It's getting real

A few nights ago, April and I were sitting on the couch watching tv when she looked at me and reminded me that it would not be long before one of us would be holding our new little girl! It's been several years since we've changed diapers, had 2-3 hour "naps" in between night time feedings, etc. It's getting real!

The kids seem to be excited about their new sister. Cayden loves kissing mommy's belly and loving on the baby! We'll see how long that lasts when she's crying and keeping us all awake at night!

I promise i'll do my best to keep the blog more current. Don't hold your breath though... :)

Worst blogger of the century!!

So - Do I get a prize? Maybe this blog will become the annual Christmas letter that some people are adventurous enough to complete and include in their Christmas cards. Maybe the events of the year will be enough to convince me to blog more. Or...

This year was pretty eventful. Both kids started new schools. Cayden started wee-wuns and really enjoys learning. He likes lunch and playing on the playground a bit more though! Alyssa started kindergarten this year as well. I was in Seattle for school when she started, so every afternoon i'd call and ask how her day went and what was her favorite thing. Day #1 - when mommy picked her up. Day# 2 - lunch and when mommy picked her up. Day #3 - recess, lunch and when mommy picked her up....Day #87 (ish) - recess, lunch and when mommy picked her up. That's my girl!! But seriously, she's doing really well in school and mommy and daddy are very proud.


This is our last Christmas with 2 kids. I'm sure adding another kid to the mix will only create more time for me to blog. Likely at 2 am during feeding.

Anyway - if you're still reading, Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Blessings

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family!!

We've enjoyed a great 2009 and are looking forward to an even better 2010.

Alyssa will be turning five next year. :( Kindergarten is right around the corner...if Mommy lets her go! She's enjoying her dance classes and is a great student in a pre-k program at our church. She's also started singing in the childrens choir and makes us listen to her "performances" every day.

Cayden is growing like a little weed. He LOVES playing with friends, trucks and balls. He's learning new words and stringing them together in long sentences that amaze us daily. He can always be found with tools and gets mad when Daddy is fixing something and he can't help. :)

April is staying home and raising our kids, taking care of our house and tolerating me! She can often be found in her tahoe/grocery getter/kid limo doing one of a million errands she seems to do daily. She convinced me to buy a treadmill for Christmas, so we now have a brand new place for her to hang the laundry!!

I'm still busy at work, but spend a lot of my time working on projects for school. In case you don't know, I am attending Pacific Coast Banking School in Washington. It requires two weeks on campus every summer, then 4-5 papers to be turned in between sessions. Next year I get to write a 60-80pg management report. Can you say EXCITING?!?! ;)



Yesterday in church, the pastor asked us to think about a blessing we've had and concentrate on that during our prayer of thanksgiving. I'm fortunate that my blessings have run over and that I have so much to be thankful for. I'm also reminded of those who are less fortunate and/or are dealing with trials at this time. Our prayers remain with those people as we enter the Christmas Season. With all the presents, parties, songs and games, it is easy to forget...but we should seek to focus on the true reason for the season, Our Savior Jesus Christ.

May God bless you during this Holiday Season.

With Love,

The Harless Family
Chris, April, Alyssa & Cayden

Update - YES, we're alive.

So, I've been a horrible blogger. Sue me. Actually don't. That wouldn't be nice.

We've been busy. Alyssa is back in preschool and dance, Cayden is running like a wild man and April is playing teacher, lifeguard, coach, mentor, caregiver, etc. She's an awesome mom and we're lucky to have her!!

I filmed Cayden singing his night time song with me. He always asks us to sing this song to him at night. Recently he's started singing along with me!

Anyhow - i'll try to be better about blogging in the future. Hope y'all are well.

We're still alive!

Hey guys and gals - just wanted to say hi. We're still alive. Things have been super busy since I last posted. We moved out of our old house, into April's parents house, our little girl turned 4, we are building a new house, etc, etc, etc. I'm not going to try to catch up...I'll just be better going forward. Maybe.

Ok - on to what you come for. Pics. :)

Daddy and Cayden fishing in Lake Charles

Alyssa had to show us how!

Alyssa's spring show at school
Cayden's first fight. Eight stitches were needed to shut this gash!!
You should see the other kid! :)

Rodeo Days are here again!!!

