The Promenade

Yesterday the kids and I went up to the Promenade in Rogers for some playtime & fun. We started by throwing pennies in the fountains. This is something they both LOVE to do! Harrison is so funny -- he just scoots to the edge and drops them in; while Madeleine is a "seasoned" thrower.

Then it was off to the playground for some fun! They have such a neat playground here & they were the only kids there most of the time. It was SO hot! Harrison's not a lover of hot weather, so after awhile he parked it in the stroller and sipped him some lemonade. :) Madeleine, however, played the entire time -- so hard!

Showing me how strong she is!

Coming out of the tunnel.

After we got good and sweaty it was inside for an M&M bizzard from DQ -- yummy!

Harrison realized very quickly it was better to just pick out the M&Ms!
Then it was back outside for some more fun!

Harrison at 20 Months

My little monkey was 20 months this week! WOW! He's becoming such a little boy everyday. Some new things about Harrison:



*His new fav foods are: raisins in a box, raw carrots, & pudding. Of course, he's still a great eater & definitely a carb-lover!

*He is ALWAYS on the go and busy, busy, busy. At nap time/bedtime, after we rock for a minute, he'll sit up and point to his bed. I lay him down & he's off to dreamland! He's still an excellent sleeper. Yay!

*He's discovered The Lion King movie. It's his favorite. He will head to the playroom, all the while "roaring" first thing in the morning. He loves to dance to the songs, too.

*He's drawn to all things mechanical -- he's constantly tinkering with the VCR, DVD, remotes, phones, answering machine, etc. When I spank his hand for touching, he goes to pieces! He's soooo pitiful & it breaks my heart.

*He's started noticing when what he has is different from what Madeleine has.....such as food, toys, colors, etc. He will fuss until they have the same things.

*He is still extremely affectionate. He loves to give kisses & they are like "real" kisses now! He even makes the kissy-sound.

*He's such a ham -- if he gets a laugh for doing something, he'll continue to do it and laugh right along.

*He has NO FEAR which scares me so much! He will tackle anything!



Here's a video I took of Harrison learning to throw the ball I took tonight. He finally got the hang of it and let go in front of him! At first, he was throwing the ball behind him!

Pudding

Yeah, that was my reaction after seeing Harrison COVERED in pudding!

Look what we've been doing!

Last week Madeleine & I made cookies for Matt to take to work (get him on the good side of the secretaries!). Madeleine absolutely LOVES to help me cook -- and is getting to be such a good little helper! Although, I have to keep one eye on her all the time, 'cause she's the queen of sticking her finger in the bowl. :)

Sneaking some chocolate chips!

We (okay, actually Matt) also finally tackled the front flowerbed. The kids and I mostly watched and they got some quality dirt-playing time. There's just nothing like playing in the dirt!



Stay tuned for some updated pics of the house! I've been nesting up the place!

Picnic

One of our favorite things here in NWA is the park near our house. It's WONDERFUL! We've been going several times a week -- enough that Harrison is getting pretty brave on the playground & I have to hover over him to keep him safe. The weather here has been so pretty & much cooler than we've been used to so we've been taking advantage of it and spending lots of time outdoors. Earlier this week we decided spur-of-the-moment to have a picnic lunch at our park. Madeleine thought this was really cool. We parked our picnic blanket right next to the playground and they had a blast. Harrison kept putting his food on the ground, running to the slide, then back to the food.......and he looked confused when it was covered in grass. Yucky! I had to wipe grass out of his mouth A LOT.

Checking out the stream that runs through the park.

Caught Ya!

As soon as Harrison got up this morning, he crawled up in his chair with a favorite book and started reading. It was an animal book & we could hear him making all the cute animal sounds as he turned the pages.

His new thing is that he has to have a "Touch & Feel" animal book in his bed at naptime. He will lay down and stroke the animals fur while he goes to sleep -- several times I've even found him asleep with his cheek against the soft puppy or sheep. :)

Thoughts?

Like my new layout?

I think we're gonna like it here....

A few things we've discovered since moving to NWA:

*There are lots of things to do -- good shopping, great parks, nice library
*We love Red Robin -- yummy!
*It is possible to survive without cable :)
*The weather is much nicer than LR -- cool and 75 degrees today
*Golf course living really IS as great as we'd thought
*No grocery stores -- pretty much just walmart (I'm going through Kroger withdrawls)
*Our neighborhood walmart is Your Razorback Headquarters. Seriously. Seriously. You can buy everything from a Razorback afghan to a Razorback purse there and more.
*Being in "church limbo" isn't easy. We're ready to settle in and get to work, but we still have a couple more churches to visit before making a decision.
*And the best part.....everyone WANTS to come visit because it's SO NICE up here!

And We're Back!

This is going to be a short post, just to say that we're still alive! We've FINALLY gotten our internet connected and feel like we're back in touch with the world. It felt like we were a bit Omish for awhile since we were without home phone, internet, cable and a DISHWASHER! I'm still waiting to get my dishwasher working, but other than that things are going great.

We absolutely LOVE our new house. It's perfect for our family. Matt started back to work on Monday and so far he seems to like the new school. We're still looking for a church home, taking our time and visiting all the churches in the area. We've been keeping busy and having fun exploring our new home! We've found a WONDERFUL park just a few miles down the road. Here are some pic I took there earlier this week.





I'll be updating more one what we've been up to later -- check back for more pics!