Adding another L to the fam

We have been discussing adding a four legged friend to the family for several months now, and the time is upon us.  We have had laney since august of 2005 and she has been the love of our lives ever since.  She is an incredible little bundle of joy but due to spending some long periods of time at nana and grandpa's house she has become very attatched to them and her brother.  We decided that it would be best for everyone not to uproot her from where she is comfortable, and on top of that L is a little too rough with her, so we thought he needed a little bit bigger dog.  For the first 6 months we were here we lived in an apartment so we knew the timing was just right yet.  But now that we have settled in the house all the pieces are falling in to place.  Little L absolutely adores dogs.  Everytime we go to visit the grandparents or go to a friends house he enjoys the dogs as much as he does the toys.  Even though he isnt big enough to help with a dog yet, we have decided it is time to get him his own dog.  After talking with Susan, one of the mommas from playgroup, about her wonderful dogs that do so well with toddler hands, she referred us to a wonderful rescue called Jack's Place where she has gotten one of her dogs.  T and I spent several hours looking through their dogs online and I quizzed Susan on all of them trying to get her expertise on what would be best for little L.  We chose a few we were interested in and called the rescue to find out when we could come out.  We went that night because T was too excited to wait any longer.  We told L that we were going to the dog farm and he barked the whole way there!  We all three had a great time at the farm checking out all of the "puppies" (mind you most of them were full grown dogs but thats just what we call dogs) and if it were up to me I would have taken them all home.  L ran and ran playing with all of them!  The owner of the rescue said that he had never seen a kid be as good with dogs as L was.  After talking with him and seeing L interact we knew what our decision would be.  We wont be picking her up until later in the week, but Libby the Labrador Retriever will be making her new home with us very soon!  She is 3 years old, so past the puppy stage and a wonderful dog!  She finished first place in an obedience competition and was very calm when we went to visit her!  The owner of the rescue usually takes her swimming in the pond and said that she would be a wonderful fit for our family!  We will post more pictures this week of the trip to pick her up, but for now her is the one from the website!

P.S. If any of you are looking for a new dog, Jack's Place is a wonderful option!  They take wonderful care of their dogs and they all come spayed/neutered, up to date on shots, and already microchipped!  I have never had a shelter dog, and I was a bit nervous at first, but after visiting the farm and seeing all the wonderful dogs with their sad little faces that just want a nice warm bed to call their own I will never get another dog from anywhere but a shelter again!!

Military Might!!

Hey, this is T and I'm not much of a blogger, but I wanted to share some pictures with you and let you know that you my sleep easy tonight.  With little L at the helm of our military, friend or foe, should tremble with freight.  Believe me when I say there is no better soldier defending our freedom than this pint size hero ready to stare "terror" in the face and give it a taste of its own medicine. 

What a day...

Today I had a few things I needed to get done, so I scheduled for L to go to hourly care on base for a few hours.  He was so excited to go, and before I could even get his name tag on his back he has already run into the room and was playing like crazy--so no goodbye hug or kiss for mom!  I even peeked through the windows as I walked past on my way out and he looked right at me and kept on playing!  I guess thats a good thing that he plays so well without us, but it made me a little sad that he is getting so big!  I got my errands run and went back to pick him up, to find him crying on his nap mat.  Now I will admit my child is a major whiner, but not so much a cryer...and with how happy he was when I dropped him off I was shocked.  I asked the teacher if he had been having a hard time and she said no he just wasnt wanting to take a nap...I picked him up to console him and found that he was completely drenched!  Now Im not talking a little wet on the shirt, I could literally ring out his shirt, shorts, and socks-my clothes were wet from holding him!  I told his teacher oh its because he is wet--and she thought I meant his diaper was wet, and she offered to change it for me--I said no his clothes are wet.  She came over to check them like she didnt believe me!!  After some investigation I found out that they give them a real cup to drink out of instead of a sippy cup (which I personally think is too early for a 1 year old but thats another story) and he must have spilt it all over him.  Now I am a pretty easy going mom and I dont worry about spills or stains on clothes, but you are required to send a change of clothes with them for this specific reason--so why did they not change his clothes??  I was pretty upset because it wasnt like I had just walked in during lunch and they hadnt had a chance to change him--they were making him sleep in his wet clothes!  I was not a happy camper, either you were neglecting my child enough to have not noticed he was wet--because like I said he was literally dripping on the floor he was so wet, or you were neglecting him by not changing him and they knew he was wet!  So I am completely ranting, but I was very concerned that a caregiver would put a one year old to bed with wet clothes--I talked to the director and she was no help---so needless to say I dont think L will be going back, unless we truly NEED to send him!!  Poor guy he has so much fun with other kids, but luckily his school starts in just over 3 weeks!!  Thanks for listening to me rant, hope you guys had a better day then little L did!

