temple lights

Last week was a fun week! We got to spend some time with our friends the Abraham's, and we all went up to Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square! It was beautiful! And, the weather wasn't too freezing :) We went to the Festival of Lights (in Spanish Fork) together too. It was fun! All the cars drive with their lights off, realllllly slowly around a park decorated in animated wire-framed scenes. We let Harmony ride on our laps so she could actually see, and she loved loved it! Hopefully we will squeeeeeze getting a picture with Santa Claus taken tomorrow if we have time!

Here are pics from Temple Square thanks to the Abraham's!

Look what a nice friend I have-
she even bent down so I wouldn't look so short! :)

les remerciements

Random picture to start of this post. Harmony loves to climb on the kids rides at the mall.

Since I've been meaning to post a new blog for a while, and it just so happens to be Thanksgiving Day...I thought that it would be perfect-because I wanted to write about how thankful I am that my sweet mom came to stay with me for two whole weeks, while I was sick. It helped me get better so much faster! Harmony really loved to play with Grandma all day...and I especially liked having someone around to talk to and an extra pair of hands all day long! I got spoiled :) Thank you so much Mom!

Mom and Harmony playing together.

I also forgot to post a picture from
when my dad was here, just before Halloween.
So here it is.

We've been having fun this week while Ben's sister Becky is here visiting! Harmony just loves getting to go play at Grandma's everyday too. She especially loves the new baby sled that everyone *gets* to take turns pulling her in! I think we know where we'll be getting our exercise this winter! I have a bunch of clips of this new workout routine (via the link).

There are so many little videos I wanted to share. Follow the link at the bottom if you want to view them all. Here is just one from today.

Harmony gets a kick out of the dogs catching food in their mouths.

Here's some cute videos from this month...I apologize for the lower quality of the videos lately. The only camera I have is on my iPhone...

Birth-o-ween

One year older and WISER too...yes that's right...well, at least the older part. I had a great birthday!! I really wanted to go to the temple for my birthday. Ben's mom watched Harmony for us, and we were able to go to the Provo temple. It was a Thursday, so that means Ben's dad was working there that day. So, we got to have a delicioso temple lunch with Nyle, and meet his temple buddies :) After that, we went out to the mall to spend some birthday money ;) At the end of the night, I even got a SWEET massage at home from my wonderful masseuse friend, Liz!

On Friday night, we went to our ward trunk-o-treat and brought our friend Nicole and her babies Ethan (3) and Shelby (10 mos) with us! Harmony LOVED it. She'd grab the candy out of the bowls and then put it directly into her bag, followed by excessive hand clapping while saying "yaaaaay!" Then, to gear up for more Halloween fun, we watched a scaaaarry movie (The Uninvited) with Nicole and her husband Nathan.

Our friend Nicole and Shelby with me n' Harmony

Our costumes were Agent's Dana Scully and Fox Mulder from the X-Files
( in case you DIDN'T know!)

The only bee that I'm not afraid of :)

Saturday, Ben planned a little birthday/Halloween get-together for me. We dressed up in our costumes and had a tastey ice cream cake with our friends and family. I was very excited to hand out candy for the first time (Seriously. I'm usually trick or treating!). Harmony thoroughly enjoyed having the doorbell ring and giving the kiddos some candy! Then of course we ended our day with Ben's brothers by watching a hilarious RIFFTRAX of one of the most frightening movies of all time: TITANIC.

The Ice Cream Cake. Inscription: Happy Birth-o-ween. Love it!

AWESOME OCTOBER 2009 :)

Daddy's Days Off

Ben began working at a new job last Thursday- so since he quit his old one, he had a couple of days off in the middle of the week! SWEET! We took full advantage of this and decided to re-visit the super human-friendly ducks (Now that's SUPER human-friendly. Not, super-human, friendly) at a park in Orem. We had a ton of fun feeding them and fending them off! There were even a bunch of tiny baby ducks this time! Harmony played on the playground and ran around the park, and of course, her favorite, the swings.

Then, we returned to Hogle Zoo in SLC! Harmony's Uncle Jon came up with us too! It was so nice because most of the animals were out and about, and Harmony definitely took notice of them this time.

Here's Jon testing out a hat at the zoo.

The water globe at the zoo. Harmony's favorite.

