Last night I spent an hour online reading information on the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Ruebella) vaccination that Annabelle should be getting at her next check-up. What to do, what to do? As you may know, there are plenty of folks out there that claim the vaccination may be linked to Autism and Crohn's disease. Basically half of what I read said that there is no link and the other half said it is a cover-up by the drug companies who make tons of money off vaccinations and such. Most of you probably know that I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist myself and I won't go into all of that in this post.....or maybe I will. Anywho, I am still undecided, but I am leaning toward skipping that shot this visit. I guess what I gathered from my research is that the Thimerisol in the vaccination can be really dangerous if a child gets too much of it or if they are too small. If we plan a visit to Romania, we will get the vaccination right away though. Anyways, it is one of those many situations where I am so glad that I know God and can find my peace with Him. He is in control. You know you can worry yourself to death about the safety of your children and your crappy parenting skills if you cannot rest in Jesus.

I guess it is the same conclusion that I come to when I get all worked up about conspiracy stuff. I won't go into detail as to call to much attention to my blog but I will say that if you ever watch any of those videos, they are very convincing. Do I believe that the government was behind the 9/11 attacks? Not necessarily. I just know that we have no idea what really is going on. And we should all own a gun (safely contained). And if the government ever shows up at you door and want to take you to a "refugee camp" or a "safer place" or whatever, never go. fight to the end.
And now you all know that Julie Harrison is a little crazy. (By the way, Seth buys into even more than me.) I will have to post again about this when we are grading the new lot because I will have been with "Bobcat Bob".



NEW SUBJECT!!! Speaking of lots and grading........we are hoping to start building in Black Mountain soon. We are buying a lot from our friends, Ami and Dana, and will hopefully be their neighbors in the late spring. We took our house of the market (though it is still for sale by owner) and plan on relisting it in April. I am so happy and relieved. I have come to appreciate our yard and neighborhood more these days and know that it will be a good place to spend the winter. Sure I hate the driving, but that is nothing a new van can't cure. We may even get one with a dvd player and I might just let the boys watch something on trips to BM.

A few more dollywood pictures

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Take a big, deep breath. Now sit back and exhale. Aaaahhhhh. That is how I feel at this moment because we just closed on that darn spec house.

Whew. We can officially close that chapter of Harrison Homes. Now it is time to pay off credit cards and put a little back on our home equity loan.........and then buy a minivan. Neither Seth or I want a minivan but we have to have a car with a third row now. I am tired of buckling three kiddos in every time we load up. We thought about some sort of SUV but then came to the realization that the only reason we didn't want a minivan was because a minivan is uncool. Well, that is a pretty dumb reason. It is really funny, because we had a van about 5 years ago and I had no problem with it at all. I think I was more secure in my coolness because I was only 24 years old. As I get closer to 30, I realize that I am getting less cool by the day. So, though a minivan is not the coolest option, it is the most practical option for a family of five. I tell you what is not cool, driving a little bitty Toyota Camry all over town knowing that more than half of the cars on the road would crush us in a crash because they are so much bigger. So, I am cool with getting a van now. I am actually looking forward to it.


Did you like how many times I used the word "cool". I thought it was appropriate for the annoying content. :)



As for the birthday weekend, I am a bit short on pictures because Aunt Amie is very busy these days. Here is a video from the cake scene:

(It is so cute to watch Lanie sneak a couple of licks too. )



I had forgotten how overwhelming a first birthday party can be. Annabelle did just fine and even unwrapped a gift or two on her own. She had plenty of help from her cousins on the others. It was a really fun time and I will get a slide show up asap.
Love y'all!

We had a little get together with some of our friends from college a couple of weekends ago at Montreat park. It was so much fun to see everyone and for our kids to play together. Caleb and Adam LOVE playing with the Phil and Tracy's kids. They have three year old twin boys (Garrett and Grayson) and a five year old girl (Riley). Phil and Seth have been playing on the same baseball team this year and so we've been hanging out together a lot lately. Garrett and Grayson are as rowdy as our boys and so they make quite the group. Here are some pictures of the gathering:


The kids really liked the toddler area. Tracy and I decided we needed that set-up in our backyard.







Annabelle walked around and snacked the entire time. She liked carrying the bubble container.


