Long time coming

So who knew this parenting thing would take so much time?  Sorry it has been so long since I have updated the blog.  Lots has been going on and Harper has hit many milestones over the last few months.  She started eating food, went on a couple plane rides, went to her first wedding (Congrats Joelle and Andrew!), started pulling herself up to a standing position, and her latest triumph, that happened today, her first crawl on her hands and knees.  Beyond this we also had Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter and many other fun non-holidays.  Here are some pics and videos from last few months.

Harper's first crawl

Click here for Harper's first crawl

My favorite picture ever

Valentine's Day

St. Patrick's Day

First time eating food

Easter Brunch

Easter Basket and "Hangin' with my Peeps" shirt

First tooth (she now has at least 9 teeth!!!)

Learned to stick our tongue out

Visit from Great Aunt Nancy

"6 month" photo shoot sample

technically we were late and they were 7 1/2 month photos

Hangin' out with Daddy in the grass

2 pretty girls at Joelle and Andrew's wedding

First ride on a swing

Celebrating Mommy and Daddy's birthdays

Sick but hanging out with Daddy on the back porch

With Mommy at the Strawberry Festival

With Daddy at the Strawberry Festival

Cool sunglasses!

Various Harper Videos

Harper is growing so fast!  I wanted to share a few videos we have taken over the last month or so.

Harper loves Coke!

Mommy is funny!

Looks like I am losing my iPad

iPad #2

Daddy is pretty funny too!

Long Overdue Update

Ok, so I know it has been FOREVER since I last posted and I am sorry to not to keep everyone more updated.  Who knew having a kid would take so much time and hard work?  Somebody should have warned me about this! :)

Anyway, Harper is growing so fast and I will try to encompass various different happenings over the last couple months in this post.  Included in the last couple months have been some holidays which has allowed Harper to see (and in some cases meet for the first time) more family members.

Halloween 

Harper was lucky enough to have two costumes.  Well maybe one costume and one really cute pumpkin outfit.  She wore the elephant outfit to answer the door when trick or treaters came but that lasted about 20 minutes until she started screaming (likely from being so hot in that costume!)

 

   

Thanksgiving

My parents and Grandma came to visit for Thanksgiving.  This was the first time either Chrystal or I had ever hosted a major holiday so we went all out on the cooking.  Chrystal did most of the cooking and did an amazing job.  Harper was also very excited to meet her Great Grandma and to see her Grandma and Grandpa again!

      

Christmas   

For Christmas we had a full house with Chrystal's family coming to Philadelphia for the week.  During this visit Harper got to meet her cousin Katie, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Dwayne and Uncle Derrick for the first time.  She was also of course very excited to see Grandma and Grandpa again!   Katie was very excited to hold her little cousin Harper for the first time, however, once she had her in her arms it was a bit of a different story.  I noticed that Katie looked uneasy while holding Harper and I asked her if she felt uncomfortable to which Katie replied "Uncle Bill, I don't know how to say this...I don't want to hold her anymore".  I told Katie that it was ok and she didn't have to hold her any longer and when I picked Harper up I immediately smelled why Katie didn't want to hold her and understood how words could not express her smelly diaper.  At that point I barely wanted to hold her (just kidding of course)!  Luckily Chrystal was able to get a quick picture before Katie handed her over.  

Along the way Harper also got to spend some time with Santa and from the pictures below you can see that she clearly asked for a jungle "exer-saucer" for Christmas. 

         

                      

  

3 month Photo Shoot

Finally even though Harper just had her 5 month birthday the other day I did want to share some of the pictures from the photo shoot we had at 3 months.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and I will do my best to update the blog more often!

All Smiles

It's crazy how fast Harper is growing.  A couple weeks ago she started smiling and she hasn't stopped since.  Her newest thing this week is that she loves to stand up (with our help of course) which is demonstrated in the 3rd video.   It is usually hard to get good video of her because as soon as she sees my phone she just stops and stares at it but somehow I got her to ignore it.    

You Be the Judge

Who Does Harper Look Like?

Harper is growing like a weed.  She is staying awake more and more during the day and her new favorite activity is smiling at mommy and daddy.  She also loves when mommy and daddy sing her to sleep so one thing is clear, we have a tone deaf kid.  The new question for everyone to ask or to speculate about is who does Harper look like?  We decided to let you be the judge.  Feel free to vote on the right side of the screen!

Meeting Aunt Michele

Harper got to meet her Aunt Michele this past weekend!  Her cousin Gianna did not come with her but she is looking forward to meeting her soon as well.  Michele's timing for her visit was perfect as it came a couple days before our first wedding anniversary and she was very nice to watch Harper while we went out to celebrate.  Michele was definitely a sport considering that while we were out Harper hit her with the trifeca by peeing, pooping and throwing up on her.  

As I am looking through all the pictures I took I am realizing that I didn't get any of Aunt Michele looking at the camera!  I likely do not have a career a photographer.

This was Chrystal, Harper and I before our night out.  It is crazy to think how much our lives have changed over the last year (definitely for the good!).  

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