August Happenings

August has gone by way too fast!  I can't even recall what we really did over the past 4 weeks.  But summer has sadly come to an end and school is quickly starting (boo).  Here is a photo dump and a look at our family from August. 

First big girl crayons and coloring page from a restaurant.

Harper has a few new tricks.  She finally started waving "bye-bye" again (she wouldn't do it for awhile).  Now, she can't stop.  I even catch her waving at inanimate objects sometimes.  We have tried to teach to her wave hello, but that seems to confuse her.  She has recently started clapping and patting too (thanks to Little Einstein's).  

She has become such a girly girl.  She loves purses, necklaces, clothes, shopping, cell phones, and credit cards.  I am terrified of her teenage years!  She is constantly finding other peoples shoes and bags to carry around.  She loves to help dress herself - she can usually pull arms and legs in and out of clothes.  And she loves to sit on our bathroom counter and help me put on makeup. 

Walking around with her new backpack and a purse, ready to go!

She dressed herself.  Yes, that's underwear.  

Helping mom dust in no pants and mardi gras beads.

Her hair is so long!  We have started putting it up, it was just getting too hot this summer.  She will sit still usually so I can get it in a pony or pulled back, but she still always tries to pull it out.  Bows and clips hardly last, so I have decided to stop fighting her on those.  Her hair is growing faster in the back, so sadly she's pretty much rocking the mullet.  But she's still pretty cute.  

She is such a stinking eater!  I always call her my fat kid, because man, that girl can put some food down.  She loves food.  But she definitely knows the good stuff.  She is in love with Eggo waffles, lunchmeat, noodles and sauce, and rice.  And she always wants a snack.  Just the word snack can get her to stop crying.  She loves cheerios still, and granola bars, but will do anything for some fruit snacks.  We got off the bottle about 2 weeks ago and forced her to go to the sippy cup.  She won again, and has not touched milk in 3 weeks.  She only drinks water now, but I'm sure she'll get back on milk eventually.  Whatever the score was, add another point for Harper.  

Another "fun" thing Harper has discovered is our food.  She seriously wants whatever is on your plate. It doesn't matter if you gave her the same thing.  She wants yours, and she means business.  She repeats this grunt noise about 100 times until you give her a bite.  So usually she eats her dinner and then about half of ours.  Told you she's a fat kid.  

All the climbing!  She is everywhere!  She can get in and out of the tub (not safely), up and down the fireplace, is constantly up and down steps, under tables, and always looking for adventure.  This kid makes me nervous.  The other day, Cody was on the step ladder and he suddenly felt Harper nudging him over.  She is a little too curious.  

Still in love with the Mag dog

Summer was super hot, but we have had some rain and cooler days lately.  So we have taken to the outdoors and explored a little.  We have visited the lake a few times and let her wade in the water.  We have spent many hours just walking around the front yard.  Sadly, when we actually need to leave, it takes a long time to get her to stop exploring and follow us to the car.  But she loves the outdoors.  Her only problem is that Maggie usually has to stay inside and that makes her sad.  

At the lake

Her first time playing in the rain.  She found the spot where most of the rain ran off the roof and enjoyed running back and forth through it.  

Having Cody home for the summer was so fun.  Harper has become a big daddy's girl.  We are going to miss him a ton when he goes back to school.  We might have to go visit him at school more often.  

Here's to a great summer and a speedy school year!  :)

Friends and Famous People

The Saturday before we went to Kansas to visit my grandparents, we visited our friends in Wichita Falls.  The Duff's are good friends that we have tons in common with, so we always have a great time together.  Jeremy and Cody had a hunting show to go to that day, so Tracy and I got to hang out and play with the girls.

Duff and Harper snuggling.

We jumped in the car as soon as Harper woke up so that she could eat breakfast in the car and hopefully not get too bored.  She did great and didn't get fussy until about the last 10 minutes.

Harper wore her camo pj's in honor of the hunting expo.

When we first got there, Jeremy and Cody took Lydia and Harper for the Duff's Daddy Daughter Donut Day (they do this every Saturday).  So cute and such a sweet tradition.

Then Jeremy and Cody headed out to the hunting show.  The main reason they went was because some of the cast of Duck Dynasty was going to be there.  We absolutely love DD and think that the Robertson family is hilarious.  We have the entire 1st season on DVR and I'm guessing we have seen each episode at least 10 times.

