Planking

Planking or the lying down game is an activity consisting of lying face down in an unusual or incongruous location. The hands must touch the sides of the body and having a photograph of the participant taken and posted on the Internet is an integral part of the game. Players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play.

Example A:

Example B:

Example C:
Yes, people, this planking fad is 100% real. Google it!

Girls Day

Harper and I had a fun 'girls day' with each other today. It was my only day off this week, so I took full advantage of spending time with Harper. Here are a few fun things we did:

• Walked to the library - Harper played with puzzles, pulled a few books of the shelves, and played with the gigantic horse stuffed animal, while I read the newspaper. A trip to the library wouldn't be complete without a {long} pit stop at the drinking fountain (the girls loves them!)
• Stopped at the post office - Harper loves to mail things - she pulls down the little door, drops one piece of mail in, and then shuts the door. This process gets repeated for every piece of mail. Once all the mail is in the box, she wants "more!"
• Ordered Chinese take out for lunch! I ordered chicken and broccoli, knowing that Harper would eat every last bite of broccoli, and she did. The kind lady at the restaurant even threw in an extra fortune cookie for Harper so we wouldn't have to share :)
• Took a nap together in 'mommy's bed' while watching the Food Network.
• Painted our toe nails a pretty, shimmery, deep purple
• Smelled all 19 of mommy's Scentsy bars for 5 hours - no joke! I have a major headache! Harper enjoyed stacking them - after smelling each one first. They all "smell good" according to Harper! My new favorite, LUNA!
• Made a trip out to mommy's work to do a few odds and ends - she got to talk to all of mommy's friends and see the fishes!

I love days like today! Just me and my baby girl! She is growing up too quickly. I start school next Thursday and know that days like today will be few and far between. I hope everyone has a great weekend. I know mine is off to a great start!

Mini Oreo Surprise Cupcakes

I made these to take to work today. Easy and oh so yummy! They look very fancy - everyone will think you slaved over these. It's okay to let them think that :)

Mini Oreo Surprise Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 box chocolate cake mix

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1 egg

2 TBS sugar

48 mini Oreo cookies

1 1/2 cups whipped topping

Directions: Prepare cake batter as directed on box. Mix cream cheese, egg, and sugar until well blended. Spoon half the cake batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups. Top each with about 1 1/2 tsp cream cheese mixture and 1 cookie; cover with remaining cake batter.

Bake 19-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan to wire racks. Cool completely.

Frost with whipped topping and remaining cookies. Frosted cupcakes can be stored in refrigerator up to 3 days.

(Our grocery store doesn't carry the mini Oreos so I bought the regular size and broke them in half)

Pony Tail

Look who finally looks like a little girl....

Why didn't I do this sooner?! Harper looks so cute! Oh I remember - she never sits still :)

Blank Park Zoo 2011

Aug 8, 2011

A few weeks ago we headed to Des Moines for our 2nd annual trip to the zoo. The three of had a lot of fun spending the day together. We love watching Harper learn new things and seeing her get excited. Here are a few pics from our special day.

Adam and Harper on the train. This was Harper's FAVORITE part of the zoo - who needs animals when you can ride on a choo-choo train?! She talked about the train for days!

Look at those cheeks!

Sad face! No more choo-choo! I told her to smile for a picture, but she decided to show me her sad face instead. Little stinker!

We watched the monkeys play for a very long time!

Front row seat for watching the giraffe eat!

Feeding the goats. She didn't like this very much because it was stinky! She did not like the smell and she repeatedly said 'Poop" and made her gag face!

Making a little music at the playground

Harper loved the fishes!

As we did last year, we met up with the soon to be Mr. & Mrs. for supper again!

Insanity: Day 15

One way Insanity monitors your progress is by having the individual perform the same Fit Test every 2 weeks. You are to do as many reps as you can in 1 minute and then record your results after each exercise on the handy dandy Fit Test Card that came with the program.

