The Mountains, Good Tunes, Young Love...

if only we still had the jeep! Michael and I packed up and took the kids to the place we fell in love. (Technically, he told me he loved me outside of The Crack (CrackerBarrell) in Cocke County.) Hey, that was the only place to meet halfway between Knoxville and Asheville.
Anyway, back on track...we called up some great friends and asked if we could come visit and crash with them in Asheville. It was absolutely Gorgeous! Ryan laughed at me about how many times I could say the word "pretty" in one sentence.
But seriously...pretty doesn't even begin to describe this:

And this is the view from the exact spot I remember thinking that I could marry Michael. Maybe I was just caught up in the scenery...HAHA, just kidding!


We had a great time and really miss our grand ole' friends there! Here are a few pictures from the trip.
By the way...Lila was the best she has ever been in a long car ride. We tried a DVD for the first time the last hour of the trip. She loved it. However, now she points to the screen and asks for Elmo everytime we get in the car. :)
Graham, of course, was sacked out the whole time!

Lila had the best time playing with the boys. Camden and Lukas were so fun! Poor Camden couldn't get away from Lila. She just wanted a kiss! She even chased Lukas around the house for one, but no luck there either. She did however get to take a bath with 2 boys!! SSHH...don't tell!






Graham just got to be loved on the whole time.

And the answer is NO...he is not available.

Neither is she! They are married to each other. :)

Lila also became big buds with Kris or "Kissy" as Lila called her. We had a great time visiting with the newlywed "Florida Fans." Kris got her a book titled Lila Bloom, so she thought it was appropriate for Miss Lila Rose. It has now become one of Lila's favorite books. Thanks Kris and Adam!



Watching my boys and baby girl like this in all of God's Glory made the whole trip for me. I was in heaven!




AAAHH...Good Times! Oh, and Congratulations to Nate and Shannon on their new baby girl! What wonderful parents we know they will be. We cannot wait to get all the kids together! We Miss you Asheville.

"Read"

One of my favorite things that Lila is doing now is finding a book and bringing it to us while saying "Read, read" and backing her little cute tush into our laps... Even if it means sitting on Graham.
Luckily, that was not captured in this picture.

Graham is 1 month old!

I totally CANNOT believe it. It has flown by. Don't get me started on the guilty mom stuff because I totally feel like I haven't been there for my 1 month old! It has gone by way too fast. Graham did sleep a lot in the beginning, but still. I want to be able to sit and stare at him and marvel at every move he makes. You just can't do that with a 16 month old running around. He is so handsome and my sweet cuddle bug. He does not like to be put down and he is super comfy in momma's arms. This past week was so much better with the gas. He still has it, but it is better. He must just be a fast nurser, because I feel like he isn't getting much, but his diapers are full AND he weighed 11 lbs 8 oz. yesterday at the Doctor. Yes, I took him to the Dr. again. He still had a runny nose, but no fever. I mainly took him because he went from hardly ever spitting up, to projectile vomiting. So sorry Alana! :) He did this just about everytime I fed him on Thursday and Friday. I wanted to get him checked out before the weekend, just in case. The Dr. just said that it was probably because of the mucus build up. We are just supposed to watch for fever and increased vomiting. He seems much better today. Everytime I call, I know the nurse thinks I am crazy. She just laughs at me, but we love her. I know she thinks that I am this totally paranoid mother who should know all this since I just did it a year ago with Lila. Oh well. What to do? I would rather be safe than sorry!
Michael got up this morning and declared it Team Harrell day and put on is his shirt. We went to the park. I realized it was the first time we had officially taken her to the park to play. We then came home and enjoyed one last evening outside before it gets pitch black at 5:00. BOO! Needless to say, I am not looking forward to the time change. That means earlier mornings for Lila and depressing nights for momma when the sun goes down.
To brighten me up, here is my favorite little team:

Cluck Cluck Cluck...Happy OWLoween!

We had a week full of Fall Festivities. We started back Kindermusik this week. Lila missed all her friends and had a great time in music class again! It was even more exciting that everyone was dressed up in their cute costumes. Even Graham got into the action! We then went to lunch with Amy and to daddy's office to show off the cute costumes.




Later in the week we joined up with some friends to attempt to get some pictures of the kids all dressed up. We weren't really in the ideal place for a photo shoot. Poor Graham didn't even make it in the pictures, but here is my little Boo bear with his own special shot.





