A few new pics

Checking in

Hey There,
Well it's been alittle bit since I wrote but not as long as last time! :) Dylan is doing great. He is getting SO big. I just can't believe how big he is right now and how much fun he is. He is now pulling himself up!! It started over the weekend. Mike's parents were here and he just did it right infront of them. I was like he's never done that before!!! So they got to witness it for the first time. :) We had a blast with his parents here. THey came in Friday night and we went and ate dinner. We usually don't go out on Friday nights becuase there is a wait everywhere, but we decided to try it out anyways. We waited an hour so by the time we sat down, it was already an hour past his bed time. He was sooo cranky at dinner time. Poor thing was so dang tired. Then Saturday morning we had the carpet cleaning people come in. Our carpet was just gross and needed it. We try and do it as often as we can. It makes a difference, especially because Dylan has to crawl around on the floor. Anyways, so we had to leave and let the floors drive so we went and bought his new car seats and went to lunch. HIs new car seats were horrible to put in but we finally got it in my car. We still have to put them in Mike's!! We also got a new stroller for him. We were so tired of the bulky one we were using. Then saturday night Mike's parents watched D for us while we went out. We had such a good time. We went to PF Changs then to Sherlocks. It was a fun time!!

Dylan is great. He just finished his last round of shots until April. I'm sure he's happy about that. We also think the sickness is finally out of the house, knock on wood! :) That stuff was horrible, we never want that again! Or atleast not for awhile! I'm just glad MIke feels better too. He is traveling all this week, so hopefully that won't make him sick all over again.

I have attached some more pics of D. I'm trying to get better about this.
HOpe everyone is well, i'll try and keep this updated.

Jill

What's up with the Harpers

Let's see. It's been a few weeks since I posted. Not a lot going on I guess. Dylan is doing great. Wow, he crawls so good now and just can't sit still. I mean he is always moving, I love it. Sometimes I do just want to cuddle and lay with him like I used to when he was really little, but he still love to cuddle, just can't sit still!!! hehe. I cuddle him while I"m feeding him his bottle for bed time now. I hold him like he's my little newborn. Man, when people said time flies and they grow up quick, they weren't lying!! I can't believe I'm already packing up his old clothes that don't fit and his old things he can't fit in anymore like the swing, bouncer, etc. He's 6 1/2 months old now. He just recently got his first sickness. The doctor said he had rsv, some sortof respiratory virus. My poor baby was so sick. Thursday he had a fever and was feeling bad so Mike stayed home with him, then Friday I stayed home with hi because Friday was his worst day. All he did was cry all day. Actually he didn't cry, he just did this whining thing. He was just looking at me doing it and I could just tell he was trying to tell me that he wanted me to fix it!! I felt so horrible for him. We just laid in bed and cuddled. I put on some cartoons and we just cuddled. He just couldn't breathe through his nose, he couldn't stop sneezing and his eyes were all swollen and red and watering. He also started to get an ear infection so we had to give him meds for that. So every morning for the last week and a half was a beating because we would have to check his temp, give him his meds, suck his nose out! So he pretty much cried the first 45 mins he was awake. poor thing. We are finally getting over it. I had it after him, then Mike had it and now we are all finally getting back to normal. I think Mike still has some congestion and I have alittle as well, but for the most part, we are feeling much better.

We have been trying to add some new solids, but we are running out of ideas for beginning stuff. We gave him avacado last night, he wasn't sure about it but he liked it. I also started him on peas, he's not so sure about those ( I don't blame him, I hate peas) so I mix them in with sweet potatoes since he loves those!! Umm what else? He goes back in a few weeks for the rest of his shots, then after that he won't have to go back until April. Nice! I will really try and get some pics up here soon!!! It just takes time to do it. I don't have much of that these days.

