February 2012

February was full of so much fun for us!!!  Here is a quick recap with lots of pictures! 

Jon took Harper to Chick-fil-A for their Daddy/Daughter Date Night.  She was sooo excited and he even took her for ice cream afterwards.  She got blue (her favorite color) and her entire mouth was still blue by the time they got home. 

Harper discovered she could pick Jasper up easily.  You can't tell from this picture, but they both think it's hilarious.  She had better take advantage now while he's still smaller than her. 

We went to a fun birthday party at a gymnastics facility.  Jasper didn't so much enjoy being in the pit of blocks, but he did enjoy stacking them. 

Jon and I went on a date night!!!

Jasper and Daddy are roaring like lions with Jasper wrapped in his lion towel.

Jasper stuck this red sticker on his nose on the way home from school.  He thought it was so cool, he left it there for hours.  Then he put on his sister's headband and played with his toy car.  Our silly kid!

We went to the kids school to attend their Valentine's Day party.  Here is Harper enjoying her treats in class.

Harper helped me make cupcakes for Nana's birthday and was sooo excited.

The next morning Jasper and Harper helped decorate them.

We took a day trip down to Dinosaur World in Glen Rose, TX.  It was a bit underwhelming, but we are glad we checked it out for ourselves.

Harper and Jasper reading books they got from Chick-fil-A. 



January 2012

(I took several pictures with my cell phone in Jan which explains the poor quality of some of them)

In January Jasper liked to show off his superb kissy face...

.. As well as his impeccable style.

I enlisted the help of the kids and one of their Christmas presents.  It turns out shopping carts make great laundry transporters! 

Harper chose a hat she loved.  It went great with her little poncho. 

In January Harper started helping Daddy make me breakfast.  She absolutely LOVES it and feels so big when he lets her get my sandwich ready.

We went to a birthday party for one of Harper's classmates and I snapped this picture on a yellow wall of my two guys.



December 2011

December brought a ton of fun!  I had my company's holiday party and we made a date night out of it.  I had never spent the night away from the kids, but we planned it so they could stay the night at Nana and Papa's house and Daddy and I stayed the night at the hotel.  It was great!  And just down the street from their house in case anything came up, which was great for this mommy's peace of mind.  We had a wonderful time and so did the kids.

We celebrated Daddy's birthday by going out to dinner in Southlake then walking around afterwards.  Dinner was yummy and I got the sweetest picture of the Birthday Boy and his baby girl.  It was verrrry cold that night so we bundled up and enjoyed taking in the sights.  We attempted visiting Santa, but the kids were having none of it (fine by us!).  We visited with the horses pulling the carriages and enjoyed looking at the fountains.  At one point, we walked by a couple just getting engaged!!  I butted in on the special moment, offering to take a picture for them to remember by.  I think (I hope!) they were happy about it and not annoyed. 

We helped out with distributing toys to children in a lower income area.  We are always looking for ways to teach the kids about serving others as Jesus did, and to be thankful for all the blessings we have.  Prior to the event, I was able to snap this picture which I used on our Christmas card.

I managed to squeeze Jasper into the Max pj's that Mimi got for Harper before she was born.  He loved them!

We each made our own little Christmas trees as a family craft on Christmas Eve.  Everyone enjoyed them!  In December Harper developed a rash that was a bit concerning for her doctors.  We had blood work done but thankfully everything came back normal.  It's still a bit of a mystery, though there are several theories about what caused it.  We probably won't ever know, and she might just always be our little mystery girl.

Christmas Day was a blast.  The kids opened their stockings then Nana and Papa got to our house shortly after that.  We opened presents, ate lots of food and played and played.  Here is a picture of the disaster the living room soon became, as well as the tower Daddy helped the kids make with Harper's new blocks.  They got so much stuff, we ended up converting the office into a playroom later that day.  The day after that, we went to Ikea for goodies to put finishing touches on the room.  It's been fun to have a room designated for all their toys! 



November 2011

In November, Jasper started wearing his Gabba pajamas I had gotten him a while back on clearance.  Here he is sound asleep with Brobee on one side and his Gabba blanket on the other.

The kids had their school pictures taken in November.  I thought they looked adorable in the morning, each in their own cute outfit.  However when I dropped them off, someone mentioned sibling pictures.  I was horrified because I had dressed Harper in brown and pink polka dots and Jasper in blue and black plaid.  They couldn't be more clashing if I tried!  The school pictures tend to be a little on the pricey side, so I decided to let it go and hope the pictures turned out horribly so I wouldn't feel like I had to purchase them.  Well.. a few weeks later I found out how ADORABLY PERFECT they turned out and ended up buying the electronic proof.  Oh well. :)

We went to the Thanksgiving celebrations at the kids school.  It's always fun seeing them in their daily element, interacting with other kids their age. 

We helped Nana and Papa celebrate 41 years of marriage.  It was a fun night at a nice restaurant with Karyn, Craig, Eddie and Nancy.

We had Thanksgiving at our house and had a really yummy meal. We were so thankful for all of the blessings we have! 

October 2011

After our family vacation, October was a fun month for us.  We didn't have any means of watching TV at the time, so we missed watching most of the World Series where the Rangers were playing for the second year in a row.  They ultimately lost (again!), but we enjoyed listening to it the "old fashioned way" on the radio.  By the end of the month, we figured out how to get better reception via the TV antenna by putting it in the attic.  Though we had survived fine without TV at all for 4 months, it was fun to have it back again. This time without any extra channels and no DVR.  And free! 

After our horribly hot and dry summer, Texas was really needing the rain.  We had some crazy storm clouds out in the distance from our backyard.  Daddy started doing a rain dance to get the rain to come, and here are the kids doing their version. 

We went back to the pumpkin patch again!  It was a bit muddier this time (thanks to the above-mentioned rain!) but the kids still enjoyed it.  This year they had a new set of cut-outs - Gabba!  This made both kids very excited.  I was also very excited to get their pictures taken at the same spot again so we could see how much they've grown.  That was so fun.

I celebrated my 33rd birthday.  Jon got me my favorite: an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins.  Though I told him I could do without that from now on - they are too expensive for the amount of ice cream you get and I'd rather just have a tub!  I got some cute pics with the kids and they really enjoyed the cake. 

Soon Halloween came and the kids (and Sarge) dressed in their costumes as a theme for the second year in a row.  I insist on doing this with them for as long as I can, ie: until they are old enough to protest.  Harper was a cute pink pirate and Jasper was her parrot!  Sarge was also a pirate - with a parrot in his hat!  Harper loved wearing the eye patch, which she did really great with.  She loved everything about her costume, especially saying "arrrrrgghhh! I'm looking for my treasure!"  Jasper also loved his costume, but I never could get him to make parrot sounds very well.  He walked around flapping his wings very happily.  We took them trick or treating to a few houses around the neighborhood, but the kids were tired and didn't last long.  We made our annual stop at our friend and neighbors Roger and Ann.  A few months prior they adopted a pot bellied pig.... and named him Jasper!!  So Jasper the boy finally got to meet Jasper the pig.  Neither one really knew what to make of the other, but I was very happy to get a picture of them together.

Family Vacation 2011

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

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.