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.

525,600 Minutes

525,600 minutes - 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

We can not believe that Harper turned one years old today! When she woke up this morning we put balloons in her crib to celebrate. She wasn't so sure of them at first but then figured out that they were fun to play with. Good Morning Birthday Girl!

Enjoying a "special" birthday breakfast of waffles and strawberries. Jeff had his first football game tonight so Harper and I went over to the Diamond's house before the game for dinner. Heather made Harper some yummy birthday cupcakes. "Can I fit this whole cupcake in my mouth at once!"
Abigail helping Harper open her present. Abigail showing Harper how to play her new piano. They are already best buddies - it's so cute to watch them play together.

Harper loving on her baby doll. When I gave this to her she immediatly held it up like this and gave it a hug - so cute!We made it through half time at Jeff's game but then had to head home. Harper has been going to bed before 6:30 this past week so by 9:30 she was DONE! I think we will be spending many birthdays at the football game.

It seems like just yesterday that we were preparing for her birth and now she is already one years old. I had fun going back through the hundreds of pictures that we have taken over the past year. This is on the way to the hospital August 28, 2008.

"Hello world!""What are you people doing to me?" Look at those long legs.

Headed home from the hospital.

I can't believe how much they change in just the first year.
Happy Birthday Harper Joy!

Empty Cabinets

While I was packing up our bathroom tonight Harper found a new way to keep herself entertained. She did this completely on her own. Make sure your sound is up because I love how she is talking to herself.


Caught in the act.

Two more days...

3 more days

Three more days until our big move! We do the final walk through of our new house on Monday. We close on our Wylie house on Wednesday morning and then close on our new home in McKinney that afternoon. We get the keys to our new house at 6pm on Wednesday and we have to be out of our Wylie house by midnight on Friday. That gives us 48 hours to get moved. I ended up hiring movers to come on Thursday. Originally we were going to rent a Penske truck and try to move everything ourselves, but Jeff will not be around at all this week. Teacher in service is every day from 8am - 3pm. Then football is from 4pm - 8pm. I decided that it would be worth the money to hire movers to just take care of it for us.


Harper and I have been busy packing. It does take a little longer to pack a box when you have a curious baby around. For every two things I put into a box, she likes to pull out at least one of them. I've learned that I have to be faster than her.
Yesterday I tackled the kitchen and got all of the cabinets cleaned outand all of the drawers emptied. We sure have accumulated a lot of stuff in 5.5 years of marriage! Moving is a pain in the rear - but we are so thankful that we have the opportunity to move closer to Jeff's school. It will make life much easier on all of us.

Congrats Roo!

On Friday evening, we got a very exciting phone call. Jeff's sister, Rhonda, was calling to tell us that her boyfriend, Bill, just proposed to her. What a beautiful engagement ring!!
We are so excited for Rhonda and Bill. They met in Lubbock while Rhonda was in nursing school at Tech and Bill was getting his MBA. They both were working at the same hospital and clinic. We won't hold it against them that they are Red Raiders! Bill was a cyclist when he met Rhonda so he got her hooked on the sport as well. They enjoy riding bikes together and are doing the Hotter'N Hell ride in a few weeks.

Bill has turned into a triathlete as well so he will fit in nicely with our family. Rhonda and Bill also enjoy running. I think they have talked us into doing a couples half marathon with them in Austin on Valentine's Day. We are so excited for Rhonda and Bill!! Can't wait for wedding planning to begin.

Book worm

I often find Harper in her room "reading" books from her bookshelf. She normally pulls all of the books onto the floor and then "reads" a couple pages from each book before getting bored and moving on to the next book. Violet's House is one of her favorite books right now. I think that it's because it's a large book with lots of bright colors and objects with texture to touch.

Harper likes reading her Bible also. Shh - don't tell her that it's upside down.

Hide and go seek with Mommy.