Harper & Jasper

Family Vacation 2011

2012-01-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

So 3 months after the fact, I'm finally FINALLY I'm posting about our trip to Las Vegas/California!

We had a wonderful time of course and got some much-needed family togetherness that we miss out on in our day-to-day lives. Here are a few of the highlights:

The flights!

The kids did AMAZING on the flights. We decided to bring their car seats so it would be familiar and they would be clued in on the fact that they couldn't get up and wander around. It worked wonderfully. And we devised a little stroller attachment so Jon and I could easily wheel them around in their carseats while at the airport. All we did was wrap their car seat straps around our rolling suitcases, and hook them all together with a steel ring. And best of all we weren't weighed down with a million things to juggle.

Mimi & Poppy's house!

The kids loved being at Mimi and Poppy's house. Mimi had her huge toy bin to play with and the kid-sized table and chairs. It was so great having Poppy around the whole time and we really loved just hanging out. We went to the park, the breakfast buffet and the Red Rock, the indoor play area and a walk around their block where we got caught in the rain. Harper finally got to watch Despicable Me with Poppy - something they have both been looking so forward to. So much fun and memories made.

Cousins!!!

Jasper got to meet his cousins for the first time and Harper was soooo excited to see them again. The boys were so sweet and it was great to get this pic of all of them together!

Auntie Wendy, Uncle Chris and Auntie Ashley!

Again, Jasper got to meet them for the first time and Harper got to see them again. It was so cute to see Chris with Jasper, being the goofy Uncle. And Harper kept talking about Auntie Ashley before our trip, she loved hanging out with her. Auntie Wendy hosted a get together at her house so we could spend lots of time just hanging out. It was wonderful!!

Honorable Mentions:

Auntie Amy and Uncle Ryan's house with their kids. Amy and I have been friends for 16 years and she has 3 kids ages 4-9. It was so great seeing all the kids play together and amazing to look back on where time has brought us.

Christin, Robert, Brandee and the boys.

Our first hotel stay with the kids and their first time sleeping in the same room. It went way better than we thought it would.

Trina, Daichi and Dylan. I've been friends with Trina since 1st grade and our boys are only 5 weeks apart! We went to the little OC zoo with them.

Heather, Barry and Teri. We haven't seen Barry & Teri since before we were married: about 6 years. With Heather's help, we surprised them at church in the morning. Their reactions were priceless! They took us to a wonderful lunch and we really loved the time spent with them.

Vicki and Cole. Another long time friend of mine. Vicki and I have been friends since 6th grade and we loved getting to meet her younger son. We hope next time we can meet older brother Chase!

Hanz and the rest of the Harvest family. We love stopping here every time we are in town to see everyone and catch up with the Ives and friends. Such sweet time!

We can't wait until we go back.

Grapefest

2011-10-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

The city of Grapevine as an annual festival every year called Grapefest. I've never been before and it's been years since Jon has been. The weather had been great so we went to church on Saturday night so we could have all morning on Sunday to enjoy. Well, the weather ended up being much more warm than we had anticipated so we were all a bit miserable! It was also incredibly expensive to ride rides and eat all the food, so we were a little frustrated. And we were almost going to leave until we walked a little further and found the huge kids area with petting zoo and play zone. I was so glad it was there otherwise we would've been pretty disappointed. We were glad to have gone, but I'm not sure we will jump at going again anytime soon.

Harper and I both wore braids for the day.

This was by far the scariest thing we have ever let her do. It's bad enough it was a carnival ride, but the thing didn't even have a strap to put around her waist. We didn't have many tickets left, so one of us didn't ride with her (yes, if a parent rode, you had to pay as well). That thing took off so fast, and every time she went around, she waved. We just kept saying "Hold on! Don't let go!" whew!

Riding in a cute little pink car.

Hugging the lego puppy.

Making friends at the petting zoo.

She picked up a chicken! I couldn't believe it! I was so oddly proud of her.

Daddy and Harper rode down the biiiiig slide together.

Harper's New Game

2011-09-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

One of the activities Harper invented last month when couped up inside due to the heat is this:

Ketchup

2011-09-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

Waaaaayyyy long overdue for a post. What can I say, summer has sapped up all my energy and free time for many reasons.

This has been a record-breaking summer in Texas. I just heard on the news this morning that it is actually the hottest summer on record in the US... EVER! Our average lowest temperature was 86 degrees and we had the most 100+ degree days. All I can say is UGH. I've always said the heat has never really bothered me because I just go from my car to the house, work, store, etc... all of which have air conditioning. But now that I have kids who like to do things outside, I feel much differently. We had to get creative when and how we did things. We didn't even go to the pool very much because it was simply too hot to be outside at all. Totally miserable.

Jon has had some really random hours due to meetings, conferences and overtime on top of the overnight shift he already works. He has also started attending a mid-week morning men's Bible Study regularly again and attends a ministry opportunity once or twice a month. All of this is great, but it has required us to be extra thankful of the time we do get to spend together. We've been using an online calendar so we can keep up with his schedule and make sure we know who's taking the kids, when who will be gone, etc.... It's been hectic!!

I've also been very grateful to have gotten a promotion at work and am still transitioning from my old position to my new one. It's been extremely hectic at work in the process and I've also been required to have a longer commute temporarily while I train and get used to my new position. I'm very excited about the opportunity but there is definitely a learning process just as there is with anything new. All this to say -- I'm exhausted!!!!

And now to the kids. Harper is 3 1/2 and amazes us each day with her ever-expanding vocabulary and the silly things she comes up with. She has always been a great observer of things. Some of her favorites are pointing out certain cars and saying "Mommy! That's like YOUR car!" even when we it's super far away. She always notices when someone is wearing something "new" (meaning she's never seen it before) or when something is different about a person, no matter how minor it may seem. She also observes people's behaviors in a big way and loves to play pretend teacher. It's usually very cute, but sometimes she can get too bossy so we have to bring her back to reality. She is extremely helpful of Jasper and is usually very happy to assist with him when we ask her to. For instance the other day we were in the front working on the yard and Jasper was exploring the garage when he got himself trapped on the step. He didn't want to take the step down, so I asked her to help him and she made it her mission to take his hand and guide him down, lovingly saying "C'mon Buddy, I'll help you! C'mon Jasper, it's okay, take a step". She is heavily influenced by friends at school, which is sometimes good but sometimes bad. We work really hard to keep her grounded at home with remembering respect and obeying. She really strives to do good and wants to be such a pleaser. She's very sensitive but also quick to laugh and forgive as well. She is so loving and just plain awesome.

Jasper is 18 months old today! He is really a funny little guy but very different than Harper. It's so interesting to see the differences between them. He is quite independent when it comes to playing and his teachers agree -- he is quite happy to explore things on his own but plays really well with friends as well. He is quite stubborn when he chooses to be and has a very quick temper which sometimes shows itself in anger, but most times in tears. He can be quickly consoled when picked up and hugged, but would much prefer just to get his way. On the flip side, he is hysterically funny and really thrives on being silly and making someone else laugh. He has the absolutely biggest smile and mouth I've ever seen on a child - it cracks me up! He finally took his first steps on August 1st at 1 week shy of 17 months! That's the stubborn side I spoke of earlier. He definitely has me wrapped around his finger, but I've been working hard not to cater to his every whim and be more stern with him. He is extremely loving and gives great hugs and kisses whenever you ask. He also willingly goes to anyone who asks and always has a smile for strangers who talk to him. Like Harper he is very observant and is obsessed with dogs -- he notices them everywhere! His voice goes up an octive or two as he shouts "doggy!" and gets quite excited when he sees them. He is very attached to his blanket which isn't a problem-- yet. Thankfully we have a couple spares for when they need to be washed. He is a fantastic sleeper and loves to take naps, even at school, which is such a relief. His vocab is expanding, but most of the words still sound the same. He still refuses to say "Mommy" (there's that stubborn side again!) and instead calls me, Jon and Harper "Dahyee". We've gotten him to say "Harper" several times, but it's not his go-to name for her.

After that marathon wrap-up, here are tons of pics from recent weeks (months?) and a short description.

At the bouncy place where we spent a few afternoons during the heat letting the kids burn some energy.

Decorating brother with a water bottle label. He is so patient with her and was very willing to oblige.

Then herself.

Crashed out with Brobee and his blanket.

Thoroughly enjoying his dinner.

Looking at their (temporary) tattoos we got from a restaurant.

Sibling hugs in their play tent.

Sibling love as she tries to pack Jasper away in Daddy's suitcase.

Showing off that winning smile (and huge mouth!)

Posing for her first day of her new class.

She picked out her outfit herself, which she does every day now -

with some input from Mommy. :)

Swingin'

2011-07-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

I loved this video from Six Flags, and it's short enough that Blogger would let me post it without giving me any trouble.

Fourth of July Weekend

2011-07-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun on 4th of July weekend. We got out and about a little bit and tried to make the most of it. We still didn't do all we had planned/talked about, but we tried! Saturday morning I took the kids to the splash pad. Jon had worked overtime and needed a few hours to sleep in. The weather is HOT in Texas, so I had planned to get up and out of the house after breakfast and a few chores. Turns out we got there before the water was even turned on! We went to the playground for a bit and worked up a nice sweat before we walked back over to the splash pad where, thank goodness, it was up and running.

It was Jasper's first time there and I was a little concerned about his knees since he refuses to walk yet. Turns out I had nothing to fret about - he did just fine of course! It took him a little while to get used to being wet and getting sprinkled, but he became fascinated with the little fountains and mostly stayed with them, not minding the occasional squirt and spray from nearby. I had remembered to bring the kids buckets and toys and they were a hit!! They love filling them up with water and hitting the water with the shovels. A lot of the other kids kept borrowing our things, and since my kids didn't mind, I was fine with it. I was so glad I went back in the house for them. :)

Sunday we went to church and came home for lunch and a good nap -- all four of us slept 3 hours! 3 HOURS! I'm a notoriously bad sleeper and bad napper, so I was thrilled and amazed at a 3-hour nap for myself, let alone that everyone else took one too! It was AWESOME.

That night we took the kids to fireworks in the city where Jon works. Every year they have a big family event with bounce houses and a train with a live band and vendors, followed by a big fireworks show. I'll be honest- I'm not really a fireworks person at all. They just don't do anything for me. This is actually the first year that Jon and I have ever intentionally gone out to see fireworks on the 4th, and I can't remember the last time I did before that. It was HOT of course, but tolerable until the sun went completely down and the slight breeze became nonexistent. ugh. When the fireworks started, Harper immediately jumped into Jon's lap and was scared for a little while until she got used to the noise. She enjoyed seeing the beautiful lights, though she never did get out of Jon's lap. Jasper didn't care for the noise either and was very content to have his head on my shoulder the whole time, peeking up every once in a while to look. I think he was more tired than anything though. We were up LATE, especially for my kiddos who go to bed very early.

Monday the 4th we spent hanging around the house not doing much of anything. We had intended to go back to the splash pad or to the community pool, but we were all really tired from the night before and it was nice and cool in our air conditioned house. :) Eventually that afternoon we blew up the inflatable pool and let the kids have some fun. They loved it - I love that kids are so easily entertained by some water in a kiddie pool and some plain old cups.

It was a good weekend and really nice just to have family time. It seems like we don't get enough of it. I love 3 day weekends!!!!

Here is Haper's "I'm mad!" face that she demonstrated for me after I told her the back windows in Mommy's car don't roll down. We stopped for gas and Jon had rolled down our windows for some air while he pumped. She wanted hers rolled down too.

At the fireworks show.

Splashing in the backyard on the 4th.

Jasper Goes to the Store... Or Not

2011-07-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

Daddy/Daughter Date Night

2011-07-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

Chik-Fil-A was holding a Daddy/Daughter date night the night before Father's Day as a way for Daddies and their daughters to get out and spend some quality time together. It was such a sweet idea, I was so glad we were able to sign Jon and Harper up for it.

I helped Harper get ready in her necklace, tutu and sparkly shoes while Daddy shaved and put on a tie. They looked so sweet!!! Daddy opened the car door for Harper and even gave her a cup of punch to drink on their way there -- such a treat for her. They had reserved parking for those participating and even a dedicated register to order from. The tables were set up with gift bags for all the daughters which included a flower to take home and flavored chapstick and of course a cow. They also had placemats with conversation starters -- they were mainly for a little bit older girls, but the idea was just so sweet. The dads were given a booklet to take home in order to give you ideas and topics to talk to your daughter about after the event. The servers brought them their food at the tables reserved just for them and everyone tried to make it a really special event. Harper had an absolute blast and Daddy loved the opportunity to get some one on one time with his special girl. We hope to do it again!

Just before leaving on their date.

Opening the door just as any gentleman should!

After they got home, she was so excited to show me everything she got, including her flower.

In-N-Out

2011-06-30T18:37:00.000-07:00

This post is a few weeks late, but it's a momentous occasion that must be celebrated: Texas now has In-N-Out!!!!

By sheer coincidence, I happened to be in the area the day it opened in Frisco. Frisco is about 45 minutes away from our house, and we really only ever are in Frisco because it's where Ikea is. So it really was crazy that I had planned to catch up with a long-time friend from California who was in Frisco that day. I didn't end up actually getting to taste In-N-Out that day though, seeing as how after sitting in the drive thru lane for 45 minute, thinking I was finally getting close -- only to discover I had another TWO HOURS to wait. Yes. Two hours. uhhhhhh... yeah, no thanks.

We did go back that Saturday to try again as a family, but it was still about a two hour wait, so we decided against it again.

FINALLY, a couple weekends later, we ventured over after church. We go to the first service and get out before "lunch" really starts most places. It was perfect! "Only" about a 15 minute wait in line to order, and about 10 minutes to get our food. We got a table outside and I savored every bite of my animal-style grilled cheese. Mmmmmmm.... The only bummer was that Jasper was not feeling the greatest that day, so he was a bit unhappy at times. You can see a lonely tear on his cheek in the picture below as he's eating his french fry.

All-in-all, it was everything I have dreamt it would be in the almost 2 years since I've had it last. Just like California and definitely a taste of home. I can't wait to go back!

Taken on opening day - the line was absolutely incredible.

Thoroughly enjoying his chocolate shake.

Jasper's First Day of School

2011-06-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

The time has come for Jasper to start going to daycare. We have been so grateful for the time he's gotten to spend being spoiled by Nana and Papa, but we knew this day would come sooner or later. Very thankfully, we were able to have him start attending "school" at the same place Harper does. It's a familiar place where we know all the faces, and they've already been seeing Jasper daily when we pick up and drop Harper off. It's very comforting to have them in the same spot together.

His first day went really well and drop off was a breeze. The kids were all playing outside, so he had a great distraction of the toys and balls outside and was never upset. The rest of the week was a little tough for him in the mornings, but by Friday he was reaching his arms out for his teacher, happy to wave bye bye, assured we were going to be there to pick him up in the evening.

Of course we've also had to deal with the expected illnesses that come along with the daycare environment, and that has been no fun at all. We are praying we are over the hurdle and that things will be smooth sailing from here on out!

He is really doing great, being more adventurous with trying to walk, and getting some socialization. His main teacher is very happy with how he's adjusted and comments a lot on how independent he is. The other teachers love to dote on him and tell me how happy and sweet he is. It makes me feel so assured that he's being well taken care of.

First Day of School

Six Flags, Part II

2011-06-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

We were very fortunate to get to go to Six Flags for a second time in a month for free. We took full advantage and stayed in Looney Tunes land for almost the entire time in order to make up for us missing most of it last time. Harper and Jasper loved it. Yes - Jasper got to ride a few of the rides too! We even took him on two of the actual adult rides - the teacups and the spinning sombrero. The teacups were fine, but the spinning sombrero was a little bit much for both he and I. I couldn't believe they allowed kids of any size on that ride!

