Aaron, Lindsey, Benjamin, and Tyson

5th Anniversary - Part One

2011-07-27T15:31:00.010-05:00

Aaron and I took a cruise for our 5th Anniversary. We went with Norwegian Cruise Line (which we loved) and it left out of New Orleans on May 1st. Our really good friends Cori & Jaxon were able to come on the same cruise which was AMAZING. We had a blast.

This is at the port in New Orleans. We had just gotten on the boat.

This is our room. Teeny little thing.

The following are some pictures of the pool and food area on the top deck...

The formal night was the second day of our cruise. We got all dressed up. :)

FIRST STOP - COSTA MAYA, MEXICO May 3, 2011

In Costa Maya, we just walked around this little town, purchased some souveniers, and swam in this amazing pool they had overlooking the ocean. It was pretty sweet.

NEXT STOP - ROATAN HONDURAS May 4, 2011

In Roatan we walked around the little shopping centers right on the pier, and then we took a bus tour with Cori and Jaxon. The driving made me a LITTLE nervous because the roads are tiny and they all go so fast! But our tour guide took us to a little shopping center outside of town, and then we stopped at a lighthouse - where they happen to have a little monkey that we paid three dollars to hold! So worth it. After that, he dropped us off at this beautiful beach. I'm not much of a beach person, but it was really pretty!

Okay - Finally Updating...

2011-07-27T15:24:00.005-05:00

I am so bad at this, but now that I stay home - I'm going to try harder. I have a lot of updating to do, so here we go.

I'm going to start with an update of what we are all doing now. I got laid off in April from OneWest Bank (where I was working as a Loan Officer). I was already planning on trying to stay home soon, so when I got laid off, we took that as a sign that the time was now to just stay home with the boys. I love staying home with them, they are so fun and full of energy. We have a really good time together.

Aaron is still working as a Credit Analyst at IBC Bank. He will be done with his "training program" in July of 2012. So we are getting there... He still enjoys it and is looking forward to whatever comes next.

Ben will be turning four years old on Friday, and we will be having a party for him and his friends on Saturday. I'm sure we will have some fun pictures from that - so we will post them after the party. He has requested a Cars 2 party - with a Cars 1 cake. :) He is so funny. Ben finished his Preschool Speech Therapy class in June, and it was AMAZING. He went from not talking at all - to talking very clearly. I can't believe how much good that class did for him, and very much loved his teachers, Miss Stacy & Miss Becky.

Tyson is about 2 1/2 and is just the sweetest kid you will ever meet. He is full of energy and loves nothing more than playing catch with anybody in the room. He is very into sports - including jumping off anything and everything. He is speaking in complete sentences which is very strange to me because Ben wasn't quite there at this age. It's very fun to see them both grow into two VERY different little boys.

There is a small update - more to come!

Stay Tuned...

2010-09-13T10:07:00.001-05:00

Okay seriously - I should be able to keep up with a blog. We have had a couple people ask for updated pictures of the boys. So - stay tuned because another blog post is coming soon. I will take some pictures tonight and will post tomorrow. :)

I'm so proud...

2009-11-22T19:24:00.002-06:00

As many of you already know... Aaron recently got promoted to be a Commerical Credit Analyst for IBC Bank. This means he has moved from the Residential side which is located in North Austin, to the Commercial branch in downtown Austin. He is no longer working in the same office as me, which is kindof sad because we used to do lunches together. But he is really enjoying the people the works with now, and is doing something he enjoys. The position seems to require a lot of learning and reading, but it will give him the experience he has been looking for in order to be a Commerical Banker. He has been looking forward to this move for quite some time. I want him to know how proud I am of him and the progress he is making with IBC Bank. I love you Aaron!

Thanksgiving is coming!

2009-11-22T18:36:00.006-06:00

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I am particularly excited about Thanksgiving this year. I have been in a "baking phase" over the last few weeks. I bought a cook book from Costco that has just about any dessert you could ever think of in it. I am excited to give a new recipe a try for Thanksgiving this year. It is a hersey kisses pumpkin mousse dessert. In addition to this new dessert, I will also be making Aaron's favorite - Stove Top Stuffing (hilarious), Key Lime Pie, and the Haroldsen's Ice Box Rolls. Needless to say, this is more than I typically contribute to Thanksgiving dinner, so I'm pretty excited to see how it all turns out.

