The Rhythm of Morning

This is a good idea of how I start my morning.

Up sometime between 5 and 6am. Say goodbye to my husband as he heads out to work. (Sometimes with a smile and open eyes; sometimes not.) Empty dishwasher, clean up whatever was left from night before that didn’t make it into the dishwasher, finish putting Landon’s lunch together, get Harper’s bottles ready for the day. Run upstairs to change myself and Harper, brush my teeth, attempt to swipe Harpers teeth without getting bit, make my bed, start laundry, pray dryer is empty from day before. Wish my daughter a good day at school on her way out the door.

Landon has his morning jobs to do too. He gets up to his own alarm, makes his bed, brushes his teeth, gets dressed and then heads downstairs. Once he gets down to the kitchen he has to take his allergy meds, then he feeds the dog and refills her water dish with fresh water. After all that he eats his breakfast and then usually watches a little T.V before heading to the bus.

While Landon and I are both busy, Harper is usually entertaining himself. He used to sit in his swing, or even one of his activity seats, but now he’s crawling around and getting into anything within reach. He’s also pulling himself up on anything available and falling back on his butt…over and over and over again.

Why am I blogging about this? Because my mundane morning of today is completely different from my mundane morning of just a few months ago…and I don’t want to forget the beautiful rhythm of right now.

Grilled Salad?

Tony wanted to grill.

Badly.

So much so that he even grilled our salad…

It was actually really good!

The salad was called Grilled Romaine Toss and it was in our latest Taste of Home magazine. We also tried out the Cool as a Cucumber soup (from the same magazine), but none of us cared for it one bit! It tasted like frothy cucumber water…and there just isn’t anything good about that!

Keeping Cool

Today was day two of insanely perfect pool weather. We spent another couple hours out there swimming our little hearts out, but it was close to 100 degrees today, so we didn’t make it an all day affair.

Harper got to try out his new floatie, and it is the best thing since sliced cheese! I just realized that I only got him one pair of swim trunks though, and I’ll have to remedy that right away.

Landon’s buddy from school was able to come over to play in the pool today, and there just isn’t anything better than another kid your own age to swim with! They made up all kinds of games to play and just had a great time together.

Zoe also had a friend over, but wouldn’t you know I forgot to get a picture of the two of them! Partly because they showed up later and partly because Harper had had enough of his floatie and was being a bit of a pill…but, next time we’re out there I’m making sure to get pictures of her too!

I did get a picture of Zoe today…

I just happened to get one of her working hard on her homework. She’d been sitting at the table working on her notes for hours and it’s just something I want to always remember; her dedication to her school work is pretty remarkable. And, of course, her grades show it.

It’s going to be tough getting back into school/work mode tomorrow after having such a fun weekend, but we’ve only got a few weeks to go!!! I’m so ready!

Just a Reminder

As I watch this baby quickly transition from one stage to the next, I feel like I need to be taking pictures of each and every thing he does. He is progressing smoothly, doing all the things that are appropriate for his age, and I don’t want to forget any of it.

If there is anything I’ve learned from motherhood, it’s that all of these milestones come and go quickly, and if you aren’t paying close attention, you could miss all the magic.

So, this picture is a reminder of the days when Harper liked to sleep on his tummy with his little feet tucked in hanging on to his soft blanket. Magic.

Pool Season

The best part about our neighborhood has got to be the pool. We didn’t get to use it a ton last summer because I was too pregnant to care and we were just super busy with moving into this house, but this year I can imagine us using the pool quite frequently.

After our busy morning of baseball games and grass mowing, we were ready for a dip in the pool, so off we went. (It’s awesome now that Zoe’s 16 because she can take Landon down without us!)

This little guy LOVED the water!

This little boy was ecstatic to be at the pool. It’s just about his favorite thing in the world.

This chick had a pretty good time hanging out with us and that always makes me happy!

We’re planning on heading over to the pool with friends tomorrow…can’t wait!

Well, Hello There

Harper is only 9 months old, but this seems like it happened so incredibly long ago!

