THE HARRISONS

UPDATE:

2011-02-17T21:07:00.003-06:00

Most of you have probably seen these on facebook but I just put a couple up for fun....

So update of what we've been up to:

- Not much out of the ordinary

- Matt did OB/GYN rotation and is now on Psychiatry (not his favourite)

- A few of our good friends are moving out of the ward :(

- Had the best Valentines ever (flowers, a ring, dinner the works!)

- Getting Parker to stop taking a binki for naps and bed (only cried 15 minutes tonight...)

- Doing Beehives ( I thought I made the best scavenger hunt ever on Tuesday)

Nothing too crazy, but we're happy and just thought I'd say what's up?!?

HALLOWEEN

2010-11-01T13:30:00.004-05:00

Here's a few things we've been up to since the summer:

1. Matt went to a wedding in California the same day I went to a friends wedding in Utah

2. My mom, sister and her 2 kids came to visit for a week and we had so much fun

3. Lots of time spent at the park, now that its only in the 70s and 80s instead of 90s and 100s

4. Texas State Fair.....deep fried cookie dough

5. Pumpkin Patch (this particular October day it was 90 degrees)

6. Halloween Parties

7. World Series Game 5....TONIGHT!

Here's Parker in his little dragon costume!

I love the pudgy side view :)

A princess, a knight and a dragon

EVEN THOUGH....

2010-08-13T14:34:00.003-05:00

Matt is one of the most ridiculous people I know, that just so happens to be one of the reasons I love him SO much! After 3 years of marriage he makes me the happiest!

Can everyone believe I just posted twice in one day?

MY SON IS ONE! well 13 months....

2010-08-13T14:11:00.002-05:00

Well everyone I know its been a long time, but I'm not even going to apologize because I've been having WAY too much fun and been way too busy to even blog about it. But I do have a second today and can't resist showing everyone (who even checks my blog anymore since its been so long) the very cute pictures of my favourite little boy!

He's already 13 months and I can't believe my baby is such a big boy, guess its time to start thinking about getting a new cute little baby :) Just kidding we're not going to try just yet, but this little guy will need some siblings eventually.

AIR SHOW!

2010-04-26T15:33:00.003-05:00

A week ago Saturday we went to an awesome Air Show in Fort Worth. I was supposed to go to a Stake Relief Society thing that morning but I weighed my options- spend quality time as a family (which is somewhat rare) or go to an uplifting RS event...sorry Relief Society family wins! Five other families from the ward met us there and we had a great time watching the planes, and watching Parker watch the planes :)

The exact moment this picture was taken Parker's hat had blown off his head and into the helicopter, you can see it going through the window in the picture.

Love his fat chubby cheek grin!

TIME

2010-04-12T10:58:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about time this past month. I would consider myself an organized person and I'm constantly making lists of things to get done...which never ends of course because by the time I cross laundry off the list and move on to the others it's just about time to add laundry back on again and so on. I've been wanting to post about Hawaii and Parker and so many things but can't find the time...but I have time for my favorite tv shows...it's hard for me to find time to read my scriptures everyday, but I have time to read other books...so I guess I realized I have plenty of time to do things I need to and plenty of time to do things I want to...I realized I'm not as organized or disciplined as I may thought I was, I need to do a lot better job at organizing my time!

LOVE OF MY LIFE

2010-02-16T09:46:00.002-06:00

Sadly I must admit that I didn't do much of anything for Matt for Valentine's Day, and he did some really sweet things for me...So I am going to tell you the top ten reasons why I love my husband, in no particular order!

1. He makes me laugh every single day (reference the picture below)
2. He loves me unconditionally, no matter what
3. He honors his priesthood and is a great example to me of service
4. He always does everything I ask of him without complaint
5. He is a sweet and loving father
6. He is so honest and is not afraid to say what he thinks or feels, but also listens to what others have to say, he helps me to express myself better
7. He is so much fun to be around, no matter what we're doing
8. He is always concerned about my health and happiness
9. He reads and prays with me everyday
10. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me!