We have been pretty crazy here lately. We just got done with our Church co-ed volleyball league. We play with the Cedar Park ward because our stake doesn't have volleyball. We have been undefeated for the past two years, and on Friday we again came out with the championship! Although, I have to admit, Nikki's team would have dominated if they had all their players. We barely won and they only had four players. It was a fun season!

On Nov. 18th we had to go to a Black Tie Event for the Junior League of Austin. IBC required that Aaron be there as part of his new position. We took some pictures before leaving the house. We should have taken our camera but didn't think about it. Nikki did my hair and so I have to show that off too... here are some pictures...

Halloween came and went so quickly, and I still haven't put up any pictures. Ben dressed up as Spiderman and Tyson dressed up as a giraffe. Nobody actually thought he was a giraffe though, they thought everything from leopard to cow, but never giraffe. Funny how that happens.

This was Benjamin's first year Trick-or-Treating. He got scared everytime we had to walk up to a house. We had a good time anyway, and he got lots of yummy candy.

We have taken some random pictures of the boys, so here we go...

These boys are so adorable when they play together. However, I wish they were not both still on the bottle... (mainly Benjamin)

This is their favorite TV Show. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. When it's on, they actually will sit and pay attention - it's the only show besides Handy Manny that we can get Benjamin to watch. He is starting to like more TV, but not much.

Tyson just sitting up. He's growing up so fast, it's crazy. He's already walking along furniture and can stand up without holding onto anything for a few seconds. It's fun!

Well, that's pretty much the update from us. I hope everyone is doing well! We can't wait to head up to Utah/Idaho for Christmas!! It's been a while since we have seen everyone and we are really looking forward to it!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!!

2009-09-19T18:54:00.007-05:00

On July 29th Benjamin James turned two!! I can't believe he's already two years old. How fast the time flies by... We had a birthday party at my house and here's who joined in the fun...

Great Aunt Teri, Great Grandpa Jones, Grandpa Chuck, and Great Grandma Jones

Great Aunt Jamie, Cousin Loni, Tyson and Grandma

Great Uncle Robin and Cousin Trace

Aunt Taylor and Cody

Daddy and Great Grandma Annie

And of course, Benjamin and Mommy

There were others that avoided pictures... Like Aunt Leah and Uncle Tim, and Great Aunt Marla. We all had a great time! He got a ton of great toys which he still can't get enough of. Aaron and I bought him a little tricycle that we still can't get him to ride outside.

Ben is totally into cars, trucks and motorcycles right now, and I would say that was majority of his toys. Here's a couple pictures of him trying out his new toys...

Tim, Leah and Loni volunteered to do the birthday cake. Not sure how I'm going to outdo them next year! They did a fantastic job!!! Here's a picture of it... It was so pretty, I didn't want to cut it up!

Thanks to everyone for coming and for all the presents!! He had a great time!

June and July-ish

2009-09-19T18:06:00.008-05:00

Okay, I suck at updating this blog. But I'm going to take some time today to update everyone on what's been going on for us. We will start with our trip to Washington... We went to Washington in June and had a blast. We went to Seattle and hung out there for a while, and then just spent the rest of the week in Everett where I grew up. Here are some pictures from Seattle.

Somehow Tyson and Benjamin got cut out of this picture...

Ben and Aaron just had to stop for ice cream :)

Overall we had a pretty relaxing vacation. I didn't get to see as many people as I'd hoped, but maybe next time!

Since then we have been in Austin just hanging out with family and working. We go swimming at my parent's house quite often and the boys love it. Both boys like the water alot! So here are some pictures from our swimming trips...

Taylor floating with Benjamin...

Aaron and Benjamin - we just bought him this little float circle thingy... he loves it

Me and Tyson - he almost fell asleep when we were floating like this!

Leah, Tim and Josie

Okay, and I don't even remember where this picture is from - but Haroldsen family - tell me that this picture does not remind you of Luke...

RIGHT???

Anyway, more updates to come...

Update

2009-09-16T21:13:00.001-05:00

Lindsey will be posting an update shortly. So much has gone we've been too busy and have neglected the blog.

Tyson Charles Haroldsen

2009-03-01T20:30:00.004-06:00

Well, I am terrible at updating this but life has been crazy over the last 3 weeks. As I'm sure all of you already know, we welcome Tyson into our family on February 11th. I went into the doctor at about 2:30pm that day because of the pressure I was feeling even though my contractions were not too bad. The doctor checked me and said I was dilated to a 6 so he sent me to labor and delivery. They gave me the epidural and then broke my water at 4:30. I labored for about 2 1/2 hours and Tyson was born at 7:17pm weighing 6 lbs 1 oz, and measuring 17 1/2 inches long. It was a very smooth delivery and only took about 10 minutes to get him out. Thankfully I had no complications this time.

