Warmer Weather & Oklahoma

...a break from the cold weather. Like everyone else, we were excited about a few days of warm weather after some pipe freezing temps. We took the opportunity to get outside, and took the whole family--dogs included--to a park. It was great to feel some sun again, and as you can see, Kate was happy about it too.






If you've ever wondered who actually eats the chalky hearts with sayings on them given only at Valentine's Day, wonder no more. Kate loves "hearts."



So, don't judge us too much, but yes, that is Sophie and Kate taking a bath together. While we were giving Kate her bath we realized Sophie was having some sort of allergic reaction on her skin, so we threw her in with Kate. Kate thought it was the greatest thing ever, and she laughed and laughed. In fact tonight, she asked us if Sophie could take a bath with her again.




Even if you think our daughter and our dog sharing a bath was gross, you have to admit, that's a cute picture!

Happy Valentine's Day!

...a freezing couple of weeks, snow days, and walking pneumonia. February is halfway over and it has been quite a month already. Although, it has mainly been about weather and sickness. After having to take Kate to the ER because of her cough and high fever, we learned she had walking pneumonia. One of the things that kept us out of the ER more during the past couple of weeks is her nebulizer, which she calls "wheezy." Wheezy is painted like a cow, so she calls it her "cow medicine." She started realizing how much better it makes her feel during this sickness, so she started asking for her cow medicine when she started feeling rough. You can always tell when Kate is sick because she starts making beds out of everything and can make any space of floor cozy enough to pretend sleep on. As you can see from two of the pictures below, she was feeling rough.




Kate has been so affectionate with the dogs lately, and one of her new favorite things to do is hold Sophie. Sophie enjoys it too, so usually once a day Kate gets to spend some time holding Sophie.




Kate is using more and more words and her sentences are starting to use proper grammar and syntax. She is a lot of fun right now and--since she talks constantly--has been saying some funny things lately. I moved into a new office at Tech on the other side of the building a couple of weeks ago. One day while she was visiting me I showed her you can see her school from my office windows. She took it all in and simply said, "that's crazy man." She is just so funny right now, she keeps us rolling.

She is starting to embrace the idea of being a big sister, and is talking a lot about Jude. She calls him Baby Jude, and asks to kiss him (aka, Amanda's stomach) regularly. I think she will be a great big sister, although I know she will have plenty of jealous moments.

We took a few pictures this morning before we left for church. She loves wearing dresses, and she was all to happy to pose for pictures this morning. So, happy Valentine's Day from the Harrington's!

Beat the Pokes!

...mom and dad bringing my nephews to Lubbock for the TTU vs. OSU basketball game. We had so much fun. I just love to watch all 3 kids together. Kason, who is almost 10, is starting to be the "big kid" so he doesn't play with the younger ones much. Krece, however, is so cute with Kate. They just play so well together. He wanted to show her all the things he brought with him on the trip, and she actually shared her toys, willingly, with him.

Because the house is on the market and we are trying to keep it clean the boys and my parents stayed at a hotel. The major perk of that was the hotel pool! It was fun to watch the kids swim both mornings. It was great for Kate because she has avoided the bath lately due to some residual emotional effects of some of the procedures she had done due to her bladder issues. I am happy to say that pool time was VERY healing for her. It hasn't gotten her loosened up enough to try the potty, but she is back to enjoying bath time.

In the end our Red Raiders were victorious! It's fun to have a little family rivalry every now and then. It was a really good game, and it was only made better by having my parents and nephews there with us.


Kason loves his Uncle Mike. He doesn't seem to want to share him much with Krece. He and Michael spend much of the day playing basketball together.


Kate and Krece were so funny together. I don't think Krece was as in to the game as Kate, but I think he enjoyed it.


Mom and Dad with the gang (minus me since I'm taking the picture. They are pretty awesome grandparents and are adored by their grandkids.


Ahhhhhhhhhh

We haven't blogged much about the puppies lately, but not because they haven't been wonderful. Honestly they are such sweet dogs and we are blessed to have them. Sophie is still a pistol and keeps us on our toes. Stanley is just as sweet as ever. Lately he has had some anxiety though. He has started getting very nervous when Kate is upset (sometimes he pukes when she cries). He stays up all night with her if she is sick, and if someone comes to the door while she is napping he goes into protective mode. We did, however, get him some prozac so he doesn't have to be so anxious!



Since we haven't posted any belly pics I though I would post one of me at 22.5 weeks. I still love being pregnant although it is a little more tiring when you are chasing a very active 2.5 year old.

We're Having a Boy...And Lot's of Other Topics

...seeing something on an ultrasound we hadn't seen before...boy parts. At first I was a in shock. I know how to do girls, and for some reason I thought this baby was a girl. Now that I've soaked it all in I am more than excited to have a baby boy. We have decided to name him Jude William. Most of you know we can't just get pregnant, therefore we thought it fitting to name our baby boy Jude, which means "praise." All praise goes to God for our ability to have him. William is a family name. William Wiley was my mom's grandpa whom she loved a great deal. William means "strong-willed warrior." Now, hear me out. We were reluctant to name him William because of it's meaning...we're not sure we can handle 2 strong-willed children. Then we decided he's going to have to be strong-willed to have a big sister like Kate. We are VERY excited to meet our little Jude William coming this May!

