Harper's now a toddler

Some how, in just two shorts weeks, Harper has become a toddler. She is completely walking now. She is all over the house and follows the big kids. She is also climbing...on the fireplace, into the little chairs, on other kids, etc. She is communicating up a storm. It may not be with words but with gestures, grunts, pointing, grabbing, their is little doubt on what her wants and needs are. When she points she says "that, that, that"....love it! She is singing the "lalalala" part of Elmo's world and has even tried to say "elmo world", kind of sounds like "momo morrrr". (We have tried to video tape it but she stops every time I start recording). She will repeat animal sounds, dogs and elephants being her favorite. When she gets into something she shouldn't she will shake her head no as soon as she sees me coming. She has fallen in love with being outside and I have now witnessed her big fights as I carry her in the door. And every time she hears music she starts dancing! I will have to post a video soon. And last week she moved up to the toddler room at church. Wow! What a difference two weeks can make for a 12 month old.

OH and almost forgot! She got her first tooth yesterday!

First Bruster's ice cream cone

She had no problem eating it. I only had to wipe her mouth once. I am pretty sure once she started sucking it, it never came back out of her mouth.

She has discovered McDonald's french fries.

Yep, she still loves her paci but I am trying to allow it only in the crib. So yes this is an electrical outlet plug that she found. It's amazing what a paci addiction can do to a baby!

Beautiful Sound

Several years back, when I was a Children's pastor, I remember having a conversation was a set of parents about their little girl praying. They also had an older son and had not instilled the power of prayer with him at a young age and they talked about how hard it was to get him to start prayers in his teenage years. The parents had just become christians a few years before and now their daughter saw them pray and saw that pray was just "normal".

As I became a parent a few years after that I thought of that conversation and how I wanted my children to hear and see me pray. It also became important to me that I teach my children to pray by talking to God and not just saying a little memory poem. Don't get me wrong, I love that my babies say the sing songs that they learn from preschool. But prayer is so much more then the Johnny Apple Seed song. And will be very important in their walks as they get older.

Well, I write this because I wanted to journal about sweet Olivia saying prayers from her heart. For about a year now she has been singing the prayer songs from school. Some times she will repeat a prayer that Grace says but just in the last two weeks she has has starting saying the sweetest little prayers. I love the fact that we all fight over who is going to say the blessing before meals or bedtime prayers...so we usually have multiply prayers.

Tonight we all took turns saying prayer. Grace prayed for her school day and for having joy in her heart. Then Olivia kneeled down, head bowed, eyes closed with her hands together..."Thank you for today, for Harper, for bringing Grace home on school bus and thank you God for me." SO sweet. She has had a hard transition with her big sister at school and so those word were just priceless to me.

Tonight was another proud mama night.

First Day

It finally came...the first day of school. I didn't think I would have so many emotions. I have seen the day coming for a long time. I use to teach kindergarten/2 grade, so I felt I knew what we were in for. But the Sunday before school we headed to a church with a meeting following with other kindergarten parents. It was so nice to be in a group of others going through the same phase, to be able to share together and pray together. But for some reason that meeting made the school year "real" to me.

The night before, the family of five cuddled in the girls room to read a book. I thought I had the perfect book, The Kissing Hand, but the book brought the tears. Luckily I was able to hide them from Grace.

The nervous jitters must not of gotten to Grace too bad because she was in bed asleep by 7pm. (or maybe the afternoon swim birthday party wore her out) She was up on her own by 7 in the morning and ready to go!

There was so much commotion in the morning with getting kids dressed, taking pictures, breakfast, kids being dropped off ... that the anxiety was not there for any of us.

Grace found this at the kitchen table when she came to breakfast. She had pancakes, sausage links (just like maw maw's), strawberries and chocolate milk to get her tummy ready for the day.

I pinned a "kissing hand" inside her bookbag.

Here is mom and dad excited about the first day.

And maybe a little sad too.

But so far, Olivia has been the saddest one. She even cried when they drove away.

Grace proud of her new book bag.

Look at that face. There is no fear. No sadness. She has pure joy about the year starting! I am so excited to see what He has in store for her this kindergarten year. When I asked her what she was must excited about her first day she said, "Buying my school lunch!".

Her bus ride to school was...daddy. She did ask for him to walk her in. I was a little sad that I wasn't able to have this job. But so glad I have such a special man who is involved with his kids and willing to be part of this day and their daily life.

Chad said that once they got inside she no longer wanted to hold his hand. She was able to lead the way and found her room on her own. Chad helped her find the place to hang her bag and where to sit and then he was gone.

