Four Months Old

This little guy just continues to get bigger and bigger. Much like his sister he has decided that hanging out in the fiftieth percentile isn't for him, so he made the jump to the nintey-fifth.

He is gradually getting a little more content when not being held and even enjoys his bouncer and swing for short periods of time. He is starting to sleep through the night a little bit more regularly too, which this exhausted momma is so thankful for!

He thinks he is getting big and tries to sit up constantly. Something tells me he will probably start moving earlier than his big sister did.

We love our little Henry! His coos, smiles, and laughs just melt my heart. He loves to snuggle and give kisses. He really is a sweet baby and we feel so blessed to have him in our family.

3 Months Old

I know, I know,I am late as always. Our little man is officially 3 months old. Which means, he has started sleeping through the night on occasion, he likeavtobsit in his bumbo and watch me, he has started grabbing everything and putting it in his mouth, and he is getting a little bit more content every day.

He has been kind of rough on me. He is super cuddly and wants to be held all of the time, but he is getting better at letting Grace entertain him or just hanging out in his swing. Despite his constant needyness I am in love with him! I can't imagine our family without him in it.

Two Months Old

I'm only a few days late this time. Our little Henry is already two months old!

He has gotten so big. He is so much more alert and responsive when we talk to him.  In fact he has an adorable smile with dimples. Someday I will even get a picture of it.

Grace is getting more and more acclimated to having him around. Mostly she ignores him, but she does like to give him hugs and kisses and help my carry him around.

We are grateful for him and love having him in our little family.

One Month

As usual I am late at getting this out.  Our little Henry is officially one month old!  That went so fast!  As per his usual self he put up with his oneie photoshoot like a champ!

He is finally starting to put on a little bit of weight and seems to have gotten taller.  I won't know his measurements for a couple more weeks.  All I know is that he can finally wear his 0-3 clothes without totally swimming in them.

He is a good little baby who sleeps pretty well.  He is starting to sleep in longer stretches both day and night which is very helpful.  He loves attention and thinks he needs to be held 24/7, which of course I would love to do, but his big sister won't have it.

Henry loves his big sister and she loves him.  She loves to give him hugs and kisses and still oohs and ahhs over him.

We love our little man and are so glad he is part of our family!

Sidenote: Thanks to my sister Jennifer for designing and making all of his super cute monthly ties!

Introducing Henry ...

 Henry Theron Roundy

August 5, 2013

7 lbs 10 oz 21 in

We are so excited to have our little man here with us.  He was born Monday, August 5th at 4:24 pm.  I was admitted to the hospital that morning to be induced.  After the speed of Grace's labor I was really anxious about this one so I opted for the induction.  Unlike his sister Henry took his time.  They started the pitocin at 9 am and things didn't really start progressing much till around 3pm.  At that point things got more intense.  I had opted not to get the epidural until I thought that I really needed it.  I waited too long, I got some IV drugs, but no real pain killers (I don't reccomend waiting that long).  I was pretty loopy from what they gave me so I am not totally clear on how things went down.  I know I wasn't fully dialeted yet, but Henry's heart rate dropped pretty dramatically so the doctor felt he needed to deliver so I started pushing at 8cm (once again I don't reccommend this method).  The doctor helped out and he came pretty quickly, it took a minute to get him crying, but he was perfectly healthy and just perfect.

He has the same chin and mouth as Grace and really looks so much like his dad!  He is a very handsome boy!

Grace met him that evening and immediatly wanted to hug and kiss him.  She has a cute baby talk voice and she just oohs and ahhs over him.  It's so cute!

 

Our little family of four!

We brought Henry home on Wednesday.  Grace was excited to have him there and loves to hold him for two seconds at a time.

He is so tiny!

 But it is so fun to have a sweet tiny baby again, and I love seeing Grace take on her role as big sister!

Grace is 2!!

I know ... I'm a month late, but it has been a busy month ...

My little girl turned 2 years old!  I know it sounds cliche, but I can't really believe how fast it has gone.  It seems like yesterday that she was a tiny baby in my arms and now she is running everywhere with quite the immagination and the stubborness of both of her parents combined.  

