Christmas Festivities 2011

We started our Christmas Festivities on the 23rd celebrating Grandpa Denny's 60th birthday.  Aunt Libby and Uncle David arrived in town to help us all celebrate Grandpa Denny and Christmas.  Riley LOVED playing with them both and Harper snuggled with Aunt Libby quite a bit.  We had a great lobster dinner and both girls were soo good.  We headed home and Riley insisted that she sleep on her blow-up (air mattress) bed.  The week leading up to Christmas she talked about sleeping on the blow-up bed so that Aunt Libby and Uncle David could sleep in her bed. While Libby and David slept in the basement, Riley was still excited to be able to sleep on her blow up bed.  She slept great, while Harper was up several times through the night.  Mix teething with an awkward bedtime routine and she was restless through much of the night. 

On Christmas Eve I finished up some last minute shopping and picked up a few groceries while Brett and the girls stayed home to play with Libby and David.  Christmas Eve night we headed to church to watch my cousin, Jill, play the violin.  Riley was super excited to run into Miss Sue.  Miss Sue helped out at Hedy's for a few months and Riley really liked her.  Both girls did great through church.  Toward the end of the service Harper was a little restless and we spent some time outside.  We went home, ate dinner, and set out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  Riley went to bed with so much excitement for Santa to come.

Christmas morning Harper and Riley both woke up around 7.  It took Riley a minute to remember that Santa was supposed to come. So while we waited in bed for milk, Daddy ran downstairs to get the video camera.  Riley was still so certain that Santa was going to bring her a bouncy house.  We crept down the stairs and into the living room where Santa had left both girls a few presents and a stocking full of goodies.  Riley ran up to her new bouncy house, screamed and hugged the box.  She was so excited and amazed that Santa really did come. Here is a quick rundown of the rest of the day:

• Santa left the girls a new sled, bouncy house, new socks, a pair of shoes for Riley, books, and a new walker for Harper.  We opened the girls' stockings which were filled with fun goodies - new cups, silverware, hair clippies, chapstick, bath toys, etc .  A tradition Santa decided to carry on from me:  a huge orange in the bottom of the stocking. Riley found it and said "no, silly Santa.  You don't give me an orange."  This was replayed several times throughout the day.
• Riley had a look of amazement when she saw that Santa ate his cookies and milk.  When she looked outside for the carrots she saw that they were gone and clapped as hard as I've ever seen.  She then went on to say " but Rudolph doesn't like carrots.  He tried them and went 'blah' and spit them back out." No idea where that came from.
• Some favorite gifts from mom and dad: Riley - new camera, playdoh, Harper - taggie blanket, toys that make noise. 
• Riley's gift to Mom: snuggie ("you love it mom, don't you? Yeah, me too!") and a purple fringe purse - Brett pointed out this was a $4 purchase that she just had to get.  Both items picked out by herself.
• Riley's gift to Dad: a new wallet. She had a little help from Mom.  She was on the hunt for some new pjs, but Brett has expressed that he has way too many pajama pants so we looked for something else.
• New favorite toy for Dad: a Kurig and panini press.
• New favorite toy for Mom: clothes, new coach purse, corning ware.
• The Murphy's came over for mimosas, cinnamon rolls, breakfast casserole and presents. 
• Riley screamed at the top of her lungs and  hugged almost every gift that she received.  Favorite: scooter from Aunt Libby and Uncle David (double scream) and basketball hoop from Grandma and Grandpa.
• Harper slept through all of the gift opening.  She received some more toys and some really cute clothes...even her first pair of (faux) leather pants from Aunt Libby!
• Burch Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's: Prime rib, asparagus, garlic mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, baked beans, and pie for lunch.  So good! Once again Harper slept through all of the gift giving.  Poor baby missed out on all the fun.  Riley's Favorite: Tinkerbell slippers, easel.
• After the afternoon with the Burch's we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Murphy's for dinner.  We were all pooped and headed home after another great meal.

Overall, we had a great Christmas.  Because Harper slept through most of the gift opening I feel like I don't have many pictures of her first Christmas, which makes me a little sad.  Here are a few of the pics that I did get:

 Playing with Uncle David.  A new bestfriend!

 Grandpa Denny blowing out his candles!