* Sorry if this was too sappy for some, but "I'm in love, I'm in love and I don't care you knows about it!"

FAMILY AND PARKER PICS 2010

2010-02-01T11:53:00.003-06:00

Here's a recap of the last couple months....all the holidays were great and it was fun to spend it with lots of family and friends! We truly are very blessed. Matt is pushing along through school as best he can. I think he's tired of lectures all day every day and is really looking forward to started clinical stuff this summer. Parker and I are doing great and loving every minute of being home together. Parker is growing so fast and I love him more every day. We decided to get some good pictures of the little man and the whole fam together, so please enjoy :)

4 MONTHS!

2009-11-13T08:37:00.003-06:00

4 months has literally flown by and I love this little boy more than ever!

He is now 14lbs7oz and 25 1/2 inches and cute as can be!

He's working towards becoming the next Crocodile Hunter!

PARKER'S 1ST HALLOWEEN!

2009-11-11T09:04:00.004-06:00

Parker was a football for Halloween because I figured we had to carry him around any way :) My mom, the wonderful seamstress made this adorable outfit for him.

Here's the footballl player carrying our little football at one of the parties we went to with a bunch of other medical school students.

The whole little family, sadly no pom poms to go with the cheerleading outfit.

Wearing his 1st Halloween shirt he got from Matt's mom.

Cool Mr. Skeleton dude!

MONTHLY UPDATE

2009-10-29T14:14:00.004-05:00

I seem to be in the habit of only updating the blog once a month, which I fully intend on doing it more often...but somehow it just never happens.

Disclaimer: the pictures are kind of blurry on here, but they're not blurry on my computer so I'm not sure what's going on with that....

A few weeks ago Parker and I embarked on his first airplane ride ever (which he did amazing on) to visit my family in Oregon. It was so much fun and a lot of firsts; he met 3 uncles for the first time, went to his very first football game, and slept 8 hours straight for the first time every night I was there! I'm so glad I got to go it was such a nice break and fun to show him off to everyone back in the home ward.

Taking a quick nap before the footballl game (he did have a crib to sleep in, but this was closer at the time).

Parker and Uncle Phil before the big game!

Sleeping through most of the shouts and screams!

Hanging out with grandma!

CATCHING UP

2009-09-22T12:30:00.005-05:00

After almost a couple months and a few people reminding me I need to update my blog, here's a quick update. I probably have 800 pictures of Parker that I think are adorable, but I won't make you scroll through them all. I narrowed the last couple months down to 5 major events as follows:

1. Best/Worst Day

Matt and I's 2nd Anniversary was on August 11th, but Matt had school so we didn't really do anything special. But to celebrate Matt got us tickets to go see Wicked in Austin. We left Saturday morning with Matt's brother Steve, we ate some good bbq and then Steve watched Parker while Matt and I went to the play, which was so fun to see. That's the best part, here comes the worst.
On the way home the alternator died on our car and we were stuck at a gas station in Salado, Texas for 3 1/2 hours until our amazing home teacher drove all the way out, in someone else's car, to give us a ride back to Dallas, only to get a ticket on the way home. Nice repayment for his service, right? A couple other bad things happened before we finally got home at 1am, but I'll keep the story short.

2. Parker's Blessing

We blessed Parker on Sept. 6th. Below are the Harrison Family members that were able to attend.

Tolley Family members at the blessing.

Parker and Cousin Addyson.

Sisters and Babies :)

3. EQP, yeah you know me!

As if medical school, being a husband and father weren't enough for Matt he just got called to be our ward's Elders Quorum President. I know he'll do a really good job I just worry because I know he stresses about spending time on school a lot (and that was before)...

4. 2 Months Old!

Parker is over 2 months now, it's crazy! He's getting so big, but I love all the smiles and coos he's been giving me lately.

Height: 23 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 12 lbs 10 ozs (75th percentile)
Head: 15 inches (20th percentile)

I make him wear things to bring out his Canadian Heritage.

