Adventures in Our Home & Hearts: Double the Harrisons = Double the Fun

Giving God Glory
Wes' Witnessing Opportunity - Praise God for saving Wes' co-worker! As they have been going through the book of John, Wes' co-worker realized that he was not saved. As Wes answered his questions about salvation, God opened the young man's understanding to the gospel and helped him to grasp the good news. They are continuing to study the book of John and are over halfway. Wes and I are so thrilled at the work God is doing in this man's heart, and Wes is already seeing fruit in his life!

A Classmate in Heaven - One of my high school classmates and friends, Simeon, went home to be with the Lord. He had been battling cancer for a long time and put up a great fight not only physically, but spiritually as well. His cousin, Philip, kept us classmates updated through e-mails and in one of his last updates he mentioned that Simeon would want us to know - "I know where I am going, and I am at peace with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Praise the Lord! Another reminder that this world is not our home, and we do not know how many days the Lord has for us...so live each day fully for Him!

What's on the Harrison's Hearts
Gratefulness for God's Kindness & Peace With Our Miscarriage - Last month, we were thrilled to find out that we were pregnant, but that thrill was short-lived. A week after learning about our little one, I had a miscarriage at 6 weeks along. Through this trial, God showed us His kindness by sparing us from many aspects of the miscarriage being a lot worse, and He gave us His peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:6-7). Thank you for praying for us!

Praises & Prayers
Tami - Continued prayers for God to give the doctors wisdom and discernment since the test results have not been helping determine what is causing Tami's short-term memory loss.
Kyle & Kristen - Praise for purchasing their 1st home! Congratulations!
Wendy - Prayer that she passed her CFP exam. We look forward to hearing good news soon! :)
Josh - Continued prayers for God's provision daily and for a job as their family continues to wait on Him.
Our family - Prayer that God would grow our family in His perfect timing.
Wes - Prayer for perseverance and a tender heart with his schooling. Prayer for God to continue to use him as a witness with Noah and at work, specifically in discipling his co-worker.
Me - Prayer for my body and hormones to finish stabilizing after the miscarriage. Prayer for being a witness with Noah, the girls I tutor, and new friendships.
Noah - God would graciously save him. Prayer for wisdom, patience, unity, and consistency for Wes and me in training Noah as he is trying to communicate more and also expressing more of his desires (and sometimes in unacceptable ways). Praise that he seems to be growing more in socializing well with others, including Grandpa Rush. :)

Marriage Memories

Movie Double-Date - Thanks to my dad, we received FREE tickets to the movie, Letters to God, and were able to invite our friends, Chris & Anna-Lisa, to join us for free too! We enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it - watch the credits for Integrity Bank & Trust! :) Afterwards we had fun catching up with our friends, who are expecting their first little girl - Aubri - anytime now. We can't wait to meet her! We think she's going to arrive the size of Noah presently - if you know them, you know what I'm talking about. :) Thanks for the great time Dad, Chris, and A-L!

Green Thumb & Twiddle Thumbs - Can you guess which refers to Wes and which is me? Good ol' Green Thumb is Wes because he loves when the weather warms up, and he is able to get outside to take care of our yard. He considers it very enjoyable and even somewhat theraputic to pluck dandelions and such. I, on the otherhand, sit outside (often in boredom) and twiddle my thumbs while he couldn't be happier. I love the outdoors, but I realized that I love doing activities (hiking, camping, skiing etc.) in the outdoors and not so much taking care of the outdoors. Fortunately, Noah provides quite the entertainment these days when we're outside; so we all enjoy our time as a family in our yard, and I no longer am twiddling my thumbs. :)

Family Fun

Beginning the Playdate Adventure - Noah and I officially had our 1st playdate with a couple neighbor moms and kids we met at our community park. It works out that between the 3 of us moms that all of our kiddos have a playmate - Noah & Jack (2 weeks apart) and Carly & Bryce (6 months apart). Moms and kids hit it off so well our first playdate that we decided to start having weekly playdates and rotating who hosts and serves lunch. Yea!!! - for social time for moms and kids!

Noah & Jack

Tutoring Update - Tutoring is going very well, and I am enjoying helping my 3 girls learn and grow! Summer is thriving in reading, writing, and math and has been learning concepts that she had not been able to grasp in a traditional classroom setting. The 2 sisters and neighbors, Courtney and Hannah, have made major progress in their reading, which is what I have been focusing on with them. They have also grown alot in their love for God, which is what excites me the most! We finished reading through their Bibles together, and I let them choose what they wanted to learn about God next. They decided - "How to tell others about Jesus." So, we made a chart discussing the W's of witnessing to give them all kinds of ideas, and they decided that during their earned "choice time" that they wanted to each draw a picture for a friend to tell them about Jesus. Courtney drew a picture of Jesus dying on the cross and wrote questions on her picture such as "Do you know that Jesus died on the cross for your sins?" Hannah drew a picture of heaven and wrote questions such as "Do you know that you need to believe in Jesus to go to heaven? I did not help them with their pictures at all; they came up with everything themselves. I am so thankful for the privilege God has given me to pour into my little "disciples" since their parents gave me permission to teach them about God and the Bible when I first started working with them.

