Family Photos!

A few weeks ago, I shared a little summary of our recent family photo session. Basically, it was a total disaster. Harper decided she wasn't having it and had meltdowns and tantrums until we left. #toddlerlife, for real.

Our photographer, Crystal, from Crystal Lynn Photography (I found her via Marissa at The Simple Swan!) assured us that she got some good shots despite the limited time and non-screaming/crying facial expressions.

I was plesantly surprised by the photos and I'm excited to share them with you! Though I wish there were more that captured Harper's true personality (the sweet, happy, mischevious and funny girl we know)--- they sure did capture how she felt at the time they were being taken and I think we will look back on them and have a giggle--- and they'll definitely make it into a wedding slideshow.

my dress- zara  |  sandals- tory burch  |  earrings- kate spade (love these two similar styles 1, 2)  |  bracelet- j.crew

harper's dress- baby gap  |  tutu + sanadals - zara  

kevin's shirt- j.crew factory (similar) |  jeans- express 

the ONE smiling photo, LOL!

she usually loves "playing airplane" but this face says it all!

 "mommy nooooooo"

This was cute--- she spotted some dolls in a window of a store and smiled for a few moments!

 I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Our (Easter) Saturday

We had such a fun family day today enjoying Houston's beautiful weather. First, we headed to an Easter gathering at a local park and enjoyed a little time in the sun:

After the park we headed to one of our favorite lunch/brunch spots, Empire Cafe, in the Montrose area. Kevin and I split the eggs benedict and italian toast (which is unreal amazing!) and Harper had some fruit I brought from home. You literally cannot eat in front of her and not feed her too, even if she's eaten recently. She loves food so much.

Then we headed over the to the Pavilion for Women in the med center. When we had Harper, our hospital photographer came and shot some photos in our room a couple of days after she was born. When I came back from maternity leave our marketing director told me one of our photos was going up on the building! Ours was the first time ever a father has been on the building so that was pretty cool (before it was always just women and moms with babies). There are several billboards on the building and they are all employees/babies of employees and not models. I love that!

After being up for nearly a year, they are being changed out next week so we decided to snap some photos as a memory.

We stopped into a local shop to check out travel strollers again and I think we are going to go with the Mountain Buggy Nano. I will probably order it from amazon next week. 

Then we came home, had a little nap and played. Harper's hair is really growing in as you can see below! I totally think she's going to have a baby mullet because her back hair grows so much faster. Party in the back! Lol.

(headband thanks to Willow Crowns)

Hope you had a happy Saturday!

PS- I think we can all agree that Harper's passport is the cutest in all of the land!

Our Weekend...

I love weekends. It means two straight days with Harper and my hubs. After a long workweek, I cherish that family time and enjoy the relaxation.

We started our Saturday with a 3K walk at the Texas Children's Family Fun Run. There was also a fantastic family fun zone sponsored by H-E-B that had a ton of great activities for kids including rides, bounce houses, etc. It will be really exciting when Harper can enjoy those things when she's older.

(someone was tired #skippednormalnaptime)

We started in the 27th (and last) heat of the participants with a lot of the other families with strollers (there's a special section for families with strollers so we don't interfere with people who are actually running the 1K or 3K routes).

After the walk we stayed for a bit at the family fun zone to chat with some friends and then we went home for naptime and lunch from Zoe's Kitchen (yum!)

Today we relaxed at home, cleaned up the house a little bit and meal-prepped for the week. Harper doesn't eat purees anymore so we chop everything up for her to take to daycare for the week. I love that we can feed her normal food now and not have to puree and freeze stuff. I also love that once she enters the toddler room, the food is provided and included in our tuition dues. It was really important to us that her daycare have healthy food options and the menu is wonderful and everything is chef-prepared daily. Lots of whole grains, fruits and veggies, just like we would feed her at home.

We introduced Harper to a walker toy this weekend and she is obessed. She has always been great at cruising along furniture but she hated walking holding our hands. I'm in zero rush for her to walk because it's already a workout chasing her around when she crawls, but I think the walker has made her comfortable walking forwards. Some experts believe that walkers actually delay walking because babies use them as a crutch and don't develop the balance they need as quickly, so we decided to offer it a couple of times a day for a limited time so that she's still practicing cruising and crawling to move around. 

We got this V-Tech one and she loves the front that has all of the thing she can play with too. As soon as she started to use the walker, she will walk with us holding her hands too. We also noticed (even before she started using the walker) that she would sometimes stand for a few seconds on her own. Her teachers told us the same thing so she's been getting more and more comfortable with balance. She's also gotten a lot better at falling and more often than not catches herself or plops down onto her butt.

Harps on the go!

She also loves the DK Publishing First Words flashcards- she takes them out of the box one by one and we name each object/thing and talk about the shape and color, etc.

Harper's Bow- thanks to Liv's Lane |  Harper's Romper- Baby Gap

A 5 minute weekend chalkboard (I seriously just now erased the Valentine's one�whoops!)

Naptime cuddles�I didn't even wash my face or put on makeup today. You can see the previous night's mascara smudged underneath my eye, Britney style. Lazy family Sundays are the greatest of all :)

 Hope you had a wonderful weekend!