You Can't Get Any Cuter Than This...

~TURN UP YOUR VOLUME~

So...
Maggie, Josh, Dexter, and I returned from Indiana today after celebrating the Holiday with his family this past weekend. We were winding down in the bonus room tonight and since Maggie is becoming quite the pro at sitting up, I decided to play a bit with her.

Little did I know that beating on the floor would thrill her so.

You just can't get any cuter than this!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christ-MOOSE from Maggie...

Merry Christ-MOOSE from Maggie, Alie, Josh, and Dexter!

Our Christmas this year was out of this world. We had a fun filled Holiday season. On Christmas Eve, we headed over to Long Hollow Baptist Church for their Christmas Eve Service. It was wonderful. Maggie loved all the singing! I can tell she is really going to have a true appreciation for music as she continues to grow. I wish you could have seen her dancing, swinging her legs, and "talking" while the choirs were singing. Too funny!

Christmas morning we headed over to Brea's house to celebrate with them. It was awesome. Maggie opened her presents and honestly, loved the ribbon that JuJu attached to one of Maggie's gifts the best. Go figure. She got an awesome Tickle-Me-Elmo from the Freeman crew that is too cute. She really enjoyed playing with her goodies. JuJu and Poppy Eddie got her tons of goodies including clothes and some great toys for the car. Grandma and Papa Charles got Maggie (really Josh) this cool Build Your Own Straw kit and a 12 Days of Christmas Elmo. Aunt Janie and Uncle Dickie got Mags an adorable outfit. We loved everything!

After Brea's house, we returned home. We decided that we would celebrate our Christmas with Maggie. We "Santa" got her a ride on car for when she is little bit bigger, Taylor the Talking Turtle that is too cute, some clothes, building blocks, and some other smaller toys for playing around the house with. She is really starting to get into her toys because she can really hold and pick up stuff now. It is awesome to watch!

She is learning everyday more and more. Now she is really working on sitting up, which she loves to do so she can play with her toys.

As you can tell, the building blocks were a HUGE hit with Mags. Taylor the Talking Turtle is adorable as well (you can see it behind Maggie).

Then it was time for pictures with Mommy and Daddy!

We had a great time hosting the family Christmas Get-Together for Mom's side of the family this year. Everyone got to come and it was wonderful to see how much our once small family has grown to about 40 adults and children. We had a house full, but it was for sure filled with lots of love.

Hope each of you had a very Merry Christmas!

So Normally I Am Not That Competitive...

Normally, I am not that much of a competitive person. Sure, I teach PE and I am always wanting my kiddos to win in games, but in life, competition doesn't matter much to me.

Until today!

Our awesome photographer, Angela Crutcher, who did Maggie's newborn pictures is having a contest. She is allowing the public to vote on their favorite picture of 2007...

Guess who just happens to be Number 9...Ms. MAGGIE!

I am pumped and would love to win the awesome prize that she is offering of a mounted 11X14 or 12X12. Check it out and vote for Mags if you feel she is the cutest one.

What a great idea!

Click here to get to her site!

Go Maggie Go!

...Happy Birthday Honey...

Today, Josh turns 27...I wish him the best birthday yet.

I am so proud of him and all of his many accomplishments.

He is the best father to Baby Maggie.

He is so brave and such a happy person to be with.

Thank you for always loving me!

Happy Birthday Joshie!

Mags & Mary Elizabeth

How cute is this?

...Maggie Holland Harris 4 months 3 weeks...

&

...Mary Elizabeth Freeman 4 months 1 week...

The Holland Girls...

I love these pictures.

Josh took these pictures recently and I just adore them.

This one is of myself, my sister Brea, and our beautiful mom, JuJu.

I also love this picture of my sister, Brea.

I swear...I have never seen a bad picture of her...This is no exception. She just looks like she is glowing!

I love them both very much!

December...

Already? Seems like the days are just flying by.

