Harris Haps

Favorite Foto Friday

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:59:00 +0000

Yesterday we took Miles to the dentist for the first time. He was so nervous going in but by the looks of it (notice his arms and legs) he got real comfortable with it. The office staff was getting a kick out of it too.

So, what's happening?

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:33:00 +0000

Nothing too exciting. I do have to say I love where I live and I love my family. Here are some of the reasons why...

I started my day riding my bike to the beach with this little cutie

Then we picked up the other boys from school and headed to Anaheim for some training

Jedi Training, that is

Miles fought Darth Vader!

Gavin fought Darth Maul

And Miles was sporting this silly, sideways face the whole time. What is that about?

Miles learned to ride a 2-wheeled bike with the help of some friendly competition with his best friend Jack

I'm loving that it's feeling more like summer around here (not that we have harsh winters or anything :) I started a very little garden

And this is what spring break looked like. I love spending time with my family. I'm glad my parents are within driving distance. 7 out of 8 siblings were able to get together.

The Easter bunny found us

And we were so glad we got to spend time with our grammy and cousins this weekend

Cuddling lizards

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:38:00 +0000

"Hey mom, come look at these lizards cuddling!"
Uh, ya. There is a little more than cuddling going on. One of the lizards has the other one's head in his mouth. The kids were getting super close to them and they didn't move a muscle. Lots of lizards around here lately. And I'm guessing there will be more... if you know what I mean ;)

3 Funny Things about Miles

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:21:00 +0000

1) He has great ideas
Two of Miles' favorite stores to go with me are Costco and Target. Target because he gets an Icee and Costco because he loves their dogs. So the other day he had a bright idea while enjoying his "costcodog". He took a seed off the bun and said, "I'm taking this home and planting it. I want a costcodog tree!"

Just look at the joy it brings him

2) He lives half his life in some galaxy far, far away.
These days everything has jet packs

3) He is very expressive with his face

Some day I'd like to make a collage of all the fun faces he's made in photos. It is very rare to capture a simple smile with this guy.

Favorite Foto Friday

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:21:00 +0000

Tate LOVES his older brothers. And they are so good to him.

Star Chart

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:09:00 +0000

So people have been asking me how I have such obedient, well-mannered children. Ya right! I'm only posting this because I'm so excited I found something that works and that may work for others too. Of course my boys aren't the model children but they are now leaning more that way.
So the chart is very simple. I did an image search for "grid" and found a chart that suited my needs. I have 1 for each boy with their name on it stuck to the side of the cabinet kitchen. And I just write in stars (no stickers).
These are our rules...
-there are 3 potential stars a day. if they obey all rules and listen to mom and dad, they get all 3 stars at the end of the day. (throughout the day I can keep them on task by telling them they may not get all 3 stars with a particular behavior)
-stars cannot be taken away once they are on the chart.
-each row of stars filled, they get $3
-they can do extra things to earn extra stars- chores, workbook pages, etc.

What I love about this method of discipline..
-rewards the positive
-they have something they can see their progress toward a reward ($$)
-teaches them they have to work to get things
-they encourage each other to do good so that they can always have the same amount of stars. (At times they have competed to have more stars than the other. But now they help the one with less stars to catch up.)
-they learn to save $ for what they really want to buy (they get excited when they see something they want and realize mom can't say no because they can buy it themselves.)

So there you have it. Thought I'd share what is working here in the Harris household.

Little angels, they are!

Call with my dad...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:28:00 +0000

Wow that week flew by. The conference call with my dad was last week. He had some interesting experiences and got emotional as he shared some lessons he learned.
My sister Tahne was typing the whole time so here are some excerpts...

Next morning, Saturday, had a buffet breakfast, then flew over to Haiti, to Port-au-Prince. Circled for awhile before able to land. Mission President and several others from the Church there, brought patients to the airport, carrying them on a door (because there are no stretchers there). One man, 70 yrs old with a broken hip, and another person with another injury. Loaded them on plane to be treated in Santo Domingo. I stayed in Haiti.

