Harper-Bug

Sweet little Harper hasn't gotten too much blog attention lately. She is almost 21 months now, and I'm really having a hard time finding the words to describe her at this age. She's hilarious, picks up on things from her sister and thinks she's one of the big kids, is a picky eater, a great sleeper, funny, can throw a temper tantrum like none other and be completely happy in less than a second. Seriously. This girl can go from 0 to 60 in less than a second. She has a great little sense of humor but has NO problem telling you she's not happy about something. Two words we hear frequently these days are "no" and "hush." I think she picked up the hush because when she cries, Payton tells her to hush. Lovely. She really is a little ray of sunshine outside of those few moments of unconsolable fits.

With her sisters persuasion, she has recently started playing dress up. Payton will take her in the play room, close the door, and bring her out when she is all dressed up. Harper comes out with a huge smile saying "princa" for princess. It's pretty darn cute.

She loves going to CDO and preschool. These pictures were sent to me by her CDO teacher. They have the hardest time getting her to stay awake at both places. She just loves to sleep, do you blame her? The only bad thing is that it messes up her naps royally if she just dozes for 20 minutes or so. They try to keep her awake, but sometimes there is no stopping the inevitable. I think she will love it this summer when she can sleep past 6:00.

We went to the Reetz/Wynn Easter Egg hunt for the fifth year last week. The first time we went Payton was about 6 weeks old! Payton had gymnastics that afternoon, so it ended up being a fun afternoon with just Mommy and Harper. We did a little practice run at home earlier in the week. It was a rainy and cold week, so we decided that indoor egg hunt would be a perfect way to spend an evening. The girls loved it, and Harper got the hang of the whole egg hunting thing pretty quickly.

This was one morning about 6:15. Jonathan had to go into work early that morning. He is a hero in the mornings. He pretty much gets both girls up and ready for us to leave the house by hopefully 6:15. Well, without Daddy things didn't go very smooth. Harper wasn't happy to have me wake her up. You see, Daddy plays fun games and things while Mommy just tries to get everyone up and going. I"m trying to do better. :) Anyways, Harper wanted her Daddy and was.not.ready. to get out of bed on this morning. After her screaming and throwing a fit the whole time while getting her dressed, I finally put her down in the kitchen to fix breakfast. Payton gets down next to her and starts doing "This Little Piggy." She then proceeds to fix a pallet for her in the kitchen so she could rest while I finished. Harper was instantly happy. I guess I may need to take parenting advice from Payton. 

Playing dress up.

Another day where she fell asleep at CDO going up the little slide. Poor baby girl!

Other than all of that, not much has changed since I updated at 18 months. She is starting to try and put 2-3 words together and it's so cute because they all kind of blend together. "Iwanstrawberry.""Iwaneat." You get the point. When she feels up to it, she can be so cuddly. She gives the best hugs, kisses, and "squeezes" as we call them. She loves to say amen at the end of our blessings and prayers and is the cutest thing holding her hands together and bowing her head. She loves to be outside and loves reading books. I can't believe she's nearing 2!

Cousins

Our girls love their cousins to pieces! I'm so thankful that they are all close in age and love playing together!

Come on, Spring!

Baby Update

We had our ultrasound scheduled for February 26, Dad's birthday! Most importantly, we wanted to know that the baby was healthy. I was also very anxious to see if my due date stayed true since we haven't been sure since the beginning. Thankfully, everything checked out healthy. There is no feeling that compares to seeing that sweet baby for the first time on the screen. Well, I guess we saw it very early on, but it only resembled a peanut. Although baby was not really cooperating, she was able to check all of the major things on her checklist, and everything looked great! Next, she asked us if we wanted to know the gender. Of course we did. Either way we were thrilled and felt blessed beyond belief that we have been granted a healthy third child. After our appointment Jonathan and I ran home to make cupcakes to reveal the gender of baby #3.

BOY, oh BOY!!!

Harper really wasn't into the reveal of baby #3. At this point she was more concerned about her fruit cup and letting us know that a spoon was no sufficient, instead she needed a fork.

Still not interested...

Yes, a fork is all I wanted!

What??? You say I"m having a baby brother! I can't believe it!

"Smile girls!" This is Harper's smile these days. She's a funny little one. Payton's smile was more about the cupcake I'm sure.

My due date has been changed from July 29 to August 18 according to the ultrasound. I guess we will see how things progress and this baby may just want to make a surprise entrance on us! We are so thankful for our precious little blessings. Jonathan and I find ourselves still saying "she." We always refer to the kids as "the girls." I guess some things will be changing but we are very thankful that baby #3 seems to be growing happy and healthy!

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:10

Every good and perfect gift is from above. James 1:17

FOUR!

FOUR YEARS OLD! No words can explain how crazy it is that we now have a four year old. Four just seems so big! It's almost 5, which is almost time for starting school. (Not that we are rushing any of that, but my goodness, FOUR!) I have to say that this four year old is such a blast. She's our little buddy. You never know what clever thing she's going to say next, and she has such a zest for life that most anything is exciting to her. She's a daddy's girl there's no doubt, although we've known that for some time now. She loves her sister to pieces, even though sometimes she might get a little frustrated with her at times.

As mentioned, she is a daddy's girl. I snuck my camera out back a few weeks ago to get this picture. This was taken after they had gone riding in the woods and gotten the golf cart muddy. Not to mention it was freezing outside.

For her birthday party this year she kept insisting that she wanted a princess party. Against all of my better judgement, we decided that whatever makes her happy is what matters. After some conversations, we decided that a princess and superhero party would be the theme. 

Our four year old princess.

The princess castle inflatable that entertained the children the entire party.

Sweet Haisley riding the tricycle.

Spiderman and Batman even made an appearance.

These two princesses had wardrobe changes several times throughout the party. Payton was thrilled to have Ella come to Auburn and celebrate with her.

For the past several months, every time we go in Publix Payton would point out the sample princess cake (I truly think this is what sparked the desire for a princess party in the first place.) She absolutely loved her cake.

So many sweet friends and family were there to help us celebrate. We are truly blessed to have so many people take time out of their weekend to help our little girl celebrate.

Blowing out all four candles!

Pawpaw and the big kids!

The little princess had a blast keeping up with all the big kids. At this point I think she was starting to wind down.

The best we could get at a family picture. Harper was about 2 hours past her nap-time at this point.

Opening a few presents before heading home. We let her open them when we got home after naps since everyone was so exhausted. What torture for a little girl, but she handled it very well. It just goes to show how tired she was also!

We went to visit Dr. Williams on Friday for her four year well visit. Praise the Lord, Payton had not had to go to the doctor since her three year well visit. We have been so blessed with healthy children and I do not take that for granted! Everything went great! She weighed 35 lbs. 9oz. (50%), was 39.5 inches tall (45%), and her head was int he 70% percentile (definitely the lowest ever:). We went ahead and got her vaccinations that she will have to have before she starts school since they said there was really no reason to wait. She was such a brave girl and only whimpered for a short minute while she was getting the shots. Now she is clear of all shots until she is 11!

Happy birthday to our four year old princess! Daddy and I love you more than you will ever know!