We did run into a few of the characters, and even though Harper looooooves the Tweety she won last time, we could not convince her to say hi to the life-size version. No way, the small stuffed one is just fine, thankyouverymuch! Then Daffy Duck walked up to us and basically scared the life out of Jasper. I think my kids will be taking after me in the no character department. I was terrified of them for a looooong time as a child.

We hit all the rides in the Looney Tunes land at least twice, three times if Harper wanted to. The day was all about just letting her have fun. It was VERY hot though, so we only lasted about 4 hours. I had been wanting to ride the Conquistador since the last time we were there and only Jon and Harper had gone on it. We saved it for the last ride this time and the two of them went on it together. As soon as they got off, Harper and I went on it together. It's a fun ride, but my mistake was looking out at Jon as it rocked back and forth, back and forth, and once I got off I did not feel good. We made it out of the park and to the car and I was feeling queasy but figured it was just hot and had been a long day. Once we started leaving, Harper complained her tummy hurt, and having experienced her history of vomiting in the car, I shoved our makeshift trash bag on to her and told her to use that if she needed to throw up. She said no and eventually dozed off after having a few salty crackers to help settle her stomach. No sooner had Jon realized he had missed our exit to head north, did we hear Harper in the backseat start to cry again. It was slow motion as I reached back to ensure she had the trash bag back, but I was too late - she was getting sick all over herself for the umpteenth time in the car. *sigh* I guess The Conquistador twice in a row would do that to anyone. Poor girl. Having no way to even make a dent in cleaning her up, we had no choice other than to keep going, and what a fun ride that was! It took her until the next day to feel better, but hopefully the day was fun enough to not make that experience her lasting impression!!

Daffy and Jasper = not a friendly meeting.

Harper and Daddy waaaaaaaay up in the sky.

Jasper, having no idea what's in store for him on the teacups.

Harper and Daddy ready to turn that wheel.

Harper and Jasper on a tandem flight.

He doesn't look it here, but Jasper thought the swings were so much fun!

Jasper's first real taste of ice cream - and enjoying it!

Six Flags

2011-06-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to Six Flags as a family. My company's annual picnic was being held there this year, though it was less "picnic" and more "enjoy the free parking, tickets, games and lunch on us". Sweet!!

We hadn't told Harper where we were going ahead of time, and after church we headed to Arlington. I don't think she had any idea what the heck it was until we actually got inside and she saw people on the rides. It was my first time at Six Flags over Texas, though I've been to Magic Mountain countless times, and it was fun to see how this one compared and to see it through my kids' eyes for the first time.

Somehow we managed to miss most of Looney Tunes land the entire day. I still don't understand how we did it, but we didn't discover all the tiny rides until the very end of the afternoon, so we were a little disappointed about that. We promised Harper we would take her again and she could ride all those rides we missed. (Little did we know we would be going back again so soon!) But my little girl made me so proud by being so excited to ride all the big rides she could!! She is not my little daredevil by any means, and can be very difficult to judge how she will handle a new experience. She was so outgoing and adventurous, she even got upset about being too small to ride some of the rides. We had an absolute blast riding the different things with her. Since we had missed most of Looney Tunes land, there wasn't much for Jasper to do but hang out in the stroller most of the day. He slept for a good while which was very needed. We saved the carousel for last and it was great. Both kids had so much fun going round and round and up and down.

Though it was very hot in the afternoon, we were so glad to have gotten the opportunity to go for free and have a good time!

"Our First Amusement Park!"

Yosemite Sam

Snoozin' while Harper and Daddy rode the cars.

She won this Tweety all by herself!

She really loved the "punch" (Powerade) we kept allowing her to drink all day.

Harper and Mommy on the train.

Riding the carousel.

NICU Reunion

2011-05-31T14:20:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to the 2nd annual NICU reunion for the hospital where both kids were born. The last time they held it, Harper was 18 months old and I was pregnant with Jasper. We had a great time then and had never thought we would be celebrating anyone other than Harper at the gathering. Little did we know we would be celebrating both babies at the next gathering!

It's a great opportunity to see all the babies and kids who have been taken care of by the NICU team, along with the team itself. All babies are miracles, and it's really wonderful to see how far those who have a tougher start than others have come. There are always lots of twins and triplets, and they are so much fun to see.

This year's theme was NICU Roundup, and it was held at Nash Farm where we went last fall for their harvest pumpkin patch. They had sherrifs badges and cowboy hats for all the kids, and lots of activities as well as ponies and a bounce house. We had a great time watching Harper do all the activities and though she wasn't as eager to get on this pony as she was a few weeks ago at the Bluebonnet Festival, she eventually did and had a great time.

We sprayed him down with sunscreen and unfortunately some got in his eyes, so his eyes were still a little red here.

She won a prize at one of the games.

Sitting on a tractor.

Riding the pony!

New Addition

2011-05-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

We have a new addition!!!

It took almost a month of spare hours and weekends here and there, but the kids' big birthday present finally got completed. Yes, the swingset is DONE!

Of course Jon did the vast majority of the work, though while Mimi was here, I was the best assistant I could be. :) We didn't make it our number one priority, and instead chose to make family time the most important thing in our spare time, so it really did take longer than we had planned. But Jon did a wonderful job and the kids absolutely love it!

It has a 10 foot slide, 2 swings, a see saw swing, a rock wall, telescope, steering wheel, picnic table, and 4 levels! It's AWESOME!

Jasper can't explore everything just yet, but he likes to sit at the picnic table and swing on the dual swing which has great hand grips for him.

Harper of course is all over the place. She mastered the rock wall right away and absolutely loves the slide. Well, she loves all of it! She goes up to the top deck and steers her "pirate ship". She used to be afraid of swings in general, but this has given her more courage to try them, and now she loves to go out there and swing. It's great to see her have so much fun. It was a huge investment for us that Nana and Papa contributed to, but we know it's going to last a long time and was totally worth it!

Happy Easter!

2011-05-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

(still playing catch up, sorry for the delayed Easter wishes!)

We had a great Easter this year! Not everything turned out as we had planned, but we tried to make the most of it. The day prior, I dyed Easter eggs with Harper. She had never done this before, and she was completely fascinated with how bright and colorful eggs could be. I loved watching her expressions when I would pull the eggs out of her chosen color, and she could see the designs she had colored in wax crayon showing up. She chose the colors for everything, and once I showed her you could dip them in many colors, she wanted to try all of them.

She is holding up the egg with an H on it that she was so proud of.

On Easter morning, we awoke to this:

We had had some really bad storms the night before with crazy winds up to 70 mph. Our fence was no match for the winds and 4 posts snapped and it blew over. We were really disappointed and knew we had quite a road ahead of us in order to get it fixed.

Church was great, and we got home and started prepping lunch. Jon went to go buy supplies for the fence while the kids napped. Nana and Papa and Jon all got there at almost the same time, and we enjoyed a wonderful lunch and celebrated Papa's birthday with a yummy chocolate cream pie.

I had so been looking forward to doing a big egg hunt out in the backyard, but because the fence was blown over and the grass hadn't been cut, we knew that wasn't the best idea, so we instead hid some eggs in the living room. Not quite the fun running around game I had envisioned, and it last about a minute and a half, but we made the most of it!!

Harper and Jasper absolutely loved their baskets and Harper was amazed by all the candy. She very rarely gets to have sweets, but we let her go nuts with all the candy and chocolate. It was too funny!

It was definitely a great day, and lots of memories were made. We are so thankful for the reason for Easter and for the people we have to celebrate it with!

Bluebonnet Festival

2011-05-04T19:17:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, we drove down to Ellis County to go to the Bluebonnet Festival they hold every year. Ellis County is known as the "Bluebonnet Capital of Texas" and we saw some amazing fields as we drove down.

We hijacked the trip our friends Wes, Jessica and Mia were planning on taking and invited ourselves along. We left after church and since the kids are always exhausted after church, we knew the hour and a half drive wouldn't be a problem since it would allow the kids to nap. Well, just like our last road trip, the best laid plans never happen. The kids didn't sleep a wink!!! I was dreading what was in store for us, but really hoped for the best.

We met up with them and enjoyed walking around the quaint little town. The festival wasn't exactly packed with people, but seemed to be mostly local people there selling their goods, and other locals there shopping. The weather was great (though windy!) and we enjoyed hanging out with our friends and seeing what we could see. We found the kids end of the street, and let the girls jump in the bounce house for a while. Harper always loves bounce houses, but part of this one was in the sun, so it was hot on her feet. She enjoyed trying to teach Mia how to bounce!

We spotted a train, and since Harper absolutely loves everything about trains, she bee-lined for it. They gave little rides just around the street, but Harper thought it was the best thing ever. I loved seeing her have so much fun. After the train, she saw some ponies. Harper's past experiences with live animals at petting zoos and things have not been so great. She usually really wants to do it, but when it comes time, she gets scared and refuses to participate. I thought for certain that was what was going to happen with the ponies, but maybe it's because she spotted the pink, glittery one with a heart that made her SO excited to ride it. She hopped right on and had the biggest smile on her face the entire time. I loved it!!

After we had seen pretty much all there was to see, and the kids were nice and hot, we had lunch with our friends and started on our way home. We had planned to meet some friends from church that day at 4, so we didn't even have time to stop and take pictures at the bluebonnets. It was a little disappointing that we were in such a hurry to leave, but we had a great day anyway.

Oh, and of course the kids fell asleep on the way home before we even hit the highway! d'oh!

She doesn't look like it in this picture, but she loved the train.

Pony Time!

Jasper's First Haircut

2011-04-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

Jasper got his first haircut last weekend! It was long overdue, but me wanting him to keep his baby hair for a while as a Mommy, I was not in a hurry to get it cut. Once Mimi came and made a comment about it, I was able to look at it and see how long it really was.

We took him to the place that specializes in kid's haircuts, so it would be a fun, non-intimidating place for him. We weren't sure how he would do in the new situation, but it turns out we had nothing to worry about. He had no problem at all with any of it! He sat there like a pro and never fussed or whined, even when she used the clippers on him. We were so impressed with him and happy to see him with his new big boy haircut!

Before - not a great picture of his hair, but it hangs over his ears.

Before shot from the back.

Daddy was blowing bubbles for entertainment. Harper is hanging out in one of the empty chairs in the background.

The clippers are no big deal.

Again, not a great "after" shot, but it looks great!

Mimi's Visit

2011-04-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

Mimi had the chance to come on relatively short notice, and we were thrilled to say the least! We had so much fun with her here and it was especially awesome to have her here to celebrate Harper's birthday with us. She has never been able to celebrate one of the kid's birthdays with us, so it made this visit extra special.

We were able to work on the swingset a bit with her here, which was a huge help. We also had a date the Saturday night she was here since Jon was to receive an award at his annual company banquet. It was a really great honor for him to receive the award, and it was so fun to just hang out with adults and not worry about the kids.

I got spend a lot of time with her just hanging out and shopping. And the kids just had a blast with with her. She was by far the most popular person in the house while she was here.

On her last morning here, we all went to breakfast together and Harper said goodbye to Mimi. Last time she was here, Harper had a total meltdown when we dropped Mimi off at the airport and it made it really difficult for everyone to say goodbye. We felt it might be better to not bring Harper with us this time, so Jon had planned on taking her to school and I would pick her up after I dropped Mimi off. It was still a tough goodbye for us. When I picked Harper up from school, she looked at me and said "where's Mimi?" I waited to remind her until we were almost at the car, and of course she broke down in tears. I felt so bad for her, but I knew Mimi had gotten her a present and tried to get her to stop crying long enough to see it. Once she did, she was SO HAPPY. It was the perfect thing at that moment (even if it was Dora). She had also gotten the kids a tent to play in, and they absolutely LOVE it. I love it too because it's easily collapsible. ;)

As usual, we can't wait for Mimi to come back again!!

Harper's 3rd Birthday

2011-04-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

Harper's birthday was so much fun. We sang to her, then I had to go to work. I couldn't hang out in the morning because I was taking the afternoon off so we could have some fun with her at school. But I was able to get a nice hug before I left!

I had to go to the dentist (boo!) but after that was done, I rushed around to get her some cupcakes for her class, and the only two things she requested for her birthday: a Dora cake and a pink hat. We had known about the Dora cake for a long time -- it's the first thing she would mention every time we would talk about her birthday. But less than a week before the day, she mentioned she wanted a pink hat too. I have no idea where this came from, but I knew I could pick one up when I was getting balloons and I was hoping she would love it.

Here is Daddy wearing the hat I picked out!

We went to her class and brought her cupcakes for everyone. To my delight, she LOVED the hat! In fact, everyone in her class loved it too.

Everyone enjoyed their cupcakes and we brought her home so we could give her the balloons and finally tell her what she was getting for her birthday.

It was rather hard to explain to her that she was going to soon be playing on the swingset she was holding in her hands, in the spot where she was standing. But she was excited about the picture at least!

She requested pizza for her birthday dinner so we went to our favorite pizza buffet spot. Children under 3 eat there for free, but we were able to request one more free meal since the cashier was in a generous mood. You can't charge the birthday girl, right?

I improvised on the Dora cake, but Harper absolutely loved it. And it was the best cake we've ever had! (It's a Walmart cake with a store-bought Dora and #3 candle!)

Of course it was a perfect opportunity to use the You Are Special Today plate!

We improvised on the pajamas so she could wear a cupcake to bed.

It was a really fantastic day for her, and we had a great time celebrating with her. I can't believe our baby girl is 3!

Harper's Fun

2011-04-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

Harper's been up to tons of fun. Here's a snippet of some fun in March:

Here she is playing with her kitchen she got for Christmas from Nana and Papa. Obviously Jasper loves it too. He is fascinated by all the knobs and gadgets even though he can barely reach most of it.

Harper had been a really good girl, so I decided to take her to get her nails painted for the first time. The color she chose? Orange! She was so excited and was a really good girl the whole time.

Afterwards, I took her to get "ice cream" (frozen yogurt) from our favorite spot across the street.
Her favorite activity we often find her doing is making "beds" for her friends. She loves to lay out blankets or towels all over the floor and pretend they are beds for her friends to sleep on. She then pats her friends and tells them to "shhhh.. go nite nite!". It helps to make me put away all the clean folded towels instead of leaving them on the couch, otherwise they will soon end up on the floor as beds, as seen in the picture below.

H is for Harper

2011-04-20T19:13:00.001-07:00

March 2011 070, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

The morning of Jasper's birthday, she was excited to show off how she learned to draw an H.

(This was over a month ago now, and it's amazing to already see progress with her speed and accuracy!)

Jasper's Birthday Song

2011-04-20T18:54:00.001-07:00

March 2011 023, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

He liked the song so much, he decided to join us and continue after we're done!

Bluebonnets in Texas

2011-04-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we decided to set out to find a good spot to take some pictures of the kids in the blubonnets. We headed west and had a secondary reason to go. It had been almost exactly 3 years since we had visited Nanny's gravesite. The weather was beautiful and Jon had the entire Saturday off due to our date that night. So we ventured out to Dublin! It was great to be there again and talk to Harper about Nanny.

The trip turned out to be much longer and much more exhausting than we had anticipated. The kids did not nap at all on the way out there and the minute we got back in the car to head back, Jasper conked out, which was right before we were stopping to eat. He woke up a short time later while we were eating (of course.. too noisy), and neither one slept the whole way back again. We had seen a great hill of bluebonnets on the way out there, so since the kids were awake, we decided why not - give it a shot! They were both pretty cranky, so we didn't try to pose them too much and instead I just snapped away and hoped for the best. We did okay, but under the circumstances, I was really happy.

