Family Pictures, 2014

This year the stars aligned and I was able to get family pictures done before Christmas Eve and put together a decent Christmas card. Lisa Harbertson took our pictures in our friend's apple orchard, just down the street from us.

Anna turns 4

Anna's 4th birthday celebration turned into quite the event. Apparently Grandpa Paul wasn't cool with us bringing in the princesses for Ella and letting Anna choose what we have for dinner and calling it a party. So he took matters into his own hands. They offered to have the girls over for a sleepover on Friday and have a little party on Saturday at their house. Yes, please. But then in true Harman fashion the little party turned bigger. With a balloon artist. And a face painter. And a homemade princess cake. 

They ran into a little bump in the road when Brent's family went out of town that weekend. The guests went from enough to awkward pretty quickly. So we moved the party to our house, hastily invited some friends and boom! Party!!

Check out the turtle balloon bracelet Sara is sporting! 

Hawaii, 2015

This year Doug's conference was in Kauai (where we went the first time we joined in the Arrhythmias & the Heart fun). We decided to capitalize on the free babysitting and discounted room rates and off we went. If you recall, last year's trip was filled with a little too much excitement, so we were hoping for something pretty chill. No trips to the hospital this time! 

This is the view from Doug and Janet's room. Not bad.

But we did have a 6-month-old, which made things more complicated. Sara was actually really good for 6 months...but she was still 6 months. Sleep was where things got a little messy. She needed to nap during the day, which meant we either had to schedule around it or suffer the consequences (ie, a screaming baby all the way up to Waimea Canyon). But nights were what killed me. At home she pretty much slept through the night. But at home I never hear her little awakenings that apparently are happening 3-5 times a night. In the one hotel room where there were 2 sleeping kids (not to mention the other guests) I didn't feel like I could let her fuss at all. So every time she made a peep I was up nursing her back to sleep. She was still on MST, so she woke up around 5:00 every single day. So I would throw on some clothes in the dark, put her in the stroller and go down to the lobby and hang out for a few hours.  As I am typing this, I am realizing that it doesn't sound like much. But for some reason (perhaps because every time I nursed her back to sleep I worried about the habits I was creating) but it really stressed me out. By the third or fourth day I was seriously contemplating getting on a plane and coming home, leaving the rest of the clan to enjoy the trip. 

Our view each morning

We went to the faculty dinner at the Beach House Restaurant. They had hired a photographer to take family photos, and we took advantage. You will notice Sara is not with us. Janet took one for the team (or maybe just one for herself...) and stayed home to watch her.

Dinner at the Beach House.

Lush.

Poolside naps. 

The hotel has a man made lagoon by the pool. The sand is really hard and grainy. Every time we would venture the 100 feet to the real beach I was blown away at how soft it was.

We took a drive to Waimea Canyon. Ryan rode his bike and then we met up with him. It was raining and Sara was at her finest, and then Ella got carsick, despite taking Dramamine. Every few minutes she would cry out and say she thought she might throw up. So we'd find a spot to pull over, give her some fresh air, and she'd declare herself fine. Until she wasn't. But we made it. On our way home we went to McDonald's for dinner. We were all a little tired and grumpy. As we were waiting for our food, the man next to us asked if we were from Utah. We said yes and asked how he knew. He said he had lived in Utah before and guessed we might be because you don't see too many nice looking families like ours...ha!

The hotel had exotic birds who hung out in the lobby. On certain days they had "Bird Talk"time when the birds put on a little show. The girls loved it and we had to plan our day around it.

Doug, Ryan, Ella, Anna and I went on a whale watching tour. It was really fun. I had to double up on Dramamine and look straight to the horizon and keep munching continually to not get sick. But I didn't, and we saw lots of whales. It was hard to get a good picture, but trust me, they were there. 

Another great Hawaii trip. Thanks Doug and Janet!

Christmas, 2014

Christmas was filled with family, good food, and lots of fun. Jamie came to town, which gave us an excuse to do things which we otherwise might not make the effort to do.  We went to the scavenger hunt at the Grand America, a BYU basketball game, lights at Temple Square, ZCMI candy windows at Macey's and Thanksgiving Point. All of the Harman's spent the night at our house on Christmas Eve and we played the traditional round of Christmas Bingo. Some of the more notable prizes: Dutch Blitz, an inflatable Unicorn horn, cheetah slippers, a battery powered motion sensing light, Stanz socks, Delta SkyMiles, J Crew gift cards, a Garmin watch, Costco Gift Card (which I won and bought a Bosch mixer with!), and a few other good things that I can't remember now--Jame and Kim you'll have to remind me!

Christmas morning was full of crazy. We told Ella that she couldn't open another present until everyone had opened one. She took the job of present-passer-outer to heart and made sure there were no lulls in the unwrapping. It turned into a bit of a free for all, but was fun. Ella got an American Girl Doll (Isabel) and Anna got a Frozen blanket and a Glitter Glider Castle. Ryan got a Trunk from Trunk Club (for the win!) and I got a necklace from Tiffany (that I took back because I am too cheap--and then replaced it with a much less fancy necklace from Tiffany).

Doug and Janet came to Utah to spend Christmas with Grandma Packer, and then visited with us for a few days. It was great to see them.