Happy Birthday

TO ME...........................

Well, as of yesterday I am now officially closer to 30 than I am 20 :( Despite turning 26, I had a great day! I worked at the hospital yesterday (which I enjoy) then met my family for supper in Mason City. Adam and Harper bought me yellow roses, a bottle of wine, and wax beads for my candle warmer. My parents got me a few cute shirts and the Hungry Girl cookbook that I wanted. And Brett got me lotion, a Christmas wallflower plug-in with Balsam Fir refills - perfect for Christmas next year! But the BEST gift of all was a 45 minute phone call from my friend Hailee, who has been traveling South America for the past 5 months! It was great to hear from her and to hear all her fun adventures!

Tomorrow we will be heading home to FINALLY celebrate Christmas with my family. I actually received my birthday presents from my parents BEFORE my Christmas presents this year - first time for that! I can't believe that there is only 2 days left of 2009!

Here is a question for you to ponder: Every decade has a name, i.e. the 80's, 90's, 2000's - so what are we going to call 2010-2019? The teens? The ten's?

Music to my ears

These are the sounds that fill our house....and our hearts :)

{ pause the music on the side bar so you can hear Miss H }

Baby's First Christmas

Harper's first Christmas has already come and gone...tear :*( Santa must have thought she was a good girl because he stopped at our house! Here is a picture of Harper and her stocking that her Great Grandma Betty made for her. In her stocking was two car seat toys and a pack of socks.

Santa also brought Harper two toys that light up and play music, and a dress for her to wear this summer. She doesn't really have an interest in the bigger toys yet, but she likes her toys that attach to the car seat!



And of course we had to leave milk and cookies for Santa, and carrots for this reindeer!


Although Harper is not old enough to remember this Christmas, we wanted to start some traditions now. Adam and I were discussing how there are specific things we remember doing with our families around Christmas time and we someday hope our children can look back on their childhood and say the same. :)

Here are the traditions we started this year:

• Making lefse
• Christmas morning breakfast of french toast and sausage
• Driving around town looking at Christmas lights

We would like to start these traditions next year:

• Making cut-out sugar cookies
• Making homemade cinnamon rolls
• Cutting down our own real Christmas tree
• Reading 'The Night Before Christmas' before bed on Christmas Eve
• Giving our children a Christmas ornament to open up on Christmas Eve (something that represents that specific year)
• Attending Christmas Eve church service

I know it may sound cheesy, but we want to provide our children with as many happy childhood memories as we possibly can! Even though I listed all the superficial things about Christmas - we will teach our children the real meaning of Christmas as well.

We hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! We were unable to make it to see our families because of the weather. So it was just us three together on Christmas, which was nice. We will be traveling back home over New Years to celebrate Christmas with my family. Only 5 more days left of 2009!!!!

Merry Christmas

Love,

Harper

Best Friends

Harper met her future husband last weekend at Baptism, Jack Shields! Harper Shields....doesn't that have a lovely ring to it??!! This was the first of MANY more play dates to come. Harper is only 10 weeks older than Jack so they will get along great as they get older. We decided to have a mini photo shoot with the babies - it was a hoot! Enjoy!

I hope Harper and Jack grow to be best friends, just like their mommies are!

Aww - they're holding hands

Cuddle time

BEST BUDS!

Baptism

Harper was baptized this past Sunday, December 20th, at the First Lutheran Church in Northwood, where I was baptized and married. We had a great day surrounded by our closest family and friends! Harper did not make one peep during her baptism, or even church for that matter ~ she was a very good girl! Thank you to everyone who helped celebrate Harper's baptism with us - we appreciate your support!

Pastor Hart and Baptismal Sponsors: Uncle Michael, Uncle Justin, and Ashley & Ryan

Harper wore Grandma Dawn's Dress

Our little family :)

Holy water - I think she thought it was bath time ;)

Harper's Grandparents

?!?!