Jasper's 1st Birthday Party

2011-04-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

We held Jasper's 1st birthday party the Sunday after his birthday. We were excited to celebrate the big milestone with friends and family. We never really go all out for a birthday party, so the first birthday is as big as we get.

I had pre-ordered invitations, balloons, plates and napkins in an adorable baby dinosaur theme. Harper likes to pretend she's being chased by a dinosaur every time she leaves a room, probably a game she came up with at school with her friends. At night when we are getting dressed after a bath, we would get Jasper dressed in his room, then move to Harper's room to get her dressed. Jasper would usually start playing with some toys while we made it over to her room, and as we went over she would run in saying "a dinosaur is coming!". A few moments later we would inevitably hear Jasper coming down the hall, making his usual noises, sounding an awful lot like a wild animal... or a dinosaur, as we would pretend. He'd peek his head around the door as we would be watching for him, and we all crack up. When I found these baby dinosaur party items, I thought it would be absolutely perfect.

Jon and I had cleaned up the house most of the morning, and while Jasper was down for a nap, Harper and I left to pick up the cake and balloons. I had asked Jon to hang some of the decorations from the ceiling and blow up some of the balloons to place around at different spots. We had discussed earlier in the week about possibly using some streamers, but I personally hate using them, so I told him he was in charge of that department. When Harper and I returned, I was shocked to see what he had done! Not only had he hung all the decorations like I had asked, but he had made a HUGE ballooon chandelier and hung it from our ceiling fan. It was awesome!

I was so happy with how the party went. We held it in the afternoon so we had plenty of finger foods and sweets and of course cake. Nice and relatively easy that way. He did great with his presents and surprised me by actually trying to open most of them himself. He received a rocking chair from Nana and Papa, and that was his very favorite gift. The unexpected gift that wasn't exactly a gift was the card from Uncle Craig and Aunt Karyn. It was a hamster that sung a silly song when the card opened, and he got an absolute kick out of it!

I was so happy with how the cakes turned out. For Harper's first birthday, I made cupcakes and made her smash cake. I decided I didn't have the time or desire to do that for Jasper's, and was thrilled to find a couple cakes that went with the baby dinosaur theme. Little did I know that Jasper would cry his little eyes out when we gave him his smash cake! He was absolutely terrified of it. He refused to touch it and did not stop crying until we took it away. Poor baby! I was disappointed as I looked forward to him getting completely gooey and messy, but that did not happen. The few opportunities we've given him to try sweets, he's refused, but I was hoping he would at least taste his birthday cake. Oh well!

Here are some of the pics from our baby boy's special day!

The amazing balloon chandelier and streamers created by Daddy.

Balloons and dinosaur placemats.

Picture table with birthday hats and dinosaur noses.

Big cake with baby dinosaurs.

Smash cake!

Birthday boy and Daddy.

Sitting in the rocking chair from Nana and Papa.

Fascinated with the silly card.

Not too sure about this hat, Mom.

Uh, what are you doing with that cake?

Please, get this thing outta here!

Mommy, Mia and Harper wearing the dinosaur noses.

After the party, Wes, Jessica and Mia hung around to visit for a while. We never really get to see them, so it was fun watching the girls play. We did a pretty good job wearing them out. Here's a picture of them having races in the backyard.

Later after dinner, we tried to give Jasper the smash cake again, hoping he might give it a try, but he cried harder this time!!

It was a long, fun day and we were so blessed to celebrate our little boy's big milestone!

Jasper's First Birthday

2011-04-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

On the morning of Jasper's first birthday, I went in to work late so we could sing to him first thing in the morning which is officially our tradition. We then took him to a very fancy breakfast (at IHOP - see, told you it was fancy!), and enjoyed some family time together. It was really nice to break out of our usual routine and commemorate the special day!

Ketchup

2011-04-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

Whew, really far behind with current posts. But I am so glad to have finally gotten the NICU pics and stories posted. That was a huge relief and I know it will be so valuable to be able to look back at them and remember everything. BUT -- lots has been going on in the meantime!! And I have so much to update on! I'll be doing my best to include all the stories and pics with our busy months of March and April. And away we go!!

NICU Day 13

2011-04-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

We walked in on Day 13 and Nurse Alaine had Jasper all ready to go. The doctor had released him and Alayne had his paperwork all filled out ready for us to sign. It was such a fantastic way to walk in! His circumcision had been done early that morning and had gone really well. (side note: I tried to get them to complete his circumcision while he was totally sedated and on the vent since I felt it was an ideal situation while he was totally still and on pain meds, however they only perform them on completely healthy babies so it wasn't an option). To say we were excited is a total understatement. We packed up all his things, took some pictures and hightailed it out of there. We were so glad to get a picture with Nurse Alaine since she was our favorite nurse with both kids and was such an encouragement for us. We love Alaine! As we left, I bid a huge farewell to the NICU and declared I would never be back there again (at least not for one of our babies). Though I really loved the staff and will forever owe them so much, it was a fantastic feeling walking out of there for the last time. We couldn't wait to get to Nana and Papa's house to FINALLY introduce Jasper to Harper. It was the cutest moment EVER, as I set Jasper on the couch in his carseat and Harper ran in from the other room and in her sweet, small voice said "Hiiiiiiiiii! Hi Dapper! Hiiiiiiii!" She was so good about not touching him and she was nothing but excited to finally see him in person after only seeing photos of him for almost 2 weeks. We got an almost identical picture when we brought Harper home from the hospital with Jon holding the carseat at the garage door. What a fabulous feeling to finally have him to ourselves at home!!

Facebook post - 3pm - We are so blessed -- Jasper is HOME!! His nurse had him all set to go, we just had to feed him and sign some papers. Great staff at Baylor Grapevine NICU, but so happy to not have to see them anymore!

NICU Day 12

2011-04-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

Day 12 was yet another fantastic day for Jasper. Though he really had no setbacks once he got over the hurdle of getting his lung healed up and getting off the vent, they really took it slow in getting him prepped to go home. Too slow if you ask us! But of course it was all for his good and the doctors just wanted to be very careful given his very delicate start.

Because he was so healthy and such a big boy compared to the rest of the NICU babies, he really won over the affections of the nurses. Since he had gotten his voice back, he made up for lost time and was not shy about voicing his displeasure about whatever he might be unappy about. Because of this, and because he was so mobile and no longer needed to be on a million monitors, he often got passed around and flirted with whatever nurses were on duty. More than once, we walked in to find him in the very willing and happy arms of a nurse.

He had his carseat test on Day 12 which is the very last step before a baby can come home. They have to ensure his levels stay good when placed in a carseat so they can tolerate a new situation and the stress that comes along with it. As you can see from the picture below, he was pretty stressed about it -- he slept through the whole thing! He passed with flying colors and we knew that if he passed then he would be coming home the next morning once the doctor made rounds and gave the green light. We were so excited!

Facebook posts - 2:09pm - "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow..." Jasper is comin' home!!!

8:00pm - Headed to our last evening NICU visit -- in the snow! We are SO thankful to ALL our friends who have graciously given up an evening away from home to come sit at our house we could go have time with Jasper. It means so much to us, you will never know!

NICU Day 11

2011-03-31T19:43:00.000-07:00

Day 11 was another great day for Jasper. I got the go ahead to be able to drive myself to go see him. It was my first time driving in 2 weeks! I left Daddy and Harper at home to nap and I really wanted to get there for Jasper's 3pm feeding. He was doing so great at nursing, I really wanted to allow us more time to practice figuring it out. When we went back that evening, we had a wonderful surprise by seeing him off his nasal canula! They also removed his central line that night, so our boy was basically free and clear! He was still attached to the heart and pulse ox monitors, which is a requirement of course. It was truly amazing and such a huge encouragement. Jon and I felt so blessed because Harper had so much progress, but tons of little steps backwards that always felt like were taking so long to get us home. With Jasper, he had a much harder start by far, but once he healed up, he made huge strides with no setbacks at all. It was wonderful! We knew he wouldn't be there much longer, so we made sure to take pictures of his surroundings and things so we could remember his little home where he started out.

Here he is free and clear of all attachments.

We put a picture of his big sister up in his bassinet. Because she was below the age requirement, she was not allowed to come visit him in the NICU, but we wanted him to know she was right there with him always. And it was a great reminder for us to see how far she had come since the NICU and trust in God that Jasper was going to do as well as she had done.

Harper drew a picture for Jasper, so we wanted to hang it up for him to see. She already loved him so much even though she had never met him. The lamb was given to Jasper by the hospital clergy woman. Typically someone would come by daily to pray over each of the babies in the NICU, and a couple times per week the clergy would come by and see who didn't have a lamb and leave one for them. It took a couple days until Jasper got one, so we had brought Harper's lamb from her time there. When he finally got his own, we took Harper's back to her. Harper's is a little fuzzy brown lamb, and Jasper's is a big, sturdy white one.

Jon wrote this using the nurse's tape on Jasper's first night in the NICU and taped it to his bassinet. One of the night nurses makes these signs for all the kids and personalizes them. Here is how Jasper's turned out. I loved it!

Facebook posts - 2:27pm - I'm getting to drive for the first time in almost two weeks. And it's so I can go visit and feed Jasper while Daddy and Harper nap. Can't wait to bring him home!

10:41am - What a great surprise to walk in tonight and see Jasper off the nasal canula! I'd better enjoy my sleep tonight. Looks like he could come home at any time.

NICU Day 10 / March 18

2011-03-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

Day 10 in the NICU was another big day of firsts! Jasper was still on the nasal canula on a low flow of air. Looking cute as ever, of course! Since he only had the canula and the central line in, we were allowed to put some actual clothes on him. Just like with Harper, it had to be loose-fitting and only a t-shirt since pants or a onesie would get in the way of his central line in his belly button. Button-up shirts are the ideal, so we brought all we had and took them home to wash when needed. I was so anxious to get him home, but seeing him in clothes was so encouraging and comforting. The biggest progress made on Day 10 was he was allowed to try to nurse. And he did great! It was not a perfect start, but only having Harper's start to compare him to (which was really, really tough), he was amazing. When considering he had only been fed via a tube down his throat, and eaten from a bottle a couple of times, he was doing amazing. I was thrilled and so encouraged. I used a similar tactic as I did with Harper, and didn't want to wear him out, so we would try to nurse for about 10 minutes before we would switch to the bottle. I wanted him to get all the nutrition he needed without getting too tired. Afterall, we didn't want him to take any steps backwards. That night we said our goodbyes, and Daddy did his famous burrito roll-up. This is a good picture of the gel packs they would place under his head. Because he was on the vent and practically stationary, the gel packs would help prevent pain on the back (or sides) of his head and help prevent it from getting flat. The covers are made by the volunteers and are just a mini cotton pillowcase. They would give us the covers to bring home and wash and get it smelling like us so that he could smell us while we weren't there. We ended up with about 4 of them, and around our house they're now known as "roars" since Harper started putting them on her hands and pretending they were monsters roaring as they tried to eat us. Facebook Post - 1:29 Jasper is nursing like a champ! I'm so proud of my boy. He's got no more icky wires in him, and is on a very low setting of air i nthe nasal canula to wean him off. Eating was the next big hurdle, but he was a natural. He's ever so much closer to coming home!

NICU Day 9 / March 17

2011-03-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

Day 9 in the NICU was a tremendous event. Jasper was removed from the vent! It was such a surprise and treat to be able to see his sweet face again without the huge machine breathing for him. Seeing that machine turned off, and all the tubes draped over it, not attached to Jasper was a total thrill. His nurses were so happy with his progress and everyone was excited for us as we got to enjoy seeing him. We stayed for his feeding and made plans to come back that night.

11:01 am Jasper is OFF THE VENTILATOR!

That night we left Harper in great hands as she slept and we headed to visit Jasper. We had barely settled in when his nurse told us she wanted us to hold him. WOOHOO!! We had waited 10 days and our arms were more than ready! Since Jon had pseudo-held him when the nurse needed help quickly one time, I got the honors first. As if I would have had it any other way no matter what, right??

It was, and will forever be one of my most cherished moments.

I had to eventually give Daddy a turn.

(Remember it was March 17th, which is why we're both wearing green. We don't usually try to match ;) )

After getting to hold him until he was worn out, we were both so relieved and excited about all his progress and what was ahead for him.

10:20pm Wonderful day! Jasper is making huge progress and we FINALLY got to hold him! We're two ecstatic parents right now.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. Though we're not Irish (at least not very much), we enjoy celebrating it by wearing green and yesterday was no exception.

Daddy got the kids dressed and ready in the morning. I had purchased Jasper's outfit last year on clearance at Walmart while he was still in the NICU and I found Harper's this year for $4, also at Walmart. They were both too cute, I can guarantee this will not be the last time they wear them!

That evening I was wondering what I was going to make for dinner. I hadn't thought of it much ahead of time, but I remember my mom always making corned beef (I don't remember the cabbage part) and she always used food coloring to make everything extra green, like our drink and our butter for the rolls. I always loved it, and it's something I want to continue to do for our family. I was searching for something easy (and fast!) to make that I could dye green, and realized macaroni and cheese would be perfect! Not the most healthy dinner, but I usually add peas to it, and a little unhealthy dinner once in a while doesn't kill us.

While the water was boiling, I had an inspiration: Green eggs and ham!! I knew I had to make that, since ham and eggs with various extras is a breakfast favorite in our house. I continued to make the mac and cheese in case Harper was too scared to try the green eggs. Also because Jasper is really picky about his eggs, though mac and cheese is a pretty good guarantee. Harper questioned it once I put it on the plate, but once I reminded her I was making something green for dinner, she asked "eggs??", then dug right in! She especially loved the toast with green butter and the green milk. I was so relieved. True to form, Jasper only ate a few bites of the eggs, so we moved on to the mac and cheese and he became adequately green pretty quickly.

It was such a fun and different thing to do, and extremely easy. Maybe some day I will come up with something a little more involved, but for this working mama with very limited time in the evenings, I couldn't have asked for anything better. Just check out those faces for yourself!

All our green.

I remembered the green plate and green fork, but completely forgot the green cup. Silly Mommy. Here she is modeling her hat she made at school.

Green tongue!

Giving the mac and cheese a try after she finished her eggs.

Days 4-8 / March 12-16

2011-03-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

Days 4-8 had Jasper basically sedated and on the vent. There wasn't a lot of change, during these days, so I'm using this post to comment on a lot of different things about Jasper's stay.

I didn't take very many pictures these days. It was really hard for me to see him on the ventilator and not moving. I wanted pictures as a rememberance, but I think they're difficult to look at.

He had the chest tube which was draining directly into a "water seal" which basically means it was dangling into an enclosed container of water. As it drained, bubbles would form in the water, essentially showing how much hair was coming out of the hole in his lung. Less bubbles were what we prayed for every day.

Each day we walked in, we never knew what to expect. He might have had a bad night with lots of monitors and alarms, or have been irritable with his nurses. Many times the alarms were due to one of his monitors falling off, but other times his levels were just off, or when he would get upset, his pulse ox would go waaay down.

Each day they were turning down his vent little by little, and would also try to limit his sedation meds at times to see how he tolerated it. It was always nice to see him a little more awake and responsive to us, though we were always concerned about him being uncomfortable. Sometimes he would suck on his binky, or his eyes would be open. Often times he would get upset and move around too much or try to pull out his vent. Obviously this was not a good thing, so they would have to up his sedation meds a little more.

He began to get breathing treatments during this time to help open up his lungs. The respiratory therapist would come and give him his medicine directly into his vent. It would last up to 10 minutes and was fairly uneventful. At any point during the day or night, the nurse would have to clear out his lungs manually, and after a breathing treatment, there was always lots of gunk to get out. They had a special tube that went down his throat (through his vent) and into his chest. They would then push a smaller tube through that one and it would suction all the junk out. Some days there would be a lot of green stuff, other days not a whole lot. I was always so glad he was sedated for this, because you could still see it was uncomfortable for him, so I can't imagine what it woud've been like if he had been awake.

