Oh my....8 months already!

Sunday, August 21st Harper Kate turned 8 months old. She is loving discovering her world. She is almost crawling, but still manages to move around the house. Mostly by dragging herself around on her belly, or rolling to where she needed to go. Her big brother, Hagen, was a huge roller back in his day. Little girl is starting to get into everything, pulling my drapes, eating magazines, and finds herself lodged into small places. This has been a big month for her, with many firsts. What fun the next few months will bring.

Everything goes in her mouth these days.

Playing with her baby...Love this!

At 8 months:
You wear size 12-18 month clothing.
You wear a size 3 shoe.
Wearing a size 4 diaper.
You eat most table foods, I blend up most of our meals for your "baby food" and fresh fruit for breakfast, you love it.
You are saying Dada and Mama, you just started that.
You are clapping your hands together and saying yeah.
You feed yourself finger foods, and will drink out of your sippy cup at times.
You stayed with your first non-family, not at home babysitter this month. Mrs. Nancy from church and you did wonderful. She said you "were just presious".
You are so excited to see Hagen everyday after school.
You have your first two bottom front teeth.
You love to drag yourself to where I keep the magazines and try to eat them.
You are so happy most of the time.

Harper Kate,
What a joy and blessing you are to our family. We are so enjoying having a little girl in the house, and can not wait to what you grow up!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Lunch with Big Brother, and White Milk.

Hagen is doing so good at school. He loves it. He has mentioned the last couple of days that he would like to buy a milk to drink with lunch. I put money in his lunch account before school started, and everyone has their own lunch number they have to memorize. The numbers are seven digits long, which I think is a little extreme for a kindergartener. Anyways, I decided to write Hagen's down and place it in his lunch box in case he wanted something from the lunch line. Hagen imformed me "he was too scared to go through the line by himself". So the next day, Wednesday the 24th, Cooper, harper and I went to have lunch with Hagen and help him get his milk. Hagen was so excited when he saw us walk into the cafeteria, he grabbed his lunch and came and sat with us at the parent's table.

My big kindergartener. You may notice his hair style is a little different. He imformed me he needed to be able to spike his hair, this week. We will be visiting the barber shop again to get a more "spike friendly" hair cut.

Cooper and Harper so excited to see their big brother. Cooper was so excited to pack his luch box to bring to school to have lunch with Hagen.

After talking with Hagen a few minutes, it was time for the long awaited purchasing of the milk. I walked Hagen to the line, and watched him choose his white milk. I then went and sat back down at the table, while Hagen waited in the line and handed the cashier his lunch number to pay for his milk. He came back to the table with a huge smile on his face. He did it!

The milk.

Hagen spending the last few minutes of lunch with his little sister. She adores Hagen. I find her looking around the house during the day now, I think she is looking for him. She was so happy an excited the entire lunch to get to see her big brother during the day.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Wow, Hagen's first day of school. Monday, August 22nd, the time had come to send Hagen on his way for his first day of kindergarten. He was excited! I had absolutely no trouble waking him up that morning. He had carefully laid his "first day of school" clothes out the night before, which he had picked out several weeks ago. With his back pack laid out and his lunch kit full and in the refridgerator he was ready to go. Erik, had pushed his schedule back where he could come along, and we were all so excited.

Breakfast before school, his favorite toaster struedels an eggs. I think he was a little nervous, because he only ate about half of his breakfast.

Ready to head off to school.

The front door of Central Elementary. He was able to walk in behind our Friends the McMannus's, he felt like a big boy.

Looking for his desk.

Thinking about opening up the playdough.

Erik and Hagen. I think Hagen was a litlle bit more excited in this picture.

We left the classroom after a few minutes with no tears being shed at all. I was excited for my big boy.

I returned home and was cleaning up around the house, when Cooper rolled out of bed around 9 and asked where Hagen was? I thought he might be upset so I explained to him that Hagen had started kindergarten today and he would be home later. Much to my suprise, Cooper smiled from ear to ear and said, "now I get to watch my movies today". Cooper totally enjoys being the big boy at home while Hagen is at school.

Cooper decided he wanted to watch Swiss Family Robinsons that morning, so we decided it would be fun to build a pirate ship out of pillows and dress up as pirates. Cooper of course, put on his goofy pirate hat, and we made Harper a hat out of an old bandana we found. Harper kept messing up the pillows, and "falling over board" which was really aggrevating Cooper! No tears shed for Hagen at this point.

I was so excited when 3 o'clock rolled around, I could not wait to hear about Hagen's day. When Hagen got in the car, I asked him, "how was your day?" I was so happy to hear, "it was awesome mom." After picking Hagen up from school, I decided it would be a great idea to head to Shorty's ice cream shop. Thankfully, KK was home to keep Harper and Cooper so I could spend this time with Hagen.

Eating his favorite, a strawberry sundae. He told me as much as he could remember about his day. He said, "they went on a tour and saw a music room where you could pick your own instuement and a real doctor's office, (aka. a nurse's office :). We returned home after that where he was so excited to see his brother and sister. Daddy, KK, Pops, mae-mae, bobo and nanny all called or came by and asked him about his day.