5. Babysitting

I am currently babysitting the baby of a friend I taught with last year as a source of a little income. He's a week younger than Parker, his name is Brayden. This is my 3rd week doing it, and overall it hasn't been that bad, but there are definitely those moments...we'll see how it goes.

Nothing too exciting, but there's my life of the last couple months in a nutshell!

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON....

2009-08-05T07:46:00.003-05:00

they're goofballs!

I have a feeling these two will be having a lot of fun together.

TWO WEEKS!

2009-07-25T17:40:00.002-05:00

Everyone said, "Enjoy him being tiny because it will go by really fast" and it is so true. He's still tiny but I can't believe he is already over two weeks old now! I am so so tired but absolutely love this little boy more than anything!

Two Week Stats:
Weight: 7lbs 6ozs
Height: 20 inches

We've had a little fight with jaundice, and I've had to take him to get his foot stabbed and blood taken 3 days in a row. It made me so sad to hold him while he cried, but thankfully his jaundice levels are on their way down, so no other problems :)

I love being a mom!

PARKER MATTHEW HARRISON

2009-07-16T02:56:00.003-05:00

July 9th, 2009
8:37pm
Weight: 7lbs 5ozs
Height: 19.25 inches

So what do you do at 3am when you're feeding a baby? Update your blog! However seeing as I'm pretty tired this round is mostly just some pictures. With very little commentary...

Happy family just after he was born and cleaned up

First trip to the Nursery

When he first got home 2nd whole day of being alive!

Love the cheesy grin (Day 4)

Day 6
Still just being the cutest little boy there ever was!

For those of you who want to know the actual story of his birth I promise I'll share it soon, when's it's not 3am and when I'm not so tired...so maybe never :)

JUICE BOX!

2009-06-24T19:58:00.005-05:00

Here I am just about 36 weeks, and tomorrow I will exactly 37! It's so crazy that my own little boy will be here so soon! I am really ready to see him, and hold him and just snuggle, but I am so not ready and scared at the same time!

Some friends in my ward threw me a wonderful little baby shower here in Texas, and it was all about Juice Box! He is going to be one spoiled little baby. Jen and Mialisa are so creative and came up with the cutest invitations, food, and thank you juice boxes. It was all so cute!

A few pictures of girls in the ward who came to celebrate the upcoming birth of our little guy!

Cutest little juice box onesie cookies you've ever seen, AND they tasted amazing!

A BIG thank you to Jen and Mialisa for all the preparation and work they put into the shower, Mialisa for letting everyone invade her house, to Tracy for bringing food, and of course to everyone who came and the gifts for Juice Box. You girls are amazing!

MOTHER'S DAY SUPREEZ!

2009-05-24T17:23:00.004-05:00

This year Matt and I decided to each fly home and surprise our moms for Mother's Day! To make it even more exciting my best friend, Denae, also flew home that weekend and helped her mom plan an amazing Baby Shower for me and little Juicebox! Below is just a little example of how amazing it was, the Hawley's know how to throw a good party!

An old friend from BYU with her son Noah, Me and Denae.

My favourite part of the evening was when my Aunt Kirsten brought my mom over to the house to "pick something up" and surprise, I answered the door. The look of utter amazement and confusion on my mom's face was by far the best part. Here I am holding my niece Addyson.

Marissa brought Spencer along for the festivities, and is feeding him a juicebox. Spencer may be able to take juicebox now but someday Spencer's going to have to watch out :)

The rest of the weekend was spent at home, playing with Addy (a lot), watching Phil play baseball, hanging out with the fam and just relaxing.

Grabbing her toes for the first time!

Addy and Uncle Adam!

It was so nice to be home for a little while. A big thanks to Matt for letting me use his free ticket on Southwest to get there! Hope everyone else's Mother's Day weekend was just as enjoyable!

WHEN IN ROME

2009-04-12T19:14:00.005-05:00

You know how some people will put nothing but pictures of their kids on their blog, and every time you navigate there you'll see nothing and hear nothing but about lil' darling? Well, we're getting a head start on that trend by not having anything exciting to post about but pictures of Meagan's belly bump, which grows day by day. Here is a recent one.

