Harper Update - Months 4-6

It seems I'm a little behind on Harper's monthly updates...only by 3 months.  I'll take my mother of the year award now, please and thank you.  I honestly can't believe how much this sweet girl has grown and changed in the past 3 months.  She is such a gift.  Our joy. 

4 months

5 months

6 months

 

As I'm sure you can imagine, she's been quite the busy bee these past three months.  She is sitting up really well now, eating everything she's offered (you're shocked, I know), watching her sister's every move, entertaining herself with all of her toys, rolling and scooting herself around the room, and she's thisclose to crawling. 

 

 

"What?  She thought that mat could contain ME?"

Doll Baby

She loves to sing and talk

First bite of food.  Hasn't looked back since.

Daddy likes to sneak naps in with Harper whenever he can

Would you just look at this little beauty

Love this girl!

Fancy pants

Someone should really tell this kid to slow down and stop growing up so fast.  It's making her mama kinda sad. 

I'm Back, Baby

Oh, hello there, September.  Looks like June, July, and August just sneaked right past me.  Whoops.  Izzy started back to preschool today, and Harper is sleeping.  Yes, it is just as heavenly as it sounds.  I feel like this is the first chance in months that I've had to actually sit down and write a post.  Sure, there is time in the evenings after the girls go to sleep, but that time is reserved for mindless television.  Duh.  I'm so excited to get back to our scheduled routine.  Without a schedule, I accomplish nothing, as evident by my 3-month blog hiatus.  I'm also excited to have some much-needed one-on-one time with my Harper girl.  She is growing at warp speed, and I want to soak in every second because I know she is going to be driving herself to school before I know it.  Just the thought of that gives me heart palpitations.  I owe you tons of posts that I've been storing in my little pea brain for months, but we'll just take baby steps and start with a few photos of how we spent our summer. 

My Izzy girl loves to laugh

Paw and Harper

Playtime in our jammies - it's what we do best

Swinging with "Bubba"

She's a big girl now. :(

Who needs clothes when you've got princess slippers?

My bathing beauties

Sisters :)

Nanny and the girls

Just hanging out

Double Cuteness



Family shopping trip to Austin and San Marcos.  Those outlet malls didn't stand a chance. 
My girls stayed home with their daddy. 

Izzyisms

My sweet girl is not a baby anymore.  Somewhere along the way, she has turned into this precious little girl who cracks me up on a daily basis.  I thought I better write down some of the stuff that comes out of her mouth before I forget. 

"Helping" daddy with the flower beds. 

Passed out in the back seat on the way to the zoo.

1. Not to brag, but we went to Applebee's for dinner the other night.  Ha!  Anyway, she ordered Kraft mac and cheese.  Yep, the same kind we make from the box at home, but this kind cost $3.99.  She took one bite and said, "Now, that's what I call macaroni and cheese!"

2. Everytime we come home, as soon as we walk through the garage door, she closes it behind us and says, "Whew, that was a close one!"

3. The first morning Harper was home with us, I went into her room, picked her up, and said, "Well hello, princess!"  Izzy was not a fan.  She quickly responded, "She is not a princess!  I am!" 

4. Aside from the above comment, Izzy loves Harper.  Almost every day, she gives her a kiss and says, "I really love my baby sissy." 

5. We pray together after reading books every night.  We say our standard little prayer together, and then I ask her if she wants to thank God for anything.  Her list usually goes like this: Play-doh, Bubba (cousin Lane), KK (cousin Katelynn), various grandparents, and an occasional mention of Mommy, Daddy, or baby sissy.  But the other night, unprompted, she said, "Thank you God for my Mommy."  Melt...

6. Hubs was going to rock her to sleep a few weeks ago, so she came to tell me goodnight.  She held my face, gave me a kiss, and said, "And they lived happily ever after."

7. She loves playing at the park, and she gets REALLY excited when other kids are there.  Everytime a new one walks up, she screams, "Yay!  A friend to play with me!"  Then she runs over to them and says, "I Izzy!"

On our way to Disney on Ice to see the princesses

Sisterly Love: both of their expressions are cracking me up

8. I'm not sure where she got this line, but she started saying, "Go away, dirty rats!" while she is pretend playing.  Normal? 

9. We met some friends at McDonald's for storytime, then had lunch and played afterwards.  She had a great time, and didn't want to leave.  When it was time to go, she said, "I don't want to leave Chicken Donalds."  She still calls it that, and I don't even correct her because it's too cute. 

10.  We have been working on potty training lately, so I have my own little cheerleader everytime I have to use the restroom.  "Go Mommy, go Mommy, go Mommy!  Good girl, Mommy!"  I gotta say, it does make me feel pretty accomplished.

11. She is obsessed with Disney's Cars and Cars 2 and all the toys that go with it. She loves saying, "Ka-Chow!"  Last week, we were at my Nanny and Paw's house, and she was pushing cars over a ramp with Paw whilst wearing a tutu.  Sums up my girl right there. 

12. She has started imaginary play lately, and she has full on conversations between her toys.  It's hilarious.  The other day, I overheard one of her toys saying thank you to the other.  The response was, "It's my pleasure."  Too many trips to Chick fil a, perhaps?

13. She loves the Cuddle Up-It's and Pillow Pets commercial.  Everytime they come on, she runs to get her Pillow Pet or blanket (we pretend it's a Cuddle Up-It) and dances along.

14. Lately, she has been asking for her music (Disney songs I added to the crapped out iphone, or the Disney station on Pandora) more than tv, which is very nice.  She loves dancing around in her playroom, especially to music from Lion King, Cars, and Tangled.  Hakuna Matata is a house favorite. 