Tyson is a very healthy little guy and so content! He hardly ever cries and is just a joy to have around. Benjamin has been great with him, he tries to be very gentle and just loves his new little brother.

We had Tyson's 2 week check up on Wednesday and he now weighs 7.3 and measures 20 inches. What a growing boy we have. :o)

Here are a few pictures, I'll put more up a little later.

Venting...

2009-02-01T16:20:00.004-06:00

I am so close to having this baby I can feel it!! Although it seems like it's never going to happen. At my appointment last Tuesday, my dilation was at a "good 2". Doctor estimated 7-10 days til delivery based off what he saw. Although, it really feels like he could not come soon enough. I am trying to hold out on having him at least until Taylor returns from Utah. She gets back on Wednesday. Thursday will be the "36 week - safe zone" mark so that would be the ideal day for me to have it because I'm just so sick of being so uncomfortable. My poor family has been so patient with me. I complain all the time about the pain and inability to move around. I really should be more optimistic :o) Aaron is just excited to not have a pregnant wife anymore - poor guy. Who can blame him??

I have an appointment tomorrow to see how things are comin along. I'm hoping he tells me that I'm having him real soon, instead of an appointment where there has been no change. Because as much as I want this baby to be completely healthy and full term - I just get so frustrated when I am contracting like CRAZY and it's doing nothing. I have been having them for 7 weeks now! The contractions have been extremely painful and just not making the baby come. It's very irritating. I wish the contractions would go away so that I could go 40 weeks without hating every second.

Anyway - I'll update again as soon as there any change. I hope everyone is doing well! Thanks for listening to me vent!

First post of the new year!!

2009-01-15T11:13:00.004-06:00

Well, I know it's already the 15th of January, but I am just now getting around to posting an update on how things are going around here. We will start with the update on Benjamin... He is once again climbing on everything in sight! We got some pictures of him in the act...

We all went to Gattiland to celebrate my mom and uncle Robin's birthday. I did Benjamin's hair and it looked SO cute... although he kinda needs a haircut. Here are some pictures from the party. We had a good time and hope that mom and Robin had a great birhtday!!

As you might have noticed in some of these pictures, Benjamin has a rash on his chin and a little around his nose from all the drooling and milk dripping down his chin. His tongue is constantly sticking out of his mouth, and so because of this, we can't keep his chin dry and it's created a real bad rash. We are working on getting rid of it, but he just won't keep the chin dry. Other than that, Benjamin has been doing really well! He is loving all his new toys from Christmas and he is looking forward to little Tyson joining our family. (as much as he can understand anyway)

Now an update on Tyson... on Tuesday I went in for an appointment and found out that there was no change in my dilation but the baby had dropped. He said he has no idea what is holding the baby in, with as low as he is. So the doctor put me on official bed rest. (an outing every now and again is okay but only to save my sanity) Well on Tuesday night the contractions began getting harder and closer together. On Wednesday they were close enough together to call the doctor. I went in to see my doctor and he checked me again and found that I am now dilated to 1 cm and my cervix has thinned out. Because of this, the doctor admitted me to the hospital to monitor me and try to stop the labor. We are 33 weeks along, and really need to make it last another 3 weeks. They kept me there and monitored me for 4 hours and gave me two doses of Terbutiline to slow down the contractions. They felt that it worked pretty well so they sent me home with prescription for Terbutiline to take as needed. So we are hoping this will keep the baby in a little longer. I have my next appointment on Tuesday, so we will know more at that point. :o)

Yesterday evening Kathie arrived from Utah. She is here to help me while on bed rest and to visit with Benjamin. We are so grateful to have her here, so that she can give my mom a break and of course the help is VERY appreciated. Benjamin has not let her sit still since she got here. He drags her all over the house and they play together all day. It's been fun so far! She is here until Thursday the 22nd. We are so glad she was able to make it down!!!

I want to thank my mom for all the time she has been spending with me since I was put on bed rest. I don't know what we would have done without her help! She organized my house, cleaned, cooked, entertained Benjamin and helped me run my errands! She's amazing and I'm so grateful for everything she did for us!!!