Here's another one

On Easter morning Meagan made me breakfast in bed, (biscuits and gravy, mmmmboy) and then sent me on a treasure hunt for eggs. She also decorated my new den/baby room will all kinds of good stuff, and bought me a racquetball racket. I returned the favor in full by buying her a card at Walmart, so even stevens.

This is where the future baby will sleep. We are working on names still, right now we just call him "Lil' Juice Box"

We flew kites last weekend with some friends at a park near our house. This particular kite was afraid of heights. We eventually got him all the way out on 475 foot string. 3 miles from the nation's 3rd busiest airport. Fun times.

Parting shot of the cutest little kite flier there ever was.

5 1/2 MONTHS!!!

2009-04-05T18:30:00.002-05:00

It's been a few weeks since I put up a picture of the belly, and I thought for the sake of my mother and mother in law I should. This is me this past Thursday, I'm 5 1/2 months now. Sometimes I feel like the time has gone by fast but then when I think all the way back to November when we found out it seems like I've been pregnant forever! Either way I'm getting really excited and really ready for school to get out this year! And although I still have about 3 1/2 months left to go, and it's only going to get worse, I do not enjoy my little juicebox kicking me at 3 in the morning almost every day, but it's worth it. I''m more excited than ever to be a mom.

The Age of Aquarius

2009-03-14T19:10:00.012-05:00

Meagan's spring break occurs the week after mine, so we decided to do something fun on the weekend between the the two. I celebrated my spring break by waiting too long to buy a plane ticket and consequently not going to Utah to ski. Oops. I did buy a new desk for our den and maintained a rigorous TV watching schedule. We decided to check out the Dallas World Aquarium. We enjoyed the walk through the shark tunnel while navigating through the worlds largest stroller population.

I could take him.

The aquarium is home to two giant manatees. I am taking the high road by not making any jokes that would compare my pregnant wife to one of these creatures. I just wouldn't do that.

Meagan wore lots of clothes to hid her cute belly, but the flamingos knew it was there. You can't get anything past these guys.

"When do I get out? I've been in here a really long time!"

"Your hand got ate!" I swear something along those lines were shouted by the lady next to me while this was happening.

Meagan was the brave one and let Tucan Sam eat out of her hand first. But her picture comes after mine because uploading images onto blogspot is counter intuitive.

Any day that starts at Waffle House and ends at Carls Jr. is a good one. It just happens to lower your life expectancy by a few months. Worth it!
Also we drove 25 miles from home to eat here. Don't tell Al Gore.

TUMMY CHECK

2009-03-10T19:38:00.003-05:00

Just like most every girl I cringe at the thought of pictures of me, that I do not like, being seen by several people. However, in an effort to keep the family that is so far away updated despite my constant worries of not fitting nicely in my clothes, like Matt always says, "well you are pregnant!" So here are some of the most recent photos of the little guy making my belly larger every day.

This is me at 21 weeks and...

here I am again at 22.

Despite the fact that everyone I know keeps telling me that most women by the time they are about 5 months pregnant look nowhere near to as small as me I can't help but think how nicely my clothes used to fit...hopefully they will again someday.
But I do not want anyone to think that I am more concerned about my belly than the fact that it's because I'm pregnant. Both Matt and I are so grateful for the opportunity we are given to be having a little boy in our lives and thank our Heavenly Father for that blessing everyday!

BOYS R US!

2009-02-21T09:48:00.004-06:00

Only when Matt has a beard do the both of us have a distinguised chin. Mine comes in all patchy.

Most everyone already knows...but we're having a BOY! I didn't really care either way, I was just really excited to find out. Matt really thought it would be a girl but he's REALLY happy it was a boy, every father needs a son I think.

Here's a picture of the proud father a couple weeks ago, with his weirdo beard...

And by weirdo I mean totally appropriate because he gave a lesson on church history that day.

Since everyone has been getting mad that I don't have any pregnancy pictures up, here's a few that I have. They're not that great, but I'm starting to get a little belly.

