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...