Are you ready for Christmas? We are so thrilled this year to be able to host our family Christmas Get Together for my Mom's side of the family. It should be a lot of fun.

We traveled up to Indiana after Thanksgiving to visit with Josh's side of the family. We had a great time visiting the new West Baden Dome Hotel and French Lick Hotel and Casino. It is amazing to see how much that small town has grown. The sights were just amazing! Everything was decorated for Christmas and it was a great time to spend with Grammy Pammy and Papa Jerry!

Maggie Moo is starting to eat cereal and some veggies...How exciting! She is really getting the hang of opening her mouth when we say "bite." It is so cute to watch her eat and the excitement she has when it is time to eat. (Notice Dexter in the second picture...Just waiting for a turn!!!)

Ms. Mary Elizabeth sure is growing! She returned to the dr. this past week and is up to 7 pounds 6 ounces. Thought I would share this picture Uncle Josh captured on Thanksgiving Day...This was taken on Mom's hardwood floor. How great is this???

Don't we have the cutest kiddos?
This was on Thanksgiving Day!

Today is my Dad's birthday...I wish him the best birthday yet. Some of my favorite memories of my Dad are from when Anna Boo was born. I will never forget those times. Papa Eddie also stayed with Josh almost the whole time he was in the hospital. I know that still means the world to me and I think Josh still can't believe that Dad would have done that for him. He is an amazing man and I love him very much!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Thanksgiving...

I know that there are so many things in my life that I have to be thankful for. I find that everyday that list just continues to grow. I know this Thanksgiving I am thankful for beautiful Maggie. I remember that last year at JuJu's house for Thanksgiving we announced that we were pregnant. What an exciting time! We wanted our family to know so that they could pray for a healthy pregnancy...Baby Maggie has been the biggest blessing in our lives. She is so loving, happy, content, peaceful, and just plain fun. I love to watch my family interact with her. She has grown to have great relationships with everyone around her.

My mom, JuJu, is determined to teach her how to say the word "good." She is actually getting really good at it! My dad just loves to talk to her and Maggie just soaks it all in. Aunt Brea loves spending Tuesday time with her. It is so awesome to see Maggie look at Baby Mary. She is just fascinated with her. Anna Boo is adorable with Mags. She just loves on her and helps out anytime she can! She is the best little "personal assistant" ever!

The sweetest relationship of all I have to say is with her daddy. Josh just loves her to no end. They have started this little routine of him feeding her at night and then just falling asleep on his chest. Josh is so warm that she just feels so safe and peaceful with him. After her evening bath, Josh will sometimes dance with her around the bedroom to settle her and get her ready to sleep. It is such a blessing to watch his relationship with her grow.

I am thankful for my sweet Josh. To think that he was so sick three months ago and to see him now recovering everyday, makes my heart feel complete. The Lord worked a great miracle in his life and I am so thankful for that.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

~Photographer Josh took all of these awesome 4 month shots of sweet Maggie~

What A Sad Day...

My school received some really sad news this afternoon. Our dear friend and fellow co-worker, Mr. Brad Keitzman, passed away this morning. It brought me to tears and even still does. I just can't believe that he has passed on. If you were given the HONOR of meeting Mr. Keitzman, you were a better person for it. He was a fantastic teacher and a great friend.

We did find out that Mrs. Keitzman started a blog for Brad's journey...keitzman.blogspot.com. It is amazing to read and see just how fast the Lord decided to take Brad home to Heaven. He had only been diagnosed about a month until his passing.

Please pray for the Keitzman family. What a sad day...

The Many Hats of Maggie Holland

...The Many Hats of Maggie Holland...

It's been a while since I have blogged. I am not sure why. I have had the time, just had other things to get done.

Maggie and I went this past Wednesday for her 4 Month check-up. We were a little early. At some point our appt. dates got off with her actually monthly birthday, so we were a bit early. She weighed in at 13 pounds 10 ounces and measured 24 inches long. Her doctor said that she is doing great! She is constantly sleeping through the night! What a great little girl!