This is me at 17 weeks.

Here's a greasy picture of me at 18 weeks

I'm in a Produce Coop with a bunch of girls in my ward and Matt and I went early to the Dallas Farmers Market.

First rule in road-side beet sales: Put the most attractive beets on top. The ones that make you pull the car over and go, "Wow, I need this beet right now." Those are the money beets. -Dwight

FAILURE...

2009-01-17T16:48:00.006-06:00

I have failed at being a good blogger...I do so well for a couple months and then months go by with nothing. So for those of you who've asked me to keep up I'll try to do better. Since I'm so far behind I won't go into great detail about anything but here's a whirlwind tour of the last 2 and 1/2 months.

First, Thanksgiving in Oregon with the Tolley Family.
Here's a lovely picture of the happy couple in the annual Family Turkey Bowl. We were on opposing teams (My team won!)

We took some family pictures, including all but Jeff (he's busy in Samoa). Shortly after this Matt stopped shaving.

Here's me and my brand new niece (she's only 12 days old here) Addyson Patricia Lowe, she's so tiny and cute!

After Thanksgiving, we move on to the old man's 26th birthday!

Next, Christmas in El Dorado Hills. This is our 3 year old nephew Shane, so cute!

I took a little jaunt up to the Great White North for a few days after Christmas with my family to visit my Grandma and had a grand old time....except for the being sick part!

When I returned back to EDH we celebrated a very uneventful New Years and shortly after I turned the old age of 24...

Matt and I have had a wonderful past 2 and 1/2 months and the most exciting thing that happened was we got to tell all of our friends and family that we're having a baby in July! Sorry no pictures yet, but I'll try to do better! We hope everyone else's holidays were just as much fun!

ACH-TOE-BEAR!!!!

2008-11-01T19:56:00.007-05:00

Brace yourselves, we've got a lot of pictures coming up! The following events all happened within four days! But a great four days they were!
Friday the 19th Matt and I went to Cutting Edge, one of the biggest Haunted Houses in Fort Worth because our friends, Shayla and Jared, invited us to go. Shayla goes to med school with Matt.

The following morning, Saturday October 20th, I had a Relief Society Blitz, and made the following crafts (mind you I chose any one that did not involve sewing).

Then I raced home to go with Matt to his White Coat Ceremony! It was long, but all the speakers did an entertaining job, and Matt finally got his White Doctor Coat! And there was a delicious reception afterwards.

Us with the other BYU couple in Matt's first year, the Walkers.

Us with Shayla and Jared.

"Someday when I grow up I'm gonna be a doctor!"

Then that night, it was a Halloween Party with some friends from the ward. Matt and I went as Mrs. Salt and Mr. Pepper (we borrowed the idea from some friends, Scottie and Angie, who used it last year).

Friends, Eric (Joe Dirt) and Laura Ryan, and the awesomest baby costume ever...NACHO!

Our party hosts wanted to play the "Donut Eating Contest on a String" game, but Matt decided that it would be much more exciting to tie the donuts to the fan, turn it on low, and then see who could eat their the donut the fastest...it was hilarious, only Matt, Eric and Joe did it, but I had tears in my eyes!

Monday night, for Family Night, Matt and I decided to make Halloween Sugar Cookies, just like we did when we were dating.

These are the finished products (we made cupcakes for the party earlier) the cookies on the counter weren't cool enough to make it on the plate.

It was a very busy four days, and I didn't do a single thing for school, but it was a lot fun! Hope everyone is having lots of fun too!

PUMPKIN GONE

2008-10-20T19:36:00.005-05:00

Matt here. When I was little I would say "pumpkin gone" when ever I saw a pumpkin. Apparently, I would also say "football gone." I guess I just wanted fall to end so I could go skiing. As a two year old. I'm really looking forward to world famous ski season this year in Dallas.

Thanks to Denae for the most awesome apron ever. I think the only way an apron could be manly is to put a bull on it, I'm glad those Spaniards got it figured out.

