Christmas Traditions

So my family may have been a little crazy at times, but we knew how to do Christmas when I was little.  All of those silly texans would come up (Hi Aunt Debbie!) and it was pretty much the best ever.  All of the kids (except Eric who was a teen and so much cooler than us) would sleep upstairs and I remember hearing the adults laughing as they did the stockings downstairs, yes I knew they were doing stockings, we believed in Santa and did the big santa gift, but I could always tell what stuff came from who in the stocking, especially what came from Aunt Kathy.  We would wake up early on Christmas and our santa gifts and stockings would be there and then the opening of gifts was many hours long, and so much fun!

I am happy to say that we have brought that back on a smaller scale.  We always spend Christmas at Eric's, with some great family and friends.   Christmas Eve we have dinner, usually do something along the lines of what we are thankful for, read the nativity, give Christmas Eve gifts (pjs), then we go home (we sleep at home and go over early in the morning, because well, I love my dogs, and they shouldn't have to sleep alone on Christmas Eve). We get up early, go back over where Santa left the stockings and Santa gift (I'm pretty tight with the jolly man, he knows where to leave the stuff, this year, I have it on good authority he is getting Harper a Little People Fairy Tree House) We are so excited to have little kids around for Christmas and to feel the excitement and joy and magic all over again!

Yes, my kids will believe in Santa, (at least till some evil 1st grade substitute tells them otherwise, yeah, I'm talking to you Mrs. O!  And it is Dr. Seuss!  Not Dr. Zeussy... put my name on the board for the first and only time for correcting you without raising my hand, what do you expect, you said the most popular child author's name wrong to a bunch of 6 year olds!)  I don't think there's anything wrong with believing in a man who's life's mission is to give to all the children of the world, as long as they never forget the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate this time of year, and why its truly magical.

Any who, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that you are making your own traditions that your children will remember and cherish for the rest of their lives!

Heather, me and Muttly

Grandma Judy

Preschool Christmas pageant... I was a tree

Harper's First Christmas Picture

Harper decorating the tree this year in

Baby, baby, baby, baby... yeah... that makes FOUR!! Oh my Bakers!

So... Have you ever known that couple that is pretty much just the most amazingest couple ever?  They are always happy and selfless, and willing to do anything for anyone?  Well, let me tell you about the Bakers...

We have been blessed to consider these two as part of our family, we even get to include them in our family Christmas, and we wouldn't want it any other way.  I met Misty and Brian (whom I now refer to as BFF) in an elevator right around January 29th, 1998.  My mom and I were on our way to see my brother and Cherie while she was in labor with my darling niece Kenzie (she is still darling even though she is a teenager... go figure), and there was this young couple... going the same place (enter Bakers).

They re-entered the scene when they moved out here shortly after I did, and I'm sooo glad they did.  Misty was there for me at one of the hardest times, when I was having issues getting pregnant with Harper, I can never tell you how much having her there to understand and lead me through meant to me.

Why was she so helpful?  Well unfortunately, Misty and Brian have been trying for 10 years for a little own of their own, after trying so many things, the readied themselves for another round of IVF... only this time, they had a magic weapon.. a gestational surrogate, their amazing friend Amber.  Well let me tell you how it all ended up... Amber is pregnant with a set of Baker twins... and so is Misty!!  WHAT!?!  For you with math issues... that makes 4 babies!!

Oh my goodness!  I can not even take how excited we are for these two, its going to be a crazy... well 18+ years, but there will never be more loved babies than those four... who are due in June!!! Go ahead... read the whole story... you know you want to.

http://www.brianandmistybaker.com/

The Wonderful Blessed Bakers!

Oh the fun girl times

Look at them... getting practice with little B

What's in a name...?

"Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?"  I get the sentiment old Bill was going for, but I disagree.  I mean, would you want to be sniffin something named fungal-regurgitated-fecies? Umm... no, also, I hope that's not a thing, because that would be nasty.  Ryan and I have always had this weird obsession with names, and we could not choose a name for baby girl #2, I would like to blame the Beckhams.  See, we had Harper Willow chosen long before we even knew that we were having a girl the first time.  At the time, it was not popular, but then, I'm just assuming this conversation happened...

