Happy 3rd Birthday Harper

To my dearest Harper Ann….

WOW, I can’t believe you are turning 3 years old. I have no idea where the last 3 years have gone. I remember the day we found out that we were pregnant with you-it seems like just yesterday. There are so many things that I want to tell you. First, I love you more than words can describe. You will never know how much I love you until you have your own little girl and hold her for the first time. I LOVE the way you love life. You get so excited about the little things-you shout with joy and jump up and down. Harper Ann you make each day brighter because you are you. I love that you are a VERY opinionated independent child. You are very strong willed and sometimes even mommy doesn’t know how to respond to you. I love that when are frightened…you look at me with your beautiful blue eyes and say, “Jesus will take care of me!” Sweet girl, you have no idea-Jesus is constantly with you/watching over you and I hope you always remember those words! You have started to become shy in big crowds, which is a bit surprising because you are always performing at home. I love when you sing. I love when you dance. I love that you have a little twang to your voice. I love your imagination. I love to watch you play with your sister.

What a difference a year can make. I remember last year at this time, we were anticipating Adeline’s arrival. You weren’t so sure about her for the first few weeks but now you are two are the best of friends. You are such a helper when it comes to her!

You are still going to Mother’s Day Out 3 days a week at FUMC-Early Learning Academy while mommy works. You love school and you love your teachers (Miss Bonnie and Miss Amanda) and your friends at school. You love to play school. The other day, I caught you acting like you were the teacher and you were teaching the “pretend” students the bible verses that you have learned this year. It literally brought tears to my eyes. (you know 4 now: Love One Another, Jesus Has Risen, Always Be Thankful and Jesus Was Born in Bethlehem).

Another darling story, your friend Owen May was over the other day and he said “I love school” and you responded with “I LOVE CHURCH!” You have no idea what joy that brought my heart to know that you love Jesus and you love your church.

You are beginning to spell your name. Wherever we go, you point out all of the “H’s” (for Harper) and the “A’s” (for Adeline). Also, lately you have become quite the artist-you have been drawing people and it’s incredible. You are also building amazing things with blocks. Gramma thinks you will be a fashion designer because of the way you like to put random pieces of clothing together to make an outfit but lately your daddy and I think maybe an architect…time will tell and we will just have to wait and find out.

You started gymnastics this fall and absolutely LOVE it. You are so attentive. Each week you go and sit on the mat and wait patiently for Miss Michelle to say it’s time to go back. You literally jump all of the way back to the room.

I can’t wait to see what this next year brings for our family. You are such a delightful daughter and I feel so HONORED that GOD chose me to be your mommy. Love you always!

I decided to interview you to get some of your fun facts: Favorite Movie: Shrek (the trilogy) Favorite Song: You have so many but you said “Jesus Loves Me”
Favorite TV show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Dora the Explorer
Favorite toy: Lovey (it’s a giraffe that you sleep with every night)
Favorite color: pink
Favorite letter: H
Favorite number: 3
Favorite food: Breakfast (cereal bar, yogurt and waffle-your typical morning request…yes, all 3 of these)
Favorite Bible Verse: Love One Another
Best Friend: Addie (not sure if you are talking about your sister or your friend at school)
Favorite Book: Fancy Nancy
Favorite place to eat: Chick-The-Lay (Chick-Fil-A)Favorite thing to do: Go to the parkClothes size: 3T for shirts and dresses and we are going to attempt 2T for shorts

Pump It Up-Tinkerbell Party Was a SUCCESS!

I love this picture of the two of us...you were so excited to have your party at Pump It Up

Adeline meeting Hornsby

Harper and her surprise guest, Hornsby

Trying to get a family picture

Adeline is loving the bouncing

Adeline is almost ready to walk

Harper and her decorations

The cupcakes I made...Harper wanted strawberry cupcakes

The cake (we got it at Target)

All of the people crowded into one small room...Thanks everyone for coming....We all had a wonderful time!