Here are my results:

Exercise Day 1 Day 15

switch kicks 50 56

power jacks 32 42

power knees 63 69

power jumps 20 29

globe jumps 5 8

suicide jumps 10 12

push-up jacks 7 10

low plank oblique 18 28

As you can see, I improved in EVERY exercise! Yipee! I still don't see any physical results yet. But I can definitely tell that my cardiovascular fitness is improving. I think the 2nd month is when the body transformation is supposed to take place (lets hope!). It would help if I followed the eating plan (whoops!)

15 days down - 45 more to go! Not that I'm counting - oh wait, I am! Hurry up!

Bed Debate

I think it is finally time to move Harper out of her crib and into an actual bed. She has never tried to climb out of her crib but she totally despises sleeping in it. She likes to sleep anywhere but her crib: our bed, the couch, the recliner, the floor. Last night was the final straw - I put Harper to bed in her crib and she cried for a few minutes and fell asleep. She woke up 30 minutes later and wouldn't stop whining. Every time I layed her in her crib she would cry. So I finally took her to our bed and closed the door and she was out like a light - without me laying with her. I don't know if it was the comfort of laying in our bed or the fact that she wasn't in her crib, but it worked!

I think we are going to remove the crib from Harper's room and put her mattress on the floor and we'll see how that works. We will be buying her a new bed in a few weeks, but don't know if we should buy a toddler bed or a twin. Harper has almost outgrown her crib mattress, so she wouldn't be in her toddler bed for much longer. So why waste the money? I think we are going to go with a twin bed instead. Anyone have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?!

Insanity

As I promised a few blogs ago, here is an update on my 'workout' plans.

I just finished my first week of Insanity.

As the name implies, the workouts are insane!

So far I am enjoying the program. I look forward to each workout. (this never happens) It could be because it's the first week and is something new and different.

The workouts are challenging and I am dripping with sweat by the end. I am actually sweating by the end of what they call a 'warm up!"

Each workout consists of A LOT of jumping, squats, crazy push-ups, and basketball and track 'drills.' It is 100% cardio.

I took a 'before' picture and I am planning on taking an 'after' picture in 60 days. Hopefully I find the courage to post my results.

Apparently my body loves to store fat. I decided that it's time to get serious and do something about it. After gaining 15 lbs since last summer, not being able to fit into a lot of my clothes and 'jeans' weather right around the corner, NOW is the time. AND I'm a bridesmaid in October. It's time to get motivated and make a change!

I'm hoping to have progress to update you on over the next few months.

23 Months

Weight: 27 lbs (+.4 lbs)

Diaper Size: 4

Clothing Size: 2T

Shoe Size: 5 or 6

Teeth: still waiting on the last set of molars....

Eating: For breakfast Harper prefers yogurt or toast. For lunch and supper, she enjoys ravioli, cottage cheese, apple sauce, turkey, grapes, and apple juice. She has recently found her sweet tooth - she loves Popsicles, ice cream, marshmallows, M&M's and Kit Kats!

Sleeping: Harper still takes one nap/day, usually in the afternoon, for about 2 hours. Bedtime is b/w 8 and 10, it totally depends on the day. She still sleeps for about 12-13 hours! Once I go back to school, bedtime will be earlier (I hope). Harper has really started to enjoy sleeping in 'mommy's bed.' She asks to sleep there almost every day. I sometimes let her fall asleep in our bed and then take her to her crib. Harper has also started to nap on the couch or floor in the living room. She grabs a pillow and blanket and she is out like a light. For example, she is sleeping behind the recliner right now!

Speech: Harper was on a roll this month - bread, yogurt (gurt), corn, watermelon, arm, mouth, knee, bird, elephant, napkin (ka-kin), catch, couch, pen, phone, remote (mote), paper, flag, house, nine, ten, four, airplane, sky, cloud, stuck, brown, black, white, circle, star, heart, stinky, hug, sheep (beep), shirt, annoying, crawl, um, push, ice cream (ice peam) color (col-ah) play, golf (bolf), Rusty, Kit Kat, round, town......

Favorite Toy: Babies

Favorite Activity: COLORING...hands down!

