A peak into the future

Choke holds...

and lots of "she did it"s

On a more serious note...
Our sweet Harper turned 6 months old on Wednesday. Where does the time go? It seems like we just brought her home last week. She still is the happy, smiley baby that she has always been. She's rolling over, sitting up unassisted (but not unsupervised) for short periods of time, and spends lots of time on her tummy. She's eating 4-5 times a day plus has tried rice cereal and peas (which she is not too fond of!). Harper is typically a good sleeper at night, waking up occasionally in search of the paci. She's usually down around 8pm and will sleep or be content for a good 12 hours. Daytime naps are unpredictable, which I'll take the blame for. We are usually out and about in the mornings so the morning nap tends to occur briefly in the car. My goal is always to get Harper and Hadleigh napping at the same time in the afternoon. It happens more times than not, but again, is unpredictable. Harper loves to be held and can be a little demanding of it sometimes. She thinks Hadleigh is the funniest person ever. She will crack herself up whenever Hadleigh pays any attention to her.
A little over 6 months ago I was petrified of how I was going to manage with two kids. All I can say is God never gives you more than you can handle and we are so blessed to have our girls. The joy they bring into our lives each day is immeasurable.

Talkin' a big game

Hadleigh loves to talk a big game! All week we'd been talking about riding a pony and sitting on Santa's lap and Hadleigh was rearing to go...no qualms about it. That is, until it was go time. Friday we braved the frigid weather to see the lights downtown and give Hadleigh the pony ride she had been so excited for. She was fantastic until she realized she was going to have to actually get on. Once she finally did though, everything was perfect and she enjoyed her first pony ride.
Saturday we had Breakfast with Santa and then an event at church. The girls got to sit on Santa's lap, make reindeer food, decorate cookies, make a Nativity scene, and other fun activities. One of our girls enjoyed her Santa experience, one not so much...I'll let the pictures tell the story.
Enjoying her first candy cane and the lights

Before she made it on the pony. She's got me by a death grip!

She quickly became a pro-pony riderHarper enjoying all the activity from the warmth and comfort of her stroller.

"Bring on this Santa guy, I'm ready!"

Reunited with our long-lost blogger friend Payton. What a fun surprise!"I'm ready for Santa, too. No big deal...bring on the lap."
"Just kidding. How about we wait til next year.""Are we done yet?"

Her "cheese" face as she's showing off her reindeer food and picture frame. I can't get her to keep her eyes open when she's getting her picture taken.Another squinty-eyed shot with her Nativity scene.

Eyes open, wrong camera!

Fun times this Fall

I know I'm way behind on my blogging, so I'm just going to post lots of pics as a recap of the last month. It has been a busy one, hence the lack of blogging! The most exciting news, however, is that Hadleigh is diaper-free!!! It was so much easier than I ever imagined. In fact, we really didn't do much except stop putting her in diapers. She was obviously ready since she has never looked back. I have to say that I selfishly miss the convenience of the diaper. I think I spent most of November in bathrooms!

Fall is here...playing in the leaves at Old Main

Another failed attempt at a good picture of my girls...Hadleigh walked away unscathed, while Harper rolled away with scratch marks on the face!

Our precious 5 month old is all smiles all the time!

Thanksgiving dinner

We didn't want to deprive Harper on Thanksgiving, so she had her first helping of rice cereal...yum.

Not to sure what to think about this but she gobbled it all up in true Thanksgiving fashion.

Family photo before the Alzheimer's Gala

A girls' shot before the gala

Christian and the girls at the school's Thanksgiving Lunch

Playing outside in our Sunday best

Harper before our Thanksgiving meal...can you tell what she's thinking? My guess, "Look mom, I've got my bib on and I'm all ready to go...carve up some turkey for me!"

Hadleigh enjoying her meal, especially the sweet potatoes.

"Look at me with at the fancy table with all this food!"

"Fine, since I don't get any turkey, I'll settle for daddy's lap."