Kind of a funny thing about this time in the NICU is how oily and stinky he was. He had 4 heart monitors stuck to his chest, and a pulse ox on his foot. It was around Day 4 that his nurses started mentioning how nothing stuck to him for very long. On typical babies, the monitors stay stuck until the baby is given a bath, or pulled off intentionally. For Jasper, it wasn't unusual for the nurses to have to change them twice or even three times per shift! His hair was pretty greasy-looking, and about every other day (as long as he was having a good day) they would give him a sponge bath and wash his hair. The smelling-good only lasted a few hours, and soon he would be stinking up the joint again. Despite this odd thing about our boy, all the nurses absolutely loved him. All we ever heard from the nurse on duty was how "big" he was compared to the standard NICU baby. To us, he looked so small, but for them, he was HUGE (or so they said). And especially during these days where he was sedated and intubated, he was comparitively "low maintenance" than the other baby his nurses typically cared for who was a micro preemie (just like Harper's nurses' other baby - what a reminder to be so thankful for what we had!), so he got lots of attention just being loved on by everyone.

Also during this time, I got to be there when they moved his bed because the port for his monitors quit working. It was fascinating to see how many people and the undertaking it was just to move the location of his bed to an empty slot. They ended up moving him right next door to the slot Harper was in, which was so surreal. He was moved to an end spot (it was the same spot the micropreemie with Harper was in), which was great for more privacy and it was much less noisy and not as bright so he could sleep better and not get so agitated. (This became very important as he got better and better when his personality started to come out and he would make up for all that time of not being able to cry.) Since he was ventilated, someone had to manually pump air into him with a hand pump while about 3 other carried cords, monitors and pushed the bed. I just tried to stay out of the way and prayed that person with the pump wouldn't forget or miss their count!

I was discharged on Day 4. My doctor wanted me to stay the full 5 days he recommends for a c-section recovery, but once Jasper was intubated, I knew there wouldn't be any change in his condition for a while so I wanted to be in my own bed and get started on our new normal at home with Harper. Jon was on FMLA because I couldn't drive for at least 2 weeks, so my doctor was fine with me leaving and having him home was amazing. I was completely heartbroken to leave Jasper at the hospital.

We were able to work out a pretty good routine with visiting him though. Typically we would sleep in as long as we could at home and have some morning time with Harper, just the 3 of us. It also helped us to avoid the traffic. I was moving pretty slowly for those first several days at home, so this was really nice. Jasper was on a eating schedule of 3, 6, 9, 12, so we would usually drop Harper off at Papa and Nana's house and be at the hospital in time for his noon feeding. In the beginning, this was the only times we were able to touch him as we would take his temp and change his diaper. So while his feedings were fairly uneventful as the milk went directly into his stomach via a tube, we always looked so forward to these times. We might visit for a while, get caught up on how his night went, then sometimes leave to have a bite to eat together or run some errands. We would make it back in time for his 3pm feeding, and leave a while later to pick Harper up and head back home to get her dinner and again spend some more time with her. We would then do bathtime and our regular bedtime routine and have her in bed by 7pm or so. We were so blessed to have had a great circle of friends to rely on during this time who would come to our house and hang out while Harper slept so we could go visit Jasper in the NICU. This was such a blessing for us!! We could be there for his 9pm feeding and really spend some quiet time with him. Often times we would just sit and stare or pray or cry or smile. I would always bring my pump with me and pump milk at his bedside. It was during this time how I realized how blessed I was with my supply as I watched the mommy of the micropreemie also pump at her bedside and only get 1 or 2 ounces while I was getting 10+. She was trying so hard, and it was so effortless for me. This is something that would stick with me later and contributed to me becoming a milk donor when Jasper was 6 months old.

One final note: I looked back at my facebook and copied some of the posts I made during this time. Prior to March 15, I hadn't really posted much. It's nice to look back and see the positive strides he made.

March 15 - Sorry for the lack of updates. There really hasn't been much to report.. until now! Progress has been made with his lungs, and his chest tube is now in a water seal to make sure there's no air escaping. If he stays like this for 24 hours, the chest tube gets removed! His vent has been slowly turned down every day and he's up to a full ounce at each feeding. He's getting breathing treatments for the next two days to help with the mudous consolidation in his lungs ,which could be a result of his vent. All in all, pretty good news to report!!

March 16 11:20pm- This morning's update: Jasper's chest tube has been removed!!! And if his testing goes well at 2pm, he could have his vent removed this afternoon too! amazing progress, and we are so excited!

March 16 12:20pm- We're seeing Jasper on NO sedation meds for the first time since Thursday. Praise the Lord. Looks like they'll remove his vent tomorrow as to give him some time to adjust, but everything looks great. Soon - we'll be able to hold him! can't wait! He's a week old today and this Mama's arms are aching to hold him for the first time.

March 16 10:13pm - Day 8 in the NICU, we captured a sweet smile from our sweet boy. We expect this to be the last time we see him on the vent!

NICU Day 3

2011-03-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

NICU Day 3 - Thursday

Jasper showed improvement on Day 3. I went and saw him early in the morning to drop off milk and took this picture of him under the hood. His x-ray a little later in the morning showed his pneumothorax was gone, so they removed the hood and gave him his first feeding via feeding tube. As his nurse said, "he woke up this morning and realized he hadn't been fed, and was MAD". It was nice to see him again without the hood, though he was still on the canula. We were feeling very encouraged as we got back to my room thinking he was really making tons of progress with the feeding and by getting to see his face.

A short time later, the doctor and Jasper's nurse were in our room. This wasn't a good sign. Less than 2 hours after removing him from the hood, his pneumothorax was actually visible through his skin, which is determined to be very severe. No x-ray was needed to decide to intubate him to allow a machine to breathe for him, insert a chest tube to drain his lungs, insert a central line for easy access to administer medication and fluids via his bellybutton. The central line was a really good thing as it prevented them from having to stick him with any more needles.

He also had to be sedated so that he would be more comfortable and wouldn't try to pull out the tube. If I thought Day 1 was hard, seeing him sedated and intubated was amazingly difficult. He looked horrible laying there hooked up to a ton of machines, completely still and non-responsive.

It was an awful feeling knowing that he had to be intubated. I knew that if they took that step, it was going to be a really long road. I still held so much hope that he was going to pull himself out and continue to improve, and it was beyond devastating to know we weren't going to be bringing him home with us right away and had no idea how long he would be in. I think this is when it finally really hit home how serious this was and how badly he had been doing up until that point. I felt so badly that he had to go through that because I can imagine he was so miserable not able to get a full breath.

NICU Day 2

2011-03-10T19:44:00.000-08:00

Wednesday - Day 2

Wednesday morning I visited Jasper and he didn't look good. His breathing was still very labored and his color was a bit off. The doctor had made rounds that morning and had ordered another chest x-ray. I am unclear as to why there wasn't one done the day before, but perhaps they were still giving him time to get better on his own without much intervention. I was having an incredibly difficult time being at his bedside, and was recovering from the c-section, so I went to go lay down in my room. Jon was a trooper and stayed with him much of the time. Shortly after I left, they decided to put the c-pap on Jasper. This is the same machine Harper was one where it forces more air into the lungs and it makes it easier for the babies to breathe on their own.

Almost immediately after they put the c-pap on, they got the chest x-rays back and discovered he had a pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung. Finally we had a cause to what all his problems were. Collapsed lungs in newborns do happen, and they're impossible to predict. The likeliest cause for Jasper was a tiny weakened spot on one of his lungs "popped" when he took his first breath out of the womb, causing his lung to collapse. The course of action for each child varies, depending upon the severity. We were told many times they can fix themselves.

After seeing the x-ray, he was immediately taken off the c-pap, as the forced air into the lungs can usually make a situation like his worse. In hopes that he might still "fix" himself, they put him underneath a 100% oxygen washout hood so as not to force any air. They also punctured his chest with a needle to release the pressure that was pressing around his lung, not allowing it to inflate. Jon was there for all of this even though they typically don't allow parents to be present for any type of procedures. He actually got to help hold Japer for part of it, and said that from the time they put the c-pap on initially, to getting the x-ray, to putting him under the hood and puncturing his chest to release the pressure took no longer than 10 minutes. Everything moved very quickly.

When I visited him after this, upon seeing him under the hood, I had a complete meltdown and things had definitely become real. No parent wants to see their child struggling, especially during their first days of life. It was so painful to not be able to hold him or do anything for him. In fact, we were basically told we weren't allowed to touch him because any agitation on his part could make his condition worse. The second two pictures below are so dark because we weren't even supposed to use the flash on the camera. I knew what the doctors and nurses were telling me was the right thing for him, however it went against everything I felt right as a Mommy. I wanted to hold and touch my newborn, and I simply couldn't. It was torture. And selfishly, I just wanted the entire nightmare to go away so we could have the "normal" childbirth experience. It had all become too much, and I was not handling the unexpected very well. Jon was a total rock for me, however, and allowed me to cry as much as I needed to, while providing a very strong shoulder to cry on. I know he was as surprised as I was that things had gone this way, but having traveled down this road before with Harper, and having the benefit of not dealing with crazy hormones and anesthesia side effects like I was, plus just being a really good guy, he was able to handle the craziness much better than his wife.

Jasper was left under the hood for the remainder of the day into the next as they continued to x-ray his chest to monitor his progress.

I continued to pump and try to take it easy. I was already having a much more difficult recovery from this c-section than last, though nothing was really wrong--I was just more sore. I was getting decent sleep, and Jon slept at home with Harper this night. I really missed having him there at night when I had to get up and get my pump things ready, and drop off the milk to the NICU, but I was glad to have Harper sleep in her own bed. She had done great at Nana and Papa's house but it's never the same as when you're at home.

Here is Jasper first thing in the morning. At the time, I was so glad to see his sweet face, but looking back, I can see how bad he looks.

Such a flashback this picture is to Harper. Jon captured this in the few minutes he was actually on the c-pap.

And here is our Bubble Boy and the moment things had really sunk in for me.

Jasper's Birth Story & Day 1

2011-03-09T17:52:00.000-08:00

Why I'm a year late with the birth story: Jasper's birth and subsequent NICU stay was very, very difficult for me. I was so overwhelmed with what was happening, that I did not do a good job at posting pictures or keeping the blog updated. I barely even kept facebook updated because it just all seemed too devastating and difficult. About a month after we brought him home, I started writing everything down. I wanted to capture the days after his birth as best as I could, and I knew I had to do it while it was still fresh. Jon helped me with a lot of the details, since a lot of the medical information was fuzzy. I had intended on posting it right away and wanted to include some pictures to accompany the stories. However every time I tried to sit down and get it done, it just wouldn't happen. It was too overwhelming, and I was enjoying having him home and healthy, that I don't think I wanted to go back there.

I've had it in my mind that I wanted to post the stories for his first birthday. It's such a milestone event anyway, and I think it's an appropriate time for me to share. The plan is to share the first several days of his birth one at a time. Whether this results in one post a day or two or three, I don't know. But it will get done!!

Here is our birth story and account of Day 1 in the NICU

I was admitted to the hospital on Monday night, March 8, knowing I would be delivering Tuesday at 3pm. Just my luck, there was some work being done on the hospital's computer system, and no one was allowed to schedule anything before noon. Since the surgeries that would have normally been first thing in the morning were now scheduled at noon, it meant I was pushed back all the way until 3pm. I was not excited to be having to wait so long for my surgery, especially since it meant I couldn't eat after midnight. My night nurse was great and brought me a midnight snack, and my morning nurse even checked with my anesthesiologist first thing in the morning to see if he would allow me a small breakfast. But nope, I was restricted to.... well, nothing! Not even water. hmph. Though I cursed him under my breath, it turned out to be a huge blessing as I ended up getting a 10:30am slot unexpectedly! Turns out the work on the computers was done much earlier than expected, and my nurse called down to my doctor to see if he wanted to squeeze me in. Thankfully everyone was available to be there, so 10:30 it was! I got the green light mainly because I hadn't eaten since midnight - so thank goodness for strict (mean) anesthesiologists! Daddy was already on his way to the hospital with Harper for a visit before dropping her off at Nana and Papa's house where she would be staying for her very first sleepover with them, so I got a quick kiss before saying goodbye to her. Nana came and picked her up so Jon could stay with me. I had already had a quick shower and was instructed to get into my gown. It was really happening!

The prep for surgery is always the worst. Laying there on the bed in that freezing operating room, I was really nervous about the spinal block. The (mean) anesthesiologist had me sitting up and hunching way over so he could put the needle in my back, but Jasper kept kicking me really hard as if to say "stop squishing me Mom!". It made me flinch several times -- not a good thing to do when someone has a giant needle in your spine! We all had a good chuckle, and everything went really well. My doctor came in shortly after, and I remember all kinds of questions being thrown about, and silly conversations all the people have. I was asked multiple times if we were banking cord blood (no) and if I was having a tubal (no). I then remember my doctor saying "test pinch done - good" and my (mean) anesthesiologist leaned in to tell me that my doctor had just pinched me really hard to make sure I was numb. The fact that I didn't feel it was a good sign. Right after that, Jon came in and I smelled a burning smell. I also asked Jon if they had started and he replied "oh yeah" as if to say they were well under way. I didn't feel nearly as much pulling and tugging this time as I did with Harper, and everything seemed to be in really slow motion this time as well. Right after they pulled him out, Jon was taking pictures and I told him to go with Jasper to see him get cleaned up. I have no idea where my (mean) anesthesiologist went, but I had the sudden urge to vomit. I tried not to think about it, and he thankfully returned shortly after, and I asked for a bag. It wasn't until later that I laughed to myself thinking he probably didn't believe me when I told him I hadn't had anything to eat since midnight. But the fact that I had nothing to throw up was my proof that I had followed the rules. I just felt very, very queasy.

I heard some rumblings about Jasper, but no one seemed overly concerned. He was breathing hard and making a grunting noise, so they told me they were calling in a NICU nurse to check him out. He had a strong cry and looked great. I wasn't worried, so I was making conversation with my doctor (when I wasn't trying to vomit) about if they had discovered any endometriosis this time. The verdict was no, and that made me thankful. He was very happy with how the surgery had gone, and everything seemed great. We said our goodbyes and I was wheeled to recovery. As with Harper, I was incredibly sleepy. "They" say there is nothing in the medication that is supposed to make you sleepy, but I had an overwhelming feeling to sleep just like last time. I was also incredibly itchy, mainly on my face, which is an expected side effect. At least this time I was prepared and hadn't put any makeup on.

In recovery, I was chatting with Jon and my nurse, making small talk about this and that, mostly talking about how tired I was, and trying to sound lucid while I spoke to my mom and friends. For the record, I don't really remember these conversations. :) We were visited by the NICU doctor on duty that week, and it truly didn't sink in yet how serious things might be. His labored breathing was not improving, and the grunting was still there. The words "we've admitted him" flew right out of his mouth like they were nothing, and I didn't have a chance to process it. Wait, what?? This was NOT the way things were supposed to go. I asked him questions about the things I knew, like if he was going to have the lung medicine given to him they had talked about Harper once possibly needing - he didn't need it yet, and Harper never needed it. But mainly they were going to leave him on the nasal canula to try to allow him to get his breathing stabilized, and they were ordering a chest x-ray.

Before I knew it, I was being wheeled in to the NICU to visit. This was a trip I remembered well and one that I definitely didn't want to be traveling again. I remembered the hallways, and the back door entrance they use so the hospital beds can get in with ease. My heart sank as we entered in. I didn't want to be here.

