new garage sale find, none less).

Now 19 months later she fits in her special outfit.

In the background is a star quilt (Northern Cheyenne) from Tuff's sister Toni.

Her favorite part of the outfit is the "sparkly" as Grace says.  I think we could use a few more accessories (hint hint to Mam, AKA Grandma Melody).

November 6th, Tuff's Grandma Merle Jean got surgery on her neck and mouth.  They found cancer the previous week.  The surgeon (who happened to be Grace's ear tubes surgeon) felt confident he got all the cancer removed.  She is now healing for the next several weeks before she'll know anything else.  She is so strong and continues to pour her love on all of us through her trial.

Grace with Grandma's Get Well Soon balloon.

November 11th the snow hit hard again, which we love to play in.

Also on November 11th our dear friend Leslie came to visit us from Nashville.  Leslie is a small business owner selling bridal veils and more.  She is the veil model on her website,  http://bridalbylesliev.com/.  She also is an actress on the side for fun.  We think she is pretty much amazing.

Leslie's top five things to do is hiking so she was in luck!  Also the weather was pretty nice considering the previous day was full of snow.  Her entire stay the weather was near 60 degrees each day.

Beartooth Mountains in nearby Redlodge, Montana in the photo background below.

Our happy hiker.

A photo from one of our hikes.  Our house is down the hill near the Mormon temple (the large white building in the center of the photo).  Fun fact, there are only 154 Mormon temples in the world.

Leslie and I went pawn store shopping and came across these elk tooth dresses.

I convinced her to put one on for a picture but we chose a children's size by accident.  Haha.

We were in Crow Agency, Montana one of the days Leslie was in town and watched some of the local kids race their ponies.  Grace was enamored by the action!

We had a mini photo session the day Leslie departed back to Nashville.  Grace did not comply for the most part so we only got a few goodies (get it!).

I love this lady! So beautiful inside and out.

We couldn't resist.  Haha.

In our free time what we do for fun looks very different now that we have a toddler in our life. Instead of movies and golfing it now looks like the several examples below:

Drawing.

Grace drawing.  In the video she is saying "circle" and "square" but her dad doesn't know all the toddler lingo.

"Around the Horn."

This a phrase Tuff uses to describe going around an object.  You'll see Grace demonstrating this in the video below:

Blanket Train.

The blanket train is a ride on a blanket throughout the house yelling "choochoo."

Biking.

Ok so this is pretty cool.  Grace got a balance bike, which is a bike with no pedals.  She's quite the natural on it scooting around the house.

Its only six pounds so she can lift it up and put it away no problem.  So cute.  I think I probably love it more than her.

Just for fun and because we can, we started fufu Fridays...

And tutu Tuesdays...

Ok I couldn't resist this potty video.  Poor Grace is probably the most photographed and videoed child on the potty.  Here she is stone cold facial expression to Tuff's potty rap: