Thursday, February 28, 2013

BIRTHDAYS

We have been celebrating like crazy around here lately....thats okay with me!

Baby Boy turned 1 on Sunday and we loved on him all day long. He wore his "Im One derful" outfit that Lolly got him to church with a special birthday bib on. I told everyone we saw and I think his siblings kissed him 100 times more than normal (which is already a lot). It was a low key day and we just stayed at home with each other. 

Adam turned 30 the very next day. Its really fun to call him old, I'm sure he will return the favor in 1.5 years :). We let him pick where he wanted to eat that night and we wound up at a mexican joint that we had never been to. IT WAS GOOOOAAAAWWWDDDD!!!! We stuffed our faces, had complimentary ice cream and tortillas with honey on them and still brought home 3 to go boxes. I think we have found our 2nd favorite mexican place :). It was also a pretty low key day. 

However, this weekend we are having a big combo MUSTACHE party...you are all invited :). 


I'm super stoked, I've been cutting out mustaches, renting bounce houses, getting sweets together and decorating the house :). Adam and Baby Boy ( yes, I know you can see his name in the invitation but its too stinking cute not to post.....and Adam said I could :)) already share such a sweet bond and now they will celebrate their birthdays together!!!  Our two older kiddos are super excited about the party too....for one reason...the bounce house is being delivered on Friday ....party is on Saturday.... ALL THAT BOUNCING TIME!!!!

I also wanted to post Baby Boy's dedication pictures too....I cleaned out my email account today now that his adoption is final and remembered that I never posted them. 

I think this might be my new favorite family picture :)
Look at the cuteness of my 3 children....oh dear goodness, they got their good looks from Adam and their sass from me :)


Up on stage....I had a death grip on Ribbit after the almost dove off the 10 foot stage trying to see "all de people". That's our wonderful pastor, the one she tried to out do praying :)


Once again it may be a while before I post. Our week has looked like this. 

Monday-mom work day, Dad work nights (building fences, painting, puttingin walls), celebrate Adam's bday
Tuesday-Mom work day, Dad work night, Goober violin lesson, Mom Baby Shower late night
Wednesday-Mom work day, Dad work night, Mom and Dad bible study late night
Thursday-Mom work day, Dad work night, Dad late night men's bible study, Goober 2nd grade program (he has a solo :)
Friday-Clean house for party....actually hang out together :)
Saturday-PARTAY, Ribbit ballet class
Sunday-church, Mom and Dad comedy show (vday present to each other)

Sooooooo, if and when I am free I will post again :)

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Harvell 5

Yesterday, February 22 we became an official family of 5. Baby Boy's adoption took twice as long as Goober and Ribbits and was four times as heart wrenching and uncertain. We had about 4 possible court dates that were all cancelled or moved for one reason or the other. So, imagine just how MAD we were yesterday morning, after driving for 2 hours, when we got a phone call from Baby boy's attorney saying that the judge would not be in that day. We were only 5 minutes from the court house and Adam and I were fuming the whole way there. It was a combination of sooo many things that upset us.....a)we were arranging this date around 5 parties that had to be present and none of them seemed to be able to line up with dates that worked for our schedule, b)our own arrow worker bailed out a week ago but the court agreed to let another lady represent us to the judge on her behalf, c)I only have so many maternity days to use and subs for art class are limited...there was no way I was going to get another "paid" day off and line up another sub and write out another days worth of  sub plans, d) THE MOST IMPORTANT..we wanted Baby Boy to be a Harvell on his 1st birthday, which is tomorrow....and we were already pushing it :)

We went into the courthouse and found our attorney who seemed to think that another judge would see us that day. He went off to do some convincing and we found everyone else who was supposed to go in with us . When the security guard announced that all 9:30 adoptions should enter the courtroom we scooped up all our kiddos and walked in. Our attorney was up front and looked surprised. He said "did they tell you to come in?" We said "no, but we aren't leaving here without an adoption". So sure enough the judge there officiated ours and another adoption back to back.

Our adoption was second, thank the Lord. I was so embarrassed and sweaty by the end of ours and thankful that all the people from the first adoption didn't have to sit through our drama. First, Ribbit was in a mood that she gets in about once every couple of months...the kinda mood where she needs 55 love taps to get control over herself. Baby Boy hadn't had a nap, was off his schedule and acted as if someone had slipped him a Monster energy drink. They both wanted mommy, they both screamed and kicked for mommy. They both were begging for something to drink. Baby Boy's lawyer gave Ribbit a styrofoam cup full of water against our wishes. The minute Baby Boy saw that he begin reaching and grabbing for it, which made Ribbit scream and move it quickly which meant everyone was getting drenched. Adam and I were holding them, trying to answer the judges questions, answer the other witnesses' questions and keep from laughing. Somehow Baby Boy ended up grabbing the styrofoam cup, breaking it in his grip, while Ribbit tried to fling it away from him. That resulted in a rain shower that coated all 5 of us. The judge never broke a smile but kept asking us if we heard him. We felt like we couldn't walk away to calm them down or dry ourselves off so we just stood there soaking wet, sweating from the nerves and pressure and holding our screaming children whispering to Ribbit that she had a spanking coming and trying to distract Baby Boy.