 Happy girls with their Santa Loot!

 Too many presents!

 Bouncy House!

 So.Much.Fun!

 Grandma and Grandpa Murphy

 New noise makers. :)

 Burch cousins

Check out Harper's little leather outfit. So cute!

Harper Grace: 7 Months

Harper is 7 months old today.  I always like to look back on Riley's monthly milestone posts to see how they compare.  Sometimes I think how much faster Harper has been reaching milestones and then other times I think we're way more relaxed when it comes to introducing her to new things.  One thing is for sure: we are so lucky to have two sweet little girls.  Something we really thought a lot about this Christmas (post to come).  They are so similar in many aspects, especially when it comes to making their mommy and daddy happy!  Here's what Harper's up to at 7 months:

• Harper is wearing 6-9 and 9 month clothes.  All of her 6 month clothes are officially too small.  All of her 9 month clothes are still too big, but way more comfortable.
• She is wearing a size 3 diaper.
• She is busy!  I was feeding her a bottle at Christmas Eve church and another mom commented: "boy she sure is busy.  She doesn't really sit still, huh?"  She is a mover even when drinking a bottle.  She likes to pull her hair when she's drinking and/or tired.  I'm amazed she still has hair on the top of her head.  I tried to keep her from pulling it, but she just gets mad...so she pulls her hair.
• She is still drinking breast milk. We have started dipping into my frozen stash and she's about half way through that.  I will be down pumping once it is gone.  I'm guessing about this time next month.  I'm happy with that.  I'm kind of ready to retire the pump and I made it to the 7 month mark, which is when I quit with Riley.  It's hard to say how much she eats.  As much as we try to keep her on a schedule she eats when she wants.  She usually has 4.5 ounces every 3-4 hours.
• She is now eating three baby food meals a day.  For breakfast she eats oatmeal with fruit, usually applesauce.  Lunch, veggie and sometimes fruit.  Dinner, another veggie and fruit.  So far she's tried: apples (natural applesauce and sliced in a mesh feeder), pears, banana (mixed with apples and it's a hit), carrots (mixed with squash and its a winner), butternut squash, acorn squash, peas (mixed with breast milk), and sweet potato.  We have plums, mango, blueberries, and green beans to try next.  We'll hopefully make some "meals" and puree for her soon.  She has a weird habit of taking a bite and then sucking on her fingers immediately, unless its something she loves...like pears.
•  She still likes to use her paci.  If she doesn't have a paci around she will suck on her fingers...usually in the car or in her bed.
• She has 0 teeth.  They have to be coming soon.
• She is army crawling everywhere.  She is super fast now and tends to head down the hallway if we're not watching her closely.
• She loves tags and hair, and will play with them over any toy.
• She likes to go to bed around 7 (sometimes 6:30).  On a good night she'll sleep until 4-5am.  On nights like last night she had us up at midnight, 4, 5 and 6:45 for the day.  I think she's working on some teeth because she seemed really uncomfortable.  She loves to have music playing and it will usually calm her down enough to where she will fall back to sleep.
• She bites on her bottom lip.  Just like Riley used to. :)
• She is clapping when you say "yeeaaaa."  It's super cute.  I'm not sure that she knows what she is doing, but she's on to something.  She also started putting her hands in the air when you say "how big is Harper?"

Santa Claus!

Riley was super excited to see Santa this year.  We went on a Friday night and the line wasn't terribly long.  While we ate in the food court I talked with Riley about how Santa has lots of helpers so all of the kids could visit with him.  So she knew going in that it may be Santa, or one of his helpers.  Unlike last year, Riley walked right up to Santa and sat down.  She told him what she wanted and even talked a little with him.  Her list has been consistent since November.  She asked for a bouncy house, trampoline, scooter, and ball.  Harper even got to meet Santa for the first time and did great.  Thankfully Santa had a real beard because Harper seemed to find it pretty quick!  Santa looks a little sleepy in our pictures, but he sure made Riley a happy little girl.  After she talked with him she was spinning and dancing around the mall.  Sooo happy.  That night as I put her to bed I told her that sometimes Santa trades places with his helpers to meet with little boys and girls.  She was sure that she met the real Santa!  Christmas with little ones is so much fun.

 So excited!