We left the airport with Mission President and the Stake President, driving in one vehicle. In Haiti there are no foreign missionaries, all missionaries are from Haiti. The UN has been there trying to control the violence for years. Haiti is the poorest country in western hemisphere. Everything is really primitive, like small Mexican towns.
We took off that day and went to one of the local chapels, they had arranged for us to see pts there. Many, many people had heard we had a doctor, they came and we saw 50 or 60 patients, in the chapel. The Church there has 8 ft walls, and iron gates, and with no one sleeping in their homes, there, because of the aftershocks, they are all sleeping outside. So many people flooded the church, parking lots, sidewalks, people sleeping there for past week. Only about 20% of the people inside the church compound are members. But the church is run by generators, and very few people have generators there. There were a number of injured people , many had never seen a doctor before. I’ll tell you about a couple patients: one , just before we were packing to leave (the Mission President told us we needed to leave by dark because he couldn’t assure our safety after dark), a patient was brought in by 2 people – he had just been run over by a water truck, had a horribly torn apart leg, we spent at least an hour sewing on an 8-inch gash 1 ½ feet long. I always put on gloves when touching wounds or etc. Another with a head injury we needed to sew up, we did have novocaine, I was filling syringes and having medical students do the novocaine; they didn’t know what they were doing, and I didn’t realize that at the time. Another, a 20-year old young girl, people came running in, screaming that she was about to deliver, I ran out the door, ran with them out the front gates, into a big city park, about 2 blocks square, thousands of people in it, with tarps over them for cover, no privacy, and a girl in a mumu dress, no privacy, I had to go it right there. She laid down on the ground, lifted up her dress, 70 people watching, kids, husbands, people watching as I give her a pelvic exam. I kept asking people to move away, no one would. We set up a table for her back in the chapel, we were closing up, she was having contractions, and a truck finally took her to the local hospital.
We all had bullet-proof vests that Jeremy gave to us the first day and told us to wear them. I never wore it. I carried a knife in my pocket every day, and I had taken pepper spray, but after first day I didn’t carry the pepper spray with me. I didn’t see any violence, didn’t worry about my safety.
But in driving around, I never saw 1 hotel or 1 restaurant, or an open store, or hotel/restaurant of any kind, in driving around for hours. Many buildings totally destroyed, rubble everywhere, difficult getting around the city. 2,3, 4-story buildings, all made of concrete. So when the bottom levels collapsed, the top ones all collapsed on top. Buildings had collapsed on cars, I only saw 2 tractors and 1 crane in all the time I was in that city. No resources, no infrastructure, cracks in roofs of places, streets hard to get around, rubble covering sidewalks, so people walking in the streets, around ruined cars, making the streets into one-lane street, no traffic stoplights.

A medical team that went down, that we met up with -- a Dean of a medical school from Colorado, the Dean had called his LDS medical student and said he knew the Church goes in to help with things like this, and asked him to get them down there. The Dean and some medical students came, stayed with us, ran clinics with us at the church. Great challenges in distribution of supplies and also of communication. Only had 3 cell carriers, and one went out. But dropped calls all the time, needed an international phone, like the Mission President and the Stake President had international phones. Transportation was a big issue. Hard to get gas, big lines, big traffic jams anywhere there was a gas station. Meals cooked by nonmember Haitians. Like breakfast was cooked spaghetti noodles with a bottle of ketchup (I didn’t eat breakfast that day). Had dry, dry bread and tasteless biscuits. Had hard eggs and sardines one morning, from church’s supplies. Sardines there each time we ate.

2^nd day, went to another chapel, 10 miles across town, took 1 ½ hours, no electricity, no lights, went outside on pavement, stayed for several hours, seeing many patients. I had taken some fruit cups of peaches, etc. so I lived on those. There was trash everywhere, with everyone living in the streets, people just threw it down. The whole city was the toilet. People squatted and peed and pooed wherever they could. Dead bodies were everywhere, I even saw a pile of dead bodies. Much of Port-au-Prince is shanty town. The Church is baptizing 14 people per week in Haiti. It’s a few million people, but very small geographically.