The judge finally granted the adoption and the name change and we asked if we could take 2 quick pictures and get OUT OF THERE!!!  In our pictures you can tell that Adam is wet but the rest of our clothes don't show it. I had to completely change Baby Boy due to how soaking wet he was and you can see how upset Ribbit is in the picture. All the people with us kept asking us if we wanted more pics and we were like " nope, we are getting these children out of here!!!". We ferociously signed all of our paperwork, told everyone Thank You and ran out of the courthouse and straight to CRACKER BARREL!!! Pantycakes (Ribbit's word), biscuits, chicken fingers, bacon and chocolate milk somehow made everything better. All 4 of us (yup mom too) napped the whole 2 hour drive home.

We came home and opened up gifts from CC and Papaw while facetiming with them, ate dinner and hung out. WHAT A DAY!!!!!

I should say though that through it all we know that God has blessed us more than we deserve by growing our family and bringing 3 children into our home. We know that he knew the hiccups of yesterday and we feel that soon, not today, not tomorrow, but soon we will be able to laugh about it :).

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Cozumel -Disney Cruise

So the one port of our cruise was Cozumel. Adam and I had never been there so we had NO clue what to expect. He and Goober went on an excursion with Disney to ride through the jungles on Dune Buggies and then wade through some caverns...real manly stuff. I decided to take advantage of the one time of the year that I will get time to myself and sun bathe while reading back on the ship....I had the whole place to myself :). I read 2 chapters of "The Help"...I probably wont' finish it until our next cruise...and then the clouds came out. So, what should a single gal do?...thats right, get off the ship and walk through downtown Cozumel by myself. This sounds like the worst decision I have ever made but I did find a family I recognized from the ship and sorta kinda followed them. Just like I do every time we go to Israel I made friends with the local shop owners, spent time looking at everything they had, bargained the snot out of them, had some free beverages and just meandered around. Adam would have been furious with me, he says I talk to people to much, especially in foreign countries...haha...he instructs me not to even make eye contact with them...but by the time they got back from their excursion I had made several friends to take them to meet :).

We ate lunch at Margaritaville....it was sooo neat. You basically sat right beside the beach and ate...we got splashed several times during our meal. There was a balloon artist who adorned us and we let Goober choose whatever he wanted. Of course he and Adam got "cheeseburgers in paradise" and I got wings. The weather was amazing , we had a nice view of the ocean and our boat and the service was fast since it was a late lunch.

After that we went back to the shops and let Goober and Adam pick out some souvenirs...I just followed and waved to my new friends :).

I can't think about our cruise without thinking about the Carnival ship that was stuck out in the water for days. I mean our toilet clogged one night and having to use the shared ones was awful enough..imagine not having any potties and smelling all that rotten food....DIS GUS TING!!

Getting back on the boat with all of our loot and balloon objects.
Goober did this for Papaw.....and so that mom and dad could spend their last little bit of cash in Cozumel :)

In the lobby of Margaritaville. Yes, Goober is pretending to cut my throat.
Kiddo and Cheeseburger in paradise!!
To get an idea of the view....see Adam on the far right at our table?
Showing off our balloon accessories...my flower, Goob's sword and Adam's parrot with our ship in the background.


Friday, February 15, 2013

V-day

Today was a whirlwind... of love and candy and stuffed animals and cards and ballet and parties and homework and lots and lots of snot.

My kids pretty much ate sugar all day long, came home and let their sugar explode all over the house and then allowed that sugar to take control of them during bed time. It was awesome, I didn't even flip out during Ribbit's bedtime meltdown b/c I was prepared for this since she woke me up at 6:30 on the dot this morning.

Goober gave us a contraption this morning for our valentine present. It was two pencils, two colored pencils and A WHOLE BUNCH OF TAPE surrounding a piece of paper. Once we got through the tape layer there was a track inside for Adam and I :)...he was showing us the greatest love by making sure we were believers and that we had asked Christ to live inside and be Lord of our lives. It was a little comical but of course we showered him with kisses for our track.

Ribbit started ballet tonight and her teacher couldn't praise her enough....it was sooo stinkin adorable. Her panties were wayyy to big and stuck out of her leotard and tights at least 3 inches all the way around. She watched her teacher carefully and with a 5 second delay did everything she did. She clapped for herself when she did 3 flips in a row. She was very proud when her teacher praised her "crabwalk" and therefore sped it up times 10 and crabwalked like a maniac for a while, knocking down other little girls :).