 Harper found Santa's beard

"Aaand..."

Riley's been great about not opening presents under the tree, keeping the ornaments on, and only checking one sock on our Advent Calendar each day.  Our elf, well she decided to change her name to Heart.  She's still up to no good in our house.  Today we found her in the fridge, hanging on to the milk jug....and she'd turned the milk green!  She sure likes to fly and always seems to land somewhere high.

Quick Harper update:  She's mobile!!  She is now army crawling everywhere.  She is so stinken' cute.  So determined.  And doesn't seem to get frustrated at all.  She must have her daddy's patience.  It's hard to believe she will be 7 months old next week.

First pony!

Harper's 6 Month Stats

Harper went in for her 6 month check-up yesterday.  Overall, she's doing great.  She weighed in at 14 lbs, 12 oz and was 25 1/4 inches long.  She's in the 20th percentile for weight and the 25th percentile for length.  Dr. Fred recommended that she get her hips checked by the orthopedic one more time.  We had an appointment scheduled a few weeks ago, but missed it because Harper was home with the flu.  She's a busy little thing and never fails to pee all over the exam table! :)

Thanksgiving and Disney On Ice

Thanksgiving was way less hectic this year.  We enjoyed the morning at home...baking, relaxing, and watching the parades.  Then we headed over to my mom and dad's for our Burch Thanksgiving.  While there we celebrated Uncle Don's birthday and Addie's birthday.  Addie turned 6 this year, while Don turned the big 6-0!  Riley was so excited to give Addie her gift and to share her cake, because as she told us over and over she doesn't like pumpkin pie!

After celebrating with the Burch's we headed over to Brett's side of the family.  Thankfully, we didn't have to make anything for this Thanksgiving celebration.  Most of Brett's family met Harper for the first time. 

Riley's Thanksgiving highlight: Disney on Ice.  We've gone to Disney on Ice over Thanksgiving weekend with all the Burch girls the past three years.  This year, was Riley's favorite.  She had a blast seeing all of her favorite characters!  Poor Addie wasn't feeling well and slept through the last 30 minutes of the show. Overall, it really was a great show!

New Christmas Traditions

We have a new Rudolph in the house.  She's not the red-nosed reindeer, she's our Elf On The Shelf. I tried calling her Rudy for short, but Riley insisted that was not her name!  So Rudolph landed in Great Grandma Lois' Christmas village last week with a small gift for each girl. Riley was very excited to see her since she had just been talking with her friend, Carter, who has an elf on the shelf at home. Riley knows that Rudolph flies away to visit Santa each night to let him know if she was a good little girl.  Rudolph also will lose her magic to fly if Riley touches her.  She struggled the first night with remembering not to touch her, but after an apology she has done just fine. I think our elf has a little adventurous side to her.  So far we've seen her on the fireplace, bookshelf, inside Riley's stocking, sliding down the banister, on the stove making snow angels out of sugar, and hanging from a decorative Christmas tree with cereal garland.  I'm not sure where she comes up with all of her fun ideas. 

Rudolph, sitting so polite and innocently!

I also stole the idea of a fun Advent calendar made our of socks from my friend Ali.  Last year she made a fun Advent calendar for her kids where she hung socks to count down the days until Christmas.  I decided to hang ours from the lighted garland that we wrap around our banister.  Riley thinks it is the neatest thing, second to Rudolph. I put a little piece of candy or a small trinket (mostly hair clippies and fun silverware) for Riley in each sock.  Next year, Harper will get to join in on the fun.  I thought I had a picture of it, but I guess not.  I'll post one soon.

Our tree...it really has been a disappointment.  You could hear Brett and I cussing about this tree several times in the past week.  Really, it's been that bad.  First off, the tree is much larger in our house than what it appeared to be when still in the ground.  Second, we had to cut an entire garbage sack of branches off to even it out.  Third, the tree farm definitely didn't shake our tree out because we swept up TONS of dead needles and pulled out an entire birds nest! Fourth, we had to go to the store twice for lights the first time we decorated (yes, first). Fifth, we had two brand new strands of lights die on us...one of which decided to die after we put up all of the ornaments! Sixth, the stand is huge and doesn't allow for a normal tree skirt to go around it so we have a nice pink sheet wrapped around the bottom.  Lastly, with all of the branches cut off and pine needs that have fallen out we now have 25 gazillion holes in our tree.  The lights on the bottom branches make them sag.  I'm waiting for them to be on the ground when I get home tonight.  Nonetheless, Riley loves her tree and Harper really doesn't care.  Riley doesn't care that we have to decorate it twice.  Just more fun for her.  Plus, this tree has colored lights, where our fake tree has white lights!  She's so excited for Christmas and that's really all that matters.  Just saying, we may not continue this new tradition.  We may revert back to our fake tree next year...

