up to her feet

You may not recognize the baby girl below. You may remember her as a teeny, tiny little baby. A newborn you cradled in your arms, rocked to sleep. But I warn you, in the blink of an eye, she is growing up. She can now pull herself up to stand, and she does so, on everything! Amazingly, I caught her very first time on camera yesterday. I love the progression of the pictures....

              

               1) Testing the waters, checking her balance.  2) A little unsteady, checking if mom is near.

  3) Oh yea, she got this!

To say that life goes too fast is an understatement. And for some reason, it seems like Harlow's life is whizzing by at warp speed, and it makes this mama want to cry.

#$%*!@ Snow

If I was being completely honest and naming this post what I was really thinking, it'd be called

" I  _____ hate snow!!!" You fill in the blank! I strongly dislike everything about it. It isn't beautiful to me- it's cold, it's messy, and it makes for very dangerous driving. But....because my kids love it, I will tolerate it. And I did an awful lot of tolerating Sunday afternoon.

 They could have sat there and watched Daddy blow the driveway all day long.

 Until they realized that running through the flying snow might be even more fun.

 Pax liked to lay in the snow. Sure, because that seems insane fun!

 This picture...this made it all worth it! Look at that determined face, lips clenched, lifting with his back, putting forth all of his might to get that snowman's belly in place. Ha! Seriously, I can't stop laughing at it.

 But he did it all for them. Hudson was OVER THE MOON excited about his snowman, and even more excited that he was still standing this morning.

Dear Lord, please help me through the next 4 months. Amen. 

seven months

Harlow is seven months old- December 8, 2012

 This is a "Hudson" face!

 Love that leg up!

At seven months old.....
weight: 15 lbs. 4 oz. (according to home scale)
length: 25 1/4 inches (very hard to measure because she does NOT lay still!)
diaper size: size 2
clothes: 6 month
bottles: 5 oz. varies on time, much less since started eating food
food: all baby foods, stage 1 & 2, 3 meals a day
Little things about Harlow.....
-she does not stop moving! she can crawl and does so all over the house!
-no sitting yet due to the above movement, hence taking these 7 month pictures was not easy!
-has two teeth, bottom middle
-loves Yogurt Melts, and watching her chew them is hilarious
-loves Sophie the Giraffe
-still laughs whenever her brothers cry
-can pull herself up onto her knees (and as I wrote this just pulled herself up to her FEET!)
-still a great sleeper, we put her in her crib and she falls right to sleep, at night and for naps
-spits up way too much!
-has a cold right now, nose as red as Rudolph
-lays underneath the Christmas tree and tries to grab the ornaments
-still loves mommy and is soothed by the sight of me or sound of my voice
-she can be stubborn and not let anyone feed her but mommy
-she likes to play with toys on the floor but will always go after her brothers toys first
-she can jump in her jumpies but would still prefer to be crawling free on the floor
-she lets me put a headband on her whenever I want
-she can put her do-do (pacifier) in by herself
-the only noise she really makes is a grunt
-she hates getting her diaper changed now because its time when she can't move, it's annoying to the changer as well, she's a squirmy worm
-she's a totally different baby from 2 months ago....she's always happy and loves everyone

Disney on Ice

It was the boys' first experience with Disney on Ice, and this was the perfect show. It had a little bit of everything. Small snippets of many Disney favorites. Not to mention Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy whom the boys can't get enough of! Paxton took in the entire show in awed silence, loving every moment and clapping along with the audience. Hudson never shut up! He talked through the whole show; about every thing he saw, every character, how the costumes were made, where the fireworks and smoke was coming from. These two boys are so much alike, and complete opposites at the same time. One thing they did have in common....picking THE MOST expensive toy to buy! Thank you Grandma for giving them each money to spend!! It was money well spent, they never turned them off during the show, or the entire 2 hour drive home!

This picture below made my heart melt and explode.

