4th of July 2015

Drew’s sister, brother-in-law, dad and nephew Augie came to visit for his birthday and the 4th of July. It was Augie’s and Finn’s first 4th and our first time meeting Augie. The boys are just 2 months apart and already fast friends!

Augie’s hand on Finn’s thigh kills me.

We walked to the neighborhood pool for Finn’s first swim.

The water was a bit cool that morning. I’d say Finn didn’t like it or dislike it.

But he was happy to dry off and relax.

We went to the local coffeehouse/brewhouse on Drew’s birthday.

We spent a lot of time outside on the new patio.

We had a yummy carrot cake for Drew’s birthday.

On the 4th, I tried to get pictues of my kiddos holding flags, but they were too distracted by them to look at the camera. Harper tried to get Finn to wave his flag.

And we got pictures of the boys together in their matching outfits.

Little bandits!

What a fun weekend with family!

Visitors to Texas and an early Thanksgiving

My family descended upon Texas during the recent arctic blast (although I guess it still felt warm to those northerners) to celebrate my brother’s birthday and an early Thanksgiving. We still had fun even though we stayed indoors most of the weekend. Of course, the main attraction was seeing the two cousins together again. The evening they arrived, Harper was painfully shy and wouldn’t make eye contact for a while, even though she talked for weeks about Avery coming to visit. But she warmed up, like she always does.

We took the girls to the children’s museum and they loved it! We had to drag them out of there to grab lunch before their inevitable crash nap in the car. And they looked adorable in their matching outfits from Gramoo!

We couldn’t get enough of their hugging, so we asked them to hug many times that weekend.

My mom loved having both of her granddaughters together.

And Avery practiced her serious pose.

I think Avery’s favorite part of the visit was chasing Maeby and trying to lay on her.

Best friends!

The girls loved having their Uncle Chris to entertain them with shoulder rides and laundry basket rides.

We prepared a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and while the turkey was cooking, the girls took a wagon ride around the neighborhood and played with play-doh.

After dinner, we put the girls to work cleaning up the kitchen.

Towards the end of their visit, it started to warm up a bit and the girls got some backyard playtime with Mamie.

We were sad to see them go and for a few days after they left, Harper kept asking about Avery. We’ll see them again next year once baby brother is born!!

a cousin’s wedding in nashville

A few weeks ago we met most of my immediate and extended family in Nashville for my cousin Kelley’s wedding. It was the first time my extended family got to meet Harper and my sister’s daughter Avery.

Our first stop was the Nashville zoo where we met my Aunt Lynn and cousin Sara and her kids. The girls loved it! Such a pretty and natural zoo.

Me and my cousin Sara are both due a few weeks apart!

My sister and her husband and daughter, Avery.

The girls are checking out the giraffes!

My dad and brother

Me and my niece

Grandpa and his granddaughters!

Checking out the camels

Needless to say, the girls were tuckered out!

The girls played on the playground for a while before we went to the rehearsal dinner.

The next day we walked around Centennial Park with the girls in matching shirts – oh the cuteness!

The girls with Gramoo Julie!

Later that evening we put on our dresses and went to the wedding! The girls had fun and were pretty well behaved – luckily the ceremony was short!

The gorgeous bride and her father (Uncle Jim)!

Then we took a few more pics before heading to the reception.

Harper was so excited to get dolled up in her dress, bracelet, necklace and sparkly shoes!

Lisa and her mini-me!

Then the real fun began – the girls tore up the dance floor!

We did some spinning and Avery and her daddy did some dancing too!

Where’s Avie?

Here I am!

OMG I’m having so much fun!!

The girls got to meet Great-Grandmother for the first time!

Here’s my dad with his six siblings and parents – the whole crew!

Cutting the cake

The next morning the whole family met for breakfast.

Grandpa and Gramoo graciously offered to rush through their dinner so they could take the girls back to the hotel for bed so we could stay and enjoy the reception. And when we left, we got back to the hotel and I realized I left my phone at the reception! I blame the pregnancy brain! Luckily, my Uncle Jim grabbed it and brought it to me the next morning!

It was a fantastic weekend seeing family I hadn’t seen in years! We had a late flight back that night and got home around 1am. The next day was Harper’s 2nd birthday! So we took the day off and had a fun family day – stay tuned for pictures!

fourth of july trip to missouri

We made our way back to Missouri again for the 4th of July this year to see lots of Drew’s family. We basically replicated our trip from last year – except this year Harper was running around and playing and swinging. Lots of swinging.

She swung with Great Grandma and ran around.

And we got to meet our nephew, Ulysses, for the first time! What a doll he is!

Harper loved playing at Uncle Don and Aunt Deb’s with Devyn and Audrey – 2 of the many second cousins that are closest to her age.

“No pictures! I’m too busy playing!”

Harper wanted to swing on her tummy just like Devyn.

The girls played in the cows’ water trough. The cows weren’t thrilled. 🙂

Exploring in Aunt Deb’s garden.

The girls loved jumping on the trampoline!

On the 4th, we went to a party at Drew’s cousin’s house where we had some awesome cousin-made barbeque! All Harper wanted to do the whole evening was swing, swing, swing.

She also loved playing the bags game.

