Fun in the sun at Lincoln's Place!

A couple of Saturdays ago, it was our first real "spring-y" day and Harper and I just had to get out of the house. Brandon has been working like crazy lately, and not coming in until later at night (one reason for the lack of blogging), so we were tired of being cooped up! So, I knew my mom would be at home, so we called to see if she'd like to join us at the park for a little while. I ran a few errands in town and then headed to Woodbury. Of course we have parks in McMinnville, but not the same kind of park that I wanted to take Harper to. Many of you have heard me mention how our first son will be named Knox. Knox is the middle name of a very special cousin of mine who passed away when I was a senior in high school. He was my first cousin and he was also a diabetic...like me! He helped me more than he ever knew when I was first diagnosed. I'll never forget the night we found out. We had been to eat dinner and my mom just knew something wasn't right with me so she finally broke down and took me to their house so we could check my sugar. When they checked it, the meter wouldn't even read it. It just read HIGH. That meant it was over 500. So, we knew what that meant, so we just sat in my uncle and aunt's bedroom floor and had a little crying session. It was then that Lincoln (who was 7 at the time) came over and crawled in my lap and said, "It's okay, Kara. If I can do it, I know you can!" Well, that's the moment I decided there was no need to be crying. He was so special to me, and I think about him everyday! That's why I can't wait to have a little boy to share this heritage with.

So, when he passed away, there was a committee formed who wanted to do something special. They decided to "fix up" a local park and make it a fun place again for kids again. AND THEY SOOO DID IT! They renamed the park Lincoln's Place and it is F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!! So, Harper's first park experience just had to be there.Here we are standing by the sign and you can see my parents names under the committee group. This place means more to me than anyone will ever know! As we arrived at my parents house, I found out that my two cousins were there to play too. We had so much fun with them.Rachel even took Harper down the slide for the first time and she LOVED it!Although, I think swinging was her favorite!We even attempted to ride the pony.....but it was not a success! ha!We had a wonderful day and I can't wait to spend more time there in the future.  Thanks to all of my family who joined us there to make one of Harper's "firsts" such a special memory for me!  If you're ever in the area, you should definitely stop by and check out Lincoln's Place.  I definitely see some future birthdays taking place there and I can't wait!

xoxo, Kara C:

The many hats of Harper...

One of our neighbors and one of Brandon's friends on the volunteer fire dept. (well his wife actually) made Harper this sweet little hat.  I usually don't like hats on her, but this one was sweet!However, since she's not used to wearing them it was difficult for me to get a good picture of her in it because she kept doing this...hahaha!  Guess that's what I get for not putting them on her.

Then, one day while I was at my parents' house, I starting searching.  Brandon's parents always have all this stuff from when Brandon and his sister were babies and I knew my mom had some stuff so I started looking.  I found several sweet dresses that Harper had already outgrown, but I found another thing that I loved!!!  It was a little sweater and bonnet, so I brought it home to try on her!I LOVE IT!!!  Even if she does look like Laura Ingalls! ha! :)

I'll have to put more pics of her up w/ the whole ensemble!  It really is too sweet and I can't wait to take it for her 9 month pictures!

Coming soon....

HAS IT REALLY BEEN A MONTH?  Oh my...I feel terrible!  BUT, I have soooooooo many things to share...and I'll get it done soon!!  I can't wait...I have lots of pics to show you of my growing girl!  Check back soon!

Happy Birthday Daddy Brandon!

My sweetie-pie turned the big 33 this month! Since he doesn't like to make a big hoop-lah (like my word?) about his birthday, I decided to just have a few people meet us at a local restaurant where we usually go every weekend anyway. It worked out p-e-r-f-e-c-t-l-y and he was definitely surprised. We didn't make a big deal about it and I thought it turned out so nice.

Since he is a volunteer firefighter, I decided to let that be the theme of his cake. It was between that or a tractor, but I figured he'd had a lot of tractor cakes in his lifetime. The cake was AWESOME!! I told her I needed one to feed 15....and I think it would've fed 40! ha:) It was so perfect and tasty, and it was cheap too....that's always a plus! Everyone kept saying how they thought it was a toy firetruck and they had no idea it was a cake! Of course the girls kept wanting to get as close as possible to the cake so they could keep their eyes on it...