Ben already has an awesome new office with lots of cool things for him to tinker with . So far, they are treating him exponentially better than his last job did (ah-hem. not hard to do), and he has a new sweet computer with all these bells and whistles, and all the software he needs to show off his mad skills. Maybe he'll even have a name plate on his door before 8 months go by (again, last job).

Ben's in his new office holding very expensive software

Here's the link to the rest of the vids and pics.

And ACTION!

HI! This month seemed to fly by for me...which is weird, because, for some reason September usually feels quite long! And I am WAY excited for Halloween, so I may have jumped the gun a bit on the new background! :)

Tomorrow is Harmony's Aunt Rebecca's birthday! Honestly, I was getting ready to post a new blog anyhow...BUT we'll say it's a b-day surprise! :) Happy Birthday, there, Becky!!

Although nothing too significant has happened these last few weeks, other than some hefty movie watching- we took many videos nevertheless!! So here's some pics and a link to some videos of our sweet little lady!

H on the slide with her daddy

The Layton's have been so kind as to watch Harmony several times this month so that Ben and I could go to the temple (THANK YOU!!) and take an institute class. We are very appreciative!!! Gma Layton makes sure that we don't miss the cuteness that goes on with out us tho :)

Giving Charlie some loves

There's MORE in the Picasa web vault!! Click here to go see 'em!

BIRTHDAY ONE

I am so late at posting this! It takes me forever to finish a post sometimes...but..better late than never!

Harmony had her very first birthday a full two weeks ago!! Yay, Harmony! She is a walkin' machine now. Man, I thought she was active before...whew! She just never stops running in circles and dancing around the place! At least she is entertained right?

So, on her birthday we invited our family and some friends over to our house to share it with us! It was extra special because, my mom and dad came up from Arizona to be here, AND Sam, Jenn, & Cameron were even able be here from Colorado too! How lucky is Harmony?! It was a beautiful day, and we are thankful to have had our families be able to come share it with us.


I reflected all day long (ok more than just THAT day) on how amazing it was to have our baby girl come into the world...and how scary it was for me to bring her home!! It's still scary at times to be a mom, but thankfully, I feel more confident now ;) I still can not believe that a whole year has gone by since then, and STILL think that there's no way she could have been so small every time I look at her first pictures!

So, here are more pictures of the birthday girl and her fun day!

PS- Click here to see Thomas Family Pictures!

Arizona and Stepping Up

FINALLY! It seemed like forever since we'd been down to Arizona, (for me anyway) but we made the trip last week and had a LOT of fun! :) While we were there we: visited, ate, played a board game (Nuclear War, one of my favorites), played Playstation and Wii, swung some light sabers around, of course went to Jack in the Box and Eegee's, watched movies, had a birthday party, and other low key things. But - we aren't high maintenance people, so we are easily entertained. :) I think Ben's favorite part was getting to drive our rental car.....a Dodge Charger.

We were able to meet our niece, Reilly, for the first time. She is just 4 months old. I can say I have honestly never met a more laid back and smiley little baby!! She is just a patchwork of all my brother's kids rolled into one. I think she looks like each of them here and there! Harmony had so much fun playing with her cousins, even tho she was sick ( and made half their family sick too!! ) and maybe a little overwhelmed. :) She loved all the hugs and kisses and loves from all the family. You can tell she now even recognizes them when I show her their pictures.

Speaking of pictures...we finally got new Thomas family pictures!! I, for one, am excited about this, because we haven't had a recent family photo with all of us since 2002, I believe. Long overdue. Hopefully I'll be able to get those back soon and post them!

So enough typing about that...HERE'S THE PICTURES.

Oh, but first, one more tiny thing...Harmony took her first steps!!! Not quite her main mode of transportation yet, of course, but who knows what could change in a week?

The story is- We were at our friends Nathan and Nicole's house, playing the Wii, while Harmony tossed around a jacket. After about 15 mins of playing with this "magic" jacket, she stood right up, and took about 6 or so steps around the corner to the stairs! Up until now, she's insisted on walking only when holding on to someone's hand. She has excellent balance, and doesn't need to use a hand, but insists on it nevertheless...until she had this jacket. We think that she believed the jacket was helping her walk, (like Dumbo's feather helped him fly) so we call it her 'magic' jacket.

You can see video clips of it HERE.

So, just about a week shy of her 1st birthday- she decides to go it alone and take some steps. What a big girl my baby is getting to be. Who does she think she is???