Well, now that I am "officially" on bedrest, I am working on finishing my continuing education for my Utah Loan Officer License. I have 13 hours of classes left to do. So I'm going to get on that now. I will update you all again as soon as we know more!

Christmas with the Jones' this year

2008-12-26T20:13:00.005-06:00

Well we had a great Christmas this year! Benjamin seemed to really enjoy opening presents and has had a blast with everything he received! We spent Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family which was nice. After Annie's house, we went home and attempted to go to sleep. I haven't been sleeping at all, and on Christmas Eve I only slept for an hour and found myself watching A Very Brady Christmas at 6:30 in the morning - waiting for Aaron and Benjamin to wake up.

Here are some pictures from Annie's house...

Here's Annie with one of her gifts

Taylor, Nikki and Tim just hanging out

Don, Marianne and Don David

Mom and Dad - love this picture

Ben playing with Uncle Tim

Christmas morning when Aaron and Ben woke up we did our stockings and then the presents from the Haroldsen side of the family. It was very relaxing to have it just the three of us. This was the first time Aaron and I had ever NOT spent the night with one of our families on Christmas Eve. It was pretty fun to just take it easy and enjoy the morning. Here are some pictures of Ben opening his stocking and playing with some of his new toys...

Opening his stocking with daddy

Playing with the drill that Grandma & Grandpa Haroldsen bought him

Helping Dad open his stocking

Little dinosaur that was in his stocking

Magnet toy from Aunt Emily

After we opened our gifts at home, we went over for breakfast at my mom's house (yummy breakfast tacos... my FAVORITE) and then we opened gifts with them. After opening presents, I started to feel the effects of not sleeping and so we left for a few hours to take a nap. We went back over for Prime Rib dinner and some good Karaoke fun! Nikki got a karaoke machine for Christmas so we all had to get up and sing. Here are some pictures from the party at their house...

Lounging on the couch

Mom and Dad singing Karaoke

Benjamin attempting to sing :)

Nikki and Taylor singing

Aaron and I ATTEMPTING to sing haha

Overall we had an AWESOME Christmas and want to thank everyone for contributing to our Holiday! We had a blast with the Jones side this year! We missed the Haroldsen's and hope we can make it up there next year!!

As an update for the unborn baby - it looks like we are back to having Pre-Term Labor problems. I spent the night in the hospital on Friday Dec. 19th with contractions and the doctor has pretty much said there is nothing they can do to stop this baby from coming early. I have already begun dialating so it's just a matter of how long I can hold out before he joins us. We are hoping to make it til Feb 5th at least, as that will be the "safe zone" of 36 weeks. My contractions are worse with this one then they were with Benjamin, and I began dialating 4 weeks earlier than I did with Ben. So we will see how it goes! We are hoping everything works out and that little Tyson is healthy when he arrives.

I hope everyone has a great New Year! We love you all and hope you had a great Christmas!

Can we say "HANDFUL"??

2008-12-09T20:21:00.004-06:00

As many of you know... Ben keeps me on my toes on a daily basis. However yesterday was a special kind of behavior. We were eating breakfast and when I got up to get him out of his highchair, he decided to stick his fingers in his mouth and gag himself, resulting in throwing up all over the place!! Which by the way - I don't do well with apparently. Well after cleaning it up, I put him in the tub to get him all clean. I decided to take some pictures because I don't have any of him in the bath. Well as you can see in this picture... we has a water bottle that we use to rinse out his hair. He enjoys playing with it in the faucet and then dumping it on him...

Well yesterday, he thought it would be funny to fill it up in the faucet and then throw it outside of the bath tub. So then I had to clean up ANOTHER mess in the bathroom. Let's just say, that was the beginning of an extremely difficult day. =)

On top of learning how to gag himself, he has also learned some other fun things. Such as... he can roll down the window in the back seat; he has learned to grind his teeth; he has figured out that he LOVES to spit; if he doesn't get his way - he throws himself on the ground and has himself a huge temper tantrum; and instead of sitting in shopping carts - he likes to walk behind it and push it. Those are just a few of the fun things he's learned.

He's not quite talking yet but can say a few words. Some of his favorites are this, that, mama, dada, and kitty/doggy (same word for both - sounds like kitty). When we get ready to go bye-bye he blows kisses and walks toward the door holding either my purse or his diaper bag. When he wants to go outside he will bring me his shoes to put on. He also can point out several body parts, such as his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly button, toes and hair. He especially likes to point out mommy's belly button. He is not very gentle when he does this either... which his little brother is not a fan of.

