1st Birthday

As promised, here are pictures of the Birthday Extravaganda. It was overall a fun day. Harper won't remember a dang thing but we had fun.

One of Harper's favorite things is Gingered Beef from Pei Wei. Everytime she puts a piece in her mouth she scrunches down and says MMMMM really really loud. It is so stinkin' cute and hilarious.

Her she is on her way to her birthday dinner sporting her new shades...

This is the cake that I made... I saw it on my favorite food blog, Annie's Eats, and had been wanting to make it ever since. So Harper's birthday was a great excuse. It is a Neapolitan Cake. It was fun to make and was actually really yummy!

This is what the cake looks like inside... that was my favorite part.

This is Harper in her birthday Tutu made by Riley and her friend Sam.

Harper's favorite food is black beans, avocado, and cheese. So that is what she ate and the rest of us had taco salad.

This is the smash cake... She did not get that into but it was still fun.

The party attendees....

Miss Harper is the best little girl ever! We love having her in our family. She is just so fun and sweet.

BIG NEWS that starts with a definition

ex•pa•tri•ate

–verb (used with object)
1. to banish (a person) from his or her native country.
2. to withdraw (oneself) from residence in one's native country.
3.to withdraw (oneself) from allegiance to one's country.

–verb (used without object)
4. to become an expatriate: He expatriated from his homeland.

–adjective
5.expatriated; exiled.

–noun
6. an expatriated person: Many American writers were living as expatriates in Paris.



Kenny's four months of training are up and just this week we received news of where we will be headed. Harper and I are going to be expats (well kind of Harper, she is going to be a dual citizen but me for sure).



***And just to clarify before I get going, I don't like the 3rd definition... I will never loss my allegiance to the great state of TEXAS!!! I will always and forever be a Texan first and foremost (and I realize that I going to have to step up my Texisms before going. For example, I am going to say yall more than I do now and I am thinking about picking up howdy as well)!



But anyways, back to the big news... We were assigned to go to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We have had a strong hunch for a while that is where we would be headed but did not want to tell anyone as to disappoint or get hopes up (the majority of Kenny's family currently resides in the area). But we are happy and excited and nervous (this is mainly me- I do not do well with change... never have and this is a big change) and sad and overwhelmed.

We were given 4 months before they want us up there and will be flying up for a weekend in a few weeks to get things set up and checked out. So it is exciting and frazzled and thrilling. We are looking forward to the adventure and the Canadian candy bars (when we first got married I told Kenny that if we moved to Canada a couple of things will happen on a daily basis 1) I will eat a candy bar everyday and 2)I will wear long johns every day. I am not sure that the candy bar thing will stick but the long johns sure will)! :)

So stinkin' happy

So I am writing this short little blog for my brother chris.... I have not blogged in practically FOREVER. Life has been way busy with everything going on and with my semester wrapping up and teething ( Harper of course). I am actually writing this from my phone in my bed because I remembered after crawling into bed after loads of school work that I promised chris I would post birthday pics of Miss Harper in all her cute birthday-ness! So this is an apology and promise I will blog pics tomorrow.

And now as for the title of this blog... The vast majority of Kenny and I's possessions are currently residing in a storage shed up in Provo. Basically all of our stuff except for a portion of our clothes which we brought down here to wear (because rude house guests don't wear clothes and we certainly don't want to be rude house guests/residers because I think we have passed the guest phase and are full on residers. But anyways,). When we packed it all up, I honestly thought I would miss my stuff dearly. Shockingly, that has not been the case at all!

However, there is one possession that I have been withdrawing about. That beloved item is my GILMORE GIRLS seasons! I love them. I love it. I love Gilmore Girls and always will. GREATEST SHOW EVER!!!! I love everything about the show.

Kenny is fully aware of the love affair that I have with the show. When we were contemplating baby names, I had to reassure him after every suggestion it was not a name from the show. And sometimes I quote the show in real life circumstances and Kenny will call me out on it. But it makes me proud for two reasons. 1) it means that he knows the show too and 2) that I can remember it so well (I am not a huge fan of those scene-it games. However, if anyone ever sees a Gilmore girls game... I must have it). And then sometimes when he calls me out he is wrong and the funny line was my own personal creation. These moments are my proudest because I was able to retort witty enough to be considered a gilmorism.

But, I digress, the reason I am happy is I found a place to watch full episodes online... Thewb.com. I am so excited to be able to put it on on the background while doing my homework again! I have truly missed it.

***just a little note- I do love Gilmore girls and realize this post makes me seem a bit loony... Just keep in mind that my love may have been a little dramatized (at least that is what I am telling myself to make myself feel better about the whole situation... The real test though would be my loving husband's reaction. So Kenny, your thoughts....?)

G.G.'s house

Harper and I spent this past week with hanging out with her Great Grandma and Grandpa Dethloff. We had SO SO SO much fun! I love going to College Station and hanging out with my grandparents. They are some of the coolest and best people I will EVER know! But we had an absolute BLAST!!!

On Monday, we all (including Kenny... he flew out that night) went on a quick tour of A&M and then did the Bush Library. And I just have to say, everytime I go, it deepens my love for those Bushes... great people (Kenny, quit rolling your eyes at my pride for anything Texan). :)

Then the rest of the week, we played and played and played all day. We got to go and see all of the ladies at the bowling league, visit with a family friend Patti (twice!), went shopping for church dresses, ate out, and listened to Harper pant (yes like a dog... I think she was trying to make herself laugh... she did it all week for some reason. It was pretty funny and cute). Anyways, here are some wonderful pics of Harper and her amazing Great-grandparents.