"Hallo Davey, Blimey! We need to choose a name for our girl, and it has to be ace, since we are obviously stylish and cool"

"Well Vics, I do recall a jolly couple in Seattle, who by golly named their overly beautiful daughter Harper, and I do think that name is just bloody smashing"

"Buggers and Blast! I fancy that name!"

"Cheerio! Pip to! We shall be like the Kings and name our darling daughter Harper... Harper Beckham"

Darn you Beckhams for making our name so gosh darn popular, I do not blame Neil Patrick Harris... because I like him, oh Doogie.

Anywho, after much deliberation, we have decided upon a name for our second daughter.

Drum role please....

Sawyer Belle (coming March 2012)

It's a...

Baby! Everything and everyone is happy and healthy... like I'm going to just come out and tell you... watch the video.

W-IOWA... the Corniest station... in the nation...

So that is a song off of my favorite Backyardigans episode... all about Iowa and corn!  I thought it would be appropriate since this blog is all about Iowa, not so much the corn though!  Here we are, its our last day and we have had so much fun!

Harper and flew to Iowa with Grandma Barb and Grandpa John last Tuesday, we've been busy spending time with family and friends and eating many Iowa delicacies, yeah, Iowa has delicacies... like tenderloins and cheeseballs...  (Harper didn't so much eat those because she isn't allowed fried foods, but fetus and I thought they were delicious)

We've spent time with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Heather, Uncle Greg and Braedon and Tristan, Grandma Ronna, the great grandparents, and even got to have dinner with our favie lawyer (and Ryan's just favorite as he tells me whenever I mention her) Amanda!  We were sorry that Ryan did not come so he and Gabe could have a play date, next time though!

We will miss everyone here but we are excited to be going home tonight, we miss our boys (that being Daddy, Griz and Oscar of course) and we are super DUPER excited to find out if Harper will have a little brother or a little sister tomorrow...  EEEK!!

Enough of this Gibber Gabber... Bring on the pictures!!

She knows how to fly... not really though,
sitting still that long is pretty much torture

Hw has discovered a love a little furniture,
Guess we know what Santa will bring this year.

What we woke up to the day after we got here...
I think that white stuff is called snow

This is just stinkin adorable...
Oh Cousin Tristan, so cute

Good Bye snow... hello giant pile of leaves!

Mom... why am I sitting in dirty leaves with this
crazy boy and pup?

Harper wasn't a fan... but Braedon thought
the leaves were quite fantastic

She much preferred watching & giggling at the
crazy boys and dog jumping in the leaves.

The great grandkids with
Grandma Norma and Grandpa Jay

Hw with Great Grandpa Ron...
they find each other very funny.

So this Puppy, Dragon, and Gnome, Walk up to a Door...

No, this isn't the start of a really odd joke, its the tale of 3 adorable children who went trick-or-treating for the very first time.  So, none of them can actually eat the candy, nor could they say trick-or-treat, and two of them kept trying to actually walk in to the house, that's okay, they had fun and were exceptionally adorable as well. I know if I had these kids come up to my door, I would give them all of my treats!

Grandma and Grandpa Go To the Market

After a very sad flight delayment, Grandma and Grandpa Friederich got here Sunday afternoon! Luckily, we were able to get in a little bit of Pike's before the vendors started closing up.  Harper loves the market, there is so much to see, and people just keep giving her pieces of fruit!  Grandma and Grandpa picked up a lil gift for someone back home, Daddy got BBQ Humbow, and Mommy got her giant super sweet holiday grapes, which are a mouth full of juicy grapey wonderfulness. 

Because Harper has been fighting a bit of a cold, we've been pumping her full of liquids... which backfired big time when we were walking around Seattle and discovered a very wet baby and even a wet stroller... so we ran into Macy's and now Harper is the proud owner of some brightly colored striped leggings! (yes, we let her pick out her own)

Anywho, we are sooo glad that Grandma and Grandpa are in Washington this week, and also very glad we (Harper and Lonnie) are flying back to Iowa with them for a smidgen of a visit next week!!! 