It's Rodeo Time in Houston! April is excited about her upcoming date with Clay Walker. Chris is taking clients to see a few shows at the Rodeo. Hopefully we'll have a chance to take the kids to the livestock show!!

It's going to be a busy few weeks. We're moving in w/mawmaw and pawpaw this weekend. Our closing is set for the 13th so we're going to be 99% out of the house by this weekend. The kids are doing pretty good with this all, especially considering all of their toys keep disappearing to the storage facility!!

Alyssa had rodeo day at her school today! Mommy was in training for her speech license, so Daddy and Cayden got to go play with Alyssa. We had lots of fun!! Here are some updated pics of the kids and more. Sorry for the delay in updating...we've been busy!!

Alyssa and Cayden checking out "our dirt". We went out to show the kids where our new house will be built. They just liked playing in all the dirt!!

guess what!

Well, if you actually read my posts and don't go straight to the kid pics, then you'll know that we listed our house on the market Friday 1/23. We sold it yesterday, 1/29. :) Send some positive karma this way for a clean closing and that miraculously we can build our new home in half the time. I do NOT want to live in an apartment.

We're Still Here!!

Its been a while. Hope y'all are doing well. We've been BUSY.
April and I decided a few weeks before Christmas that we were going to put our house on the market and start looking for a new one. So, Christmas vacation was no vacation. I was ready to get back to work so I could relax! We got a storage facility and proceeded to fill it up! 12' x 12' and stuffed to the gills. The next step was painting the bathrooms and repairing all of the areas of our house which were destroyed by Mya when she was a puppy and chewing everything. Then came new carpet throughout the house. As of Friday 1/23, our house is officially for sale. Anyone want to buy it? :)
The kids have been busy. Alyssa is back to school after Christmas break. She still loves going to school and learning. They learned to sing "God Bless America" for Inauguration Tuesday. Last week she got to wear her PJ's to school! She thought that was lots of fun.
Big news for Cayden...no more mullet. He got his first haircut yesterday. Our little baby is no longer a baby. He looks like a big boy. April is trying to use this as ammunition for another baby. Its not working...yet.
Here are a bunch of pics of the kids. Enjoy!

Alyssa playing with her dress up clothes - Princess Ballerina!!

Cayden & Alyssa feeding themselves Chocolate Pudding!

Alyssa cuddling her baby!

PJ Day at Preschool!!

Baby Mullet
Baby Mullet no more!!
Isn't he handsome?!
Alyssa didn't want a haircut at first, but couldn't miss out on the fun!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!!! And Aunt Angela too!

From our family to yours,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We love you all and hope today is a great day for each of you. God Bless you.

Love,

The Harless Family

Funny things

One of Alyssa's favorite songs is "If all the raindrops." For those of you not well versed in childrens music, it goes like this:

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops, oh what a rain that would be.

Standing outside with my mouth open wide.

Aaah, aaah, aaah, aaah, aa - aah ah.

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops, oh what a rain that would be.

Well, the other day, Alyssa asked me to sing: Father Raindrops. I told her I had no clue what song that was. She said: "It goes like this: "Father raindrops were lemon drops..."

April and I told her that it was "if all" because there was no such thing as "father raindrops". She informed us that the big ones were Father raindrops and the little ones were the mommy and baby raindrops! Seems logical to me. :)

The other funny thing is not so funny to me as a dad. It seems that a four year old boy who is the son of some good friends has confiscated our family picture so that "Alyssa can sleep with him at night." I'm going to have to keep a close watch on that kid at church!!

Winter Wonderland

Tomball College offers an annual Winter Wonderland complete with "snow", train rides, hay rides, pictures with Santa, etc.

Alyssa was so cute with Santa. She wasn't too thrilled about having to sit on his lap, but she needed to make sure he knew what she wanted for Christmas. Daddy tried to get her to ask for an x-box, but she stuck with her goal of getting a Handy Manny Talking Toolbox. I'm still unsure of why she wants that...but Santa better get it or we'll have a tough morning!

Cayden screamed within seconds of hitting Santa's lap. He didn't ask for an x-box either. :( I guess we'll have to wait another year.