Many of the people around there have never seen a bathtub or a shower. They do bucket baths. Right across the street from the church, where they had a source of water, from a water truck, would have bikini bottoms on and nothing on top, girls/women just bathing in the open, bathing in buckets. Occasionally we saw hand-pump wells, like at one church. 98% of the people very, very thin. They eat a few veggies a day and a little rice. In my days there, I only saw a handful of fat people. There’s also no tourist industry because of all the violence. No need for hotels or restaurants or anything like that.

3^rd day we spent trying to organize relief efforts. Unloaded trucks. Went to a big university hospital, some buildings completely pancaked, many cracks in many of the walls. Bill and Chelsea Clinton came in about 5 minutes after we got there, and we saw all the press and people with the Clintons. Was within a few feet of bill Clinton, whole entourage with several people and AKA rifles, took several pictures with him in background.

The Church is to start giving out medical supplies on Tuesday. A jet plane has been coming back and forth each day, taking supplies around to the various places. We kept in contact with the Mission President, they did a lot of work flying back and forth. We were turned over to the Church leaders, and they took us around.

The Mission President, Pres Joseph, is a native of Haiti. Fluent English. Looks about 15 years old. About 5-5, 125 lbs. biggest smile, ear-to-ear, great guy. He served a mission there in Haiti. He has the most beautiful teeth, very handsome guy, his badge looked like a normal missionary badge. So when I first met him, and I shook his hand, I thought he was one of the regular missionaries. I didn’t realize that he was the Mission President! He’s married, and the first night we flew in, he took his wife out of the country to deliver their new baby in Dominican Republic. Very impressive guy. The Stake President there is a man of God. 27 years old. They were a few Stake Presidents (one had been previous Mission Pres, now a Stk Pres).

What made me come home Monday night was there were 4 doctors coming in that night on the plane, and 10 more scheduled to come in on Tuesday. With the limited communication and limited transportation, there will be doctors standing around doing nothing because they can’t get to where they’re needed.

I left all my antbiotics. I took a few hundred dollars worth of unused medical supplies – bandaids, suture material, and I left it all. Now as I prepare for the future, I will be buying more medical supplies and replace my things. Betadine was really needed, to put on big infections and raw areas. Now I know that for the future, I will need gallon bottles of Betadine.

I did have to treat a girl with a horribly injured toe, had to amputate part of her toe. I stuck the needle in a few different places, cut off a lot of dead skin and had to take out lots of sand in the toe. Once you open fingers or toes, and break the skin, they get really large, like a sponge. Her toe was very infected, she’d never had antibiotics. I gave her antibiotics, and cleaned her wound out really well, and told her to return in a couple days. Orthopedic surgeons were coming. There were lots of fractures, toes, feet, femurs, legs. We didn’t know how badly the breaks were, we just had to do the best we could. Mainly tried to clean up infections, give them antibiotics, save their limbs, save their lives.

Just before I left, as I was waiting in the airport, a little boy dressed like a girl (because those were the only clothes there were to dress in) was just laying on the ground on the cement at the airport, other people told us that his parents were dead. I bought him a meal, gave him ritz crackers and candies, and within 5 minutes our interpreter found out that there were some girls who were looking for orphans. The boy had on gold-with-rhinestones flipflops. We think the girls found him, hopefully they took him away. We also took some injured patients with us on the plane. To transport the people, we would load up all the stuff and then cover it with a tarp, so no one could see what was on the truck. In the plane, we had to lay down one of the seats, and the patients lifted their legs up on the adjacent seat. One girl with an open wound 4 inches in diameter, on antibiotics the day before, and we took her – she will need iv antibiotics for several days. Another guy with ruptured scrotum, his testicle hanging 10 inches below the scrotum, great pain, very infected, sent him to Dominican Republic to be treated there.