New Things:

• recognizes a circle, star and heart
• knows all of the primary colors
• LOVES napkins - usually a few at each meal
• likes to clean - uses wipes to clean any and all surfaces
• talking in 2-3 word phrases, "I watch Bus" (wants to watch 'Wheels on the Bus' on youtube), "I golf too"
• starting using -ing ( "I running" or "I pooping")
• differentiates between girls and boys - she likes to label everyone she meets at the playground! (A boy! A boy!)
• Can drink out of a big cup
• DISLIKES bath time - she doesn't like getting her hair washed
• OBSESSED with Ali - video coming soon!
• differentiates between sounds (Without seeing objects) - airplane, train, tractor, lawn mower, truck...
• started scratching/pulling hair when upset
• goes down the big slide all by herself at the playground

Next month I'll be a parent of a 2 year old!!!!!

Safe and Sound

We had quite the scare yesterday...we lost Duckie!!!! We legitimately had NO idea where Duckie was for a good 3-4 hours and Harper had to take her very first nap without him. After screaming for about 5 minutes, I finally let Harper lay in bed with me just so she'd calm down and take a nap. I felt so bad for her. Duckie is Harper's very best friend - he comforts her when she feels uneasy. tired and/or sad. I honestly think Harper loves Duckie just as much as Adam or I. Duckie is the 4th member of our family. He goes EVERYWHERE with us! (I'm glad Duckie is small and can be tucked away, unlike a big blanket or stuffed animal)

To make a long story short, Adam found Duckie over on the neighbor's sidewalk. Harper had taken Duckie outside and wandered over to the neighbor's house while Adam was doing some yard work. After searching the house high and low, walking around the house a million times, scanning the entire block and even making a special trip out to the city dump (where Adam took his weeds/brush/etc), we gave up. I wanted to cry. I felt sorry for Harper because she was losing her best friend. We were also sad because we wanted to give Duckie to her when she graduates. I called my mom and told her the story and even she was sick to her stomach. That is how much Harper LOVES her Duckie! I figured the wind had blown Duckie away or some animal scurried off with it. When Adam came back to the house with Duckie and I felt like I had won the lottery!

And for those of you wondering why we don't get a 'back-up' Duckie - they don't make it anymore. Each year the company comes out with new animals. I've searched the Internet for one too. No such luck. So let's hope Duckie doesn't run away anymore. We honestly need to install a GPS in that thing!

Here are a few pictures of Harper with Duckie:

First picture with Duckie: 4 months old

11 months old

14 months old

20 months old

21 months old

22 months old

Multi-Purposing

We have been very busy around here. I promise I will blog every day for the remaining week. I will be uploading some pictures tonight.

So, anyways....Harper LOVES to color. And she also loves to sort things and transfer her toys to different bag/boxes/etc. So what do you get when you combine the two?!?!

Did you know that a Coke bottle can also be a crayon box?!?! In Harper's world it can be!

Grilling Secrets

Tonight for supper we grilled burgers and zucchini - it was delicious! Here are a few tips for grilling:

ZUCCHINI:

Cut the zucchini into thin slices, leaving the skin on.

Marinate in Italian dressing for 30 minutes.

Grill for about 5 minutes on each side, just until grill marks appear and edges start to crisp.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

*It is amazing! Even Adam liked it!

BURGERS:

Using a handheld grater, grate about 1/4 small onion into burger.

Mix well.

*The onion gives the burger great flavor and keeps the burger very moist!

Bridal Shower

Adam, Harper and I are all in a wedding this fall for one one of my BFF's from high school. Harper and I headed to Des Moines on Saturday for Abby's very first bridal shower. It was so much fun catching up with her and her family and the other bridesmaids. We can't wait for October! The above picture is Harper and the other flower girl, Amyra. Amyra is about 6 months older than Harper; they will have so much fun together!

The picture below is Abby with all of her bridesmaids (minus one that couldn't make it). No, I'm not pregnant - just need to go on a DIET. The dress and/or my positioning is not flattering one bit! Check back later this week to hear about my latest weight loss plan ;)