Katie, this pic is for you... no more fangs! :) or :( cause they were pretty humorous

And this next picture has an explanation... it is for the sake of posterity. This television is in my grandparents guest room. It is a big box television that sits on the floor, I remember watching it all growing up. But I took this picture because I figured that NEVER again will a tv this big be made. NEVER! So when Harper is 32 and has kids of her own, I will show them this picture of their mother "SITTING ON TOP OF A TELEVISION" and their little minds will be blown because of the giganticness of it. And we will all laugh at how big they used to make televisions and how that a tv would never fit on our arm today (because in the future we will all have small televisions implanted on our arms and everything will be streamed in... CRAZY times ahead).
Anyways, we love you Grandma and Grandpa Dethloff! Thanks for having us!

P.S.- our next little vacation will be to Houston and Fairfield... we can't wait, so expect a call!

Go Cougars

So this past weekend Kenny, Harper, and I went to the BYU/ TCU basketball game and cheered on Jimmer. We had such a fun time and Harper did suprisingly well. She had a hard time when people did those high pitch yelly, screechy things. But other than that she loved to sit and people watch... and read her books that we brought. But the cougars won (of course) and there were probably more BYU fans present that TCU fans.

Harper and I are going to have to get some official BYU gear to wear next time we are in Utah ( I do have a sweatshirt, but it is was way to hot for that).

She did have a few moments when she was focused on the game.

I HAVE HAD IT!

I am buying a big bubble and Miss Harper is going to spend the rest of her days in it.

On Wednesday we had to check Miss Harper into the hospital. It was sad and hard and horrible and miserable and wretched and I never want to do it again... hence, the bubble!

But she had been sick since Sunday, spent 3 hours at the doctors office Monday, got diagnosed with pneumonia, got really worse Tuesday, went back to the doctors on Wednesday morning, was told to go straight to the Plano Presbyterian ER. When we got there we they did all the vitals then went and got her a room. She was running a 104 temp and was not breathing well. She was so dehydrated that they had quite a hard time getting a line in her. First 3 ER nurses tried, then they called down the Pediatric nurses... it took FOREVER and was absolutely MISERABLE! She was poked, prodded, thumped, squeezed, mashed, pricked and pricked and pricked again. After 4 pricks and blown veins they pinned her down and put her IV in her head! I was FREAKED!! She screamed the whole time. It was horrible to witness and I am sure even worse for her.

After she had some fluid and a breathing treatment, they transferred her to a different hospital because if something went wrong they would not have been able to handle it (that is what the respiratory therapist told me). So Harper and I rode in the ambulance to Children's Medical at Legacy. When we got there we were informed that she did not have pneumonia but bronchitis/rsv. They kept her hooked up with an IV the whole time to get her rehydrated and monitored feedings and well the opposites of feeding.

So we had a fun (to use the term loosely) little night watching tv, holding our sicky poo, trying to keep cords untangled and away from Harper's hands, eating hospital food, and getting visits- Stephen came Wednesday night and Mom, Cole, and Riley came that next morning. Thankfully, we only stayed Wednesday night and got to leave the next afternoon.

Harper is doing better. She still has quite a nasty little cough and wheezes a bit but she is definitely perking up.

But it was such a nice hospital and the nurses that we had were SO SO SO wonderful. And I just have to say that it made me so incredibly grateful to have a healthy child. It is hard to have a sick kid. It is the worst thing to have to watch and my kid was not even that sick.

Harper and I at Presbyterian. This is right after they got her IV in... as you can tell by the way she looks it was quite traumatic. And she is now seriously afraid of blue gloves (she would be okay with the nurses, but the minute she saw blue gloves it was all screams). But after having your face smashed down by one for so long, you would too.

This is at Children's. They put a diaper on her head so she would not pull on her cords. It made her insanely sweaty so we ditched it quick.

Watching Caillou with Daddy

Playing with toy stethoscope the gave her. She LOVES it and knows just what to do!

Napping with Kitty

Zoo Days

So on Saturday Kenny, Harper, Riley, Cole, Sam (a friend of Riley's), and I all went to the Dallas Zoo. We had so much fun! I absolutely love the zoo! It is the place I would choose to go over and over again. Family activity... let's go to the zoo. I even want to take our family pictures at the zoo...it woul be cute,right!? But Kenny is still needing to be convinced.

My infatuation with the zoo comes from my love of giraffes. I love love love giraffes! They are my favorite animals. They are just so graceful and regal. I could watch them for hours! Plus, there tongues are stinking hilarious! So long they can completely wrap around their whole face and lick the other side. Just love them! And I will admit this was my thought process as we were at the giraffe's area... Maybe if I drop something (like a kid) down there, they will let me go down and get it (or them) out and then I could play with the giraffes. Seriously, that is what I thought... love right?! But you all will be happy to know that, fortunately (or unfortunately... I am still not sure yet) common sense overcame me and I did not drop a kid down.

But anyways, here are pictures of the zoo!

We rode the train down to the zoo... Harper LOVED looking out the window, watching everything go by.

The Dallas Zoo has totally redone their exhibits since the last time I was there! They were awesome! You could get so much closer to the animals and there exhibits were so much more spacious and roomy for the animals so we got to see them be much more playful!


Cute Uncle Cole!

The kids... none of which got thrown into the giraffe exhibit. :)

Being goofy

GIRAFFES!!!!

It was the perfect day to go to the zoo! It was low 70's all day long! We had a great time!

Worn out!

Super cool Riley with the Super Cool Penguins

We are so glad when daddy is home !