Happy 1st Birthday, Chickadee!

Yesterday was Harper's first birthday! It has been a whirlwind year, but we wouldnt' change it for the world. And, all my friends with kiddos close in age swear that if you can make it through the first year, you are good to go. Which should mean life will be smooth as silk from here on out, right?!? HA!

I will post more pictures of the parties (Caleb's, joint, school parties, etc.) later but wanted to

show our birthday girl at school yesterday and then at home last night devouring her cake.

Thanks, Sister G, for making our lives even better than before! WE LOVE YOU!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Our Buster!!

A quick shout-out (that's now a day late since it's after midnight) to our totally wonderful, fabulous, and special first born. Caleb celebrated his 3rd birthday today, Dec. 3rd. It is so hard to believe that he's growing so fast. The picture above is from this morning, just after he woke up (as indicated by the crazy hair and sleep-lined face) just after receiving his big present from Mom and Dad.

Here's a photo from each of his other birthdays:
A few hours after being born. What a crazy adventure that was!


Eating cake on his 1st birthday. He wasn't too certain about cake-eating at his party but got after it on his actual birthday.


Enjoying cake again on his 2nd birthday. Just a few days later, he went from being our little boy to seeming like a giant compared to the newborn Harper.


Eating cake tonight at his party. I couldn't tell if he was tired after jumping and running around, in a sugar coma from all the junk we ate all day, or suffering from a concussion after falling off the bench backward.


More to come as the festivities continue with a joint party for family. This post was just to keep me from being a total slacker :) Happy b-day, Caleb Scotty Watt-y. I love you!

The Holidays are Coming!!

Hard to believe that Christmas is 7 weeks away but the weather here has been BEAUTIFUL for the last week- more like spring than fall. Holidays also mean two big birthdays are on the horizon. LOTS TO PLAN FOR ME! YIKES!!! Let's get to the fun stuff: the photos!

As Harper gets more active, she and Caleb interact more and more. It is very fun and, for the most part, peaceable. Enjoying a great fall afternoon one Sunday with the window open.


Riverfield is built firmly upon the idea of kiddos being outside as often as possible to learn and explore in the outdoor environment. This photo was taken by one of Caleb's teachers earlier in October and featured in the daily "Today We" update that's emailed to parents and grandparents. The leader of the pack...or just not listening to instructions when the teacher said to stop (who knows!).


October = big events for my family with both parents' birthdays and their anniversary. For Dad's birthday, he took off work and we headed to the State Fair. We had a great time, especially in the petting zoo area, despite this photo of Caleb. The camels were awfully big and not afraid of people.

Harper had a good time too. This was one of the last outings where she would keep her bow in her hair. It's been a good ride and I'm pleased she left them in as long as she did.

I didn't even talk to Caleb about the rides at the Fair because I thought he would be too nervous to try them. We walked through the midway on our way back to the car and he was fascinated. He and I rode the caterpillar roller coaster together and then he rode the small train all by himself; what a big boy!

Riverfield's first homecoming football game on our own field was in October. It was a very chilly day after a really rainy week but we still had the game and all the activities, including a schoolwide pep assembly in the gym. Here's Harper and Daddy hanging out.

And Caleb and his friends jamming along with the drumline.


There were quite a few of Caleb's deer class friends at the day's activities. This is Caleb's good buddy Anthony. Caleb didn't want a tattoo but later asked to get his face painted. While in line, I asked him what he wanted to get. "Green," he said. "Green what? Like a frog? A turtle?" I said. "No, just green" so we painted his whole face "just green" then traveled 5 hours to our family reunion in Kansas City with the green face paint. :)

Harper is more and more animated. The wave was first in a series of "firsts" in the last 6 weeks.

One rainy Friday, the dogs were barking like crazy in the backyard. I went out to bring them in and found that they were going nuts over these tiny little turtles. One was scurrying away but the other was tucked inside its shell. We brought both to the back porch for further investigation.

Our friends came over to watch OU/Texas with us. Though the game certainly didn't end like we wanted (or the Sooner season, for that matter), Owen and Caleb had a blast. I can't think of once in his life that Caleb has worn a hat for more than 5 minutes but Owen was wearing one so Caleb wanted to also. No clue where we found this pretty orange hat but it provided lots of entertainment that day.


Granny and Grandpa gave them a great book on our visit to their house earlier in the year. Caleb loves to "read" it to us.

While they are too young to protest, I will continue to dress the kiddos in matching holiday pjs including Halloween. However, taking a photo of them together is nearly impossible. Harper is constantly on the move and, though Caleb means well, his strangle hold on her only aggravates the situation further.

