Harper at 6 months.

Harper was six months old on Tuesday the 21st. I can not believe she is this old. She is becoming a big girl right before our eyes.

Harper,
You are our sweet girl, and we are thankful for you everyday. We can not wait to watch you grow into a young lady. I pray you always know your worth and keep your morals and values your are taught close to you. You are our pretty girl and we love you so much!
At 6 months:
You weigh 22 pounds and are 28 1/2 inches long.
You wear 12 month clothing.
You wear size 3 diapers and are about ready to move up to size 4.
You eat around 3 stage 2 packages of baby food a day, your current favorite is cherries and apples.
You smile with your whole face, your eyes get squinty and your mouth is wide open.
You love your brothers, Hagen has your full attention whenever he is in the room. I sometimes have to get him to leave the room where your can focus on eating.
You can roll over, and you have started to roll across the room.
You enjoy your exersaucer and love to play with all the gadgets.
You love your thumb more and more, it puts you to sleep in about 30 seconds and many times you have to suck on it between bites of food.
You nurse around 4 times per day, and have never had any formula.
You love your baby doll and crinkly book.
You have become much more pleasant over the last month, but it is still very difficult to find a babysitter for you, you seem to have a reputation of being "high maintenance" :)
You love to be in the swimming pool and glide around in your little baby float.
You constantly have your foot in your mouth, and are chewing on your toes. You are seriously the most flexible baby I have ever seen.
You love to chew on anything, I am expecting a tooth to brake through any day now.
You are starting to try to scoot out of my lap or throw your body toward people when you want to go to them.
You babble all the time now, and have very in depth conversations with your toys and your feet.

We Love you so very much,
Mommy and Daddy

Monday Moments

Monday, started out with breakfast and more "hunting" practice by the boys. They seriously are entertaining. After lunch we made our way to swimming lessons. Monday started our second week of lessons and the boys did very well. Hagen has actually started jumping in the pool and swimming across it on his own. It is such a relief when you see your child actually swimming.

Talking about pool rules.

Hagen and his swim across the pool.

Cooper practicing his gliding across the pool.

Cooper laying on the sun deck with his friend Presley.

After swimming lessons we headed home for a nap for Harper and more play time for the boys. It seems like everyday they dress up as something, ther imaginations are so big.

For a while they were cowboys.

And then....

rescue workers, hard at work saving the sock monkey :)

What a great Monday!

Father's Day 2011

Sunday, Father's Day, was a great day. It started off with the boys waking Erik up to give them their cards. The card Hagen and Cooper chose for Erik, was "A league of their own" themed card. When you opened it, Tom Hanks voice came on quoting, the famous line, "there's no crying, there's no crying in baseball!" This card especially applied to Cooper, as I am sure Erik had quoted that to him, more than once this season. Harper's card was a Cinderella themed card, "from Daddy's little princess". After the cards eneryone was dressed for church.

Erik, Hagen, Cooper and Harper. My children are so lucky to have the father they do, he is so patient, while I am not so much. He takes time to explain things to them. He is a wonderful Christian, hard working father, and I hope they always know how blessed they are to have him in their lives.

My three kids. I know it is not a good picture, but this is my very favorite dress Harper has, it has smoked strawberries on the collar.

Hagen made this Father's Day for Erik at church. My mom is one of his Sunday School teachers, and they are always making the neatest crafts and projects for the holidays. The same four women have been teaching the four and five year old Sunday School class at our church, for at least the last twenty-five years. They were actually my teachers when I was that age!

After church we went to my parents house and enjoyed a wonderful meal of roast, sausage, mashed potatoes, fried squash, pinto beans and corn on the cob and of course strwaberry cake and banana pudding. My mother is the best cook and really out did herself.

Happy Father's day

Summer time fun

I have been so bad about taking pictures and blogging this summer. We have been so busy between baseball, swimming lessons and other things, the blog has been put on the back burner, but I am going to do better. Below I am just going to add a few pictures I have taken over the last two weeks.

Water hose fun.

Monday morning breakfast picnic.

Loving her baby food, she gets so excited when she sees it, she can't stand herself!

Deer Hunting boot camp. Cooper has decided that he is going deer hunting this year with Erik and Hagen, (thank goodness!) This fact seriously worries Hagen. So he has taken it upon himself to "teach" Cooper how to hunt. Daily they dress up in camo and "practice" hunting, so in Hagen's words, "Cooper does not ruin there hunting trip". Cooper has become quite good at his turkey call.

Gator Farm Friday

Last Friday, we had quite the adventure. A trip to The East Texas Alligator Farm in Grand Saline, Tx. Hagen, my loyal Swamp people viewer was beyond excited. A co-worker and friend of mine,Nina and her daughter Hannah and friend Bree ventured along with us. I was not sure what to expected, but let me just say this is the neatest place and I as pleasantly suprised. The farm is very easy to get to and so clean and beutifully landscaped. There are so many different types of animals and reptiles, and admission prices are very reasonable. Cooper has decided he wants his next birthday party there and I am very excited about that. The staff is so friendly and assist the children in petting all kinds of animals safetly. The farm is complete with a petting zoo, bounce house, a great concession stand and of course alligators!