Josh is feeling good. He decreased one of his medications that he hates to be on and so far is doing well without the added dosage. We are both gearing up for the holidays. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is Thursday? How crazy is that?

Josh and I are planning on traveling up to Indiana for Thanksgiving on Friday. Josh is dying to get his hands on some of the "Black Friday" deals of the century. We are looking forward to spending lots of time together over the next weekend. We seem to watch the weekends fly by, so it will be nice to just veg out and enjoy "family" time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pray for Brad Keitzman and His Family

I just wanted to ask for a word of prayer for a very important family. Brad Keitzman is a wonderful man, as well as a teacher in Sumner County. We worked together for a couple of years until he moved onto to teach at the Middle School level. He is a teacher, a father, a husband, and a friend.

I received an email asking for prayer for him and his family. Please see below...

Please send out a request for more prayer for the Keitzman family. Brad is a science teacher at Ellis Middle, and I know many people will be wanting to hear how he is doing. He will be taking a leave of absence from his job. He has been diagnosed with stage four adenocarcinoma of the pancreas which has spread to his liver and is systemic. He will be starting chemo on Wednesday (which may actually help him feel better). The girls are having a really hard time (ages 10 and 7) as I am sure both Brad and Patti are. I believe they told him a year when he thought it might be weeks so he is feeling hopeful, and we are all praying for a miracle. Thank you for praying. They are in such need.
From what one of the nurses in our Sunday School class said, I guess patients with pancreatic cancer are in a lot of pain. By taking the chemo, it may help with some of the pain. By taking the chemo, the doctor told him last week it would give him a year. God can and does work miracles.

...This is such a horrible situation. We just found out about this and his illness. He is a very sweet man with a heart of gold. Please just say an extra prayer for him and his family.

...Maggie's 3 Month Pictures...

Can you believe that little Maggie is 3 Months old?

This Wednesday, October 24th, Maggie will officially be 3 Months old. I just can't believe it! I know I am totally bias, but she is more beautiful everyday. She is still such a sweet and loving baby.

This past Saturday, Josh wanted to go and have a "photo shoot" with baby Maggie for her pictures. He is loving his photography gear and is using it whenever he can. Since we were due for pictures anyway and it was an absolutely gorgeous day, we headed to the local park. It was so much fun just playing and laughing and watching Maggie respond to Josh's camera. She loves to just smile and giggle and make some adorable noises.

We had an awesome day just being a family. The pictures Josh captured mean even more because he was the photographer. Hope you love them!

You can check out all of the pictures that were captured on Saturday by linking to Josh's Photography Website and clicking the Maggie2 gallery!

What A Wonderful World...

I love Friday's. I love how they signal that the weekend is about to begin! Everything is going swell at the moment. Josh is feeling okay. Is starting to have some minor pains in his chest again, but he has had to decrease some of his medications, so he feels like it is his body trying to get back to "normal." He has now been back to work for a month and doing fine. His co-workers are always checking on him to make sure he is doing fine. He returns back to his De-Fib doctor at the of November, so hopefully that will be a positive visit.

Ms. Maggie is growing like a weed. It seems like she grows from the time that I drop her off in the mornings to the time I pick her up in the afternoons. She will be 3 months old on the 24th of this month. That is hard to believe!! She has a wonderful and sweet personality. I can tell she is going to be such a sweet little girl.

Work for me has been going great. The kids have been awesome to come back to. They all seem to have missed me a lot and always ask about Maggie and how old she is. My co-workers at both schools have been wonderful.

