She gets away again! So close!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Hannah's Hunger Games
My niece Hannah turned 16 on Saturday. We had a Hunger Games themed surprise party for her. The Hunger Games is a book that she loves. It's actually the first book in a series, but in order not to spoil anything for those who haven't finished the series, we kept it strictly book 1.
Let me say, if you haven't read these books or heard of them, you will be very confused during this post, and I am sorry for that.
This is the book cover and it is where we developed our color scheme.
birthday girl
Hannah was given this letter when her brothers "kidnapped" her to take her to the capital.
sponsor gifts
her "girl on fire" headband
"Harper, you better not mess with my presents"
The exact moment that my dad discovered that my niece Ashleigh's roommate Lydia is a vegan. Awesome.
Jordan recruited Kevin to help him wrap Hannah's present. He used a soda box. Nice.
They are proud of themselves.
Taylor's precious girlfriend Megan. We want her to stick around!
All of the kids right before they went out to battle in the Hunger Games. See the glowsticks with their names? First they hid their own, then they went back out to find others. Whenever someone brought your name back to the house, that person was "dead" and the last man standing was the victor.
I cannot even begin to explain how this ended. It was complicated and more dramatic that we could have imagined!
Happy Birthday Hannah!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Happy Monthday
Harper is now 10 months old. She does not sit still for more than a few seconds. She talks all day long. She eats everything in site (whether it is actual food or not). She crawls at the speed of light.
She is awesome!
Silly Girl!
~
Scam
Have you seen the commercials for the Gyro-Bowl?
Apparently kids can do whatever they want and their food will not fall out of the bowl. The commercial shows kids throwing it, dropping it, running over it with a truck, whatever...and their food never spills.
Well guess what, the gyro-bowl is a gyro-joke!
Harper demonstrates how easy it is to spill her snack all over the play room.
She may be messy, but she's sure cute when she blows kisses!
~
Zoo Babies
Last week, when the weather was beautiful, Daddy Day Care went to the zoo. Kevin loves the zoo and is hoping to make Harper a Zoo Lover as well.
And as you will see, she is certainly a cracker lover.
Watching the geese
Of course, she got something from the gift shop
I think she likes it
When she saw this big guy, she said "Bear" which sounds more like "bea". That's right folks, Harper says 'bear'.
When she saw these little fellas, she said "deer, deer, deer". The fact that she says 'deer' makes Kevin very proud.
Happy Zooing little Harper
Monday, January 2, 2012
Mega Blog!
It has been a busy month! The last two weeks especially! We are getting a few days of rest in before it's my turn to head back to work. We enjoyed Kevin taking a few shifts off last week; it was great to have him home all week!
Our Christmas festivities lasted an entire week. We were busy from Wednesday to Wednesday! So here is a quick summary of Harper's first Christmas.....
An elf on the shelf came to visit our house. We can't wait until Harper is old enough to name him. For now, he's just keeping an eye on us.
~
We kicked off the Christmas celebration at my parents house. Our family has a contest every year at Christmas (see sweater contest). This is our 6th contest: cookie decorating, ornament decorating, lip sync contest, video contest, tacky sweater contest, and this year, the wreath decorating contest.
We complicated the rules this year. In the fall, we each came up with a broad category, then we put them in a hat and each of us drew a category. We had to narrow down a theme and design a wreath that would fit into that category. But we had to put the wreath together at the party, with a 30 minute time limit. I was most impressed with the results. Everyone brought their A-game!
Harper was ready for some fun!
Nothing says "FUN" like a Christmas tu-tu!
Even Harper had her Christmas wreath.
Competitor: Kevin
Theme: History
Title: The History of Sherpa
Please notice that there is a section called 'The Dark Times', that has a picture of me, Chipper, and the Harper Pregnancy stick. Seriously?
Competitor: Jordan
Theme: Media
Title: 7 Deadly froms of Media...and balls
Notice the two gold bells? That would be be the meaning of "...and balls". Remember, Jordan is a 17 year old boy.
Competitor: Avery (age 4)
Theme: Christmas
Title: Christmas-y
Competitor: Dad
Theme: Cities
Title: Bethlehem: City of the King
Competitor: Taylor
Theme: End of the World
Title: Joy to the End of the World
The volcano was active too! He got my vote (shhhh)
Competitor: Hannah
Theme: Science
Title: Jesus, The Original Galileo
Competitor: Rylee (age 9)
Theme: Christmas
Title: Christmas Sparkles
Competitor: Ashleigh
Theme: Comic Books
Title: DC Comics, Enough Said
Kevin hates DC comics! He only acknowledges Marvel. So of course, Ashleigh had to make a wreath to honor DC. As it says "All other comics will tremble at our name and bow to us upon defeat". Kevin did not find this to be funny.
Competitor: Joey
Theme: Hunting
Title: The highest of highs, the lowest of lows
Joey is not a hunter. That goes without saying. So he got creative. His wreath led us on a scavenger HUNT! Tricky tricky!
Competitor: Mom
Theme: Food
Title: Come to the Banquet Table
As you can see, Mom and Dad, went biblical and sweet. (made the rest of us feel pretty guilty) ;)
Competitor: Cara
Theme: Nature
Title: Cooleys Go Green
This picture tells you nothing about my wreath. See my phone mounted on the wreath? That would be where I played a video that narrated each piece of the wreath. Without the video, good luck trying to figure it out. It was basically how our family has recycled random things long before recycling was the thing to do. I'm pretty sure that the only reason why my wreath won the contest was because I said that we "recycled" my brother's dog into a werewolf =)
Here is everyone watching the video.
And I was so lucky to win this little beauty!
At my folk's house, it's not Christmas without some good old fashion competition. And of course, communion.
~
On Christmas eve, we opened our stockings.
There was a little moose hanging out in Harper's stocking.
It was great to watch Harper discover each new thing in her stocking and get to examine each one for as long as she wanted. And trust me, Harper liked to examine each little thing. She does not like to be rushed, that kid knows how to savor Christmas!
~
Then it was time for Gigi's Christmas breakfast...
This was Harper's crowd pleasing smile that we started last week. It was a hit!
Hanging out at Uncle Dale's, waiting on breakfast...
Rylee & Avery were just ready to open all those presents!
Both of us are trying to figure out how this toy works
Ooh, what's in there?
Uncle Dale bought hats for all of the cousins
~
Next was Nana & Papa's!
Papa, helping Harper with her stocking
Lots of goodies in there
Look at this book! Pride & Prejudice! So cute. Thanks Uncle Joey!
Avery loved her new skirt more than anything
Jordan earned a special place in Kevin's heart when he gave him this blanket.
Kevin says that it's the best gift he's ever gotten. Way to go Jordan!
Do you think Joey liked his new helmet? Maybe our favorite gift to give this year.
All the cousins! 9 months to 22 years
~
Christmas morning, Harper's first!
 |
~
Harper thought Aunt Lindsay's presents tasted pretty good
Lots of presents from Pops& Gramma, Great Grandma & Grandpa Jenkins & Aunt Lindsay
Next, it was off to Norman....
Harper loved seeing her cousin Jordan
Kevin & his Grandpa Curtis
Harper had quite an audience in her new fire truck from Gramma & Pops.....
Not that she was trying to get attention or anything
Harper spent a lot of time eating Club crackers last week. No matter where she went, those crackers came with her. Check out her laid back, chowin' down look...
More cousins!
~
And it case you were worried, Santa did make an appearance in our advent calendar.
It was an Merry Christmas; I was so happy to enjoy it with family and it's exciting to think how much more Harper will enjoy it next year!
~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)