Birthday & Back to School

Our baby boy, Jude turned ONE! I can't believe how quickly this last year has flown by. We had a wonderful vacation on the Oregon coast and completed the week with a fun party to celebrate Jude. It was a Stud Muffin theme brunch. Many thanks to my mother-in-law, Lynda that helped with the breakfast casseroles, mini muffins, pancakes and much more. 

This week was back to school for Grant and Logan. The University of Idaho started on Monday, Aug 26 and Logan's school started on Wednesday, Aug 28. Logan was so excited to start his first grade year.

Wishing everyone a great new academic year. 

Cheers!

Growing Kiddos

Our little ones are growing so quickly. Sometimes I wish I could freeze the clock. This summer was the first time Logan went into the field with Grant. I know he's having the time of his life, but I miss him like crazy. He will be in first grade this year and I can't believe the amazing kid I have. He's incredibly smart and caring (crazy, but he's mine).

We will soon head out for our week-long family vacation and I'm so excited. When we return, we will celebrate Jude's first birthday then school starts back. It's been a fun summer break, but I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine.

As the summer comes to an end, so does our time with YaYa and PotPot. They will return to AL for the "winter" and to spend time with Aunt Lindsay, Uncle Douglas and Matthew. We love when they're here and will miss them.

I hope everyone had an amazing and fun-filled summer. Here's to another successful school year.

Where does the time go...

Well, as you can tell for anyone that actually reads this, it's been a while since I last posted on here. I originally intended for this to capture our life moments and keep a record, well that didn't happen. Here is a quick recap of the last 6 years. Ready, go!

1. Logan Sawyer Harley arrived on February 2, 2013 - We are beyond excited to watch our little man grow and learn. We love his personality, giggles and chubby cheeks.

2. May 2015 - I FINALLY graduated with my Bachelor's in Women Studies and Child Development, wow that took forever. I'm so grateful for the love and support from Grant, I couldn't  have done it without him.

3. June 2015 - We're expecting!! This was again, a total surprise and we are beyond thrilled. This time we found out early and will have to wait to find out if we're having another boy or a girl. For a planner, the wait is so difficult.

4. Willow Ruth Harley arrived on January 23, 2016 - The last half of the pregnancy was rough so we were induced right on Willow's due date. She decided to come out quickly and I didn't get the epidural I was hoping for. She's been a complete joy and Logan is an amazing big brother.

5. August 2016 - Worst news EVER! Willow was diagnosed with stage 3 Neuroblastoma. Please visit her Facebook community page for the full story, https://www.facebook.com/prayforwillow/. This time in our lives would have been even more difficult without the outpouring of love, prayers and support from our family and friends. We cannot thank you enough!

6. July 2017 - Peace out Mississippi! We will miss the friendships we have developed in our 5 years in MS, but are excited for the new adventure in Idaho.

7. November 2017 - We're expecting!! This was planned, and we can't wait! Again, we found out early and had to wait until our 20 week appointment to find out what we're having.

8. December 2017 - Holy Snow! Logan and Willow were ecstatic for the snow. Mom, not so much. It was beautiful to look at, but this FL girl was so nervous about driving in it. Thankfully, when we moved here Grant bought me a new to me all wheel drive SUV. This helped, but I still didn't drive at all during our first winter in Idaho.

9. May 2018 - Our Logan graduated from Moscow Day School and will start Kindergarten in August. He's beyond excited to start school while Mom and Dad are nervous and can't believe we have a Kindergartner. Time has passed so quickly, but we're blessed to have such a smart first born. We love our Logan!

10. Jude Warren Harley arrived on August 24, 2018 - Our third and final baby is here. Our sweet little stud muffin has now completed our family. Watching Logan interact with his little brother is heartwarming. Same goes for Willow, we were concerned since she was the baby and now having someone younger that will need the same attention if not more for a little while. As she has done everything in her life, took it like a champ. She's incredibility strong and has a great personality that makes anyone that interacts with her smile and this also happens with her new little brother. Willow shares her toys and makes sure Jude has anything he may need.

We are now starting a new semester/school year. Logan will begin first grade in a couple of weeks and he loves the fact that he's a "first grader" now and we are happy to see his enthusiasm towards school and learning. He's smart, caring and full of energy. We are about to celebrate Jude's first birthday and I can't believe the year has passed so quickly. I will do my best to make sure I will keep up with our blog.

Thanks for reading!

#HarleyPartyof5

Relaxing Day in Hattiesburg

Hello All... we've had amazing weather today. I sat outside reading my new book while Grant worked in the yard creating our new raised beds for the garden. The pups loved hanging out in the nice weather just as much as we did.

Today, Grant and I received the disc with our maternity photos that we took over Christmas break. We were so excited, here are a few...