Those dimples kill me

What'd I tell ya?  Wearing a fancy dress, but still holding on to Lightning McQueen and Finn McMissile.

Harper - 2 and 3 month pics

Well, three months have come and gone, and I've already fallen behind on these monthly updates.  That didn't take long.  But hey, I was always late on Izzy's updates, too, so I'm just keeping it even.  That's my story at least. 

Harper is such a sweet baby!  She is growing like a weed, and getting cuter by the minute.  She still loves to eat, as evident in her pictures.  Love those sweet cheeks!  She is sleeping really well these days, taking several 45 min - 1 hour naps throughout the day, and usually at least one longer nap around 2 hours.  She usually sleeps at least 6 hours a night, and those wonderful 8-hour stints at night are becoming more and more frequent...I like where this is headed! 

Girlfriend is wearing size 1 diapers (probably not for much longer though), and mostly 3-month clothing, but she can wear many 6-month outfits, too.  Baby sizing is kind of crazy in that way.  At her last appointment, she weighed in at 13 pounds 7 ounces.  She is smiling all the time now, making even more coos, squeals, and little chuckles.  She gives me and hubs good smiles, but I think she saves the best ones for her big sister.  She is smitten with Izzy, and I think the feeling is mutual. 

Month 2

Month 3

Mother's Day

This was my first Mother's Day as a mom of two, and it was just about perfect.  I had the whole day to myself on Saturday, so I got a massage and then met up with my girlfriends for lunch, drinks, and shopping.  Did I mention I have the best husband ever?  It's true - I gotta good one!  Spending all day with the kids must have caused him temporary insanity though, because he forgot that I was out shopping (while I was out shopping) and so I was surprised with shopping money on Sunday morning.  I'm not going to argue with that!  I also got some cute little bath goodies from the girls and a sweet card with both of their handprints in it. 

Our day started off when we went to Blue Mesa with Griff's parents for brunch.  Everything was delicious, and I ate entirely too much.  Nothing new there.  I squeezed in a solo run Sunday afternoon, which is a luxury these days, then got cleaned up to meet my family for dinner.  After dinner, we took the kids to the park so they could burn off some energy.  Then we headed home, hubs bathed both babies, and I watched 4 episodes of Girls on HBO.  Highly inappropriate, but quite possibly my new favorite show.  Mother's Day is quickly becoming my favorite day of the year. ;-)  Oh, and please note the pasta necklace I'm wearing proudly in the last photo.  Sure did wear that bad boy to dinner.  Mother of the year?  I think so.

The Belated Easter Post

A little late, but couldn't leave it out...

We had a very busy Easter weekend last week.  We were thinking about returning to church, but talked ourselves into waiting because we figured it would be extra crowded, and not an ideal time to take Harper for the first time.  So, our morning was pretty laid back.  Izzy found a bunch of candy, bubbles, and new Thomas trains in her Easter basket (the girl is obessesed with anything Thomas or Cars lately...what??), and Harper ate, slept, and pooped.  Typical morning.

We headed to Nanna and Pop-Pop's house for an egg hunt and lunch.  It started raining during our hunt, so it was pretty quick.  We had some yummy lasagna, and the kids played for a while before we headed home. 

Izzy and KK

Mr. Tyler was not scared of a little rain.  He wanted to go look for more eggs.

Got one!

Sweet cousins watching a movie together

Baby Harper slept through her first Easter egg hunt.  Sweet baby.

The plan was for Izzy to take a nap, and we would chill for a few hours, then head to my aunt and uncle's house for our second celebration.  Well, the electricity in our neighborhood went out while we were gone due to some storms, and because we were rushing out the door as usual, all we had with us was our garage door opener - no key.  Genius move, right?  So, after about 30 minutes of us sitting in our driveway, and hubs walking around the house a few times, hoping a window would unlock itself, we met my mom who had a spare key to our house.  By the time we made it back home, it was time to leave again.  Oh, and the electricity had also turned on by then.  Figures. 

So, we did a 10-minute speed trip through the house - got the girls dressed in their second set of matching outfits, changed diapers, got Harper's bottles, grabbed the desserts we were suppposed to take with us, and we were off to our second egg hunt.  Izzy got a ton of eggs and had a great time playing with all of her cousins, and Harper had people fighting to hold her, as usual. ;)

The crew ready for eggs!

So excited

She likes to inspect each egg as she finds it.  Not the most efficient egg hunter...

I finally remembered to get a family picture at the end of the day.  Humidity had taken its course by that point.

I got a late start on my Easter/Spring decor, so we only got to enjoy it for a week or so, but it was cute while it lasted. 

Outside decor was pretty slim - just some eggs and a little sign.  And a cute little girl in her pajamas.

Hubs did plant some pretty flowers.

Entryway table

My candelabra all jazzed up for Easter

The Spring mantel

I had planned on making a banner similar to this, and then I found this one at Target for $6.99.  Duh, no brainer.

My most recent crafty project, and I'm kind of loving it.  All supplies from Hobby Lobby (except ribbon). I just bought a cheap wooden letter, a grapevine wreath (obviously), and a sheet of moss.  Then I traced and cut the moss to fit the letter, hot glued it into place, painted the back of the letter with green paint to match, and hot glued the finished letter to the wreath.  Easy cheesy, and I love the way it turned out. 

This really doesn't even fit here, but whatev.  This little ditty hails from Tarjay.  I saw it a few months ago and didn't purchase it, and then regretted it.  I didn't see it for awhile, and then I saw that they brought it back at my local store.  I can only assume it was fate that brought us back together, so I had to pull the trigger on the purchase this time.  We are living happily ever after now. 

Hope you all had a happy Easter!