park.

chilly fall weather.

jackets.

leaves.

playing at the park.

we had a perfect afternoon.

pairs.

caramels.

autumn walk.

sisters.

stripes.

october.

birthday.

toys.

girls.

harper at one year.

wow. my baby harper is ONE. it's been a fun/challenging/wonderful year. we love our squishy little baby girl. {i'll consider her a baby until she can walk... and then a toddler?}

a little about harper at one year:
no more new teeth. still the four on top and two on bottom. i like to call her gooby which stems from goober which is because she looks like a big ol' goober when she smiles :)
she points/waves and says "hi".
says "uh oh" whenever she drops something, makes a mess, etc.
she is obsessed with the stairs. the gate must be up at all times.
she is a little bit of a drama queen... any time serena gets near her, she throws a fit. {i don't blame her.}
she's kind of a mama's girl. lately she gets stranger anxiety and freaks if we put her down in a new place.
likes to put things in and out of buckets, drawers, bags, etc.
loves to be tickled.
loooooves the shoe basket.
is a dancing fool when there is music on.
walks all over the place pushing her walker.
likes to swing at the park.
will eat pretty much anything.
is back to spitting up {or should i just call it vomiting now that she eats real food}... all the time. ahhhh!
likes to be read to.
says "ohhhhh" when she snuggles her blanky, bear, pillow, etc.
likes to draw on the magna-doodle.

stats:
weight: 23lbs 4oz {85%}
height: 29 1/2 inches {70%}
head: 19 inches {greater than 95% ... but it's tapering off and getting closer to not being off the charts!}

she's a funny little gooby. we love her.

harper's one year photos.

my friend dana took these beautiful pictures of harper for her first birthday. i am in looooove. check out her website here.

another weekend.

lately this blog has become a once a week sort of deal. i admit, it's partly because i spend so much time playing on my new phone. so, we have yet another update. mostly photos.

i finally got to use my mother's day gift. 2011-2012 season tickets to the opera. heather, my mom and i went the first of the season, fidelio. and i loved it, of course. it was beethoven's only opera, fyi. oh and we had the most delicious three cheese cauliflower soup at kneaders before the opera. it was amazing. you need to try it.

on saturday we spent 2 hours at applebee's waiting for some mediocre food, but enjoying some great company. then we went to thanksgiving point to the corn maze and haunted houses and realized what a huuuuuge, awesome production it is over there and wished we hadn't wasted 2 hours at applebee's and had instead had hot dogs from the concessions stand. aside from my getting genuinely freaked out by the "least scary" haunted attraction, and the make-up stain on my white jacket from the actor in said haunted attraction {who, by the way, we were told "wouldn't touch us if we didn't touch him"}, it was really fun. serena would have had a blast. next year we will definitely bring the kids.

harper woke up reeeeeal early on sunday. we made pancakes. the whole family played in serena's room. the girls played nicely with each other for a minute. serena and i did a pumpkin craft. we went to church, and had dinner & cupcakes at my parents' house {cute cupcakes made by my sister, annette}. i'll spare the details about how much i dislike sundays. i'm so glad i get to go to young women's in the third hour of church with no kids. it's the one hour of church that i'm aware of anything besides my kids and their messes and tantrums.{THANK YOU, SEAN. really. thank you.}

i live for the weekends.

a weekend.

friday:

saturday:

sunday:

we've had a lovely weekend. {and lucky for us, we get tomorrow off too!}

friday night we did some shopping for halloween costumes, decorations, etc. serena loved it, of course, and was so excited to come home and light up the ghosts and pumpkins.

saturday we did chores, sean went to the u of u football game, i cleaned the house and played with kids. when sean got home i took a much deserved 10 minute break to lay on our bed and stare into space.

this morning we bundled up the kids and went for a walk. kids actually napped when they were supposed to, and church was unusually enjoyable. {meaning the girls weren't terrorizing the place.} i embraced the chilly weather {though it was actually much warmer today...} and wore boots for the first time this season {yay!}. we had a delicious sunday dinner with my parents.

tomorrow sean and i are hoping to catch a matinee together. i miss the movies. that has to be in the top 5 things i miss the most from our childless days. seriously. what's better than sitting in a dark theater with a huuuge bucket of popcorn and a huuuuuge box of hot tamales and a huuuuuge diet coke and being totally swept up in a movie? ......................... i love it.

anyway. happy weekend :)

pairs.

events.

we watched general conference and it was amazing! i especially loved Elder Andersen and Sis. Dalton's remarks.... and Pres. Monson and Pres. Eyring and Pres. Uchtdorf...seriously there were too many good ones to really choose favorites.

serena showed her true two-year-old colors by 1. going into her cousin's room while she was napping and refusing to come out. this ended in me dragging her out of there by the arm while holding harper with the other and trying to keep everyone quiet. serena's screams of protest woke campbell up :) 2. going into harper's room and waking her up after we just put her to bed. 3. getting out of bed and sneaking into my bathroom and crushing my makeup all over the carpet and putting it all over her face. {all in one day! yay!}

we had a family home evening lesson about Jesus and serena actually listened... i think.

i dropped my phone in the toilet while using it as a flashlight in the middle of the night to make sure the toilet seat was down. i tried to save it. i failed.

sean bought me a brand new shiny pretty iphone. i immediately downloaded some awesome camera apps that i have been coveting since forever.

our water heater died and i went 3 days without washing my hair. it wasn't pretty. and then our water heater got fixed. and i took a loooong shower.

harper was sick. a sinus infection, we think. she is better now. but BOY was she grumpy. i dropped her off at a friend's house so i could go visiting teaching and she cried the WHOLE time. poor, poor gina. and harper... :) she is on the mend now.

serena went to the park every day. she is obsessed. but she really only enjoys it if there are other kids to play with.

it rained. and i loved it.

i did some organizing around the house. i tackled and conquered the coat closet and junk drawer. and realized that we are huge closet {and drawer} slobs. maybe that should be a new year's resolution. next year.

we are carrying on. one day at a time with these two crazy kids. life is good.