Harper is feeding herself a larger variety of "real" foods. Here's an experiment with fruit cocktail and cool whip.

After several wet and muddy football games at Riverfield, I invested in some galoshes. Caleb, apparently, is quite fond of them too.

For the 3rd year in a row, our friends from Sunday School had us out to their property for a hayride and bonfire. Each year, the crowd of children gets larger and larger. It is very fun to watch our friends' families grow up with our children.

The host of the bonfire is a Tulsa police officer. You can imagine the fun that Caleb and his buddies had in the cruiser. Hopefully this will be the only time that Caleb's in the back seat of a cop car!

Harper has had ongoing ear infections in the last few months; she finish a round of antibiotics and have an ear infection in the next two weeks. We went to the ENT on a Tuesday, her ears were clear and he wanted to get tubes in while they weren't infected, so two days later we were at a local outpatient hospital getting her tubes. Just like Caleb, they gave her "goofy juice" to make leaving us and going to the OR a little easier. Funny girl!

Unlike Caleb after his tubes, Harper was a challenge when waking up from anesthesia. She was groggy and grumpy but took a great big nap when we got home and woke up happy as a clam.

Aaron had taken the day off, so he and Caleb tackled the pumpkin carving. We had located a set of Cars templates and Caleb thought all 8 designs would be going on his pumpkin. He was a little disillusioned that only one would fit.


While C wasn't so eager to get his hands dirty with pumpkin innards, Harper was very curious.


Here's the finished product...nice job, Dadda! Lightening McQueen never looked so good!

I think I had just started my "Couch to 5k" running program when I last blogged. Well, my friends and I kept at it and made it to our goal race: the Tulsa Run. We had run several 5ks around the school so knew we could actually run that far. However, I had not accounted for the hilly path through downtown that we would be taking. We made it though! Because it was a chilly morning, Harper and Aaron stayed home and Caleb, my parents, and my sister came to cheer me on. Caleb and Mom missed me going by because Caleb had to "take a turn" but their support was much appreciated. After we got home, Caleb pinned on my race number and ran around the front yard for awhile.

Harper had her own kind of race.

Another new trick- blowing kisses. She also can say "dog" and will "ruff" like a dog if you ask her what a dog says but we couldn't see to capture it on camera because every time we ask Harper, Caleb thinks he needs to answer too. Yes, Caleb, we know that at almost 3 you know what a dog says. :)

Halloween ended up being a gorgeous day, almost 80 degrees. We joined friends at the Boo Ha Ha parade on Brookside mid-afternoon. Here's our little flower.

She LOVED the drums, cars, sights, and sounds of the parade. Maybe because she could actually hear them with her tubes in. She has said 5 or 6 more words since her procedure.

Caleb and his friends were Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. Of course, Caleb had to wear green so he was Theodore. Here are our cute Chipmunks checking out their candy. The costumes were so cheap (our friend Leslie found the men's turtlenecks at thrift stores and the brown sweatpants were $8.) but I couldn't believe how many people kept complimenting us and saying how adorable they were. We were wishing we would have entered them in a costume contest.

Later that night, we went to "Simon's" house to eat pizza and trick-or-treat in his neighborhood. The last two years, we've gone to the church for their event so this was the first time doing the whole "knock on the door and say trick or treat" thing. We moms weren't prepared for all the etiquette lessons needed like saying please and thank you, not ringing the doorbell a million times, taking turns ringing the doorbell, not grabbing candy out of the person's bowl, etc. It was fairly exhausting keeping up with these excited boys but lots of fun.

Harper on the move. She lost her headpiece as we were walking (totally mom's fault, sorry!) but looked cute here.

After the trick or treating, we moms dropped the kids off and headed out to look for Harper's missing costume. The dads were apparently a little over-involved in the OU game because here's what transpired while we were away!

The weather has continued to be unbelievable. We took several walks, including Harper's first venture out in the wagon.

Here's Aaron's most recent work with the photoshop app on his iphone. Not too shabby; but the subject is adorable to start with!

We've been enjoying Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" lately. In a scary testament to how much your infant takes in, here's what we found out Harper can do!

Other items of note:
- I ran another 5k this weekend - took 2:40 off my Tulsa Run time. Signed up for a 4 mile run downtown next weekend. No aspirations for longer runs at this point, but I am really enjoying the activity (and the fun t-shirts!).

- We've had fun times with friends including a lake weekend in Arkansas and a girls retreat with my friends from Covenant. Yippee!!

- Caleb's potty training has been very successful. He is in underwear all day and at naps and has had several overnights with dry Pull-Ups. Knock on wood but never would have thought potty training would be this easy.

