Friday, January 24, 2014

h's first snow/ice

ok. not exactly a winter wonderland, but she was able to see the white dusting of snow/ice. she got excited to be able to touch the snow/ice on the deck. poor thing. i think we need to find her some real snow.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

can you?

it makes me laugh when h asks for help lately. she will say, "can you help me please?" or "can you open this please?"

but! you have to hear her say "can you." it sounds almost french, like "can ju?"

super cute

jump into your pants!

a few weeks ago, we had a stretch of mornings that proved to be challenging. we took for granted that harper is pretty happy in the mornings, with us waking her up so early, getting her ready for school and rushing out of the door. she decided the other day that she didn't want to change, put on her clothes, socks or shoes. it came with her saying, "i don't like those pants. i don't like that shirt." 20 mins later of trying to reason with her, we had to pretty much hold her down and force her to change her clothes. not exactly a great way to start the morning. plus, you just feel bad that she is frustrated. she cried the entire time, on the way to the car and i had some difficulty putting her in her car seat too.
so amy and i had to come up with a plan. we thought of things like, let her pick out her outfits or see if she wanted to put them on herself, etc. the bribe if 2 M&M's didn't even work. then we realized that we were rushing her, so we got her up about 15 mins earlier to let her have her milk and sit in the bed a little while longer, remembering that we both need to stay calm no matter what. sure enough the morning went much smoother. amy even came up with a little game where she jumps into her pants and pops into her shirt. she finds it entertaining...for now. things seem to be back to normal so far. looking back it was the week she ended up having a temp of 102 on that friday. maybe she was not feeling well, trying to fight something off?
i know we have been lucky almost avoiding the terrible 2's, so i am trying not to complain. we are lucky to have so many good days of happy harper. does this mean we are going to experience the horrible 3's?

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

2014 ya'll

we had our first overnight with out baby or dogs over the weekend after christmas. i surprised amy with tickets to the cowboys and eagles football game for christmas. had it all planned out. stay overnight at the hotel on sat and watch the game sun at noon, then head home. unfortunately it was such a big game, they changed the time to 7:30pm sunday night. luckily, auntie jean and kris offered to not only watch h but for an extra night. they even took her to school on monday morning! she had so much fun with them. she slept in a tent in aunties room, went to see a christmas light show (she calls it crazy lights), played with new toys, walked milton and supposedly didn't fuss one single time. amy and i had a nice weekend to ourselves as well. went to eat at some nice places around SMU, visited the dallas museum and was able to sleep in and lay around for a bit. the game was insane. the stadium was massive and fans were ready to win. amy had an eagles shirt on and cheered on her team. don't worry, we made it out alive. the seats were pretty crappy and up super high, but it was neat to experience my first nfl game. it was very cold outside, glad it was a closed stadium. the game ended around 10:30pm, but didn't get home til around 12:30. got up at 5:30 and drove straight back to austin and headed into work. it made for a long, long day.

news year eve was super fun. jean had a blowout party, showing off her new kitchen and deck, with the wlb's getting back together for a reunion gig. goodnight cuties even did a few songs. we all seemed a little nervous, probably because of only practicing 2 times this year. the thought of a few drinks to calm us down may have made things worse. well, for me anyway. it is amazing how nervous one can get just playing for friends in my sisters house! people praised us and said it sounded great. i would just smile and say thanks. bottom line is we ALL had fun. wlb's rock, listen to this! it was a long night, getting home around 2:30am. gran was kind enough to watch h on the eve and had fun with her making biscuits. gran, amo and mel (and the dogs) slept over too. the biscuits and gravy made things a lot better in the morning. we headed to barton springs to watch amy, john and lee jump into the cool waters. after nap it was our traditional chili new years day at john and lee's. always nice to sit around, relax and eat some good food with friends to start off the new year.

i still feel tired from the holiday. is that possible? i have fallen asleep at 8:30 the past few nights. seems like i need to step things up and get back to exercising and eating right.

2014...here we come!

santa is coming!

it is amazing the difference 1 year makes. h is very aware of santa, rudolph, gifts and christmas chocolate. daddy and papa gave her an advent calendar and she looked forward to christmas chocolate every evening after dinner. have to admit that it was a useful tool to have on hand to make sure she was a good girl. sure enough, she ate her dinner and knew she had to be good to get it. didn't know if she understood christmas chocolate comes to an end eventually, but she did after a day or too.

christmas eve dinner was amazing. john and lee outdid themselves. appetizers, crab cakes, snapper, clam chowder, cookies and a variety of drinks to choose from. we even walked across the street and went to church. it was in interesting church, but church none the less. after singing some christmas carols with accompaniment from jean on the piano, we even opened a few gifts. h was attached to daddy's hip that evening and it was very cute. she was able to stay up til 10pm with all of us. i have to say that she must have had fun because she slept in til 9am christmas day. when she came downstairs, we immediately went over to see if santa ate the cookies and milk we left him. sure enough (mommy), i mean santa enjoyed the snack. luckily we didn't stay up til 2 am putting together he gift this year. her calico critter treehouse was put together within 30 mins. our one gift to h couldn't compare to all of the gifts she received from friends and family. books, easel, puzzles, leapfrog pad, clothes...you name it! everyone was so kind and generous. gran certainly made harper smile with the train set. she may think christmas goes on forever because we even opened more gifts when meme and grandpa bill arrived this past sat. i made christmas dinner and have to say that it turned out pretty good! my first roast beef, potato gratin and brussel sprouts. we had hilary, bryan and jean over. another nice evening.

it was fun being able to be at home with friends and family over christmas. while i realize the holiday is not all about gifts and food, it certainly makes for one fantastic season of love, joy and many blessings.