Our W's of Witnessing Ideas and Hannah & Courtney with Their Pictures

Playing in the Snow - We got a blast of some serious snow, and we had a blast playing in it! Noah figured out how to get around in his snowsuit a little better compared to last time, which enabled him to have more fun. Courtney and Hannah came over to play with Noah for a bit, which he liked too!

Wes & Noah with Neighbor Girls - Courtney & Hannah

From Sheltie to She-lion - Wes got the biggest kick at Sierra's expense by shaving her like a lion. I had to remind myself - she's just a dog... the hair will grow back... he's not going to do this kind of thing to Noah... (I hope)... :) We did both agree that she looked hilarious and hideous. See for yourself...

Poor Sierra...

Noah News

Age - 14 Months

1sts - attempting to run, which is quite entertaining :)

# of Teeth - 4 - 2 top & 2 bottom

# of Words - jibber-jabbering more each day but no official words yet. Noah points all the time now when he wants something or to show us something. Finally, we feel like all the signing we've been doing since he was 6 months old is starting to pay off! Noah will consistently sign "please" (in his own version) when he is asking for something. He also understands several words we say/sign:

"Eat" - he goes to his highchair.
"Outside" - he goes to one of the doors that we use to go outside.

"Daddy's home" - he gets all excited and goes to the door to the garage where Wes comes in.

Latest Loves

The outdoors!!!

Helping Daddy outside
Walking down the sidewalk & waving at cars that drive by
Playing with rocks
Bathtime
Reading
Throwing a ball (sort of)
Pushing around large objects - shopping cart, his toy basket, his high chair
Climbing up & down the mattress/bed on the floor in his bedroom
Clapping
"Brushing his teeth" himself with his little toothbrush like Daddy & Mommy
Chasing Sierra around
Waving his bib at Sierra after a meal while she tries to snag the crumbs
Eating out of his cheerios cup made for not spilling - Thanks Uncle Aaron & Aunt Kim! :)
Favorite toy = birthday cake that lights up & plays music - Thanks Uncle Papa & Auntie Gigi!

Enjoying the Outdoors & His Cheerios

Feeding His Mind & Sierra

Walking & Waving at Cars that Drive By

Other Intriguing Info
*Not again! - Noah has always had seperation anxiety to some degree, but we got him used to being dropped off at our church nursery on Sunday mornings. Well, we moved locations recently, and sure enough, his seperation anxiety came back full force. He's adjusted well over the past few weeks, and we hope it lasts!

*Doing the Dino - Noah has a couple dino pjs - one with prints & one with "Snuggle Saurus" written on it. It never fails that when he has these pjs on that he walks around like a dino and makes dino noises - well, we think they'd be what a dino sounds like. I guess no one really knows how a dino sounds. :) It's quite amusing!

*Slapstick happy - Noah is so funny when he's tired and about ready for bed! He walks/stumbles around our living room turning in circles, falling down, and laughing deliriously the entire time. He also gets what we call "crazy eyes" where he makes the most bizarre expressions and rolls his eyes back and such.

*Sleepy spells - There was a couple week stretch where our boy would sleep approximately 14.5 hours at night (6 pm to about 8:30 am) and take 2 one hour naps during the day! (Normally he sleeps about 13 hours from 6 pm - 7 am with 2 one hour naps, which is still great.) Noah was only awake for the length of time that most of us sleep! He is definitely living up to his name which means "comfort, rest, peace."

Memorable Moment of the Month

Kim (sister-in-law), Abigail (our niece/Noah's cousin), & Aaron (Wes' brodeezie)

Double the Harrison Fun - We had a wonderful time with Aaron, Kim, and Abigail when they came out to visit! It was so much fun to see Noah (13 months at the time) and Abby (7 months) interact. Their favorite game involved pulling each other's noses, ears, and whatever else they could get their hands on that belonged to their cousin. Highlights include: hiking in Garden of the Gods, playing at Whit's End at Focus on the Family, celebrating Easter, and hanging out together. Lowlights include: Abby (and parents) not sleeping well, and Noah's seperation anxiety issues. We're so glad you came out to see us Aaron, Kim, & Abby! :)