This is becoming an annual kid picture. We had a hard time getting Cayden out of the chairs! He wanted to rock-rock all night!

Mommy, Alyssa, PawPaw and Cayden riding the train!

ThanksMas in Baton Rouge!

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Baton Rouge with the Harless family celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas! We had a lot of fun visiting with mom and dad, and brought them some luck!! They finally sold their house to someone who came to view it while we were there. Sorry that we didn't come earlier so you didn't have to wait so long!!

Anyhow...on to the pictures. The first two are of shirts that April and the kids made. My little "turkeys" used their handprints to make some cute Thanksgiving shirts! My wife is becoming a regular Martha Stewart - minus the tax evasion and insider trading.

Cayden was having a blast in ColdStone after our family pictures. I love this picture...he looks like a big kid with his baggy jeans, untucked shirt and unkempt hair.

Alyssa tried so hard to catch some dinner.

Holiday Parade!

Today was the Annual Holiday Parade in Tomball. Daddy and Alyssa were very excited because they got to ride in the stagecoach!! Cayden, Mommy, MawMaw and PawPaw got to watch all the fun floats, horses, Shriners cars, etc go by. Daddy and Alyssa were very early in the parade, so we got to watch a lot of the floats near the end. It was a beautiful (and cold) morning.

Cayden is watching intently to see what float is next!!

Alyssa and Daddy riding in the parade!!

What Holiday Parade is complete without Santa & Mrs. Claus? Mrs. Claus must be checking up on things at the North Pole...if you can see, she's on a cell phone!!

Cute Story

I'm going to try and be a better blogger and provide you with classic stories of childhood. Particularly the things my kids do that crack me up!

Tonight, at dinner, we were sitting around and I said to Cayden: "I love you Bear."
Alyssa looked at me very seriously and said: "Dad, can you tell me - I love you Goldilocks?"

I wasn't even thinking that he was a little Bear for Halloween, so it caught me off guard for a second. April started cracking up and I realized what she had just said! So - I love you Goldilocks!!

Random October Pictures!

Weekend Trip

So, after halloween, we took a quick trip to Lake Charles to see the great grandparents, grandparents, great aunts, uncles, etc.

Cayden playing with his truck

Alyssa playing hide and seek!! She was the best hider and seeker!!Showing Uncle Mitch all the worms she found!!

Playing with Daddy's cousins. She had so much fun with cousins Hannah and Hailey. She wanted to rush home and make them a card to thank them for playing with her! So did Mommy and Daddy - it was nice having adult conversations and letting the teenage girls chase around the babies!!

So much for rushing home to write a thank you letter!! Alyssa crashed out on the way home!
Cayden must have been having a great dream! :)

Halloween!!

Ok...so i'm a week late. Sue me. Here's the kids dressed up for Halloween. Alyssa was Goldilocks and Cayden was the little bear!

Daddy trying to steal some candy!

After a few houses, Cayden got the hang of it and really enjoyed getting candy!

Daddy enjoyed it too!! More for me!

Knee update

Yesterday was the big day. We got to the hospital around 9:45 to get checked in. Sometime around 10:30 they called me back and started up on the iv's. They put in a nerve blocker in my thigh to help dull the pain during recovery. April said I slept a lot, then they finally brought me back into the OR. I remember getting on the table, putting on the oxygen mask and the Dr. telling me that i'd feel a slight "stinging" sensation in my arm from the anesthesia medicine. Next thing I know, i'm getting dressed to go home!

The pain has been pretty dull, however I definitely know it's there! I've been resting a lot between yesterday and today since rehab starts tomorrow!

I'm going to try and scan the pics the doc gave me, but essentially I completely tore my acl, had a partial tear of the MCL and tore the medial and lateral meniscus. They used portions of my tendon and bone to repair the acl and put an anchor in to repair my meniscus.

ok...back to bed. I'm tired!

Pumpkin Patch

Today was the day of our annual trek to the Pumpkin Patch at our church! The kids had a good time. Cayden LOVED all the "balls".

Alyssa and Cayden walking down the "yellow brick road"
Dorky Matching Outfits :)
Alyssa wanted the biggest pumpkin she could find!

Cayden showing the latest "ball" he found!