Jeff and Diana Harris

 Okay....I know it is way past Halloween, but I thought I would share something that happened in the month of October. We went to a murder mystery dinner, Andrew had his first Halloween, we carved really cute pumpkins, and a new nephew was born.
The title of the Murder Mystery Dinner was "The Pungent Pumpkin Processing Company Anniversary Dinner." It was very old fashioned and we had a lot of fun. We even took cute pictures. My name was Gigi Sparkle and Jeff was a detective. We had a wonderful dinner followed by a delicious dessert that I made. (Brownies with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream and Strawberry Gelato)

This year for Halloween I wanted to do something as a family. Jeff was Mario, Andrew was baby Mario and I was Princess Peach. It was a lot of fun making both Jeff's and Andrew's Mario hats. We got some pictures but it was dark outside so they didn't turn out the best. Andrew was so adorable and we even went out trick or treating with our niece Sarah and nephew James. They were adorable as well and dressed up as scary ghosts. They would go door to door and say "Trick or Treat" then after they received candy they were both say together, "Thank you! Boo!" It was really cute. I wish I got it on video.
We also carved pumpkins which has been a tradition for the last couple of years. We have carved U and BYU pumpkins, hello kitty and Mickey Mouse, funny faces and scary faces, and this year because of our costume idea we decided to stick with the theme of Mario Bros. Jeff carved Mario and I carved Bowser and a mushroom cartoon face.





On October 30th an adorable baby boy was born. Baby Samuel Kenji Peterson. He is so cute and so tiny. You forget how tiny newborns really are. On October 31st Natalie (Jennie's sister), James, Sarah, Andrew, and I went to visit them at the hospital. Jennie dressed Sarah and James in their ghost costumes and both Natalie and I were able to hold precious Samuel. :)





Overall, we had a fabulous October. Did anyone else dress up?

Andrew has started to army crawl (well..maybe more of a scoot and reach) which is both fun to watch and scary at the same time. He definitely gets into more stuff than I want him to. He has grown up so fast in just a couple of weeks. I can't seem to keep up with him. He is sleeping better...he is getting two front teeth......and now he is army crawling. I swear I am going to wake up one morning and see him crawling in his crib.  Oh the joys of being a mother.

Enjoy the videos....

After a long day at the beach we came home to feed Andrew his dinner and all of a sudden he just started to laugh at everything we would say. I think he was really tired. It was really fun.
Enjoy!!

The perks of moving to an area with family around is you learn about the good deals early on. Jennie invited Andrew and I to the Oregon Zoo on $4 Tuesday, which is the 2nd Tuesday of every month. We went this month and had a blast. Even Andrew had fun if he wasn't sleeping. All of the animals were so active and entertaining. We saw lions, tigers, bears (oh my!!), penguins, wild dogs, giraffes, goats, elephants, birds, zebras, and so much more. We had a lot of fun and hopefully Jeff can come with us next time.

I am so behind on posting, so now that I am somewhat settled in I am going to make it my goal to post at least once a week (as long as exciting stuff are happening). So as my first post back since I don't know when...... July maybe?? I decided to post on our move to Oregon. It has been quite an adventure getting our stuff to
Oregon and making mini trips before Jeff starts work at Intel. We first came out to Oregon in August to find a place to live and in the process dropped off our car at Paul and Jennie's so we didn't have to haul our car and/or drive separately. And the second time we drove with whatever we needed to survive without all of our stuff. At the time we didn't know how long it would take for our stuff to arrive. We hoped it would only take a couple of days, but it ended up being two weeks. (All of our stuff literally arrived on Sunday). We don't know how we would have managed without Paul and Jennie's help. They let us stay at their place way longer than we expected. We still had lots of fun playing games with them and eating Jennie's delicious dinner and DESSERTS!! (YUM YUM) Luckily we only live 2 MINUTES away driving, so we have plenty of time to make it up to them (and yes we actually have timed it). Both trips up to Oregon we were lucky to have stopped in Idaho making it a two day trip, for Andrew's sanity and our sanity. It was nice to not have to drive to Oregon all in one day. Jeff's Uncle David and Aunt Jolene were so nice to let us stay at their place twice let alone two days in a row the second visit up. We played games, ate delicious food, and had a wonderful place to sleep. Andrew has been a good trooper this entire move. He has had his good nights, bad nights, and really bad nights, but all in all I feel he is adjusting well.