I realized today that we haven't taken any pictures of this pregnancy, so we thought we would take one today. Here's a couple of pictures, please don't make fun of the hair or lack of make-up. I just stepped out of the shower. This is me at 28 weeks.

We had an ultrasound last week and learned that the baby is doing VERY well. He is bigger than Ben was at this stage. He is measuring in the 71st percentile and weighing in at 2 1/2 pounds. The doctor said everything looks good and I haven't been having any pre-term labor which is awesome. I had told some people that we were planning to do a C-Section to avoid any complications during the delivery. However, after speaking with the doctor a little more about it, we feel there is not much of a risk of having the complication again, and even if we do - we feel that the doctor would be able to keep it under control. So we have decided to go with a normal delivery and hope for the best.

We put up our Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. That was fun until Ben decided to take an ornament off the tree and bang it on our coffee table breaking it. So - now all the ornaments are on the top half of the tree. :) But here's a couple pictures of Aaron and Ben putting up the ornaments.

Anyway - that pretty much sums up what's been goin on down here. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holiday season!!

It's a boy!!

2008-10-20T14:07:00.003-05:00

We found out last week that baby #2 is going to be another boy. It really surprised everybody because we thought for sure it was a girl. We had a name picked out and everything! We are extremely excited to have another little boy though. We are glad because it will give Ben a little buddy to grow up with. It is for sure going to be a handful to have two little ones so close in age, but we are ready! So we are still trying to decide on a name but we have a couple in mind. If you know of any good boy names that sound good with Haroldsen... suggestions are always welcome! =)

Our busy day!

2008-10-11T21:48:00.007-05:00

Well, today was quite the busy day. We decided to go down to the Cuero Turkey Fest with Nikki & Tim, which was about a two hour drive south of Austin. We got there around noon and we walked around and tasted some of the BBQ cook-off (delicious). Then we grabbed some lunch and listened to a live band.

After that we rode the carousel with Benjamin, and then Nikki rode the little train with him. He enjoyed the rides I think.

That was about all we did there, however, the Budweiser Clydesdale horses were there which was neat! Here's a couple pictures of them...

It was really fun but would have been so much better if it wasn't SO hot!! We could barely stand it though so we headed back to Austin around 3:30. We got back just in time to see Taylor off to homecoming!! She looked beautiful!!! Here are some pictures of her and her date...

It took them about 30 minutes of trying before deciding to give up and go without the boutineer. It was pretty funny.

So overall we had a pretty busy but fun day!

Our House

2008-10-02T14:48:00.006-05:00

I will be posting several blogs today to catch up with what's been going on for the last little while. To start off... some people have been asking for pictures of our new house, and I have been really slacking on getting them up. Here are some pictures of I took of most of the house. I took pictures of our kitchen, living room, master bedroom, Ben's room and Ben's bathroom. I hope you enjoy!!

The outside of our home... it sits on a corner lot.

Front porch and our new furniture :)

Back of the house - notice the new shed that Aaron and his dad put together!

Our living room looking from the front door into the kitchen

Living room looking from the kitchen to the front door

Our kitchen

Master bedroom & new bedroom furniture! :o)

Ben's room... a little messy

Ben's bathroom

Well, that's pretty much the tour of our new home! Visitors are always welcome so come by and see us!! :) I will be posting more in a little bit, as soon as I get a chance. I hope everyone has a great week!!

Watering the lawn

2008-09-29T23:57:00.003-05:00

Benjamin has an obsession with the hose and today Craig and Kathie took him outside to play in the backyard and they made this video of him playing with the water... ENJOY!

I will update more about Craig & Kathie's visit tomorrow.

The Nail Test - Explanation

2008-08-28T08:40:00.002-05:00

Okay, everyone keeps asking me what the nail test is. It is where you tie a nail to the end of a string and hold it over the pregnant belly. You hold it still and then while it's hanging there, it starts to move. If it moves side to side - it's a boy, and if it moves in a circle - it's a girl. It's something my grandma has done with her kids, and my aunt and mom have done it with all of their kids. It's just a fun little test to see if you can predict the sex of the baby. It hasn't been wrong yet! So if it's right this time, I'll be having a girl!

WE'RE EXPECTING!!