I was really still out of it and didn't talk much. My head was spinning, literally and figuratively, and I truly just wanted to get to my room, sleep, and hope it was all a bad dream. I had so envisioned that this birth was going to be different than the last, and that our experience would be a total 180 from when Harper was born. I couldn't believe it looked like we were going down the same road. We took a few pictures, and stayed for about 10 minutes, then said our goodbyes to let him rest. They were still working on him and it's difficult to not be in the way with the ginormous hospital bed wheeled in there.

When I got back to my room, I tried to get some rest. I was really hungry and thirsty, and obviously still very numb. Though I was terribly nauseous still, I tried to eat some jello and drink a bit of water. It didn't stay down long and I ended up getting sick 3 times that day. Funny the things I remember, even though I was so completely tired. Jon was in and out, visiting Jasper a lot, hanging out with me. I never ended up sleeping much. All the days happenings were filling my head and I was trying to wrap my brain around everything.

Once I had total feeling back in my legs, I got out of bed and was wheeled to the NICU to visit Jasper. In the NICU, babies are always given the best chance to do things on their own before they intervene. Most often times babies are rushed there with breathing problems, so frequently they are able to overcome the minor hurdles on their own. Jasper was put on a nasal canula to push some extra oxygen in hopes that he just needed to clear out his lungs, and receive a little extra assistance. His breathing was very labored, and he had an IV in his arm in order give him fluid and had a feeding tube, which wasn't being utilized yet. It was at this visit that Jon got to first change Jasper's diaper. I got some great pics, which were totally identical to him first changing Harper's diaper with total concentration. He's so funny.

We were in a wait and see mode, and still felt really good that he was going to pull out of his labored breathing and be discharged soon. I started pumping that night and was so thankful to have a great start even though my milk was days away from coming in. Though, to be honest, I just wanted to be holding him to nurse, and not have that stupid pump. Jon stayed in the hospital with me that night and was an incredible help with getting my pump set up and ready for me. We both got a fair amount of sleep, though he was in the NICU sitting with Jasper a lot of the time.

Daddy taking a self portrait right before coming in to the Operating Room.

6lbs, 14.5 oz

Giving a kiss before taking him to the NICU

Me on my recovery bed visiting Jasper in the NICU.

On the monitors with a nasal canula, feeding tube and IV.

Changing his diaper for the first time.

Birth announcement placed on his NICU bed.

Museum Day!

2011-03-03T18:46:00.000-08:00

Harper's school closes every year on President's Day so that the teachers can attend training. Since Monday is Jon's usual day off, I decided to take the day off so we could have a family day. We tossed around a couple ideas and decided on the Fort Worth Science and History Museum which has the Children's Museum exhibit. Harper talks about dinosaurs nonstop these days, so we knew she would love it there. Jon had been there as a kid, and I love doing the same things he did when he was little.

It's fun for us now that she's old enough to understand what a surprise is and asks questions. We asked if she knew where we were going and she actually guessed we were going to see dinosaurs shortly after we left the house! She never ceases to amaze us.

She was a silly girl on the way there and looked too cute with her blankie on her head, I had to snap a picture.

The museum's exhibits are geared mostly for kids who are older, so we stayed mostly in the Children's Museum area which is for kids under 8 years old, though the majority of the kids were about 2-5 years old when we were there.

Right when we walked in, there was a formula 1 race car that we had to get a picture with for Poppy. However Harper's focus was only on the dinosaurs, so we went directly there. Jon said they still have the same dinosaurs from when he was a kid, which I found pretty funny. Harper wasn't scared of them at all and she kept roaring her best dinosaur roar at them. She and Daddy explored the computers there, and we finally convinced her to sit inside the footprint.

After we were done with the dinosaurs, we went to the Children's exhibit and she loved everything in there. She loved the trolly and kept running inside and out because she liked the sound her feet made on the floor. They had building blocks and even though she has those at home, she still wanted to play with those there. There was a big area with train tracks you can build any which way and Daddy (and Harper) had a blast playing with those. There was a baby hospital area and you could see x-rays, swaddle baby dolls, drive an ambulance and have your height checked. She waited so patiently to drive that ambulance and had the biggest smile when she was finally able to. Then we moved on to the grocery area which allows kids to play on the registers and the scanners. Though they are supposed to be able to go to all the shelves and pick out things from the grocery lists they provide, the carts were all filled to the brim and the shelves were bare. A few of us parents were making a game out of having the kids put things BACK on the shelves instead, and that seemed to work pretty well.

We went to the outside area for a little while, but it was rather chilly and very windy that day, so she played a little bit on the water guns (and she was pretty good!) but we didn't last long out there.

We had some lunch and let Harper have some worms and dirt. She loved the worms, but not the dirt so much (the cookies were pretty soggy). Daddy was happy to have her leftovers and I got her to give me a huge dirt smile. While I fed Jasper the rest of his lunch, Harper and Daddy went upstairs to check out the ranchers exhibit. There wasn't much for her to be interested in, but she did love seeing the cows.

We left shortly aftewards and had promised Harper we would walk around the side of the building to where the big dinosaurs were outside. This is where she really gave out her best roars, but also where she finally got scared. I guess a T-Rex is a lot scarier than a big skeleton inside.

We were there less than 3 hours, but it was the perfect amount of time for our two little ones. We got home and everyone laid down for a nap. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to load the pictures from the day. I searched and searched but couldn't find the camera anywhere. I waited for Daddy to wake up and he couldn't find it either. I called the museum lost and found and someone had turned it in!!! Apparently it fell out of the stroller when he had loaded it in to the back of the car. After just buying this camera, we were soooo thrilled to have gotten it back. Not to mention all the memories we had just captured that day!

Here are just a fraction of the pictures we have. It was a lot of fun!

Harper with the race car.

Harper and Daddy with the dinosaur.

With the littler dinosaur.

Sitting in the footprint.

Standing in the gator's mouth.

Driving the ambulance.

Jasper had just woken up from a nap and didn't appreciate being face to face with the turtle.

Dirt smile.

Chewing on some pizza crust.

Don't let the T-Rex eat me, Mama!

"Rrrrraaaaaawwwwrrrrr!"

Fun Times

2011-02-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

Just a few pics of fun stuff we've done.

Harper went to a classmate's party.

She really enjoyed the bounce houses AND the cupcakes.

Harper is always putting on my girly shoes and saying "I'm cute!" or "I'm going to work!" This time she looked so proud to be putting on my tennis shoes and it cracked me up.

For Superbowl Sunday we had some fun and ate a bunch of snack foods for dinner. One of her absolute favorite treats is chips and salsa, but sometimes I worry it's too spicy for her. I found some extra mild salsa at the store and she was thrilled to pile it on.

We finally got the doubles attachment for our stroller, so now we can put both kids in it at the same time. Up until now, I would wear Jasper in the sling or let Harper walk and put him in the stroller. But now that the weather is turning warmer and we get out and about more often, this will be perfect! They both have always been great stroller riders, and Jasper doesn't seem to care at all that he only has a side to side view.

My Funny Valentines

2011-02-16T20:05:00.000-08:00

Monday was Harper's Valentine's Day party at her school. We hadn't initially planned on going, however we found out it would also be Harper's first day in her new class. She was getting moved up to her Jr. Pre-K 1 class! I thought she would be really surprised and happy if we came, so I left work early and I was right -- she was thrilled! Just like when she moved up to PreSchool, she already knew all the kids in this class which is a huge help in her transition. Since all her favorite friends are in there, she just had to get adjusted to a new teacher, a new class, and new routine. So far so good!

The first change I noticed is that in this class the kids sit boys and girls together, where as before they were separated to keep the messy, wild boys at one table, and the talkative, silly girls at another table. I brought her a mini balloon on a stick as a present and she loved it. I also brought her some heart antenna to wear, but she was not so thrilled to try those on.

Here are a few pics from the party.

Here she is with her table mates. You might notice Jasper in his carrier in the background!

Here's one of the other table of friends.

Once we got home, she was very hyped up on sugar and the excitement of the day. She got tons of great Valentines from her friends and over half of them gave candy too. Daddy and I also each got her a few gifts for the day, which also included sugary sweets. So much candy! She rarely gets to eat it, so it's a huge treat for her.

One of the things she got from one of her friends was a little sheet of princess stickers. One of the things I love about Harper is her willingness to always share. Whether it's food or toys, or whatever, if I ask her to share, she always does. She was looking at the sheet of stickers, put one on her hand, then asked Daddy for his hand and put one on it. Then his other hand. Then on both of mine. Then back on hers until they were all gone. Stickers are her favorite, so it made me very proud that we didn't tell her to do anything with them. And since they were a gift, we certainly wouldn't have asked her to share them. Eventually they all landed on Daddy's face as she decorate him to make him pretty. Daddy also returned the favor.

Right before bathtime, I put the heart antenna on Jasper. This is one of my favorite all-time pictures of him. He's just so cute!!

As per usual, once Jasper does something, Harper usually wants to too. So once I put the heart antenna on him, she was very willing to as well.

It was a very long, exhausting day, but we had a great time. Daddy sent me a beautiful bouquet of roses and calalilies -- they were beautiful!! He also made a wonderful dinner and some cookies rolled in pink sugar. He worked so hard to make his two favorite Valentine girls feel so special!

Iced Over

2011-02-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

We were home again today, and the cabin fever definitely set in. By this afternoon the kids were feeling a bit testy and I was totally going stir crazy. I have really loved spending so much time with the kids and I have surprised myself with how relaxed I've been about it. If we could actually leave the house, things would be a million times better. The roads are still completely iced over absolutely everywhere and are expected to be this way for two more days!

I finally ventured out of the house long enough to get the mail and take some pics. Jon said the drive home last night was the worst drive he's ever had. It's crazy out there! I don't know yet if Harper's school will be open tomorrow. I'm thinking even if it's not, I'll try to go to work in the morning. If the drive is bad, I have no problem turning around and coming home. But we'll see.

Some of our pipes have frozen, and we are praying and hoping with all we have that they don't burst. The kids' bathtub barely runs any water, and the cold water in our tub and Jon's sink doesn't run at all. We also noticed we had frost on the INSIDE of our bathroom window this morning, leading us to believe we have a serious insulation problem. Fabulous.

I decided to cook an early dinner because bathtime is always a favorite around here, so I figured it was a good way to kill some time and keep them happy. I had forgotten we only had one bathtub, so I had to quickly clean ours up (it never gets used), and turned on the steaming hot water. I began taking large cup fulls of cold water from my sink and pouring it in, but realized that was going to take a while and the kids were getting antsy. An inspired idea hit me, and I grabbed the entire ice cube container from the freezer and dumped them all in. Harper was watching me and said "whoooa!" once I was done, but she seemed to enjoy seeing ice cubes floating all around the bathtub. It worked great!

Today Harper needed an early nap, which is not a good start to the day. I tried starting to play a game of hide and seek with her stuff animals, but she had a meltdown as we found the very first one, so it was off to bed she went. Things improved a little after that, but she really seemed like she needs a change of scenery. Me too, girl.

Jasper is getting more interested in pulling himself up and crusing these days (finally!), so we worked with him on that today and made a lot of progress. I got him to start using his walker, which was very exciting. And this morning as I was vacuuming, he seemed very interested in the vacuum, so I decided to see if he would enjoy riding it as much as his sister did. While he didn't crack much of a smile, he didn't whine or cry which says a lot. And once I pulled him off, he kept reaching back over to grab at the vacuum until I moved away. It was pretty cute and we all got a good laugh out of continuing the tradition of our vacuum-riding children.

The frost on the inside.

Our street.

Jasper on the vacuum.

Look at me!

Ice cubes in the bath.

Having a blast in the tub.

Ice, Ice, Baby

2011-02-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

Texas has been hit by a major ice storm. It's the one time I feel like the results actually lived up to the media hype. I had my doubts, even when almost all area schools declared last night they would be closed in the morning, before we had even had a drop of precipitation. Well, it turned out to be really bad with the roads all frozen solid and no hopes of temps above freezing until Friday. Harper's school closed so I stayed home and the kids, Jon and I lounged around all morning. It was great! Daddy made a big breakfast and we played in Harper's room for a while. Then Daddy had to go to work. I was so nervous about him driving on the roads, but he doesn't have the luxury of not going in like I do. He made it in safely, and we're praying he makes it home okay tonight.

The kids took great naps and I really had an enjoyable day with them with no pressure to feel like I had to get a million things done. We didn't go out and play in the white stuff because with the wind chill, it was 0 degrees today -- not enjoyable at all! I did manage to vacuum today and the kitchen and dining room are clean, but there are toys all over the living room and Harper's room and I just don't care. Harper's school is closed again tomorrow so I'll be home with them again and figure their toys are all ready for them to be played with again!

Jasper's got a monkey on his back. Notice the balloon? It has managed to survive since we saw Yo Gabba Gabba, and has become Jasper's favorite toy. Notice his fingernails digging in? I can't believe it hasn't popped yet.

Harper wanted to pose with the monkey too. And yes, this face was on purpose. It is somehow her new "picture smile" with the almost-closed eyes and all. Lovely, isn't it?

Fun with balloons.

Playing Superman with Daddy.

This afternoon Harper started pulling things out of her dress up box so we decided to try and see how many things we could pile on to her at once. We ended up with 1 dress, 3 skirts, 1 boa, 4 bracelets, 1 headband, 2 tiaras, 1 halo and 1 set of wings. Lookin' pretty good!

Good Eats

2011-02-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

Seemingly overnight Jasper has turned into a self feeder. The transition to self feeding is a tricky one for me. On one hand it's harder because pureed food is easier to freeze and store and keep on hand. Plus I can also keep plenty of store bought jarred foods on hand for short notice and being out and about. On the other hand, self feeding provides a lot more variety for him to try and I can usually feed he and Harper the same things, just with his cut up into much smaller pieces.

As I've stated a thousand times before, I do not cook, though I am really trying to enjoy it more. Being a working mommy of two little ones and having Daddy gone 5 nights of the week, dinner is typically throwing together something quick. Though quick does not always have to mean unhealthy. The other day I found some all natural chicken breast on sale, so I chopped it up. I had cooked some sweet potatoes to have on hand, so I cubed half of it. I've been finding great deals on blueberries lately, so I've been giving the kids some with almost every meal. I quartered up some of those for a little dessert (though he ate those first of course).

Harper had the exact same thing, except I sliced the other half of the sweet potato into "fries" and left the chicken in bigger chunks. I typically would have given her some ranch to dip things in, but she we was still getting over a tummy bug so I wanted things bland. I also didn't give her any blueberries, but she wasn't too hungry and didn't mind anyway.

As you can see from the pictures below, he ate every last bit of his dinner. Among some of his other faves are veggie patties, carrots, corn, bananas, and cereal bars. He also likes the Gerber toddler meals which Harper always refused to eat. He is still a little iffy about peas sometimes, and he doesn't love pasta yet but I haven't found too many other things he doesn't like. I hope it stays this way!

Princess Gags a Lot

2011-01-25T19:45:00.000-08:00

Things around here have been good. Snotty, but good! We all got hit pretty good with a bout of allergies and it's managed to linger for a while.

We don't get much (any) family time during the week. Our weekends are so treasured and we always try to make the most of it. Lately we have had a good combination of getting stuff done and also laying low, soaking in time spent together at home.

Here is the latest and greatest with Harper. She is doing great at school. She is getting ready to move up to the next pre school class. I have mixed feelings because her current teacher is wonderful, but the majority of her friends have already moved up and she misses them terribly. Right now she's in a class full of younger kids, which is so weird! I've heard wonderful things about the teacher in the next class, so I know it will be a great transition. She's had the opportunity to play in there to get adjusted, and they'll continue to do that for her until she moves. She's fully potty-trained, which is the only requirement, so it's just a matter of time!

