the peanut to my butter

This is pretty much how I feel about my beautiful boy.  I started this blog just about 1 year ago with the purpose of capturing and documenting moments with my family.  I started by documenting Peyton's 1 year old birthday.  Somehow he managed to turn 2 a few weeks ago.  I'm amazed by his sweet soul everyday and entertained by his silly demeanor.  He's so smart, loving, caring, and kind.  I love him everyday with so much of my heart it hurts.

Happy Birthday Sweet Angel.

 The picture below demonstrates how truly sweet you are.  You hate to see Harper cry.  Not because it annoys you, but because you don't want to see her upset.  When she spits up, you run to get a wipe and clean her face.  You always gently rub her head with your little hands. You rock her and say "shhh Hapa."  I could have never imagined you would be such a loving brother and helpful son at only 2 years old.  You are so special.  I am so grateful to God for allowing me to be your mother.

The busiest and best time of the year

     From November through January we are busy in this house.  With Harper's birth, we were even busier this year.  Between Thanksgiving, birthdays, and Christmas, there's always a lot to plan for... but also a lot to look forward to.

Christmas this year was really good.  I did most of my shopping online and plan to keep that up in the future.  We got our tree early.. and even got to go back to the tree farm again to help my mom pick out hers.

     On Christmas Eve we went to church.  We first began attending our church on Christmas Eve three years ago.  I always say that making the decision to attend that evening was the best decision I ever made.  I truly believe that God led me and Brandon to our church.  We have grown so much there and my whole perspective on life has changed.  I've never once regretted my decision to place my faith and hope in Jesus.  Service was really inspiring this year and Harper did well in the nursery, which was great!  Later that evening, Brandon's dad made us dinner at home.

Christmas morning...

     I loved getting to watch Peyton open his presents this year.  We really took our time picking presents that we thought he would enjoy.  We didn't want to just get a whole bunch of gifts for the sake of getting gifts, so we chose five gifts for Peyton and two for Harper.  Christmas means so much more to me than it did in the past.  It is about spending time with family and giving, but the birth of Jesus, who came into this world in such a humble, vulnerable form as a baby, is why Christmas is so important.  It's more important to Brandon and I to teach our children about this event and it's significance than anything else on this day.  Next year we want to scale back even more.  I found the "4 Gift Rule" on Pinterest, and we're thinking of using this as a guide next year.

     As for this Christmas, I still think we did a pretty good job of keeping things under control.

     Christmas was even more special this year because it snowed on Christmas Eve.  It was the real first snowfall and it was completely unexpected.  Because it barely snowed at all last year, this was the first time Peyton got to play in the snow.  On Christmas morning, Brandon and Peyton went sledding in the backyard.

     Peyton and Harper got to spend a lot of time with several different cousins on Christmas day and later in the week.

Harper hung out... looking cute

     Christmas went by quickly, but our celebrations didn't end on the 25th.  I'll post again (soon hopefully) to recap the New Year, Brandon's birthday, my birthday, and Peyton's birthday. 

the last 6 weeks.

     Wow, where have I been?  Harper is now 6 weeks old and it has been a wild 6 weeks.  We have been slowly adjusting to life as a family of four, but I think things are finally beginning to calm down some.

When I say calm down, I really mean- she is beginning to calm down.  Harper has proven to be much more of a crier than we were used to with Peyton.  We've wondered if it's colic, gas, reflux... all of the above.  We've pretty much ruled out everything because she tricks us by actual sleeping at night and not crying... like at all.  I can be assured between around 9pm and 7am she will not cry (she does wake up of course.. she eats and goes back to sleep).   When she's not crying, she is a sweet sweet girl.  He smiles a lot- which I didn't think was possible because Peyton was the most serious baby on the planet.  I told Brandon today that I'm starting to forget what life was even like before she was here.

As for Peyton...    
     Sometimes I wished I had Peyton's patience.  He unconditionally loves that girl so so much.  He has exceeded my expectations for bringing another child into our family.  I worried that he would be jealous or feel robbed of his time with us, or that he would regress and start acting like an infant again.  I feel silly for thinking these things of Peyton.  Peyton has the most loving and kind soul.  He has accepted Harper as his sister from day one and he takes his job as big brother very seriously.  I'm so grateful for that.

I am really looking forward to watching them together and to getting to know Harper's personality.  I feel like I am starting to see glimpses of who is she.  One thing is for sure- she's pretty stubborn....

I don't know who she got that from.

welcome to the world harper

my beautiful little girl

was born on November 12, 2012 at 9:19am

she weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and measured 19 inches

She's perfect and we're so blessed.

Her brother seriously adores her.  He's not jealous.  He rubs her hair and reaches out to hold her.  He worries when she cries and wants to know where she is when he can't see her.  He loves her.

Now that we're home, we're adjusting to having two babies (under two).  It's not easy, but I didn't expect it to be.  I'm just lucky I have Brandon, because I seriously don't think I could do this without him.

Welcome to our world baby girl.

normal around here

We've been busy getting ready for Harper and enjoying the fall.  This year like the last few, we visited a local farm in the area.  Peyton was old enough this year to participate in the activities and run around the pumpkin field.

When we got home, I let Peyton paint his pumpkin.  He seemed like he really liked painting it and he wasn't too messy about it either :-)

Two days before Halloween, Hurricane Sandy hit our area.  It was actually bad enough to close school for two days.  We lost power for a little less than 24 hours.  But things quickly resumed to normal on Halloween.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for everyone hit by Sandy :-(

Today is Election Day.  Brandon, Peyton and I went to vote early this morning.  I had the day off, but I had a ton to do to prepare for my leave.  I feel good knowing that Peyton will learn about the election process from a young age (part of the territory when your mom is a social studies teacher).

And today I had my last doctor appointment before Harper arrives!  It's pretty amazing.