Toy Fairy

Harper is such a good big sister to Brody. She is always wanting to help him do things and says "What does he need / want?" if he's fussy. I was in the kitchen cooking dinner and came around the corner to see this...

Harper decided to empty Brody's toy bucket in his lap.

Hmmm.... so many toys to choose from.

Oh here's one more

Harper - the toy fairy.

Pool with Friends

One afternoon this past week we headed down the street to our neighborhood pool to meet a few friends.
Brody and Stella

"The Bigs" - Brady, Kate, Harper & Pierce

Brynlee trying to figure out why Stella is in her floatie

Brady & Pierce planning their next move.  It's so fun to see the differences in how little boys & girls play.

Happy Brody

I found this pic of Harper at this exact same age.  Can you tell they are siblings?

First Haircut

Today I took Harper to get her first haircut. She loved it!


She got to pick her chair and of course picked the pink Barbie jeep!

They had a flat screen TV at every station so she was a little focused on Dora.


Can't believe that she will be THREE next month!

Why not wear a pink feather boa while getting your nails painted?

9 Months Old

Look how is already 9 months old. Seriously?? Where is the time going?  Brody is such a happy baby and easy going. He is a great sleeper at night and during the day usually takes several short naps.

He "talks" all the time with some fun noises and also has some really LOUD squawks.  He gets louder if food is involved or if he is having to wait on that food.

He loves watching Harper's every move! Harper will sit down and play with him but it usually only lasts a minute or so - then she is off to the next thing.

Trying to decide if she will give it back to me if I roll it her way.  Harper is working on the whole sharing concept.

He has 2 teeth and another one on the way. He loves to eat.  I haven't found anything that he doesn't like. He nurses 4-5 times per day and then eats meals with Harper. Usually he has a banana and yobaby yogurt for breakfast,  veggies  for lunch, and then applesauce and whatever else Harper is eating for dinner. Some of his favorites are tortellini, mac n cheese, cheerios, watermelon, peaches, black beans, and blueberries. 

He constantly has something in his mouth.  I know that more teeth are quickly on their way in. We are working on the biting issue while he is eating.  Ouch!

Brody you are such a joy! We love you sweet little boy. 

Busy

This summer has been fun but busy. It's been really nice having Jeff home the last few weeks. The kids are both growing like little weeds. It's so fun watching Harper's imagination grow every day. She decided that she wanted to take Molly (her teddy bear) for a little swim.

She had Molly diving for rings in her "swimming pool". I guess swimming lessons paid off.

We went to the Safari Park again.
Harper and Kate waiting patiently to ride the animals.


Last weekend the kids and I headed over to Ft. Worth for Noelle's 2nd birthday party.
Amanda had the party at a church that had a great play area.

Hugs for the birthday girl


On Sunday we headed over to see my friend Tricia and her sweet family. Tricia and I lived across the hall from each other our freshman year at Baylor.  Baby Cameron is 3 months old and such a cutie. We enjoyed catching up, swimming, playing games, and eating BBQ.



Brody and Cameron

Adventures in Potty Training

Let's just say that I've been dragging my feet just a little bit when it came to potty training. I think I used every excuse in the book...
I'm too tired because I'm pregnant. I don't have the energy because I have a newborn. It's the holidays and we will be traveling so not a good time. Baseball season is in full swing and I'd like Jeff to help. Going out of the country and leaving her with my parents and didn't want her to have accidents at their house.
Those were just a few of the many excuses that I came up with.  To be honest - I was really nervous about potty training.  For some reason I imagined it to be terrible - cleaning up accidents all the time and sitting in the bathroom for hours trying to get her to go on the potty.  Well - boy was I wrong! We followed this easy 3 day method and were pleasantly surprised.  I loaded up on supplies on Sunday night and was ready to go on Monday morning.

*Just for the record - I did not use all of these rewards. I bought them all not really knowing what to expect.  I guess I can turn them into birthday presents for next month.

We started on Monday morning by throwing away all of her diapers.  We actually had her walk through the house with a trash bag and find them all.  I put them in the garage - but saved them just in case it was a flop and we needed to go back to diapers.  She then got to pick out a pair of big girl panties to wear and we started hydrating her with these.

She was in heaven considering 95% of the time she drinks very diluted juice. I didn't know how much to have her drink so by 9 a.m. she had 3 of them. The book said more than usual.  Within the first 30 minutes she had 2 little accidents. But as soon as she had those, I think it clicked that she needed to go to the potty because she didn't have on a diaper.  She then proceeded to have 29 successes in the potty on day 1!  We might have overhydrated her just a little.

She got 1 M&M each time she had a success in the potty.  She had one more little accident during lunch on Monday and then one right before bed.  But other than that we have been accident free!

The 3 day method has you basically stay at home for 3 days and focus on the training.  I think I asked her 500 times "Tell mommy when you need to go to the potty!" But it worked - she is doing great!

She and Jeff practiced a little baseball while we were all cooped up in the house.
We kept up with this little chart for the 3 days.  She got excited about making a mark every time she went.

Thank you Harper for being easy to potty train!  I love you sweet girl!

Playa del Carmen

A few weekends ago, Jeff and I escaped to Playa del Carmen where we enjoyed the beautiful beach and amazing pool at the Iberostar Quetzal.  My parents kept the kids while we spent some time relaxing on the beach and sleeping in!

Before dinner the first night.

Our favorite restaurant was the Japanese restaurant where they cooked the food in front of us. 
The hotel was situated in a jungle and was beautiful.


Where we spent lots of time

The pool was HUGE.  I took my goggles and got in some good training while we were there.  I would swim the perimeter of the pool and I estimated that it was about 500 meters total. 

Since the hotel was in a jungle there were lots of wild animals around like this iguana. 
We saw monkeys, toucans, peacocks, agoutis, flamingos, and lots of geckos.
Beautiful walk way from hotel lobby to our room


I really didn't want to leave!

Thanks to my parents for keeping the kids while we had a little R&R.