Second set of lights...before the ornaments.

Harper Grace: 6 Months

Harper turned 6 months old on Sunday.  It feels just like yesterday that I was home on maternity leave with her!  She has changed so much over the last month and is my little snuggle bug! We are all anticipating how much Christmas will be this year as a family of 4.

• She is wearing mostly 6 month clothes.  She can still fit into some of her 3-6 month clothes.
• I put her hair in her first pony yesterday.  She looked pretty cute, but Daddy thought differently.  Her hair is still brown.  It's really starting to grow in on the sides and bottom now and seems to be a bit lighter.
• She had her first bout of stomach flu Monday night.  We're not sure if it was something she ate, I ate, or a little bug.  She was back to normal yesterday.
• She is eating like a horse.  Literally overnight she started eating 5 (sometimes 7) ounces every 3 hours.  She is even waking up in the middle of the night to eat a full 5 ounces.  She hasn't been up in the middle of the night since she was a newborn.  It's been tough on us. :)
• We started solids with her again this week.  We decided to substitute oatmeal for rice cereal and that seems to be going really well. She's had butternut squash, pears, applesauce, and sweet potato.  She really isn't that interested in eating.  She will eat a few bites really well and then totally loses interest.  I'm not sure what's going on with it.  I tried to give her avocado and she hated it.  Next on the list to try is acorn squash.
• She is scooting around and rolling to get to whatever she wants.  We'll put her on a blanket and she'll be clear across the room 5 minutes later.  She'll use her feet to push her toward whatever she wants.
• She is very vocal, but really only cries when she's tired or hungry.  She will instantly calm down if Riley talks to her.  We are always saying, "Hey Riley, go talk to your sister."  Thankfully, Riley loves her sister.  She'll usually say "Hey Baby, don't cry."
• She has beautiful blue eyes, much like Riley's.
• She has been drooling like crazy and rubbing her tongue on her gums.  Teething has begun.  I think it will be a little while before a little tooth pops through, though.
• She has a nice first Thanksgiving and got to meet a lot of extended family for the first time. 
• She has full blown stranger anxiety now.  She really is such a happy baby that I thought maybe she wouldn't have this as bad as Riley, but she does.
• She likes playing with her toes (#1 favorite toy right now), anything that makes noise or sound, and her teething toys.  Funny story about toes (if there is such a thing):  Harper was on the floor one day and Riley was standing next to her.  All of a sudden I heard Riley say "eeww, don't do that baby."  Harper had Riley's toes in her mouth!  Yuck. :) 
• She hates getting into her car seat, but is pretty content once all strapped in.  She doesn't care to wear her hat or hood.
• She will take a 90 minute morning nap and a 30-60 minute afternoon nap.  She is tired at night and ready for her bedtime routine at 6.  Once she's had her bath she wants to be dressed and fed right away.
• She LOVES books.

Family Pictures 2011

I'm so excited to share our family pictures!  These are our first family pictures with both girls since our pictures taken in the hospital.  I decided to change things up a little bit this time around and scheduled a shoot with a local photographer: Diana's Photo Expressions.  I had seen her work on Facebook and was really excited to work with her.  I'm so glad that we did.  She did a fantastic job!  She has a small studio in her basement.  It was very laid back and inviting. She has a ton of excessories for little girls (and boys).  She really was wonderful to work with and I'm excited for her to take Harper's 9 month and 1 year pictures for us!  Here's a few of our favorites:

Howell's Tree Farm

We decided to get a real Christmas tree this year.  We haven't had a real tree since before we were married and lived in our townhouse.  That was a disaster so we've stuck with the fake tree since then.  We had some lights die on our tree last year and spent way too much time putting it all together that we decided to pick out a live tree this year.   Saturday morning we met my brother and his family at the tree farm to find the perfect tree.  Riley loved running between the rows of trees with her cousins, while Harper stayed bundled up in her stroller.  It was fun to see how much fun Riley was having.  We lucked out and found our tree within the first few minutes.  After we all found our tree we went inside to have some hot chocolate, look around a bit, pet with some cute puppies, and play with the Lego train.  It was just what I needed to get into the spirit this year!

