Christmas 2010

What a great couple weeks we've had celebrating Christmas this year. We had Jasper's first Christmas to look forward to, as well as my parents coming to visit!

Every year we look forward to the family Christmas parties, and this year did not disappoint. We always have a great time, and it's so fun to visit and catch up with family, and of course see how much each kid has grown in the last year.

We're still working on incorporating new traditions into our new little family, and we got to introduce something new to Harper that I grew up with: an advent calendar. Every morning she got to check that day's slot to see what treat she had waiting for her. I loved seeing her excitement and it reminded me of how much I always enjoyed checking my calendar when I was a kid. The calendars we used as kids are who-knows-where, but Mimi finally found ones that were fairly close to those and sent them to us and I coudn't have been more thrilled.

We also baked Jesus some birthday cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to Him, which Harper loved. And something that might become a new tradition was going out to look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. We bathed the kids and put them in their Christmas PJs, then loaded them into the car and drove around to find the coolest homes. It was lots of fun, even if a bit disappointing with the caliber of homes. Better luck next year!

Nana and Papa came over on Christmas morning to watch the kids open their gifts which was tons of fun. Harper got a new kitchen and Jasper got a fun interactive walker, among tons of several other gifts. They scored! Harper and I then went to the airport to pick up Mimi and Poppy, and we went home to open the rest of our gifts. We had a big dinner that evening and continued to eat for the next 4 days straight!

The visit with Mimi and Poppy was wonderful and we loved having them here. We hope they come back to visit soon! One of the best memories we made was Harper covering Poppy like she covers her dolls when she puts them to bed. She started carefully piling each of her blankies on him as he relaxed on the couch. He kept asking her to cover his feet, but apparently that isn't something her babies ever ask for, so she was reluctant to. When she finally did, it was with the big pink throw blanket, and she simply draped them over the ends of his feet, then continued piling her blankies on his body. She topped it off with a Santa hat -- all of it totally unassisted. It was too funny and I took plenty of pics!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with so many wonderful memories. Here are a few of the pictures to share:

Jasper and cousin Diesel, 2 months apart

Hanes/Morganthaler/Johnson Christmas party

The kiddos: Harper, Jasper, Diesel and Thomas


Tackling his older cousin

Harper testing out the cupcake in her new tea set

Her second to last treat in her advent calendar. It's Christmas Eve!

Going to check out Christmas lights in our matching jammies.

Opening presents on Christmas morning.

Happy Santa boy

Playing with Poppy

With his feet covered

The final product.

All dressed up for lunch with Mimi and Poppy.

Mommy, Jasper and Poppy

Here's to a Merry Christmas in 2011!!!

School Christmas Party

Last Friday I went to Harper's Christmas party at school. I always enjoy going to these events, and I know Harper absolutely loves when we can come. She gets so excited and this time she kept looking at me going "Mommy!" and hugging me. It was so sweet and melted my heart.

All the kids bring a food to share with the class and a wrapped gender-neutral book for the book exchange. I love seeing how the kids handle snack time, and to watch the dynamics of the classroom. The girls sit at one table and the boys at another. The girls gab and chat while the boys mostly play with their food and goof around.

After meal time, the kids got to go pick out their goody bags provided by two of the parents. One of the parents actually filled a stocking with healthy snacks like fruit leather. I loved it!

After they got their stockings, they did their book exchange. It wasn't very well-organized however, and the kids just started grabbing books. That would've been fine, except most of them knew which book had been wrapped by their mommy or daddy, so they naturally grabbed that one, even if they didn't know which book was inside. Harper and her friend Sophie had each picked out their own, but thankfully Sophie's Mommy was nearby, and simply switched the books before they could open them. Sophie got a Backyardigans book and Harper got a Bunny Picnic book. Both of them loved it, and I snapped a picture of them giving each other a hug as thanks. So cute!

I wish I was a stay at home Mommy so much, but I'm very thankful I have a relatively flexible job that allows me to be at events like this. I know Harper really loves her school and her teachers, so it brings a lot of relief to know she's having a great time and learning so much while I'm at work.

Yo Gabba Gabba! Live

Last weekend we surprised Harper by taking her to Yo Gabba Gabba! Live. We bought these tickets 6 months ago, and since we chose to buy these tickets instead of going to see Brad Paisley, we were actually really looking forward to seeing the show. We don't get out much, okay?

Daddy and I bought her a new t-shirt and shoes for the occasion.


We didn't tell her where we were going, just that it was a "surprise". We dropped Jasper off with Nana and Papa and as we got there, she began seeing all sorts of Gabba stuff from the trucks to kids wearing various Gabba gear.

we took the pics below, and I still wasn't sure she knew exactly what was ahead, though she was quite happy to pose.

We rode the escalator and as we got to the top, we saw the huge stage with the logo displayed. At that point, she got even more excited, screamed and yelled "GABBA!!!". It was so cute and as I said before, Jon and I were pretty excited too. Her excitement was definitely contagious.

We sat down and got our DJ Lance glasses, which she gladly wore for pictures.