And then the longest day of my life begun. Waiting on a bus to arrive around 3:00 in the afternoon had to serious be my toughest job yet. Will she find her bus? Will she get off the bus with a smile? Did she have a good day? Did she eat her lunch? Did she make friends? Did she like her teacher? Too many thoughts to go through the head for those seven hours.

By 2:55 we were at the bus stop and waiting for the sound of those breaks! We waited for probably 30 minutes. (I got out there a little early and the bus was a little late) During that time we had a surprise drive up...daddy came home early to see how her day went!!! (I love this man)

Aidan and Olivia waiting in the heat to see the bus

Harper sweating in the heat...waiting

It's here, it's here, it's here!!!

The first thing Grace did was grab daddy's hand. But then she turned and ran into my arms. I hope I always remember that special moment. (it brought the tears)

So happy to have daddy to share about the day!

So happy her sissy is home

Olivia is much happier

To take my mind off the day I made cupcakes...and they were good!

So we enjoyed a back to school snack and talked about the day! Grace said she had a great day. Some of the things she shared....

*She ate mac-n-cheese for lunch with chocolate milk and opened the milk all by herself

*She doesn't want to buy her lunch again...she does want to buy her lunch again...no...maybe yes

*She went to art today and drew fruit

*She likes her teacher, she is silly and funny

*She said the funniest part of the day was when a boy told Ms. Marks boo. Not really sure of the story but Grace had giggles when she told me

*Her high of the day was, "Seeing you when I got off the bus"

*Her low was telling us goodbye in the morning

*She got a treat for being a good listener but her friend Cory didn't b/c she talked to much

*She met a new friend named Elizabeth who rides her bus

*She said she didn't sit by anybody at lunch or play with anybody on the playground

*And the bus took FOREVER to get her home

And on the night of her first day of school her mind was racing. She was excited about going back and had a HARD time falling asleep.

Meet the teacher

The day finally came to meet our kindergarten teacher. This day say too soon for my sweet first born. Grace was very excited about going but once we got there she had little to say to anybody.

The whole family went to see where Grace would be spending her kindergarten year. We are looking forward to being in Mrs. Marks' class. We have heard that she is an excellent teacher and loads of fun!

Grace came in and decorated her book bag name tag and quietly checked out her room. Mrs. Marks is very bubbly and seems full of life. Grace will love it!

We took Grace around the school and showed her how to get to her room from carpool, where the lunch room was, the clinic, etc.

It was a little overwhelming as a mom to figure out PTA, how to put $ on the lunch account, actually meet the teacher, find my own way around the school, buy spirit wear...it was CRAZY!

We are over the top excited about Cory being in Grace's class. Cory's mom, Jennifer, and I have joked for years that Grace and Cory need to be in class together. We have been friends since shortly after Cory was born. They have been to all of Grace's birthday parties and now I am excited to see their friendship evolve some more.

Grace and Cory five and half years ago!

one year check up

I took Harper to her one year check up. She was a show off telling every one hi and flirting with any one that would look at her. She weighed in at 22lbs 10 oz (75th percentile) and 29 3/4 inches long (50th percentile). Compared to Grace she is about the same length but two pounds heavier at this age.

She got two shots and was anger about them for about two minutes and then cheered up.

A little funny fact...As of this week, Harper weighs 22 lbs, Olivia is at 33 lbs and Grace is at 44 lbs.

The summer comes to an end

This summer has come to an end. It was a great summer. And maybe a little special to me, being it was Grace's last year before big school starts. We stayed busy and enjoyed a lot of girl time.

This week I started keeping kids again. I love that I have the teacher's schedule. So Monday, August, 1, the alarm clock got reset.

Harper loves having another baby around. The first day she tried to attack him. But now she just tries to hold him. Not sure Ty likes to be lifted by the face. She also crawls all over him, lays beside him and talks to him.

Having six kids in the house can get kind of crazy but with the heat it's hard to go outside unless your hot.

We even went on a trip to Johnny's Pizza with our church group. The kids had a blast and it was nice to get out of the house.

Grace

Erin

Olivia

Asher

Harper

Ears Pierced

Grace is sadly growing up.

Several months back she asked to get her ears pierced. We told her exactly what would happen and that is would hurt, she quickly changed her mind. Then about three weeks ago she asked again. So AGAIN, Chad and I told her about the gun, pain, etc. This time she didn't care and continued to ask. So we told her that is she filed her marble jar we would take her. I honestly thought it would give her enough time to think about it and change her mind.

