Harper's First Birthday

I can't believe it but our sweet Harper is one year old! She is so much more of a toddler now and less of a baby of course. She's almost walking on her own but loves to cruise on the furniture or a push toy. She and Andrew are playing together a lot now although I often hear shrieks of both laugher and anger from both of them if one dares to touch the other's toy...I'm already breaking up sibling disputes!

At her checkup yesterday she was 19lbs and 29 inches tall (40th and 50th percentile) and right on track for all her milestones. She's eating almost anything we give her now (as opposed to a couple months ago when she was Miss picky) and is into absolutely everything she can get her hands on. I have to watch her like a hawk but Andrew helps too ("Mom! Harper is about to put her hand in the toilet!").  Life is busy as ever around here!

Her "smash cake" I made for her to destroy.

 We had balloons for about 5 minutes before Harper popped them all by taking a bite out of them and then I had to fish the leftovers out of her mouth...what a stinker!

 Diddy sent up a gift with Omi and Opaw!

 And as always, the box prooves to be more exciting than the toys of course;)

 Her little bike from Omi and Opaw

 Singing "Happy birthday" to our girl!

 She picked at it for a couple seconds...

 ...and then Drew helped her out of course.

 Pushing her shopping cart from Granna and Grandpop

 He had fun with this game!

Omi and Opaw stayed for the whole weekend to hang out which made for 2 very excited kiddos!

A few more pictures

 Getting warm on Grandpop's lap after a swim in the ocean.

 We put Harper in the raft and sent her down the "lazy river"...she floated along quite happily for some time!

 Another first for Andrew: canoe ride! 

 Helping Grandpop pull the canoe back to shore. After the first day on the beach, it was tough to get Andrew out of the water! He was a bit nervous about heading into the ocean at first but once he did, he loved it so much. Nate took him out on a raft in the waves, canoeing, kayaking, and taught him how to catch fish with his little fishing net.

 Family dinner night...it was pure chaos with 3 kids, that's for sure!

 We took Andrew down to the beach one night to fly a kite...his favorite thing to do was to let go of the handle and watch poor Laura chase it down.

 This was too cute not to share!

Night out in Seaside

Trying to break up the excessive pictures with separate posts...One night we headed into Seaside just a few miles down the road for dinner. Fish tacos and seafood burritos from a little Mexican "food shack" were the best way to have an easy dinner with 11 people!

 After dinner everyone suffered through 28 attempts to get a family photo with all the kids looking. Just FYI...Harper was not looking in a single one!

 Our family...squinty-eyed in the sun!

 We headed over for ice cream in the commons/green area. There was live music coming up and Andrew got pretty excited (he even talked to the band!) but we had some tired babies so didn't get to stay long enough to listen.

Seagrove Beach Vacation

 We just spent such a fun week in Florida with my entire family. To say that I took a few pictures is an understatement...there were a lot of photographable "moments" and firsts for Andrew and Harper and so many cute moments too. I tried to capture what I could so I'll let the pictures narrate our trip!

Beach boy...and loving that water!

 Leena and Harper hung out in the baby pool together in their skirted suits:)

 Our beach house came complete with kayaks and a canoe so Nate was pretty happy

 Harper's first moments in the ocean...she loved it! Once I put her down, she crawled straight in and I had to snatch her back up before a wave got her. Nate said she reminded him of a little bulldozer just plowing through the sand and any obstacle to get to the water.

 Leena liked the beach too but was a little more cautious about heading straight into the water!

 We brought the diggers down each morning of course.

The lake near our beachouse formed a great inlet for playing in. All the families with young kids were out in it every day because it was shallow (and kind of like a small babbling brooke).

 Josh promised Andrew he'd let him bury him in the sand...thanks Uncle Josh!

 

 Cutest baby girl on the beach!

 

 My dad looking pretty relaxed:)

 These 3 had a ball playing together...until someone took a digger from Andrew. Then the fun abruptly ended...Drew learned to share a lot this week!

 

  
 Andrew made a friend! Turns out, their family had just moved from Louisville that very week! They only lived a few miles from us...these 2 boys played all week long together, digging holes, catching fish in the inlet, and creating elaborate construction sites in the sand.

 Laura and Josh relaxing on the beach

 Aunt LaLa dug Andrew a hole taller than him! This picture was just at the beginning of the process and he was thrilled to stand in it for about 2 seconds!