Christmas Must Haves

I love Christmas time. It is truly a beautiful time of year! I love the lights, glitter, holiday cheer, drinking hot chocolate, the smells of Christmas-trees, gingerbread cookies, and candy canes- wrapping paper and pretty bows, fires in the fireplace, the music (especially my ALL TIME favorite song, I want a hippopotamus for Christmas), the joy that can be seen on the faces of little children running wildly through the toy store, and the madness that can be seen on the faces of their parents.

But ultimately, Christmas time means...

CANDY CANE TOOTSIE POPS!

Guys, these suckers are SO SO SO stinking good! A Tootsie Roll encased in a peppermint sucker. YUM!!!! I love peppermints in all forms. It is one of my favorite things about Sonic, eating a peppermint while drinking a cherry limeade. And you just can't ever beat a tootsie roll. So clearly, this combination makes the ULTIMATE sucker!

My mom and I discovered them when I was in maybe the eighth grade and we have gotten them every Christmas since... except for Christmas 4 years ago.

Sadly, we could not find them anywhere. We seriously looked in every candy aisle we could find and came away empty handed every single time. That Christmas scarred me! And you may laugh, but it is true. I have not handled the suckers the same since.

Before the infamous Christmas, my mom and I would go through maybe one to two bags max the entire Christmas season; whereas now, I buy two bags every time I go to Target (but shh, don't tell Kenny). Blessed Target! That is where you get them. It is the only place that has consistently had them year after year. Love Target, and I go there A LOT... so we have gone through a lot of suckers already this year and I just bought more today.

I blame that infamous Christmas without for my craze. When you are forced to go without, you realize and appreciate what you had. I promised myself that I would never take these suckers for granted again; hence, we are now on bag #6.

That is how good these suckers are... 6 bags and it is only the 7th of December. WOW... I just realized how crazy and obsessed that makes me sound. Makes me a little worried for myself... but don't fret, I am not worried enough to stop eating them or stocking up once Christmas is over. They are just that good!

Self Feeding Equals...

Self Feeding = Sharing and Feeding Mommy

Self Feeding = A Lip Licking Good TimeSelf Feeding = Cute, Funny Faces

Self Feeding = Messy Foreheads and Food Smeared Everywhere

Self Feeding = Feeling Mushy Goodness Between Fingers & Using the Cool Spoon from Gran

Self Feeding = Yummy Food?

Self Feeding = One Heck of a Good Time!!!

Sicky-poos

sicky-poo (noun)- my mother's term of endearment for anyone who is ill or under the weather. origin: when you are sick you look like poo? feel like poo? it is stinky poo to be sick? Who knows the origin, we will have to ask my mom

Sentence most commonly used in: "Come here my sicky-poo, I love you!" or "How is my cute sicky-poo doing?"

We have all been sick here this week. Riley, Mom, Harper, Chris, Cole, Dad and Me (luckily Kenny escaped this week-just work, he did not abandon us or anything). Riley and Mom were struck last week and led into this week and the rest of us were hit this week! It has been fun... SIKE!

What is being passed around? The CRUD!!! The gross, nasty cold and an ear infection. Which leads me to a question... is an ear infection contagious? I didn't think so, but that has been the debate this week.

Harper, thank goodness, is on her way out of the sickness. And can I just say that watching your kid be sick, and uncomfortable, and feverish, and snotty is not fun business. And my kid just had a cold! It made me grateful for Harper's health. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a child with serious injuries or diseases. To all those parents out there who have that struggle, I am amazed by you and am praying for you!

My sister-in-law warned me about this aspect of parenting, the having a sick kid aspect. She said it was horrible. Sue, you were completely right!

I was very grateful for my parents this week. I was glad to be at their house this week while Kenny was at his first week of work! They are amazing people, my parents. When Harper was at her worst, and neither one of us had slept very well the night before, my dad stayed up all night and took shifts with me so that I could get some sleep. Every time Harper would cry or whimper and my dad got her back to sleep, I said this prayer... "Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for giving me a superhero for a dad. I am seriously grateful." And he even got up super early the next morning to take Cole to seminary... seriously, superhero!

But, on the plus side and just because I am a glass half-full kind of girl, I logged some major cuddle time this week with Harper. Jealous? You should be cause I definitely put the mother in smother this week and LOVED every minute of it (disclaimer- I can't take credit for the cleverness of the "mother in smother" line... I heard it along time ago on a blog that I read, reagansblob.com-if you haven't read her blog, you should. I love it. Her daughter Pip is so stinking cute. P.s. she is one of the parents I am amazed by).