Cora is Alex and Joey's little 2 year old. What a cutie! (Alex took all of these pictures. Aren't they great?)


This is Grayson after he ate a cupcake

Adrienne organized the whole event. Thank ya, Adrienne!

Kristi and Daryl Bryant's little one. We actually live just down the road from them so we have decided that we need to hang out more often.



Drew is their 3 year old:



This one is Tracy and me sitting in the shade of the pavillion.






Dana and Eli. I am sure that Eli will be right there with the other rowdy boys in a year or two. Caleb and Adam already have plans to teach him to ride dirtbikes and fourwheelers. They decided that they will pass theirs to him in a couple of years.

Ami, Dana and Eli went on an adventure to eat at the Mexican restaurant in Black Mountain with the us and the McCurry's. Bad decision. It was 7:30 and the kids were spent by that time.......especially Annabelle. She is at the stage where you just have to realize that it is not worth going out to eat. The Bobilyas were troopers and said that they didn't mind the chaos.




Caleb with a bit of cupcake on his face as well.


You should hear this little guy talk! Garrett has the cutest southern accent of all time!
My sweet little gal.

Early, early Saturday morning, Nana and Papa took the boys to the Cataloochie Elk Farm out near Waynesville. They had a great time watching the elk. The park ranger even came over to show them some antlers, fur and such. (So we got our Science lesson in for the week....just kidding) They all had a good time and I got to get ready for the big birthday party.

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Aunt Nicole just sent me a link to make this little slideshow. The pictures are random since I was just trying it out. Thanks Nicole!
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Dollywood

I finally have a little time to write about our adventures in Pigeon Forge. Grandaddy and I took Kiah and my three kiddos over on Tuesday night and then Aunt Amie, Uncle Chuck, Mimi, Lanie and Lucie met us at Dollywood on Wednesday. We had a blast!

Our family (the Bartletts) used to get season passes to Dollywood every summer and so I have wonderful childhood memories of going there. However, Dollywood has grown so much that I barely recognize the place now. There are SO many rides and attractions and it is close to home. OK, I will leave it at this: I was really impressed. The kids loved riding all of the rides and playing in the water park section.

It has been a really long time since I have ridden a roller coaster. I love them! I f you haven't ridden a roller coaster in a while, I highly recommend it. There is nothing that makes you feel more like a kid again than riding one and then running back around to get on one more time because the line was so short. Amie, Chuck and I rode the Tennessee Tornado and the Mystery Mine a few times while Mimi and Grandaddy watched the children. It was great!
Here are a few photos:

The kids at the end of a the day...tired and wet!









The Veggie Tales Roller: You can see Adam, Kiah and me.












Grandaddy, Kiah, Adam, and Caleb on the RAMPAGE! Caleb and Adam's favorite!






Annabelle playing in the water.











Amie took most of the pictures so I will probably post a few more later.

That night Mimi stayed with the kids and me at the time share condo. We went to the Smokey Mountain Knife Works where I almost bought Caleb and Adam pocket knives. Did you just gasp? They wanted them so badly and I think every boy (or man for that matter) should have a good pocket knife........ Maybe just not 4 and 6 year olds. What age do you think would be appropriate? I told a man that worked there that I needed the dullest knives they sold. He looked at me a little weird and said I could buy one and get them to dull it down in the workshop. We didn't have time for all of that so they settled for sling shots and toy machine guns. If you don't have a son, you may think that you would never let yours play with guns or knives. However, they will most likely use sticks as their guns and swords instead. Most little boys are just wired that way. Mine are.

Here is what Seth refers to as the "Westside Militia":

note the machine gun, sword and sling shot.

So, to sum it all up, I think everyone should go to Dollywood at least once in their lifetime. It is fun for all. The only thing we would change about the next trip would be to plan ahead so that Seth could take off work and come with us!!!!

The boys have changed their minds on what their future occupation will be. They now want to be "tree cutters" when they grow up rather than dirt bike riders. We had some trees taken down in our yard this morning and Caleb and Adam had a blast watching them climb up in the trees and take out all the limbs before they cut the rest down. It was quite entertaining and I found myself out there with them instead of getting some housework done inside. Here is a video of our friend Chris topping the tree:



Chris said that he is used to having an audience, but people rarely take pictures and videos of his work. He probably thinks I am really weird.

