BRRRR!!!!!

So I guess I'll just resign myself to the fact that I am no longer a weekly blogger. My apologies to the loyal readers out there. In my defense, I had grand ideas of what I was going to accomplish during my last week on maternity leave. But the weather had other ideas as Caleb did not have school Tuesday or Wednesday. We've had fun but I certainly did not tackle many of the items on my "to do" list. Oh well!

To backtrack a little, here's a picture of Caleb trying to catch some snow on his tongue. He has seen this on Caillou, but it did take me awhile to figure out why he was running around with his tongue hanging out. This was during the few flurries we got several weeks ago.


My sister and Brian, her fiance, gave Caleb a Cars sleeping bag, pillow, and nightlight set for Christmas. We busted it out one chilly day. Caleb is not so much for covers but he did like sitting on the sleeping bag.

Harper's big accomplishment: SMILING! She continues to show us her sweet sweet disposition and is really "talking" and smiling these days. Here's a photo and great video too.

We should just call Caleb "Mr. Puzzleman" because he cannot get enough of his puzzles. This one is his current favorite - a Cars (shocking, I know!) 24 piece puzzle. He is always so proud of himself when he finishes it!

Last week we met up with friends at a local park for some fun and fresh air. It was certainly not Caleb's best display of making good choices and obeying me as I had to chase after Caleb many times and hope that our friends had an eye on Harper's stroller. But the boys did have fun, including feeding ducks and geese.

I took Harper and Caleb to the doctor this week as both have had ongoing colds and I wanted to make sure they weren't anything more severe. Caleb is weighing in at 34 pounds and Harper's boasting 13 pounds 2 ounces. No shrimps here!! (Oh, both kiddos are fine - just typical winter yucky colds).

Last weekend, my mom's side of the family came to town to celebrate belated Christmas. It was a great time and Harper got another use of her Christmas bow.

Here's a group shot:


Caleb's cousin Julia is one month and one day older than he is. It was the first time in quite awhile that they had seen each other but they had fun. Caleb had a tough time sharing toys (again, shocking, I know) but my mom kept reminding him that the toys at her house were actually her toys and she was sharing them with everyone, not just Caleb. He wasn't sure how to respond to that :) We ate our way through the weekend, including Sunday brunch at First Watch. I love that place!

One of the presents Caleb received last weekend was this Cars chair. He was not at all keen on sharing it with his other cousins but was sweet enough to want his sister to sit in it when we got home. She looks thrilled, huh?

In honor of Miss America last Saturday night, Harper dried off with her princess towel this week. My friend Jana gave this to us and it is too cute. It's big enough that Harper will get some great use out of it.


The winter weather came in on Monday afternoon while Caleb was at school. Here's a shot of Harper all bundled up against the ice and sleet. Thankfully, our friend Heather was home early from work so I left Harper with her while I ran to get Caleb. Can't you just see me trying to get the stroller in and out of the school in the ice while trying to keep Caleb from running into the parking lot?!? Glad I didn't have to tackle that one.

Tuesday afternoon we were getting a little stir-crazy so we braved the elements and headed over to Grandma's house to decorate cookies. Caleb had a blast sprinkling and eating the cookies.

The evidence:

As I mentioned at the top, I head back to work next week. I have missed my co-workers and am going back at an extremely busy time. The nice thing is that I'll go back for two weeks then take another two weeks off to get settled into our new house. Then I'll be back "for real". Things with the house are going well - we have stained hardwood floors, carpet, all tile is in and grouted, etc. There are lots of little things still to do but our builder still thinks we are looking at being finished in about 10 days. We shall see. Hopefully this weather doesn't delay us too much.

Oh, if any of you have a Peg Perego infant carrier that you're not using and want to let us borrow, please let me know. After much research, I bought the Peg side by side double stroller. Many message boards said that you could make the Graco carrier work in the Peg stroller. I don't know who those people were or if their kids are still living because it is very very precarious to put the Graco seat in there as there is nothing to latch or lock it into. The one time I used the stroller I rigged a bungee cord to hold Harper's seat in. It won't be a big deal once Harper is big enough to sit in the stroller by herself but in the meantime, I cannot safely use the stroller I spent an absurd amount of money on. Let me know...

Have a great week and stay warm!

Great News!!

YES- You are looking at a "SOLD" sign in the Walton's front yard!!!
We had someone call for a showing on Saturday afternoon, call to see it again Sunday afternoon, and make an offer that evening that we accepted. YEAH! The inspections were today and, as of now, will close mid-February. This should work out perfectly as the new house should be done 10 days or so before that. Thanks for all the prayers and keep them coming so that everything works out smoothly with the completion of the new house and the details of selling this one.

Harper has been introduced to the world of the pac-pac (pass-pass) as we call it. She's still struggling to keep it in but Big Brother Caleb sure likes finding it and making sure she has it with her, like even when she's peacefully sleeping - ha!


Speaking of Caleb, he is certainly fulfilling all the two year old "symptoms", namely the selective listening thing (think that's something that males never fully recover from!!) and getting into everything! Here's what Caleb found one night when I was gathering the trash to take outside. I am not sure if it is any less gross that it's empty?!?


We had an exciting but short-lived event over the last few weeks: Caleb went #2 in the potty. He's never gone in either his little potty or the big potty but wanted to try it this particular night before his bath. He was holding on to me so tightly to keep from falling in that I think the strain is actually what forced the success, but - hey -we'll take what we can get. He was very proud and wanted to show Dada and Harper and then call Grandma to tell her. We've tried a few times here and there as he shows interest but no such luck on the repeat potty event.


Harper is spending longer periods of time awake but still taking great naps (like right now!) and is sleeping well through the night. We had a couple of times when she slept straight through the night but is back to waking up once, which I can totally live with.


We spent several fun times with my parents last week. Caleb saw a commercial for a monster truck rally on TV and was very excited. We decided that at $32 a ticket for a show that didn't start until Caleb's usual bath time where other onlookers could be potentially shady, we would not attend the rally. BUT... two of the trucks did come out to Reasor's in BA so Caleb, Harper, G-Dad, and I loaded up to check them out. Caleb was very excited but didn't want to get too close to them. And, based on the folks in the huge line for autographs, we now know where all the "State Fair people" go after the fair is over :)


After the monster truck fun, we headed back to our house to watch the OU-FL game. Here's a cute picture of the siblings. Between all the bowl games and the NFL play-offs, Caleb was pretty much over football and couldn't have cared less about watching. Oh well. He'll get some time off soon.



I would love to be able to get on here and share in the glory of my Sooners winning the National Championship, but we all know how that worked out :( I feel badly for the team and for poor Bob Stoops and his propensity to lose the Big Games. Eager to see what Bradford decides about entering the draft or not. Guess we'll find out tomorrow. Here's Harper in the AD throw-back jersey.


Friday afternoon we ran errands with my mom then stayed at their house for dinner. Caleb and G-Dad enjoyed some quality time in the garage, doing manly things like sweeping and checking out the various sizes of screwdrivers.


Here's Harper's one-month pic. Cute as a button, right?

Here's another sweet picture from earlier in the week. She is totally un-phased by the door bell, dogs barking, Caleb's screeching, etc.

As she grows, I think Harper is beginning to look more and more like her own person and not so much like Caleb. You can certainly still tell they are related but here are two pics of them in the same shirt. Can anyone guess who's who?

Think that's about it for now. Have a great week!!