Look who's here!!!

 

 

 

 

Pretty sure she was already soaked here...

 

 

Watching Sesame Street and sharing Cheerios with Griz this morning

Weekend o Pennebakers

Let me tell about this sale... it's put on by EMOMs (Eastside Mother's of Multiples) and it is crazy.  Cortney and I decided to leave at 8am for a sale that started at 10... and we stood in the chilly drizzle for about an hour and a half.   On the bright side, I scored a double stroller and we both got some clothes and toys for the younguns, so that is pretty swell.

You would be sad too if you were so cold and damp.

Well... At least we were in front of all these people

Hellloooo Double Stroller!

Yeah... I got her a random wooden dog...
 

Matt's Pretty Pumpkinrific Party

On Sunday Matt Pennebaker had a Pumpkin Party for his bday.  We were blessed to be invited, and to join in on the pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin roll, roasted pumpkin, and my contribution... pumpkin spice cake (with cinnamon cream cheese frosting).  The babies got to play, and we got to watch, and what did we do before we all had children again?  Anywho, we are so so glad that we have become such good friends with the fabulous Pennebakers and that they are in our lives and do silly things like stand out in the rain with us to get a double stroller for cheap!

Notice the skirt/leggings?  Also an EMOMs find!

I dunno... I just like her face

Beckett's pretty helpful

What are you silly boys doing under there?

 

Yes, My child likes to sit in her toy baskets and kiss her stuffed animals... we just go with it.

I just think its cute

How do you do Baby #2?

Yesterday I had my 17.5 week appointment, I'm pretty sure its supposed to be 16 week appointment, but I'm a smidge behind.  Anywho, for the first time ever, someone cheered at my weight gain... yay! My first trimester was so yucky I lost some weight, but we have rounded a corner...ish!

Anyways, everything is checking out fine, my blood pressure is fabulous, so far so good on that whole pre-eclampsia thing that happened last time.  But most importantly, baby is doing good, heart-rate is 150, measuring at 18 weeks, have felt some movement... all in all pretty good check up.

Although we are sad that Dr. Shumate who was our Dr. when I was prego with Harper and delivered her has moved to Oregon to be closer to family after having twins, we LOVE our new Doctor, Dr. Wells.  I chose her because her picture looked she was the most nurturing and nicest.  She is older and has grandkids, and we love her.  Also I love my nurse, I feel super comfortable with them both, even if I had to get a flu shot.

On the sex front... still don't know if it is a boy or girl, we will find out on November 15th.  I am at peace with either way, the first girl turned out pretty good, but one of each could be nice.  I got to spend some time with adorable Beckett Pennebaker last night, I'd say it went well, we bonded, we shared water.

In my heart, it is a boy, but in my heart, Harper was also a boy, so I'm pretty good at guessing.  We only have a boy name, Ryan can't land on a girl one because he loves the name Harper so much... two Harpers just wouldn't work.  So.... Guesses are welcome, we will know in less than a month!

What HW looks like on this Wednesday morning... yes she is a happy morning baby.

"I Like Big Poos"

Before Harper was born, Ryan and I vowed to not use baby talk.  We were going to just use normal words in a normal voice... well that was a big fat lie.  The second she came out, there was a whole new language in our house.  When she gets "ty-tys", she obviously needs to go "nigh-nighs".  She gets "num-nums" when she gets "hungers", not to be confused with mum-mums... which is actually a baby snack which seems to be our savior at times.  Ryan also seems to think "acky" needs to be in our language dictionary as well.

And these are just the made up words, don't forget the things you say all the time that you didn't used to that much.  The words "pee" and "poo" are just as frequent in our house as "it" and "and".  Now is when we get to the "I Like Big Poos" title...  Those of you who are Friends fans, will remember when Rachel and Ross were trying to get their baby to laugh and the only thing that worked was "Baby Got Back".  Well, when Harper was little and hated having her diaper changed, I remembered this, and if you were in my fifth grade class at Monroe Elementary, you also probably have much of that song memorized.  Since the lyrics are a bit dirty... I changed them up to something I felt a bit more appropriate for diaper changing... it goes a little like this...