I will post most of them on Facebook later.

 

Thank you so much to our brother-in-law, Douglas Heruska for spending the day with us, taking the wonderful photos. We are forever grateful!

 

Now it's time for dinner... more later. :)

 

Best wishes to all!

January... Not much longer

Even though I just posted from December, I figured I would go ahead and post January as well. After all the month is almost over.

When we got back from Florida, Grant and I both had the flu and were out of work for a week. Grant was feeling better far before me, but stayed home with me. He worked on Logan's room, the tree decals came in and we were so excited.

Grant putting on the final bird in the room.

 

The tree decals are finished, Grant did an amazing job.

 

We couldn't bring all of thing back from Florida. With our dogs, bags, Christmas gifts, Logan's gifts from two showers and some of our Ikea purchases. We didn't plan very well. George and Lindsay drove up with the rest of things in the trailer the following weekend. When they were here we finished his room. I can't wait to have Logan here to enjoy it.

 

I'm now officially full term. We are on our weekly visits to the doctors office and just waiting to meeting our little man. At 38 weeks the contractions are coming more and more and getting stronger. On this last Wednesday they came all day while I was at work, they were so strong that I called the hospital to see at what point I needed to come in. They were consistent enough to go, but they were happening that's for sure.

 

Our next appointment is on Thursday, we will have an ultrasound done to see how big our little guy is and to give us an idea of what his birth weight might be.

 

I can't wait to meet him, everything is ready and our bags are packed.

 

I'll keep you posted :)

 

Today we made a SAMs run to get more fruit for our juicer. We have been juicing fruits and vegetables for a couple of weeks now and are loving it. We had a couple of things left from the weeks so we made made homemade raspberry and blueberry muffins with whole wheat flour. I was really nervous about them, but they came out amazing.

 

We also made brussel sprouts cooked with red wine. They were wonderful, homemade breakfast and great lunch it has been a delicious day. For dinner we had fish with a potato, squash, green pepper and carrot casserole that has gouda cheese on top.

 

It has been a nice relaxing day.

 

Until next time, best wishes!

December... Christmas, Baby Showers, Wedding & New Years

Well... I complete missed the 7 month pregnancy/update post. This last month has been action packed. I can't even catch my breathe (which is most of the time lately).

Here is the wrap up, after our busy Thanksgiving "break" we started back to work and decorating for Christmas. Even though we weren't spending Christmas here, putting up our little fake tree made it feel more like Christmas. We completed our Christmas shopping, it was fun to shop together for our families. We had the best time! The count down for Winter Break at work started early, I couldn't wait to see our families for Christmas.

8 months pregnant and traveling wasn't the best idea. Finding a comfortable seated position wasn't easy to find, and I don't think I ever did. Grant was a trooper, stopping each time I had to GO. That was more often than he was used to when we travel. Thanks Hunny!! We finally made it to the Harley's late on Thursday night.

George and Lynda (my wonderful in-laws) were so sweet and gave up their bedroom so I would have a bathroom close by. Thank you both!!

Lindsay and I went shopping on Friday 12/21, I was finished with Christmas which was a wonderful feeling. I was on the hunt for a dress to wear to Dustin Johnson's wedding, Grant's childhood best friend. Grant was his best man and I had nothing that would fit... eeekk. Lindsay had the lucky job to help me. Not many places have a maternity section, we finally hit Motherhood and found it. The perfect dress for this wonderful upcoming celebration. Well, I quickly found out that an all day shopping adventure is one other thing that wore me out. I pooped out, much earlier than normal.

Saturday, 12/22 was a busy day. We attended the annual Brown Christmas Party in the morning. This isn't something that Grant and I get to attend each year, so it was nice to see everyone. That afternoon was our first baby shower for Logan. Grant took me to my mom's house, where my Aunts, Cousins and Grama were in full swing. They had the whole living decked out in Logan's colors and cute owls. It was amazing and a bonus was that I was able to take the decorations for his room. :) The shower was wonderful. I was able to see family friends that I haven't seen in some time. I greatly appreciate all the hard work and the fantastic gifts for Logan.

The rest of the vacation went in a total blur. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was spent with our families. On the 26th we did a maternity shot with Douglas and Lindsay in downtown Lakeland. I can't wait to see all the pictures Douglas took. On Thursday, I had "Best Friend Day" with Ann, we missed you Leslie. I was completely relaxing, just hanging out.

