Harbertson Family Reunion

I know I could just skip the rest of the summer and fill you in on current items, but there were significant events that occurred this summer that I don't want to skip. So take a stroll with me back to June, where our blog left off.

June 11-18 was our first Harbertson Family Reunion, and it was a huge success. We rented a beach house in Corolla, NC (the Outer Banks) for a week. My entire family--my parents, their 6 kids and spouses, and 13 grandchildren ranging from 5 months to 7 years old, were in the same house. It was a GREAT beach house as each couple/family had their own bathroom and everyone had a place to sleep. Plus a great kitchen, common room, pool, outdoor shower, balconies, grill, pool table, multiple washers and dryers, sand pit with horseshoes and 3 minutes from the beach. We spent the week catching up with each other, completing puzzles, playing Minute to Win It games, chasing kids, playing on the beach or pool, taking day trips to sand dunes, the Wright Brothers Museum and a light house, playing Words with Friends (in the same room), celebrating Rory's birthday, watching our kids enjoy playing with their cousins as well as an unforgettable walk on the beach at night with the older kids. It was so much fun and we're all very much looking forward to another one in two years.

Puzzle time!

Of course the kids were watching TV while the adults talked. We also had two portable DVD players set up for the little kids to watch whatever we had when we needed them to be distracted.

Playing Minute to Win It games with the oldest grandkids. They were much better at some of the games than the adults were.

Rory loved playing in the sand and finding sea shells--until the sand got in her eyes.

She ventured into the water a little bit but it was COLD.

One of the Outer Banks lighthouses. It was a long walk to the top, so Greg and I stayed behind with Aurora and took pictures when everyone else got to the top.

There were crabs EVERYWHERE. Ranging from little ones that looked like spiders to ones this size. My brother found this one and it got quite mad when he picked it up. It hung on to this tube for a long time. Most of the crabs could fit in the palm of a kid's hand and the kids loved searching for them at the beach.

A rare smile now that she's out of the sun. It absolutely exhausted her. She's just not used to be outside for such long lengths of time.

Quite possibly Aurora's favorite part was having cousins around. She was still perfecting walking at this stage and her cousin Lonna was willing to help her walk whenever Aurora wanted.

The monster sand dunes we visited. After a very long climb to the top, all the kids raced or rolled down the hill several times.

This picture of my brother, sister and their kids is more for you to see the background. See the giant hill? That's the sand dune everyone went down.

A replica of an early airplane at the Wright Brothers Museum.

The older kids and some of the adults went on a walk on the beach the last night we were there. First the kids got decked out in glow sticks, so most of the pictures are just blurs of light. This is my niece and nephew Lonna and Ethan showing off their glow sticks. As we started walking, we realized that the crabs we found during the day were minimal compared to the thousands of crabs on the beach at night. It was amazing but a little creepy to accidentally step on some. I always had a flashlight and was walking very carefully.

We had a professional photo shoot done and at the end, all the kids got to run through the water.

Aurora wasn't too keen on having her picture taken, or smiling, or staying still when there was much more fun to be had with the shells and sand. Still, I think we got a few pictures that are as good as it gets with a one year old.

All the grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa Harbertson.

Aurora's First Birthday!!!

Aurora's first birthday was June 16!

We were at a family reunion (more on that later) in the Outer Banks, NC so we had 24 other people to celebrate with us! My parents had to leave on June 16, so we had cake and ice cream the night before. We had a rainbow chip cake with rainbow chip frosting with rainbow sprinkles (Do I need to spell out the theme?). Aurora is actually a very neat eater. After I gave her a bite so she'd know what it was, she started picking off crumbs one by one. Greg had gone inside so I ran to get him so he could see her eat it. When I returned, her face was covered in frosting. Had she decided to dive in? Nope. Uncle Mark, my brother (under the direction of Aunt LaDonna), had smeared frosting across her face. She eventually got the idea and started taking bigger handfuls, but the ice cream was just too cold to encourage her to eat it with her hands. I can't believe she's 1!!!

The pretty cake. HUGE thanks to my mom and sister Kimberly for writing on it. I need more practice!

Happy Birthday Our Sweet Girl!

Creating Monsters

New parents have a way of creating monsters out of their children. Aurora already has quite the drama streak, and sometimes we accidentally encourage it. The first video is of this accidental creation of a monster. The second video is less dramatic, but I created the monster by laughing at her, which encouraged the behavior. I didn't purposely teach her to act like a dog.

