Miss H's first hunt

We were so excited when Miss H's friend LK invited her out to the TCU Easter Egg hunt.  I have driven by this event before and it is pretty big.  Imagine a field covered with eggs...  TCU puts on a great hunt.  The front lawn is covered in eggs and divided into ages (which is super nice).

Of course the weather had to go from beautiful to freezing cold the day before the hunt.  Welcome to Texas right!  Non the less we just bundled up and headed out.  Miss H did a great job for her FIRST egg hunt ever.  I of course had big plans to have her practice at home, but got too busy.  We gave her a run down before the hunt...if you can imagine how that went with a 14 month old.  It was like this "H see the "balls" go pick them up and put them in your basket!  She of course kept signing and saying "ball"  Ha so much for that!  But in the end she did really good and got lots of "balls" or eggs as we know them.

We got a few pictures from the very chilly event! 

just the eggs in the 0-3 year old area

 Miss H not a fan of Super Frog...but it's okay with her Sooner Mommy!

Sweet LK and H before the hunt

Holding her back as they counted down to start the hunt

She was ready to go!

Look at her loot....pretty good for a first timer.

Miss H is 14 months old!!

Harper you are FOURTEEN months old!

This month you weigh (guessing) almost 18 lbs.  You are now 29  1/2 inches long! You are wearing a size 3 diaper.  You are finally moving into your 12 month clothes. Mommy is happy because soon the seasons will change! 

Monthly stats:

FOOD: Your teachers at MDO can't believe how you eat...actually no one can.  You love food and that is good because you are a skinny butt! You love bananas, eat one every morning! Recently you have been loving oranges too.  I am thankful you don't dislike much!

Sippy Cup: Water girl...love your water still.  Here and there you have been using a straw cup, but you always ask for your regular sippy after a few drinks from the straw.  I think you are girl who doesn't like her food and drinking routine changed :-) 

Smiling: Smiling is what you do best...you love to give out smiles to anyone.  You have recently started acting a little shy, but you still smile! Oh and the crinkly face you make now is hilarious! 

Talking:  You say momma, dada, uh-oh, and hi. This months new words are more and hot.  You are so funny about how you say them too.  You will only whisper hot while making the sign.  Your more may sound to others as a 'moh'  but it is the begins of more and you mean business when you say it too! 

Sign language:  You still can sign back to us dog, ball, water, milk, more, eat, all done, please, baby, banana, thank you, cat, hot, cheese, bread, play, gentle, elephant, bird, paci (you made your own sign for this one), and music.  Your new signs this month are more food related (imagine that) cracker, bread, apple, and help.  You have kind of transformed your milk sign though and it no longer is for milk but now you use it when you want yogurt.  I love how you make your own signs so we can communicate. Cracker is also kind of your own style...you should tap your elbow with your hand but instead you tap your wrist.  I guess that is close enough I mean we know what you want :-)  We will continue to work on signs while you continue to increase your vocabulary verbally too! 

Obsessions: (I decided to add this one this month...to replace awareness) BIRDS you are crazy obsessed with birds.  You love to watch them, feed them, and more.  You can sit in our front window and just watch the birds as they come and go from the feeder.  Of course you dog doesn't help out much with them...he scares them with his crazy barking.  I love that you are recognizing your world around you!

Observer:  I should change this also to my little GREATER! Walmart would love to hire you because you love to wave and say HI to everyone.  When we walk Winston at night you say HI and wave to all the things around us...there could be a person at the end of the block and you will sit and wave until they see you or wave back.  Sweet girl 

WINSTON and BOB: I love watching you with your pets.  Winston has become aware of your moves though and will go hide when he has had enough.  However you still love to find him.  Good thing you haven't figured out how to climb under the bed!  I love it best when you just sit beside him and read your books.  You also love to give them both drive by kisses...you just run over kiss their backs and move on.  

Sleep: You have been doing a great job sleeping...UNTIL, molars arrived in our world.  This month you have been teething like crazy.  The worse part is it keeps you up at night and makes you very sad. I hate it when you wake up screaming like crazy....poor thing.   

Your hands: You have fine tuned your hand skills.  You can pretty much do anything with these now.  But they have spent a lot of time IN your mouth lately...thanks to those dang teeth.  

Mouth:  Tooth count- 7 1/2...we added two top molars and 1/2 of the right upper tooth this month.  Poor thing these have been pretty bad coming in.  You have drooled and chewed on your hands more this month than ever.  Oh and PACI obsessed, I think it helps to chew on your paci. 

Your legs:  Those cute little legs don't stop...EVER! You still are trying to "jump" and run.  Your favorite thing to do is stomp your feet.  Since we have pier beam floors you can really hear them stomp.  You will be sad because in our new house I don't think you will hear it as well. 

Bath time:  Little stinker...I think you are finally trying to escape from your little tub.  Recently you have tried to stand in it so we may have to move on.  Mommy will be sad! But man do you love your baths.  You love to put your face down into the water now and try to blow bubbles.  It is probably the cutest thing ever! 

Giggles:  Your giggle makes my heart smile.  I don't know how anyone could not smile when they hear a sweet baby giggle.  You have begun laughing at Winston when he rolls around on the carpet and scratches his back.  Also when he plays ball with himself.  It is funny to see you react to funny situations. 