He was super excited to go back to school the next day.

Meet the Teacher.

Thursday, August 18th, was Hagen's Kindergarten Meet the Teacher. I was so excited. I can not wait for Hagen to start school, not because I am ready to get rid of him. I think it will open up a whole new world to him, new friends, experiences and places. I did not shed a tear, I am excited. Hagen, will attend Central Elementary, which is literally right down the street from our house. We arrived at the school at 6 pm, and looked at the list on the front door and was so excited to see that he would have Mrs. Busby as a teacher. I have known Mrs. Busby my whole life and know she is a great teacher and Hagen would have a wonderful experience in her class. Hagen was also excited to find out many of his friends were in his class. Meet the teacher was very crowded and I think Hagen was a little overwhelmed. He barely talked to his teacher or his friends. He was very excited to see that Mrs. Busby had a fish tank in her room. After talking with his teacher and looking around the room, we left, We visited with some friends and I signed up for PTO before we left to have dinner at Chili's. What an exciting night.

Hagen, not quite sure about the kindergarten thing.

Sunday...The Return Ride Home.

Well the dreaded car ride home was upon us around 6 am that morning. We were so sad to leave, we so enjoyed having Erik off all week and just being together as a family. The beach is such a slow paced relaxing vacation, not having to be anywhere at a certain time. The kids did very well in the car, and we made it to Alexandri, La right around noon for lunch. And guess what, we had Cracker Barrel again. We made it just before the Sunday crowd.

Harper after eating, three saucer plates full of mashed potatoes, chicken and dumplings, and macaronni. Yes big girl was full and happy!

After leaving, we were hoping Harper would sleep most of the afternoon. That worked for about an hour, when Cooper Dooper decided he needed someone to talk to. So of course, he screamed and woke her up. So it was entertaining Harper all the way home.

She loved holding the iPad and watching an alphabet game.

We pulled into the driveway around 4:00 pm. I was thankful to have only 1/2 load of lanundry. The house we had came equipt with a washer and dryer. It made coming home and unpacking so much more pleasant.

Saturday, lazy day.

The Pophams left Saturday morning to return home, they had alot going on starting on Monday and this gave them a little more time to prepare. That morning we swam of course.

After swimming, the boys, Erik and KK headed to town to buy the highly anticipated hermit crabs and cages. Harper and I stayed back at the house where I finished up laundry and started packing and Harper took a nap. The quiet was so nice :) Erik took the camera along with him to town.

..and they got their crabs, each one chose a crab with a painted shell.

A stop at the candy store before returning home. Cooper was in heaven.

Admiring their new pets.

Right behind our house was a little lake. The lake had turtles that would swim right up to you, as long as you were feeding them bread. Erik had stood the boys up on the ledge and they were feeding the turtles, and of course Cooper fell off. Thankfully, he was not hurt. He is so our accident prone child.

Hagen and Erik decided earlier in the day, that since Hagen had a new crab, they would release the "wild" ones he collected earlier in the week. So that night they walked to the lake behind our house and released the crabs.

The little bunny we ran into right outside our house, on our way to release the crabs.

After dinner, we headed to the ice cream shop for one last treat before we returned home.

Beach Day Friday

Friday we spent most of the day at the beach and at the large resort swimming pool. So we headed out after breakfast that morning. So there was an older man, not that old.. maybe 60, that sat on the beach everyday under a LSU tent. He had quite a collection of water toys to use on the beach, he had acquired over the summer. He would let the kids borrow what ever toy they would like as long as they returned it at the end of the day. He was the nicest man. The kids loved to go pick a new toy out everyday. Friday he suggested we borrow his baby blow up pool for Harper to sit in.

Harper loved the little pool. Payton and Cooper had to join her of course. She did wonderful for a long time, until Cooper fell on top of her and pushed her head under the water, and then she was done with the pool experience.

Harper and her big floppy hat. I thought she looked so cute, and it actually was practical it really blocked the sun.

Hagen picked a blow up boat with a rope to play with for the day. This day in particular there were crab swimming all around in the water. Erik, Hagen and Lance took nets out and were scooping them up. Hagen made Erik pull him around in the boat, while they were "fishing for crab". His boat was named the Corneilla Marie.

One of the crabs they caught and released back into the water.

Erik and Cooper hard at work on their sand castle.

Later that Evening we headed back to the beach, for pictures. What a process with four children.

I am going to blow this up for my granddad. I just wish my cousin's little boy Jaxson was in it, maybe next year.

Happy kids.

Harper Kate

My sweet family.

KK and the boys.

My little princess.

Best Buddies.

Showing off their Matilda Jane.

After our photo session, we headed back to the house and fed the kids. KK was gracious enough to watch the kids while we all went out to dinner. We decided to eat at The Original Oyester House. There was a small wait, but SO WORTH IT. The best seafood I have ever had. The Baked oyesters were soo good. If you are ever in Gulf Shores or Mobile, this is a must.

A wonderful day!