For two weeks she did whatever she could to do to help around the house to get more marbles. I think one day she folded five loads of laundry. I started to get a little worried that this might actually happen. I know many parents have their children wait till they are a little older to have this done. I honestly couldn't think of enough reasons to make her wait.

On Sunday, July 31st, we headed to Claire's to get some holes. Earlier in the day she did get a little nervous and asked me if it was ok if she cried. She even asked me if I cried when I got mine done. Right before we got in the car I asked if she was nervous and scared, her response was, "no, I am just happy".

She sat in the chair and waited her turn. I asked if she wanted to hold my hand and she shook her head no. She picked out daisy ear years with all different colors...after mom told her no to the Hello Kitty ones.

Then they put one mark on both ears and had two associates with two guns get give her ear rings. Grace didn't move or cry. She jumped right up and gave us hugs! She says it didn't hurt and was ready to show the world her new ears.

Love her attitude and her pain tolerance!

Then their is Olivia. She told us she was going to get her ears done as well. We didn't tell her now but we did make sure that Grace went first. I wanted her to see the guns and wanted her to see the pain. BUT that back fired when Grace grinned from ear to ear after the pierce. So we let this other little girl go next. After Olivia saw her cry she changed her mind, shoo, that was close. Don't think I was emotionally ready for my three year old to get it done.

But Olivia had a blast in the store that day!

Harper is One

Where has this last year gone?! Harper is now one years old. The days of telling everybody how old she is in weeks and months is coming soon to an end. This little girl has been such a blessing to the whole family. She is a sweet, fun loving, mama's girl. Harper has been a laid back girl. She is taking two naps a day and sleeps about 11 hours a night. But if her schedule is messed up she is still great and goes with the threw. A few times she has missed an afternoon nap, you would of never known because she was still just as happy at 8:00 at night. I went to pick her up from the nursery last Sunday and there was about 8 babies in the room. They were all being held and were pretty cranky except for Harper. She was just sitting in the middle of the room looking at all of them like they were crazy. She is really getting around good on her two feet. She is taking several steps on her own and I have seen her go across half a room. But just today she is not wanting to crawl much any more. Any time she fell today she got right back up and starting again. She is a screamer. I know she is just trying to communicate with us but wow, she is loud. She continue to try to talk. She can say Paw Paw and Grace now but still has no name for Olivia or Maw Maw. I know they are coming soon. We heard her say "keys" today and "happy". In fact she was trying to sing happy birthday. So cute. Harper is a good eater but is starting to refuse being feed by a spoon. She wants to be independent and just self feed. I give her two milk cups a day but Harper is not too fond of them. I still give her two formula bottles when she gets up and when she goes to bed. I am on the last container so it soon will be done. Although I am very sad to see this stage end. Harper loves doggies, books, baby dolls and music. She fights over Grace's ipod, she holds and moves to the songs. She enjoys being with the big girls and will find them any chance she gets. I am sure she will be sad when they start back school. She tries to get to the front door as fast as she can when daddy gets home. As soon as she walks in the door she repeats, "hi" ,over and over again. We joke that she thinks his name is "Hi" instead of dada. The girl loves to give open mouth kisses and the best ones are the spontaneous ones. But when she is tired, scared or just plain cranky the only one she wants is here mommy. When she says "mama" it just melts my heart.

Just wanted to add that we still have NO teeth!

Our little Bumble Bee - Birthday Party

I love parties. I love picking out a theme. I love every little detail. I LOVE celebrating my daughter's first birthday.

My favorite banner I have made so far. A picture of each month of her life. To show how she grew.

The cute invite and a take away for the moms.

Find the idea for the number one online (made with tissue paper) and found the wrapping paper at Hobby Lobby.

Had four pompoms made but ended up having to take them down when a wind storm came through.

I originally found the black and yellow striped cups and bought them. But then just a few days before the party we found the yellow cup with a black box on the front (it's to scrape you name onto). Had to have them!

Take-homes...water canteens for older kids and bubbles with bee washcloths for younger ones

Gourmet dinner...hotdogs

Loved the oreos I found...they had yellow cream middles!

Wardrobe change

All three of my girls in their yellow and black.

Love the cake

The smash cake

One of my favorite memories from the day was watching my five year old giggling at the baby the whole time.

Harper LOVED her cake

Outside clean up

Present time

Waterslide was a hit for all the kids. Not to sure the birthday girl liked it.