Waynesville Rec Center

While I am waiting for a few pictures from Christmas at Mimi's, I thought I would go ahead and post these pictures. I took the boys and our neighbors, Taylor and Emily, to the Waynesville Rec park to swim yesterday. It was awesome! They have a little water park complete with a little water slide. Caleb and Adam are the perfect age to enjoy it.














I may try to pick up a class there so we can have a free membership.




















It is only about 20 or more minutes from the house......same as Cheshire, but the opposite direction.










Seth was a sweetie and watched Annabelle so I didn't have to chase her around. I just sat by the pool and watched them slide....and slide......and slide.....and slide some more.

Christmas Morning

The best quote of the morning was Caleb saying that Santa must be real because Moma and Daddy would never have bought him a skateboard!

Annabelle was worn out but I didn't want to put her down for her nap yet.

Adam was finally feeling better!

I love this picture.

We had a little battle of the wills with Annabelle at this point. She did not want to sit on the couch for a picture. "Sorry, Annabelle, after my battles with the boys, it doesn't look like you will EVER win. Your fits are nothing in comparison." You should have seen how well she posed at Mimi's house later that day.

The boys loved their Power Ranger dirt bikes.

Annabelle was really cute giving her baby the bottle.

Christmas with the Harrison Side

We left Asheville at 4:00 pm on Friday for one of our worst road trips ever. The 3 1/2 hour trip took over 5 hours due to traffic, frequent stops, Adam throwing up twice, and Annabelle fussing the majority of the time. Things turned around as soon as we arrived though, and we enjoyed lots of sweet family time.

I got to go with Mandy (Seth's cousin) and Angie to Target on Saturday morning to get a few last minute gifts. It was so nice to shop without Annabelle in the backpack! Then that night we ate a delicious meal of smoked turkey and ham at Nana and Papa's with everyone.



We let the grandkids open their presents from one another.

Adam was pretty sick the entire weekend. He was SO sweet and felt better when his Motrin kicked in. Annabelle, Amy, Caleb and Aaron all had colds but faired well anyways. lots of snot. lots of snot. We didn't have to worry about germs since they were all infected though. Annabelle and Aaron were so cute together! Aaron is a really good baby.



On Sunday we went to church and then the annual Harrison Family Gathering afterward. Here are all of the kids:

Amy just wanted to take care of Annabelle the whole time but she was not very cooperative. Annabelle did not want to be carried! Just wait a few more months. We finally got this picture of Katie, Amy and Annabelle. They were very patient in our attempts!




I thought I did pretty well in the White elephant gift swap because I ended up with the 80's version of 'Name that Tune' game.
We played later that night against Angie and Johnny, and Reba and Jimmy. Seth and I came in last place. We were awful. I decided that I had a huge disadvantage because we never had cable growing up. It was pretty funny though.

Later that evening, Uncle Heath brought his four wheeler over to ride with the boys. Aaron is in the front carrier! It made me less nervous to know that Heath had Adam and Aaron on there with him.

Annabelle had to see some of the action.

Christmas Eve morning we all exchanged gifts and had breakfast. Here are a few pictures:






Then we drove home in virtually no traffic with all of the kids napping at some point. It was a great trip!

Well, I finally got to hang out with Leslie and Paul. Moma babysat for us Wednesday night, so we met them at the Whiskey Tavern downtown. Jonathan, Sarah Mc Murray and her husband, Nathan (don't guess she is a Mc Murray anymore), and Mason (Les's friend from highschool) joined us. It was fabulous! Leslie and Jonathan are a couple of very fun folks to hang out with on the town. We went over to Jack of the Wood next but didn't last long there because it was really crowded and sort of smelled. So we finished the night off at the College Street Pub where I amazed everyone with my horrible pool skills. I really may be the worst pool player ever to live. But it was still quite funny.

The funniest part of the night was when Paul "slow roasted" me. A slow roast is when you hug someone and don't let go.......and then the person feels really uncomfortable........and then the person feels a bit claustrophobic too........and then the person being hugged just wants it to be over.........and it is really funny...........afterwards. It is especially funny to do to someone who is not the "hugging type." That is me. Well, I do not like to hug anyone that I am at all uncomfortable with. I tried to "slow roast" Mason upon his arrival, but could not do it. I do not think that i am capable. When Paul did it to me, I thought it was funny but I REALLY wanted it to end.

The next night, Lacey (my cousin) babysat and we all went over to Uncle Larry's and Aunt Carolyn's house. It was great because Amie and Lorie got to come over too. We made some music and just enjoyed hanging out together. Here are some pictures from the evening:

The Bartlett Sisters (brunettes may I add)

Grayson and his friend were home from school for the holidays so they were there.

























Leslie and Paul doing a little dancing:

Sorry it is sideways, you'll have to turn your head.




It was definitely the best band get-together to date.



Oh yeah, before all that on Thursday, Les and Paul came to our house to play with the boys. Caleb and Adam had really big plans for Paul that included playing legos, wrestling and sledding down the mulch hill. Paul was so fun with them. He threw them on the bed for at least twenty minutes, played tag and legos and "snowboarded" down the mulch. This is a video of Paul's attempt at the hill. The hilarious part of it was that he did it around five times...........exactly like this:



I would like to add that it is most likely close to impossible for an adult to make it down that hill on that snowboard.

without falling.