July Goodness

So, I thought June was busy-until we had July! Maybe it just seems that way, since I have an excessive amount of videos and pictures that I want to post for July! I think the easiest way to do this would to be to direct you to a link for all the pics- here! I'll change up the font a little for each paragraph, too, so your eyes won't glaze over from all the reading!

First, as I mentioned in the last post, Ben's brother Sam, his wife Jenn, and their adorable son, Cameron, came up from Denver for a visit. Ben's sister Becky (and briefly, her husband Jared!) also came from Houston- With everyone here, we took the opportunity and had some awesome family pics done, again, by the wonderful Miner Photography! You can see more of the pics if you visit the link!

Then, my dad came to visit for about a week! It was wonderful to see him, and Harmony loved her Grandpa Thomas! We took a trip (Harmony's longest so far) up to Preston (and Grace) Idaho for a family reunion - my dad's mother's side. Harmony got to finally meet her super cute cousin, my cousin Elisa's daughter, Aislynn! They had fun playing together, and got along quite well!

Then, we had Pioneer Day (it's a Utah thing) fireworks- which my dad finally was here for this year. We always sit in the Layton's front yard for a primo view of the action, which takes place in the park across the street. Harmony actually did pretty well watching the fireworks. She loved to watch them-but after a few mins, we went inside so as not to deafen her permanently! During that same week, Ben's aunt and cousin (his mom's sister) Kathy and Andrew Dixon were visiting. Harmony sure had fun playing with Andrew, and loved Kathy too! Kathy thinks Harmony was confusing her with her Grandma Layton! ;)

While my dad was here, he was able to take a couple quick fishing trips (his true love really, is fishing) with Ben and the other boys. Harmony and I went along for the 2nd trip at the Spanish Fork Reservoir. My dad actually did catch a pretty good sized fish in there...although sorry, Jared and Becky, no proof with a picture- Cos unfortunately, it broke the line off and stole my dad's hook! DARN! At least we proved that there was (and still is) at least one fish in that reservoir.

This is Harmony's 11th month by the way- we'll be going to AZ this week, and then celebrate her 1st birthday on the 22nd. TIME FLIES!!

4th and Fun

We had some fun this last week with family coming up to visit. The first clip in the video is of Harmony and her cousin, Cameron playing in Grandma Layton's backyard on the splash pad. It was a hot day, and I think they liked it! Harmony had her first fireworks experience on the fourth at our house, which she apparently tolerated, as you will see in the video. Also, earlier that day, we went to the park with Ben's brother Sam, and his family, and with our friends the Abraham's!

At the park

Sam and Charlie

Jenn with Cameron and Ethan Abraham behind with Todd

Weeeeeee!

Nicole and Nathan Abraham with their kids Shelby and Ethan

Ben and Harmony!

Finally!

June has been the busiest month we've had in a long time! Aside from Ben's crazy work schedule, we've had a lot of fun things go on around here. Before the month ended, we squeezed in a couple more things :)

Most importantly-

We went swimming!!! :) I've been dying to go swimming, basically, since last summer ended. On Monday, we finally went to the pool, and Harmony got to have her first swimming experience! She really liked it! The pool was neat, because it tapered off like a seashore, so that the really little kids could run around, and Harmony could crawl around and splash in the water. She loved it. She also really loved to be buoyant and bounce up and down. She kept putting her face down in the water tho, but only swallowed a bucket full of water once :)

Here is a video of her in the water with Ben. I couldn't get her to look at me tho. I guess she was too focused on that cool water! We are planning to go again this week, YES!!!
(also I added a cute clip I had of Harmony playing peekaboo in her crib. She loves being in her crib....as long as it's not naptime!)

Also, our good friend, David Goodman, came by for a visit on his way back to WA from Lake Powell. We've been able see Dave once or twice every year since we've lived up here, and look forward to his visits! Each time we see him tho, we are in a different house! He says he loves to watch each chapter of our lives unfold whenever he comes down. We love watching each new chapter of your life unfold too, Dave!



We're looking forward to July, having Ben's brother and sister and their families come visit this week, and for my dad come up for visit for our yearly family reunion!

June june june

So far this month has actually been pretty eventful so far. We got all moved in to our new house in Springville, thanks to Ben's awesome family for ALL their help!! We actually have got quite a lot unpacked already! Harmony is still getting used to it all. I think she's still wondering "when are we going home?" Although, she really does enjoy having her very own set of stairs to trek up and down -and up...and down....and UP.