I’ll never forget how excited the kids were to get to come to the hospital to meet Harper. They were staying with their Mema and she got them up to the hospital around 11am or so. They were both hesitant to hold him because he just seemed so tiny and fragile, but I was finally able to convince both of them to give it a try. Their faces showed how proud they were to be holding such a sweet little baby, their new brother. They both pointed out all the things they noticed about him; his eyes, his little nose, his funny baby faces, and Zoe even noticed his dimples right away, like Tony and I had.

I think that they all share a really special bond, and Harper is extremely fortunate to have these two older siblings who love him very much.

Baseball Tournament

Today was day one of the Memorial Day weekend baseball tournament for Landon. We had to be at the field by 7:30am for practice, and then he had a double header with the first game beginning at 8:30. Although the weather was quite warm, it was a beautiful day to be outside…even if we were sitting on a baseball field for 5 hours. Zoe opted to stay home, but Tony, Harper and I toughed it out with Landon.

While Landon played ball, Harper entertained himself with all kinds of things he really wasn’t supposed to be playing with.

When he wasn’t tearing up my cup or chewing on my straw, he was crawling over to the grass so that he could get a handful to taste!

Tomorrow’s game starts at 10:45am, and I’m thinking that will be it for us since today didn’t go well. I don’t know what we’re going to do with ourselves when we have the whole day off on Monday!

Handled

This post is really for my Mom who I know has been sitting on the edge of her seat waiting to see what kind of handles I put on our bookcases.

Mom, your wait is finally over.

I chose this color/style because they are a close match to the bases of the lamps that will eventually go in that room. I’m so happy how it looks!

(I realize that the angle I took that bottom photo makes the handles look crooked, but they really are straight!)

Just a Swingin’

At one of Landon’s last baseball games, Tony decided to take Harper over to the park for his first ride in a swing.

As you can see, he loved it!

He kept putting his arms over the edge like this:

And every time he did, my stomach would turn. I know he won’t fall out, but it just makes me cringe!

Doesn’t he just look tiny compared to all the big trees and everything around him? He enjoyed swinging so much that I decided it was time to get him a little swing to hang off the deck. Now if Tony could only find the time to hang it!

RELAX

These are pictures that were taken while we were on vacation last year. I wasn’t going tubing at almost 9 months pregnant, but they all wanted to go so I just sent them on their way with a water camera so they could show me how much fun they had without me!

It looks like they all had a pretty good time, and I might have gone had I known they were teaching people how to walk on water. Check out that picture of Zoe on the bottom row, far right…I swear it looks like she’s standing on top of the water!

Christmas Pages in May

There has been a stack of Christmas cards sitting on my desk since I put away all the decorations this past year. I like to try to think of something to do with all of them, just as a little reminder of all the people who thought of us that year and took the time to wish us a happy holiday/

Last year I made this page with the cards we received and this one with all the pictures people included. This year there were LOTS more picture cards so I had to made 4 pages total!

This page just has some of the card images; the ornament on the bottom row, far right is an acrylic one I colored years ago and had in my Christmas stash.

Page 4 is the beginning of all the photo’s we got.

Pages one and four are 12x12 and the other two are 81/2x11, and it is a front and back.

As you can see, I ran out of pictures on the back of the page, so I improvised with some Christmas embellishments. The “the season to shine” embellishment is from a Caribou coffee cup holder! I liked the saying, so I kept the cup sleeve to use somewhere and this seemed to be the perfect spot for it! Of course, I wouldn’t have thought to save it if it hadn’t been for Ali Edwards! She keeps all kinds of things from her day to include on layouts and I love how easily those things can be found if you just look for them!