She's pretty cute.

We had a lack of quality pumpkin carving knives in our house, so I went a little traditional and easy this year. Also I have an attention span worthy of making only the easiest designs. That probably won't come back to haunt me later as a doctor.

"All right nurse, I think we're done here."

"But you've only cut him halfway open."

"Yeah, I just don't really feel like finishing right now. He'll live."

Meagan posseses more fine motor skills and patience than I do, so her spider is pretty awesome.

I wish I had the skill to carve a matching double chin in my pumpkin. That would be awesome.

Our little pumpkins just enjoying the 80 degree Dallas Autumn air.

Little blast from the past when Meagan and I were in the same ward in 2004. She's not in this picture.

It's all fun and games until you go behind the concession stand at the dollar theater without permission.

On a totally unrelated note, there are a couple of words and phrases I wouldn't mind ever to hear again. I don't know why, I just can't stand them.

1. Blogosphere (or any play on the word blog)

2. Grass roots

3. Jazzercise

4. Ad nausem

5. BYU get crushed by TCU 32-7.

YOU WIN SOME, YOU LOSE SOME...OH WAIT YOU JUST LOSE!

2008-10-19T11:22:00.004-05:00

After the beard I made Matt try a goatee for awhile, and I liked it better. Anyway, being the great BYU fans that we are Matt and I got tickets with some friends to go to the BYU v. TCU game here last Thursday. It would be one of only two chances we had to watch Cougar Football. So although Matt had an anatomy test the next day, and I had school bright and early the next day as true blue Cougar fans we really wanted to go. Unfortunately the Cougars decided not to show up at the game and we watched a pitiful and embarrassing loss, and couldn't help but think, "We paid money and time to watch this? Come on Cougars!" It was a sad day in Cougar Football, goodbye BCS...

This is us before the game... (note how happy Matt is)

Our friends, Edward and Tracy Haws
This is during the game.... (note the fake, me telling Matt he has to smile in the picture face)
Sorry Edward but this is the only I have of the four of us.

YEAR OF THE BEARD II

2008-10-19T11:05:00.002-05:00

In our rebellious after BYU stages of life Matt decided to grow a beard (and I wanted to see what it would look like).

Here we are at a Texas Rangers game a few weeks back. We went with a bunch of other married couples from the med school, and it was a lot of fun. The Rangers lost to the Angels but it didn't really matter to me because I don't really care for either team.

Because my new calling is CTR 5 teacher in the Primary I got to help out with the Primary Quarterly Activity a few Saturday ago as well. Hurricane Ike hit Houston, not too far from here, so for our Primary Activity the kids made candy necklaces to send to the Primary kids in Houston. It was really cute, and I was surprised that the kids managed to make all the necklaces without eating all the candy.

Here's a few pictures of Matt's beard. It's not a very full beard because Matt's not really a man yet, maybe when he stops acting 5 sometimes it'll grow thicker but I don't think that's ever going to happen :)

MED SCHOOL/HIGH SCHOOL

2008-10-08T20:17:00.002-05:00

I realize that time must be going by pretty quick because I haven't posted in over a month. So here is a run down of what we've been up to. Matt is kept busy every night for Med School, studying away. We are now in what the med students like to call Death-tober because they have a number of hard tests this month. We've had 3 BYU students come and stay with us while they were here interviewing at the school for next year. So we're hoping that there will be more LDS students coming in next year.

Matt is currently taking Anatomy and gets to completely dissect a human body, which when he tells me about it I'm definitely glad its not me doing it. He held a human brain in his hand just the other day. Because the Anatomy Lab smells so bad they wear scrubs, but I can still smell it on him a little bit when he comes home.

