The American Dream

Matt and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this weekend and what better way to celebrate than to buy a house, right?

With Matt's current client, he is in Alaska or traveling to/from Alaska about 16 days out of each month...barely leaving two weeks at home with me and the boys but at least when he is home, he is not working which is a treat in and of itself that makes up for the time he's gone.  Within 2 days of receiving this job offer back in February, we found out we are pregnant with baby #3 which is a HUGE blessing but also VERY daunting given the new schedule we were presented with his new client.  Needless to say, my lack of blogging over the past few months has been a direct result of just how hard it is to be a part-time family.

As part of this job transition and rotation lifestyle, we made the difficult decision to leave Alabama for Utah and all of the prospects of family support that it holds for us.  We haven't loved Alabama the past 20 or so months but we have loved the people who have become our friends here.  Through MUCH discussion...I mean A LOT of discussion, we decided to try and buy a  house in Utah.  We know the future holds more relocations for us but we decided that buying a house now would be a good long-term investment, even if we have to rent it out on down the road.

The poast 4 months has been a supreme blur of looking at houses online, looking through list after list that realtors have sent us and going back and forth between renting and buying...BUT, all of our hard work has paid off...we hope!

This is the house in Lehi, Utah that we are under contract for...finally!

I know it looks old on the outside but the inside has been a complete remodel!

Personally, I think the white picket fence is a little cliche but oh-so-cute (and functional with a 2 year old who LOVES to wander)!

 This is the living room as you walk into the front door.  The floors are a beautiful travertine tile which I think will hold up to my boys pretty well!

 From the doorway looking into the dining room.  Originally, we had wanted a family room that opened to the kitchen & dining areas but I really liked the flow of this house.  No, I haven't been in it but Matt was there on Friday and both he and the agent LOVED this house.

 The kitchen...what can I say?  Usually I like the nice natural wood colors but this kitchen just seems so crisp and clean and modern.  I can HARDLY wait to get in the house to see it all for myself!

 Another angle of the kitchen from the dining area...it looks more spacious in this picture.

This is the hallway that houses the three upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms, looking towards the family room.  The stairs lead down to the basement that has three more bedrooms, a storage room, a media room, laundry room and full bathroom.  Can you say bring on the houseguests???

There are more pictures to the house but I can only get so much posted right now!  I am too excited to move on to our next chapter that includes making this house a home for our growing family!  Maybe my next few posts will be about the joys of packing with a handy 2 year old!

Four on the 4th!

I am so far behind on posting updates to my blog so I thought I'd start with a baby step...four pictures from last month on the 4th of April!  I know, it's random...oh well!

Last month, my big sister had a law conference in New Orleans and since it's only about 2 hours away, I was game to go and spend the night with her and enjoy the big easy without kids!

I look awful in this picture - no really - I was still in the throes of having bad morning sickness so this was the cutest I could do for myself with no energy and trying not to puke from the weird smells!  But I do love my sis!

Quinton's school celebrated Dr. Suess' 100th birthday and they were able to dress funny (but still in uniform).  This was our best Dr. Suess look! 

 Just a funny picture of Sawyer being cheesy as is usually the case...he always cracks me up!

Matt and his shadow mowing the lawn.  It was funny to watch!  Sawyer walked behind Matt the whole way with his tractor - up and down the rows- acting like he was mowing, too!

Time Flies...

Time flies when you are having fun or at least that's the way the saying goes, right? It seems like time is passing us by at a breakneck speed! I swear it was only yesterday that Sawyer was crawling and now he can leap over small buildings! The Lego kind, that is!

Argh! As I'm typing, thinking Sawyer is snug in his bed about to fall asleep for him nap, he is knocking on his door! YIKES! Two nights ago, he discovered he can climb in and out of his crib...wasn't he just crawling yesterday???

Now I am back...Sawyer isn't going to take his nap anytime soon, so the 3 or 4 blog posts I wanted to catch up on and the photobook I am procrastinating doing for a Christmas gift isn't likely to get done either. Oh bother!

But who can help lovin' this little boy to pieces?

Inevitably, most days the ice cream van comes down the street...I know I could say no, but what's the fun and indulgence in always saying no to your kids? Pfft, that's daddy's job! :)

This is the little neighbor kid enjoying his ice cream, too.

I found another bike carrier in the trash one day and Matt pumped up the tires and it's good as new! Now I can make Quinton tow his little brother!