Spring Chorus Concert

Tonight was Landon’s spring chorus concert. I’ve been looking forward to going about as much as he’s been loathing it. The program began at 7pm and only last about 20 minutes, (they sang 7 songs) so it was short and sweet. My favorite song of the night was “50 Nifty United States”. I can remember when Kiersten was little and came to our house singing that song, and years later Zoe learned it in elementary chorus, and now Landon…so, its just got a special place in my heart…

A quick picture before heading in to the crappy lighting in the cafeteria:

He isn’t the most cooperative kid when it comes to getting his photo taken in front of a bunch of people, so I just kind of take what I can get:

I’m not sure what he’s pointing at, but of the 15 pictures I took from far away, this is the least blurry!

The school sent home a form to be filled out if we’d like to buy our child a boutonniere for the concert, and of course I thought Landon needed one! He didn’t want it pinned on him though so we just stuck it in his pocket.  It was a nice evening but Landon has no intention of joining chorus again next year, so I think it will be our last. I hate to see these things come to an end because I know it means my baby’s growing up, and it’s just moving way too fast.

Baseball is Consuming Our Lives!

This past Sunday was another long day spent running errands and a late afternoon baseball game.

Landon is doing great considering he is playing for two teams. He generally doesn’t complain about going to games or practice and he’s always asking us to go out and let him pitch or practice batting. His weakest area in baseball is batting. He’s great in the field and really knows what to do in different scenarios, but batting is hard for him. He’s always had a tough time with it, but ever since he got hit in the face this season, it’s just made it that much worse.

 

Every once in awhile he strikes out, sometimes he’ll get a walk and occasionally he’ll get a hit. Once he’s on base though, look out! He’s always looking for a chance to steal!

This weekend we have a tournament and he’ll be playing a double header on Saturday and he’ll have a third game on Sunday. I suppose how well his team does will determine if they will have another game on Sunday, but either way, it’s going to be a lot of hours spent out on those fields!

Mostly Miserable May

My mom used to tell me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all.

May has been a sucky month and I have little nice to say about it…so, I will spare you all my grumpiness and hopefully be back to posting nice things shortly.

Or maybe not.

Guess we’ll see.

9 Month Well Baby

Yesterday was baby Harp’s 9 month well baby appointment.

I always dread his appointments because I know he’s going to get shots and I just hate to do that to him. So, a few days before the dreaded appointment I started thinking maybe he wouldn’t have to get any this time. After three days of telling myself that, I was damn near convinced of it when we got to the doctors office yesterday! I was so convinced that I was almost surprised when his doctor told me he had to get two shots…but, I wasn’t as anxious about his appointment and I think I’ll just go ahead and start convincing myself that there won’t be any shots necessary next time.

His stats are:

• 22 pounds, 1 ounce
• 29 inches long
• 47 1/2 head circumference

That means he’s about 3 1/2 pounds heavier than at 6 months, about an inch taller and his heads grown and inch and a half! The doctor assured me that he’s growing perfectly fine and turning out to be another little cutie.

But I already knew that.

WILD

I love these two pictures of Harper. His eyes are so big and expressive and his hair is absolutely WILD! He had just had a bath and his hair kind of just naturally flipped out, and we thought that it looked like he was growing wings or something!

Toofy

The other day when I was trying to get Harpers 9 month photo, he was being less than cooperative. The older he gets, the harder this monthly photo session seems to be getting!

Anyways, I probably took at least 80 shots before I finally decided to wait until Landon got home to help me out. When I was going through them I noticed they weren’t all awful, and in some of them you can see his little tooth!

Here he is looking a little crazy.

He was reaching for the darn camera as I snapped away! I think he may have been telling me all about how unhappy he was at the moment too, but I’m not sure. Either way, he looks pretty funny.

Here’s a cute little smile, and in the background you can see that the dog was totally over all this commotion.

I think if you click on the picture it’ll open in a new window a bit larger so you can actually see his tooth. I swear it’s there!

And, just for the record, I have to tell you that I must have spent half an hour trying to get a decent shot of this little turkey, but as I said before, I ended up giving up. When Landon got home I asked him to help me and I got 15 awesome shots of him, one after another laughing and smiling away, in about 3 minutes. After 15 shots, Landon said “Well, I hope you got one. That was too easy.” 

9 Months

As of yesterday, this little one is 9 months old.

