More Days with Harper

My old childhood neighbor, who is a master knitter, made these purple knit boots. I love them, I feel like she had her very own unique baby uggs.

Harper's first Sunday. It was so much fun to take her to church and show her off. So precious, everyone of course thought she was beautiful.

Travis's workers sent us one of those cookies by design bouquets. Yummm! You wouldn't think that they would actually taste good but they are delicious and cute.

I couldn't wait for her first Sunday to put her in a dress so I did it just for fun on a week day. Why not? Naked time.

Getting some Daddy love.

Grady can not enough of Harper. He loves her so much and wants to give her hugs all the time and he is so gentle. He says "I love my baby sister so much, she is so cute."

Leaving the Hospital

Daddy with his baby girl, he is so sweet with her.

My recovery has been fast with this pregnancy, so even though I had Harper and 11:34 on Thursday I was still out of there at 5:00 pm on Friday.

Harper was not a happy girl this day. She didn't care if my colostrum had enough calories she wanted substance. I cheated and let her have a little formula, which I have done with all my kids until my milk comes in, just so she would feel full. I only let her do it once a day though so it only gives her relief for a couple of hours.

So cute even when she is crying.

Grandma is pretty smitten, she is especially happy for me to finally have a daughter.

One of her few happy moments that day.

Meet Harper Surie

Harper arrived at 11:34 AM, Wednesday November 9th, 2011. I was sleeping on the couch that night due to pregnancy restlessness and about 1:00 AM my water broke. I shot up and ran to the bathroom, thankfully making it before a big mess was made. Grady was porbably the most smitten with Harper out of the three boys.

Hayden loves her, but I think it makes him nervous to hold her, we had to talk him into it. So I get situated with my water breakage and wake up Travis, it's time to go.

Coy is quite taken with her as well, he is constantly checking on her and asking questions. So we grab the kids get them in the car and head of to my friend Abbey's. Thank goodness for Abbey who got my kids to school the next day and watched Grady for us the whole day Harper was born.

I have to admit it was boring at first I wasn't in real labor and we were just waiting. Eventually the labor pains started coming on strong and I was able to get an epideral.

When it was time to push, she wasn't coming out, so they made me stop and gave me some petocin to make the contraction harder and faster. 1 half hour of petocin and a few minutes of pushing and out she came.

Three people announced it was a girl, but I still had to see it for myself. Spiritual impressions, and ultrasound tech, and three people announce it's a girl when she is born and I still need to see it with my own eyes. I just can't believe I have a daughter.

She eats like a champ and loves her Daddy. She calms right down when Travis holds her and Travis loves every minute of it.

She weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. 20 inches long. My biggest baby yet.

We are so excited to have her here and love her so much. She is the perfect addition to our family.

Me right before she was born.

Happy Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween this year. Grady wanted to be black Spider man this year, Coy was Darth Vader, and Hayden Darth Maul.

We trick or treated one road in front of the elementary school, went in the school and did the other side of the school road. They all listened so well and got tons of candy. All in all it was an extremely successful Halloween.

Snow in October

Woke up Sunday morning to this.....6-8 inches of perfect wet snow ball packing snow. We had such a fun time. The snow was so perfect you didn't even have to form a ball. You could just pick up a hand full and throw. Church was cancelled and we played, played, played. Our first snow man for the year, a snow ball fight, and hot chocolate around the table to top it all off.

Pumpkin Carving

This year we got invited to a Halloween party where they were doing pumpkin carving. So we brought out pumpkins and went the easy route. The kids drew on their faces and were able to carve their own pumpkins almost all by themselves.

The got such a kick out of seeing their own creations come to life.

Grady wanted four eyes.

The crazy thing is I have made such a big deal out of this in the past years with the fancy designs and ended up taking 2 hours when the kids were done finishing them all, and they were way more happy with their pumpkins this year.

It's just like me to try to be a perfectionist or over complicate things. Looks like we are going simple from here on out. Every one was happier and their pumpkins came out so cute.

Soccer

Here is Hayden trying to get the ball. Last year Hayden hated soccer, but he had not been diagnosed with Celiac then and had no energy. The poor kid couldn't even make it through a whole practice. I explained to him that I wanted him to try it again this year because now that his body is healthy he might like it.

We got lots of grumbles and complaints. Finally I said "Hayden I want you to give it a good try, last year doesn't count, you give it a good effort every practice with a good attitude this season and you still don't like it I won't make you do it again. If you complain and don't give it a good try I'm going to make you do it again next year and the year after that and the year after that until I feel like you have actually tried it."

I don't expect my kids to be super athletes, I just want them to give new things a good chance before they make their judgment. He tried his little heart out the first practice and said he still didn't like it. I said that's fine, you give me that kind of effort all season and you still feel that way when it's done you won't have to do it next year.

After three practices he loved it and actually decided to take on additional soccer class after school once a week for four weeks.

Coy on the other hand couldn't wait for soccer to start. He absolutely loves it.

He is in his element, always happy out there, always can't wait for the next weekend so he can do it all over again.

He is pretty darn good too, if I do say so myself. He is agressive and starting to get the idea of not bunching around the ball.

There is no convincing this boy to try new things, if anything I'm going to have to slow him down a little. He only has so much time in a day.