P.S. L is doing much better after a special snack treat from sonic on the way home!

Just an FYI...

after doing some research and talking to some friends that do blogs, I have found that because of t's line of work that it is best for me to leave out first names.  For those of you reading this you know who we are and initials will suffice for you to understand!  Hope that this doesnt cause too much confusion, but I am sure you all understand and want to keep our daddy safe! ;)

This cooler weather means...

its time for FOOTBALL!!  We all three have been so excited to see the cooler weather for the last few days, it had made being outside so much more pleasant!  Mommy looks forward to the fall weather every year!  We have all three been spending as much time in the yard as possible.  T has been busy taking care of our yard and our neighbors (it is a foreclosed house whose yard turned into a jungle--the city came out and mowed it a couple of weeks ago, so t has taken it upon himself to keep it cut so that l wont find any critters in our yard).  While dad is busy working in the yard L and I have spent some great hours enjoying the kiddie pool on the warmer days and the swingset now that its a little cooler!

L even took it upon himself to turn his car into a boat and enjoy the best of both worlds!  He is getting so big and independent very quickly!  Somedays it just amazes me that he is even the same kid because he has changed that much in the past 24 hours!!

We are all looking forward to football time and weather.  We are hoping to catch a few games at the titans stadium when some of our favorite teams come in to town, since it is so close!  We may get "boo-ed" out of the stadium, but we are already getting used to being the minority since we are proudly displaying our UK memorabilia in Tennessee!  L and T had fun playing some football in the yard last night while I was fixing dinner.

L also absolutely loves all of the aircraft you can see flying over head, since we live so close to the base and fort campbell is a huge base for aviation, we see them quite frequently!  Here he is doing his usual waving and screaming at them as they fly over!

Hope this finds all of you well!  Will check back in later!

Here Goes Nothing!

Well after several months of considering starting a blog I have finally dug in!  I am sure I will not keep up with this as much as I would like to, but hopefully this will be a way for you, our family and friends, to be able to keep up with what the Harneys are doing!!  We are finally 'settled' into our new house, after two months of living here we are finally getting comfortable!  We have many projects ahead of us, but at least majority of the boxes are gone and the busy summer months are almost over, so our traveling has slowed down!!  The next big projects are to prime and paint the kitchen and master bath.  (I will post before and after pictures as those progress!) 

T has been super busy with work lately!  This past week was Week of The Eagles at Fort Campbell so there were lots of fun activities and concerts to honor the soldiers!  We are so proud of what T does for our family and for our country, so it was nice to see the community support these guys as well!!  He has been spending alot of time in the field and working late hours at night getting set to deploy to Afghanistan. 

L is growing and changing daily.  I am not sure on his size but at his 18 month appointment a few months back he was about 24 lbs (15% weight--better than he use to be but still not quite caught up) but 31 inches tall--95% on height--we think he gets his height from Debbie :)...but other than that our new pediatrician whom we absolutely adore got the ball rolling with an ENT specialist, who checked his hearing and had been keeping a close eye one him.  She thought he was doing wonderful for being a preemie but we were a bit concerned about his ears with all of the infections he has had and the fact that it could be causing some hearing damage, slowing his speech.  So, they are keeping a close eye on him and considering all of his options!  We have been busy with play group, play dates, and enjoying this weather before it goes away!!  L will be starting preschool on September 15th at Fellowship Church--open house is in a couple weeks so we will get to go meet his teacher and check out the room!!  He has been talking up a storm and trying to learn new words, mommy and daddy crack up listening to all the little things that come out of his mouth!

As for me- my life has been pretty normal since we have moved.  I have spent most of my time trying to get the house unpacked and keep l out of the boxes.  I have meet some great mommas through our playgroup and have made friends with some of t's coworkers' spouses.  I have also been busy with FRG (family readiness group) activities and fundraisers, to keep me out of the house!  We recently bought a wonderful patio set for our back porch so I am loving this cooler weather and spending some time watching l play on the swing set!  Grandpa has layed out a plan for our yard so I am looking forward to him coming down in September to help us implement it! I am looking in to going back to school in the spring so I will be studying for the GRE for the next several weeks! 

Our life has been a whirlwind since moving to Clarksville/Fort Campbell at Christmas time, and the months have gone by so quickly!  We have grown to love it here--its not home but home is where the army sends you! Hope this long story has gotten most of you caught up on what we are doing and I hope to post every week or two on a much shorter basis ;)

Love and miss all of you
The Harneys