Did I hear you say that Santa is coming in ONE WEEK??!!??!! I better be a good girl! (don't mind my finger in this picture)

Couch-to-5K

After watching the season finale of biggest loser, I became motivated to seriously start getting in shape. The next season finale of the Biggest Loser is in May 2010. I made a goal to weigh 'x' amount of pounds by then. If I reach my goal, as a reward, Adam and I are going to Worlds/Oceans of Fun! How am I going to do this, you ask??? RUNNING! And I HATE running! But I figured if a 400 lb person can run, so can I! So I found a beginners running program on the Internet. It's called The-Couch-to-5K running plan, which is to take 9 weeks. I started week one on Sunday. This week my goal is to run 60 seconds and then walk 90 seconds, doing this interval for 20 minutes, 3 times a week. As you can tell, it starts off very slow and increases slowly at a gradual and achievable pace. Wish me luck! To read about this plan, click on the link below!

Cool Running :: The Couch-to-5K Running Plan

Here Comes Santa Clause

Adam, Harper and I went to Mason City today to finish up our Christmas shopping. While we were at the mall, we ran into a very special person....SANTA!!!!!!! Harper is a very lucky girl because she got to sit on his lap - I told Santa that she has been a good girl so hopefully he will come visit us! I thought she may cry while sitting with him, but she was smiling the whole time, until the camera came out of course! Hopefully we get to see him next year too, but I bet she'll be too scared to sit with him! So we may have to wait a few more years for another photo with Santa! :)

Harper and Santa - 2009

3 months

Happy 3 month birthday to Harper!

She's growing so fast! We weighed her the other day, with clothes and diaper on, and she weighed around 14 1/2 lbs! So shes gained around 2 pounds in the last month! She's definitely getting longer too, as she has just started wearing 3-6 months clothes because she's getting too big for them. In the past month, her legs have gotten a lot stronger, along with her neck. She loves to stand on your lap. She also likes to sit up, I think anything EXCEPT laying on the floor and playing with her toys! She does a lot of drooling and squealing throughout the day - wish I could say the same for sleeping - but her daytime naps are usually no more than 30 minutes now - which makes it hard to get stuff done around the house.

Luckily Adam is very good with her, and lets me get stuff done. Like today, I made some lefse, peanut butter fudge, and holiday pretzels. I was in the baking mood I guess. It's hard to believe Christmas is only 2 weeks away - it sneaks up so quickly now. I remember that Christmas used to seem like and eternity away when I was a kid! Tomorrow we're going to Mason City to finish up our Christmas shopping. This will be our first time out in 3 months as a family - we are so excited to get out and do something - its a big deal now - we're even going to eat Chinese! The things that excite us now...we're officially getting old!

Fist Eating 101

1. Bring your fists up to your mouth

2. Open your mouth up wide

3. Shove, shove, shove!

Harper has been sucking on her FISTS, yes fists, not fingers, a lot in the past few weeks. It is so cute because she tries shoving her ENTIRE fist into her mouth - and sometimes gets mad because she can't do it. But for the most part, this entertains her well.

You can chew on your arm too!

Or anything that comes near your mouth, like daddy's strings from his hooded sweatshirt!

Silent Night

My favorite Christmas song and my Christmas wish!

Harper has had a great week in the sleep department! She has been going to bed around 9 pm and sleeping for stretches of 6-9 hours! She wakes up one time now - anywhere between 3 and 6 - drinks a bottle - and goes back to sleep until 7 or 8! It's wonderful! Even though she's not sleeping ALL the way through the night - I consider waking up only once a success! And I didn't have to give her rice cereal - although the thought crossed my mind! The extra sleep at night is much needed!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and staying warm!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Holy December!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love December for many reasons:

• Christmas music!
• driving around town looking at the Christmas decorations
• Christmas shows on TV (I'm almost 26 years old and my mom called me last night to tell me that the Grinch was on)
• Lots of family time
• my birthday (I think my years of enjoying turning another year older are winding down though)
• yummy holiday baked goodies
• the smell of real Christmas trees
• a light snow
• or a LOT of snow so there's no school! (teachers pray for this more than the students - TRUST me!)
• candlelight service at church

The list could go on and on - but those are just a few of my favorites. This year we have another exciting event to look forward to - Harper's baptism, which will be on December 20th.