Grace and Eric have birthdays only a few days apart so we decided to have friends over for a BBQ on their birthday weekend.  It was a crazy rainy day, but the rain stopped just in time and we were able to hang out outside while the kids played in the water.  Turned out to be a lot of fun!

We did presents and cake on Grace's actual birthday ... she and Eric shared an ice cream cake ... I even let Eric pick it out.  Grace did much better eating this cake than she did last year.

Then it was time for presents ... she likes to open them, but she tends to take her time so we had to prod to be done for bedtime.  She tends to tear the paper off in tiny pieces very slowly so it took forever ...

and then by the time we got to the last present she had to take breaks to play with toys before she would actually finish it.

We love this little girl and could not be more grateful to have her in our family!

In case you were wondering ...

I get asked all the time where Grace's blue eyes and blonde hair come from.  I have always said that she looks a lot like my mother, but her mouth is Eric's.  After seeing this picture of my mom I am convinced, but I will let you judge for yourself ...

Grace

Her Grandma Kesler

Summer Vacation

First off ... I will mention that as it typical, whenever we go to see my family I never get around to taking any pictures.  I wish I had, we did lots, but alas ...

This summer we did our summer vacation with my family.  Actually we saw lots of family, but the bulk of the trip was to see my family.

After some trouble getting our trip started ... I won't get into it, I will just say that I am done with Frontier Airlines ... we set off for Salt Lake.  We got there on Saturday morning and picked up our car and met Eric's sisters for brunch.  It was fun to see them and Grace enjoyed having them walk/chase her around the retaurant and its parking lot.  Then we were off to Idaho.

We stayed at my parent's house in Meridian.  We all went to church together on Sunday morning which has to be the first time that has happened in years!  We added 6 kids to their nursery ... probably would have been good to warn the primary of that ahead of time.  I think the most entertaining moment was when in the hallway moving between sharing time and class my nephew Junior was telling the teacher that he was my little brother Jackman's nephew.  Junior has 5 inches or more on Jackman and is 3 months younger than him.  I saw the teacher kind of shrug it off like "yeah right", but the funny part is that is true and I don't think most people are likely to believe him.  Maybe not so funny to you, but I just about died!

We headed up to a cabin in Garden Valley that afternoon where we stayed until Wednesday.  We had lots of pregnant woman and my sister Jenn who had her baby six weeks ago.  So we were really limited as to what we could do so we crafted.  We all use the same Christmas stockings and all needed to make some more so we got that done and made all the kids their 4th of July shirts.  It was fun to sit and craft with my mom and sisters and Eric was great about taking care of the kids.  And as is required for any Harper women get together there was a visit to a quilting store in town.  I now have a new long term project to work on.  I am very excited!  It was a fun few days to just relax and spend some time together talking and letting our kids play together.

We headed back down to Meridian on Wednesday where we took kids to play at the splash pad and the park ... and of course sno cones from Ali's Sno Shack!  That night my sisters and I and our husbands got to go out for dinner sans kids.  It was so nice to get to sit and talk and not have to chase kids.  Pretty sure there were a couple moments where laughter brought me to tears so it was a good time.

Thursday (aka the 4th of July) Eric, Grace and I packed up and said goodbye and headed to Blackfoot (where both of my parents grew up).  In the 4 years we have been married we have meant to go there a lot, but have never made it.  We (now that I think about it this was a really bad idea, glad it worked out ok) decided to take the highway route accross the state instead of the interstate.  The highway takes a little longer, but it is prettier and you go through Crater of the Moon.  So we took that route which took longer than we thought it would and there was no where to stop for lunch, but we did get to see Craters of the Moon which Eric had never been to and I hadn't been too since I was a kid.  It was amazing as always.  If you look close you can see Grace is wearing her 4th of July shirt we made her :).

After a lot of driving we made it to Blackfoot.  We stopped first at my Grandma and Grandpa Harper's house.  We stayed there and visited for a few hours.  Grace kept Grandma busy playing with her.  She also made sure to stop what she was doing and ask Grandma if she was ok every time she coughed, which only lead to laughing and more coughing, but it was cute.  Of course I had to show Grandma my new quilt project.  She was upset we went to a quilt store without her ;).  Grandma and Grandpa both celebrate their 80th birthday's this year as well and their 60th anniversay.  We will unfortunatly miss out on those festivities due to baby boy's due date so it was fun to get to see them.  