QUESTION ASKED --Would you go back? No reason for me to go back, right now, within the next week or so all the injuries will be treated. I couldn’t have gone if I’d had to pay my own way there. Jeremy has spent millions of dollars there, taken at least 20 people down, $60 grand each way from Utah to Haiti. He has a couple of hired full-time pilots, and Jeremy now owns several helicopters. Jeremy is still there, working and coordinating. HE is responsible for saving the lives and limbs of hundreds of people, transporting orphans, alleviating pain and suffering. We were able to get the LDS people quickly taken care of, and many, many others. We were the first LDS doctors there. I spent every minute with the leader over the Caribbean missions. We only had ibuprofen for pain. Thousands of cases of water, thousands of mattresses, medical supplies in different containers are already there, and they’re being unloaded now. What a great opportunity, I’m really glad I went but could never afford to do this on my own. A couple of the guys, a bishop and a ward member, spent the whole day taking us around, I just pulled out my wallet and gave them each $20 bucks, they looked like I’d given them $1000 dollar bill. They were very very appreciative. I never felt one aftershock. Tasha and Tessa had packed a big bag of clothing and shoes, and Tina bought a bunch of Tootsie Pops suckers, and I was able to give all those to the people we were treating. I walked around and gave every patient at the hospital a sucker. When there were families, everyone in the family reached their hands out and wanted suckers. Gave suckers to every patient there, thanks to Tina, and Brit’s idea. Fun to be able to do. They don’t have candy like that, and to have it during a crisis like this was fun, I was happy to be able to do that.

I just want people to know how generous Jeremy is to put together a trip like this for people.

My Dad is home...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:41:00 +0000

Well, my dad arrived home last night. I've talked with him briefly a few times but I'm looking forward to the conference call we are doing tonight with all the siblings. He says he has many experiences to share with us. He took 3 disposable cameras full of photos that are being developed today too. It was a life changing experience for him but more importantly it was life changing for those he helped. The limited medical supplies he was able to bring from his own stock pile saved many lives. He did many procedures that he had never done or seem before. The first question I had for him was "how many amputations did you do?" -since I heard that about 70 were being performed a day. He said, luckily he only did one toe.
He was working mostly out of the LDS churches. Each day he'd travel to a church and set up shop for the day until he had taken care of everyone in the line. He said about 10-15% were members of the church. The church was by far the most organized unit the first couple days. The members knew where to go for food, water and medical help. The engineer for the construction of the chapels and the mission president's home lives on the outskirts of the city on a large farm. The church was one of the first to bring in supplies in large shipping containers and drop them off at this nonmember's property. What a blessing it is to be a member of the church and know that we would be taken care of if this happens to us. The members down there are getting what they need and the relief efforts are being extended to non-members also.

the latest

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:16:00 +0000

Monday-
The latest from my mom...I haven't heard from him the last two nights, but Britin called and she had a call from the wife of a man who went down yesterday on a chartered flight out of St. George. He said Walt is still at the mission president's home, working out of the church and that they have been busy doing surgery after surgery. They are working through and with the church which makes me feel better as I know they will be looked after.

My Dad in Haiti...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:38:00 +0000

What a life changing experience my dad is having right now. He left early Friday morning for Haiti. You can read the article here of how it all came about. The "millionaire" is my brother-in-law's boss. Last night my mom got to talk to him. She says... "Walt called me tonight and today he flew into Port-au-Prince and is at the home of the mission president. He said things have calmed down. They were in a church today and word got out and people came in on their own to see the doctors. He thought that that was where he would be spending the night, but he didn't know for how long. Jeremy Johnson's plane that he flew in on picked up injured people and flew them to Santa Domingo for help. Britin just told me tonight, that Jeremy gave them all bullet-proof vests and said they had to wear them while they were there. Walt's roommate last night was a missionary who recently returned from his mission in Port-au-Prince. He went down as an interpreter." She also said that he hasn't had much food to eat... along with all the others down there in Haiti.
Meanwhile, I anxiously await news every night of the service he is giving and the conditions he's experiencing down there. Will update blog if I hear anything noteworthy.

A look at past x-mas cards...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:33:00 +0000

We wish our friends and family a Merry Christmas! We love each of you and are thankful you are part of our lives.
Enjoy some of the cards I found in my file...

Favorite Foto Friday

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Giving the puppy kisses. He gets so giddy around dogs... it's funny. And he can tell you what a dog says. Yep, that's his first animal sound.

