Long time, No Post...

The Harvey household getting Christmas-fied!

Our back porch gets a candle and green tablecloth.

Wrapping gifts for our kids for the FIRST time is FUN!!!

Place settings at our dining table--notice the paper towel as the napkin. LOL!

Hanging the lights--best Dad ever!

Our little Santa baby...

In the era of Facebook, Myspace, twitter, etc. it's easy to lose the zeal that I once had for blogging. 'Updating my status' is so much easier than loading pics and providing a detail of what each of them are on this blog. However, I LOVE THIS BLOG!!

It provided a link to Bryan while he was in Iraq, and to his family up north since Kayne has been born. What a special bond it provides--and I am trying to make time to make it a priority again!

With that said, here are a few pictures from the past week--including Christmas. Some of them are on facebook--but most that I will post on here will be just for the blog. So, be sure to check back every week for new pics!

Run for the Fallen

Please check out the following video that I made with pictures from the Run for the Fallen that we did for Marcus and Mark on August 22/23... We miss them everyday!

First Day of FOURTH GRADE!!

All ready to go... not so ready to say goodbye!

So, I just put my first born on a bus headed for 4th grade...where did the time go? Prayed blessings over her, and told her to be a witness unto others in ALL that she says and does~I am praying for an amazing first day for my baby girl (and all other kids going back today!)

Elyse wanted a teacher named 'Mrs. Slaga' so badly that she was praying DAILY that she would have her as a teacher. I told her that God knew what was best for her, and that he would put her where she needed to be... she said "I know, Mom--but I hope He thinks its best for me to be with her!" LOL! What a great child I have~praying to God and believing for things that are important to her and EXPECTING Him to listen and respond to her. What an inspiration!

Well, she DID get placed with Mrs. Slaga... so this morning she JUMPED out of bed and brought me the comb to fix her hair, etc. She was SO EXCITED!! I was sad to see her go. We had such a great summer and its sad to think that my time with her will be cut drastically now, but such is life :-)

Have a great day, everyone!

Her Jonas brothers pins all over her backpack :-)

I don't want you to go, Sissy!

Bye, bye babe! We will see you this afternoon!

To the aquarium... yet again!

Heading out with our friends!!

Elyse and Christopher, having a good time!

A little snack!

Hey, hey! It's Lysee!!

So, we went to the aquarium today yet again. It was a beautiful day, and my friend Lori volunteered to go with me and take her kids as well. The kids had such a great time playing in the water, and the covered sand box area... they even shot each other with water cannons! A great time was had by all, and we are sure to be there more and more as the summer draws nearer to a close--soaking up all the rays that we can before school starts back up!

Friday~July 24th

We went to the OB/GYN for the first time today! Her name is Dr. Qureshi, and she was more than amazing! She said from the exam that I am at least 8 weeks along, and we will go next Thursday to find out exactly how far along I am. We are finally settling into the thought pattern that we are ACTUALLY going to have another baby. It is getting more exciting every day, and we are praying for God's will to be done in the coming months as we are faced with several tough decisions about our next steps together as a family. We will keep the blog updated as we progress through this next phase of our family's life...

To the aquarium!

Putting our passes to good use, we went to the aquarium today... here are a few pics from our day! Free and low-cost things to do for the kids has kept me sane this summer! We are still waiting on a job for Bryan, so I am doing my best to keep the kids busy, while keeping our money spending as low as possible. We are having a great time enjoying each other while Bry is still at home with us... but he is anxious to get out working! :-)

Operation Purple:Completed

So, our baby girl came home from Camp Winona for their Operation Purple camp for kids affected by deployment. I know that Elyse will always be affected by the last deployment that took Marcus's life, and so I think she will always benefit from this summer camp with other kids that know somewhat what she was going through. Not all kids have necessarily lost a family member, but all of them have gone through a deployment and know what it's like to be without someone that they love.

She had a GREAT time! I was so relieved because as a Mommy I was so worried that she would miss home, or be sad. She said that she was sad for a day about Uncle Marcus and she was missing us, but other than that she was ok. I know that everytime she leaves us for a week, she grows and matures as a young lady and that is so exciting/frightening for us :-)

Here are a few pics from us picking her up:

...and baby makes 5!!

~ Summer 2009~

The tattoo says 'PUNK'~and this baby is being one... making me sick! grrrrr!

