Happy Weekend!!

Ok so first off I have to share this recipe with you all!! I'm loving it so much I think you will too.  I have been doing a lot of smoothie substitutions at lunch and this is one of my favorites!  Sometimes I even add a spoonful of peanut butter which really makes it yummy!!!  

Banana Smoothie

I am so excited how nice the weather is today, I can't believe its January!!  I think we are going to get out and enjoy some sunshine!!  This is gonna be a quick post because I am running a one woman showthis week so I am pretty busy:)  Harper is munchin on her lunch right now so I have a little time!!  

So guess what?!?! Harper came down with another virus that turned into ear infection this last week so I was off work one day to take care of her and then our wonderful family stepped into help me the rest of the week so I didn't have to call in all week.  I have been very frustrated with how much Harper has been sick this year and how much work I have had to miss, you know its bad when I only work part time and I'm still missing a ton of work.  This week I really just decided that it was best to take her out of Daycare, at least for a while.  We are going to keep her home and have a wonderful girl come in and stay with her two days a week while I work.  I'm hoping that it is a good fit and that it works out well, time will tell:)  So Harper's first week home will be this week with her new friend Lori!! Harper is finally feeling better and acting more like herself, thank goodness.  Its been a rough year so far with sickness for so many parents, I know several people that have had their sweet babies hospitalized, never fun having sick kids:(

Pics from the week!

Play date with Decker and Sedona!!  They all played so well together:)

Bath time, she loves making silly faces in the glass;) love this kid!!

Sick baby this week, look at her little eyes:(

Harper became a pro at cleaning the boogies out of her nose!!  She even knows how to put the saline in now, lol!


Feeling better helping me make some cupcakes:)

Did you say toddler?!?!

So as you all know Harper turned one almost a month ago! I know, I have a 13 month old, what?!? So as I've done through the whole first year I pull out my book at the beginning of a new month and just read up to make sure we are on track. What milestones should we be meeting, foods to eat, nap schedules, how much fluids should we be drinking? Etc... ( you get the point!) So anyway I pulled out my book for the 12 month and you know what it said?!? Congrats you have a toddler!!! What a toddler, no I'm pretty sure she is still my sweet sweet cuddly baby, tear:( Anyway I got past that and went on to read its time to start thinking about bottle weaning, switching to cows milk, and changing nap schedules could be on the horizon..... I'm like do I need to potty train too?! It's like they turn one and things start changing on me. Okay I know I'm overreacting as I usually do, but sheesh;) I have actually been working on switching to cows milk but we had some diarrhea issues so we slowed down on that. I've introduced the sippy since about 8 months and she uses it mainly when she eats but not really super interested in it.  I've started buying different types of sippy cups to see if maybe she can find one she likes.. We had a small victory the other day she carried her sippy around for most of the afternoon and used it all by herself, so I was pretty excited, baby steps!!  Usually I have to offer it to her for her to take interest.  I have also got it to where the only time she is really wanting a bottle is sleepy time.  So we are relying on solids for the majority of our nutrition which is heading in the right direction.  Of course some days we have set backs where she wants her bottles more but we are working on it:)

I had to get a pic of the victory we had!! She loved to sit in her car and watch her video with her sippy!

Yes we got Sick again last week.  She was running a 103 fever so we went to the urgent care and  tested positive for the FLU!! poor baby she was put on tamiflu and was down for about 2 days.  She is all better now and happy to report no one else got it!! YAY

I had to share this pic!! I got this at work the other day while daddy was taking care of her.  She is like, "Mom look at all this food!! how am i supposed to eat all of it!?"

This is her new recliner she got, Although we have had to put it up because  she had a few tumbles.  We have to wait until she understands its not for climbing!!  Nonetheless she loves to sit in it!

Baby in the kitchen, watch out!! I can't wait until she cooks me something, LOL!!


In other news we had a wonderful visitor last week from Ashley Hall!! We love anytime we get to see her!!  Im so upset we didn't get any pics though of her being here.  She is such a dear friend to me.  We met when we lived in Texas and we actually worked together.  We became close friends and have been able to stay in touch ever since!!  It's funny because we are actually so different.  She is a true Texas country girl and well we all know I am not!!!  But somehow we just get each other and have so much fun together!!  I was laughing with her this week when she was here, my how our get togethers have changed!! We always used to be doing something but now it is a lot more tame with Harper being around!  She is a wonderful friend to me and I know we will be friends for life, so Ashley if you read my blog just know your visit meant a lot to me and I am so glad to spend some quality time together!! Muah:) Can't wait to do it again soon:)

  



Harper showing me where shoes go!! she is getting so smart!