- The OU season is down the drain but it is still fun to get together with friends to watch.

- Our god daughter Ellison started at Riverfield a few weeks ago. It is going well so far and is very fun to have a 3rd little person to check in on during the day. Plus, Caleb loves to tell me when he sees her during the school day. She and Harper are in different classes this year but the younger and older infant classes are integrated when they reach Toddler classes next fall. Watch out boys, here come the cuties!

- Our thoughts and prayers have been with the Hedrick family over the last several months. Truman, their 9 year old, was diagnosed with bone cancer in his leg this summer. He has undergone several procedures and treatments, including an above-the-knee amputation two weeks ago at MD Anderson. Their boys used to go to Riverfield and they go to church at Asbury. Please send your prayers their way. For more information visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/trumanhedrick

- I entered both kids in the Gap Casting Call contest. If you want to, please go to http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/cswhgw12/ to vote for Caleb or Harper as the fan favorite.

Have a great week!

In the Swing of Things

We're several weeks into the fall and things are getting "normal" or at least "routine" for us. Caleb is flourishing in the Deer class and Harper is adjusting to life with her teachers and friends in the Butterfly class. She was a total champ the first few weeks of school but has since hit the fun and friendly times of stranger anxiety so she spent a better part of the last two weeks crying in her class. She is definitely coming around and her teachers said she had a great day on Wednesday. I also chalk some of this up to teething (two big ones coming in up top) and an ear infection we didn't know about until I took her for her 9 month well baby visit on Thursday. Send in your nominations for Mom of the Year now!!! Oops!

One project that Caleb has really helped with is our Amish Friendship Bread batter. He was so good at mushing up the bag each day and especially with preparing the batter to give to friends and baking the bread we kept. We have another starter bag so we're going through the routine again. If you're looking for Friendship Bread, let me know and we can get a starter to you.

Fall in the Walton house means FOOTBALL!! We've had a blast at two Riverfield games- one victorious, the other...not so much. This is the 3rd year for us to play football but the first to have our own home field, which was completed over the summer. It is such a pretty venue, with trees and barnyard surrounding it. Caleb is loves to cheer (it was "Go Raisins" at first, but we've cleared that up to "Ravens" with a little practice) and both kids love to listen to our drumline.

School has not been without its bumps and scrapes for C and H. Caleb's affinity for his rain boots and his teachers' OK to wear them even when not needed has equaled a fall or two on the gravely playground. This one was especially lovely:

Harper has enjoyed her share of bumps and bruises as well as she experiments with pulling up on things and cruising around. Caleb seemed to be more cautious than Harper is at this age. She has no fear and doesn't mind plopping back down on her booty if she gets in a pickle.

She has six teeth now (4 on top, 2 on bottom) and she's also mastered waving.


And saying "Dadda" ("Mama" was a long time ago):


And "Ball" (this was on her 9 mo. birthday):

Over Labor Day, we took at trip out to Aaron's parents' house in Boise City. Yes, folks, you can drive 7 hours and still be in Oklahoma :) We hadn't been there since Caleb was young, and despite a hailstorm and a run-in with some baby ticks, we all had a great time. Caleb slept by himself in another room better than he sleeps at home. Who would have thought! His favorite part was playing with all the cars that his Dad played with when he was little.

Here's Harper finding her way around Granny and Grandpa's house.

Caleb gave up his pacifier at school last winter without a thought. But at home, it was part of the bedtime routine and we weren't ready for the fight. Then one of the two pacis went missing and then Caleb threw up while keeping the other in his mouth (DISGUSTING) so we had to throw it away. So we were without a paci and that was the end of it, no fits, no crying, no bargaining for a new one. Aaron and I were filled with dread when the missing orange paci was found, but after we told him it was too dirty from being under the nightstand for such a long time, he threw it away himself. What a champ! Gives some credence to the idea that kids will be ready for these big milestones when they're ready (though it's easier to say that when he's 2 1/2, not 5!).

Several weeks ago, we babysat our god daughter, Ellison. I was at a Weight Watchers meeting (more on that later) so for a few minutes, Aaron had a sleeping Ellison, a screaming-for-no-apparent-reason Caleb, and a puzzled and fussy Harper (oh, and two howling dogs) all to himself. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that. For the most part, it was a very calm evening and Rob and Heather might actually let us watch her again sometime :)

Fridays mean fun time with Grandma most weeks as my mom doesn't work at the church on those days. Recently, Caleb has been spending the night on Thursday with Grandma and G-Dad and then we'll meet up Friday for errand running or some activity. On this particular day, we walked and played at a park in Broken Arrow. The weather has been very cooperative (up until this last rainy week) this fall.