Here’s his progress report:

• Those two bottom teeth I mentioned last month finally made their way through. Right now he’s working on pushing the top two through as well and boy will I be happy when they finally make their way in.
• When he isn’t teething, he sleeps great. When he is teething, I'd like to hire someone to sit with him during the night just so that I can sleep for more than an hour and a half at a time. It’s hell.
• He can push himself up with his hands into a sitting position. He does it so well, it’s like he’s always been able to. It’s weird.
• He doesn’t quite crawl yet, but he gets up in the crawling position and tries. He kind of drags one leg beside him while the rest of his body moves…and then he face plants. The best part? He just keeps on trying.
• He reaches out for my hands all the time because he wants to pull up. We don’t really have the greatest furniture for him to pull up on, so usually it’s just one of us. He loves to pull up then go walking around the house holding our fingers. I love it too.
• He seems to finally enjoy some foods. The yogurts he eats in the morning continue to be a hit, and he eats most other baby food just fine now. Every once in awhile we’ll get a dud, but usually he’s just fine. He especially enjoys being able to pick up little crackers/cheerios etc. on his own. He also enjoys throwing them on the floor.
• His favorite toys are still Landon and Ginger. He loves to grab the dogs rope and hold it out for her to get. Usually he’ll hold it out and as she starts to approach him to get it, he drops it. He doesn’t seem the least bit scared of her, and most of the time she’ll have nothing to do with him. He doesn’t exactly play real nice with her yet.
• He laughs and laughs. This boy loves a good time. Pretty much anything Landon does is funny, but everyone else has found one way or another to amuse him. He screeches at the top of his lungs whenever the feeling strikes him, and we all think it’s hilarious…so he makes sure to do it plenty of times!
• His only word is still Mama. I’m not so sure he knows what it means, but I love to hear it. He babbles a little here and there and sometimes we think he’s saying ball, but right now I’m still pretty convinced he’s just babbling.
• He loves to shake his rattles.
• He kicks/pushes toys away with his feet.
• He likes to dump his toy basket.
• He finds everything my vacuum misses.
• He loves to watch the dog eat.
• He pulls Zoe’s hair/necklaces/glasses every chance he gets.
• He smells like heaven when he gets out of the bath.
• He’s recently found that he has a cool toy in his diaper.
• He’s precious and we love him.

He’ll have his well baby check up next Monday, and I’ll be sure to post his stats then.

Built-In’s

I know it’s been awhile since my last post, but life’s been crazy around here. Nothing major going on, just the usual, but I haven’t had any steam left at night in order to blog, so it just took a backburner there for a bit. Hopefully I will be able to get back to posting regularly, but if not, then just know that we are all doing fine, just living life and keeping busy.

Last week we had a major home improvement project finished. We knew when we moved into this house that one of our front rooms was going to turn into a library. It just seemed like the right kind of room for a library and we both really loved the one that my parents had when they lived in South Carolina the first time; so much so that I based the entire design of our bookcases on what theirs had looked like.

Anyways, last week the contractor finally came out to install them. They are gorgeous, and we are so incredibly happy with the way they turned out!

Here’s a quick progression of the room:

This was taken when we first moved in. Ignore the junk, but notice the floor to ceiling mirrors. Yuck.

Mirrors removed and walls painted.

Base unit’s.

Base and shelving units installed.

Everything but the handles.

With some books…still no handles. (Handles should be installed on Friday this week.)

Prom 2011

Tonight is prom night for my girl. She looked stunning and I am so glad that I was able to be a part of it. Buying the dress, getting manicures/pedicures/make-up and hair was fun, and it all just looked amazing in the end. I’m too worn out to do a lot of writing though, so here are some pictures:

Finishing touches.

First look.

Up-close.

Head to Toe.

With her bestie, Nicole.

The limo girls.

Trying to figure out the boutonniere.

The limo kids.

Zoe and her date, Dylan.

In the limo.

I hope she feel’s like a princess because she certainly looked like one.