Merry Christmas!

We hope you all have a wonderful and happy Christmas! We feel very blessed to have two beautiful, healthy, smart and wonderful little boys...God has been very good to us!

Good for a Christmas Laugh!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1118837234
copy and paste the link to watch us get "elfed"!

Light Green

Being the mother of two young children has caused me to stop and take a fresh look at the world around me and think about what kind of a place it will be when my boys grow up. I am by no means an eco-freak, but I find myself gradually getting greener. There are so many things we can (easily) do to cut down on waste, and make life better and healthier for our children. Just a few ideas I would encourage anyone to try are: using re-usable grocery bags instead of plastic or paper (I just ordered some - yay!), recycling (we are trying to get better at doing this - it is very important to Jack, he always reminds us of our need to recycle), using cold water in the wash, line drying when possible, and for the mommies reading this - cloth diapering. Yes, I know it SOUNDS crazy, but it's actually really fun! We started cloth diapering O about 3 weeks ago and love it! There are some really cute diapees out there, and think about it - if you were a baby, what would you rather have on your bottom - plastic and paper, or soft cotton and fleece? Even if you only used cloth diapers just once a day, you would use approximately 1,000 less disposable diapers over the course of 3 years!! One baby wearing 5 disposable diapers a day (and that's a conservative number) uses 5,745 diapers in their lifetime! Multiply that times the number of babies born in the US every day and the number is astronomical! Disposable diapers are not biodegradable AT ALL, and actually require huge amounts of water to create the paper pulp with which they are manufactured (for those who could argue that cloth diapers are less eco-friendly due to the amount of water it takes to wash them). Below are some of my favorite "green" links to blogs and shopping sites: http://www.atoygarden.com/ http://journeytocrunchville.wordpress.com/ http://hautenature.blogspot.com/ http://www.wildflowerdiapers.com/ http://www.diaperpin.com/
http://likemerchantships.blogspot.com/ And because I am totally shameless when it comes to bombarding people with pictures of my ADORABLE children, here are some pictures of Owen from this past weekend.

Halloween 2007

What a great night! We went to a huge block party in our neighborhood that was lots of fun! Jack went dressed as a gangster, tommy gun and all. He insisted I paint a goatee on his face - I guess that's his impression of what a gangster is "supposed" to look like. He thoroughly enjoyed himself, he ran around so much we hardly saw him. He got TONS of candy that I am having a really hard time staying away from today! Owen enjoyed his first official holiday as well. He went dressed as a monkey, although many people mistook him for a bear (hello...check out the tail). Either way, he was the CUTEST kiddo there! Besides Jack of course ;)

Look how red Jack's face is!
Jack's pumpkin "Harvey"

Happy Halloween!!

My little monkey
Jack the gangster
Posing with "Harvey"
Taking it all in

My Sunshine Boy!

Owen and I have been enjoying some outdoor playtime! He loves to watch the wind blow through the leaves in the trees. He will just smile and coo, it's such a sweet sound! Some of these were taken in our backyard, on the playquilt that was mine when I was a baby! The others were in Central Park (on Park Ave.) during the car show. He is wearing a little daygown that was my little brother Marshall's when he was a baby. The pouty face is from when someone revved their engine really loud and it scared poor Owen. His face is just priceless!

The world from Owen's point of view

2 months old and SO handsome!

Hanging out with his Daddy

Look at that face!My sweet sunny boy "talking" to the trees

Jack and Owen at the Pumpkin Patch

October is here and that means Halloween! Every year, Jack and I go to the pumpkin patch and he gets to pick out his own special pumpkin. This year of course, Owen got to be a part of the tradition as well and even got his own little pumpkin, chosen with the help of his big brother of course! Here are some pictures of my two little (well one not-so-little-anymore) pumpkins:

Just Jack

Fall is a really busy time of year for us. Not only is it the beginning of the school year, but also the start of the fall season of baseball and boyscouts. Jack has moved up to Cub Scouts this year (from Tiger Scout last year), and is a Wolf Scout (2nd grade). His den usually takes 3-4 camping trips a year, and they are a lot of fun! Unfortunately, Owen and I are going to have to miss the first one this year as he is still too small to go camping, but he actually went last May

when I was 5 months pregnant! This fall season marks Jack's 3rd time playing baseball for WPLL. He gets better and better each year and has moved up to the rookies division. He played catcher for the first time last weekend and was really good, although he didn't really enjoy it all that much.

Silly Pictures

Bama trying very hard to get my attention while I was taking Owen's picture

Jack and his ginormous teeth!
Chris and Jack showing off their smoothie 'staches

Hannah says "Why not use my bowl of lasagna as a hat/telephone?"

For those of you who know our family well, you know that most of us are quite silly and have a rather odd sense of humor. This often shows up in our pictures since I almost always have my camera with me these days (thanks Chris!). While I believe it is genetic for most of us (at least on the "Harmon" side of the family), Chris has adapted quite well. Apparently the dog has also inherited this characteristic :) Life with a house full of boys is never dull and they have very interesting ways of letting me know I am loved and appreciated! :)

One Month Old!

First time in the swing from Aunt Katie & Uncle Chris
Fast asleep in Mama's arms

Tummy Time

Baby O is one month old! It has gone by very fast... he has already changed so much. I love watching him notice new things every day, and we are starting to get some of our first real smiles, it's wonderful! He had his one month check-up today and has gained 4 lbs. and grown 2.5 inches...he's really starting to chub up...I love it!!

My Boys

I am the luckiest mom in the world....

Here are all of my boys....actually sitting still...and looking at the camera...and smiling...

I absolutely love this picture!

Look at Jack's face in this picture, it cracks me up!

These are not the very best pictures of Owen, but they are so sweet of him and Jack that I just had to post them. These were taken after Jack's first baseball game of the season (he's playing fall ball this year). His team, the FL Marlins, won 11-3, although Jack was "drafted" to the other team as they didn't have enough players. He was a good sport about it. He is so sweaty in these pictures but he wanted to hold and kiss Owen and it was just so sweet to watch how gentle and attentive and caring he was. The last picture is Jack goofing off with Bama. You would think after almost two years, the novelty of this dog would have worn off some...oh no! Chris and Jack are still IN LOVE with the dog! :) I think we have as many pictures of Bama as we do of Owen and Jack. He is a good boy!