The wedding festivities starting in full swing. I planned to ride with Lynda and Aunt Michelle to Lake Mary, FL to meet Grant for the rehearsal lunch. Plans changed some, Olivia went into labor, Aunt Michelle was a the hospital with Olivia, so Lynda and I went to set up for the lunch. It went off wonderfully, the lunch was amazing and Olivia and little Aurora are great. I headed back to Lakeland with Lynda while Grant stayed at the hotel with the other groomsmen. Hannah and Carly (my two youngest sisters) spent the night with me. We stayed up late talking about weddings and watching "Say Yes to the Dress" we had a great time. Saturday was the wedding, what an adventure. George, Lynda and myself left around 12:30 for the wedding that wasn't until 5:00 we didn't want to get held up in Orlando traffic and planned to have a late lunch in Lake Mary so we would be there in plenty of time. Thankfully we did... we were stuck in traffic and even took a detour, that did help us move any faster. Lunch ended up being Burger King, we were WAY over dressed. :) Just classing up the joint. Well, we finally made it to the ceremony location at 4:30. It was ridiculous how long it took us to get there.

The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a blast. I hit the dance floor and didn't get off. Had a wonderful time dancing, but I paid for it later... so sore! Sunday, we had another baby shower at church, Lindsay did an amazing job with Logan's little Mustache Bash. Thank you to everyone that came. The decorations were little mustaches, sandwiches, candy molds and a big mustache on the cake. Grant was out of commission, with the flu running a temp of 103. Yikes!! Monday, we needed to head to Ikea, to pick up a few things which ended up as a busted trip, since the things we needed were not in stock. We weren't very happy!

Heading home on Tuesday, I wasn't feeling so hot. Turns out I caught Grant's flu. I didn't run a temperature as high has he did, but did have a small fever. We went to urgent care and I was put on Tamiflu. The medicine did the trick, I was back to work on Monday.

Here are some pictures from our busy vacation...

 

Our Christmas tree at home, we weren't here for Christmas but it was nice to have it up.

 

 

The cake my Aunt Kelley made for Logan's shower was amazing.

With my sweet Kate, she can't wait to meet her cousin :)

 

Christmas Eve at Aunt Karry's with the Orlando family.

 

Christmas Day... My new Coach purse and Tory Burch flats and Grant with his new hiking backpack.

 

 

Bestie Day (missing Leslie... stuck in KY)

We shopped a little, had lunch, spent a few hours relaxing on

Pinterest (it was great) before getting pedicures!

 

 

 My wonderful In-Laws, Lynda and George Harley

I'm with the "Best Man" at the Johnson wedding on 12.29.12

 

Logan's Mustache Bash 12.30.13 Lindsay and Lynda did a great job with all the decorations.

 

Well, I know it's now late January, but here is my December post. Sorry I'm behind.

 

Best Wishes!

 

 

 

 

 



Thanksgiving Break

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Eating too much and spending time with family and the ones we are so thankful for. The Harley's had a busy Thanksgiving break. This was the first year Grant and I fixed a Thanksgiving meal just for us. We stayed home, cooked and relaxed. It was really nice. I missed having our families around, but it was awesome cooking for just us.

We didn't travel for Thanksgiving this year, because we needed to be in Georgia on Friday for my dear friends wedding, Mary-Katherine and I have been friends since we were 4 years old. It was an honor to be her MOH on her special day. It was wonderful catching up with old friends. When we arrived on Friday afternoon to start the festivities, Grant dropped me at a diner for the Bridesmaids Luncheon while he hit Ikea. He came back with a car full of boxes and didn't even get everything on our list. Oh my... we have another trip in our future.

Here are some pictures from our wonderful, but busy break.

 

Ham, Stuffing and Green Bean Casserole

We also had corn, asparagus, mashed potatoes and rolls

 

Grant working on the ham and rocking the Vera Bradley apron :)

 

 

Enjoying our Thanksgiving lunch, thumbs up

 

 

I was stuffed and ready to POP



 

Mary-Katherine was a beautiful bride... here are some pictures from the wedding.

 

 

The Bride and her Daddy walking down the aisle

 

 

 The wedding was at The Four Oaks Manor in Buford, GA. It was a beautiful location. The high on Saturday was 52 degrees, oh my it was cold outside but worth it to see my dear friend get married.

 

Us at the wedding ceremony

I have such a handsome husband :)

 

 

Acting our usual selves!

We can't take all serious pictures, where is the fun in that.

 

 

With Jamie Lawhon Compton, It was great to see her again. It has been way too long.

 

 

Friends since Elementary school.

Growing up with these two was never boring, we have TONS of amazing memories.

 

 

Mary-Katherine and Taylor Kimbal cutting their beautiful wedding cake

Red Velvet... yum yum

 

 

With Grant at the wedding reception

 

 

I love my Momma!!

 

 

Hannah and Carly... I have beautiful sisters

 

We made it home and put together our Ikea purchases... It was like Christmas in November. :)

 

Until next time, God Bless!