Before we left, I grabbed some quick pics of my cutie patootie nephew!

Thanks for hosting us again this year, Great Grandpa and Great Grandma!

father’s day weekend with grandpa

My dad and his wife Julie came to visit for Father’s Day weekend and Harper had such a great time despite feeling under the weather. Teething again. We went to the pool and Harper jumped off the side of the pool into my arms for the first time! That girl is fearless. We toured a cave – the 5th largest cave in Texas just happens to be up the street from us. We had fun running around at a local winery too and went out for barbecue.

avery’s first birthday

I recently traveled to New York for my niece’s first birthday. I left Harper at home with daddy and flew by myself! What a treat! Everyone, including me, missed having Harper there, but I was happy to have time to devote to my little niece! (The girls get to see each other in September, so we’re looking forward to that!)

Her party was in Prospect Park in Brooklyn on a beautiful day. Avery had so much fun!

Avery didn’t know what to make of her cupcake at first, but after a little taste she was not shy about helping herself!

The next day we had fun in the park before I had to head back home.

two girls at the park

My mom, sister and niece recently visited for a nice relaxing girls weekend. We had some good weather for part of the weekend, so we spent some time at the park. Avery and Harper had a great time playing together!

What a doll my little niece is! Harper and her will be BFF’s! I so wanted to keep her here, but I’ll get to see her in a few months in NY for her 1st birthday!

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.

harper’s 1st birthday polka dot party

We traveled back to IL a few weeks ago for Drew’s brother’s wedding and thought it would be a great opportunity to throw Harper a 1st birthday party while family was in town. We had the party at my mom’s house (where I’ve had all my parties – bridal shower, baby shower.) My sister, brother-in-law and cute niece came from New York just for the occasion!

I decided to do a polka dot theme – simple enough to tie the decorations together. I ordered a custom polka dot dress on Etsy for the guest of honor. Drew and I had to wear polka dots too!

My sister, mom and brothers helped decorate while we were busy with wedding festivities.

Of course with all the photos I’ve taken of this girl in the past 12 months – I had to highlight a few!

The decorations looked great, the food looked delicious and the birthday girl looked adorable in her polka dot dress. Everyone was ready to party…except Harper. Sadly, she had come down with a fever the night before (while at the wedding…) and was quite out of sorts the whole weekend. (She ended up having a high fever for 4 days straight, a rash from the fever, an ear infection and a molar poke through a few days later. Needless to say, it made flying home the next day pretty unbearable.) So Harper was not in the mood to be around a big group of people, but we tried to keep her comfortable and happy.

Snuggles from Mamie always help!

Hanging out with Aunt Lisa and cousin Avery!

Time to sing Happy Birthday and blow out her candle!

She didn’t want to have anything to do with smashing a cake. “What’s a cake? Why are you putting this thing in front of me? Why’s everyone looking at me?” I stuck her finger in the frosting and she did not like that one bit.

I tried to get her to have a little taste. It’s good I promise!

“Hmmm this isn’t so bad.”

After that she perked up a little bit.

Spinning around on daddy’s shoulders helped too.

So the smash cake didn’t get smashed. It barely got touched. But that’s ok – it was fun to try!

Then we went outside and played with bubbles.

It was fun to see friends and family and for them to finally meet Harper – even though she was scared of almost everyone. That’s life with a baby – you never know what to expect and you just gotta go with the flow. Thanks to my family for hosting and helping with the party! Harper is lucky to have some many people love her!

harper’s first vacation

On Drew’s birthday, the day before the 4th of July, we boarded a plane for Harper’s first flight, first vacation, and first time meeting a lot of the extended family. She did pretty awesome on the flight – she slept the first leg (and holding her made my arm go numb) and charmed everyone. She even waved to another baby for the first time!

We stayed at Great Grandpa and Great Grandma’s house – which is a fun place to visit for a little one. Lots to do and very scenic. Harper loved all the new toys to play with, all the birds chirping, and all the new people from whom to get cheek kisses. She experienced a big puppy for the first time (their yellow lab was the most well behaved lab I’ve ever seen.) And ate homemade food from Great Grandma’s garden!

Kisses from Gram!

Hanging with Aunt Kari!

On the 4th, we went to Drew’s cousin’s house and hung out with a bunch of his cousins and their kids. Harper loved watching all the big kids scurry around.

Kisses from Great Grandma!

Hanging with Uncle Brett!

Watching Great Grandma pick vegetables from her garden.

Hanging out at Drew’s aunt and uncle’s – enjoying the nice weather!

Listening to all the birds chirp on the dock.

Snuggles with Great Grandpa.

Harper met Audrey (Drew’s cousin Annie’s daughter who is a month older)! We had our family baby shower together last summer!

Then we went swimming and Harper fell asleep on the way. At least that made it easier to lather her with sunscreen.

The family also threw a wedding shower for Kyle and Brittany and baby shower for Drew’s cousin Aaron and Chrissy. With this size family, there are showers of some kind every summer and it’s best to combine them! Harper got to meet some more aunts, uncles and cousins!

Hanging out with Grandpa!

Snuggles with Uncle Kyle!

Harper sharing her daddy’s lap with Audrey!

Harper has the best daddy!