Cody got a hat and had them sign it for him.  He got to meet Si, Jep, and Jessica.  He was a pretty happy guy for the rest of the day.

Harper and Lydia played at the house, which was fun because Lydia has so many great toys.  Babies, strollers, books, and a sweet train table.  We played for a while in Lydia's room and saw her new big girl bed and quilt that Tracy made.  While in there, Harper found Lydia's shoes and spent most of the rest of the day walking around in them.  We left at dinner time and started our long trip to Kansas to visit family.  

In all, it was a great day.  We love seeing our sweet friends.  Now to go back for hunting season...

Grandma and Grandpa Great

We visited my family in Kansas and stayed with my grandparents for a week at the beginning of August.  We still call them Grandma and Grandpa of course, but I think it's so sweet that the next generation calls them Grandma and Grandpa Great.  

My grandparents are amazing and I am thankful for the few times a year that I get to spend time with them.  They are almost 90 (seriously!) and are trucking right along.  They love to tell us about new places they find to eat.  They think Panda Express is amazing and they are astounded that they can get a burger at Wendy's for $0.99.  

We got there at midnight Saturday night and the first thing we saw was my grandpa, sitting outside waiting for us.  At midnight!  Grandma was inside baking up brownies.  Those crazy old people!  They wanted to see us and make sure we got in ok - so sweet!

Sunday we hung out, saw Pat and Don and Jim and Barb.  They are so good to us, always taking care of us every time we come to visit.  We sat around the house, played, took naps, and ate good food.  Monday was a repeat but was very relaxing.  Tuesday, my aunt Sharon and cousin Dayton came into town from Pennsylvania.  It's so good seeing her.  I only get to see her once every year or so.  I used to see her more often, and I miss her!   Wednesday and Thursday was more time visiting and eating.  Some cousins came to visit and we ate at the family sub shop.  It was fun and relaxing and reminded me of old times.  

Harper loved being with my grandparents and family.  They would sit and watch her eat breakfast, laughing every time she tried to give them a bite of her food.  They enjoyed watching her play, explore, and toddle around.  And she loved having a captivated audience.  

We brought toys for Harper for the 8 hour car ride and for the visit.  But we found out soon enough that Grandma and Grandpa's stuff was much more fun.  She liked Grandpa's cane and the loud thump it made everytime she whacked the floor.  She liked their pots and pans cabinet and their dish towel drawer.  She loved their walk in pantry.  It was like heaven.  Tons of boxes and bags and tupperware and shelves all within easy reach.  But her favorite "toy" by far was the magazine rack.  She got to pull out, rip apart, carry around, and enjoy 50 magazines all in a convenient basket that was just her size.

Playing with the pots and pans

Finding new treasures in the laundry room with Grandma

Playing in the walk in pantry

Getting a ride on Grandpa's walker

Playing in the fridge

Harper also enjoyed their house.  She got very good at going up the stairs.  She climbed the inside and outside stairs at least 100 times.  She also found the floor vents extremely fun.  Standing on top, getting blown around.  Such fun.  

Floor Vent fun

Aunt Pat with her newest grandbaby, Zachary

Harper liked Zack but he might not have been as in love with her

This is what the men did most of the time

Ok, one little anecdote from the trip.  On our first day there, I went to run the dishwasher and couldn't find any dishwasher soap.  I did, however, find some laundry soap under the sink.  I asked Grandpa, and he claimed to have been using the Tide.  I asked Grandma, and she said, No they had other stuff - not the tide.  I asked her where it was, she looked, wasn't sure.  I showed her the tide again and she said, that was the dish soap.  No wait, that was the laundry.  Fast forward about 20 minutes and I finally convinced my grandma that they had been using the Tide pods instead of the Cascade pods.  After washing all the dishes again, they still smelled very floral-y.  Love those two crazy kids!

Sometimes, I think she knows exactly what she's doing...

They say that babies don't know what they are doing, they just do what they want with no motivations. However, when it comes to Harper, I would bet money that Miss Priss knows exactly what she's doing.  Either way, she is pretty funny these days.

She always seems to poop at naptime (which either keeps her up or wakes her up) or right after you have changed her wet diaper.  I guess she wants to go in a clean diaper.  She also poops about 4 times a day. Probably because she can and knows that we can't do anything about it except suck it up and change it.  She does throw her paci's out of her crib during naptime and this always indicates that she pooped.  That's baby sign language, right?