While Matt is studying away each day I am trying to teach U.S. History to a bunch of high schoolers. School in Texas is a lot different then Utah or Oregon, but I am getting used to it and the good days still out weigh the bad ones. I really love teaching and most of the time my students are really great. And I love the other teachers, they're all really nice and we have a good time teaching together. Even though I get paid more here in Texas, they definitely require more of my time so I'm not quite sure if it was a fair trade off. But Matt and I are both happy and doing great. Besides school I teach CTR 5 on Sundays and have the cutest little group of kids, poor Matt doesn't have a calling still and is feeling a little left out I think. Other than that now that it's not so hot (only in the 80s each day) and I haven't seen a cockroach in weeks I'm liking Texas a little more each day!

HOME SWEET HOME

2008-09-13T16:13:00.006-05:00

Well I've been meaning to put pictures up of our new little home in Texas for some time now, so here we go. Here is our living room, with the tree I really wanted, so it traveled on the outside of the Penske truck all the way from Utah.

This is our dining area. My parents graciously gave us the table and chairs, which coincidentally fit perfectly in this amount of space. I also really like the mirror on the wall. (It actually reminds me of my Grandma Stevens house).

This is our kitchen (obviously) with Murray the Moose cookie jar on the counter. Unfortunately he's empty at the moment. But if anyone wants to come visit I promise I'll fill him up for you.

This is one of my favourite parts of the house. Last year I hated not having a washer and dryer, so this year it was mandatory that we have them.

Here's the hallway, I really like the built in shelf on the side of the wall too.

This is our den, or study, or whatever you want to call it. Matt does a lot of studying in here...well maybe not A LOT, but he does study in here.

Bathroom, nothing fancy.

Last year our bedroom basically was just our bed, but now we have a little more room to move around in which is really nice. Matt and I put up the curtains by ourselves too.

So we live just a few miles from DFW Airport. Most days the planes are taking off over our house and its not as loud, I really don't even notice them anymore. But every once in awhile they switch directions and the planes land over our house, like in this picture, and its significantly louder, but still not too bad.

Overall we really like our new little home. It's much bigger than before, and if only someone could promise that I would never have a cockroach in it ever, it would be perfect!

I AM THE LUCKIEST!

2008-08-30T17:14:00.006-05:00

Well Matt and I had our one year anniversary a couple weeks ago and I'm just now getting to it. Since we've been so busy I told myself that Labor Day weekend I would blog what I've been wanting to. So August 11th was our one year anniversary and Matt was super sweet. First I woke up to a bouquet of roses and then Matt opened a few gifts from me.

Matt and I had decided to go to Six Flags Over Texas for the day (it's only about twenty minutes from our apt.) We got there right before it opened to make sure we could get on all the biggest best rollercoasters before the lines started getting longer later in the day. Unfortunatley for us Six Flags was not doing very well that day. 4 of their biggest rollercoasters were shut down when the park opened, we were so mad. So we went on some of the other rides and waited for all the big rollercoasters to start running. By the end of the day almost all of the big coasters opened, so that was good, but we did end up having to wait in longer lines by the time they did. So even though Six Flags was kind of let down, and I realized that it was definitley no Disneyland, Matt and I had a lot of fun together.

This is us in the front row of one of the smaller rollercoasters.

No where close to the Dark Knight Joker but we thought we'd get our picture with him anyway.
This is Matt and I celebrating the start of the Olympics!

After the festivities of Six Flags we went home to get all cleaned up because we had gone on a few water rides, it had rained a little and it's Texas so you're always sweaty outside in the summer. While I was showering and cleaning up Matt made my most favourite dinner in the whole world, Thanksgiving Dinner. He had made turkey, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy and rolls. We even ate it on our nice China! I love that Matt can cook, and is really good at it too. It was so sweet of him to prepare my favourite dinner, and even better to get to sit and eat it with him.

And of course Matt had to play with the melted wax from the candles.
Overall it was a wonderful day to celebrate a whole year of being married and being in love!

LOOONG ROAD TRIP

2008-08-06T17:27:00.010-05:00

Matt and I took a very long road trip to visit friends and family before we headed off to Texas. I apologize for the extremely long post this time, but I couldn't cut out anymore pictures than I already did!

We started off the trip in EDH. Matt did an Open Water Swimming Race at Folsom Lake one morning. As you can see it was quite smokey because of all the fires (and this was on a good day).