She's absolutely awesome with Jasper. They play extremely well together, and she has been more help than I could have ever hoped for. She absolutely loves trying to make him laugh, and is usually very willing to keep him entertained if I am trying to get something done. She's such a wonderful big sister for him. Once in a while the little Mommy in her comes out -- and I have to admit she sounds just like me, it's freaky!

She is getting more adventurous when it comes to food and she will now at least attempt to eat most of the things we ask her to. She has even eaten broccoli on a few occasions! Quite the breakthrough. She's become quite the whiz at the games on my phone that I've downloaded for her. Her favorite is an educational one with a monkey that leads you through different activities. She's especially great at memory matching games, where you have to remember where objects are on the other side of the card. She can count to 20, though she still sometimes skips numbers, and she has long-known the days of the week. She surprised us at the table the other night by listing the months. She knows her birthday and has declared she wants a Dora cake (much to my dismay) for her next one. She loves playing with her tea set and her kitchen and still absolutely loves books. She now goes to bed at around 8pm since that has worked better on the nights I'm home alone with the kids, and wakes up around 7. She still uses her clock that turns green to cue her when it's time to get out of bed, though most nights (and mornings) she visits us and we walk her back to bed.

We've had some adventures and there is one I don't think I will soon forget:

Two weeks ago we ventured out to Ikea to check out a few things we were interested in purchasing. On the way out there, Harper ate an entire blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese. We were amazed and wondered where she put it all! We wandered around for a good while, playing musical children between the stroller, the sling and the cart, found out the main item we wanted was sold out, picked out some shelves for the living room, ate lunch and raced out so Daddy could attempt to make it to work on time. We must have walked the store 3 times with all the back and forth. Harper didn't touch much of her lunch, but she loved her chocolate milk, though at the checkout line she accidentally dumped the remainder all over her shirt.

When I put her in the car, I took off her shirt and covered her with her jacket, then put my jacket over her to help get her nice and toasty. A short time later on the way home, she coughed, then whined a little, and gave us a look I won't ever forget. I will spare you all the gory details, but suffice it to say, we got a second look at everything she had eaten that day. I can't tell you how sad I was that Daddy was leaving us!!! For the first time, I had to get two kids home, cleaned up and down for a nap. That I knew I could handle, but the part he usually does is the car seat. UGH-- the car seat!!! I appreciate him so much more now that I've done it myself. That has got to be one of the most disgusting things to clean after that type of incident. Well, that and poop in the bathtub. I can't handle that either.

She has gagged herself from coughing several times before, so this was not a surprise. Usually it's in bed at night, and we've learned to keep a bucket next to her bed so we can at least have a shot at making it there instead of cleaning up the bed all the time. In fact, the next night after this incident, she woke up coughing, and I ran in there just in time to have her aim for the bucket. Success!! So now when she gets a cold or allergies, not only do we have endless snot to look forward to, we know we can usually also expect some vomit too. Lovely!

This past Saturday I made Harper an appointment to get her hair trimmed. We have been trying to wait patiently while the top and sides of her hair grew out. And everything is getting so thick! I think she truly has (will have) my hair. The back of her hair was getting pretty scraggly, and it needed some shortening while we still wait for everything to come in. I decided at the last minute to not go to our appointment and instead I would trim it myself. I wasn't wanting anything fancy, and certainly didn't want anything but the back cut, so I cancelled the appointment and set up our very own beauty salon. Having had mostly at-home haircuts done by my sister, I felt confident I could handle a straight line on Harper. I think it turned out great, and Harper did very well. She was excited about having her hair cut, and it really only was just a few snips. Plus I saved $17!

Cuddles before bedtime. Harper now has more cuddly times than not. She is definitely not the most cuddly girl, so when she's willing to give it, we soak it all up.

Here she is wearing the princess crown I got at Medieval Times at a work function the other night. When I walked in the door with it on, she just stopped and stared, then giggled a nervous laugh. She was fascinated!! I put it on her, and she happily posed for some Princess Pictures.

365 pictures... or maybe not

2011-01-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

I was going to attempt to do the 365 picture blog after realizing what a great scrapbook it would be to look back on. I decided on Monday I would start it, and just use what pictures I had taken the first 10 days of the year and pick up from there. Well it's only Tuesday and I've already forgotten to take a picture today. Sooooo... maybe I won't do the 365 pictures after all. ;)

Here are the pictures I was going to post as of Monday. You never know, maybe I will start on Wednesday!

1/7/11

I was folding laundry in Harper's room after work and Harper wanted to wear her cowboy (farmer) \hat and ride her horse. She was rocking back and forth, whoopin' and hollerin' "yeeeeeeeeHAW!!" and Jasper was absolutely fascinated. I brought his horse in the room and plopped him down. He continued to stare at Harper, and then would look down at his hands and shake back and forth really fast in an attempt to rock like she was, then stare back up at her. It was quite adorable.

1/8/11

I was finally able to braid Harper's hair for the first time today. She has had quite the mullet for a long time, and the top and sides of her hair are FINALLY growing out, which means I can get a nice braid going on the sides. She's been wearing little ponytails on the sides of her head for a long time because it's the only thing I could do. Well, I think she's finally ready for a real haircut to get those stringy ends clipped off. She hasn't had a haircut since October 2009 when Auntie Wendy trimmed the back to even it out.

1/9/11

It snowed a decent amount on Sunday and we spent the entire day in our pajamas relaxing around the house enjoying the fire and watching the huge snowflakes fall. It was wonderful! Harper had been playing in her room, and we opened the blinds at about noon right when it started snowing so we could see it. She walked out into the hallway and gasped and pointed, completely speechless at seeing the snow falling. It was so cute and it gave us a good laugh. Here she is looking out the back door at the snow. I had my hooded sweatshirt on and Jon came out from the bedroom with his on. Harper then declared she wanted her "jacket" on too, which we obliged.

1/9/11

Later that day, I decided a fun snow day activity would be to play beauty shop and paint Harper's nails for the first time. She was thrilled and was such a good girl, sitting so still while I painted, you would have thought she did this every week! Once I was done with her nails, she then said "Mommy's turn!". I told her Mommy didn't need her nails painted, but she insisted. I haven't painted my own nails or worn nail polish for an embarassingly long time. It's still on and so weird every time I see it!

1/10/11

We absolutely looooooove Sundays and Mondays when Daddy is home for the evenings because it means he gets to eat dinner with us and - the best part - he is home for baths! Daddy is notorious for being a much more fun bath-giver than boring old Mommy. He makes lots and lots of bubbles and plays silly games. Mommy is much more all business since Tuesday through Saturday I have dinner, baths, nursing, cuddles and bedtime with two kids by myself.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-31T18:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-22T18:27:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-04T19:08:00.000-08:00

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!

Ice Cream Cake

2010-11-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

The only thing I asked for for my birthday this year was an ice cream cake. After a long day at the arboretum, Daddy went out and picked one up for me. He got my favorite: mint n chip. He had never tried one before, and neither had Harper so it was a big hit. And Mommy was verrrrry happy!

Cute story: Jon walked in with the cake box, and without even seeing what was inside she said "cake?!?" How did this girl know it was cake?? Once her thoughts were confirmed, without missing a beat she said "I want a Dora cake". I clarified that she meant for HER birthday she wanted a Dora cake. But again -- how in the world does she even know what a Dora cake is?! Nevertheless, Daddy and Mommy are quickly growing tired of all things Dora, so I am trying my best to convince her she would love a Yo Gabba Gabba cake much more than a Dora cake. :)

Butterfly Flutterby

2010-10-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

A couple Saturdays ago we went to the Butterfly Flutterby held by the City of Grapevine. It celebrates the migration of the monarch butterflies as they make their way to Mexico for the winter. We put Harper in her butterfly shirt and shoes, and put her wings from last year's Halloween on for good measure. She was too cute!

The main highlight of the event is the live butterfly release, where they hand each person participating an envelope containing a live monarch butterfly. As they countdown from 10 to 1, everyone lets their butterfly go, and watch them all fly off. It was a pretty cool sight! We got there a little too late to participate in the first one, and we left before the second one, but we loved watching it anyway!

I had really hoped to have some adorable pictures of Harper's face painted like a beautiful butterfly. But alas, after we waited in line for close to an hour, she sat down and her little two year old self decided she didn't want her face painted. oy. Such is life as the parent of a moody two year old!

Arboretum

2010-10-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was my birthday and Daddy decided to take us all on an adventure. We first went to a cute cafe near White Rock Lake in Dallas where we had a really yummy healthy lunch. Everything was so fresh and tasty. We loved it! We then went to the Dallas Arboretum to spend the day checking it out. They were having a fall display with about 10 million pumpkins there. The great thing about the arboretum is that at every turn is a beautiful spot for a picture.

While we were there, we ran into Jon's coworker and our good friends, Wes, Jessica and Mia. The guys promise they didn't know the other was going to be there -- what a coincidence! It was everyone's first time at the arboretum, so we all had a good time exploring and looking around. It was really beautiful and thankfully Harper was in a great mood and loved playing with Mia. One side note: Jasper was really overdue for a meal, so I was desperately scoping out every corner, bench and place to sit so I could nurse. Well, as I said before, literally every spot is a beautiful picture spot, so I had a very difficult time finding somewhere discreet and out of the way! It was annoying at the time, as I didn't want to hold up the whole group, and I felt really bad for Jasper. But now I can just chalk it up to one of those moments that is so short-lived and I'll probably miss soon!

We had a great time and it was a wonderful day to celebrate my birthday!

(Since Daddy didn't tell me where we were going, Mommy couldn't make sure Harper was appropriately dressed in fall clothing to go with the scenery. She was the only girl there dressed for spring! However she loved looking at all the pink flowers, so I guess it was good she coordinated with them.)

Jasper was not too thrilled to be sitting on the pumpkins.

Here she is talking to a squirrel. She was very sweetly waving at it saying "c'mere squirrel!"

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we took the kids to the big pumpkin patch in Flower Mound. We've seen this pumpkin patch several times and knew it was a huge one, however we hadn't braved it with Harper the past two years since we always went to the pumpkin patch with my sister and her family in California. While we were really sad not to be in California this year, we were looking forward to finally checking this one out. And we were not disappointed!

Just like at the farm the day before, Harper did not warm up to the newness of everything right away. However once she saw other kids her size running around and having fun exploring things, she did too. This pumpkin patch is primed for parents to take a billion pictures of their kiddos. So that's what we did! They have all sorts of character cutouts to pose with, cut outs to put your face through, kid-sized tractors to sit on, houses to run in and out of and huge bales of hay to climb on... amongst other things!! We did it all and I tried to snap as quickly as I could!

Before we left the house, I was getting the kids into their pumpkin gear, and Harper put on Jasper's pumpkin hat which used to be hers. Just for fun, I included a picture from her first Halloween -- wearing the hat when it actually fit her. :)

Peas, Please

2010-10-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

Peas is the 4th solid Jasper has tasted, and by far was the most decorative. He looks like The Incredible Hulk, but perhaps his disposition makes The Jolly Green Giant a better name.

Nash Farm

2010-10-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

We've been quite busy! Taking advantage of the beautiful fall Texas weather, we've been out and about finding all sorts of adventures.

Last weekend we went to Nash Farm to check out their Fall Roundup. Nash Farm is owned by the City of Grapevine, though it used to be a full working farm. It's down the street from Nana and Papa's house and at one time long ago, the land their house is on used to be part of the farm. Now the Farm is used for city activities and private parties. Every few months they open it up to the public and hold interactive seasonal activities. The local 4H and FFA clubs are on hand to tend to the animals, and overall it's a really great opportunity to see a great part of Grapevine history.

Even though the farm is just down the street from their house, none of Jon's family had ever been there! Harper has a huge love of all things farm, with a special fondness for tractors. We live in a rather rural area, and it's not uncommon to pass several tractors on any ride home. Each time we see one, Harper shouts "TRACTOR!!" from the backseat and wiggles and squeals with excitement. We knew this event would be a fun time.

Harper usually takes a little while to warm up to new situations, so even though we hyped up the animals and the tractors, she still wasn't sure for a while after we got there. We finally got her to touch a goat and a sheep, and she loved seeing the mama and baby cow. She got into a few of the other things once she saw other kids having fun. We went on a tractor ride around the farm, and she tried her hand at pumpkin bowling. We were so thankful Nana had come with us so she could mind Jasper in the stroller and both Mommy and Daddy could run around and do all the fun stuff with Harper. Thanks Nana!

We tried to get a family picture, but Harper was having none of it!

Waking Jasper

2010-10-10T12:14:00.001-07:00

September 2010 138, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

Like his Daddy, Jasper can be difficult to wake up. Here is proof of that.

Updated Stats

2010-10-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

Nana will be very happy to know that I've updated Jasper's stats on his growth chart on the right hand side. I've also added how old they were at each appointment to make it easier to compare the two of them at their appointments. Obviously Jasper was much bigger than Harper was at birth and the early months, but she caught up to be average right around the age he is now, so it will be interesting to see how they compare from here on out.

To compare them at 6 months, Jasper weights only 1lb, 1oz more than Harper did, but is 1 3/4 inches taller than she was!

At his 4 month appointment, Jasper was 15lbs, 4oz and was in the 50th % for weight. He was 25 3/4 inches and in the 75th % for height.

At his 6 month appointment, he was 17lbs, 7oz and was in the upper end of 50th% for weight. He was 27 1/4 inches and in the upper end of 75th% for height.

Meeting Barney

2010-10-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to Stonebriar Mall in Frisco. The Sprout Network was doing a mall tour with two of their most popular characters: Barney and Chica. When Harper used to be home with Daddy a couple days a week, they would watch the Sprout Network (aka PBS kids) and Harper fell in love with Chica, the chicken puppet who co-hosts the show (along with one of three rotating human hosts). Much to my dismay, she also fell in love with Barney, the lovable (to most) purple dinosaur. I am not a Barney fan. He has always annoyed me and I had hoped that I could manage to avoid him while my kids were growing up. Unfortunately Daddy discovered that Barney was a great distraction for Harper while he was trying to get things done... and sometimes Daddy would watch too. ;)

When we heard about the mall tour, we decided we would try to go, but not get our hopes up about what it might be like, or if the crowds were too big to really do anything. After we participated in a work gathering early in the morning in downtown Dallas, we headed up to Frisco and went to the mall to try and figure out where this thing was happening. When we finally got there, Harper saw the cardboard signs with Barney and Chica and was very excited to see their pictures. Little did she know what was ahead! We saw the line, decided it was do-able and proceeded to wait to meet the Big Purple Guy. We were very fortunate to get there when we did since the line quickly stretched past many, many storefronts. I videotaped Harper's reaction upon first seeing Barney. She still hadn't known exactly what we were doing there, and it has given me a glimpse into what our future might look like when the Justin Bieber of her time comes around. oy. Sheer excitement.

Jasper was a little less excited than Harper was.

As we got closer, the line kind of wound around in a funny way and the last little leg actually led us away from Barney before we turned around and got to him. Explaining this to a 2 year old is very challenging, but eventually we worked our way closer, and she was so excited, she actually tried to break the barriers a few times to run up to him before it was her turn. We managed to keep her held back, fixed her hair, and got her all ready for her big moment. They gave each kid a "backstage pass" which had a barcode that they scanned to identify each child as they took their picture. The parents could then download the official Sprout picture a couple days later.

Here she is with her cute pass (before I had fixed her hair)

Here is Harper waiting (patiently) for her turn.

