10 Days in Paradise

How is 10 days in Hawaii not long enough? I dunno, but it wasn't! It was absolutely perfect and I didn't want to leave.

Fun fact... We got there March 10th (the day of the earthquake in Japan) and as we were about to crawl into bed the tsunami warnings started going off. The hotel we stayed in said it was fine to stay because our room was high enough and it was built to withstand tsunamis but we chickened out, crawled in the car and headed to higher ground. 6 travel exhausted adults, 1 minivan (yep that's right), 1 roll of toilet paper, couple bottles of water and 2 1/2 hours later we decided to head back to hotel. Luckily, nothing really happened nor did we really see any damage to the island.

Beat that for an exciting start to a vacation!

We stayed here...

Stocked up here (Costco, and what's a Costco run without a quick bike ride?)

Ate here (Cheeseburger in Paradise) This was before we discovered Cool Cats. The best burger place ever! They had the best veggie burger ever! I would kill for one right now! Not sure why we hadn't tried it until now.

The guys surfed. We watched.

Got one of these everyday. Literally! Best shaved ice ever. Normal shaved ice will never be the same.

Sat here to enjoy them everyday. (watched a drug deal go down from these very seats 2 different days)

Enjoyed one last dinner at Ruth's Chris before we packed up and headed home.

I can't get enough of that place. I hope that we go back sooner than later.

P.S. went to Palm Springs for a quick weekend. Had to eat at Daily Grill. Best bread and desert ever - F.Y.I.

Baby H

Showing off his muscles

Most of you already know but we are pregnant and expecting a little boy in July. I honestly could not possibly be anymore excited. We've waited so long that I can honestly say that I am ready for this baby with every fiber of my being and I feel so grateful to be a part of such a miraculous experience. I've always been excited to eventually start a family but I didn't know that I would love being pregnant as much as I have. I just wish that TJ could know what it's like. I feel like he gets ripped off because he'll never know how special it is to feel the connection that I have to the little spirit inside me. I already love this little dude so much!

I was super sick for the first 16 weeks, but every time I would throw up I would have to smile a little just knowing that it meant that baby was doing well (okay, a couple times I cried because I was so sick but for the most part it was all smiles).

We told our families on Christmas but didn't spill the beans to everyone else until we found out the sex which ended up being longer than we had planned because at our ultrasound appointment he was folded up with his bum in a corner and we couldn't see the goods. So the next week I broke down and went to a 3D ultrasound place because I just couldn't wait any longer. The Ultrasound tech knew right away what the sex was and asked if we wanted to know yet or keep looking. Of course I said yes and she said, "It's definitely a boy, he has three legs". I think that might be TJ's proudest moment to date.

I'm sure we're probably not quite ready for how this will change our lives forever but I am so ready to find out!

Baby H, we already love you so much and cannot wait to meet you!

2011

Wow! It's almost March. Why is 2011 going so fast? We had the best Christmas ever. No pictures but many unforgettable memories. There's nothing like being with family over the holidays!

Here's a few pics of our latest happenings...

Playing on the Razors. They make me sick so I'm not a very fun riding partner but TJ loves them.

I know, I look huge! I had at least 6 layers on under that sweatshirt!

Been going to a lot of my nephew Hunters Basketball games. At this game, Cael made himself photographer for the day. Too cute not to take pictures of.

Hunter getting warmed up for another big win.

Went to San Francisco. You can't go there without getting soup in a sourdough bread bowl. Which is what we were devouring here.

There used to be hundreds of sea lions on these docks but now there are only a couple. We had to go by and see for ourselves.

Rare T.J. pic. I take whatever I can get when it comes to him and pictures.

Got in some much needed grandpa time over the long weekend.

We have a couple of fun filled months ahead of us so I'm sure 2011 will continue to breeze by.

The holidays are in full swing here at the Harper home. This is the first year we've had a "big kid" tree. We finally upgraded from our poor little Charlie Brown tree but his memory will live forever on. I wanted the tree over by the windows. That's actually where I envisioned putting my tree through the building process (if you don't know my mom you won't understand why the thought even crossed my mind. She is in holiday mode 365 a year). Well TJ had other ideas and you can see who won.