Sooooooooooo, what do I think of Paul????




I think he is wonderful. He is smart, funny, and very very nice. He is great with kids and easy to talk to. He and Les make a great couple..............as long as they move here soon.
I MISS LESLIE!!!!!!!!!!






In conclusion, I think that Leslie, Lorie, and Jonathan are doing a superb job in their choices for significant others at this point in life. I love Beth, Justin, and Paul!

Oh yes, and I love Chuck too. I am glad that he is a part of the family!

Merry Christmas from the Harrisons!!

Isn't it funny that when you have interesting things going on in life, there is no time to blog about it? Oh yeah, and your hubby won't let you disappear upstairs at your inlaws' house to blog? (it is rude) I will catch up on the Les/Paul visit and Christmas festivities later this week!

Christmas Eve morning at Nana and Papa's house

Quick! New post so that the first thing one reads on my blog is not that emotional mess from yesterday. Things are better today. Seth enforced the medicine taking last night for me. Caleb's fever finally broke during the night without the help of Motrin. Presently, he is sitting in front of the TV with half of his medicine down. I am taking a little break. Hopefully this is our last full day of being stuck in the house so I am going to get us packed for Georgia so we can concentrate on hanging out with Leslie and Paul for the next two days.

We are hoping to show Paul the "Asheville scene" Wednesday night and then play some music at Uncle Larry's Thursday. If it weren't so darn cold we were going to hike. I want Paul to see what all our area has to offer so if he marries Leslie, they will live here.

I haven't been down to Georgia in a few months so I am pretty excited about the weekend. It is always lots of fun to hang out with Angie. She is always making sure that we get to do special things on our own like go to dinner or shopping or something. I am sure that I will have lots of pictures for ya later on.

Wow. Hard weekend.

I thought that I would break my "only upbeat" posts rule and write this all down. This way when I try to look back at this time of life and think, "oh those were the best days ever!", I will also remember the horrible, horrible times when Caleb was sick. Lets just start by saying that he is such a hard child and always has been. However, he gets about 10 times worse when he is sick. The kid has overactive taste buds or something and is the worst about taking medicine. Add to that the fact that he is just generally pissed off anytime that he is feeling badly.

He started running a mild fever Friday night. So the Motrin battle began. Imagine having to actually spank your child (who has a fever) so that he will gag his medicine down. Oh yes, and he has always thrown up if his fever gets too high. There is no other way to do it. Nerve-racking, I tell ya. He seemed a bit better Saturday but then worse on Sunday.

So I took him to the doctor early this morning.

Ammoxicillan prescription. I asked if we could just get one horrible shot instead. nope. won't work.


We opt for the chewable tablets. This fight is MUCH worse than the Motrin. It takes about an hour to get two tablets down. I end up smashing it up and mixing it with water.
I am tired. In the meantime, Annabelle somehow snatched Caleb's cup and takes a nice long, infected sip.


Well, I have called the doctor and asked for a new prescription of liquid medicine. Seth is going to help when he gets home.




And on top of it all........

Leslie is home but I can't hang out.



Do you like my slideshow below? Sometimes the pictures seem stuck but isn't the music great? I have used most of those pictures in previous posts, but I didn't have any new ones, and wanted to make the slideshow anyways.


Sorry about the rant. Y'all pray for Caleb. Please.

off to clean house.

Angie just randomly sent me this picture of Amy and Annabelle so I thought I would share. I think it was taken in June. Annabelle just laughed and laughed when she saw it. Can you believe how much hair Annabelle has grown since then??????????? These two are going to be very excited to see one another in a couple of days!

Adam has told me over and over again that he wants a mandolin. I have been extremely excited about this because I would LOVE for any of my children to pursue playing an instrument. After lots of thought and consideration, I decided to get him a baritone ukulele. They have four strings (mandolins have 8) and the strings are easier to hold down. Baritone ukuleles are tuned the same as the higher four strings on the guitar, so hopefully it will make it easier to transition when he is older. Well, I went out and bought one last night. I went with a more expensive one because I want it to last and to sound good. (and I am an extremely easy "sale") He is so excited and has spent a good part of the day today strumming a G. Caleb and Kiah have played quite a bit too. Adam plays and says, "sing Moma" so I sing something that has a G in there and pretend that it all "goes."






Well, I have not written anything about our family band yet, so this is my chance! Seth and get together a few times a month to play some tunes with my Uncle Larry, Aunt Carolyn, and my cousin Daniel. Well, that is the core group of us but we usually have a few more here and there. We just love making music together and show off our talents at family gatherings and such. Seth and I have both learned a ton from everyone and finally have some music that we can play and sing together. It is lots of fun. During the summer we spent evenings playing on Uncle Larry's porch or by the fire in the backyard. We spent the first part of this winter in our basement but now how relocated to Uncle Larry's and Aunt Carolyn's new timber-framed house in Black Mountain. The acoustics in there are like no other! I will post some pictures from there later. Here are a few from our basement:


I sing and play the guitar.









Daniel sings and plays guitar too.










Uncle Larry sings, plays the mandolin and guitar. Aunt Carolyn sings and plays some tambourine. Seth plays the bass.