Halloween wrap up

What a holiday and what a relief it finally happened and is over! Hadleigh was supposed to wear her costume to dance on Friday, but I didn't think the sheep was very conducive to dancing, so she was the bumble bee from last year. The tutu was perfect for all her dance moves. That afternoon, our school had a Halloween party, so I took the girls up there so Hadleigh wouldn't miss out. The kids paraded around to all the classrooms and then got a sugar-high at snack time. I'm sure the teacher was glad most of the parents came to take their kids home early that day. As if we didn't already have a fun-filled Friday, we did pumpkin carving at our house that night. Of course when Christian is involved, nothing is done the old-fashion way. He had every power tool possible out and of course the kids quickly lost interest, leaving the dad's to take over. Meanwhile, I'm still cleaning up pumpkin from my wall, floors, and everything in between!
Saturday, Hadleigh and Christian went down to the tailgate for a while before the trick-or-treating festivities began. We practiced all day what she was to say at each house, however, she apparently lost her voice at every single house. Christian said she was pretty timid at every house and was extremely frightened by an 8 year old Dracula. The overall experience was a great one for her and fortunately for us, I think she has already forgotten about all the candy she got last night! Harper was a trooper through all of Hadleigh's parties. She was the cutest cow around by far and did a fabulous job helping me pass out the candy. I even heard a kid tell his dad that he didn't give me the "scary treatment" just because of the baby...lucky me!
Hope you all got lots of treats for Halloween!

The bumble bee at dance

The best snack at school ever!

She picked out this outfit/shoes for the pumpkin carvingThe girls displaying their dads' works of artsDylan and Hadleigh on the Razorback grillHadleigh geared up for trick-or -treatingMy trick-or-treaters at workAn exhausted sheep post- trick-or-treating. The costume is on it's last leg!Mommy's happy helper:)

Halloween fun continued

The good news is Hadleigh is not allergic to penicillin, the bad news is that she had to take her first round of antibiotics ever! She got sent home from school Wednesday with a fever and a splotchy face. I took her to the doctor that afternoon and she was diagnosed with strep throat. By this point, she had a rash all over her torso and her face had bright red splotches all over it. She looked pretty terrible (we even got sympathy from the pharmacy and got out of there in record time), but she stayed in good spirits the whole time. Getting her to take the first dose of amoxicillin, however, was not an easy task, but she has learned to love it and now begs for more each time! Anyways, Hadleigh rebounded quickly so none of our weekend plans had to be changed.
We made a quick trip down to Little Rock Saturday where we watched a terrible football game with The Franks and spent some time with Christian's family. Then our church had its Fall Festival on Sunday and Hadleigh was so excited to be a sheep again. She was overwhelmed when we first got there, but once she realized she got candy each time she played a game, she was totally on board. Scarlett and her had fun going to all the booths and making up their own set of rules along the way. The costume held up a lot better indoors without the strong winds! Here are pics from the weekend:

Harper the cow and Adriene the chick hatching from the egg

The sucker kept her from eating all the other pieces of candy she was collecting!

A hole-in-one on her 3rd try!

The cow and chicken refusing to look at the camera

Madison kept the girls entertained during the whole game...what a nice break!!!

This picture is just a mild representation of how red Hadleigh's face was. And no, I wasn't being a bad mom exposing Harper to Hadleigh...the doctor said that she wasn't at risk of catching it since her tonsils aren't fully developed yet.

Look at the big blue eyes!

Halloween Fun...Part 1

With the end of October quickly approaching, we figured we'd better buy some pumpkins for the porch. Hadleigh's field trip to the pumpkin patch got rained out, so we just went up to the local patch and picked out a couple of pumpkins. We are hoping the weather will hold out this week, so we can make it up to the big patch on Friday. We also had our neighborhood Halloween party on Sunday. I made a sheep costume for Hadleigh to go along with Harper's cow costume. Hadleigh was super excited to wear her costume, but she only made it about 15 minutes before taking it off. Oh well, at least it survived with only a few missing cotton balls. It's in the process of getting repaired for the next go-around.
Hadleigh and neighbor Haley getting ready for the hayride.The girls ready for the parade to the party

Harper's first drum lesson. She doesn't seem to be too enthused about it!Harper's 4 month stats:
weight 12 lbs (15th percentile)
height 24.8" (65th percentile)
head 30th percentile
She had a great check up and handled her shots as expected...with a loud wail:(
She's eating good, sleeping great, smiling a lot, and yes, her eyes are still blue.