And, we decided to pose for a family picture only to realize we had our niece! ha:) And, then looked what else was going on in the picture......I about laughed myself to death when I saw this picture....I was afraid her mom might kill me for posting it, but it was too difficult to resist! Priceless, right?

As Madelyn was leaving, she was loving on me, so we decided to pose for another family picture...brother and sister....

And then we tried to get one of Harper with her best little friendie, Annabella, but Harper was totally over it! She wanted down! And NOW! ha:)

It ended up being a really fun night and we were so thankful everyone came out to celebrate his birthday. We truly have the best friends and family anyone could ask for! Happy birthday, honey! Hope you had a great one!

Harper is 8 months old!

My sweet little girl is getting sooo big! I still can't believe that eight months have passed since she arrived. She is our world! Brandon and I don't know what we did before she came around...we must've been really boring! ha:)

I was packing up some of her clothes that don't fit anymore and I could've cried when I had to pack up the bow she wore home from the hospital....

so I decided, just for kicks, to put it in one last time...OOOOOOOOhhhhh, how my heart broke! :( It makes me so sad that she's growing so quickly. I want her to develop, of course, but I just wish these baby days didn't go by so quickly!

However, I love how Harper is growing, changing, and doing new things everyday! She is at the age where she is so much fun! It's hilarious when we leave her playing in the living room to run in the other room for 2 seconds, and when we return, she's no where to be found! I just have to laugh when this happens because as soon as I yell her name, here she'll come crawling around the corner! She is the joy of our lives!

At 8 months, Harper is:

-wearing size 2 diapers

-wearing anywhere from 6-9 months clothes

-crawling and pulling up everywhere and on everything!!!

-babbling all the time (da-da is her favorite) :(

-has her 2 bottom teeth completely in

-eats 3-4 six ounce bottles each day plus cereal w/ fruit for breakfast, veggies at lunch, and veggies and a fruit/dessert at supper

-LOVES her yogart melt snacks

-takes 2 naps everyday and sleeps around 10 hours each night

-is really beginning to "play" with her toys

-is the absolute highlight of our lives!

Harper Claire, you'll never know how much you truly mean to your daddy and me. I'm so thankful that God chose us to be your parents because you are such a special baby to us! You're a social butterfly and loved by so many people...I hope one day you'll know how blessed you are! Love you baby girl!*By the way, Harper had to be a little model for the shop where we get many of her clothes and all of our things monogrammed, so that's where the pics came from. You can see their full post here.

Happy Valentine's Day

I'll have to say that this was the absolute BEST Valentine's Day ever!! Not only did my husband get me tulips and an hour massage (LOVE IT), but we sooooo enjoyed spending the day w/ Harper! She is getting to be more fun with each and every day that passes. Of course, she didn't know it was any special day, all she knew was that she got to play with something VERY fun....

TISSUE PAPER!! I'm pretty sure that is one of her favorite things right now! ha:) She could not have cared less about her presents, she just liked the wrapping. So, after I assisted her with getting all of her goodies out, I let her have a ball.And my beautiful flowers from Daddy...I wanted to have a family picture on Harper's first Valentine's Day and well...it just did not work out as I wanted...We did the timer thing and that didn't work, so I opted for a good picture to at least have....well...a picture! ha:) Harper looks tired, Brandon looks scared, and I look pasty! Lovely! lol

After church, I decided I needed to get a picture of Harper with all of her goodies since I've done that every holiday! I am quickly seeing how having a busy 8 month old is not quite as easy to get her to be photogenic as it was when she was itty bitty! BUT, while I was getting everything ready and before I got Harper ready, I caught her doing this....She had pulled her new capris off the couch and was chewing on the tags. It was so cute so I just had to take a picture! So I finally got her all ready and just knew I'd get a cutesy picture....and here's what I got...Gees! Can't a girl get a break? All I needed was a little smile....but I.WAS.NOT.GETTING.IT.FROM.HER!! No ma'am! Oh well...these will have to work! Since you can't really tell anything in this picture, I wanted some closer up of her goodies.After all was said and done, I think she was happy....cause THEN she decided to flash me one of these....Oh, how I love my little Valentine! Hope you had a happy day with your loves!

xoxo, Kara C: