Trampoline!

Harper loves to jump.  On the floor, the couch, the bed, up and down stairs, over things on the floors, and off counters.  She is always hopping and leaping over things.  So, she got a large, outdoor trampoline for Christmas from the Hempkins'.  It's 14 feet with a net enclosure so it's big enough to jump like crazy and safe enough not to let her fall and break her leg.  And of course, she LOVES it.  It's her new favorite thing to do.  She wants to jump and of course she wants you to jump with her.  She likes to show you how to jump.  She likes to chase you around the edges.  She likes to fall and bounce around.  It makes her so happy and we love that it gives her something fun to do outside.  

These two and their toys!  They have so much fun playing outside and running wild.  She jumps around and he rides around the pasture.  They are so cute and happy together!

Our Christmas

Most Christmases, Cody and I know most of what we are each getting, from parents and each other.  This year, we did really good and didn't tell each other any of the gifts and it was a complete surprise!  We also did a good job of waiting until almost Christmas to open all the gifts.  We usually open a few a week or so early.  It's so funny to watch him stare at those presents each night, begging to open them!  This year, we had way too much family stuff going on to open our presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day anyways, so we opened our presents to each other on Monday (Christmas Eve Eve).  

We had agreed not to spend much on each other since we just bought the 4wheeler and spent all our money on the house remodel.  Then, Cody tried to cop out to just letting me buy a new iphone, which he had also copped to for my birthday just a month earlier.  I might have been a bit unhappy with that idea, so he did go get me a few gifts.  But he even said, most of these are just things you would have bought yourself for the house/kitchen but haven't yet.  Awesome!  Don't worry, I might have done the same thing for him...

We let Harper help open most of the presents because she is in love with presents and had seen us wrapping them for a month.  She liked to look at them and pick them up and help me "wrap."

Cody got a trash grabber that he can use while he rides along the land so he can get the trash along the highway easier.  He loves it and Harper thought it was the coolest looking toy.  She also loved the box it came in.  It was just the right size for her to crawl into but not be able to get back out.  

Cody got me some new frying pans, slippers, and a laundry room shelf.  Sounds boring but it was nice because he knows how much I wanted those things.  We found out pretty quickly that the shelf box was super slippery and made a great slide. 

Cody's last special present in his stocking was an oreo cookie dipping spoon.  This man loves oreo cookies.  This man especially loves eating oreo cookies dipped in milk until they are practically mush.  This spoon grabs the cookie and lets you dip it without losing it in the milk.  Sounds dumb but it's pretty stinking cool, especially to oreo lovers.  

Being 2 1/2 years old is awesome and hard!

Harper is 2 1/2 years old.  She is a perfect, sweet angel most of the time who loves to help mama out, sing and dance, play with friends, and go outside.  She loves going to church and playing with other kids.  She loves having dance party with mama and learning new dance moves.  She loves to sing songs, whether made up or real, play the piano and guitar, and in general do anything musical.  She loves reading books and having books read to her.  She loves to play mommy and house with her dolls, stuffed animals, and barbies.  She loves to hug and kiss, and kiss some more.  She loves watching Hugglemonster, Sofia, and Einsteins.  She loves painting, coloring, and drawing on the dry erase board.  She loves to climb up couches, chairs, the countertops, and people, and absolutely loves jumping off any and everything she climbed up.  She is spunky, sassy, funny, beautiful, and an absolute doll.  We laugh all day long and enjoy every minute with her.  

Harper is also 2 1/2 years old.  She is sometimes frustrating, impatient, repetitive, and demanding.  She loves to say No to bath time, nap time, bed time, putting clothes on, cleaning up, and sitting correctly in her chair.  She will repeat the same question over and over again until she gets a satisfactory answer.  She wants to be held and carried more than she wants to walk (and she is almost 30 pounds!).  She wants someone to play with her at all times and never do anything else but sit by her side.  She won't actually sleep at nap time, she gets up and down off the bed and plays for an hour while yelling "Mommy" over and over again.  She throws toys when she is mad, hits you in the face if you are making her do something she doesn't want to do, and is not against screaming and yelling when she is mad.  I sometimes lose my patience because the terrible twos, threes, whatever you want to call them, are h.a.r.d.  

But every morning, she wakes up and she is smiling and wants to cuddle with her mama and a new day begins.  We start over because just at God forgives and tries harder with us, we forgive and try harder with each other.  

Funny things she says:

*Wuv You.  (Love you)

*'Scuse Me, I burped/farted/coughed. (She likes to remind Cody to say this too).

*Leave my lone.  (Leave me alone.  This she usually gets in trouble for and is usually followed by Go Way). 

*Watch show, pease?

*Come play with us... (Just her, not sure where the us came from.)

*What's that sound like?  (What was that sound?)

*Are youu?  (Calling for someone, asking where are you, usually loud and very drawn out.)

*Here my come.  (Yelled right before she jumps off the couch, chair, bed, etc.  At least she yells it now because before she just jumped, and that was getting scary.)