Here are the boys watching from the wall in the side yard. I had Annabelle in our fantastic new backpack that my friend Ami let me borrow. I might have to put up a picture of it later so you can see how great it is. Annabelle was crawling up out of the other one (she could wiggle out of the straps) and this one keeps her in better. Anyways, Annabelle enjoyed the action as well. Later Seth worked up a little rope-climbing action for the boys to play around on. It was a fun day. Now we are off to Pigeon Forge with Grandaddy and Mimi for a visit to Dollywood tomorrow. More later.......

I used to be an avid scrapbooker. There was a time in my life, just a couple of years back, when I could say that every picture in my house was either in a scrapbook or had been rejected from a scrapbook. I should probably change that to an obsessive or psycho scrapbooker. When the boys were little I would lie in the bed at night dead tired from cleaning, cooking and taking care of them and think to myself, "The house is still messy and I have nothing to show for all my work today." Scrapbooking became that small something that I could say I accomplished. Plus, I really enjoyed it. If I couldn't sleep at night, I would get up and crop. I would sit and journal in them outside while the boys played in yard.

Anyhow, I am over it now. I will still keep up with Annabelle's book for the next year or so and always have a running family album, but as far as Caleb and Adam's books go, I may do a page or two a year.

I am going to blog to supplement the loss. Blogging is so much easier and there is no mess! Plus, everyone can look at the pictures anytime. My favorite part of scrapbooking was showing them to the fam when they were at my house. And the blog won't burn up in a fire. I know that you are probably thinking "it's all gonna burn in the end anyway." ................ but that is not the point.


OK, moving along to happenings at the Harrison house. The coolest thing about living out here in "worst" Asheville is that we get to see hot air balloons flying above our house a couple of times a week. We heard one this morning while we were eating breakfast (you can hear the fire) and ran out to see it. It was so close that we seriously thought it might land in our cul-de-sac. Hot air balloons are huge! Then we could see another one waaaaaay up in the sky towards Mt. Pisgah. The boys wanted to know when we would get to ride in one, and rather than giving them the money excuse, I said we would wait until Annabelle would be old enough to remember it. They were pretty satisfied with that answer.








I will leave you with a couple of videos of Annabelle walking.

Cutie Pie!

You know how everyone thinks that their kids are the cutest kids ever? Well, mine really are. I put Annabelle's hair in pigtails for the first time yesterday and I have decided that she is officially the cutest baby to ever live. And this post is the most annoying post to ever be written......

However, in the words of my mother "pretty is as pretty does". The little tantrums that she has begun to throw aren't too pretty. She has begun to "headbutt" me when she gets upset! Oh and you should see her arch her back and cry when she goes down for a nap. So she isn't as angelic as she may look in these pictures.

There are those dimples!

In other news, I am stoked about the premiere of season four of The Office this Thursday.


Also, I have decided that the you can tell when someone is against homeschooling because they will ask right away "how long do you plan on doing this?" I usually tell them for a week or two.


You know, blogging is sort of like have your own little newspaper column. .......a really boring one. As I clean house during the day, I think to myself, "ooh, what should I write for my editor today? What will my readers want to hear about? " Just kidding. I should think this instead, "what will I not be able to remember about life in a couple of months?" Or tomorrow for that matter. I think it would be awful to have amnesia. The other day I couldn't find my keys and I was trying so hard to "retrace" my steps from the day before but it was totally blank. It was frustrating. In the end, I found them on the back deck. I figure that I probably handed them to Annabelle to play with and she crawled out there with them.

I am just trying to think of things to say while I download some movies that I took with Lorie's camera today. It is a lengthy process.

Today I realized that homeschooling makes the boys enjoy their playtime more. They run out the door to play when we finish and I hardly hear from them for a while after. It is nice. You enjoy something so much more when you have some limitations I suppose.

OK here they are:

The first one is me asking Adam a few questions and the second is Annabelle playing with Lorie's phone. I would put one up with Caleb in it, but he acts really retarded when I film these days. Maybe I will add one of him riding his bike.




Everyone is sound asleep here and so I think I had better get some other things done around here! I borrowed Lorie's camera so I plan on making some movies tomorrow. Stay tuned.