Last night I watched Christmas Vacation and the Grinch while I was designing a Christmas card online. I scored 50 cards for only $3.19!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All I had to pay was the shipping! Awesome, huh?! At one time the shipping was free, but due to a huge demand they added in shipping costs. I heard about this fabulous deal from a blog that I follow daily - Money Saving Mom. Sorry - the deal ended last night - otherwise I would've shared this news with all of you but I didn't realize this until yesterday. Here is the runner-up picture that almost made our Christmas card. Remember - I'm not a professional and an 11-week old baby only has so much patience for this kind of stuff. I'm not going to post the picture I decided to use because I don't want to spoil the fun - you'll just have to keep checking your mailboxes!

Play Day

Harper is FINALLY starting to enjoy looking at her toys - for a few minutes anyways. She likes her toys that light up and play music the best. I realized today that I am taking fewer and fewer pictures of her as the weeks go by - and these are the moments that I will never get back and miss the most as she starts growing up.

I still like lounging in my boppy pillow

Laying under my new toy play mat

Mirror, Mirror...

I don't like tummy time so much

Stop taking pictures and roll me over!

Here is a cute little video of Harper 'talking' - more like squealing! You will want to shut my music off so you can hear her cute little voice!

Auction

Another Holmes Christmas Club Auction has come and gone! If you remember the story about our first Christmas tree then you know the auction is a blast! This year my mom and her friend Robin decided to join in on the fun. It was packed again this year so we didn't get a good spot to sit. We ended up spending all of our money on drinks, beer nuts and frozen pizza instead! Last year the auction raised about $25,000 and I'm sure they did the same if not better this year. How can they make so much money in one night? A plate of peanut brittle sold for $90! There are a few retired bakers in town that only make baked goods for the auction - so people spends TONS of money on them since it's the only time of year that they are available now. People don't mind spending the money because all of the money raised goes towards a great
cause!

Here's a picture of my friend Angie, my mom, Robin and I taking a little break from pool. We started a traveling t-shirt for the pool champ - too funny - it was a great night! My mom already took vacation for next year again! Anyone who wants to join in the fun is welcome to come with us - the auction is the Monday before Thanksgiving.



Speaking of Thanksgiving, this year I was in charge of making lefse by MYSELF! I received a lefse grill last year for Christmas and finally busted it out. I have been helping my grandma make lefse for the past few years now - but I always had the easy job - grilling it. I had a heck of a time rolling out the dough - it kept sticking to the pastry cloth and/or the rolling pin. As you can see below - I need to improve my rolling out skills - lefse is supposed to be ROUND! This was my very first lefse that I made on my own!

Harper kept me company!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, faith, food and LOVE!!! I know that I have much to be thankful for this year: a caring husband, supportive family, and the CUTEST daughter in the world!

Jack Ryan Shields

He's here......Jack Ryan Shields was born today at 1:17 p.m. He weights 8 lbs 6 oz and is 21 inches long. He has LOTS of blond hair! I have a few pictures on my cell phone but none via computer so no pictures of him to show you just yet.

Both he and Ashley are doing well - both tired. I am so JEALOUS of Ashley's labor and delivery! She went into the hospital last night to get induced to avoid having a c-section because the doctor told her she had a narrow pelvis and Jack was already measuring over 8 lbs as of last week. The injected some gel on her cervix last night to soften it and planned on starting pitocin this morning to help things along. I talked to her around 11 a.m. and she was 6 cm dilated and they had just broke her water. Within an hour she was dilated to 10 cm and ready to push. She only had to push for 20 minutes! In fact, she had to hold off pushing so the doctor could get there to deliver Jack! What a GREAT labor/delivery for her first baby - so jealous of her! She did a great job!

