Celebrating Harry!

Harry turned 5 on June 30th. Pinch me, please. I really, truly cannot believe the day has arrived. I remember when he was born, it was easily the most stressful time we have ever been through. Our house was literally being torn apart while I gave birth and I brought him home to a wreck of a condo, plastic sheeting up in our living room and developers who had turned on their heel and ran from their responsibilities. 

Brice was devastated at Harry's arrival. He could not talk yet, but he kept walking up to him and pointing and looking at me like, "what have you done to me??" Harry was colicky and cried and screamed bloody murder for the first three months of his life. I don't know of a time in my life when I cried more. Seth was working night and day at the law firm. I was so tired. It was one of those times when you can't imagine things will ever get better and you don't know how you will ever get through to the other side. 

But we did. Of course we did. And looking back and remembering makes the celebrating all the sweeter. We have a new home; Seth has a normal job; Brice has grown accustomed to sharing his world and will even admit to loving Harry if you catch him at a good moment. But even better, best of all, we have this sweet boy:

Harrison Franklin Essex Diehl

Happy Birthday, lovebug. Life is sweeter with you in it.

Where We've Been...

It's been 3 months since I updated this blog. How does that happen? So, here it is. I noticed that I keep apologizing for pics not loading in order. I don't know what the deal is--but i'm blaming the mac. Ok, here goes:

 Our bible study/summer book club read Bread & Wine and celebrated with a dinner party. Here we (mostly) all are in my usually empty living room. So fun. 

Brice and Harry relaxing post-bath in our bed.

 Brice and Harry playing at Northside Park. There is a huge hill and they love to climb up and run down. 

Celebrating 4th of July with the Fritz family. Chris went the night before and got us excellent spots in the shade. It was perfect. 

Harry looking cute. He's yummy.

Here we are at the Eli Broad Museum in East Lansing. We dropped Harry off at my parent's for a few days and went to my old stomping grounds--Michigan State. This is a new modern museum on campus. And notice on the table--Blue Bunny. 

I watched my friend Ellen's kids for a few hours a couple months ago. I guess it was warm, because the boys were stripped down and sweating. Here they all are getting pushed by Brice. Love this shot.

We live on a lovely cul-de-sac with an island in the middle. Here we are having a neighborhood picnic. 

This is Brice with his medal from his final tumbling class. 

The end of May we went to a black tie affair in the city. Scully doesn't know what to make of this. 

This is Brice's kindergarten teacher. Harry photobombed at the last second.

This is Harry on my lap learning to drive. Hopefully he'll be ready in 11 years. 

We took the kids to Monsters U. Afterwards we lined them up outside and told them to make their scariest face. Oh well. Still a cute picture.

Where we've been

Apparently I messed up my "uploading," as these pictures are in totally random order. Let me walk you through them:

 Brice turned six in February!! I still cannot believe I have a six year old. I still think of the night before I went in to be induced--the last night of my life when I didn't have a child in my arms, or my house or my thoughts. And now he's here and it feels like he's always been with us. 

 Playing with my new camera. Harry always has the best expressions. Now I have a camera fast enough to capture them. I think this one is right after I put him in a time-out. 

 Mr. Personality

 We went to Branson for a few days with Seth's brother and their family. I didn't take any pictures of her (???) but Tim's wife Marci is one of my bestie's. I couldn't have chosen better for him if he'd let me! I don't have a sister and she is exactly what I would have wished for in one. I love you Marci!!! Oh, that child in the picture? That's Georgia. The lone Diehl girl. She charmed us all, especially Brice. 

 This cracked me up--perfect illustration of our children. This is a craft they did at church. You take the stickers and decorate the manger. Brice's is on top. He just grabbed all the stickers and shoved them in the manger. Done! Harry carefully put each one in the appropriate place. Chaos/Order. Those are my children. 

 These are all the cousins. They're all pretty close in age. But the order is Brice, Harry, Luke, Georgia. They're within about 4 years of each other. Love that. We're always thinking up ways to connect them and make sure that even though they live far apart, they still have the experience of growing up together.

 Brice with the paint-on Batman Mask, courtesy of Auntie Dawnie. She's always buying the kids inappropriate gifts we silently curse her for. 

 Brice had minor surgery in January. This was NOTHING compared to the trauma of the tonsil and adenoid surgery of last year. Sheesh. I still get stressed thinking about that. This time he watched cartoons in my bed for a few days and was back to good.

 The kindergartners had to dress up as old people for 100th day of school. I put baby powder in his hair and gave him my cheaters/readers. I also dressed him in a wrinkled shirt and ill-fitting sportscoat.

This is the morning he got baptized at our church. We weren't totally sure if he expressed a desire to be baptized because he wants to follow after God, or because he wants to be able to "eat that bread and grape juice." Either way, we're pretty sure God has a hold of him. 

Brice is taking a tumbling class with some of his classmates. Here they are getting an award for a little show they put on. Brice had to go last and he's sobbing in this picture.

Another great illustration of my kids--we are at the Field Museum. Brice has the map, which he can read with surprising accuracy. He's directing us around the museum while Harry bounces along and stops to hang off the railings. This picture is right before both kids got lost and I had to have Security look for them. 