Some photos from a fun day...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:43:00 +0000

We had so much fun as a family enjoying what the tourists that travel from far away come to see... thanks Shawn and Ruth for giving us your rain check tickets!
And for those who have asked when I posted on facebook... we took the 3:30 boat from Dana Wharf Sportfishing. It was a 2 hour trip... sounds long with kids, but the time flew and the sunset was awesome.

Favorite Foto Friday

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:42:00 +0000

This was taken with my phone so the quality it poor but I love the blurred effect and the colors. And I especially love the look on Gavin's face. It captures the joy of being at Disneyland. Yes... we are back! We got our passes again, now that it is manageable with the little Tater. I LOVE taking the boys there.

Happy Birthday...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:21:00 +0000

Our little Tater Tot is 1 !!
He loved Sea Life Aquarium today.

Favorite Foto Friday

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:33:00 +0000

I like this photo for 2 reasons: It is rare that I'm in a photo with all 3 boys and they are looking at the camera. And our family loves this particular hike. It is at the top of Las Ramblas, if you live in the area. 360 degree views of ocean and rolling hills.

Model Child...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:34:00 +0000

Tate landed his first modeling job!
My sister-in-law, Karen, has a friend that has just started her own kids clothing line called Rocker Roos. It is very cute and all original. Tate really liked the clothes too and wanted to model them. Check out the site here.

Favorite Foto Friday

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:28:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:42:00 +0000

Can you tell Miles is enjoying school? I took this photo today at our house. Miles was so very excited that I was teaching this week. I'm in a group with 4 other moms and we rotate teaching. We took this photo because we were learning about opposites and we wanted to see who was the tallest and who was the shortest. I love that I get to teach him and that he is getting taught by my close friends.

Giggling Tate...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:24:00 +0000

Ya, it's been a while since I've posted. I think I'll be more motivated to post often if I know I'm going to keep it short. So here goes the start of my short posts...

Happy Birthday...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:21:00 +0000

...to dad and Miles. Can't believe my baby Miles is 4!

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:14:00 +0000

A big THANK YOU goes to Grammy for taking on these 3 rascals...

... So Nate and I could do this...

Here are some highlights from Maui...

hiking to and jumping off waterfalls

another hike to a beautiful picnic spot

enjoying the view from our lanai early in the morning

boat ride out to Molokini to snorkel

driving on one lane roads

for views like this

oooohhh and romantic evenings on the beach after a relaxing dinner

back to the everyday craziness that I missed

You might not know...

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:17:00 +0000

I thought I'd post photos from the last month about things you may not know about us lately...

Tate has got his first tooth and just this last week, his second

And he absolutely loves the water... I think more than my other boys did

And he eats sand by the handfuls...

And likes it!

And he is still putting up with his brothers

And man, is he protected by his older bro Miles. Here he is telling his friends they can't touch him.

Miles is ready for summer! He was so done with preschool and now he is perfecting his swimming skills. He is a great little swimmer for being just 3.

Gavin graduates from Kindergarten tomorrow! This year went fast and he learned so much from these 3 great teachers. It is very fun to see so much learning and growth in 1 year.

And the most exciting news...
We have 2 new nieces and cousins born these last few weeks. And we got to meet one of them a few hours after birth.

Baby Ava. Born just 1 week ago to my brother Brandon and Karen

And baby Lila. Born May 16th to Nathan's sister Kelli and Jared.

Oh, and I had to post this one because it is too funny.

Halfy Birthday to Tate!

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:43:00 +0000

Tate's halfy birthday was now 2 weeks ago. He is 6 months old! He is 14 pounds, can roll over, can almost sit up by himself and goes without nursing at night. I'm most excited about the last milestone. Now I can pretend I'm asleep when I hear him scream in the middle of the night. Yes, I have a wonderful husband that knows I'm happier with a good night's rest.

Is that Gav?

noreply@blogger.com (*megan) — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:32:00 +0000

I had fun watching Gav last week at his school music demonstration. It was surprising to me that he wasn't shy about singing it out and doing the hand movements.
Gavin Singing