My job is going great! I really do love it. I am just learning so much and soaking it all up. I ask a ton of questions and really try and learn as much as I can. I am also thinking about taking a few marketing classes somewhere just to further my knowledge. The girls I work with are great about teaching me new things, so I think this job is going great! I get along with everyone and as usual I am the goofy one. hehe. But I can totally be myself here and I love that.

Mike is doing great, he's about to start school again. I'm sure he dreads starting again but he had about a month or more off, so he should be all nice and refreshed! :) Plus the sooner he starts, the sooner he can finish. We were thinking he might graduate at the end of this year but after looking at it again, there is just no way. We are thinking one more semester after that, so possibly May of next year. ugh, I hate to keep pushing it further, it sucks, but we just have to be realistic. We are just ready to get back to Austin, now that one of my sisters is having another baby. I love my niece's and nephews and just wish we could all be in the same city!! I got to see Austin and KK over the holidays but for such a short time. Makes me so sad that I barely get to see them anymore these days. I just wish we could all get together more. Family is just so important to us. Mike has been traveling a lot lately!! But it's mainly because he has been out of school, so his job is taking advantage. I'm sure it will slow down once that starts.

We should be getting a pretty good amount from the VA. He is one hour short of geting like $4ooo more though!! so we are trying to find a class that has 3 hours instead of 2. But if anyhing, we will still be getting about $140 more a month than last semester. So that will be nice. We will probaby just use it for our trip in June anyways. hehe. I have been looking at flights all day, hoping to find some good deals. I have actually come across some pretty good deals, so we are going to book soon!!! hopefully. It's starting to stress me out a abit about traveling with D and bringing all of his stuff! with a $35 a bag charge, we are going to have to be limited on what we bring him. Food, clothes, bed, toys. hehe. that's it! I will probably just bring sun dresses and my swim suit anyways. Both of our families are going though, so that should be lots of fun! we are excited.

Hope this is enough. I will try and post pics soon!!!!
Love,
Jill

6 Months Old!!

My little baby is 6 months old now! wow! He weighs 19.3 lbs and is 27 inches long. What a big boy he is!! She said he looks great and is tracking right along on everything. He got 3 shots and the flu shot. He will go back next month for the rest. We started him on bananas. He loves them too. He has really liked everything so far. He has had apples, bananas, green beans, zucchini and sweet potatoes. We are going to probably start him on avacado or pears this weekend. So anyways, he's doing great. I fall in love with him more each day. I hate being away from him, but it's just what we have to do right now. I got to spend a ton of time with him the past few weeks for the holidays, so now I'm spoiled. Tuesday was a long day! :) I will try and get some recent pics up this weekend. It just takes forever to upload them, but I will try to set aside some time for that. :)

Love,
Jill

Wow, how time flies

So it's been over a month since I have posted anything. Wow, time does fly! Since I have started my new job, I barely have time for anything extra these days. I really need to get better about updating this so we will always have it as a memory. Let's see what's going on. I'll start with Dylan. OH man, I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I have with him these days. He is exactly 6 months today!! wow, 6 months already. He is sitting up great! He is sortof crawling. He scoots forward on his feet and hands more than crawl. hehe. But he gets to where he wants to be, so that counts! :) His eyes are still blue and his hair is getting blonder. We figured he would have blonde hair just because Mike and I both had blonde hair when we were younger. He says dada more than anything. But I hear it's easier to say than mama! :) I really did hear that. hehe. I don't think he knows that Mike is dada or what it means, he just says 'dadadadadadada'. He says mamamamama too but not as often. Umm he is SO active right now. You can't keep him still if he is sitting on your lap. He is always wanting to be moving around or playing or grabbing something. he sits up in the cart now at Target or wherever. We still put a blanket around him incase he falls, but he loves it. he is going to be walking in no time. He is still at Angela's during the day. It's going ok. We had a few instances that were a bit awkward, but everything is fine now. It's still a sortof trial thing. I mean she does a great job, but we just sortof wish we knew a bit more that was going on during the day. I'm sure he's fine though, but she knows that we will take him out if anything else happens to him. (he had a bruise on his leg from something). He has his 6 month check up on Monday. I am working from home that day just to spend the day with him since I didn't get any time off during the holidays. We might go do some shopping or something. We are still spacing out his shots, I'm happy that we decided to do that. It hasn't been much of an inconvienience at all either. D raked in the presents at Christmas. We are going to take my sisters advice and put the presents in the closet and take out 1 like every few weeks or month or something so he will have a new toy for awhile. That's about it on D. He's just the funnest baby ever. I have so much fun with him. I love being a mom. It's a blast. I just hope the next baby is as good as him.