One of the reasons October was so busy was that quinton had fall soccer league going on and Matt was coaching. It was a very interesting league with some wacky rules for games but Matt managed to make it fun for all of the kids!

Quinton and his friend, Cameron. She played on his spring soccer league for the first time and she enjoyed it so much (and was so good) that she dropped out of dance to keep plaing soccer in the fall!

Although he isn't officially on a soccer team, we like to dress him like he is! Sawyer WISHES he could go and play with Quinton's team...he's always running onto the field the second I take my eyes off of him!

We also made it to the county fair in October! It was so fun to see Quinton try a few of the bigger kid rides. My only beef with the fair is that it's so freaking expensive! We went on a night where admission was only $1 per person but when you get inside, everything is so darn expensive! Jeez!

Quinton ALWAYS loves the bungee ride. He's good at flipping, too.

Look at the sweet angelic face. You would never know that behind these sparkling blue eyes is the mind of genius destroyer! Seriously, he can undo just about anything that I just did in a matter of seconds! I love him, though!

Yep, these were the BAG of pecans we picked from a friends' yard...

And last but not least, Halloween! Christmas and Halloween are my two favorite holidays to decorate for and this year was fun! We did Angry Bird pumpkins!

Plus, for like the first time ever, we ALL dressed up. Even Matt and me! This rarely happens cause I am usually so busy, I forget to do a costume! Since Halloween fell on a school day this year, I even rode my bike to school to pick up Quinton with this outfit on!

Halloween night trick-or-treating. Seriously, the candy haul these guys brought home was epic!!!

And that's it for October, folks.

Welcoming Our New Little Girl!

Although I am still outnumbered by the boys in the house, the addition of this cute little girl is helping my odds!

Introducing our newest addition, Luciana "Lucy" Harker!

The vet estimates she is between 12 and 14 weeks old and healthy!

We found beautiful Lucy one day while Sawyer and I were waiting for Quinton to get out of school. Out of the bushes, this cute little white kitten came and snuggled right up to Sawyer. I asked around the school and no one had any idea where she came from. I put up a 'found kitten' sign but no one responded and after two weeks, I finally decided we'll keep Lucy!

She is so sweet!

Sawyer is SO loving but can be a little rough but Lucy never bites or garbs for him, she just meows and looks to me for help. Today, we went and bought her a tag and took her for her vaccinations so she is officially ours! Wish me LOTS of luck in this adventure!

Newly Minted 6 Year Old In Da House!

I can hardly believe that our preemie little peanut has turned 6!

What an amazing kid Quinton is and I can honestly say I am so proud of him! He brings so much laughter and joy to our lives from his infectious giggle to his abounding love for his little brother, I love this boy!

Here he is...his first day being six!

I think for Matt, birthdays were fun in his house but they weren't a BIG DEAL...but my mom ALWAYS made our birthdays special! I'm sure she's probably lost count of all the weird, funny and cute cakes she's made for all her kids and I am so thankful for her talent of making each one of us feel special. I LOVE birthdays! I love to celebrate birthdays in our family, too. So what if I look like a crazy mom at midnight at the 24-hour Walmart buying Quinton's favorite cereal for the next morning??? I do it out of love!

Here is Quinton, the morning of his birthday, enjoying a rare breakfast of very sugary cereal!

Since this is Quinton's first year at school, I thought it would be fun to make birthday goody bags for his class. Who cares if I am crazy enough to go to 5 different stores looking for SIXLETS candies (finally found them at Cracker Barrel of all places!)?

Originally, I thought cupcakes or donuts would be fun for his classroom treat but then I found an awesome donut-shaped cupcake pan at Hobby Lobby! Score! I made these cute little cupcake-donuts for a class treat and they were a hit!

Quinton really enjoyed having me in his class and his teacher was so great! We decided to have Quinton's party at Pump It Up this year. I couldn't imagine a bunch of sugar-crazed 5-6 year olds in my house and this place is perfect for getting out energy! Plus, parents can jump on the inflatables, too!

Quinton's birthday throne...

Quinton had a Bakugan-themed birthday party and if you don't have a 6 year old boy at home, you may have no clue what I am talking about! Needless to say, I had a hard time finding Bakugan party gear and couldn't justify buying $40 worth of stuff online and paying another $15 in shipping, so I improvised with a Baskin Robbins birthday cake with one of Quinton's toys stuck on top!

We also had Quinton/Bakugan water for everyone (I know, I know...a teeny bit crazy)!