It was time for the show, and I so wish I could've been inside her head. It was staged just like a regular episode, so DJ Lance came on the screen just like the show. When he popped on to the stage, and the boom box opened to reveal Muno, Toodee, Foofa, Brobee and Plex, she was in total amazement and kept looking to me, then Daddy, the stage, then back at us. I got super cute video of her at the opening, however it was too dark when I started filming so it never got fully focused. darn!

For the majority of the show, she sat in total amazement:

Though she did look away long enough for me to get snap a pic of her smiling.

We didn't have any well-known bands or celebrities for our show. Dallas isn't exactly known for either, so we had some percussion group for the Super Music Friends Show, and they brought out the weird lady who does the Razzle Dazzle dance. That was pretty disappointing, but the rest of the show was so great, it didn't matter.

Harper got a balloon right before intermission and I think that thing is still around here somewhere.

Seeing Harper's reaction and living the experience through her was so much fun. It's something we won't forget for a long time, and I hope we get to go again next time it comes around.

Ketchup

Yet another one of my famous play catch up posts. And away we go!

Harper is doing amazing. Probably the biggest news for her right now is she is completely potty trained with the exception of bedtime. It happened very naturally for her, once we let her go on her own time. Her friends at school were instrumental in making it happen for her. Mommy and Daddy trying to convince her had nothing on wanting to be using the potty like all her friends. She started going pee pee on the potty all the time, but was still wasn't going poop on the potty consistently. Her teachers were adamant to not go back to pullups and were incredibly patient with changing icky panties all the time. And it was on a Tuesday morning when she decided that she would start going poop in the potty and has only had maybe one minor accident since then! It's been such a fascinating experience as a Mommy, and I am so so so proud of her! We're not going to force the nighttime thing on her, and lately she's been waking up dry more often so I don't think it will be too much longer.

She absolutely loves being a big sister as demonstrated by this picture:

She plays so well with Jasper and she is by far his favorite person.

Speaking of Jasper. He's fabulous. He is honestly one of the most easy going, happy babies. He wants to be fed and he wants to get sleep, and as long as you do those two things, he couldn't be happier. He laughs all the time and is very content to play with his toys by himself in his room. He isn't actually crawling yet, though tries very hard. He army crawls himself all over the place and has gone from his tummy to a sitting position a few times. He is extremely interested in whatever Harper is doing, and just like she used to do with me, if she is being tickled or is laughing really hard, he gets very upset because he thinks she is being hurt. We always kind of laugh, then make sure Harper goes and tells him she's okay.

He now takes baths in the tub all the time, and not the sink. We moved him to the bathtub with the help of the same duckie Harper used. He really loved it, but the duckie had some miniscule hole somewhere and I would have to blow it up every couple days. Since I found it easier to just bathe him in a small amount of water, the ducky went bye bye.

Nana and Papa celebrated 40 years of marriage! We were fortunate enough to be able to celebrate with them at lunch at Mimi's C@fe. It was a great lunch and we were so glad to be able to share in their celebration.

Harper's school had a Thanksgiving lunch at school and the parents were all welcomed to come. She was beyond thrilled to have both Mommy AND Daddy come have lunch with her. We had so much fun seeing her in her environment.

Despite the look below, she was actually really good to let us leave after lunch. We have really learned to curb some of her tantrums and outbursts by explaining how things might go and what she can expect. For example, we've had some terrible doctor's visits because she didn't want to stand on the scale, wouldn't let the doctor touch her, and she would scream the entire time. The last couple times we went were for flu shots and to get her skin checked out, I went through all the steps of what they would be doing to her, and she was great! With the lunch, I made sure she knew we would be coming for lunch, but we would leave for her to take a nap and I'd be back to pick her up. And she was wonderful! No tears, no fits. Daddy and I had to high five on the way out, especially because other kids were having a meltdown preventing their parents from leaving and our little girl was totally fine. Because that is us usually!


We had Thanksgiving at our house, and it was great! Nana and Papa came over for an "early" lunch since Daddy had to go to work that day. The meal was fantastic. I made the mashed potatoes and Daddy made the rest! Nana and Papa brought the dessert, and everything turned out really well. Here I was being artistic getting three generations of Hanes men in the picture.

Nana played blocks with Harper and Harper was loving it!

Here she is modeling her sweet smile and her indian headress she made at school. Apparently hers was extra special because she got a pink feather, or so one of her friends told me.


I saw this onesie at Walmart but not in Jasper's size. Thankfully Nana found it. It says "Baby's 1st Thanksgiving" and has jars of baby food that say Turkey, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes and Peas. I loved it!

Here is Harper modeling the Brobee hat and scarf that Mimi made her! They turned out sooooo cute and Harper absolutely loves it.

We've moved most of Harper's toys into Jasper's room since she is too big for most of it, and he is so active, he loves exploring all of it. She has accepted the change with little to no fanfare. There are a few toys that she is particularly attachced to, and has talked about taking them back into her room. But when we tell her that she is a big girl and those are baby toys for Jasper to play with, that seems to help. And we tell her she can play with them in Jasper's room, which she does -- often, she is fine with them staying there.

Another catch up post coming next!