I'm doing great. I really do like my new job. I am learning a lot and really like my team. I'm hoping to get a lot of experience out of this job. So far so good. Ummm I have officially stopped breast feeding and pumping and all of that. I did it exclusively until he was 3 months and then he got it a majority of the time until 4 months. I think I did like one bottle of formula at night and that was it on that last month. The 5th month, he had majority formula becuase I was back at work but he still did get about 10 oz a day of breast milk. Then about 2 or 3 weeks ago, we decided to stop it all together. We started him on solids. We have been making our own baby food lately. It's a lot healthier and it's a lot cheaper as well. he has liked everything so far that we have made. We have done sweet potatoes, green beans (which we don't do anymore because they make him so constipated!), apples and zucchini. He gets apples with some cereal in the mornings, then maybe some zucchini or sweet potatoes at lunch and then maybe some zucchini with some more ceral at dinner. He is doing great with it so far. We have also started him on a sippy cup with a tiny bit of water jsut to get him used to it. OK, I guess there is more to talk about with D. hehe. I guess I should have put all this up there. Oh well. umm not much else going on with me. Mike is doing great. He had been traveling a lot before the holidays but he's off now until Jan 4th. Lucky!! School is going great for him. He got a B and a C in his classes, which he was very happy about. He had some problems with one of the prof's. So he was just happy to be done. Him and I got to go out and have some fun while we were in Austin. We went dancing. We had a great time. Erica and my sister came and a few other people. We had a good time. I stayed up until 3am 2 different nights while we were there. man, I was worn out! I just can't do that anymore one night, much less 2!! I slept great the last night we were there though. I went to bed abuot 9 and slept in. It was nice. Mike, dad and Trey all went to the aTm game. Well, Mike just went on the roadtrip with them, but dad and trey went to the game. What a sucky game, but they had a good time atleast I think. Dylan slept in this morning. He started waking up about 5:15 which is about when he always wakes up, so i went and made his bottle and then got back in bed to wait for him to really wake up. I guess we both fell back asleep and I woke up at 6;15 and he was still sleeping! I have to throw the bottle out after an hour, so I had to wake him up to come eat so I didn't have to throw it out! hehe. sorry D. But since daddy was gone, he laid in bed on his side, ate and then we both slept for about another 45 mins. I just love the cuddle time with him. I am so content and just sooo happy.

Oh Christmas, we had a great Christmas with everyone. Our families always get us so much stuff. We are just so spoiled. We are so lucky to have such loving and wonderful families. It took us 2 cars to get home. I'm so glad we decided to do that, it would not have been pretty with one car. We took the dogs this time. We will probably try and board atleast 2 of them the next time or have someone come feed them for us. We just can't keep taking them all, it's just too much! Plus noone ever wants to watch Sam, so we have that issue too. We will figure it out though.

Well, I guess I have written enough. It's cold here and supposed to sleet and snow. We misssed all the snow on Christmas, so I hope we get to see more today or tomorrow morning. :)

Oh and we are taking one big vacation in June to Key west. Mike's family will be going at the same time. It's going to be lots of fun, I can't wait to get Dylan on the sand!! yeah!

Take care everyone. I promise i will be better about keeping this updated. I'll add some pics to it tonight if I can.

Love,
Jill