Quinton didn't get out of his throne throughout the entire sit down portion of the party! Luckily, he was willing to share it with his brother and other party guests!

I don't know if there's ever been a happier 6 year old!

Happy Birthday to my favorite 6 year old!

I love you to the moon and back!

What We've Been Up To

Now that Sawyer is down to ONE nap a day, I find it a lot harder to find time to blog. But I'm almost getting caught up! I know all of you wait with bated breath for my every post so here goes!

We have found that when it rains, it POURS here in Alabama! So often times, you can find Sawyer and Quinton playing in the rain where there is NO lightning or thunder present. On this particular day, Matt arrived home and joined in the fun.

Here he is jumping over Sawyer. Q and Sawyer thought this was hilarious!

Sawyer all wet.
I love this picture of Sawyer splashing through the puddle at the end of the driveway. He must have walked up and down in the gutter a hundred times just stomping and splashing!

And what better time to wash daddy's car than when it's raining! Hahahaha!

At Quinton's school, a parent who owns a local karate studio is doing karate lessons after school one day a week. Quinton was really excited to try it out!

My favorite part of the karate lessons so far has been teaching the kids how to get away from strangers who try to grab them. I haven't put much thought into teaching Quinton about "stranger danger" up to this point so I am glad that these karate lessons include kid-level self-defense. Note to other parents - if nothing else, make sure and teach your kids how to yell GET AWAY and run!

Quinton in his karate stance. I also like how every command from the instructor is followed by , "YES SIR!" I like the respect and confidence that karate promotes.

Matt is coaching another season of pint-sized soccer! He really enjoys working with the kids and even though this league has some strange rules, he and the kids are doing very well.

I love that Matt and Quinton share a love for soccer!

And last but not least, this little boy makes me laugh, smile, giggle, playful, sometimes frustrated but mostly feel like I am the luckiest mom in the world to have two happy and healthy little boys!

I'm not sure if there's a name for it but Sawyer is OBSESSED with his belly button! The kid is ALWAYS playing with it! I don't know if it's a comfort thing but it's just a funny quirk he has...

I love his funny looks!

Sawyer's other obsession is with shoes. He will put on ANYONE'S shoes and try to walk around. If I ask him to get his shoes, he runs for any pair around and then goes straight for the door! Smart kid!

Another picture of Sawyer enjoying daddy's shoes! I also made those pajama pants for the boys!

I consider myself to be the lucky mom to teach and love these little spirits on earth!

Kindergarten: A Lesson in Letting Go...

August 15th, 2011

The day will go down in Harker family history for being Quinton's first day of Kindergarten!

Quinton was so excited to start school. Lucky for me, his school had a "Bridges" program, two weeks before school started. Bridges is a week of half-day kindergarten where the kids don't wear their uniforms and they get to know the school and what's expected of them. Bridges is optional but it was vital to me to have Quinton go since he hasn't been in a classroom setting since we moved here. What was really nice about the program is that Quinton's Bridges teacher was also his kindergarten teacher.

I say I was lucky for the Bridges program because that first day I dropped him off, I made it to the car and then the tears came! So by the time the first REAL day of the first FULL day of Kindergarten came along, I held it together remarkably well (I think)!

In getting ready for the big day, Matt shared a tradtition that he had when he was a kid and that was the back-to-school scarecrow. The "scarecrow" was made up of the clothes you wear on the first day of school. At first, when I heard that the entire Mobile, AL school system requires uniforms, I was totally bummed. I love shopping and dressing my boys and I felt like *my* creativity was going to be stifled. Four weeks into the school year, however, and I am ready to praise the geniuses who mandated school uniforms! Getting dressed everyday is SO easy! Quinton's hardest decision in the morning is what cereal to eat! Thank goodness!

Here is Quinton's first scarecrow!

I really wanted to celebrate the milestones in my boys' lives and and looking for ways to make traditions in our family. Here is the first day of kindergarten wakeup call...a family affair, as you can see. Matt insisted on staying home that morning so we could all accompany Quinton to school.
The most fun breakfast I could think of with Quinton's choice of pancakes & sausage...his favorite!

I also let Quinton pick out his own backpack and lunch bag and this is what he chose...

The ALWAYS classic picture in front of the door first day of school outfit!

Quinton, ready to learn!

I am so proud of him for being independent and curious! This should be an exciting year in his life and the rest of the family, too!

Go get 'em my little Hutchens Cardinal!