Harper’s 1st Birthday!

I can not believe my baby is 1! I suppose I can’t even really call her my baby anymore, since the actual baby of the family is nesting in my uterus. Where in the world has this last year gone?!?!

For Harper’s birthday, we decided to go with a pumpkin theme since she loves pumpkins so much and it was fitting for the season {note: easy, inexpensive decorations}. This is the invite I made:

We started off the morning with pumpkin pancakes w/cinnamon syrup and fresh apple juice. It was a big hit!

Harper loves to share her food with us. She’s silly like that!

We blew up 20 balloons and threw them on the living room floor. Harper LOVED playing with them.

She also LOVED playing with her cousin Jaden. She is just so sweet to him…always giving him hugs and kisses. And since he left on Sunday, all I’ve heard this week is….Jaden, Jaden, Jaden….for everything! I think she misses him!

 

It took me about 5 hours to make this cake…but it was so worth it!! It’s pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and it was so moist and perfectly delicious. Not to mention how darling it looks! {Yes, I’m a little proud of how it turned out}

Yes, Harper just took a bite of a piece of chocolate with tinfoil on it. Anything to keep her still for a picture…

Harper loved having everyone sing to her. I’m not gonna lie, I was getting pretty choked up! Oh and I’m also not going to lie about the fact that this is the most awkward position to have your picture taken. Squats, anyone? {Grandpa & Grandma Musson were on skype watching the whole thing…hence, the computer}

Harper wasn’t overly sure about getting her hands dirty at first. She sort of picked at it…and then tried to shake the icing off her fingers. Eventually she just gave in.

Harper was absolutely spoiled rotten. I really wasn’t expecting many gifts but she definitely has a lot of people who love her. She needed a little help getting at the wrapping paper at first, but eventually figured it out…sorta! {I am OBSESSED with the owl hat Aunt Brooke made…so cute!!!}

I think really she just enjoyed playing in the wrapping paper. Well, or maybe eating it…

And a cute family shot to end the night. Wow, I love my family!!

I would say it was a birthday success for a sweet little girl who deserves it! Harper is such a happy girl who brings so much love and joy to our family. She is always full of hugs and kisses and frequently offers them unexpectedly. She especially loves to give kisses to and rub her new little brother or sister. I couldn’t have dreamt up a more perfect little girl if I had to. We love you Harper girl!!!

Halloween 2011

For Halloween this year we took Harper to the local trunk-or-treat. She wasn’t quite sure what to think at first {I think she was thoroughly confused why everyone was dressed weird and people kept putting something in her pumpkin bucket} but started getting excited after awhile. She loved picking out the candy she wanted and putting it in her lil pumpkin bucket.

After the trunk-or-treat, we stopped at a couple local Halloween favorites {the donut makers} then visited a few people that we knew would love to see Harper all dressed up. We finished the night off with Grandma Bedke. It was a super fun night!

We love our lil Harper bear!

painted pumpkin - and daughter

Instead of carving pumpkins this year, I gave Harper the liberty of painting her very own pumpkin. It took her a second to get the hang of it {since she’s never been around paint before} but once she figured it out, she was loving it! Loving it so much that she decided she wanted to taste it {luckily it was non-toxic!}. She was so proud of her lil pumpkin!

pumpkin patch

we took Harper to the local pumpkin patch yesterday. i knew she would enjoy it but I didn’t realize she would like it as much as she did. she smiled and laughed the entire time we were there. the pumpkin patch is geared toward little kids and has a little straw maze, games, corn maze, goats, a haunted house and hayrides through the pumpkin patch. i took SO many pictures because Harper was being so stinkin’ cute…

oh, and of course she had to wear her pumpkin hat. she’s always dressed for the occasion!

I told you there were a lot of pictures. And these were just my favorites…

for those who haven’t heard the news -

Harper is going to be a…

 

And she’s been practicing with her very own baby…

Our new addition is to arrive somewhere around April 27th, 2012.

More details to come…

peek a boo

it’s always fun when family comes…

My parents made a trip down in September to visit us. We hadn’t seen them since February when Harper & I went to Canada. It was so fun to have them here and Harper LOVED being with them. She warmed up perfectly. We had so much fun spending time with my family.

 

We took my parents and brother up to the ranch with us to experience our life for a couple days. We had so much fun, we didn’t want to leave! We cooked lots of yummy food, rode horses, went to Register Rock, shot guns, had a campfire and played with Harper.  The boys even worked a little and rewarded themselves with a fishing trip. A very adventurous stormy fishing trip at that!

 

When we got back into civilization, my sister and her hubby joined us for the weekend. We went to the City of Rocks, out to eat, went bowling, and to DQ for a little treat. It was a fun day with my whole family!

My siblings had to go back to school, so my mom and dad stayed with us for a couple more days before they flew back to Canada. It is always so hard to see them leave! We think you should move closer…

Thank you for coming and spoiling us. We had so much fun. We love you Grandpa & Grandma! Come back soon!!!

{Sorry for the photo collage overload. There are SO many pictures, so it seemed like the best solution!}

what’s new in Harper’s world

{THIS POST WAS WRITTEN AT THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER. I’LL DO ANOTHER UPDATE POST SOON BECAUSE SHE DOES SO MUCH MORE NOW!}

she discovered how to open and close drawers.

 

just this week she finally figured out how to walk in her walker {she could only go backwards until now…she’s our moonwalkin’ girl}

 

she is VERY ticklish. she even starts laughing like this when I’m just washing her belly in the tub. gotta love it!

 

check out those new 2 front teeth…

 

she’s started doing this squinty nose face a lot. it cracks me up.

 

and, yes, she is almost 10 months and growing way too quickly. where in the world did my baby go?!?

i’m just wondering - where did my summer go?!?

does anybody else feel like their summer came and left and didn’t invite them?

i’ve been trying to figure out what happened.

and then i realized…

my summer consisted of me hanging out in the kitchen all day and chasing Harper around.

no, i didn’t take a job as head chef at the local restaurant. although, it kind of felt like that. i was busy carrying on the Bedke wife tradition…and filling some rather large shoes.

you see, in the summer all of ry’s family moves up to the ranch to hay. his mom and grandma {who are both AMAZING cooks} bust out their chef hats and their very top notch skills and feed the haying crew {which consists of ry’s family} straight up gourmet meals with gourmet desserts and everything…EVERYDAY!

well, it just so happens that the first year we are here for the summer, mom and grandma can’t come up {mom would make it up around 7 or 8pm and then leave the next morning by 7:30am}.

so, guess who that left?

correct. MOI!

holy intimidation.

needless to say, i had no choice but to take on the task. i did my very best and, wow, was it ever exhausting! add taking care of Harper’s needs to that and ya, that’s probably where my summer went. it left with the fried chicken, stew, country fried steak, homemade bread and rolls, dijon sirloin tips, marinated roast, waldorf salad, ham & swiss wraps, eggs lorraine, eggs benedict, cherry pie, boston cream pie, supreme carrot cake, and all of the other millions of delicious calories we consumed.

i calculated one day and i spent a total of 9.5 hours in the kitchen the entire day {that was making food, cleaning up, etc. for 3 meals}.  it wasn’t like that everyday, but i’d venture to say i did about 8 hours a day. 

we sure ate good though.