Happy Mommy of 3 :-)

Not sure how many weeks... more on that after the Dr's appt next week!

I only had to take like 7 tests to be sure. LOL!

So, I am going to try and make an honest attempt at keeping up with this blog while keeping up with my two little blessings this summer. The newest news (as shown by the headline) is that...

we are PREGNANT!!

Kayne was our little 'Afghan' baby--that we got when Bry came home from Afghanistan... now this will be our little 'Iraqi' baby :-)

We are excited, yet apprehensive about having another baby around the house as we are just getting adjusted to Kayne's toddler-hood. Bry is still job-searching, and people seem less than willing to help a war veteran find a job that will help him be in the same state with his family. We are not sure what God has in store, but we know that He has EVERYTHING in His hands. Our timing is not His, and He is faithful to provide 'manna for today.' Our bills are being paid, and we have food on the table--we are taking one day at a time and are excited about the job that God has out there for Bry!

While Bryan has been working around the house, and doing odds and ends jobs--the kids and I have been finding all the free 'fun' things that we can do around town. So far our schedule consists of two library days and a free movie day--Monday and Friday are spent playing outside and exploring the neighborhood.

Missing him :-(

Missing Bryan has become a way of life for us once more. He is such an amazing man, and is providing for his family--what a blessing! I am so proud of him!

We went to the library for story time today (and every Wednesday). I love watching Kayne interact with all of the other kids. He is definitely growing up too fast! He doesn't sit still for very long, but he does enjoy the singing and moving around. I snapped a few pictures while we were there.





After the library, we took Granna to her Bible study. Kayne is in loooove with his Great Granna! She is one of the very few people who ever keep him if I need to go anywhere. They have a standing date every Monday and Thursday for when Elyse and I go to Tae Kwan Do, and he hates to leave. She had her 90th birthday at the beginning of the month, and she is still SO ACTIVE!

I'm back!!

Welcome back to our blog! We've missed you guys!

5/9/09 - Fancy Nancy Party at the public library!

We got all dressed up and had lots of fun together!

I have been absent from the blog because I have had my hands full with the family :-)

What a blessing to have that problem! I have also completed another class towards my master's degree (and earned an 'A'!!). It was quite difficult, public school law is NO fun to write papers on. I so enjoyed Bryan being home, but he has accepted a job with my family's business and is now out of the state working. He is a superintendent of the remodeling of Wal-Mart stores up and down the east coast. Right now he is training, but soon he will be in charge of his own stores.

He is loving the idea of having that kind of responsiblity, and I couldn't be more proud of him. He also went and registered with his reserve unit. It is located in Lakeland (which is about 45 min. away from us). We got the drill weekend schedule, and it seems that it will be quite easy for him. I think that he will be going to WLC (warriors leader course) and taking an E-5 position with the unit. Time will tell!! He won't deploy at all with this group, because he is non-deployable for 24 months. Also, they say that they don't ever deploy!! :-)

The kids are doing well. Elyse is excited about the end of the school year, and summer coming. We got an annual pass to the Florida Aquarium, which has a small water park that they love so much. We went a handful of times while Bryan was home, and I know that going there will draw memories of good times that we had as a family. I love going and watching them have fun running around splashing and playing with one another. I am sure that there will be several trips to the aquarium this summer and I can't wait!! We are also thinking about having another baby sometime in the next 2 years. We will keep everyone posted on our progress :-)

More later... I must go to bed! Happy Mother's Day to all you fantastic mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and ladies out there!

Gone, once more.

Ok, so this is getting kind of OLD!

Bryan is gone, again--on his way back to Ft. Polk after his weekend visit. Kayne just started warming up to him, and then he had to go. This is the first night in a LONG time that he cried himself to sleep in his crib, and I'm quite sure that it had a lot to do with Daddy leaving. I know that it is hard on me, so I am SURE that it is hard on Kayne to have Bry here, then gone, then here, gone, etc... I think that we are going to try and go out to Ft. Polk for the LAST TIME at the end of March. Bryan will be heading home to start his 30 days terminal leave on April 4th, and we want to go and say goodbye to everyone at the company's family picnic on the 27th of March. That will definitely be a bittersweet time for our whole family, as it was the backdrop for the majority of our family memories--not to mention the fact that it is where we met, fell in love, and were married.

I am posting a few pics of us at the park last night. We had a great time with the kids, and I know that they are both looking SO forward to Bryan getting home for GOOD!!