I think I've mentioned our new fabulous Reasor's grocery store before. Not the world's best prices (though they do have good sales) but one of my favorite things is that the carts are made to seat two kiddos. It won't work forever, but for now, it is a wonderful alternative to having to put Caleb in the back of the cart where he gets into everything until he's so smushed by groceries that he couldn't move if he wanted to.

I tend to focus on the kiddos mostly in this blog because they are more interesting and I have waaaaayyy more pics of them than of myself. But, I will show my "before and after" photos of the haircut I got right before school started. I had intended to lose some weight and then celebrate by chopping my hair off but the weight wasn't going anywhere and my hair was getting on my last nerve. So, I did the opposite: chopped 8 inches off my hair then started losing weight. When summer's relaxed dress code at school was over, I was faced with the reality that about 3/4 of my closest was filled with clothes that didn't fit. Not OK because I was not going to go buy new things in a bigger size. So, I re-joined Weight Watchers and have been counting points and tracking what I eat. And I joined some co-workers and students in jogging two days a week (then one day on my own) with the Couch to 5k running program. So far I'm about 10 pounds down and hope to be about 10 more by the holidays.

Here's a funny photo of Harper. She is way to big for this bouncy chair but I've yet to figure out what to do with her when I shower and Aaron's not home to entertain her. She's quickly outgrowing the Exersaucer and it is too wide to fit through the bathroom door anyway. So for now, she just tries to bust of the chair while I take the world's fastest shower.

In the struggle to find somewhere for Harper to "land" while we attempt to get things done around the house without letting her endanger herself, we purchased this Jenny Jumper. She generally loves to bounce up and down while standing on your legs or in the Exersaucer but has yet to really embrace this toy. She'll tolerate it for awhile and only if you are in close proximity, which makes tidying the house or starting the laundry a bit of a challenge.

As OU fans, we were crushed by their first week defeat but put on our gear, paid a silly $40 fee to watch it on pay per view, and cheered loudly as they defeated Northern Idaho. Yippee!!

The big accomplishment of the night was Harper learning the touchdown signal. It took awhile and thankfully our fine team allowed us many many chances to practice it as they kept scoring (maybe we should have started it the week before against BYU!). Caleb was a very good example and encourager.

Here the video and a still photo of our cute little fan. This week she added "ta-dahn" when she does the motion. Yeah, she's a prodigy, right?? The humorous part is she's not really sure why she's doing it but knows that it gets a great reaction so she keeps doing it at random times. To which Caleb tells us, "We're not watching football right now".

If we thought tossing of the orange paci was a big deal for Caleb, we had an even bigger one in store for us this week. Here's the scoop:


Yep, what we've been practicing at home we took out in the real world of Riverfield Country Day School (and beyond) as he wore underwear!! He's only had two accidents so far (knock on wood) and hasn't had any problem telling us he needs to go when we've run errands, etc. We're still doing nap and night time with a diaper (not that brave yet), but we're well on our way. Hooray for only buying one size diapers!!! Harper, we'll start working on you next month- ha!

The rain foiled our plans to go to the zoo with our friend Owen on Friday but we did go to the OK Aquarium, which is close to our casa. Caleb really enjoyed it, if by enjoyed it I mean ran around and made a lot of noise with his friend, and occasionally freaked out about the big fish and sharks swimming toward him. Harper was pretty oblivious to it all and just chewed on her dolphin toy the whole time.

You should have seen the totally puzzled look on Caleb's face when we walked up to this tank and saw the man in the scuba suit inside. Apparently they do a lot of cleaning and feeding on Friday mornings. It was as if Caleb couldn't tell if he was a real person or just part of the display. He ended up knocking on the glass and trying to get the guy to wave at him.

Finally, a "cheeeessseeee" when he was actually looking at the camera. These days, I get the word while he looks in the opposite direction, or a glance at the camera with a goofy face. Somehow I think this struggle is only beginning.

Oh, Aaron wants me to tell a funny story on Caleb. Last week after swimming lessons, they were in the locker room drying off and changing clothes when Caleb sprinted toward the urinals and picked up the urinal cake. Because I didn't know what a urinal cake was, the initial grossness of the story had waned a bit by the time Aaron fully explained it to me. But, apparently it is really gross.

I have a super-cute video clip of Caleb and Harper playing together but it's a little long and won't fully upload. I'll look into it and hopefully post it soon. It's so cool to watch them interact more and more as her awareness of Caleb and their relationship increases.

We are busy busy and I'm sure you are too. But aren't you proud of me for updating within the month!?!? Yippee! Happy fall, football season, harvest, Halloween, etc!!