We then made it over to Kesler's house where a small 4th of July gathering was taking place.  Grace enjoyed jumping on the trampoline while I got a chance to catch up a little bit with some family I haven't seen in a long time.  I also got a few minutes to talk to my Grandpa Kesler ... not sure he ever realized who I was, but it was good to see him and talk to him for a little while.  And as if we could make this day any longer we decided to leave from there and head straight back down to Salt Lake.  We did get a nice fireworks show at every town we passed along the way.  Grace was a real trooper when it came to all the travel on this trip.

We spent the next couple days in Salt Lake with Eric's sisters.  They experienced taking an over tired 2 year old out to breakfast ... once again a lot of time was spent outsite until the food arrived.  We all took naps and went to the park.  It was fun to just hang out and play with Grace.  Saturday we went to Hogle Zoo.  As usual Grace loved the animals. 

She watched 2 bears wrestling in the water for a long time.

She liked the giraffes, but their long black tongues kind of creep me out.

The zoo has lego exhibits right now so here is Eric as a lego Gorilla.

And Grace.

It was fun to get to take her somewhere fun.  I have been lousy at that this summer being super prenant and all.  That night her aunts were nice enough to watch her and let Eric and I go out to dinner which is always nice.

It was a great trip!  I am glad we went.  Looking back I would never reccommend someone travel like that 35 weeks pregnant cause it was rough, but I am very glad we did.  But it felt wonderful to get back to our house and sleep in my own bed.

She is Getting SO Big!!

It seems like all of the sudden I am losing my baby.  She is inching closer to her 2nd birthday and she has decided to start proving it.  In the last two weeks all of the sudden ...

She preferes the big kid swings ...

She takes lots of risks ...

She had her first popcicle all by herself ...

She has gone from just trying on my shoes to wearing my heels all over the house ...

And, biggest of all ... she has started sleeping in a big girl bed (by big girl bed, I mean a mattress on the floor while she gets used to it.)

I love this little kid!  She is so sweet and getting big way to fast.

Gracie and The Soccer Ball

Grace has officially discovered the outdoors!  She is her mama's girl and would prefer to be outside than inside at all times.  While exploring the backyard with her dad she discovered Cletus' soccer ball.  What you need to know is that Cletus likes to kick around this ball with his head and try to catch it in his mouth and it gets stuck in his teeth so it is really a gnarled and disgusting ball.  Grace decided she likes this ball.  She figured out how to kick and chase it ... but decided it couldn't be done without dragging daddy along as well as her baby.

I was fairly amused sitting on the porch watching all the action.

Weekend in Nebraska

Eric decided he needed a break from work so this past weekend we took a couple days off and headed to Nebraska to visit Eric's parents.  We met them in Omaha on Friday morning and went to the zoo.  Grace had been there before, but she was only four months old.  She enjoyed it much more this time.  She loved the aquariam ... this girl loves anything to do with water!    Here she is looking at penguins.

The zoo is huge so Grace took a quick sit down break with Grandpa.

When she saw the carousel she really wanted to get on it, but the wait in line was too much for her ... by the time she got on she was screaming and clinging to Eric ... once it got started she totally relaxed and I think even enjoyed her first carousel ride.

After our day at the zoo we headed back to Seward to spend more time with Grandma and Grandpa.  We took Grace to the school a couple of times to play on the toys.  She has apparently gotten much braver since the fall.  She freely went down the slides over and over again on her own.  Like the crazy static hair?

Her other favorite part of the park was the swing.  Here she is with Grandma.

It was a quick weekend away, but it was fun.  Grace enjoyed all of the attention and really enjoyed seeing her Grandma and Grandpa Roundy.  We took this quick picture before we left.  A miracle because Grace was screaming while we were trying to take it. 

Morning Routine

Grace is a funny kid ... no denying that.  She comes up with things to do that just baffle me, but one of my favorite things that she does has become a part of her morning routine.

Most mornings she likes to play in her crib for a little while so I just let her and when I go in to get her out one of the first things that she says is "doggie".  She immediatly runs out of her room and looks around until she finds Cletus.  This was them together this morning.

She leaned over to give him a kiss and then layed down to talk to him for a minute.  She doesn't really feel like talking to me in the morning, but she always has to check in with Cletus.