Mr. Man is just a walking. Everywhere. He loves walking, if he falls he pushes himself right back up and walks again. Today, Adam brought us all lunch at school and baby boy had everyone's attention...walking up and down the cafeteria calling everyone " DA TY". He is super intrigued with lights and love to point them out when we walk into a new room. He also loves turning the lightswitch off and on.

Here are some more pictures from our cruise.....

We had a mini celebration for Adam's upcoming birthday while on our vacation..




Goober loved coming back to the room at night and checking out the new towel animal....and and eating all the chocolates.
I got up early one morning and walked the ship by myself...here is a good picture of the younger kiddo pool with slide. On the other side of that slide is a toddler sprinkler area. The pool we mainly stayed at was farther up on the ship and had a movie theater feel and was deeper.
Pirate night!!! We had a party on the top deck that night with dancing and the Disney characters. Mickey ziplined across the ship and we finished with fireworks!

I'll post more later...definitely time for bed!!!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Disney Pt. 2

This post has taken 3 days to get published since we are all dealing with sinus/snot/booger problems :)

We kinda needed a vacation after our vacation. Life hit hard and heavy when we got back. We looked over our calender and noticed that there is only 1 day without anything going on....and then someone texted us work for Adam and there went that day.

Some fun things this month and next are ....
Feb. 7th-Goober and Ribbit's 2 year Homecoming Anniversary
Feb. 14th-VDay
Feb. 22nd- Baby Boy's Adoption
Feb. 24th-Baby Boy's 1st Birthday!
Feb. 25th-Adam's 30THHHHHHHH....he will be so happy with me for posting that :)
March 2nd-COMBO BDAY PARTY
March 9th-Baby Boy's 1 year Homecoming Anniversary

In between all that we have a 3 day conference at church, my school is hosting the district art meet, Adam is helping our school build sets and helping many other people fix up their homes and Goober is getting ready for a school play with a solo :)....oh and 2 valentine day parties and 2 birthday parties ...YAY!!!!!

Goober has continued to wear his shark tooth necklace from Cozumel every day and tell everyone he meets about his dune buddy riding experience with Adam.

Here are some pictures from our trip..minus the ones from the disposable camera that have yet to be developed.

2nd dinner at 10:30 while watching a 3D movie.....he was stoked!





He loved this game b/c it took your picture before you started racing :)

This was the big screen out by the pools...I believe we watched 3 movies from this area.



We got up early one morning and had the hot tub ourselves while we watched Aladdin.


Our good friend Pluto, or as Ribbit says "Pluto the puppy"

Its really him....MICKEY MOUSE!!!

Our 2nd night of dining ...right outside Animators Palette.

more to come...




Friday, February 8, 2013

Disney Cruise Pt. 1

We finally got to give Goober his full Christmas gift.

We left on our Disney Cruise last Friday and got back Tuesday night. We stopped for one day in Cozumel and spent 2 full days at sea.

Goober had no idea what he was getting into. He talked the ENTIRE 4 hour drive to Galveston and was giddy!He kept saying " is the cruise boat bigger than a car? is it bigger than 20 cars?". He was blown away as we pulled up to the port.

We spent all of our sea days watching 3D movies, movies from the hot tub, learning how to fold towel animals and hanging out with Disney characters. Goober loved the Kids Lab and hung out there while Adam and I watched Lincoln and then some on the last night as he wanted to avoid the "fancy dinner" :). He made friends fast, especially with the kids at our dinner table. Speaking of dinner, we ate our weight in food, GOOD FOOD. Goober took full advantage of the 24 hour pizza and ice cream and had 2nd lunch and 2nd dinner every day. He and Adam got pizza every night around 10 and then we would either go watch a 3D movie or head up top for pirate parties and fireworks. I ate my weight alone in seafood, including crab legs and fresh shrimp.

We also had a great time in Cozumel. Adam and Goober went dune buggy riding through the jungle and then swam through quicksand, reptile invaded caverns. I am SO glad I didn't sign up for this adventure!!! It rained right before they left which it made 10x muddier and 10x better according to them both. Every time someone asks Goob what the best part about the cruise was he says " the dune buggy riding". I enjoyed some time shopping and reading and face timing with my mom and kiddos back home. When they got back from their adventure we ate lunch at Margaritaville and then did some quick shopping for Adam and Goob.

We knew we had shown him a good time when he cried as were leaving the boat and then slept for 5 solid hours!!!! He is still talking about it and wearing his shark tooth necklace so I say it was a success. I am so glad we had time alone with our boy and gave him some good memories.


Also, TODAY is Goob's and Ribbit's 2 year HOMECOMING anniversary. I can't believe its only been 2 years....seems like much longer...but I can still remember that day so clearly...many details about it.....how sick my stomach was, how dressed up I was (like they cared) and how fast our house was destroyed.

I'll post pictures from our cruise soon...here are some pictures from 2 years ago :)

Who is that darling little girl?....man, she looks just like her sweet baby brother...with a bit more tan :)





I miss that toothless grin but the boy has become even sweeter!!!