We traveled up to Indiana this past weekend to see Josh's extended family, whom we have not seen since before Maggie was born. Everyone there was very glad to be able to check up on Josh and spend some time together. The trip was great, but really wore all of us out. You know, you have to pack the whole house and garage to be able to go out of town for a weekend. We stayed at Josh's mom and dad's house and had a great time. We visited a special place in Indiana called Applacres. It is an apple orchard and small shop. It was really cute. Josh has been talking about this place since we got married. He had a lot of special memories from there as a child. It was a great time to just go and enjoy the beautiful day and weather.

Brea and Jonathan have their new addition. Little Mary Elizabeth came home on Saturday and is doing great! She went to the Dr. on Monday for a check-up and she weighed 4 pounds 10 ounces. She is sleeping and eating great. Brea and Jonathan just glow with excitement. Anna, Isaac, and Luke love her very much. What a sweet family.

...I made it through the day!

So many people have been concerned about how my first day and week of school went. Thanks for all the sweet comments and concerns.

My first day back to school was out of this world. I never expected it to go as well as it did. Now, let me start by saying that I cried my eyes out all night Sunday because I knew I had to leave her on Monday morning. I couldn't even see to give her her bath because my eyes were just filled with tears. I woke up ready to get through the day. I knew that I was going to leave her, but with my mom, JuJu...who would take excellent care of her. Maggie loves her JuJu. She is going to be a very special person to Maggie, I can already tell. With Maggie feed and changed, mom had arrived to get her. She came to my house to give me a little extra time...so sweet of her!

Mom left the same time as me, only she had Maggie. That was so hard to pull out of the driveway without her and know that I wouldn't see her again until 3 o'clock that afternoon. I called twice to check on her and she was great. She did great all day and I couldn't get to mom's house fast enough that afternoon. I was even okay if I got pulled over. I thought to myself...
ok, I'll just pay the ticket if I get pulled over, I don't care.

School was fantastic. The kids really seemed to miss me and all were very excited when they saw me again. All I heard most of the day was..."Mrs. Harris, It's Mrs. Harris. She's back...Look, Look!!" How cute those words were. Children are so sweet and innocent. My awesome co-worker and great friend, Molly, had made a banner to welcome me back. It was hanging on the stage wall when I walked in. It read "Welcome Back Mrs. Harris! We Love(heart) You!" I will say, it brought tears to my eyes. It was so thoughtful and I knew Molly put a lot of time into it and making it special. She also arranged for all of the students to sign it. It was perfect. How special did I feel!

(This is me and my co-worker and great friend, Molly.)

The people that I work with are so caring and thoughtful. The school receptionist and Library assistant also got together make Josh and I's dinner for the night...They said they knew it would be a busy day and just didn't want me to worry with making dinner. I was floored by the kindness of my co-workers. Everyone wanted to know how my family was doing. Everyone knew about Josh's illness and was dying to know how he was recovering and how Baby Maggie was doing. It was so great to feel loved and appreciated.

So I am happy to say that I have made it through the first week, and I know that it will continue to get easier. The past two mornings when I have taken Maggie to mom's house, she is sound asleep. It is the sweetest sound to just listen to her sleep. I just drive to mom's with no music on, just listening to her. I am happy to get back to work. The children have missed me, which is an awesome feeling. I guess I just look at returning to work as another thing in our lives that is getting back to "normal." I do miss Maggie every minute of everyday. I just love her.
I just do...

The Day Has Come...

...So tomorrow is the day I have dreaded since I found out I was pregnant last year...I return back to work...

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job in every way. I love my co-workers, I love the kiddos, I love the schools I teach at. I just love Maggie more. I am really going to miss her. I know that she will be in great hands and will survive just fine without me for 7 hours, but I just am so sad to leave her. I know that tomorrow will be a very hard day to overcome. I just hope I don't spend the whole day crying!

I guess I just sit here thinking about how much this family has been through in the past 2 and a half months. It is just amazing. I just think of the time that I have had at home as the biggest blessing...time to watch Maggie grow and get to know her, time to take care of Josh and watch him recover, time to just be a mom. I believe that God shows us the greatest gifts through children. I always felt like our life was complete, but now I just know that our life was empty without Maggie. She is so fun and such a sweet baby. I know that she will continue to grow and change, I just hope that I can always remember these times and know that we are so blessed.