Matt came in 3rd in his division!

We were able to see the Ricks' who came up for a visit. We went wake boarding with them, and then played a little croquet. I was the winner, but Dave came in a close second!

I had to put this one up because I finally got in and out of the wake!

We spent some time in San Francisco, and visited our good friends the Robarge's. Here's a couple of pictures of us on top of a 24 story roof, where Jensen and Erika live. They were nice enough to let us spend the night with them.

You can tell Matt and Jensen missed each other.

Erika took us on a lovely tour of San Francisco the next morning. We went to the Golden Gate Bridge (hence the picture), Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, Alamo Square, saw the Painted Ladies, Haight and Ashbury, and Union Square. It was quite the fun filled morning!

That afternoon we met up with the rest of the Harrison Clan and went to Alcatraz and a Giants game. (Also, I celebrated Canada Day by wearing my "Canadian Hockey Rocks!" T-shirt).

The Giants won, so it was a good end to a great day!

Fourth of July in Whitehawk, CA (Grandparents house). I went horseback riding that morning with some of the girls. This is my horse Raven.

Then Matt went golfing that afternoon with the boys. Only after Ken had been helicoptered to the hospital for breaking both the bones in his lower right leg. (It wasn't the best fourth of July ever).

We proceeded from Whitehawk to Salem, OR to visit my family this time. One morning Matt, Jeff and I went to the driving range, and apparently I needed a little help :)

My family along with my cousins family went to my favourite beach, Pacific City. We all climbed the sand dune and then the boys decided to jump off the top.

Us on top of the dune.

He was trying to be funny, but I don't think my aunt and little cousins thought he was very funny at all.

One fine day we traveled down to Eugene, OR to spend a day with the Smiths and their adorable little boy Spencer. We had a lot of fun visiting them and are sad we won't see them again for a long time. We went miniature golfing, ate lots of good food, and spent a lot of time playing with Spencer. He was my favourite, sorry Steve and Marissa.

We pretended Spencer was ours for this picture.

The Smiths and the Harrisons!

We ended the long trip back in Utah, where my family had traveled out to to take Jeff into the MTC. He is going to Samoa. Again we went miniature golfing (Matt really likes it). My mom killed us all.

Well, that's the end of our long road trip, and now we're in Texas so I'll try my best to keep everyone updated on med school and teaching and life in general!

Summer Freedom

2008-06-14T22:54:00.000-05:00

Since I finished up at school the end of May Matt and I have done a lot of playing! First, for Memorial weekend we went camping with a couple in our ward to Flaming Gorge, Utah. It was a little cold at night but at least it didn't rain on us. We had a lot of fun biking around and cooking in the Dutch Oven. Then we took about a day to rest before we headed to Arizona with another set of friends to backpack into Havasupai. Havasupai is an Indian Reservation in the middle of nowhere. It's a 10 mile, one way, backpack trip to the campground (which was definitely harder than I liked), but once we got there we got to play in turqouise pools, and waterfalls, and rope swings and had a good time. We got back from Arizona on a Sunday evening and promptly left at 5am the next morning to Dallas, Texas to find an apartment. Which we did! We spent a couple of days looking at dozens of apartment buildings (at least it felt like dozens) but we found the one we liked best and we're really excited to actually have a place to live when we move out there. Since we've been back from Dallas Matt has been training for his triathlon, which is in a week, and I've been trying to enjoy my time off.

Lone Star State *

2008-04-27T13:02:00.000-05:00

Matt and I have finally made a decision on Medical School and it looks like we're headed to the Lone Star State, in Dallas Texas. I was able to get a teaching job just outside Dallas in Irving. I will teach high school U.S. History again this year, which is probably my favourite subject to teach. Matt and I are excited to have a definite idea of where we are going to be for the next four, and we're definitely excited how low the tuition will be for him. We're going to head out to Dallas in June to look for housing and so I can sign some paper work at the high school. It will be an exciting new adventure and a big difference from the freezing cold of Utah that we're used to!