Catching Up

Alternatively titled: Massive Photo Dump of Fourth Quarter 2012. 

I finally took the time to upload all of the pictures off of my camera and phone onto my computer and wanted to post some of the ones I missed over the last few months. Prepare yourself, it's a long and completely random one!

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Let's back up to Halloween. We have trick-or-treated with friends the last 2 years in a row.

Bamm-Bamm (playing his club "guitar") with his buddy Bob the Builder

Pebbles with her watermelon friend

Family shot!

We stopped by to get some treats from the grandparents

My sweet little Flintstones

They were in sugar heaven (and so were their parents)

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My sweet friend Ashley turned the big 3-0 in September. She had asked me if I would make her an apron with her name on it for her gift. She said she wanted one she could keep forever and possibly pass down to a future daughter one day. No pressure, right? Ha! Anyway, this was my first attempt at an apron and I think it turned out really cute. I bought a pattern to follow but it intimidated me so I just looked at an apron I own for a guide and then modified it by adding ruffles. She was supposed to forward me pictures of her wearing it (b/c I forgot my camera...shocking) but she never did. Shame on her. :) We also got her a gift certificate for a cooking class to go with it. 

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I NEVER thought I'd say this, but my daughter's sleep schedule is finally very predictable. She goes to sleep so easy these days. She only takes about a 45 minute nap on average, but at least she takes one and at least it's no longer a fight. She also goes right to sleep at night with no fuss. She'll point to the chair and say "rock! rock!" and I'll sing and pray with her and then tuck her in and she just snuggles into her blanket and goes right to sleep. Did I mention I NEVER thought I'd say this?? Ha. Here is a video I took a couple of months ago before she finally gave in and accepted that sleep is necessary. She used to fall asleep sitting up all the time...such a stubborn little cutie! This video seriously cracks me up. :)

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 This is what happens when two toddlers insist on "helping" with the laundry. Harrison put on her jammies all by himself and begged me to put his on her...so I thought what the heck...why not?

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I serve in student ministry at our church and am the group leader for the 6th grade girls. And can I say that it has been so rewarding! They are the sweetest group of girls. We were recently challenged to do a service project in our community and we decided to partner up with a great non-profit organization called Color Your Heart. We got together for a craft night and made cards and decorations for Jenna, a 5 year old little girl with cancer.

6 of our girls

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Harrison was very excited about his birthday party theme so we had a little camp out in our back yard. We roasted s'mores and told campfire stories and had such a fun time. We thought we had a surefire way of getting out of sleeping in the tent...we told Harrison we would "try it out" but if he didn't cooperate and lie down then we were going to have to go back inside. Of course this would be the ONE night he cooperated with going to sleep, ha! So Rick and I got stuck sleeping out on the cold, hard ground because we couldn't go back on our word. (Harper, however, was peacefully asleep in her crib and we just took the baby monitor out with us.) I was sharing a sleeping bag with Harrison...and let me tell ya, it did not go so well for me. He hates being covered up and he's a violent thrasher, so you can imagine how stuffing him into a sleeping bag with me went. But nevertheless, it was a great memory and worth the backache and zero sleep.

telling us scary camp stories. He has such a funny imagination and is quite dramatic :)

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I know I posted a picture of the first time Harper scratched the strawberry hemangioma on the side of her forehead. Well it only went downhill from there. On Halloween day of all days, she decided she was over wearing bandaids. She would rip them off immediately and would start gushing blood. She looked like a gory Halloween costume. I was beside myself with what to do. I knew she wasn't in any danger or anything, but it is seriously psychologically damaging for a mama's heart to see her baby with blood all over her face! Not to mention how messy it was. Her favorite time to do it was when we'd get in the car and there was nothing I could do but watch her bleed from the rear view mirror, because if I stopped to clean her up and re-bandage her she'd rip it right back off 2 seconds after we got driving again. Thankfully the dermatologist squeezed us in and I found out that it actually wasn't a strawberry hemangioma at all. It was something else (totally don't remember the name) -- similar to a hemangioma but much more sensitive to irritation and bleeding. So he recommended we remove it that day...which was quite the traumatic experience for the both of us. I had to hold her down with the help of two nurses, because she was MAD and is freakishly strong, while the doctor cut it off with a scalpel. Fun times. But thankfully it's gone and there is hardly even a scar and most importantly, no more profuse bleeding. Which is always a good thing. 

See what I mean? Horrible.

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 And I just thought these were funny because it's Harrison talking to a rock. :)

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I was supposed to go on a girl's trip to Canton but it got cancelled when I had to be hospitalized for all of those fun complications with my lumbar puncture. So my hubby was really sweet and took me the next month. It was a great weekend with just the two of us. But since it was a last minute trip we didn't bother to get hotel reservations...and then there were zero vacancies within a 50 mile radius of Canton. Oops! We ended up driving into Dallas and I thought I would save us some bucks by reserving through Priceline...which I did...except I didn't realize that our very nice hotel was in a not-so-nice area of town. I'm not gonna lie, it was a little scary at times but we laughed about our stay in the ghetto all night long. 

View from our room

Laminated "safety tips" sheet they left on our bed...you know, for our convenience. I especially like #3: Close the door securely whenever you are in your room and use all of the locking devices provided (and there were quite a few locking devices). And #9: Take a few moments and locate the nearest exit that may be used in the event of an emergency (NICE.) Ha!

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Brody had his birthday party last month at the Bayou Wildlife Park. It was such a neat place! It was freeeeezing but we all still had a great time. They have a tram ride that takes you through and you can feed all of the animals from the tram. They also had a domesticated deer named Buster that Harrison was in love with. He kept asking me if we could take him home. 

 

Off to go pet Buster

Pwetty pwease, Mommy?! I just love him so much!

The girls

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And the rest are just random pictures that I liked and so I'm putting them on my blog :)