Our Cleveland Adventure

Waiting for Grandma and Grandpa at Hopkins Intl.




Doping up on junkfood.




Grandpa Harris.




Little Z giving out kisses.




Andrew.




Emma.




Andrew and Emma, personalities shining through (how else can they deal with the barrage of picture taking).




Andrew and Emma.




Emma visits her place of birth.




Emma once again (can you tell we did a lot of photo shoots in Clevleand).




Having fun at Lake Erie.




Just hanging out.




Andrew and Allie sharing a breif moment.




Emma and Allie sharing a breif moment (then Allie promptly destroyed the structure).




Jumping the waves at Lake Erie.




Allie wandering off .... again!




The Fam.




Second family picture (excellent progress considering our last family picture was in 2003.




The office of my doctor who delivered Emma. He's in jail.




Allie and Rachel.




Andrew and Emma + swings = fun.




Grandma hanging out with Allie. (She will be mad that we posted this, but we love you!)




What's more fun than watching planes.

Some of our favorite quotes of the Summer

-Rachel
"Kids, what do you want for dinner?"
-Andrew
"I want any kind of white noodles"
-Emma
"I'm hungry for squid!"


"You know when we say "what did you say" when you want to hear what someone said again .... he says "Pardon me"

- Andrew in a perplexed voice, in reference to a New Zealand kid he met in Oregon.

The Summer Life So Far

This is the way we roll. We all left our other Hondas at home.




Allie and Annie.




Emma and Allie at the fountain during Art City Days.




Allie chowing down a corn dog.




Joyride on one of exciting kid-coasters.




Having a "Merry ol time going round".




Andrew and Emma with "Anna Janna" getting ready to go on the Ferris Wheel.




Andrew and Emma with "Anna Janna" getting on the Ferris Wheel.




One more time around!




Before Cotton Candy.




After Cotton Candy.




The crew gets a bedtime story during a summer sleepover.

Quote of the Day

"You don't need a band-aid unless its gushing!"

-Rachel



"But I want a Tattoo, I think they're cool."
"No Emma, you can't have a tattoo."

- Emma and Travis

Time flies

Once again it is time to get caught up with our blog. So we thought we would just post some highlight pictures of the last few months.

Emma is still in love with the batman mask. Never thought it would last this long.

Andrew and Allie getting cozy.

Girls night out. Ten minutes before Rachel and Emma were supposed to go to a Gymnastics meet, Emma pulled this cool stunt where she fell out of her chair, and then somehow got the chair to fall on top of her. Unfortuanately the chair left a nasty gouge in her forehead. So it was off to the emergency room instead.

Close up of the three stitches she got from the mean old chair. But this is a cake walk compared to the 15 stitch scar immediatelyl below the new battle wound.

This is our friendly realtor (Best realtor in the whole wide world. A true BFF!) Here she is giving us the key to our new place. Thanks Nic!

What a way to break in the house, an "annoying-go-round" (nothing merry about the volume coming from this)

Alright, our first sleepover in the new place.

It's the E and E birthday bash. Both Ethan and Emma were born on the same day, so we celebrated together.

Here is the Smith and Deming crew (minus the twins). Yes, this was as loud as it looks.

Emma opening presents, think she was excited?

Here is Andrew and Emma on Easter morning, doing the egg hunt.

Desprately trying to get some pictures of the kids in their easter outfits. It's like a law of the universe that at least one child must not be smiling while the others are.

The famous cheesy grin by Allie.

Allie has become a complete copy cat of Emma. She wants to be doing everything that Emma is doing.

Allie loves pacifiers, can you tell?

The Three Stooges.

Batman returns. It didn't take long for Emma to relocate the mask after moving into the new place.

Pictures from December

Alright, in my effort to get all caught up on the blog, I grabbed some highlights from the month of December. Here they are.

Well there are a couple of pictures from November. This one is of Batgirl ravenously attacking a cooked turkey. Even as a toddler Emma had a knack for attacking a turkey with passion and vigor. What a sweet little girl.

Okay, FLASHBACK! These pictures are from 2004! The girl was a born natural at devouring thanksgiving turkey. I should point out that Emma was not even two years old yet!

We got the tree up and decorated. If our lives had a soundtrack, Allies song right now would be "A Whole New World" from Aladin. Talk about eyes lighting up, it was like a smörgåsbord of shiny glittery and dangerous stuff to play with.

This particular ornament was Allie's favorite. Any time we would look away, she would go for this ornament every time.

So we went to Bucca Di Peppo's. This was just a cute picture of the kids with their "Anna Janna".

A cute picture of Allie.

After Bucca Di Peppo we went to see the lights of Temple Square. Afterwards we enjoyed some hot chocolate.

Andrew had his Christmas Singing program at school. I will refrain from most of my comments so as not to be offensive to any of the kids in Andrews class. But I think the 7th grader in the back was a bit lost. Plus what would a school activity picture be without some kid crying.

Look at this one.... we're screwed.

So Rachel was trying to make a quilt, and Allie instantly claimed it for herself. Every time Rachel would lay down the pattern, Allie would attack and turn the quilt squares into some sort nativity dress up costume.

The Harris Grandparents came to stay at their second home for the Holidays. Grandma Harris loves to back, especially around the Holidays, something we all benefit from. (Note, my corporate Christmas card from the big wigs posted on the fridge)

One benefit to having family stay is pawing off responsibilities like reading time to them. (Thanks Papa Harris)

Once again we find ourselves back at Bucca Di Peppo's. Emma is hanging out with Papa Harris, and why does Emma look so excited...

... she kindly took the bill as if this one was on her. (Do we really eat out so much that Emma knows the routine?)

A fun family gathering with the cousins.

So Christmas morning finally arrived. Despite the plethora of presents and gifts, Andrew was fixed on setting up his model train and nothing else mattered.

Grandma Harris really hit the target on this gift for Allie. All morning long Allie just walked around wearing this scarf. She would refuse to take it off.