And to end this post, I leave you with a cute picture of Harper waiting to be smothered to sleep.

P.s.- Sorry about the poor quality cell phone picture. I hope to get a new camera on Black Friday.

Long Over Due

So I promised a long time ago that I would have a cute story and picture to post, so here it goes. The day before we left Utah, we spent the day out on the town with Kenny's brother and sister-in-law, Spencer and Micki. We had so much fun and it was the perfect last day with them (when I say last day, it sounds so final... like the end... but no worries, it is not). Anyways, that day Harper was just getting over a cold and not feeling so hot. She was having some (to put it delicately) bowel issues and ended up dirtying 3 outfits.

* side note- I usually always carry at least two extra outfits on me at all times because Miss Harper likes to take care of business in the car seat. No joke, it is seriously the only place that she goes and without fail. Even if it is just a quick 3 minute car ride to the grocery store, it always happens... there and back! You can all imagine how fun the trip from Utah to Texas was for us! :)

But back to the story, so we were in the new Cabella's store just looking around when it happened and I was out of outfits. So I had to buy a new outfit there. Their selection for infant clothes...minimal! They had no onesies, cute little t-shirts, or anything of the sort. The only thing that they did have was a flannel, camo sleeper. And I am not a camo fan (sorry for those who are), so I cringed the whole time I was putting it on her and every time I would look over at my cute adorable baby and see the camo. UGH!!!

But the whole time we were walking around Cabella's she was getting the funniest comments. Every staff that we walked by commented on how adorable and she should be our advertisement/model and she looked so good in camo. The best though was one guy who was there buying a gun told me that he was glad to see a mom who knew how to dress her daughter right and that I should keep up the good work. No joke, Kenny and I cracked up!

But anyway, here are camo pics... See if you can spot her!

Though still adorable, camo definately brings out her pastiness!

Family Update- We moved to Texas (APPLAUSE, CHEERS, YAY). Kenny got a job working for a company based out of San Clemente, California. He starts training on the 15th. He will train for 4 months. During that time he will be travelling to a different city every week from Monday to Friday learning how to work and train others on the companies software. After that they will place us somewhere in either the U.S. or Canada and that is where we will stay. Harper and I are going to stay with my parents for those first 4 months and party it up with my family (which we are excited about and hope they are too). So we are all super excited about everything that is going on and all of the changes! We will miss Kenny so much though while he is traveling (luckily we get weekends) and are so proud of him.

GTT, Baby!!!

GTT=Gone to Texas. People way back when used to write it on their doors when they moved to Texas (at least that is what my 7th grade Texas History teacher, Mr. Collins, taught... who knows if it is right. and yes, in Texas you have a whole year devoted purely to Texas History... PRIDE baby!). And that is what we did this week, we Gone to Texas. YAY... but we are missing Spencer and Micki and those beautiful Utah mountains!

P.S. Cute pictures and funny story of Harper to come!

6 months

So it has been kind of crazy lately... Plus we lost our camera when we went up to temple square a couple of weeks ago (which is a total bummer, we had tons of cute pics on there that had not been taken off, not to mention pictures on temple square... A really cute one of Harper in her little sun glasses on top of the conference center... Sad I will never see it!). But anyways, I have a lot to catch up on... And a warning in advance... No camera equals phone pictures equals not good, blurry pictures. So sorry!

So Harper had her six month check up yesterday (which another apology, I am blogging from Kenny's phone laying on the floor next to Harps crib... She woke up with a high fever from her shots... And yes I realize I am neurotic laying on the floor next to her bed, but I am fine with that. So sorry if the spacing is off or the post looks weird). Anyways, her stats...

Height: 27 in 90%
Weight: 17 lbs 11 oz. 85%
Head: 99%

She is doing so good! It is crazy to think that she is already six months old! Time flies when you are having fun. But she is such a fun little girl. She loves to explore and look at new things, the concentration she has when she is just discovering something is absolutely astounding. And she definitely has her own agenda and plans and will not be deterred. She has given up on crawling, if she wants something from across the room she will roll herself over there to get it then circle her body around. It is hilarious to watch. She also no longer wants baby food but will stop at nothing to try and get a taste of what we are eating.
She is just such a cute, fun little baby! Kenny and I are just loving every minute. Being a mom is absolutely the best!

Reflections of Motherhood

My mom showed me this video. I absolutely LOVE it!



I would say "Don't apologize for doing what you think is right", "Take time for yourself," and "Just smile and have fun."

Being a mom has been the greatest thing... I am so grateful for the opportunity I have been blessed with to have Harper and get to stay home and take care of her.