Now on to Kate. She is a pistol. That about sums it up. Today we played tea party, walked around like dinosaurs, danced, watched Uncle Jason's movie (Toy Story), went to Pei Wei (which she explained to Maximus her stuffed horse, "is cool"), and put together puzzles. She NEVER. STOPS. MOVING. If she is awake, she is going and going. I hope that explains why she is such a good sleeper. She has to because she is exhausted. This week she has gone to bed at 8 or 8:30 and hasn't woken up until 9:30 the next morning, and then had her usual 2-3 hour afternoon nap. Yes I am blessed to have a great sleeper, but she makes up for it when she is awake.

We are behind in our blogging so I thought I would just post a slew of pictures to get you up to date on the chaos around here. Oh, and to top it off we have our house on the market. We decided it's time to get a bigger house and bigger yard for both little kiddos.


When we got home from Christmas Kate developed a bad case of croup. it was terrible. She would cough for hours and hours. Finally we got her a nebulizer, which she calls her "cow medicine," because the machine looks like a cow. Man am I glad she was finally able to get better. You will also notice her "Grandma Debbie Day" shirt. She insisted on wearing it to make her feel better. She wore it for 3 days straight. Don't worry, we have 2 of them so we were able to keep them clean.


On this occasion Kate requested a picture of her and her horse.


Another requested picture just before leaving for school. Doesn't she look cute? She and the horse have the same grin on their faces. She took that horse to show and tell at school that day. When she got home we discovered where she must have spent a good hour coloring her belly with a marker. This was last Thursday. It is the following Monday evening and there are still traces of marker on her stomach!


Just before we left for church yesterday Kate decided to read her book while I finished getting ready. This is how she reads a book.


The funny thing about these pictures is that later in the day she did the same thing, while laying on our bed, completely nude. Now, just for the record, we don't make it a habit of letting her run around nude. However, after a recent trip to the doctor that included a catheter, she is terrified of having her diaper off...making potty training impossible. We are letting her spend a few minutes each day without one on to see that it is okay to not have a diaper on all the time. Sometimes I wish her memory weren't so good.


Sunday evening Kate and her daddy decided to get the pancakes started. It was so sweet to watch them mix up the batter together. Note the extra large Tech Cheer shirt. Michael got her this shirt for Christmas. This was the only thing he was able to get her to put on after her nap, which she insisted to do wearing only a diaper. At least he was able to find something she would agree to wear. Yes, she has decided she is in charge of what she will, and will not wear. Currently she refuses to wear a coat of any kind. We did get her to wear a "jean shirt" to church with her dress (it was really a jean jacket but we can't say "jacket"). She has also decided shoes are overrated. I love how both of these things developed in the middle of winter. Awesome! She certainly keeps us on our toes. She really is a great child...just terribly strong-willed. When we were pregnant with her we prayed she would be strong and independent. Can I take back prayers? I am thinking of praying for Jude to be meek and content!

Santa!!!!!!!

...getting REALLY far behind. Things have been so busy since getting back from Christmas so our blogging has been less than on time. However, I didn't want to miss out on sharing some of our pictures of Kate opening Santa presents. Can I just say that Christmas is so much fun with a little one? She LOVED everything. This year she got mostly horses. Santa must have known she loves horses because he brought her stalls, trucks, and trailers for her horses. She was in hog heaven.

Kate and Boo getting ready for bed.





Kate's home on the range!

Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!! (post 2)

...Christmas day at Papa Ron and Grandma Donna's house, or as Kate has decided to call them, Grandpa and Grandma's house. This year it was tough to work out everyone's schedule for Ron's on Christmas day so it was just us. We missed the others, but it was nice to have them all to ourselves since we don't get to see them as much as we would like.

I have always loved Christmas at Ron's. This makes my 14th Christmas with him and you never can tell what you are going to get, and that's the fun of it. He LOVES Christmas, and now that he has grandkids I think his love is even bigger. He and Donna had set up a really neat Christmas room complete with 2 train sets. Kate loves it at their house.

Like my mom and dad's house, Kate got a ton of presents, including a 32 inch flat panel television. Mommy and daddy are pretty excited about that! She also got the movie "Spirit." It's a cartoon about horses. In the beginning of the movie is a scene showing Spirit's mommy giving birth to him (a kid friendly version of the birth process). Little did we know this part of the movie would provide one of the funniest moments of the holiday season. Several days later Kate was lying in the floor at my mom's house wiggling around. She announced she was having a baby named Spirit. She would neigh and pant and wiggle. It is amazing how much this girl can understand at such a young age. She keeps us on our toes, for sure.

There are more Christmas posts to come, but here are some pictures of our special time at Ron's.

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (post 1)

...the birth of Jesus a long, long time ago. We have been excitedly awaiting Jesus' birthday for 364 days. It was so much fun last year so we figured it would be even more fun this year. It has been! All month we have been doing the Advent calendar. Kate tried every time to put the candy cane in the slot for the 25th. Well, it was finally time for the candy cane to move to it's final spot for this year, and Kate couldn't have been happier. To be honest, she would have been so happy with just one little present. She is so sweet and thankful. However, there was more than one, simple present....a WHOLE lot more.

The first Christmas gathering was with the Douglas' family. Kate loves the guys (Kason & Krece), and as you can see from the pictures below they all had a good Christmas.




a new hat from Aunt Kaci!




golf clubs! Daddy is excited too!








A new tricycle!!!! She was so excited!






Granny made Kate her very own Masked Rider costume