This was the end of the party and you had just realized that they had deflated all of the inflatables-you were so sad.

Project Tinkerbell Party

The past few days, I have been in project Tinkerbell Party mode. Harper turns 3 on Monday but her party is tomorrow. In preparation for turning 3, Gramma took us to get our toes painted and look what they did for Harper. Her fingernails look identical. I can't belive she sat so still to get them painted.

For some reason, the past few years, I have had this really creative vibe coming out. I'm not quite sure where it came from but I love going with it. Each year for Harper's birthday, I have done a little more myself. This year, I made her invitations and party favors. Originally, Harper wanted a Pinkalicious Princess Fiona party....this was not even a reasonable request on her part because they do not make Princess Fiona party supplies so I convinced her to have a Tinkerbell Party. The invitation was made with card stock, Tinkerbell stickers and glitter spray.

For her party favors, I made purple star rice krispy treats to make them look like magic wands since Tinkerbell always has her magical fairy wand.

Packed up and ready to go for her party. I wrapped each wand and the sticker on the front says "Thank you for making my 3rd birthday Tinker-riffic Love, Harper" and on the back I put a Tinkerbell sticker.

Kansas City (AKA-The City)

This weekend, the girls and I took our first road trip to Kansas City to see some of our best friends. Nancy and I have been close friends since my freshman year in college and our girls are just 3 weeks apart. Our girls truly love one another and it so fun to watch them grow up together. We are sad that they live in KC but it such a treat when we see them. This weekend we celebrated Ava and Harper’s 3rd birthdays. The girls had a blast and played so well together. We never heard any fighting...just lots of laughing!

The first night, we went out to dinner and then came back to have the birthday celebration. Nancy had this adorable cake made for the girls.

Blowing out the candles together

Cheers...Ava has taught Harper to say "cheers." All weekend, the girls would say "cheers" to everything!

The next morning, we headed to “FUN RUN” a bounce house. It was completely packed with birthday parties so we didn’t stay long but the girls had a wonderful time. They even had a toddler area for sweet Adeline.

Can you tell the girls weren’t too happy about having their picture taken…both were completely worn out after 2 fun filled days together.

Hugging good-bye and saying "I love you!"-they were just too cute!!!

See you soon Wander’s. We love you guys. Thank you for the fabulous weekend getaway. We enjoyed every minute of it!

Park Time

Hello beautiful weather (oh, how we have missed you)…a few days late. Last Sunday, the whole family ventured to the neighborhood park. It was Adeline’s first true visit at the park-where she could participate. It was such a joy to watch both girls loving God’s beautiful creation.

Adeline's first time in a swing-she loved it!


Harper on the slide

Climbing machine

Harper and I racing to see who could go higher...I wonder who won??

Love that sweet girl-the wind was blowing like crazy in her face

Deep in thought, while hanging on a bar

Harper and her Mascots

Harper has been obsessed with mascots for as long as I can remember. She has never been afraid of them-she always runs right up to them and hugs them. Here are a few of the mascots that we saw yesterday at the Baby Expo.

Harper with Swoop-the Talons Mascot

Here is Harper with Hornsby (from the Drillers)-this is her all time favorite mascot. When we got visit Peter at work, she asks for Hornsby. Finally, Peter and I were smart enough to tell her that Hornsby sleeps all winter but wakes up for baseball season and she bought it. It's amazing some of the stories we have to tell children.

Harper and Lion King
Harper and Pooh

And you can't forget...Harper and Elmo

Walker or Table, Which do you prefer?

Yesterday, which was also the day that Adeline got tubes; after surgery, she decided it was time to really start practicing walking. Adeline has been cruising around the furniture for several weeks but has had no interest in her walker. What a difference a day can make! After her nap, she first tried pushing her musical table around the house for about 30 minutes.
She is so proud of herself! What you can't see is Harper, Peter and I following her around and clapping because we are so excited.

Later on in the day, she began using her walker. I’m just in love with her 2 teeth grin (well actually she got 1 more tooth on Monday).