2008-08-24T22:17:00.002-05:00

Well it's official... we are expecting our second baby on March 5, 2009. We are very excited about the new addition to our family. I am approximately 12 weeks along. We are still unsure of the sex of the baby... however we did the nail test with my family today and it said we are having a girl. The nail has YET to be wrong. So we will see what happens!! If anyone has any good ideas for names that sound good with Haroldsen... we are open to suggestions so send them our way!

I will keep everyone posted on how the pregnancy is going and how the little baby is doing. So far I have experienced a completely different pregnancy than the first time. I wasn't sick at all with Benjamin, just at night a little... but with this one... I am sick all the time and have to eat like crazy in order to avoid feeling nauseous. Somehow - I seem to be losing weight... it doesn't really make sense to me. I also have been having some cramps that the doctor said drinking a lot of water should take care of. I have a really hard time drinking lots of water... but I am doing the best I can!

Anyway - that's it for now! I just wanted to make the official announcement! I hope everyone had an awesome weekend!

Been a while...

2008-08-24T21:56:00.004-05:00

Well it's been a while since I've written, so let me catch everyone up. I will start by finishing up our trip to Utah. After Ben finally got over his fever, he developed a rash on his torso and face. Turns out what he had was Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. We are thinking he got it from the Airport on that little toy or the other kids that were playing with him. We are not sure exactly how he got it. Here's a picture of his little rash, it's kinda hard to see...

We went to the park with Aaron's family on Pioneer Day and had a great time! On that Friday we did a combined birthday party for all of the July birthdays. Here's all the birthday boys and girls...

We spent the rest of the vacation just hanging out with the family. It was a very nice vacation (minus the sick baby part.) We are so glad we got to see everybody, and can't wait to see everyone again soon.

When we got back to Texas we celebrated Benjamin's 1st birthday! I started an evening job, so we had to do it over the weekend. The party was a little bit after his first birthday - but I figured he doesn't really know the difference. :)

He LOVED his cupcake!!

Anyway - since our trip to Utah, we have just been back to work and relaxing at home. We have had several visitors here in Austin, including my aunt Jamie and cousins Kade and Loni (visiting from Washington) It was great to see them!!

Tonight we had a BBQ at the Jones' with my mom's aunt Carolyn, uncle GD and cousin Becky. It was great to meet them! I don't know very many family members on my mom's side, so that was a treat to meet some of them finally!

In about a week we will have Leslie Turner here visiting, and then after that, we are very excited to have Craig and Kathie come see us!! It's been a busy summer, but a great one!!

Fun with the Family in Utah

2008-07-23T17:51:00.007-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AARON!!

The big 25 this year! Aaron has been SO helpful on this trip with Benjamin. I seriously couldn't have done it without him. Ben has been sick with a fever since Sunday, and just finally got over it today. He has been super high maintenance and Aaron has pretty much done everything. It's been so nice to have a break!

On Saturday we made the long flight to Utah with a layover in Phoenix. Ben handled the trip pretty well. He got a little fussy in the Airport until we finally found a play area. Here are a couple pictures from him playing in the airport... the ladies behind him really got a kick out of him!

We finally arrived in Salt Lake around 2pm and went to Emily's house to visit all of his sisters. Then on Sunday we headed up to Idaho to catch the end of the Family Reunion. They had a big get together for Aaron's grandparents 60th Wedding Anniversary. It was really fun to spend time with his family! Here's a picture of us with Aaron's grandparents...

On Monday night we went over to Mark & Kendall's house, and Ben ended up bumping his head on the stairs and got a nice bruise.

As you can see, he is NOT very happy with us.

Here are a couple more pictures of our vacation so far...

Grandma & Grandpa Haroldsen's 60th Anniversary Party!

Ben was SO sick of the carseat after 3 days of traveling

Benjamin with Aunt Angela

Sick boy sleeping with Dad

Tonight we plan on going to dinner with Aaron's parents for his birthday! I'm not sure where we are going yet, but I'm sure it will be yummy!

I will put up more pictures after the vacation is over! I hope all of you are having a great week!

Happy Father's Day!!

2008-06-15T22:23:00.005-05:00

Today is Father's Day - and we had a great day! We went to church at 1pm where we met a few young couples that seem really nice. Quite possibly people we could see ourselves becoming good friends with. After that, we had dinner at my parent's house - chicken burritos - YUMMY. Thanks to mom for that! Aaron and I didn't end up getting in the pool - but Ben did. As you can see in the picture - Taylor enjoyed Ben's little floaty more than he did. Here are a few pictures from our Father's Day gathering.