"I like big poos and I can not lie...
You udder mudders can't deny,
When a babe walks in with an itty bitty waist
And a stinky in your face you're like Ewww...

Oh baby I wanna get a diaper and change that booty!"


That's all I have... I repeat until Harper is secure in a clean diaper.  She also has a little dance that goes with this song. You are free to use my little song for your own needs, just remember, being a whitey white girl from a small farm town in central Iowa, I obviously have mad natural rapping abilities, so you may not sound quite as awesome as I do. (I'm assuming you are sensing my sarcasm)

You do what you gotta do to make your children smile, and save yourself from chasing a nakey bum around the house before you can get that clean diaper on.

For those of you who come just for the adorable photos of my child... here is what she looks like this Monday morning...

Notice the mum-mum...

Puppy Love...

No, I'm not talking about two youngsters... I'm talking about one youngster and her gaggle of pups.  Harper has been surrounded by dogs since the day she came home from the hospital and she has a special and sometimes odd relationship with them, but she loves every dog she meets.  The has backfired a bit... my child will growl at you, and she does not always feel the need to use her hands when she eats... oh and she will beg for food.

Grizzly
Harper LOVES Griz, the other day I got her out of bed and she was being oh so fussy, nothing I could say or do would matter, then she saw her Griz, and instantly she smiles and giggles.  I do not know what is about that mutt that she loves so much, because he pretty much just tolerates her.  He will act annoyed, but he would also never do anything to hurt her, and even if he thinks we are play chasing Harper around the house gets a little to out of hand... he will instantly step in, because he also wouldn't let anyone else harm her either.

Oh the Love

Oscar
This lil pup has been the best baby-dog ever.  He will pretty much let Harper do anything to him, and never growl or snarl or snap.  We always have to step in and tell Harper to be gentle and that what she did wasn't very nice.  This usually ends up with Harper giving Oscar a kiss and then they are best friends again.

Seriously with these snuggles...

Teagan
We can't finish up this blog without mentioning Natasha's dog Teagan.  She is a still puppy golden retriever and apparently Harper just loves her. There is much snuggling and love that happens, when Teagan quits playing with Oscar long enough for Harper to catch her anywho.

Yes... there is a large dog on the babies lap... and she likes it.

Waiting for Daddy

Grizzly was chasing the reflection off of his nametag... Harper has never seen anything so funny!

She Weebles... She Wobbles

And yes, she falls down, but then she just pops up and starts going again!  We officially have a walker!  Harper has been working at it for months now.  For quite awhile she would walk holding on to our hands, then she would take a few steps, but this last week, she has really just gone for it.  She rarely crawls anymore, she much prefers to walk.  (which I don't mind, since its much easier on the knees of her pants).  So we can officially stop saying... "Any day now, by this time next week, shes almost there...etc." Because she is there!  Yay for walking!  Well, not only walking, she also likes to crawl up on the couches, and the fireplace (don't worry, we have yet to actually have a fire in there) and she tries really hard to get up on the trunk in our living room.  Anywho!  Go Harper!

Hellooo Pumpkins!

This weekend, we took Harper to the Pumpkin Patch for the very first time.  She seemed to enjoy it, it must have been the first time we let her play in dirt, because she could care less about the pumpkins and more about the clumps of dirt... oh well.  We got to go with our good friends, the Mears, Pennebakers, and Kreitlows (Oh My!) So Harper had lil Beckett and Quinn to share her pumpkin patch experience with.  We had a hayride, Quinn and HW had a wheel barrel ride and we took a million pictures... so that's pretty good. We got rained out which is kind of sad, but its so much fun starting family traditions we will do with our kids every year, and it makes it even more magical to have such amazing friends to share them with!

Not so sure about her first hayride

Quinn isn't so sure either.

Forget the pumpkin, Look! Dirt!

Wheel barrel fun... Well, H & Q thought so.

The men with their babies (Jon with his pumpkin substitute... which he dropped and broke)

Discussing the craziness of my husband

Harper's first corn field!!  She loved it

Once again... more excited about the dirt.

Trying to get her to quit playin in the dirt for another picture...