When we arrived to Oregon the second time we decided to make a little trip out to Washington to visit the Olympic National Park. We drove to Forks the first night and stayed at Dew Drop Inn. On our way to Forks we stopped at Quinault Rain Forest, which was absolutely beautiful. Then we drove passed multiple beaches and walked around Hoh Rain Forest, another beautiful sight. The next day Jeff amused me by driving to different landmarks Forks was famous for due to the Twilight Book Series. We drove by the hospital that has a reserved parking spot for the one and only Dr. Cullen. We drove by Forks High School and Jeff even let me drive all the way to La Push. Next we drove to Port Angeles and on our way we stopped at Lake Crescent which was probably both of our favorite views we saw. And lastly stopped at Hurricane Ridge before heading home. Honestly, the pictures we took does not even come close to what we saw. If you ever have a chance to come see for yourself I highly recommend it. Jeff and I have already mapped out how we would like to take this trip a second time, but instead of sleeping at an Inn we would camp along the way.
Although Jeff and I miss Utah we have definitely enjoyed living here so far.




Next Blog: Oregon Zoo

This post is mostly for family who didn't get an opportunity to attend my mother's funeral. My mother passed away on May 21, 2012. Her funeral service was on May 26th which included a viewing, funeral program, and burial service. As sad as it is to say goodbye to my mother for now, the entire program was full of joy and happy memories. My older brother Paul was so smart and recorded the entire service. If you would like to hear the service please go to: http://youmayyume.com/
GracePetersonMemorial/home.htm

I just want to Thank everyone for their loving support and hugs.

My mother's birthday was on July 19th and sadly this day was probably one of the hardest days for me. I am just so grateful I am close to my family because talking to both my older brother and sister helped out a lot. My older and little sister baked my mother a cake and was able to attend the Newport Beach Temple. My older sister tells this story better than I do, but for the last month my older sister and little sister has been attending the Temple doing baptisms for the dead every Thursday morning. To really understand how special this story is, last summer my mother went to the Temple almost every morning and she would talk about these baby bunnies she would see hopping around the Temple grounds. Every Thursday morning my older sister would look around hoping to see these bunnies my mother always talked about and sadly would never see them. On my mother's birthday my older sister saw the bunnies hopping around. I wish I could have been there but this story still put a big smile on my face. Although I was not able to attend the Temple on my mother's actual birthday I was able to attend the day after and wish her a belated birthday.

This post is really late but....HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER! WE LOVE AND MISS YOU!!!

I know this post is really late, but I decided to still post about past events. Happy Belated Mother's Day and Father's Day!!! Jeff and I were able to celebrate our first Mother's Day and Father's Day this year. We were in California for Mother's Day and sadly Jeff was by himself on Father's Day because I was in California, but we still celebrated it the week before. Jeff was also able to open up presents and eat chocolate on the actual day.
I had a great Mother's Day. I was able to hold Andrew in my arms and sit next to my mother at the same time. This day has many memories that will never be forgotten. One of my favorite memories of my mother was her reaction when I baked her famous Apple Pie. To really understand how special this story is you really have to know what my mother was going through earlier that week. She was very unresponsive and rarely got up to walk around. When she did get up to walk she had to be assisted. On Mother's Day my mother was so strong and attended sacrament meeting with her family and then rested in her bed most of the afternoon. She got up when everyone came home from church and took pictures with all the girls in their matching dresses (Thank you Kristina!!) and the boys in their Sunday Suits. I am so glad we took so many pictures that day. To finish my story.....when I made my mother's apple pie I called everyone to the table to let them know it was ready. To everyone's surprise my mother got out of bed, walked up the stairs, and sat at the table all by herself. She gave a big smile and was ready to eat her pie. We were all so shocked! I guess it goes to show how good her apple pie really is. :)

For Father's Day this year I surprised Jeff with breakfast in bed. Now when I say surprised I really mean surprised. For those of you who know Jeff, you already know how much of a morning person Jeff is. I really thought I would have woken him up with all the noise I made making him breakfast. When I walked into the room with French Toast, Strawberry yogurt, banana, and orange juice I actually startled him. :) I felt bad but it made me laugh. :) Before I left for California I wrote Jeff several letters and hid chocolate mini candies around the house for him to find. On Father's Day he also opened a present both Andrew and I made for him. It was a fun project and if I was more creative it probably would have looked cuter.


Anyways....Happy Mother's Day and Father's Day to EVERYONE!!!

While we were in California we were able to go to Disneyland several times. Andrew's first time was with my older sister and her son Michael on May 10th. The second time we went with my siblings along with Mike, Becca, Jack, and Eli on May 12th. And the third time was again with my family celebrating my nieces 2nd birthday on May 29th. We had a lot of fun even though Andrew practically slept the entire time in his carrier.