We had actually joked that it would be funny if Harper was terrified of him. But "nah - she's way too excited to get scared". Ha!! Well, we shouldn't have been surprised. She is wary of new situations and people. The following series of pictures tells the whole story. She was terrified from the moment it was her turn. She didn't walk up by herself, so Daddy had to carry her up there. She then wouldn't be put down for a picture, but instead held on for dear life.

As you can see, the official Sprout picture turned out a little less than stellar! Here she is a few minutes later when we walked around the other side of where Barney was to see Chica. She was much happier. 1 - to see Chica, and 2 - to have a safe distance between she and the puppet!

After the Barney fiasco, we wisely decided not to wait in line for Chica. Though I think Jon would have not minded if we had. The human host there at Stonebriar was Kelly, who is Jon's favorite. :)

Harper waving bye bye to Chica.

The excitement wore her out, and she was crashed out on the way home.

Despite my lack of adoration for Barney, I'm glad we went and it was so fun to see her get so excited. And it's yet another thing we will be able to talk about to her friends (and boyfriends!)

My 6 Month Old Boy

2010-09-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a lot of detailed posts about what each kid is doing, and I really need to be better about that. Here's a bit of catch up on Jasper. He turned 6 months old two weeks ago!

We started him on solids the week he turned 6 months old and we're introducing a new food each week. So far he's had sweet potatoes and carrots, and he by far prefers the sweet potatoes. Next I think will be butternut squash, then comes the green veggies. He's a very messy eater at times, and since he usually hops in the bath right after, I don't really clean him up much which makes for great pictures. Currently he's only getting dinner as a solid meal.

I'm still exclusively breastfeeding. Well, in addition to the solids obviously. I pump three times a day and nurse at night and all weekend long. Pumping doesn't seem like as much of a chore this time around, probably because I'm enjoying it while it lasts, knowing it will be over all too soon as he gets older. I'm really glad nursing is still going great, and so far he's not showing any signs of being done with it yet. Harper gave up nursing at 11 months, so it will be interesting to see how long he lasts. He tends to get really distracted while wanting to watch what Harper's doing. But times like tonight when he becomes totally inconsolable in the middle of eating his carrots, and I can comfort him by nursing his carrot-covered body (and getting carrot-covered myself!) it makes me happy to still be doing it.

Jasper is completely in love with his sister. No one can make him laugh like she does, and she brings the biggest smiles to his face. The feeling is quite mutual, and Harper really enjoys "mothering" him all the time. He's her own real live baby doll! At times I think she forgets he's not a doll and can be a little too rough. But most times she loves to tickle him, read to him, or wipe away his slobber with a cloth diaper -- just like Mommy. Oh, and come Jasper's feeding time, Harper loves to feed her baby the same way Mommy feeds him, which I happen to think is adorable.

He has started to become much more vocal making raspberries and screeching. He is sitting up better and better each day and has started really scooting all over. He gets up on all fours and is really trying to crawl, but we have a little ways until that day (I hope!). He absolutely loves to stand, but isn't holding himself up yet.

Jasper is an extremely sweet and happy baby. He sleeps really well and never complains unless he is tired. He falls asleep without much fanfare, and I usually can put him down awake and he will put himself to sleep. In fact, in a completely opposite fashion than his sister, we can take him out to restaurants and he will put himself to sleep in his car seat very easily and never complains. He likes to suck his first and middle fingers when he's sleepy and loves to cuddle a blankie or something in his arms and against his face.

He still really loves bathtime, and always laughs when I put his lotion on. He used to be really stinky as a newborn, and thank goodness he has finally outgrown that. He's got a nice batch of peach fuzz for hair, and it is actually growing over his ear a tiny bit. He grabs at absolutely everything he sees and is usually successful at getting it.

I can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings!

Duck Duck Goose

2010-09-21T18:53:00.001-07:00

MVI_0064, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

On Labor Day, we had a great day together as a family. We didn't have too much of an agenda, we just really wanted to hang together and have fun. I had been wanting to take Harper to go feed the ducks at the local park all summer, but it's pretty miserable to hang outside for too long during the summer in Texas, so since the weather was finally a little cooler, we grabbed some of the older bread in the fridge and off we went! We first went to where the huge geese hang out.

Now, I am not a fan of birds anyway, and geese just plain freak me out. They are so big and can be so aggressive when it comes to food, I was worried about them taking a bite out of my little girl.
Here is a video of the huge geese. You'll notice how far back I am standing while I shoot the video. I really don't like them. You'll also notice me scream when it looked like a goose was about to get her and the panic in my voice about the whole situation.

Soon after, Daddy and Harper moved over to where there were more ducks and no geese. Unfortunately it was way past Jasper's time to eat so I missed the feeding of the ducks while I sat in the car and fed him, though I got to enjoy watching Daddy and daughter have fun together!

Catching Up

2010-09-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

I am so far behind!! There are so many things to update on. I am going to pack in a bunch of stuff in the next few posts.

At the start of the summer I purchased two passes for the price of one (plus free soft drinks) to the local water park. I had been looking forward to taking Harper all summer long and we finally went a few weekends before Labor Day, when the park shuts down for the fall. Nana and Papa graciously watched Jasper for a couple hours so we could focus all our attention on having fun with our little girl. And oh my goodness, did she have fun!! It's a great place because it is friendly towards smaller kids with TONS of things to do. She went down countless slides, played with tons of splashing puddles, went in the wave pool, floated down the lazy river, and even went down a couple big slides with Daddy. We only stayed a couple hours because Daddy had to go to work, but it turned out to be plenty of time and completely wore her out.

One casualty from the day was our camera. It drowned, but ironically the drowning had nothing to do with the water park. It was in our bag with the big mug of water we brought in, and as I picked up the bag to leave, the mug tipped over and spilled all over the bag and its contents, including the camera. I didn't realize it had tipped over until water was leaking out of the bag and everything had already been soaked. *sigh* I went without a camera for a week and it was a week too long so we bit the bullet and picked up the newer model of our old camera. I still haven't played with all the bells and whistles but I'm just relieved to have it! These are the last pictures taken on the camera -- thankfully I was able to rescue the battery and photo card!

A Different View of Things

2010-09-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Labor Day and Jasper decided to celebrate the holiday by accomplishing a big milestone: sitting up! We have hardwood floors, so I decided to see if he could do it and surrounded him with pillows to help break his fall. Much to my surprise, he did great and only took a couple tries to find his balance. He's not a pro at it yet, but it was such a great start, we are so proud of him!

And an aerial shot just to prove he wasn't propped up by a pillow from behind. :)

Harper had fun cheering him on, but was much happier to use my leg as her personal foot stool while I practiced with Jasper.

No More Monkeys!

2010-09-04T19:50:00.001-07:00

September 2010 009, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

Harper's favorite song of the week. She is very adamant about the whole monkey thing.

Which is Which?

2010-08-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a picture of my sister's oldest son Camden. I did a triple take as I marveled at how much the picture looked like Jasper. I showed it to Jon and he was amazed at the similarity. He took it to his mom and she said "what a cute picture of Jasper".

Even now, when I look at it I am amazed at their similarities. I think most of it has to do with their pose and the goofy look on their faces. But still... crazy!

So... which is which?

Green Means Go

2010-08-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

When we first moved Harper into her big girl bed, she was very content to behave much like she did when she was in her crib. She would call for us to come get her, and never got out of her bed until we got to her room. She did this for a few months and we were very happy with how easily she transitioned to a bed without bars. ;)

Cue little brother.

Literally the first day we had him home, her sleep habits started changing. She started waking at sometimes 4, 4:30am. As you can imagine, having a new little baby at home, sleep for parents is hard to come by, so it became a real problem. She sleeps with a sound machine, so I don't think she was ever bothered by hearing him cry or by me shuffling around in the middle of the night to feed him. I think she was just thrown off by the change in family dynamic.

We tried giving her instructions to stay in bed until the she saw the sunshine in her window. This worked a little bit, but as Jasper started sleeping better, we needed her to stay in bed later than 6am. :) Plus, she was up multiple times before it was light outside, coming to our room to make sure we weren't wrong and wanted her up sooner. Oy.

I decided it was time to take serious action. I looked online, and saw this alarm clock. I read all the reviews on the product and felt like it would be great. You can set the clock to be a nightlight at night glowing yellow, and you set the time you'd like for your child to get up in the morning, at which time it glows green. It does have a face with a digital clock and one with hands too, meaning the clock can grow with your child as they learn to tell time. You can also set it to have an actual alarm for those hard-to-wake older kids. However for now, it's been fantastic to give Harper the visual cue of a glowing green clock friend to know when to get out of bed. She absolutely loves it and though she's not a perfect sleeper-inner yet, things have improved 1,000%. She stays in bed until it turns green maybe 3 out of 4 mornings, and the other mornings we usually only have to give her 1 reminder to go back to her room and wait.

Oh, and when it does turn green, she absolutely can't wait to run in and tell us "green! green!". It's pretty cute.

One funny story. We still have the video monitor in her room, so I can spy on her. A few days after she got the clock and had gotten the hang of waiting in her bed for it to change, I was watching her on the monitor. I had already sent her back to bed once and she was sitting up in her bed waiting. Once it turned, she got SO excited and started pointing to her clock saying "green green!" then jumped up, hung on to the bed rail and started stomping her feet like she was making wine out of grapes!! It was so fun to see her be so happy and do her little celebration dance without knowing I could see her. She makes me smile. :)

Laughing

2010-08-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

July 2010 160, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

hiccups

2010-08-14T13:59:00.001-07:00

hiccups, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

Fourth Anniversary

2010-08-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

Jon and I just celebrated our fourth anniversary. We say it every year, we can't believe all that we've done in the (almost) five years we've been together.

We're doing our best to pinch pennies as always (almost debt-free...woohoo!), and we don't have to exchange lavish gifts for anniversaries, so we hadn't planned anything major.

We had planned a date night the Friday before. Nana came to babysit, and we were beyond excited to be getting out of the house without any kids. We got the kids all ready for bed and said our goodbyes, got in the car and looked forward to our evening. Little did we know that some evil force was intent on keeping us from getting there. Traffic was unbelievable and every which way we tried to go was completely backed up. Then we realized we didn't have any cash to park, and then we couldn't find an atm to get cash to park! (Note to self: to fill a major void, open a bank near the ballpark). Of course it ended up being a record-short game, and when we finally got there, it was the top of the 6th inning! We really tried to take the whole evening in stride, and made the most of it... though we both admitted it was far from our dream "date" night out.

The night of our actual anniversary was supposed to be like any other. We had planned to have some of our favorite soup and crusty bread to dip in it for dinner, and I had planned a secret dessert surprise. When I pulled up to Nana and Papa's house to get Jasper after work, Jon's car was there. oh boy. I knew immediately he had something up his sleeve -- he's usually still sleeping at this time. And what a surprise!!! He and Nana had conspired together to have she and Papa watch the kids while he and I went to an early dinner at Buca di Beppo! And as their gift to us (as if them watching the kids wasn't gift enough!), they gave us a gift card to pay for dinner with. Such a blessing!!! We had a really wonderful dinner and it was such a nice evening to make up for our bust of a date night the week prior.

Here is us at dinner. Not the best picture, and if I could change anything, I would've had more makeup on and fixed my hair. :) Ahhh, such is life with a surprise dinner after a day of work.

He also got me flowers -- my favorite: lilies and roses. Just like my bouquet 4 years before.

The only thing I insisted on at dinner was that he not order dessert. I still wanted it to be a surprise, so I didn't tell him what I had planned. The traditional gift for the 4th anniversary is fruit and flowers. I am a sentimental romantic, so I wanted to try to incorporate this somehow. We both love chocolate, and of course who could forget our amazing chocolate fondue fountain from our wedding, so I thought chocolate fondue with amazing fruit would be perfect!

Needless to say, he loved it!

Oh, and yeah, I did too.

Umm yeah, we made a really good dent.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Sweet Potatoes

2010-08-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well, the time has come again. I can't believe I am making baby food again. It is so silly to think of me being so committed to making all my kids food when they're babies. I do not cook under normal circumstances. I am very open and willing to admit that unless it's a grilled cheese sandwich or a box of mac & cheese, I do not cook. And when I married someone who cooks as well as Jon, I am more than happy to allow him to handle that aspect of the household duties, and I'll do the clean up.

However, since it's not much more than baking, steaming or boiling, I'm always willing to "cook" for my babies. I'm in love with the idea of knowing exactly what they are eating. Both of my kids are exclusively breastfed without any formula needed in any form or fashion, and it makes me amazed to see how well they can grow and thrive by eating what I am providing for them. So once they move to solids, I appreciate knowing that I can continue to provide for them and know what they're eating without getting it from a jar. Now, as with Harper, there are obviously times when jarred foods are simply needed or are more convenient. (I love E@rth's Best organic jarred food and buy a ton of it when it goes on sale.) But I save a bunch of money making my own food, and it's more than worth the effort, so I will continue to make time to make what I can.

I don't plan on feeding Jasper solids until he's 6 months old, and at that time we'll start with oatmeal and rice cereal for a while. With the research I've done, babies really don't need anything other than breastmilk exclusively for the first 6 months of their life, and feeding solids before that time tends to increase the chances of allergies in childhood. I did it with Harper, and I'll do it with Jasper. He's already almost 5 months old and loves to smack his lips together and watch us intently while we eat - it's a crackup! I think he'll be more than ready in September! My supply will most likely take a dip once we start that, so I have been very diligent to stock up a backup in the freezer.

I started with some bananas that were close to being too ripe to eat. I usually let them turn pretty dark and then use them for banana bread, but I'll now be buying extras so I can use them to mash up and freeze for Jasper. Even though bananas are fairly easy to keep on hand, and certainly very easy to mash up for a quick meal, I learned with Harper that it's always great to have something in the freezer for those times when you're out of something fresh!

Here's a picture of one shelf in our freezer. As you can see, we're quickly outgrowing the space that's been dedicated to the frozen breastmilk and baby food. I date the freezer bags and use the oldest ones first when making the bottles on Sunday night, which so far has been the only times I've had to use the frozen stuff, since I freeze everything I pump and have left over from Thursday and Fridays so that it doesn't go bad by Monday. Man, a stand alone freezer would really come in handy!

About a week ago, I found a great deal on some huge sweet potatoes. I think my eyes were bigger than my freezer, and I bought about 6 of these ginormous beasts. I finally got to cook them this past weekend. I took some pics below to remember just how much there was!

This picture does not do their size justice.

Peeling potatoes is one of the most mundane things I can think of doing. Steaming the potatoes is certainly an option, but if I bake them in foil, they peel incredibly easily once they're cool enough. Score!! No peeling!

My mini food processer would only fit one potato at a time. What a pain!

I've had to freeze them in 3 different groups, since I only have 3 covered ice cube trays. Jasper will be having sweet potatoes for a looooong time to come!

And there we are! My first foray into cooking for our little guy. I probably won't be documenting every time, but as I've said time and time again, I use this blog as a type of memory book. I am definitely going to commemorate every new food he gets just like I did with Harper. Butternut squash will be another definite, just like it was with Harper, and we'll take it from there!

Playing

2010-07-28T18:22:00.001-07:00

July 2010 113, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

Here's a great example of how Harper loves to "play" with her brother. First she's trying to roll him over, then she's upset that his hand got stuck on her shirt. You notice as she's hugging him, that she keeps looking at me to make sure what she is doing is okay. She pats a little hard sometimes, but she's getting better. As you can see toward the end, Jasper isn't always amused with her -- though she does get him to laugh a lot most other times. :)

Reading

2010-07-18T20:06:00.001-07:00

July 2010 115, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

Harper reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Jasper.