Rory and Rajah

Rory and Rajah are finally learning to respect each other. Sure, there have been a few scratches and a few yanked tails (she actually prefers to hit him), but slowly they are learning how to play. Evidence below. And no, I have no idea why Rajah likes attacking books. It's not just the Barney book, either.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! I am so thankful for Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us. I love that Easter helps us remember Christ rising from the dead and the Atonement. I also love that Easter always comes when the Earth is coming out of Winter and everything is growing again, because that means warmer weather is coming soon!

Thanks to Grandma Harbertson for the adorable Easter dress and sweater! :)

The Last Year...

...of Greg's 20's began this past week. Greg turned 29 on April 21. He wanted an Oreo-shaped ice cream cake. Although making the cake was an adventure, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be and I'm glad I got the chance to make an homemade ice cream cake. Happy Birthday, Greg!! Oh and if anyone wants some of the cake, let me know because over half of it is still in the freezer.

Can you decipher the message? It's written in chocolate chips...

The center is a hot fudge and Oreo cookie mixture surrounded by two layers of vanilla ice cream.

And topped with hot fudge!

Updates and Aurora's Milestones

I know, it's been months. I've needed to cut off all other distractions in order to get a craft project done--more on that later. The point is I'm finally to a point where I can focus on a few other things so I'm updating the blog. We had a great Christmas here at home and an uneventful New Years. We got a new bishopric at church but Greg is still serving as second counselor in the bishopric. I got two new callings: Relief Society instructor and Assistant Ward Girl's Camp Director. Girl's Camp isn't until August so that's not a big deal yet. I teach Relief Society the third Sunday of the month so Aurora gets to hang out with Greg during that time. Most of the time she hates that third hour of church (she won't nap at church anymore) so it gets exhausting.

Other things that have been happening are Greg's brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Cori, moved to sunny Mesa, Arizona at the end of February. We're missing them but Cori and I already have plans to meet in Vegas for the 8th and final Harry Potter movie in July or August. My mom had surgery to remove part of her colon as a final measure in treating her colon cancer and is actually still in the hospital right now. The surgery went well though so hopefully with a 1-2 more chemo treatments she'll be cancer free.

Some milestones and other developments:

Aurora has learned to army crawl so fast that I don't think she sees the point in learning to really crawl, though she does get up on all fours and rock back and forth.

She got her first tooth this week and won't let me see it to take a picture.

She's refining the pincer grasp and loves to feed herself, especially cheese or deli meat.

She's starting to recognize words. She says mama and dada but doesn't necessarily know what they mean.If we say "Where's the kitty?" she looks down at the floor or looks around until she sees Rajah. Then she bolts for him. He's learned to tolerate her and will move 2 feet away at a time until she chases him out of the room and down the hallway.

She loves his food and water, any ideas on how to babyproof that?

She also loves to be upside down, dancing, and is super talkative all day long, even more so when she's tired.

She's also very ticklish when she's tired. If she's lying on her back and you hold your hand above her and move your fingers, she gets excited and smiles and coos because she knows you're going to tickle her.

She can go from sitting to crawling to sitting again.

She can pull herself up from the right position but we don't have many pieces of furniture that encourage that so she doesn't get to practice much.

She can stand on her own while holding onto the couch...until she gets ambitious and tries to turn around while only holding on with one hand.

Now her stats since birth that I've never posted:

Birth: Weight: 6 lbs, 11 oz; Height: 20 in.; Head Circumference: 34.5 cm

2 months: Weight: 8 lbs, 12 oz; Height: 22 3/4 in.; Head Circumference: 36.4 cm

4 months: Weight:10 lbs, 4 oz.; Height: 24 in.; Head Circumference: 37 3/4 cm.

6 months: Weight: 13 lbs, 6 oz.; Height: 26 1/4 in.; Head Circumference: 40 cm.

9 months: Weight: 15 lbs, 13.5 oz.; Height: 28 1/2 in.; Head Circumference: 41.4 cm.

Except at her 4 month visit when her weight dropped because I'd had my surgery and my milk supply struggled, she's very consistent in her growth. She's always in the 7th or 8th percentile for weight (currently 7th), between the 70th and 85th percentile for height (current 82nd) and the 1st percentile for head circumference. When I asked her doctor at one appointment how she was doing growth-wise, he replied "Well, someone has to be the smallest." LOL. I don't have any problem having a small baby. She's tall and I don't have any problem with her being a tall, slender kid (if only I could get pants to be long enough and skinny enough though!!). In the meantime, she's 1 1/2 in. from being half my height and getting kind of awkward to hold. :)

I have recent videos and pictures but I can't get them from my phone to my computer so hopefully I can get those on here soon.