We took the boys to Medieval Times for Brice's birthday. They LOVED it. I loved it, too, in all its cheesy fabulousness and fake british accents and yummy food.

Stephen Vosloo is painting Brice's face with the very-difficult-to-get-off wax face paints that Aunt Dawnie saw fit to buy. Curses!!

We're trying, people...

 We are trying to get into the Christmas spirit, we really are. The kids come home from school, Sunday school, the gym--always with a new ornament they made (glue and glitter everywhere). We've put up the (super small) tree and i've been doing my (middling) best to decorate the house. I'm trying. I love Christmas; I just prefer someone else decorates. Last weekend, we got together with our city cousins to hit the Walnut Room. THE Walnut Room. Turns out it was a 4-hour wait. Insane. So we decided to meander around Macy's while we waited and go see Santa. Santa was a 2 hour wait. 

 So instead of waiting in a long line in a hot store, surrounded by whiny kids and screaming babies, and expensive toys, we went outside (in the rain) to see the windows. They were whimsical and just the thing to save the boys' moods. 

 Instead of waiting it out for the Walnut Room, we wandered up the street and went to Elephant and Castle. Mmmm, Bass Ale and Yorkshire dinner. Yummy. The kids waited really well, especially given the fact they spent nearly the entire day waiting for one thing or another. 

 Brice and Uncle David. I've said this before, but I inherited a GREAT family when I married Seth. Aunts and uncles and cousins everywhere. Uncle David was the first I met, when Seth and I were dating. He tried to corner me on some theological issue the first time I met him and I loved him right away.

 The next day, both boys came down with the flu. Brice woke up with a raging fever and Harry succumbed later in the day. That evening, we were all cozied into my bed, everyone with their favorite blanket and pillow. Then, Harry threw up and managed to hit everyone's blanket and pillow. Then Brice was overcome with empathetic nausea and threw up all over my carpet. Awesome.

 Yesterday, with both boys still tenaciously holding onto their fevers, we hit the most obvious place to see Santa--Bass Pro Shop. That's right, yo!! We went at 3:15 and were told to come back at 7:30. WTW??? So we went over to IKEA and headed back at the allotted time. Here's Harry sitting in the cart--he refused to have his picture taken. Seth took off with Brice to wander around the store. And of course, just as he left, the line started moving. And by the time we were within spitting distance of Santa himself, still no Seth. The dad behind us had mercy on me and took off to try and find him. And he did. Crazy! Both boys decided they actually did not want to see Santa, so we had to drag them both up to Santa and pose with them. Harry was screaming in the picture. Brice refused to look at the camera and was looking gloomily in the distance. But both managed to spit out what they wanted for Christmas (web shooter and remote control train) when Santa asked. Whew!! 

This is the guy who was working the carousel. Doesn't he look thrilled? 

Raising Boys

Today during lunch, Harry was a having a nervous breakdown because Brice got the last of the sparkling juice with his sandwich. I mean, full-on-four-year-old breakdown. So Brice said, "hey Harry, I know something that will cheer you up!" He then proceeded to stand on his chair, turn around, and shake his backside a few times in Harry's direction. Whereupon, Harry stopped crying, started laughing and said (with utter sincerity), "nanks Brice! Your booty always makes me feel better!!" Brice just smiled.

Then, shortly thereafter, I sent them into the garage to wait for me while I got myself out the door. When I stepped into the garage, Brice looked at me and held out his hand as if to say, "stop! I know what you're going to say! We can explain!!" Brice was pumping furiously on the bike pump and Harry had the air-side-end in his mouth (smiling, of course). "mom, Harry wanted me to pump air into his mouth." Then Harry calmly pulled it out and said, "yeah, I yike it!!"

Boys.

Where we've been

 This is Brice around the first of the school year. He hated this outfit. I loved it. Isn't he cute? I love this age of semi-independence, but their cheeks and bottoms are still chubby enough to grab and squeeze. 

This is Harry posing with his brand-new Spiderman lunch bag. He won't actually be taking a lunch to school for a few years, but he LOVES this bag. If you look at the top of this picture, you can see Brice's head hanging off the balustrades. Boys.

Harry playing at the Children's Museum.

Brice and Harry enjoying some root beer outside our favorite restaurant in Geneva. 

Harry learned to ride his two-wheeler this Fall. His bike is a bit big for him, so he needs someone to actually set him on the bike and push him. Then, when he needs to stop, he pedals toward the grass and throws himself off. Usually someone is around to set him back up on it.

Dinner with friends. Dawnie and Meglie and Stephen Vosloo. Ok, here I am bragging: Stephen is the art director at Tyndale and one of his photos of Lauren Scruggs was in People Magazine. Way to go Stephen!! You rock!!! 

I think a certain Storm Shadow needs a potty break :)  This is major improvement over last year when not only would he not wear his costume, he made one of his teachers carry it for him during the parade. Good job, Harry!! We love you Storm Shadow!!!

I told them to stick out their chests. Brice has a glowing heart and Harry has a very muscular chest. Love this age.

This is Harry posing at the polling place. The last time I voted, I wore Harry in my Baby Bjorn. Sniff...

Nana came to visit and helped Brice with his Turkey Art Project (I am not known for my crafting...).