Hagen "cautiously" petting the snake, when we first arrived.

Cooper was scared to death when we first walked in, he literraly crawled in the stroller with Harper. But the farm grew on Cooper quickly.

Baby alligators.

The baby fawn at the alligator farm. Cooper and Hagen are always more than excited to see any kind of deer.

Harper in a deep conversation with the goats.

Hagen and Cooper petting the deer.

Funny faces.

The alligators at feeding time, according to the staff this is only about one quarter of the population of alligators in the farm. They fed them raw chicken.

Harper loved watching the fish. Everytime we would walk away she would start to cry.

Enjoying their "Gator Blood" snowcones.

Overall we had a wonderful time and we definately will be visiting again soon!

Summer Days

Monday, we spent some time in the sun at the Wendel's house. Everyone had a great time. Even Harper.

Harper relaxing on the slip-n-slide. She just laid there and talked. She loved the cool water. Her friend Delaney, who is four months older enjoyed the water as well.

Hagen in the middle of his "football" game with Drew and Payton. As you can see he had a good time as well.

Unfortunately, I missed a photo of Cooper but he enjoyed the Summer fun too.

Last Day of Pre-School

Friday, May 27th Hagen went to his last day of pre-school at the Learning Express. I can not believe my baby will be a kindegardner in 2 1/2 months. He actually could have started school this fall but we chose to hold him out one more year, due to his July birthday. I am so glad that we made that decision, Hagen has really benefitted from pre-school this year. Hagen is so excited for school in the fall, he already had his backpack.

Hagen and his teacher, Mrs. Bonnie. She was so great, and Hagen learned so much.

I had to share this. I bought this cookie boquet, from Robin Lowry who has just started a cookie business, The Cookie Jar. I loved how it turned out, she did a great job.

We are sure to have a fun filled summer, I will try to keep this updated the best I can. Lots of swimming, and adventures. Any day in the Tijerina house is an adventure with two little boys.

Art fair

On Saturday, May 21st, there was a Arts festival held on Market Street. That morning I had given my friend Tiffaney a baby shower in honor of the upcoming birth of their second son Tripp. We had a wonderful time. Later that afternoon, Erik, myself and the kids, made the short trip down to Market Street and visited the arts festival going on. There was food, music, bounce houses and many little booths with local vendors selling their treasures. We happened upon face painting booth, and the boys were so excited. They both picked out the "Spider Man" design.

Cooper sporting his new paint job.

Hagen trying his best to be still.

My sweet boys.

Dentist appointment Wednesday

Last Wednesday, Hagen and Cooper had a dental check-up in Tyler. I really enjoy our pediatric dental office, they are all so nice, and hardly ever a wait, and are so patient with the kids. Hagen and Cooper have no fear of going to the dentist and that is great. Aunt BoBo is currently in dental school at Baylor and was out for the summer and she agreed to come along to help with Harper, so thankful for her.

Waiting for our appointment.

Waiting for X-Rays.

Getting his teeth all clean.

The boys had a great visit and no cavaties. After running a couple errands, we took a quick through the Braums drive-through, and was headed home. A great day.

Harper at 5 months

Ok, so I am soo behind on blogging, but I promise I am going to catch up. Miss Harper turned 5 months old on May 21st. Wow, she is quickly growing up, way too fast. She has developed a such a little personality over the last few weeks and become so much more pleasant. She loves to sit in her exersaucer and laugh and smile at her two brothers, and carries own detailed conversations with them in her language. She is such a blessing to our family, and so happy.

Harper around 5 months.

A pedicure with mommy.

Lunch at the tea room with mommy and Aunt BoBo.

Learning to roll over.

Sitiing in her exersaucer for the first time.

At 5 months.....
You wear size 3 diapers
You wear size 12 month clothes and size 2 shoes.
You smile with all your heart, your mouth wide open, and squinty eyes.
You love baby food, especially squash, pears an apples.
You nurse around 4 times a day.
You LOVE your brothers and feveriously work to get their attention when they are in the room. Sometimes when Hagen is around you twist your neck in all directions just to keep him in your views.
You hate baseball games. Sister, I have news for you, you might jsut need to get used to them with two older brothers.
You love to play in your eversaucer.
You can roll over.
You love your sophie the giraffe and your "crinkly" book.
You LOVE to suck your thumb.
You can stand holding your weight, of course with us holding your hands.
You smile so big in the mornings when we come into the room to get you out of bed.
Your birthmark is still the shape of a small perfect heart on your left cheek.
I believe you are starting to teeth, you chew on everything in sight.
Harper,
We love you so very much, and we are so thankful you have been placed in our life. We can not wait to watch you grow into a young woman. I pray that you will come to know the Lord at an early age and never waiver in your beliefs. That you will respect yourself and others and appreciate what God has blessed you with and will have a desire to help others. I pray for a Godly husband for you one day. You are so very precious to all of us.