Sugar and Spice

2010-07-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Our sweet 2 year old girl. Oh, how we love her. Yes, life these days is absolutely crazy. However, I am soooo thankful for our little girl and how mature she becomes each day. She's always been incredibly loving to her little brother. She's always asking to hug or kiss him, and it absolutely makes her day when she gets to hold him. She's fantastic about helping out with whatever we ask her to do. Thankfully she thinks throwing away diapers is a huge privilege! Just the past few weeks, I've realized how she is gradually becoming more flexible to stretching past naptimes and traveling different places. What a blessing this is!!

In fact, she is so helpful, sometimes it is to a fault. Today I was trying to get Jasper to go to sleep and she kept bringing me things to "help". His blanket (which I didn't need), a pacifier (which I also didn't need) a bedtime story. It was all so very cute, it was all I could do but laugh and thank her for her thoughtfulness.

We are trying to instill great manners into our kids, and I am so proud to hear "Thank You" and "Please" all the time, mostly without us having to remind her. We are currently working on "Yes Sir" and "Yes Ma'am" whenever we ask her to do something. Obviously this is going to take some time, as she is definitely a stubborn 2 year old, and never is that more apparent when she really doesn't want to do something.

We've learned lately that she is rather quiet at school. We find this hard to believe since we know how she is at home - most of the time we can't get her to be quiet! I suppose I'm glad to know she's not the class clown or the one causing trouble. I'm definitely glad to have her be the quiet one. It will be interesting to see if this changes over time. She's about to move into the PreSchool class. I'm glad for the change. Most of her friends from when she first started going to school are already in that class, and they said they really focus on trying to get the kids potty-trained if they're not already. She's doing great at home, however she rarely successfully goes on the potty at school.

This picture below is a perfect example of her stubborn side. I had just come out of Jasper's room from putting him down and she popped around the corner with his bib on. It made me giggle, and I asked to take a picture of her. The expression should give a good indication of how she felt about that.

We love to laugh at how messy she is -- even when it seems there's little to be messy about! (Though after we're done laughing, we are incredulous at how we're always cleaning her from head to toe!) The other day Jon gave her a tiny piece of chocolate chip banana bread. You would've thought she was eating a chocolate mud pie or something, with how she managed to get it all over her face and hands.

Here she is eating some chocolate pudding. I've been keeping it on hand to satisfy the late-night sweet tooth I have. I make it with skim milk, so I figure it's fine to let her enjoy it too. We don't give her many desserts yet so this is quite a treat.

A couple of our friends came over and brought us some cupcakes. We saved one for Harper the next evening after dinner. She pretty much just wanted the icing, and I was happy to get a cute picture from it.

We love our sweet girl and are enjoying all the giggles, spontaneous songs, and unrequested hugs she gives us. What an amazingly adorable little girl God has blessed us with!

Baby's First 4th

2010-07-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

Jasper was excited about celebrating his first 4th of July.

Harper was excited to take a picture with her brother because she looooves to hug him.

I was excited to actually get a picture with Harper smiling.

Just for fun, here is a picture of Harper on her first 4th of July.

Here is Jasper wearing the same shirt. He's 3 weeks older on the 4th than Harper was, yet the shirt seems to be quite a bit more snug on him. ;)

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

Father's Day was a fun event this year. Harper wound up sick (yet AGAIN!) on the Friday before, so all day Saturday was spent chilling at home, letting her rest. We were supposed to go out to lunch that day, but decided to postpone. She was feeling well enough to go for a visit on Sunday so we could give Papa his presents.

Daddy and his kiddos.

Three generations of Hanes men. (And Papa wearing one of his presents!)

Not a great picture since you can't see either of their faces, but I just love Harper's cute curly ponytail!

We did get to take Papa and Nana out to a belated Father's Day dinner this past Saturday, and it was super yummy and the kids were (almost) perfect angels! :)

I got Harper a play golf set as Jon's Father's Day gift from her. I knew it would be a time of mutual fun for them. Jon's gift from me came a few days late -- lots of MEAT from Omaha Steaks. :)

Happy Father's Day, 2010!

Sharing Siblings

2010-06-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Harper snuck over to Jasper while he was getting some stretching floor time and snagged the tag on the corner to suck her thumb with. She loves tags (she finds them on ANYTHING!) and she usually only sucks her thumb when she's tired or scared.

I glanced over and saw this, and found it to be a shining example how well they can share. :)

Sharing Siblings, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

Splash Pad Video

2010-06-13T11:11:00.001-07:00

June 2010 036, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

Splash Pad

2010-06-12T19:07:00.001-07:00

Today was a busy Saturday for us. We are finally all relatively healthy (again), which was a relief because we had 2 birthday parties to go to! The first party was at a brand new splash pad that just opened nearby. Splash pads are great because they allow your kids to run around and play in the water, but there's no worry of them not knowing how to swim because there are no pools. I am so excited to know it's here!

It's no secret Harper loves the water, so she had a wonderful time gettin' wet. She finally got to wear the adorable polka dot suit and matching hat Nana got her for her birthday. Jon had to work, so I was by myself with both kids at the party, which limited my ability to get in and play with her since I had Jasper slung around me. She was a little hesitant at first, kind of staying at the little fountains for a while. But eventually she worked up the nerve to get more wet and make her way to the "middle" where there's a big orange wheel to turn. I took the video when she got brave enough to make it to the wheel. It was so cute. I look forward to going back!

Our second birthday party was at a local climb and bounce play area. It was absolutely crazy in there with so many kids! Harper got good and tuckered out and loved it there too. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera in with me :( But here's the pics from the fun in the water.

Gabba Love

2010-06-10T20:06:00.003-07:00

May 2010 049, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

Fun Stuff with Harper

2010-06-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to my (new) company's annual picnic. It was blazing hot unfortunately, but we managed to stick around for a while before calling it a day. The best part of the day, according to Harper, was the petting zoo. She was a little timid around some of the animals, and didn't want any of them eating out of her hand, though Daddy was trying to show her how it was done:

She loved how soft the bunnies were:

There were tons of animals, as you can see. Harper mostly liked looking at the little goats and pigs. In fact, she got so involved in only looking at the smaller animals that she was caught totally off-guard when a donkey walked right up to her. She looked up, and it startled her so much, she fell backwards and didn't want to go near it again.

One of the little goats tried to eat her dress! Thank goodness Daddy was right there to save it.

I was folding laundry, and as Harper loves to do, she was helping me "fluff" each item of clothing. For some reason, she took one of Daddy's pair of athletic shorts and put it around her shoulders. It gave me a good giggle, and I had to snap a picture of her "cape".

Last weekend we were all healthy enough to get out and about. Saturday we went to KellerFest and had a good time seeing friends and going on rides. It was absolutely boiling out there though, and Mommy forgot the camera. boo! She went on her first Ferris Wheel ride and seemed to enjoy it more as the ride went on and she could wave at Mommy.

Sunday we blew up an inflatable pool for her to play in. She jumped right in even though the water was fairly chilly since it was straight from the hose. She absolutely loved every moment of it, and we'll be keeping the pool ready to go all summer long for what I'm sure will be hours of entertainment.

Hippo Friend

2010-06-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we have to improvise at our house. Having two kids means you never have enough arms and hands to take care of everything. You find multiple uses for everyday things and you get creative.

Which means Jasper often hangs out in the bathroom sink while Harper gets a bath.

Yes, it's true. I use the sink as a creative baby holder. He seems like to like it just fine. And he's recently made a new friend while hanging out in the sink. Since Harper has been potty training, I got her her very own special soap to use to wash her hands. It's a hippo and the nose blinks for 20 seconds to signal how long you should scrub for.

Jasper thinks Mr. Hippo is a pretty interesting looking fellow, and loves to stare and smile at him. Mommy thinks this is great as it keeps him entertained while getting his sister clean. It's a win/win!

Mimi!

2010-05-31T18:34:00.001-07:00

Continuing my trend of being about a month late on posting... Mimi came to visit!!! It was so great to have her here. Well, it wasn't great. It was FABULOUS! All of us absolutely loved the time we had with her. As usual, we ate a lot, we visited a lot, and Harper and Mimi PLAYED A LOT! Harper was thrilled to have someone's (almost) undivided attention, it was too cute. Jon and I were thrilled to have our third player for Hand and Foot. And Jasper was so excited to finally meet his Mimi. We loved it!!

Everyone was clamoring for Mimi's attention!

We went with Mimi to the MayFest in Downtown Fort Worth. They didn't have too many things for kids Harper's age to do. But it will definitely be more fun in a couple years. We made the most of it and Mimi got to see how much fun Harper has in bounce houses. She got a kick (as we all do) out of Harper's reckless abandon and the giggles that come from her as she throws herself around in there and has not a care in the world. Such fun!

Daddy's the Champion Burper.

We took a little trip up to Decatur to see Aunt Nancy because we love her antiques shop so much. Lucky for us Cousin Diesel was visiting for the day! Uncle Eddie also stopped by, so it was a great visit. We walked around the small town square and went into the children's clothing shop we had gone into when Harper was about Jasper's size. They had some really cute bows, so Mimi got Harper all stocked up since her hair is finally long enough for them to look good. :)

Harper was a bit of a pill here and didn't want to pose for this picture. But Diesel is so stinkin' cute, I had to include it!

Here we are on Mimi's last day with us. Harper is sporting the adorable outfit Mimi bought her, along with one of her new bows. Oh, and here's my new hair!

So cute!

Here's Mimi saying goodbye to Sarge. He might miss her the most when she's gone. When she first walked in the door, he had so much to tell her! He barked and whined about all that had happened since he had last seen her. It was pretty cute, but pretty pathetic at the same time. We were sure he was telling her that we had brought home another one of those little crying creatures, so now we had even less time for him! Mimi always gives him great massages and he turns into a little puddle for her.

We rented a minivan for Mimi's visit since our car only holds 4 people. It was a fun treat and Jon and I were both surprised at how well it drove. We both knew we would probably really like it, and we were right. I think a minivan will definitely be the next car we get. I can't believe I just wrote that!

When we dropped Mimi off, we all had a hard time saying goodbye. However none more so than Harper. We were telling her that we were taking Mimi to the airport and she was going home, but once Mimi got out of the car, the big, giant tears came and she didn't want her to leave. It made all of us tear up and made saying goodbye that much tougher!! We cant wait for her to come back. And we hope she brings Poppy with her too!

We love you Mimi!!

What We've Been Up To

2010-05-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

Posts like these are going to become more the norm rather than the exception I think. I went back to work on May 7th (boo!) so time has been very hard to come by. I went back to a new company, a new job, a new position and a new location! Needless to say, all of this on top of Jasper sleeping in 3-5 hour stretches, and a bad case of Mommy Brain, I'm having a hard time making time!

Here's a quick rundown of us!

Right before I went back to work, we tried to do a few little fun things with Harper. We took her to Sonic and let her get her first slush. She absolutely loved it. The whole way home she kept saying "yummy" and "thank you!". It was too cute.

Daddy is a much more fun bath giver than Mommy.

Daddy has also been spending quality time with Jasper.

I've found a great banana bread recipe and have been making lots of it.

I decided to cut my hair off and donate it to Locks of Love. Hopefully some children will get some good use out of it.

And... I'm still taking lots of pics of this adorable little guy.

Unfortunately Harper and I have been sick for over a week now, and it's spread to Jon and Jasper. It's her first ear infection and the first time on antibiotics for her, and it's my first time on antibiotics in probably 15 years to treat a sinus infection. We're on the mend finally, so hoepfully we can get the rest of the family well.

Jasper's 2 month appointment

2010-05-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

Jasper had his 2-month appointment on May 10th. It was my second day back to work, but I really wanted to be there so I could hear what the doctor said and ask the questions I had. So I met Daddy at the Pediatrician and took a long lunch. It's tough squeezing it all in sometimes!

Here are his stats:

Weight: 12lbs, 11oz (75%)

Height: 22 3/4 inches (50%)

We were all amazed at the weight he had put on (3lbs, 3oz in 1 month!), but more amazed at his growth - 3 inches in 6 weeks! Crazy!

He's been holding his head up well since he was in the NICU, so he passed that milestone with flying colors. I'm not sure the doctor believed us when we said he rolled from tummy to back at 7 weeks, 1 day. So needless to say, he's doing unbelievably well. We are so proud of his amazing progress!!

Harper's 2 year appointment

2010-05-19T18:15:00.001-07:00

Nevermind that I'm over a month delayed in posting this. The point is that I'm posting it!!

We took Harper to her 2-month appointment on April 6th. She doesn't have the best track record at the Doctor's office, and tends to freak out when the nurses or anyone else touches her to take her temp, or even to get her on the scale. Jon and I tried to prep her well in advance, telling her what was going to happen, and that everything was going to be great. To our joy, she was awesome!! She stood on the scale like a big girl and sat calmly while the doctor checked her out. What a relief! Harper's stats at her 2 year appointment were as follows:

Weight: 31 lbs (75th%)

Height: 35 1/2 inches (90th%)

Of course her doctor was very pleased with how she's doing. She commented that she's finally growing hair, and we have to agree! Jon remarked that she's exactly half of our heights! Crazy to think that.

The doc said they look for about 12 words at this age. Jon and I looked at each other amazed because we think she says about 200, let alone the sentences she's putting together. She reassured us that some of the words she pronounces wrong consistently (instead of "cup" she says "puh") is totally normal and it's just her figuring out pronounciation. We got the go ahead to give her 2% milk now, which we were happy about.

The best part of the appointment was -- no shots!!! Woohoo!

We are so proud of her and how well she's growing and developing. It's amazing to know how far she's come. We are so blessed!

2 year/7 week pictures

2010-04-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took the kids to get their portraits done. We had Harper get her two year pictures taken and they were Jasper's first professional pics on his 7 week birthday.

I was a little nervous about taking a temperamental 2-year old and an unpredictable 7 week old and trying to get a shot. But I was happily surprised at how well it went! We tried to get a picture with the two of them at the beginning, but Harper wasn't having any of it. After trying for several minutes and her not cooperating, we decided to go ahead and capture Jasper since he was in such a good mood. After she saw him do it, she was much more willing to participate, so we were able to get some really sweet pics.

Here's the results. I also posted a picture of Harper at her 7-week shoot at the bottom to compare she and Jasper at exact ages.

What We've Been Up To

2010-04-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the 70th birthday of this guy...

Happy 70th Birthday Papa!

Harper rode a train...

Harper and Mommy went on a lunch date while Nana spent some time with Jasper...

We shared an ice cream sundae...

I've been enjoying this curly/wavy hair she got from me (since she didn't get much else!)...

And I've been taking lots of pictures of this little man...

And finally...

I got a smile... and captured it.

Life is good!

Big Sister

2010-04-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Harper as a big sister has been a welcomed surprise. She has taken to Jasper immediately and absolutely loves him. All of my fears of her being jealous have not been realized-- yet, at least. I allow her to be involved and help out as much as possible. She loves to fetch diapers and throw dirty ones away. She pulls a chair over to observe his baths closely and loves to try to comfort him when he's crying. We're obviously being careful to not let her go too far, but not restricting her access to him. It's a fine line sometimes, but I think we're all doing well with the adjustment.

She absolutely loves it when she gets to "hold" him. Here she is telling Mommy to "shhh" because the baby is asleep.

She felt Jasper needed a blanket since he was sleeping. This is obviously where Mommy steps in so as to make sure she didn't smother him! :)

Harper has a type of greeting and farewell she does where she bumps elbows. Here she is giving brother "elbows". I suppose he's been inducted!

The only sign of jealousy has been when Daddy holds Jasper, which is interesting to us. This is a picture of one of those times where she wanted to be held by Daddy as he was cradling Jasper. Thankfully Daddy was happy to oblige.