She throws tantrums every single day.  She absolutely hates the word NO.  However, she is great at climbing into your lap while throwing that tantrum, thus negating any anger or frustration you might have had.  She does get in trouble a lot because she absolutely loves our pantry.  She takes out all 4 cereal boxes, pancake mix, granola bars, soy sauce, etc.  She had fun dumping out the rice the other day (Maggie was particularly happy for that treat).

Playing with the rice.

She will only drink milk from a bottle and water from a sippy cup.  We have stood right in front of her, given her a bottle of milk (she drank), transferred it to a sippy cup (she wouldn't drink), and then transferred it back to a bottle (she drank again). All directly in front of her.  This child pushes me towards insanity.

Hates her sippy.

She has started to back into things.  Corners, doors, away from you, etc.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe she's just more confident that things don't hurt as bad when she falls on her butt.  Either way, she's funny when she stars at you while backing into a table or another room.

Backed into the fridge (her favorite forbidden place).

She likes my parent's dogs, Pumpkin and Piper.  Pumpkin is extremely laid back and lets Harper do whatever she wants, including laying on her.  So Harper comes home and tries to lay on Maggie, to which Maggie promptly walks away from her.  So Harper ends up walking around, half crouched over like an old man, trying to lay her head on Maggie's back.

I washed a full load of her clothes the other day and realized that there were 4 shirts and 2 pants in there that weren't even dirty.  She's like my sweet little elf that takes everything out and reorganizes everything in a chaotic fashion, instead of helping.  She can take everything out of the pantry in about 2 minutes flat.  And we recently found a puzzle piece behind the cereal.

Playing with my clothes, not exactly where they are supposed to go.

She has always been intrigued by the shower.  She used to be caged in her jumper while we were in there, so it was never a problem.  However, she's big enough now that she gets full reign while we get ready.  She takes everything out of my cabinet (including my nail polish which broke when she tapped it on the ground).  She likes to play in the toilet (gross).  And of course she figured out how to get in the shower.  She climbs the step and leans way over to peek inside.  Then she begins to throw everything she can find into the shower.  Awesome.  Thanks for that.

She loves to climb.  She always seems to have her leg lifted trying to step over or climb up something.  Bathtub.  Chairs.  You.  Etc.  She climbs over the table legs, sometimes getting her foot caught (because she's not actually tall enough but that doesn't seem to matter).  Lately, she likes to just go up and down any step she finds.  She tries it out.  Does it again to make sure she won't fall.  Then proceeds to perfect going up and down that one step.  Then she moves on to the next step or a higher step.  I guess practice makes perfect.

This is how you climb down steps, right?

New Tricks:
High Fives
Dancing
Meowing like a cat
Taking your clothes off yourself
Sitting down to put your shoes on
Taking/Giving things to someone in particular
Walking to the car by herself without heading off in the opposite direction
Talking on the phone

All those pinterest sayings about moms never having a clean house, wanting to pee alone, and needing a drink at 3pm are all making sense now.

Time with the sisters

Carleigh and Taylor came over Monday to spend the day crafting with me.  It was their first time driving over by themselves (yay for Tay being 16!).  We did some stuff for Taylor's birthday party this weekend and pretty much just hung out.

 They spent the night and we all got up at the crack of dawn with Harper girl.  Cody had jury duty so he wasn't able to stay.  But we made breakfast and I finally coraled the girls to get dressed around 10.  

We went to the CCA Resale shop looking for some cheap finds and we hit the jackpot.  Carleigh (who is a coffee addict and has been for some time) got 50 coffee mugs to paint and decorate her walls with for $5.  Taylor got a painting to recreate and a sweater (men's size XL - that nut).  And I found this awesome old dollhouse that I know Harper will love to play with as she gets older.  We came home, put the baby down to nap, and got our craft on.  Taylor taped a saying on her painting and then painted over it so reveal the letters.  Carleigh painted ombre stripes, created a saying with stickers, and then painted over to reveal her saying too.  Thanks, Pinterest!

I spent some time looking for dolls for Harper's awesome new dollhouse.  Turns out, it's pretty popular!  Online, they are selling for about $50, and all the dolls are about $10 each.  So my awesome find was only $2 and vintage.  I found someone selling a few sets of the dolls and the furniture for $40, so I didn't stay on the cheap side.  But Harper already loves playing with all the dolls and looking through the house.  I can't wait till she's a little bigger.  Kristen and I used to play Barbies for hours and hours.  It's what little girls were made to do.