Oh what a night

Happy 2013! This is my first post of the new year!! To bring in the new year we didn't do anything too exciting but we did have some party hats and some fun!! We Got together with some friends and had dinner and headed back to Our Place and put on our party hats and had Moscow mules. It was my first time to drink these and I have to say I really enjoyed them. They are made with ginger beer and vodka. They're actually really refreshing! Thanks Megan for introducing me to these! I also had some peppermint chocolate martini mix that I bought earlier in the year and I was excited to try, but was very disappointed, I love chocolate but not so much in a martini glass, lol:) Harper got to stay up past her bedtime so she could paaaarrrty!!! Here's to a new year and new experiences!!!

Bring on the new year!

As I sit here on this last day of the year, I reflect on what I accomplished this year, what I am happy with in my life and what I need to work on this next year.   This year has been a wonderful year as it was my first year as a MOM!  I have loved every minute of being Harper's mom and all of the experiences it has brought to our lives! She is such a sweet spirit and very curious!  I hvae loved watching her grow into such a "big girl."  I am excited to continue to watch her grow and learn.  I'm really anxious for her to start talking!  Most parents that have talking children tell me no you can definitely wait for them to start talking, but I'm excited to hear all of the things that is going on in that little mind.  I know I have a while before I hear full sentences, right now we communicate a lot by pointing and the sound of her going "uh uh uh uh"  and I just keep grabbing things until I figure out what it is, lol!

Adam and I have grown a lot in our relationship.  He has been gone a lot this year for work and so I have learned to get used to being a parent by myself a lot of the time.  Its has been challenging on our relationship and we have had to get used to this new "normal" for our lives.  I am so thankful for his job  and being able to be work part time.  I really love working part time, it is nice to be able to get out of the house a couple of days a week and see all my friends at work and apply myself at things other than changing diapers, laundry and fixing meals.  By the time those days are over I am so ready to go pick up Harpy and spend time with her. I miss her so much when I am away from her.  I am so blessed to have the man I have in my life, he is a wonderful provider, a wonderful father and a best friend.

As far as my career, I am really happy to still be working but I am ready for a change.  My job is great and I really do love what I do but I feel like I am at a point in my life where I need more.  I feel like I need more of a challenge and more of a satisfaction for what I do.  I have found myself not being %100   in what I do.  When you work with people that are sick, hurting, dying and healing I think it is important to be %100.  They don't deserve anything less then the best and so this shows me that I need a change.  I think any type of customer service job is hard because you have to stretch yourself.  Even if you don't feel good or you are in a fight with your spouse, or you are worried about your sick kid at home you have to put a smile on your face and act like you care.  Some days that is easier than others. I haven't decided what a change means for me but I do know that this year I have plans for something different.

Spiritually I am not where I need to be in my life.  Adam and I do go to church and we try to attend regularly but it has been hard with his job and him being gone so much. We also got involved in a weekly bible study which we really enjoyed, but again with his schedule we were not able to keep up with it.  My goal for 2013 is to pray daily and be in the word daily, I need to make this a priority.  Adam's schedule is looking more of the same from this last year, so my plan is to get involved in a women's bible study.  I know this will help me be more accountable.

I would love to travel some this next year, work out more, get more painting, decorating and house decor for my house.  We have lived here two years this spring and we are still trying to get it all decorated:)  I have just learned to be happy right where we are because it is a PROCESS!!   Hopefully Adam and I can take more time with and for each other.  I think this last year we didn't ever want to leave Harper.  We didn't take a lot of time away from her for ourselves. It must be a new parent thing!!  Maybe if we took some time away we could work on a brother or sister for her;) I hope that is part of the plan for this year!!

I am so thankful for everyone who helped us get through our first year as being parents, it truly does take a village to raise a child!  I want to thank our parents, grandparents,  and friends for all of your advice and help with this new year of discovery!!

Some of my favorites from this year!!

We had so much fun at H's first pumpkin patch 

UH OH someone is in TROUBLE:)

I just love this pic of H she looks so happy!

great day with one of my favorite people!

Halloween!!

We had such a fun day at OSU and also so proud of my husband this day 

she is so sweet!

being silly

Such a precious pic

This pic is from my first mothers day, we had such a fun day this day. It was a family BBQ 

One of my many "photo shoots" with Harper this year:)

I just love her little smile

I just think she is gorgeous

H and I on Christmas, we missed Daddy but we got to see face time with him.

This is a video that was made of Harper over this last year.  I posted to my Facebook but if you haven't seen it here it is again!! We are so blessed.
Harpers 1st Year


May 2013 be a great year for all of you!!!  Happy New Year:)

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!! I hope you all had a blessed holiday with all of your families!! We had a great Christmas with our families. It was fun with Harper this year!! She has a lot of new things to play with now and I have to figure out where to put all this new fun stuff. I think a room in our house is going to have to be converted into a play room sooner than later! We have a lot of kids in our family so we get to use their old toys that they are too big to play with. It's a win win right?!? We get free stuff and the parents get rid of extra toys!! It is really great for us but we just got to figure out where to put it all!!!

I was really hoping we would see a white Christmas with all of the weather reports but we were unlucky!! I'm waiting for that big snowstorm this year! I looooove snow!

