Broken

Baron had a small run in with a beam in our house. The final score: Beam 1, Baron 0
It might be broken, but we won't know until the swelling goes down. And how did this happen...well the music was loud and the dancing was wild...a little too wild.

She means business!

Give the girl her rice cereal with apple sauce and we will all be happy!

A Milk Mustache

or in our case a Milk Goatee. We are still adjusting to the newness of the bottle!

Hugs and Kisses

Harper is becoming a very affectionate little girl. She always hugs and kisses her mommy when she wakes up in the morning and from naps. It is the best way to be greeted when I enter her room! Today she had a few extra kisses to share with her little duck.

Playtime

Harper is playing. Sometimes she plays with her toes...

Sometimes she lays on the floor and plays with mommy...

and sometimes she rolls over when mom isn't paying attention (and dad has the camera) and surprises us...

and herself!

6 Months Old

Harper,

You are six months old today! I can not believe how quickly this year is passing. I really feel like we just brought you home from the hospital. In just the last week you have grown in so many ways. I am particularly happy about this growth and I believe you are too. Things have changed. I no longer have to hold you all day and pace around the house. You are more interested in playing. You smile more often and sleep a little bit better. This could be in part to your age, but it could also be that you are now having some formula during the day and rice cereal with applesauce. All this food has made you grow physically. It is time to pull out your 9 month clothes and say goodbye to your 6 month size. The jammies you are wearing in this picture were my absolute favorite. Mark and Brooke Dillon gave them to you when you were born.

Your brother continues to be your favorite person in the house. Every possible morning you two spend time together in his crib or yours. This morning it was your crib. He can be rough with you, but as soon as I want to say "be gentle, Baron" you laugh or smile and so I can't convince him that he is doing anything wrong. This makes me think that you will be a tough girl!

In some ways this has been the longest 6 months of my life as I try to figure out what makes you happy. You are particular about what you want and when you want it. That is ok - I want to think that I am raising a strong girl who can make her own decisions. However, what you want and what I want are not always the same thing. The best part of all of this is that we'll continue to grow together like all mommies and babies do.

I love you, Harper. We all do!
Love, Mom

Happy 2nd Birthday Baron!

We spent Baron's 2nd birthday in Plain, WA which is near Leavenworth. It could not have been more perfect. We were there for a very special reason - our dear friend Fish (also known as Aaron, but not to us) married Shanon on the same day as Baron's birthday. We were honored to be invited because it was very small and intimate with only 30 guests (that included family) attending the celebration. It was even more special because Nate was asked to be a groomsman in the wedding.

He was a handsome groomsman! Here he is with another good friend from college, Cory.

I just had to include this picture because I thought it was so neat that Fish's grandmas were both able to watch their grandson get married.

It was the most beautiful winter wonderland wedding I have ever seen. My favorite touch was the bride's bouquet. I thought it was so unique and fitting for the event.

We even took a sleigh ride right after the ceremony.

As a result, we celebrated Baron's birthday the next morning! We rented an OLD (1900) farm house for 3 nights and invited all of the family. Both sets of grandparents, Aunt Alyson, Uncle Tyler and Aunt Carly all stayed with us. It worked out perfectly because it also gave us babysitters for the rehearsal night and the wedding!

The first thing we did when we arrived was show Baron what a sled was for. He loved it! The farm house had chickens and we were allowed to have the eggs while we stayed there. So everyday Baron would go to the chicken coup in the sled and check for eggs. He really only liked the ride there and back. The chickens kind of scared him. There were also horses at the farm house and they would come right up to us and eat apples and carrots out of our hands. Baron loved that! The horses were beautiful - especially with the snow covered ground all around them.
We officially celebrated Baron's birthday on the 16th after the wedding, however it felt like we celebrated it the entire time we were there. Baron opened his gifts first thing. This is a picture of him opening a Thomas the Train book that came with little train toys. He LOVES it. Many hours have been spent playing with this since his birthday!

The Birthday Boy was hungry by lunch time and patiently waited for all of us to join him.

My little cheeser! I love this picture. He was eating one of his favorite meals - spicy pulled pork tacos with limes! He does not have the palate of a two year old.

Saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa Weber. They had a plane to catch to Maui so none of us felt sorry that they had to miss the cake!!

Another neat feature about the farm house was that we could bring our dogs. They loved playing in the snow. Fred and Nate spent most of the afternoon (while the kids were napping) outside letting them run off their energy. When I looked out the window I couldn't stop laughing. I had no idea that they were part Amish (either that or relatives of Dwight Shrute for all of you who watch the Office).

Once the kids were up from nap (and it was late because they were worn out), we went outside in the rain to go sledding. It was alot of fun! Harper joined us, but I had forgot her snow suit so she had to wear Baron's spare pair of snow pants. A size 2T on a 6 month old is a little funny, but it worked.

Uncle Tyler and Aunt Carly had made a small hill in the yard while we were at the wedding. We all took a few turns going down.

Some of us more gracefully than others!

The kids were cold so they went inside with Grandma and Grandpa while the "big kids" searched for a better sledding hill. Grandma's make the best hot chocolate!

Once we were all inside, it was time to sing and have cupcakes. Baron loves to sing Happy Birthday. He also has a hobby of blowing out candles. So we sang...

and sang again....

and again...

until he finally decided to eat his cupcake (but don't worry because I am pretty sure we all sang again at breakfast the next day!).

After a long day it was time to cuddle up in the farm house and go to bed, but not without a stoy in the rocking chair with Grandma and Aunt Alyson!!
Happy 2nd Birthday Baron. We love you so much. This was a great birthday filled with many memories. You are a very lucky boy.

What we like best...by Baron and Harper

We are two easy going kids and simple things make us very happy. For instance a lazy morning playing in our PJ's and eating snacks.
Snacks are very important to us. Like smoothies...they often leave us with faces like this.

We enjoy the occasional manicure.

and watching "The Wiggles" on YouTube. (Mom's note - really Baron??!! Not sure if this is blog appropriate, but it is definitely blackmail appropriate later on in life!)

Once in awhile we will play independently.

We know how much mom likes to wake up early so sometimes we wake up just so she can enjoy coffee and play with toys too. However, this is hard on us so we need to rest while she plays.

Did we mention we eat often?

It is our favorite thing to do!!

Fresh Vitamin C

Life changes so quickly. I bought this juicer back in the day thinking it would be perfect to squeeze fresh juice for drinks (you know - the kind of drinks with alcohol in them). Today I pulled it out thinking it would be a good way to use up oranges, give Baron vitamin C and keep him entertained for the morning. It worked (in fact that juicer got more use today than in all of the years that I owned it)!

It sure took alot of oranges to make a small glass of orange juice. Baron kept counting the peels over and over. He is good at counting if you don't think the number 4 has any importance!

Time to eat!

I wanted to wait until Harper was 6 months old before we introduced solids. She seems to have a more sensitive stomach than her brother who started solids at 4.5 months old (he has a stomach made of steel). However, she is turning her head and watching everything and I mean EVERYTHING that we put into our mouths. I think this morning she actually kinked her neck with each sip of coffee I took. She gives us this look like we are starving her. Tonight we tried rice cereal and she gave us a few new looks.

Weber Family Christmas

This year we decided to celebrate Christmas with the Weber family on the weekend of New Years. Things are so different when we get together now that there are 4 grandchildren (all born within 18 months of each other). I guess now would be a good time to mention that there is one more on the way. Sara and Todd will be having their little girl this June! We are so happy for them.

We didn't take many pictures (let's just say all of our hands are full as you can imagine with 4 kids under the age of 2), but here are a couple of highlights:

The two little ones sat on the couch for a photo session. Thank you, Caleb, for holding up your cousin!

Things were going great until Harper went in for the hug/squeeze/bite...
She was denied!
The older two were much more difficult to catch on camera. They played hard. They also started to wrestle which did not end well. Every time we get together, I laugh and cringe with thoughts of future visits. Here they are opening gifts (well Baron is eating - big surprise!). I also laugh when I notice what the boys are wearing (or not wearing). It must have been the dad's that dressed them.

The trip ended on a cute, but not so good note. Both kids came down with a terrible cold. They spent the last morning cuddling in Papa's chair (without papa) and watching Thomas the train.

Happy New Year!