Happy Birthday Jack!!!!!!

Funny Girl

I came home from work today and this is what I found....


Adam and Harper napping - IMAGINE THAT! She looked so cute - she had her face buried in Adam's chest and had her handing blocking the side of her face. I guess she doesn't want to be bothered when she's sleeping :)


This is just too funny! I think Harper sees mommy and daddy doing too much of this so she had to give it a try! She's getting so big and strong - she'll be sitting up on her own
before we know it!

2 month stats

Harper had her two month wellness check today and she is a healthy little girl :) She had to get 3 shots today - poor thing! I chose to leave the room right before she got them because I knew I'd probably cry! Adam said she did pretty good - didn't really cry until they were done giving the first one. I couldn't hear her from the waiting room so that's a plus!


Weight : 12 lbs 7 oz (90th percentile)

Height: 23 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

Overall with her head measurement, she is averaging at the 75th percentile! Big girl!

Goal this month: work on her feeding schedule and getting her to sleep through the night!

2 months

I attempted to create a blog yesterday but our internet was down all evening, so this is a day late. Harper turned 2 months old yesterday! She goes to the dr. for her 2 month wellness check tomorrow, Friday the 13th - very fitting because she will get her first round of vaccinations - NOT looking forward to that! On one hand it seems unreal that shes already 2 months old, I remember being in labor like it was yesterday! But on the other hand, it seems like I've gotten WAY more than 2 months worth of sleepless nights! She has her good days and her bad days - seems to be more bad than good lately! She is SO SO happy for the first 15 minutes when she wakes up in the morning - and then its all downhill from there! She's at the stage right now where she's awake more and needs more attention. Unfortunately, shes not able to entertain herself yet, so she is very demanding - always has to be held or likes to be talked to. She will only play on the floor for about 10 minutes before she's bored. She is a HIGH MAINTENANCE little girl already! She really isn't on any sort of schedule yet - sleeps and eats whenever. Her nights are a little more structured - we give her a bath b/w 7 and 8 and put her to bed b/w 8 and 9. She usually wakes up b/w 12 and 1 and then again b/w 3 and 4. Shes up for the day b/w 7 and 8! She used to be the queen at taking naps - not so much anymore - 30 minutes here and there - I wish she'd take longer naps so she wasn't so crabby! O'well - everyone keeps saying it'll get better after 12 weeks! I hope the Lord blesses me with patience for the next 4 weeks! I've decided that she has a case of the colic!!!!

2 months old - can you guess who bought her shirt?! (it says 'pretty like mommy')

Yes he does Harper! :)

Happy belated Veteran's Day to my hubby! I love you and I am so proud of everything you've done for our country! Also, thanks to my father-in-law and brother-in-law and many other friends!

Accountability

The best part of being pregnant - EATING and not feeling guilty! I think I may have ate one too many hot fudge shakes or brownies during those long 9 months because I'm still trying to lose the baby weight! I still have the last 15 of the 35 pounds left to lose...and its definitely not easy! So I decided to join Weight Watchers. I've tried dieting on my own but I need someone to report to and weigh me. I've decided to take it one step further and tell all of YOU - to hold me even more accountable. I will track my progress on the right-hand side of my blog. I weigh-in every Monday night - so I'll have it updated no later than Tuesday afternoons. I'm hoping this will help me stay motivated and I may even just motivate YOU!

Have you ever visited the Hungry Girl website? I just heard about it last week at my meeting - a wonderful website for recipes, eating out guides, diet do's and don'ts, etc. Check it out!