Although the actual day of Halloween was a little crazy(work, work, work) we were able to squeeze in Graham's first lunch date with the girls (part of them anyway) and got to see our bestest, AP. Halloween is her favorite and she did not disappoint. She provided me with a well needed laugh in this getup!



After my closing, I raced home to get the kiddo's ready for a night out on the town! We first went to Lila's bestest, Mason's house, for pizza and pictures.
We then headed to church for the fall festival. Most of the activities were a little old for Lila, but she still had a great time (even without her nap for the day). She discovered several balls in the games they had set up, so that alone made her happy! Michael and I tried to be polite and only let her get one piece of candy at each stop. Each time I was hoping she would pull out the GOOD candy. It never failed. Picture: Her hand going in, swirling around the tub. Her little fingers land on the big bright yellow bag of peanut M & M's. I am totally stoked! But then, disaster strikes. Her had slips and she reaches and pulls out, but what?!? The dum dum. Ya know...the measly little sucker you get at the bank? Since I told her she could only have 1 piece there was no way I could reach in and get more. Boy was I disappointed!?! In all seriousness, I was actually super happy that we came home with only about a total of oh...10 pieces of candy. I didn't buy any this year since we were not going to be home to give it out. Usually I do and we don't have any trick or treaters, so I end up eating several bags of GOOD candy myself.
Anyway, one of the highlights of the festival was seeing Governor Sarah Palin along the way. :)


Here are my little darlings on Halloween...the Owl and the Turkey. Speaking of the turkey, Graham was probably in some sort of identity crisis wearing his costume. Let's see..he got called a rooster, a robin (WHAT?!), and several chicken hawks. Even I have become totally confused as to what he was. I actually just realized that I originally named this post Cockadoodle Doo. If you could see the BACK of his costume then you would know he was a turkey and of course I don't have a picture of it.
Originally I wanted Lila to be a kitty cat because she sounds and looks so cute saying, "MEOW". However, I could not find a cute cat costume and I am not as creative or have enough time to make a cute costume like AJ did for Elizabelle. My other favorite sound Lila makes is "BAA" for the sheep. She was a bunny last year and those costumes are just too close to each other, therefore it was out. So, my next favorite is the owl. She really is quite a good "HOO"ter and I didn't see any one else with an Owl costume on. You also must know that I was very excited that Graham could wear his costume. I bought it before he was born on a shopping spree to Baby'sRUS one day. I got home with it and just knew that it was going to be WAY too big and I would have to take it back and settle for just putting him in a onesie for his 1st Halloween. When he came out 10 lbs. I was so excited. One of the first things that I said after having him was that maybe now he could wear the costume... and that he did!
Oh, and here is also my lame attempt at dressing up. As I was driving home at 5:00, I had an urge to semi dress up. I found this hat and did some quick braids. It didn't turn out as cute as I had envisioned in my head. Oh well...it wasn't about me anyway. :)

Parties and More Parties

Friday night we attended a Spooktacular Extravaganza at casa Morgan. Michael and I were in a predicament about what we should dress up as. After the week I had, we decided it needed to be simple, yet effective. Therefore, we decided that we would be the host of the party as they were back in the mid 90's. Here we are as the golden couple. Me as the CHS Homecoming Queen and Michael as Mr. Tech Baseball. Note the added junk in the trunk! :0


However, the junk could not compare to THIS:


We had a great time scurring around Spring Hill all dressed up for the Scavenger Hunt. We obviously attracted plenty of stares. Although my team lost...(yes, I admit defeat, but I DO NOT want to talk about it), we definitely had more fun! :)



Here is scary, crazy lady, who just showed up at the house (and who Michael felt up! AAHH!)



Yes, I left Graham, but only for a few hours. He ended up sleeping the whole time and didn't even have to take the bottle. That was great for me because I was able to nurse him when I got home instead of pumping.

Saturday morning, we woke up to Graham sounding very congested. He makes all kinds of noises anyway, but this was extra "wheezy" sounding. Lila has also had a running nose, which was one reason I was concerned about Graham. I decided to run him up to the Dr. just in case. Michael took Lila with him to her first Auction courtesy of P. Wayne. The Dr. said Graham was fine and everything sounded clear. He may just have a little cold. He did weigh in at 11 lbs 1 oz. This made mommy very happy! He has gained a pound in a week! YEAH! I have an inkling he will be able to wear that Halloween outfit I bought him.