Big News!

Ok, ok, I know it has been FOREVER since I have posted.  Sorry ... I tend to get behind and then think that I need to do a million posts to catch up on everything and then I don't.  Sorry.  This is not going to be a catch up post.  That is too daunting.  So I will get going again and try to do better.

The one thing that I will catch you up on is the really big news.  I didn't share this until a couple weeks ago on facebook so don't feel like you are too in the dark.

This summer we are expecting an addition to our family, which is very exciting.  Grace is officially going to be a big sister and the really exciting part is that ...

I find the whole boy thing pretty overwhelming.  After spending the last almost two years with a little girl it just feels strange to start looking at boy thing.  We are very excited and anxious for him to make his arrival, it won't be until sometime around August 9th.  With any luck he will have a name by then, but I make no promises.  

In any case, getting ready for this little man is certainly keeping me busy.  I have been working on sewing his crib bedding and getting Gracie ready to move to a big kid bed.  Lots more to do and it is much more challenging this time around with a toddler trying to help me.

Grace's Birthday

I know I am really late at getting to this but last week just got really busy.  Grace has a small and simple first birthday.  She opened presents with mom and dad and Grandma Roundy via skype.  She got a music table, walker, some clothes, and an alphabet for the refrigerator.   She loves to open presents and had fun playing with her new toys.

Here is the alphabet I made her.  It was a fun little project.  (I made another one for my nephew and I hope he likes it too.)

Our friends the Timmin's came over for dinner.  We had some good macaroni and cheese which Gracie loved!  She wasn't so sure about the cake though.  She kind of looked at it for a while.  Touched it, and then didn't like the frosting sticking to her hands.  We couldn't really get her to eat the cake until I scraped the frosting off and then she liked it.  

So we gave her some birthday cake ice cream and she loved that!

And here she is in her post birthday dinner bath.  

We love this little girl and had a lot of fun celebrating her birthday.  I can't believe it!  It has gone so fast, but she is more and more fun every day.

I do have videos, but they are too long to post so if you want to see them let me know.

Grace and Her Walker

This one if for Grandma Roundy.  Grace has taken steps on her own and continues to do more and more but she stills prefer to walk with assistance which means we do endless laps around the living room so I am grateful for this toy.  At first she was afraid of it, but now she is really enjoying it. 

Grace Loves Water!

It was pretty warm the other day and Grace wanted to be out, but we were trying to get things done at home so didn't feel like taking her to the waterpark (which she loves) so we just blew up the little pool Grandma got her and let her play outside.  She loves to just sit and splash.

And she has no fear of sticking her face in the water.  Not sure, but maybe she has been watching Olympic swimming too much.

Here is a quick video of her excited in the pool.

Harvest Time is Here!

 As a kid/teenage I can't really remember an August that wasn't spent canning.  We had a huge garden and lots of fruit trees so there was a lot to do.  I remember a hot sticky kitchen and making a huge mess to fill the food storage room in the garage.  Amazingly enough, they are good memories of time spent with my mom and sisters in the kitchen.

Since then I haven't canned a thing!  I may buy some extra something and freeze it but that has been it.  I was always too busy with school/work or didn't really have room for food storage.  I started getting more serious about food storage when I bought my house in Aurora, but it was just me and I worked to much to can anything so I would just buy extra groceries and store then on a shelf in the basement.

Last summer was our first attempt at a garden.  It did produce well, but I had a baby at the end of July so I didn't really do much with it besides freeze some of the vegetables.  But this year I was gonna get serious.  So last week I got started and here is what I did.

1 batch pickles (cucumbers from my garden)

1 batch pesto (basil from my garden)

6 dozen ears of corn (from a local farmer)

36 pound of pears (were on sale at a local store)

1 batch beets (from my garden, aren't they pretty?)

1/4 bushel peaches (from a local store)

There was also some rhubarb jam with rhubarb from the garden, it is yummy stuff.  I need to do more this week.

And right when I thought I was done Eric suggested we go out to the garden and this is what we came in with.  Bell pepper, jalepeno peppers, chili Peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, pear tomatoes, roma tomatoes, and Italian tomates.   

So I guess I am doing salsa and pickles this week.