We did get to make a Christmas trip!! We went back to KS to my parents.  Harper started running a 102 fever the second day we were there so to the ER we went!! Harper had to get a breathing treatment and some antibiotics, they thought she may have pneumonia. It was NO fun, but Glad to report she has now made a full recovery!! These last few months have been so crazy with sickness, I'm hoping 2013 is a healthier year for all of us!!!

My baby all dressed up for Christmas at Great Gparents

Harper loves playing with all of her cousins!!

With Grandma and Gpa Ellis and Aunt Macy

Her new Pink Car!!!

Tired baby on our way home!

She even got her own little recliner

A trip around the sun

Wow! My baby girl is one year old today!!!  I can't believe a year ago today I became a mom!  My life has been so blessed with Harper and life has been so much fun since having her.  This time a year ago I was in a hospital room getting to know this new little person that we welcomed into the world.  I respect moms all over and especially my own my mom so much more, it is not an easy job.  She changes so much from day to day and I always love to see what new "thing" she will do. I love to see her little mind working!  I know that time will pass no matter how many moments I wish I could just freeze in time so I just try to soak it all in and take lots of pictures!!

This last weekend we had Harpers 1st birthday and we had so much fun!!  I had a blast planning it and decorating for it (I may have went a little overboard).  Harper was feeling a little sickly, she has had a cold but we partied on.  We had a really good turn out and Harper got a lot of fun toys! We are definitely blessed with great family and friends.  She wasn't super interested in eating her cake but more in just playing in it.

We have been so busy these last few months, but in the last few weeks Harper has started walking!! She isn't super fast yet but she is very steady.  She is now saying "hello" "dog"  "ball"  "uh oh" and "Abby" (our dog's name)

We are traveling back to KS this weekend for Christmas to stay with my parents since Adam will be busy working.  My family of course is excited since I haven't been back there for a Christmas eve in four years.  My sister is in the nutcracker so she is excited for me to get to see her in it this weekend!!

We went to the Dr today for Harper's 12 month appointment, I know a great way to celebrate her birthday, right?!?!  She weighed 18.8 lbs which puts her in the 20% and 30 inches long which is 75%.

Happy Holidays!!

Amazing day!!

Get ready this is a long one!! Where to begin.....So last weekend was Tulsa Junior Leagues Holiday Market and it turned out to be a huge success!!  Santa also came to visit so I took Harper and surprisingly she did well!! I was prepared for her to kick, scream and cry.  She kind of just stared at him like "who are you?" Here is the pic we got!!

Crazy to think that my little Harps first bday is just next month.  Ive started planning details of it and making her outfit.  I'm really excited to celebrate her birthday.  1st Birthday's are always for the parents, it's like OMG we did it!!!  Especially with your first child, I'm Sure.  It's like your life completely changes once that little baby comes along and you can't ever imagine what life was like without them.  The first year brought so much joy, pride, worry ( I never knew how much I would worry about EVERYTHING), excitement, fear and just so many other emotions, Parenthood is truly AMAZING.  But anyway what I'm getting at is, I thing the first birthday is a great celebration time for the parents and the family and I'm EXCITED!! So I ordered some of her outfit and then I'm making other parts of it.  So here is the hat that I made, I think its pretty cute.  Now the question is, Will she keep it on??  

    This weekend we traveled to Stillwater, OK to an OSU game for Adam.  His squadron was doing the flyover for the game!! Its especially exciting that Adam was able to be part of it considering he is OSU Alum!!  It was truly an amazing day!  We were treated so well and had the best time! I rode to Stillwater with two of the other spouses of the pilots. We arrived and we were escorted to the varsity club level where we had all kinds of free food and drinks. They also took us down to the field and let us hang out there for a while, which was pretty neat! We waited for the flyover and the game to start. Once the guys got back we were taken up to the Suites.  We first met Boone Pickens himself in his suite!!  After meeting him we went to several of the other suites and then we all had dinner up there.  At the end of the game we went back down to the field!  OSU won the game so it just made the day that much better!!  I know this was a special day for Adam, I'm so proud of him!!

Adam presenting flag to Boone

Adam presenting a flag to an OSU student.  There is cool story behind this.  This man lost his father to a service related death 2 years ago.  A flag was presented to him at the game in honor of his father and in celebration of Veterans day.  Adam also lost his father in a service related death so these two men were able to connect on that level.  I know this had to be such a special moment for both of these guys!

This is all the guys with Mr. Pickens which owns the OSU Stadium.   I mean it is the "Boone Pickens Stadium!" They flew this flag over and they all signed it for him. Very cool moment!

This is a pic of all the guys!!  This was right before they were announced on the field in the  third quarter of  the game.  They received a standing ovation from the crowd.  It gave me goosebumps!!



Here are just some pics I got from the day!! Enjoy:)

This is a pic of the whole crew!!  They even gave them the "Game Winning Ball!"

Happy Veterans Day to all who Have served and are currently serving!!!!!!!!