8 Weeks

Harper is 8 weeks old as of yesterday! Every Friday we always tell her Happy Birthday - I guess we're celebrating the weeks right now instead of years. She will turn 2 months on Wednesday November 11th - time is going by fast! Nothing exciting is going on around here - hence no blogs. Adam is working a lot and I'm training at my new job a few hours each day. Yesterday was Harper's first day at daycare - it was only for 3 hours - but we both did good! It was hard leaving her but I managed not to cry. I think it helps that we've left her over night a few times with the grandparents. Well, not much new to report. Supposed to be a beautiful weekend - finally get to take Harper for a walk again! Oh yeah - we're going home tomorrow to take some family pictures for Christmas cards. We won't be using the family picture because I've got some great ideas of just having Harper in the picture! You'll just have to wait and see...

Have a GREAT weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Love, ~ Harper

Put A Smile On Your Face

Harper achieved her first milestone - SMILING!!! Ever since she was born she would randomly smile, sometimes laugh, while she was sleeping. But now she is starting to smile when you talk to her. She's the happiest when she wakes up in the morning and after any of her naps. It's almost like a switch flipped because before we left for Tulsa she was fussy, and when we came back she was smiling and happy! Her grandparents must have done a great job spoiling her ;)
Harper turned 7 weeks today! She is getting so big and strong. She's not really 'talking' yet, but we can tell that she wants to. Every once in awhile she lets out a squeal - any day now and she'll be cooing! Can't wait!

Here's a few pictures of Harper smiling in her swing - she really likes to be in her swing now!

Looking cute in her Halloween shirt

Look at how precious she is!!!

Harper likes to sleep on your chest - however it takes her a few minutes to get comfy. She SQUIRMS and SQUIRMS until she's just right! She usually finds her spot, then she makes sure she can see you, and finally props her little hands under her head. SO CUTE! Not the case in this picture but you get the point. Look at how big she is!

If she sleeps on her back, she puts her hands above her head. What a cutie! I love watching her sleep!

Tulsa Getaway

This past weekend Adam and I drove to Tulsa, OK for a friends' wedding. It was a much needed mini-vacation for the both of us! We got to spend an entire 4 days without having to change a diaper, wash a bottle, give a bath, etc. It was great - but we also missed little Harper a lot - we checked facebook daily to see pictures of her and called home a few times just to hear her cute little whimpers!

The first night in Tulsa (Friday) we met up with Adam's army buddies and went out for supper. After the wedding rehearsal Kyle was able to meet up with us as well. We headed to a bar that was just down the road from their apartment.

Tom, Kyle, Ricky, and Adam at 'Another Round'

'Another Round' was your typical small town bar - a hole in the wall- I think our tab was $6.75 for 4 drinks! Awesome! We bar hopped to a few other places before calling it a night!

We all went out for lunch on Saturday at On the Border - Kyle's wife is pregnant and craves salsa - my kind of girl!!!

Heather and Kyle

So I guess when they were in the Army, the guys always played a trick on Tom whenever they went out to eat - they always told the waitress that it was his birthday so they'd sing to him..haha...Well - I guess some people never grow up! Tom says that he's got to be 47 by now!

Happy 'Birthday' Tom!

On Saturday night we all went to 'Octoberfest,' which is basically a big carnival/party! Lots and lots of greasy food, rides, games, live music, and of course, BEER! They had 4 different beer tents and we luckily found the one playing the Hawkeye game! Man - what a game! It was neat because 99% of the people in the tent were cheering for the hawks! Very weird considering that we were in Oklahoma - either way it was awesome! Adam was sporting his Hawkeye football shirt so EVERYONE was talking to him and giving him high-fives all night - pretty cool!

Adam finally found his turkey leg that he had been craving all night - and I found my onion blossom! No German food for us!

Which leads us to the main even - KYLE AND HEATHERS WEDDING!!! They got married Sunday night at 7:00 - it was short, sweet and to the point. It was very simple and pretty! We wish them a lifetime of love and happiness!

Us with the bride and groom

The guys