TJ -1, Emily -0.

The little guys

Christmas and a Jazz game. Does it get any better?

We took a little trip to Phoenix last week. This is the only picture... At least Cole looks good;)

My only Thanksgiving picture. Yep my car got egged on Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving! That's fun to wake up to. I hope the little jerks at least got a good laugh.

Thriller - Take 1

Thriller Take -2

That's what happens when you don't blog forever. You just have to throw random stuff in the mix.

Idaho

A couple of weeks ago I went to Idaho with my mom and step dad to see my grandpa. I hadn't seen him since last Christmas so it was a long overdue visit!

It just so happened to be branding weekend as well. I've been up there when my grandpa has branded for most of my life but the older I get, the more I hate it!

We went out early to load up the calves and bring them into the house to brand and there was the cutest little calf probably only a couple of days old. I was kidding and asked my grandpa not to brand that one because it was too cute and little. He didn't. I'd like to think that he did it for me but I think he was just worried about it getting trampled in the trailer. Either way I put off the inevitable for the little guy at least until the spring. You're welcome little cow!

This was me apparently trying to get the calf to come and see me. Works for my dogs, not for this guy.

My beautiful mom and handsome grandpa.

*Side note... No I don't wear glasses. Those are my grandpa's and for any of my family they will know that they are the glasses without lenses. He handed them to me and told me to hold them for him because "he couldn't see a damn thing".

Love you gramps!

Da Bears

(Most handsome Bear to ever wear the jersey!)

So I'm not a Chicago Bears fan but I am the St. George Bears biggest fan! My nephew Hunter started flag football this year for the first time ever. I couldn't make it to the game because I had to teach that night so I had to stop by and give him a good luck squeeze before the game. Cody (his dad) and I were laughing because Hunter is on a 1st grade team and is only in kindergarten so Cody was saying that he probably wouldn't even get to play the first game cause he's still kind of clueless. Well guess who scored a touchdown? The H man himself! My sister said it was pretty funny because they were running a hand off play and the kid that was supposed to take the ball was just standing there so Hunter ran up and grabbed the ball and just started running. Well he ran the wrong way. When he finally realized it he turned around and juked just about every kid on the other team and took it in for a touchdown!

We went to Lake Powell back in September for one last trip so I had to post some pics.

Lake Powell, we will miss you. It's gonna be a long 8-9 months til next year!

Cavity Patrol

My brother in Law-in-law just opened a pediatric dentistry office in Santa Clara.

Johnson Pediatric Dentistry 628-0511 (shameless plug)

So they decided they should be in the Swiss Days parade to help get the word out and who better to help out than family right?!?

It turned out so cute! They had all of the kids be "cavity bugs" throwing out candy and all the adults were the "cavity patrol" walking behind them handing out balloons and tooth brushes. The bus looked so cute with all of the balloons on it! I wish that everyone could have seen it like that but by the end of the parade we had ran out of balloons, toothbrushes and candy - Bummer!

How cute does the bus look!?!

Me and the sis. She was the brain child behind it all.


The crew. Cavity bugs, cavity patrol, bus driver and babysitter:)

Before the parade started one of the parade organizers came to us and said "Stay awake, stay focused. You are following horses. I thought it was pretty funny until I stepped in horse crap. Lesson learned!

Home Sweet Home

So we have been in the building process for sometime now. Well we finally moved in and are loving almost every minute of it...

We moved everything over the first of September but officially moved in last Monday. I had few demands (okay maybe quite a few) for the house, one of which was a walk in shower with multiple shower heads (TJ is a water hog!). Well, Tuesday we woke up, got in the shower and after a weekend at Lake Powell took quite the lengthy shower. About 5 minutes into the shower we hear a loud BANG BANG BANG. We had no idea what it was and apparently neither of us cared because we just continued on.

We get out of the shower and TJ walks out of the bedroom into the hallway and all I hear is "What the $#@! (insert your word of choice)"? I run out to find our laundry room and hallway flooded with water. I run to gather every towel we own and start soaking up the water. We then realize that our basement is soaked as well.

Turns out we had some kind of plug in the line causing all the water from our 20 something minute shower to come up through the laundry room floor drain. Plumber comes. I'm of no help so I go to work. Problem is fixed. Move on still kind of nervous to run water, flush toilets, run the dishwasher etc...

Well Saturday comes and I have a billion things to do but when I get home I notice that the sewer line that comes up into the yard (not sure of the technical name) has a ring of water around it. I think to myself that it cannot be good but TJ will be home in 30 minutes so I move on. TJ gets home, freaks out, asks if I'd been in the basement (which I hadn't), runs down to make sure it hasn't flooded, cusses me for not calling him (in my defense - what would 30 minutes really have done?!?), changes his clothes and goes outside to investigate. Well he decides to pull off the cap (don't ask me why) and sewage starts pouring out. All over him and our yard. I didn't get to witness it but I'm sure it was not pretty. Well it turns out there were rocks down the pipe causing the back up and after the plumber works for a solid 2 hours, problem solved. Or should I say better be solved.

What fun the first week has been!

10 years and a wedding

It's crazy that my 10 year reunion has come and gone! I didn't realize how good it would be to see everyone. Everyone is exactly the way I remember them, but I think we have all gotten better with age;) It went so quickly that I didn't get enough time to catch up with or even see some of these peeps. I'll guess it'll have to wait until the 20 year.

Group shot

Some of the girls

Michelle and I getting ready to head out at her moms house. That house has so many memories so it was the perfect place to start the evening! Michelle was the cutest date I've had in a long time. Both of our husbands ditched out so we went together. Just like old times!

This was the first time I got to meet baby Ledger and he is absolutely perfect!
Save the "friend of the year" comments. I already know that I suck!




My step brother Kai got married last Saturday in Provo so T and I headed up for the day. It's always nice to able to attend a temple wedding and listen to what is said because neither of us know what was said at ours. I was crying like baby so that made TJ cry like a baby and neither of us heard a thing.



Yes, I'm aware that my eyes are closed in this picture, but it's the only one I got with my pops so let's just pretend they're not.

TJ had an 8 picture limit for the day. He warned me on the way up, "I'll be in six pictures. That's it. Use them wisely." What a good sport...

Kai and Nikki

They are so cute together and I'm so happy for them!

Kai with my favorite boys. They weren't happy about Kai taking so long to get out of the temple. In the mean time, they both dunked they're heads in the fountains. I guess that's what you get when you leave them unattended for 2 minutes. I'm sure they would have been in the fountain if it would have been 3 minutes.

Summer

The months of June and July are filled with birthdays that seriously break my bank account. All three of my nephews (Hunter, Cael and Bron), both sister in laws (Tanesha and Takael), my brother in law (Cody) and mine and TJ's were all within 5 weeks of each other. I ate enough birthday cake to last me an eternity. Unfortunately there weren't many pictures taken.

This was Hunter's 6th birthday

Me and Leigh on the way to Springdale to celebrate her birthday.

Two places that I never get sick of in the summer - Lake Powell and Newport Beach.

We've only been to Lake Powell a couple of times this summer and I'm wondering how we're going to fit in 5 more trips:)

Then it was off to Newport Beach with my dad and the fam. My sister and I went solo since neither of our husbands could get away. Even without TJ I ended up having the cutest little snuggle buddy to keep we warm at night. Well technically I had 2... My sister and little Mr. Cael Cael. There was no point in giving my sister and I our own beds since we would have ended up in the same bed anyway, we just didn't anticipate the little peanut below crawling in bed between us every night. No complaints here!

Caely Cael
Sweet baby Bron.
My favorite 30 pound 1 year old
Some of the crew at Joe's Crab Shack. Not my favorite (if you're a vegetarian you would get it) but it's the perfect place to eat with the little guys. Loud music and dancing kept these guys pretty entertained.

I wish that summer would last 3 more months. Is that too much to ask?