We hope that all you dads out there had a fantastic Father's Day!!!

Pots and Pans...

2008-06-12T19:55:00.004-05:00

Well, Benjamin is officially getting into everything... literally! He has begun walking - mostly only about 4 steps at a time, before losing his balance. He does pretty good for only being about 10 months old. About two weeks ago, on Memorial Day - he fell pretty hard and cut his eyebrow. Well, today he climbed into the pots and pans cupboard. He was having a great time until he fell out and fell right onto a pan. It cut his nose and left a little bruise on his forhead and cheek. Poor guy...

BEFORE...

AFTER...

He's a pretty tough little boy. As you can see he wasn't phased by it for very long!! He is getting used to hitting his head on stuff.

We switched our cable/internet/phone service today. Many of you know the nightmare I have faced in the past with AT&T. Well we decided to use Suddenlink and see how we liked it. Of course - they ALSO misquoted us and has not been great. So we switched back to AT&T on a month to month basis. Since there is no contract, we thought we'd give them a try. So far it's been pretty good.

Well, that's all for now! Have a good one!!

Family Reunion

2008-05-29T16:53:00.006-05:00

We went to a Jones family reunion over the Memorial Day weekend in Gilmer, Texas. Talk about a small town!! We had a pretty good time. Our family gets together at my grandpa's cousin's home and just visit. There is food, games, 4-wheelin on a John Deer Gator, rides around the property in some golf carts, and fishing at a little pond. Overall it's a good time, but the weather was ridiculous. It was really hot outside with no breeze. Ben got warm so we filled up a bucket that we had in the truck with water and stuck him in it. He loved it! I would have crawled in if I was small enough!!

After the reunion, we went to the Cemetery to visit some grave sites of some family on my dad's side. It was fun to hear about the older members of our family that has passed on.

We got back on Sunday and spent Monday at my mom's house. We had a BBQ, played some Rock Bank and went swimming. Unfortunately, Ben started out the party by busting open his eyebrow. He fell down on the VCR. Luckily, he only cried for about 20 seconds, then went back to having a great time. He loves to swim - it's so much fun!

Here are some pictures of our weekend! Enjoy!

Well that's about it for our weekend! I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!

Swimming

2008-05-17T15:54:00.002-05:00

Ben went swimming for the first time today! It was a LITTLE too cold outside to go in the pool, so we warmed up the hot tub and went for a swim! It was so much fun. Ben just loved it. As you can see from this picture, he loves to splash and play in the water. I can't wait til it's warm enough outside to get in the actual pool. Probably another couple of weeks before we can do that.

Tonight we are going to the Round Rock Express game (baseball). Aaron's work got us some free tickets so we will all be headin over there around 6pm.

I hope everyone had a good week! I just wanted to put up this picture of Ben's first swimming experience.

New Blog!

2008-05-09T20:50:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! I have decided to start up a blog so that our friends and family can keep in touch with us more easily. I'm going to do a quick update on our lives, and then we will update periodically from there!

The 6th of this month was our two year anniversary! I can't believe it's been that long. The time has gone by so fast.

We just bought our first home last month. We love it! It's so great to have our own space.

Benjamin is just adorable, he is just over 9 months old. He's crawling all over the place and can stand on everything he touches. He is also walking along the furniture and falling over left and right. I'm so nervous that he is going to hurt himself... but I guess that's what happens when you have a little boy running around. Everybody tells me I should just get used to it since I have a boy and not a girl, haha.

Work for Aaron is going great. He just got home from Detroit, where he was at a conference for some software they use. Needless to say, it was a long week for me! His official title is Senior Analyst but we aren't really sure what his position is. He works closely with the President of IBC in Austin, and he really likes Aaron. So he pretty much has Aaron do whatever he needs help with. It's pretty cool - gives Aaron some variety in his job.

My business has really picked up. I am working for a few loan officers in Utah, and a few down here in Texas. It's been really great for us. I am also still originating loans, but being a processor is my full time job. (that and being a mom!) It's been tough to juggle work while trying to be a mom, but I'm doing my best to make it work!

Tomorrow is our House Warming party! We don't know many people down here, so it will be small but fun! We are looking forward to it!

Anyway - I guess that's about it for now. If any of you have a blog that you'd like me to add on my page, please let me know!! Have a great night!