Please Harper - look at the camera!

Harper is so active these days.  It's pretty challenging to get a photo of her actually looking at the camera and sitting still! Saturday afternoon we attended the musical performance, Gloria, at our church.  My parents, sister, grandparents and father in law all came.  We had a great time. Here's our attempt at a family photo after the performance.

Dad trying to get her to look at the camera.  

Still no luck!

Finally all three of us looking at the camera and smiling. 

Thank goodness for digital cameras where it doesn't matter how many shots you take.

Go Daddy Go!

Dear Daddy,
I'm so proud of you for running the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon today.  I'm so sorry that I couldn't be there to watch you cross the finish line. I have a stuffy nose and a cough so mom said we needed to stay inside today.  We did get to see you running on TV though!  That was really cool.  I'm so proud of you. When I grow up, will you teach me to run marathons like you and mommy?
Love,

Harper Joy

Christmas Tree

Last weekend we put up the Christmas Tree. Harper is into EVERYTHING these days so I don't trust her with the Christmas Tree.  We put the tree up in the Dining Room and put a baby gate around it.  She still managed to pull ornaments off of it.

I'll leave you with a video.

Brrr...It's getting cold

It's finally starting to feel like Winter around here.  I think it was 30 degrees when we woke up this morning. It actually snowed a little this week.  It all melted before I could get a picture of Harper in it. She was not to happy about putting on her winter coat.

Harper: "Mom - Seriously, why do I have to put this on?"

Mom: "See - you are happy now that you have it on when you get outside!"

I'm ready for summer again...

Only at Mimi & Papa

My parents kept Harper for 6 days and she had a great time! She loved playing in Mimi's kitchen cabinets.  Our cabinets at home all have locks on them for a reason!

More fun in the cabinets

Sharing a glass of Iced Tea with Mimi.

"This tastes pretty good!"

We loved coming back home to this sweet face!

Thanksgiving in Paris

Jeff and I got home from NYC late last Wednesday night.  We stopped at home long enough to do a few loads of laundry, repack and sleep.  We drove to Paris on Thursday morning.  We were anxious to see Harper after 6 days.  She had a great time with her Papa, Mimi, Aunt Carol and Aunt Bek! She always finds fun new things to do in Paris like jump on the trampoline.  

Had to cheer for the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.

My mom did an awesome job with all of the food.  We ate all weekend! Harper even enjoyed a little Turkey, Dressing, and green bean casserole.

My mom bought Harper this new toy.  It's supposed to be a rowing machine that you sit on and then push and pull the monkey back and forth.  Her legs aren't long enough yet so she just lies on the seat and rocks back and forth.

One of her new favorite snacks are yogurt-covered raisins.  I think she really just likes playing with the little box that they come in.

Friday was a day full of adventure. Here's everyone fishing in my parent's backyard.  This is just before the dock broke and Jeff fell in.

Just after Jeff fell in. I couldn't get the camera fast enough to capture him actually in the water! He was so cold!  I wish I had the whole incident on video because it was so funny!!

When the end of the dock gave way, Jeff fell into the cold water and he was so startled that he accidently threw the fishing rod that he was holding into the pond.  Unfortunately, they did not have any success finding it in the water.

Harper even got in on the action but wasn't too excited about fishing. She must take after her mom!

"Here little Fishy!"

After the exciting morning of fishing some of the family went to the skeet shooting range. Rebekah brought home a friend for Thanksgiving weekend.  Johann is a German Exchange Student at UT.  He wanted to experience a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  He has a checklist of things that he wants to do while living in Texas.  He was able to check off a few things this weekend including - go fishing, shoot a gun, buy a cowboy hat, etc.

Harper helped Papa clean his gun after the shooting range.

What evening is not complete without Lawn mower races with the John Deer in the front pasture?

We enjoyed the bonfire and the yummy smores that we cooked.

We had a great weekend in Paris with family. Unfortunately it was back to reality on Monday morning...

NYC - Part 3

Two mornings we woke up and went to run through Central Park.  The beautiful weather and awesome scenery made for great running.  All of the trees in the park were changing colors. 

We went back to Central Park one afternoon and had a nice picnic lunch.

Tuesday evening we went to a Broadway show.  We went on Tuesday morning to stand in line for half price tickets.  We ended up with 3rd row seats at Mary Poppins.  The show was fabulous and Jeff even liked it!

Wednesday morning we went back to the NBC studios and got a little better view for the filming of the Today Show. Bon Jovi was performing so the crowds were crazy.  We got there at 5:30 a.m. and there were already hundreds of people there.  People had been camping out since midnight the night before. We at least got a good view of Matt and Meredith at the news desk.

The closest that I got to Matt Lauer from the Today Show.

We left NYC on Wednesday afternoon.  All week we watched them preparing for the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. They set up bleachers all along the parade route through downtown Manhattan.  Our hotel was right around the corner from Macy's.  Wednesday afternoon before we left we went to Central Park where they were inflating all of the huge balloons.  It was pretty cool to see them in person - they are huge!

Overall we had a fantastic trip.  Now it's back to reality - changing diapers, cleaning up messes, and chasing around a 15 month old =)