Maggie and Daddy...What a sweet picture!

How we love little girls!!!

How Josh and I love little girls...

If you haven't had a chance to check my sister's blog lately, here is what you have missed!!!

This is Mary Elizabeth Freeman...

On Friday, Brea and Jonathan found out they were getting a new daughter to add to their family. That means that Josh and I are an aunt and uncle again, how cool is that? She is adorable from the pictures that they have sent.

Brea and Jonathan are hoping to bring her home tomorrow, Monday. We are all very thrilled to meet her and get to know her. Maggie will have a great little girlfriend in Ms. Mary Elizabeth. They are exactly two weeks apart.

Brea and Jonathan are just thrilled with all that has happened in the last several days. Spending time on taking it all in and enjoying these moments.

So for those of you that are counting, Josh and I now have 5 nieces and 7 nephews!

Children are such a sweet blessing in life...Congratulations, Brea and J! We love you all!

Josh's Photography Take Two

As I have mentioned before, Josh is loving his new photography hobby. I think he is great at it! I just wanted to share some of his recent pictures he took yesterday. This is up in Greenbrier at an old Bridge along Old Springfield Highway. He has such a neat eye for how to capture objects, people, and structures.

He has also been working on his logo for his pictures. He made the little "jdh" camera logo in the bottom right corners of the pictures. How crafty is he?

Race for the Cure 2007

It's that time of year again!

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 2007

This is a wonderful opportunity to get out, enjoy the beautiful weather, and raise money for a great cause! The past three or four years, Rachel and I have walked in the Race for the Cure event. Breast cancer has always been a very important issue and cause to aid in raising money for. Several members of my family have had breast cancer, including my crazy Aunt Jane. I adore her and I have walked in her honor for the past races.

It is only $25.00 to walk and you get a T-Shirt with your fee.

Josh, Maggie, and I are all going to walk this year. Life is too short not to, in my opinion. It is always a great time for every member of your family!

This is a picture from last year. Alison, Mack, and Rachel ready to walk for a cure!

Here is the information on the Race for the Cure 2007:

Date: Saturday, November 3, 2007
Where: Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park downtown Nashville
Team Information: We are signing up under Rachel Smith's Team - Rachel's Runners
Begin Time: Registration is from 6:30 - 8:30 am and the actual race starts at 8:45 am but Rachel and I try to get there early to get all the free stuff before it's gone!
End Time: We’re usually home by noon ‘cause we’re pooped!
Cost: $25 per person (kids 0 – 5 are free)
Deadline: We must sign up by October 12.

Website to sign up:
https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=232528&lis=1&kntae232528=5CDF1FE6C1ED402DAD0656701F4AFB4B&supId=191105760

It is an awesome day and I hope all of you will join us!

Let me know if you need any other info!

Justin, Jodie, & Josh

The way that siblings love each other is such a special bond. It was so great to see Josh get to spend some time with his sister, Jodie, who lives in New Mexico and his brother, Justin, who lives in Indiana this past weekend. There are so few times that the three of them can get together and just hang out and enjoy each other. Jodie came in on Friday evening to visit with the three of us. We haven't seen her since June and we were so thrilled when she said that she wanted to come and meet Miss Maggie and check on her brother, whom she has been so worried about.

She is an amazing woman. She is a mother of seven...

Troy...Age 20, Adrienne...Age 18, Jennifer...Age 15, Michael...Age 10, Seth...Age 8, Aaron...Age 8, and Mark...Age 5. She is a wife to wonderful man named Jeff. He is in the Army out in New Mexico and does an outstanding job. She is a very special person to us and we just were thrilled that she could come out and visit for a couple of days.

We love you Jodie! Miss you loads already!