Hudsy told me, "Mommy, I love you so much, how am I ever going to give you up? I'm never gonna give you up." These boys were really tugging at my heartstrings today! I love family dates.....but poor Harlow missed out. Don't feel too sorry for her, she had Grandma's undivided attention all day!

St. Nick's Day

St. Nick visited our house and brought fun gifts for the kids. The favorites were definitely snow globes and capes with their initials on.

 My super heros.

 Harlow got the Little People Nativity. She did well opening her present, anything to get to eat that paper!

 She liked it, those eyebrows tell it all!

 St. Nick also gave Mommy, Daddy, and the boys tickets to see Disney on Ice- 100 Years of Magic. He left this note for the boys and we watched a little clip of the show. We went this afternoon....pictures to come....

new spots to play

Since Harlow's been crawling, she has found new spots around the house to play. New things to get into, and of course, new ways to get hurt. For some reason she found these trays appealing, but she'd pull herself up on them and tip over. So I put some weights on each end, which worked, until she tried with all her might to get the weights out! Now we just put toys in there for her to get out and she LOVES IT!

Looking at these pictures, I still can't believe she's doing these things ALREADY!!

She crawls....

She crawls, she crawls fast! She crawls all the time, all over! She follows me, she chases her brothers, she's in every room of the house! My tiny baby is crawling.

Visiting St. Nick

Like every year, we went to visit St. Nick tonight (Harlow stayed home with Grandma). Hudson took it very seriously. As soon as he saw Krumpus (who gives out the coal to naughty kids) he asked if I thought he was a good boy lately, if Paxton was good, and he noticed some of the older kids asking for coal and he could not imagine why they would want coal. Every time Krumpus walked by him he sighed with relief. When it was his turn, he told St. Nick his name, that he was 4 years old, that he was very good, and no he does not fight with his brother (sure!). Paxton was a little more nervous, but braved through it and talked to St. Nick too. A little more quietly, he told him his name was Paxton, that he was 2 but almost 3 years old (and showed his 3 fingers). Apparently he wasn't quite as easy to understand because St. Nick asked, "Have you been a good boy this year, Duncan?" Ha. Didn't phase Pax though, he just said yes and happily took the candy cane.

sunday project

I bought the boys these trees awhile back, waiting to get them out on a relaxing weekend with no plans, and Sunday was the perfect day. The trees were foam and came with foam ornament stickers.

 Hudson had a plan. He thought it through, made patterns, and took pride in his tree.

Paxton decorated himself. He took pride in that too! This was his mustache.

 These were fun little projects. Something they could do themselves and then set up for decoration. I highly recommend them (can be found at Target).

 (I love Paxton's face in this picture!)

harlow & the tree

Harlow looks pretty posing by the tree......

and underneath it!! Since this girl is always on the go, and always more interested in everything else other than her toys, she has taken a liking to the Christmas tree and .........

the low hanging ornaments!

saturday

The boys have their very own tree in their room this year. They decorated it with Toy Story ornaments, Cars, and the Grinch. To them, it is the COOLEST tree ever!

 Noah spent the day with us. It's so fun, watching the boys get older and spend time with their friends. They watched a movie in the basement and actually stayed quiet for about an hour.

 Even though it was December 1st in Minnesota, it was gorgeous enough to spend the afternoon outside!

 Harlow absolutely loved swinging, but could barely take her eyes off the boys running around.

happy birthday grandma

We celebrated one of our favorite people today...okay, she's like our very favorite person! And it is her birthday. There's nothing we could give her, buy her, or make her that would show just how much we love and appreciate her.

The boys colored her Christmas tree pictures. Paxton's on the left, Hudsy's on the right. They were proud of their creations, and as always, Hudsy explains every detail. He told me he put the Lego man on there because he was going to fix the lights on the tree, but he's turned the opposite way because the lights started working again so he could leave. Such a story teller. And that big green blob in the middle, that's the pickle. Both he and I love the "hide the pickle" tradition. I'm like the "pickle finding champ" in this family!

Happy Birthday Grandma! WE LOVE YOU!!!