Friends

Harper Grace is ONE year old!! I am so thankful for the joy and happiness she brings to our family...I'm just not sure what our family would be like without her in it.
To start off the birthday weekend, my best friend Sarah and her 19month old twins came to Lubbock to celebrate Harper's big day!! It was just Sarah and I and five kiddos...whew...it was loud, exhausting and so much fun! I love to watch the kiddos form a bond together and I pray they become the best of friends throughout the years!

Sarah with Harper Grace the day after she was born. Thankful that she was there for her birth and she came to celebrate her first year!

(Funny side note: I ran to pick up lunch and while I was gone Sarah and the babies arrived at the house. She and her kiddos were playing in the front yard waiting on us to get home and I watched Mallory playing in the grass and I just started laughing. We did not talk about it at all and we ended up dressing our girls in the exact same outfit that day. Ha. We are so much alike it is scary!)

The first evening we needed to give all the kiddos a bath so we plopped them down in the bath tub together. HA. It was one full tub o babies.

After bath we snuggled up on the couch for a movie and a little down time before heading off to bed. The kids played hard and did such a great job together. Yes there were fights and arguments over toys and personal space, but over all they did so good together! Love these little stinkers

Mason was following Maddox around asking Maddox to hold him. So sweet. Here they are snuggled together watching a movie

Harper and her boys

Now, don't get me wrong, it was a lot of work having all 5 kiddos and only the two adults, but I loved it. I love my girl time alone with Sarah, but I also cherish doing Real Life with her as well. Thank you so much Sarah, Mason and Mallory for making the trip to Lubbock to celebrate Miss Harper Grace. We sure do love you guys

Paxton James

Oh our Paxton James. He is as ornery as it gets and yet he is one of the sweetest little boys I know. He is kind, feisty, funny, easily angry, and a ball of energy. His laugh is so contagious and his grin combined with his blonde hair and blue eyes simply melts my soul. He has so super funny quirks and I wanted to document them before he grows up on me and this stage in our lives is long behind us.
Some of the funny things about Paxton:
-He has to wear socks to sleep in. ALL. THE. TIME.  Even if he falls asleep without them he will wake up and call out for someone to put socks on him.
-While he wants socks to sleep in, he wants to play barefoot outside
-He must have his massive blue blanket to sleep with. Smooth side down and STRAIGHT. No wrinkles in that blanket or he freaks out. HA
-All of his toys have to be lined up. He sleeps with about 6 stuffed animals and when you go check on him they will all be in a row lined up on the side of his bed. He lines up his cars, his blocks are precise. He knows exactly how he wants something to be and he will not alter his view. Thus causing several arguments between he and whoever is playing with him.
-He does not like his hands to be dirty
-He gives the absolute best hugs. Flying Paxton hugs as we like to call them
-He has started saying "mommy, I love you. I want to stay with you forever" (He sweetly informs me of this about 50 times a day. So sweet)
-He gets SO aggravated when Harper tries to touch him or any of his toys. Oh boy.
-He has amazing balance and loves to flip  and jump all over the place. This school year we will find a gym for him to release that creative energy and gain more coordination
-He loves to teetee outside. So cute to see that tiny little hiny. HA
-He does not like being called any sort of nick name. I call him "Bubba" sometimes and he quickly corrects me with "momma, I am not Bubba, I'm Paxton"

We are really at a fun stage in Paxton's 3 years of life. He is sweet and loving and we are working on his ability to handle his aggression without hitting!!

The Big 3-0

Well it seems as though the summer is getting the most of me and I have been slacking on my blogging. I will do my best to update.
June 6th of this year I turned the big 3-0. I remember as a kid I was certain Jesus would come back before I was thirty...it just seemed sooo old. Ha. Well, to celebrate the momentous occasion my dearest friend Sarah planned a surprise trip for she and I to go to Vegas for a long weekend!! She messaged Brad and they picked dates and set the trip in motion. I have never felt more special and cared for than I did on that special trip. Brad was amazing at home holding down the fort and caring for our kiddos while Sarah and I had a wonderful time in Vegas. We stayed in a beautiful hotel with an upgraded suite, we shopped, we ate a lot and shopped some more. It was a fabulous time. Thank you so much Sarah for planning such an amazing trip for the two of us. You went above and beyond and I will never forget my thirtieth birthday!!

On the air plane. Super excited

Hanging out in our suite. It was sweet!

Our view of the strip

Outside the Wynn on our way shopping

Headed to dinner

Dinner and desert to celebrate the bday

Show time!! We watched LaReve. It was fantastic. Underwater show! So fun

My favorite part of the weekend. The show and our super comfy seats!!

11 Months

Harper Grace, my darling little girl, you are 11 months old today. How is it possible that this time next month we will be celebrating your first birthday? You are getting so big and more and more if your personality is starting to shine through. You are a sweet, easy going, busy and into everything little girl. What exactly are you up to these days Harpoo?

-weigh 21 pounds
-wear size 3 diapers
-size 12 month clothes
-size 2 or 3 shoe
-you sleep from 7:30pm-8:30am with one long afternoon nap and a couple cat naps here and there
-drinking four 8oz bottles of Similac Sensitive formula and finger foods
-you love meat. Chicken, turkey, sausage you prefer meat over fruits and veggies
-you learned how to efficiently drink from a sippy cup with a straw and you drink at least 2 of your "bottles" from your cup.
-you recently discovered baby dolls and you LOVE them. You get so excite when you see a baby doll and you squeal with excitement as you not so gently "love" on the baby
-you are obsessed with shoes. You want to chew on any shoe left on the ground and you even attempt to find a way to chew on someone's shoe while it is on their foot. Yuck-o sister. That is nasty!
-you are crawling all over the place and are into everything. You pull up on anything and everything but you have yet to start cruising around.
-you have recently started fussing when getting your diaper changed or changing clothes my ours just too busy to be held down for that long
-you love to climb on anyone who is sitting down on the ground with you

Oh Harper, you are such a joy and a blessing to us. We love you to the moon and back!!

Paxton James at 11 months, chewing on the pack-n-play while watching his big brother play

Harper Grace at almost 11 months chewing on the same pack-n-play while watching her two big brothers play.

Pearly Whites

Baby girl has a tooth! One tiny tooth finally made an appearance without any warning from our baby girl. She did not fuss or droll or anything. Let's just hope all her teeth come to surface so quietly.

How precious is this picture of my adorable Granny and Harpoo.

Just a Swinging

I really enjoy capturing images of our kiddos doing the same things around the same age and observing their similarities and differences. It is fun to look back at the boys and see how much their personalities are the same even from when they were babies. This weekend we tried Harper Grace in the outdoor swing for the first time. She loved it. She would squeal with delight with every push. She loved it so much that she got very relaxed and fell asleep for about 30 minutes. Ha. That would have NEVER happened with the boys. Maddox loved swinging and would squeal with delight and say "weeeee" with every single push. In fact, Maddox called a swing a "wee" until he was about 2 years old. Paxton loved swinging as well; however, in true Paxton form, it took him a while to warm up to swinging and would hold on to the rope handles for dear life.

Here is Maddox at 15 months old

Here is Mr. Paxton at 11 months old

Here is Harper Grace at 10.5 months old

I never realized how much smaller she was from Paxton. She looks tiny here compared to him at nearly the same age

Look at those chubby thighs. I could just eat them up!!!