12 in 2014: January

Harper is almost 16 months old and she’s been really enjoying playing in our new house – particularly the carpeted playroom! After living in a house with concrete floors, carpet is a luxury for her (and me!) We can roll around and lie on the floor and play!

I had my camera on and asked her to sit for a picture and you won’t believe what she did! She sat down and smiled right up at me. Multiple times! I was amazed! This is a great new development!

a midwest christmas for a texas girl

I’m quite late with my Christmas post, but for good reason. We had a whirlwind holiday! We packed up our whole house, traveled to IL for 10 days, and promptly moved out and into our new house the day after we returned. I’ve just now gotten internet hooked up and dug myself out of a sea of boxes. It takes a lot longer to unpack and return to normal life when you have a toddler who insists on climbing on everything all day long.

Because we were traveling at Christmas, we gave Harper a few gifts a week early so we wouldn’t have to bring them with us. Her favorite among them was a surprise gift from her daddy – Elmo.

Despite the exhaustion and logistics of planning a move during the holidays while simultaneously packing for a trip, we were really glad to get to IL and have some fun family time. We were lucky enough to see both my family and husband’s family all in one trip. We spent the first part of the holiday at my mom’s house and the second part of the holiday at Drew’s mom’s house. And both of Harper’s grandpas traveled in to see us too! Harper really loved having family around when she woke up every morning and was spoiled by her grandparents and aunts and uncles. It made me a bit sad that Harper doesn’t get to spend more time with family who love her, but we’re hoping for lots of visitors to Texas!

Harper got to see and play in snow for the first time! Naturally, she was not a fan. So we didn’t stay outside for long. Just long enough to get some use out of the snowsuit that she won’t ever need again.

This holiday was special for another reason – we got to be there for my niece’s first Christmas! Little Avery is getting big and sitting up and smiling so easily now! I mean, you just looked at her and she’d grin up at you instantly!

I think this little munchkin might have just been teething too! Her first tooth came shortly after!

Cousins and besties!

Harper wasn’t a huge fan of the annual santa hat picture.

But she was a fan of Uncle Chris!

Of course we had to get the girls matching x-mas jammies.