Harper is 6 Months Old

A half a year has gone by since my little lady was born...that does not seem possible. At all. It's been a fun and fast 6 months...

She's becoming more and more vocal - to the point where we're having to talk over her at dinner. Owen has even told her she's loud, and coming from him, that speaks volumes (pun intended). My favorite thing right now is her belly laughs. Her brothers and our neighbor, Emma, can make her laugh hysterically. It's a beautiful sound! She also loves to pat things. When someone holds her she pats their arm. When she's at the table, she pats it. When she lays in her crib to go to sleep, she pats her tummy. Maybe we'll have a drummer?!

She's finally rolled over (from back to front), but mostly she likes trying to sit up on her own and take in everything. She's sitting pretty well on her own, but her head does seem to pull her over. (I took her in for her 6 month well-check, and she's in the 10th percentile in weight, 15th in height, and 70th in head size. A true Hoyle baby.)

She tried eating "solids" for the first time last week, and it hasn't gone over very well. She has a serious case of tongue thrust, so nothing is staying in right now. She still doesn't take a bottle or a sippy cup. Surely one of these days she'll be able to eat without me!

A Visit from Mimi

Mimi came to visit last week and it was so fun having her around for two days! She managed to whip together curtains for my room that I have been too scared to start myself, as well as getting some good time with the kiddos. Thanks for the visit, Mimi!

Oweo

I'm having fun playing with my new camera and trying to figure it out. I'm also realizing that the whole editing process is a completely different world that I'm going to have to try and learn too. I have no clue what I am doing right now, but I'm having fun trying... This picture was pretty cute to look at while playing in Photoshop. (I am sure I have bathrooms or something I should be cleaning right now...)

Guy's Morning

As much as it pains me to have the men in my life wearing OU paraphernalia, I have to admit I think they're pretty cute all dressed up together. They all decided to don their red for a Saturday morning donut run, while Harper and I had a quiet morning at home. I guess she and I will have to wear our OSU orange together and go for quiche or something.

Rosemary Beach 2011

We took our first family vacation as a family of 5 this past month as we went to Florida with my brother and his family. Flying with 3 kids seemed a little daunting, but we decided it was worth trying with a beautiful beach as our "prize". (sorry this post will be annoyingly long and full of lots of pictures!)

We flew from Tulsa and met my brother's family in Houston. We were so excited that it worked out for us to fly together at least one leg of the trip, and we felt a little sorry for the other passengers as we had 6 kids 5 years old and under with us! The kids, however, did amazing and I think they could have been happy with just a family trip of flying on airplanes. I think one of the more comical times of our trip was getting all our luggage at the airport when we arrived. Between the two families we had 12 bags (thank you Southwest for letting us check so much stuff!), 2 double strollers, and 6 really excited kids. I felt like we were the 3 ring circus entertaining all the people in airport. At one point I had a woman ask me if they were all my kids. Right.

We got to the house around 5:30, unpacked our bags and headed straight to the beach with the kids. The sunset was gorgeous and the kids couldn't believe how much cooler this was than just riding an airplane! Ethan had no qualms about jumping right into the water, and it was so fun watching his complete joy swimming in the water. Owen was a little more hesitant, but he was thrilled to play in the sand.
Our first morning there we ate and headed straight out to the beach. This was Harper's first time to see it all, and she wasn't overly impressed. I think it mostly had to do with the fact that she was NOT feeling well. She did grab a handful of sand and try to eat...so she was checking it out!

True to form the boys approached the beach very differently! Ethan was in the water the minute we got there and didn't get out till it was time to leave. Owen, however, was not a fan of the waves and chose to let them touch him a little bit - if he wasn't busy "cooking" with Claire in the sand.



All the cousins got along wonderfully. Jack and Ethan picked right up where they left off last time, and they loved swimming together. Claire and Owen were the most surprising buddies of the trip...they both have the tendency to play in their own world and not with other people. Fortunately, their worlds meshed well together, and they both seemed to love playing together. By the end of the trip, Claire was calling Owen "punkin' " and Owen called Claire "Clairey". It was pretty cute.


We went to Seaside one afternoon for lunch at the Modeco Market. We also hit a fun ice cream shop that was on the Today for having chocolate dipped key lime pie (it was wonderful!). We also were sure to hit "The Sugar Shak" that was around the corner from our house. It was every kid's dream full of candy for any taste. One morning we walked to The Donut Truck only to find it closed, so we settled for powdered donuts from a convenience store to appease the distraught kids. They seemed just as happy with the donuts, but we adults were saddened because they did not taste as good as we remembered from our childhood!
The last night Chris and I went on a date to Cafe 33 (Jon and Katie went to The Red Barn the night before), and we enjoyed some AMAZING seafood and a beautiful walk on the beach afterwards.

It was such a wonderful vacation, and we are so thankful that we were able to share it with our family. I am pretty sure we're all ready to go back in 2012!

A Harper Taco

Sometimes I wonder if Harper should be a little less laid back. I was making dinner and Chris was playing with the boys, and Harper was content on her mat. Little did we know she was IN her mat... It scared me a first - until I saw her face.

The Rest of LABOR Day Weekend

The rest of our Labor Day weekend was pretty relaxed. Saturday morning we went to the farmer's market and ate crepes for breakfast. Owen loves watching "The Crepe Lady" make our food, and he spend the rest of the day pretending to be the Crepe Lady making us food. (we need to introduce him to a crepe making MAN) We enjoyed spending as much time outside as possible and soaking up every minute of the beautiful weather! On Monday, we went to the lake with our friends. I wasn't sure how to handle a boat and a 5 month old baby, but we borrowed a friend's infant life jacket and decided to try it out. Harper is mostly very chill about things, but as soon as that boat got going she was NOT happy. I think she and I lasted 5 minutes on the boat till I took her home. When the wind hit her face she couldn't breath, and when she'd catch her breath she'd scream. I was sad to leave the boys and Chris on the boat and miss out on the fun, but it wasn't worth it. I guess there's always next year... All in all though, it was a perfect Labor Day weekend. Now on to our Florida trip to finish telling summer good-bye!

Starting LABOR Day Weekend Off Right

Chris had Friday off, so we decided it was time to head down South and visit Paw Paw on the farm. I forgot my camera, so I didn't capture a lot of the fun we had, but I did get some of it with my phone camera. The boys had a good time collecting eggs, and I am enjoying the fruits of their labor with almost 200 eggs in my frig now! (thanks, Paw Paw!) They visited and fed a lot of the animals on the farm, rode the four wheeler, and they even got to see some of their cousins for a little bit.
We also made it down to the creek. It was Harper's first time to be down there, and after she realized all she needed to do was lay back and enjoy the ride in her boat, she was happy as can be. I think Owen preferred being around the animals and on the 4 wheeler, but he did enjoy floating down the creek with Chris and his big brother. Ethan, however, loved every minute of the water and enjoyed the rope swing. It's fun that they both have different aspects of the farm that they REALLY enjoy.