 Our Tree

 Riley having so much fun.

 Riley with Addie and Kennedy in front of their tree. 

 Fun pinecone tree.

 Harper's serious face

Lego Train!

Life

Life has seemed to slow down a bit now that we're in to November.  Something that we've welcomed with open arms.  We've actually been able to watch the last two Iowa football games in entirety.  Just don't talk to Brett about last weeks game.  Here's what we've been up to this November...

• Riley started gymnastics at the Urbandale Dance Studio and Gymnastics Club.  Parents aren't allowed in her class.  We can only watch through a viewing window.  Despite showing up 45 minutes late on the first day, it seems to be a perfect fit for Riley.  She LOVES gymnastics.  It may have been helpful to be late that first day because we were able to go to the parent/child class and it seemed to ease the typical first time apprehension.  She is always so excited to go every morning.  She loves her black, pink, and blue leotard.  Her favorite thing is to do the bars and the bear crawl.  She even lets me put her hair in a ponytail, which hardly happens these days.
• Riley is in a clippy and "soft pants" phase.  We started with sweat pants only, then added in some cotton pants, and now she's even letting me add in some leggings and jeggings.
• We've stopped all solids with Harper.  She doesn't seem to handle them the greatest at this time.  The only food that she's really shown interest in is squash.  She's also tried rice cereal, banana (can we say diarrhea!), sweet potato, and apples. We noticed that she's been more irritable and seems to have an upset tummy a lot. So, we'll wait.
• We started a new incentive program for Riley a couple weeks ago (that sounds terrible, but it's the truth).  We were struggling to get her to go to bed at night.  Every night she would cry, get out of bed, and put up a fight for sometimes an hour each night.  So, we started telling her that if she stayed in bed and didn't cry we would do something special on the weekends.  It worked instantly.  So far we've been to see Puss in Boots and bowling.  Both were new to her and were "so much fun!" Next up on the list is Monkey Joe's and Disney on Ice.
• Riley has been telling us that she loves us nonstop.  It's really sweet.  At least 4 times a night she will come up to us, hug us, and say "I love you Mommy" and "I love you Daddy."
• Our basement is virtually complete.  We have all of the basics in place.  We are in the process of putting in a cabinet at the end of the stairs.  It needs a counter and to be painted.  We have a little corner electric fireplace with a new TV, couches, and way too many toys.  We have a few little things to finish up like some trim that needs to be painted. We actually spend a lot of time down there.  Riley loves it and is always going down there with or without us.
• We finalized the purchase of new windows for 75% of the house.  Hopefully they will be installed before Christmas.  I haven't been this excited for something new in a long time.  No more leaky windows and most importantly new blinds!  We've been holding on to the original blinds until we replaced the windows - which wouldn't be that big of a deal except they are rose colored.
• We're getting family pictures taken on Thursday.  I'm so excited.  I have only been searching for the perfect outfit combinations for two weeks now. :)

Here are a few pictures:

 Fun in her exercauser

 Go Hawks!

 So excited after her first gymnastics class.

 Aaannndd...

 Harper loves her Daddy.

Sweetie!

Harper's High Chair

Look how cute this little girl is in her BIG high chair!  Now that we've started solids we broke out Riley's old high chair.  She is fascinated by the buckles on it.  So far we've tried rice cereal, rice cereal with apple sauce, sweet potatoes, and squash.  She really was not a fan of rice cereal or rice cereal with apple sauce so we've quit those all together.  Dr. Fred has her on a multivitamin with fluoride since she is breastfed so really there isn't much need for the rice cereal.  She didn't care much for the sweet potato so we moved on to squash.  So far, after one night, she loves the squash.  I had decided that if she didn't like the squash we were going to hold off on any more solids until she was 6 months old.