Once I finally made it home, it was time to get ready for the UT/BAMA game. I decided I wanted to have people over since I knew I would have a reason to celebrate. ROLL TIDE! I was able to get up and get the kids dressed in their BAMA gear before daddy snuck on any orange and white! (To be honest I think that this is one season he doesn't mind so much.)




Oh, and little Miss Thang may have some competition with Brother Graham in the fight for being Mason's best friend. Mason LOVED Graham and was adamant about holding him. So cute!



We were hoping to take Graham to church for the first time today, but with all the runny noses and late nights, we didn't make it. After Lila's nap today, this is what we walked in to find. This hair...it is crazy! She is at least loving on her brother.





We took the kids out to play since it was such a nice afternoon. Michael was holding Graham and decided that he needed to go down the slide. I didn't think he was serious...but Oh, yes! Here is Graham's first slide ride!




We are looking forward to a fun filled fall week. Here is a preview of things to come: Guess HOO this little one is for Halloween?!?

Wee May

I know you are probably wondering what in the world this title is about. Well...it would be about what Big Sister has decided to call Little Brother. It is so funny how for months Lila would point to/kiss my big ole belly and say Baby Boy, and now he is Wee May. Since we never practiced an actual name for him while I was pregnant, we always just referred to him as baby brother or baby boy. Since he has been born, we ask Lila if she can say Graham. She actually spit out, "Nam" and even "Dam" a few times. We just figured that would be what she would call him until she was able to say her G's. NOPE! That only lasted for about a week. It has somehow now turned into Mee May or Wee May. (She likes to mix it up.) She usually says Baby before saying Wee May. Who knows where this came from. Could it be me adding multiple syllables with my southern accent when I say his name...Graahhaam? I don't know. But for now...he is Wee May and he sure it cute! Here are some pictures of him over the past week.





Lila does love him and is really sweet to him, but I have yet to get a good picture of them together. As much as she likes to bring him his blanket and give him his paci if he is upset, she DOES NOT like to hold him. As soon as we put him on her lap, she is pushing him away saying No! Poor little boy. I will never forget how one night she was in her room with Michael getting ready for bed while I was in the living room nursing Graham. Michael put on her pj's and he said she grabbed her blanket and paci and took off out of the room. The next thing I know she walks straight over to me, takes out her paci, kisses Graham on the forehead and says "Nigh Nigh" and then turns and walks back to her room. It was so sweet! Now when I go to get her up in the morning, she leans her head around me and says "Baby?, Mee May?" Many times we have to go in my room and find him before I even get her diaper changed. She also likes to put her finger over her mouth and say, "Shh..Baby." One night, she was dead asleep and she woke up in the middle of the night. While changing her diaper, she takes her paci out and says "Shh baby" and then puts her paci back in. She repeated this several times. Speaking of waking up in the middle of the night....my perfect night time sleeper has woken up just about every night since bringing Graham home. When I say she has woken up, I mean she sobs and cries uncontrollably for several minutes. This is not like her at all. I don't know if she is having nightmares or if she knows something is different, but it is killing me. In addition to it breaking my heart, I don't need another child to get up with in the middle of the night. Sometimes it has happened around midnight and 2 or 3, and then just other times in the middle of the night. I am not sure what to do, but I feel so bad for her.
This has been a rough week over all for us though. I will just put it this way... Tuesday, I don't think I even used the bathroom until 1:45 pm. After being up all night with Graham on Wednesday night, I called Michael about 3 pm and begged him to come home from work on Thursday. I am not sure if I made it out of my pj's or got my teeth brushed either of these days. Attractive, I know. Graham is super gassy and his fussy time is late at night and in the mornings. It never fails, but he and Lila end up getting up at the same time every morning. It doesn't matter if I have already nursed him and he should be asleep, he wakes up. Or if he is up crying, she will wake up at a time that is not her norm. It is like they have this connection and can hear each other. For example, he will be dead asleep and I go in Lila's room to get her up and changed. In the middle of me changing her diaper, I hear him crying. I have faith that we will get a routine down soon though. Things have just been crazy with my work. Once that calms down, I will actually get to be a mom! :) For now, we are just taking it one day at a time! Yes, there have been many tears shed, but even more smiles crossing my face. Each days seems to bring not only tears of frustration, but tears of joy that I am so blessed with my perfect little family!

Tonight is the Halloween Party and we have our costumes. I know you can't wait!