*Mommy. Mama.  MAMA.  Mommiee.  Mama.  (Repeated over and over again from her room, the carseat, or if I'm not paying attention.  She must have seen The Family Guy commercial.)

*I wake up morning.  (Telling me she wants to get up, out of bed.  Mostly in the afternoons, not mornings, but then I have to say, Harper you can't wake up if you didn't actually go to sleep.  She doesn't understand this.)

*Free OClock.  Mama, it's Free OClock!  There's a free, mama!  (Yelling from her room that it's 3:00pm and she can get up from nap now.  It took some time to learn that it must be a 3 in the hour spot and not the minute spot.  That was confusing.)

*Like that.  (Always trying to tell people what to do and how to do it.)

*Dissy.  (Dixie, sweet dog.  Always being yelled at to get down, be quiet, or get back.  Even Harper yells at Dixie now, even when it may not be Dixie's fault.)

No matter how hard the temper tantrums are, they are worth it.  Because she is worth it.  And through all the cross words and tears, I love her and she loves me.  And this too shall pass.

Christmas Day in Frisco Part 2

After my Dad, Kristi, and family left that afternoon, my Mom and Mark came over for dinner.  They ended up having to bring 2 cars because they couldn't fit all the gifts in one car!  We actually piled every present we could find into the living room so we could make this massive present pile.  "Santa" shopped a little much this year...

While Grayson was out playing bean bags with the guys, Harper and Reese got to enjoy his racetrac.  They were so cute - these two little girls racing cars.  They didn't know how to actually work it, so they just manually raced the cars around.  Haha!

The kids loved playing with Eric and Dane.  They are such fun Uncles. They laugh at their jokes, wrestle with them, and think they are so cute.  At one point, all the kids were on the coffee table catapulting themselves at Eric.  They had a blast!

We eventually sat down and opened presents.  This time, it was a bit more chaotic.  The kids had already done it and were running around crazy.  Plus, more people, more presents, more noise, more trash, etc.  Harper was tired and hungry, so she eventually ate some lunch leftovers in the living room while she opened presents at 4:30pm.  Grayson got tons of sports clothes and baseball stuff.  Reese got lots of toys.  Harper got a princess castle and some educational games.  Cody got tons of tools.  Brian got an exploding target.  Kristen got clothes.  Eric and Dane got cooler lawn chairs, a dorky Captain's hat, and a monster truck trailer hitch.  It was funny watching everyone open gifts.  One Brian opened was a 1st Christmas ornament from last year.  His face is awesome - love capturing it on film.  Eric and Dane bought Grayson a Chicago Cubs jersey and Kristen immediately said No.  Haha!  She wouldn't even let G wear it.  I actually think Eric took it home instead!  Then, Dane was passing out a random gift and kept calling out, "Hitch, Hitch."  Kristen was so mad because she hadn't put a name on it but it was an actual hitch, so by the time the gift got to Eric, he didn't even need to open it to know what it was.  Brian gave Harper some books he got from his school and she was so happy to see Curious George.  Eric got a face trimming kit because my mom thought he needed one because he didn't bring his up from Austin.  And I got the obligatory A&M Christmas decoration.  All in all, it was a good Christmas and everyone got something good (or funny)!!!

I'm not sure what this was about.  But this is Reese in tantrum mode.  She goes from happy to mad pretty quick.  She throws herself on the ground and screams and cries.  And when no one really cares, she picks herself back up.  Such a turkey!  

Mark wanted a new set of golf clubs.  He actually went to buy them about a week before Christmas and he and my mom got in a fight about it because she was secretly getting the clubs for him.  She gave the clubs to the McCool's and they wrapped them and had them waiting for Mark on Christmas day.  Then, when he unwrapped them, he was so excited.  Until he opened them and saw that they were a right handed set (he's a lefty).  He looked at my mom with this sad, depressed, disappointed look on his face and the whole room started laughing.  She kept saying she had bought leftys and he was so sad.  Eventually, Eric and Brian let him in on the joke that they were Brian's and his leftys were in a different box.  It was so funny!  And he was pissed and also excited to find out it was a joke.  

One of Harper's last gifts were her new cowboy boots.  They are real boots and they are SO cute!  We got them a little big so she can wear them longer and she already loves them.  She even got on the coffee table to show everyone how she can dance in them.  Sweet Reese even wanted up too.  

My Grandma Ruth and Ron showed up around dinnertime and we opened their gifts before dinner.  Harper got a camera from her which is perfect because she is always trying to take pictures with our cameras.  She tells people "Say Cheese", takes a picture of their middle region, and then says "Good one."  Grayson got a remote control helicopter from her and all the boys got it going, flying around the kitchen.  It was pretty cool until it dive bombed  your head.  

Picture time again.  It happens alot when you have so many different sides of your family.  Troy was the photographer this time and just kept snapping pictures.  It's awesome to see us trying to get set up, done and trying to convince Kathryn we don't need more poses, and Mark modeling for the camera.  

We ate a quick dinner, took a super fast bath, and hit the road for home.  It had been a great two days, but we were exhausted and Harper was DONE.  

Merry Christmas 2013!  It was exceptional!