Dislikes: You dislike it when you don't get your way...let the little fits begin! However you can normally pull it together pretty quickly.  You dislike it when its time to change dirty diapers, you would rather play. Still dislike milk..grrr! 

You had a few FIRST this month! 

Your first non family baby sitter. Miss Meredith
You moved to your new BIG GIRL car seat...no more infant carrier for you!
Your first time to play on the playground at MDO, it was fun!
First time meeting lots of the Mudroch family at your great grandma's birthday party.
First BLIZZARD!!! 18 inches of snow in Amarillo we got stuck in Colorado

Favorite toys this month are pretty much the same:

Books, Books, Books: You are loving your books this month

Being outside FINALLY!

14 months old the months keep going faster and faster. I can't believe how you have grown this month.  You're learning things so quickly. I love how you are becoming a fun little person who plays, sings, dances and more.  You are such a sweetie. We are very luck and blessed to be your parents.   Love you to the moon and back!

Your SECOND Year!

Your FIRST year!

Lights, paint, doors, and floors...

All I can say is this house is moving right along!!! I can not tell you how wonderful it is working with our builder and foreman.  This has been the best building experience ever! I know lots of people who looked at me like I was CRAZY when I said we were going to build.  They were very quick to say that comes with lots of issues...keeping on the builder, small disagreements between the spouse when picking things out, and time concerns.  None of those issues have really even been on our radar!!

We are so thankful for the great work we have going on. Also thankful at how quickly things seem to be moving along. The past two weeks were pretty busy for me on the house front.  Not too much has happened in the house but many final decisions have been going on.

Miss H went back to MDO on Tuesday for the FIRST time since her RSV illness.  I was a little worried because just before the RSV she got moved up a class.  Thus she really didn't know the teachers so I was not too sure how the day would go.  When I dropped her off and she was a little nervous, but they busted out her favorite thing FOOD!   I am so glad she had a great day because I had a very busy house day.  I spent the morning picking out all of our light fixtures for the house.  I am so happy I had a wonderful consultant to help me since Chris was out of town for work.  I also was very proud that I didn't go over budget!!  It's the little things, ha

As I was there I got a call from Jason our foreman that the trim guys were at the house.  They wanted some direction on a few of our closets and such.  I rushed from the lighting company to the house.  I was in complete shock when I arrived...we had garage doors! WHAT WHAT  oh and that is not even all we had WOOD floors too!  The trim guy probably thought I was nuts because I was excited about that.  Oh and the fact that they were putting all the doors in the house and other wood work.  We got all our closets, pantry, and such worked out.  Again I am glad Todd hires great guys who think things out and can help you think things out.  I mean some things I would have done and it would have been a disaster.  They can think in ways that you don't...that's why they are great a their jobs.

The other task I had to work out was paint! YIKES  I mean we had picked out our paint for the whole house (Amazing Gray Sherwin Williams) except Miss H's big girl room.  I am in no way moving her to that room but I want to go ahead and have them paint it so I don't have to in a few years.  Of course they called asking for that...and I was still on the fence.  However I have finally picked it out and am very excited. Her nursery will be painted like it was in our old house.  I just loved it so much I couldn't imagine changing it. Plus baby number 2 will get to use that room (no baby yet...not for a while).   After picking paint out...so stressful  we also got the rest of our brick/stone work done.  They finished our fireplace inside the house. I like how it turned out.  They also finished Chris' outside kitchen.  I really love the way the fireplace fits in out there!

The house is really looking wonderful.  We are just in a small hold because our cabinets are not ready yet.  There were a few factors there that slowed us down.  The cabinet guy was out of town and then I was going out of town...and such.  Needless to say it will all work out this week.  This week we plan to get cabinets in, maybe paint on the walls, and some flooring going in.  Oh and our circle drive and main drive too!   I can't wait to put Miss H's sweet little hand and foot print in it!  Here are some pics from the week with all our changes.

back of the house...with the grill in

the new doors

outdoor kitchen

fireplace and wood floors in the living room

kitchen getting ready for cabinets

looking into entry from formal dinning room

some of the closets ready

Miss H trying to get in the back door

looking at da da from the living room windows

looking out the front window of formal dinning room

cutie

running free in her soon to be home

looking out the front door!

Smash cake session fun!

Okay let me start this by saying I am so in LOVE with these photos.  I wanted to do a smash cake session for Miss H's first birthday, but January isn't the best time of year to take pics outside.  I searched high and low...and started looking in October.  No one in our area really had a studio so I had no other choice than to go with an outside location.  I was bummed and well had to make my self okay with the idea that she wouldn't be in her bloomers covered in cake.

Then we had our next little issue...RSV, hospital stay! Remember that wonderful week of events.  Of course that was the week we were doing her smash cake session! AHH Poor baby looks so sad and sick there was no way I could do that to her or the photographers.  Needless to say that brings me to our WONDERFUL photographers.  Who were kind enough to move H's session back a week or two..even though they are busy moms too.

Sweet LaRae took Miss H's pictures and man are they the best to work with.  I am not kidding they are so great.  What I really love is that they are sisters, have kids, and both take pictures at the same time.  I am certain that is why we got so many wonderful pictures.  Plus they had super cute props for the session.  I can't thank them enough for the wonderful memories they have given me.  Okay so I had to post pretty much all of them! If you live in the area I would really recommend them.  They made my "vision" come out perfect for her session.

 Now time for the CAKE!!!