After that, Ben and I took a sweet trip up to Lagoon! We met up with my cousin Elisa, and her husband Morgan! It was so cool, because I hadn't see Elisa in a few years, and we haven't actually done anything together (besides hang out at Uncle Rico's Van at the family reunion) since we were little! It was the most fun ever! EXCEPT for the fact that we locked our keys in our car and had to pay a price so obscene I can barley utter it...*whispering* 178 dollars. I KNOW!!! 178 dollars?!?! Yeah. So we got ripped off, and I'm still trying to block it out. Good thing there were lots of fun roller coasters to help us feel, uh...better.

The new WICKED

THEN Ben's brother Sam's wife, Jenn, and their son Cameron came to visit for couple days, and we were really excited to see them! We haven't seen Cameron since he was just a few weeks old, so it was really awesome to see how much he's changed...and how unbelievably CUTE he is!

THEEEENNNN...my MOM came up to visit us!! It's been really nice to have my mom up here...and nice to have her see Harmony in real life, and not just on the blog!

We went to the new Oquirrh temple open house, played at the park, and played with a new toy for Harmony from Grandma. I can't believe that my girl is going to be TEN MONTHS OLD on Monday!!

And yesterday, I FINALLY got my hair cut!! I've been waiting a long time to chop my long hair off, and stop having it get caught in Harmony's little fingers, and in my way all the time!

Well, those are the major things that we've done so far, and they're also the things I actually have pictures of!

What we did...

last weekend for memorial day...we went to Camp Floyd. It was pretty uneventful, but it was nice to have a drive and (for me at least) to be outside for a bit. After that, we hung out at Ben's family's house and had a BBQ. Harmony had fun playing with the sweet toys at Grandma's. She also loves playing patty cake, as you can see here in the second video clip.

Zoo Day and other fun things...

Much has happened over the past few weeks. Some of my favorite AZ friends, Rosi (Isbell) Hendrickson, and her husband Stan, came over for a visit and got to meet Harmony! Also, her kids (and one of my very best friends!) Derek, and Amanda came to visit a few days later. Derek hasn't seen Harmony since she was two weeks old. We had a blast playing Mario Kart and watching The Lost Skeleton of Cadavera. Great flick. ;) Amanda had a good time too she said, tho, the contrary seems evident from the picture, hee hee hee.

We finally took Harmony to the zoo!!! Yay! I have been waiting since January for the weather to be nice and for us to have a chance to go. We didn't get too many good pictures, unfortunately. The sun was not cooperating with my eyes, and many of the animals were sleeping out of view :( Although, we did get a video of Harmony's favorite part! The water fountain at the entrance! It was a great day.

Harmony has become more and more mobile. Loves to move and hates to sit and stay. A cute thing she does lately is her "turbo crawl." When she sees someplace she wants to be, she'll start a normal crawl, and then tips her head down and crawls at it doubletime! It's hilarious. She often bumps into things tho, since she's looking straight at the floor and not where she's going!

These clips are just from the other day. She stops and stares at our "fish" which she loves to look and giggle at. Our real fish died (they killed each other) but Ben has a screen saver on his computer with a fish tank on it, and, well, Harmony doesn't know the difference!
She also really loves to talk now. She says more words but it's hard to catch it on video. I'll post one if I am ever lucky enough to get it.

Juggling

It is pretty unbelievable to us how much Harmony has changed. I wish I had a hidden camera in my face so that I could post every cute little thing she does on this blog! That would be a very huge blog with the rate this girl is goin ;)
However, Harmony does this funny trick lately. I have been excited to post it. Unfortunately, the only shots of it I have are these crappy cell phone videos since my actual camera is very dead. But, you can get the idea.

Part deux

Sunny Day!

Just a few things I wanted to let everybody know...

All the pictures I've been posting to the top of the blog, were taken by Mary Anne Miner (Miner Photography). She lives here in Provo near us, and she's from my home town, Sierra Vista (some of you know her obviously). She's a wonderful photographer and did a great job with our cranky little Harmony ;)

I will be making this blog private pretty soon, due to the many people in various countries (most of which I've never heard of) who land on this blog thru web searches. It makes me a little nervous. So, I'd be happy to add you if you send me your email address.

Well, can't have a post with out some pictures of Harmony, now can we?! We took these today thanks to the warm weather we finally had!! I hope it lasts a loooong time!

AND I'm amending this to add this pic I just got from Gma Layton from Easters. :)
Too cute that little toothy smile.