Our Family in February

Liza turned 18 months old recently and we decided to break her of the thumb sucking.  Fair warning to those who don't like forceful methods, we forced the stop.  See picture below.  Two weeks with a sock taped to her pajamas and Liza never knew she ever sucked her thumb.

Don't worry, she is still a very happy girl!

Here is a precious video of Goodie and Liza practicing some words:

Most of February has been unseasonably warm here in Billings.  So we have taken in some fresh air.

Flashback to January.  Sledding!

Ok back to 60 degree days in February.

And 60 degree days call for Dairy Queen, thanks to Papa and Oma's Valentine gift cards to the girls.

Goodie started swim lessons at the beginning of the month.  She is "that kid" who panics and cries about the thought of water splashing her, so you can imagine the emotions with dunking under water.  Well I captured the first under water jump on video.  She didn't know it was coming.  Its like a flashback to the days of my swim lessons.  I was also "that kid."

Also Goodie has been enjoying some dates with her daddy.  They are twins!

I'm 30 weeks pregnant now!  Say what?  

Tuff has been plugging away at the second session of the One Heart Warriors Leadership Development Program.  The photo below is a service day in Lodge Grass at Pastor Gary Bird's church.  

The program is pretty demanding during session but sometimes the guys recreate.  Tuff took them up to the climbing wall at Harvest Church.

In other news we received our license plates for our vehicles.

Tuff's ride, OHW for One Heart Warriors.

My ride gets the 1Heart.

Our plates arrived in the mail and I noticed immediately they didn't match the approved plate.  I think the state made a mistake...not sure what to do about that yet.  In the photo below is the plate mailed to us (top of photo) and the design approved (bottom of photo).  The difference?  The font in top plate was not approved because it didn't meet the 1" specifications due to the "peak" in the font of the M and N's.  Also the arrow originally had two feathers, which didn't match our logo arrow so it was changed to three feathers.  

What do you think?  Do I say something or let it go?  Crazy they printed the wrong design!

Finally, congrats to Heath and Katie Miller for retiring after 11 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
(http://espn.go.com/blog/pittsburgh-steelers/post/_/id/17808/fan-favorite-heath-millers-retirement-forces-steelers-into-brave-new-world)  While in Pittsburgh we got to know the Millers and they are wonderful people raising a great family.

This pic is from 2010 and a gem for many reasons, including back in the day when Tuff played for the Steelers, oh yeah and hanging out with teammate Heath Miller.  Ok really just one reason, Tuff's hair!  Yes he is currently growing his hair out.  Any votes for the long locks again?!

Two Birthdays and a Surprise

I am a little, ok a lot, late on the first birthday update, that is Christ's birthday.

We traveled to Minnesota this year for Christmas.  My siblings and I surprised our parents with a family photo shoot.

Papa and Oma with their legacy of grand babies.

My family.

It was a joy filled time, full of family memories and wonderful activities.  My personal favorite was the sleigh ride Christmas Day.

Uncle Derek, cuzzie Soren and Auntie Mari.

Cydney and Mary.

 Then Rach'n around the Christmas tree at Grandma Rach's Christmas Eve is always a rowdy, family filled time.  Lots of cousins!

Goodie with cuzzie Bo.

Hasselberg Christmas on Christmas day.

My parents gave Tuff an air compressor, which would be too big to take back to MN.  So I picked one out in MT.  My mom made a mini compressor to get the point across.  So fun and creative.

***It was at the Hasselberg Christmas gathering that we shared a BIG surprise but we will get to that in a bit.

Other Minnesota activities included a little sledding.

Auntie Cydy and Liza.

Neighbor Keller and Goodie.

More family gatherings.  This time with Uncle Dave and Aunt Sandy, and Uncle Joe and Aunt Barb.

We saw many more family and friends dear to us.  It was such a blessed trip.

Now for January.  We threw a big party for Tuff's 33rd birthday.  It was an incredible turnout.  I sent invites to a lot of people but only expected about a 50% attendance out of the invites.  Think again; I'd say about 80-90% invited came.

Before the big party, we spent some time with immediate family.

The Harris family.  A good looking crew.

Uncle Donnie and Nantie (Kassia).

Uncle Roger, Auntie Darlene, Auntie Toni, cuzzie Kimber and Uncle Ty.



Cuzzies taking goofy photos.

I baked my mom's famous recipe, cayenne spiced candied bacon per birthday boy's request.

 
Happy 33rd Birthday Tuff!

With so many beautiful people gathered it reminded me of the unity and diversity of the Kingdom of God: 1 Corinthians 12:25-27...that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

We felt incredibly honored to celebrate with so many loved ones. 

So the surprise?

We also revealed the gender of Baby Harris #3!

 

It was a thrill to announce, "It's a boy!" But the real surprise was we knew since December 17th (the party was January 23rd). Our guests were unaware of this fact.  Somehow we managed to surprise Tuff's family too.

***This was the big surprise we shared with the Hasselberg Family at the Hasselberg family Christmas.  They kept a secret for a month.  Way to go family! 

Some fun helping guests guess the gender using answers to old wives tales.  

The guests chose either a pink or blue ice cream scoop and added it to the cone for their guess.  Boy was the majority and majority ruled.  

Tuff came up with the big reveal moment.  Below is a picture of him announcing the plan to the guests.

The plan:  We purchased just over 100 blue/pink balloons and filled half of them with glow sticks.  Upon the time of the reveal, we asked everyone to gather to the front two rooms of the house.  We turned off the lights and turned on Goodie's little disco ball.  Then with some help from friends waiting upstairs, the 100+ balloons came cascading down the stairs and flooded the front rooms of the house.  It was mass chaos and full of giggles and guesses.

After the last balloon made it down an announcement was made to grab the color balloon that coordinated with the gender guess.  That's when we came down the stairs with a giant blue balloon full of blue confetti, Tuff paraded around the house in victory.  Then, pop!  Tuff popped the balloon and confetti flew everywhere!  I mean everywhere.  It was ridiculous and certainly memorable for all.

For those who want to watch a video, our friend Richie captured the moments.  This video is the 2nd half of the reveal, the balloons are released and we are ready to come down the stairs for the big reveal:

So much fun.  Wish you all could have been there too.