New toys

Harper received some fun new toys and clothes for her birthday. She loves lounging around in her new pajamas. She loves her little school bus toy - remember "The wheels on the bus go round and round..."

I discovered these cool little snack traps. You put food in them and she can reach in and grab it but they don't all fall out. She's a big fan. We went over to Mackenzie's house this week to play. She had fun with the little kitchen. Andrew and Harper loved the indoor slide. Not sure what she was responding to - but it's a pretty funny look!

GAFIA 2009

Last weekend I attended GAFIA 2009! This is our annual weekend getaway with my College roommates. We came up with this idea when we were all graduating from Baylor. We decided that every year we would all get together for at least a long weekend - no matter where life takes us. This will be at least one weekend out of the year that we can all be in the same place and catch up on life! This year we celebrated our 5 year reunion so we went back to where it all started - WACO!
Our first stop in Waco was to the jewelry store where we all bought our Baylor rings to get them cleaned.
We all met while we were living in Collins dorm our freshman year at Baylor. We were total dorks and snuck back into the dorm and went and visited each of our rooms. It was weird knocking on the door and saying "Hi - I'm Sarah and I lived here 9 years ago!" I can't believe that I've known these amazing girls for that long!

Of course we had to make several visits to Common Grounds over the course of the weekend. Fun times spent laughing, talking, and catching up. Baylor built a new bear pit in the middle of campus for the bears. It's really nice. We walked around campus on Friday for a while until it started to rain. It then continued to rain all weekend - so much for laying by the pool. Lunch at Schmaltz's - one of our favorite lunch spots in Waco.

We had a yummy dinner at Ninfa's and then an impromptu dance party on the roof of the business school parking garage in the rain!! I love that I can completely be myself around these girls - dork and all!

Harper's First Birthday Party

Harper's first birthday was August 28th which was also the first football game! We waited a week and had her birthday party on Labor Day. We had 30 of our closest family and friends over to help us celebrate. I borrowed this cute idea from my friend Ashley. Her highchair all decorated for the party.

Grandad Sherman, Aunt Jane, Uncle Jerry, Steve, Austin and Melissa.Shelby and Sarah, our neighbors from Wylie, came to celebrate with Miss Harper. We miss living across the street from them!

Harper saying hello to her youngest guest, Miss Noelle. Noelle's mommy and I grew up together. We were so excited that Aunt Carol and Aunt Rebekah could both be there.

"Hey dad - will you help me open all of these presents?""I wonder what is in this one?"My sweet friend, Sarah, made this tutu for Harper. I LOVE it!! She looks so cute in it. She might just have to be a ballerina for Halloween this year.

Here comes the smash cake!"Mom - really - do I have to wear this ridiculous hat?""This icing feels weird!""I think I'd like to make my hair pink to match my face."Food coma and ready for a bath! We can't believe our little girl is ONE!
The "after" picture of the cake.

Square meal?

Harper has always been a pretty good eater. She is now past "baby food" and is eating all table food. She loves fruit, cheese, turkey, crackers, etc. I'm working on getting her to eat her veggies. This was the scene recently at dinner. She is usually very eager to try things."This looks colorful - I think I'll try it.""Yuck - what is this green thing that mom is making me eat?" "Maybe if I just let it roll down my bib mom won't notice.""Maybe if I squeal in a high pitch voice then mom will give me watermelon!""Here mom - why don't you eat it."

Busy Busy

Sorry that I've been neglecting the blog a little bit these last few weeks. It's been pretty busy around here with the start of football season, the big move, Harper's birthday party, etc. Here's a few pics to get you caught up. We are so excited that we now live close to our sweet friends the Halls. They have a little girl, Anna, who is 18 months old and they live just around the corner from us. We have spent several afternoons at the neighborhood pool as well as playing at each others home. Here's Harper and Anna waiting patiently for their snack. We had to have the carpet replaced when we moved into the house. Unfortunately there was a cat that lived here prior to us. The cat had his own bedroom complete with litter box on the CARPET!! Apparently the cat didn't make it to the litter box sometimes because the carpet in that room was stained with cat pee! It smelled so gross. We found out that the only way to truly get rid of the smell was to rip out the carpet and treat the concrete and then replace the carpet! This was huge expense that we were not expecting. Harper helped me pick out her new carpet. "I don't know mom - they all look the same!"

"I like this one - it is soft." "Thanks for the new carpet mom!! It smells so much better!"

Note: Harper's bedroom is not still blue. This is before we painted it.

She has enjoyed exploring the new house.