Recital Pictures

After her recital, Harper had her recital pictures.  She loved getting all dressed up again and getting to curl her hair and wear makeup.  All the girls just sat around the dance room while each girl took pictures in each outfit, with group pictures in between.  It took almost two hours.  But they had fun, so we were all good.  They sat around and talked, played on phones, rolled around on top of each other.  And of course we were begging them to be still and not ruin their hair, makeup, and costume.  Oh well, it's all over at this point!  The funniest part was when we figured out that Taylor and Harper almost had the same costume from their first (and only) dance recital.  I think it's hilarious!  This girl had a great year and loved being in dance.  Especially with all her friends.  We are going to miss it next year.  But she's excited about gymnastics too.  She'll always be a dancer anyways!

The State Fair of Texas

We finally got to go to the state fair this year.  It's been 3 years since we've been back so we had a great time.  Cody took off on the last Thursday of the fair and Buddy and Serena went with us.  We left at 9 but didn't get there until 11.  We walked around, did some of the kid activities, saw the cars, and walked through the buildings.  Suddenly it was already afternoon and we had only done like half of the fair.  We decided to stay as long as we needed and it ended up being the whole day.  Harper got to do spin art, walk through the petting zoo, watch the dog show, ride the swan paddle boats, ride the carousel, and a roller coaster.  Paige just watched or rode.  She was seriously good.  We borrowed the sit and stand stroller from the Haddock's because we thought Paige would ride and figured that Harper would want to sit every now and then.  Turned out that Paige didn't want to sit, she wanted to be held and Harper wanted to ride the whole time.  Harper was a bit crazy, wanting to do and touch and see everything.  She wanted to get in every car, touch all the animals, look at every booth, etc.  Paige finally napped for about 30 minutes at 3pm, but in general, it was Harper's stroller.  Harper also talked Buddy into the Swan Paddle Boats and Serena into the carousel.  She asked if she could do the paddle boats and I said no.  She asked Buddy and he said yes.  Then when we got there, he looked at me confused.  He thought he was just saying, sure, ask your mom, whatever you want.  Nope, you were saying yes to you and her!  So he had to take her.  Then, she spent some time looking at the map and she saw a picture of a girl on a carousel horse.  It looked like there was nothing there except a restroom, so I told her no.  She put up a big fuss because she was sure there was a carousel.  An hour later, as we finally walked by that place, there it was.  So she rode with Serena on it.  Then, as we were leaving, Buddy realized he had $10 in tickets left, just enough to ride one more ride.  So Harper got to pick a roller coaster and it ended up being her favorite thing.  Girlfriend loves roller coasters.  It was a great day.  Walking around and enjoying the fair and seeing all the excitement from a 4 year olds perspective.  There was a wreck on the way home plus we stopped for dinner so it took us almost 3 hours, but it was still a great day.

Sister Love

I was folding laundry one day when I looked over and saw these two.  I can't express how much I love them and how much joy it gives me that they love each other so much.  Harper is such a great big sister.  She is always looking out for Paige's well being and making her happy.  Paige loves her and will follow her anywhere.  We finally got out her activity table and she is loving it.  However, she still isn't super stable sitting up on her knees or standing up.  She falls backwards often and hits her head, or screams because she doesn't know how to get down.  Harper sat with her this day and helped her play and kept her safe from falling.  I love that I got to witness this moment from behind the scenes.  And of course, after, Paige crawling all over her and pulling her hair and I'm sure slobbering all over her.  But it's fun and Harper loves it.  These two may be trouble together someday!

A girl's gotta eat...

Lately it feels like all we do is eat, play, sleep, eat some more.  Paige gets a bottle every 3 hours still and is now eating breakfast and dinner.  Plus, Harper is like a bottomless pit.  She eats breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a morning snack, an afternoon, snack, an evening snack with Cody when he gets home, and a bedtime snack.  Girl is always hungry.  Cody is about the same, but it's because he doesn't eat as much at school so he's super hungry at night.  I slacked for a long time in the meal planning department but I'm finally doing better.  So we have been grilling and baking and cooking really good foods lately. Paige is loving feeding herself.  She still loves her regular baby food, but she likes to play with food too.  One night, Cody grilled chicken legs and we ate outside on the patio.  His chicken legs are seriously good.  Paige got to eat sweet potato fries for the first time and she loved them.  I swear she ate as many as we all did.  We also have been trying to remind Harper of foods that she liked before but has forgotten.  She will fight us on eating something if it's not a food she knows.  But a couple of foods she loves and just can't remember.  So lately we've had fried chicken, which we call chicken nuggets and she calls chicken nuts.  She loves them!  She also absolutely loves chicken fettucini alfredo.  We have decided to just call it cheesy pasta so she'll remember.  She actually asked for it for breakfast the next morning too.  Silly girl!  We are definitely a house that enjoys our food.  

Denison Fall Fest

We went to the Denison Fall Fest again this year.  We look forward to it each year.  There are tons of vendors, some kid activities, and all our friends go so we just run into friends all morning.  This year was even bigger with more kid stuff as well.  Harper got to shoot the fire hose at a fake house fire.  And she got to run through the Denison football helmet with the cheerleaders and football players.  She wouldn't go at first until Reagan agreed to go with her.  She is going to be a cheerleader for Halloween so we bought her the official Denison cheerleader gold sparkly pom poms.  She was so excited!  My mom actually came up and met us downtown.  She is a sucker for an arts and crafts fair.  Paige was a good baby.  She wanted to be held most of the time, but she just looked around and didn't complain for a few hours.  She did fall asleep while we were walking to the car, so I guess people watching wears her out.  We had lunch at Watson's which made Cody so happy.  He hasn't had one of their burgers since we moved here.  After that, we met up with the Haddock's and just walked around for awhile.  The girls played and the adults talked and it ended up being a great day.