At the Playground... Ya know :-)

 (9/23/11)  Late September and it was finally cool enough to take Harlan to the playground for his first time.  So at 7 1/2 months old Harlan was ready to swing and slide and play!  He loved the swings and seemed to enjoy going down the slides with Daddy.  We are so fortunate that there are several parks within walking distance from our house and they all have baby swings.  We will be frequenting the playground this Fall!  (p.s. please excuse my Kris Kross throwback (title) I couldn't help myself!)

Just Hangin' out

Daddy making me go faster, I love it!

First slide... a little nervous...

Woo hoo! That was great!

After Betsey saw Harlan and Daddy going down the slide she decided she wanted to give it a try... lol!

Moving on to the big boy slide

Harlan's 6 month photo shoot

(8/13/11) I'm finally posting Harlan's 6 month pictures!  I have been a negligent blogger the past few months, but I plan on updating and catching up asap!   I must say I think these pictures are worth the wait ;)  Our very talented friend Venus was so sweet to take the pictures of Harlan for his 6 month birthday.  We did the photo shoot at the Grapevine train station, where there are lot's of cute buildings and photo ops.  Harlan did really good, smiling the entire time... it was actually difficult to get a serious look picture!  Thanks again Venus!!! Enjoy!

 

This is my favorite picture... don't you just want to kiss those cheeks!?!

Sweet tiny toes and fingers, such a neat idea for a picture

Workin' on the railroad

I call this his 'model' pose, lol!

Again... there's those lovable, squeezable cheeks

Love his blue eyes!

There's that serious face... still so cute (in his mama's opinion).

1/2 Year old

(8/10/11) Warning: Long Post!
We can't believe our little baby boy is 6 months old!  I remember being 6 months pregnant thinking he would never get here and now Harlan is halfway to being a 1 year old.  In 6 short months Harlan has completely changed our lives, our hearts, and our perspective... all for the better!
In 6 short months Harlan has accomplished so many things for such a little guy.  He has mastered rolling over from front to back and back to front.  In fact, he is not crawling yet, but he can roll across the living room floor to get where he wants to go or to grab his favorite toy.  He is almost sitting, he can sit on his own for about 30 seconds before toppling over, but we're sure it will be any day now.  Harlan started eating solid foods this month, and just like his parents, he LOVES his food.  He has become quite the chunky monkey. He babbles all the time and he and daddy like to get into screaming wars to see who can squeal louder.  We're pretty sure he says "hi" but he says it to everything so it may just be the sound he likes best.  He is still a great sleeper, sleeping an average of 11 hours at night and naps about 3 hours a day (usually broken down to 3 naps/day).  He is not on a rigid daytime schedule (no matter how hard Mommy tries) but he is pretty predictable and a very good baby! I thank God every day!

We started music class a few weeks ago and Harlan has so much fun singing and dancing and socializing with the other babies.  Rather than looking at mommy while we sing, he always wants to look around at the other kids and see what's going on.  He is a very curious baby.  It's even hard to get him to eat sometimes because he would rather know what's going on around him. He is such a social butterfly these days, giving smiles to anyone that wants to ooh and ahh over him. One exception is big bearded men, like Papa Carl, Uncle Billy and Grandpappy Michael (Sorry guys, I know he loves you deep down).  He will watch them from afar but as soon as they get close, Harlan cries out with the look of fear on his face.  I'm really hoping he gets over this pretty quick or I can already imagine what our Santa Clause pictures are going to look like! ;)

Some of Harlan's favorite things are:
* Jumping in his jumperoo
* Peek-a-boo stuffed owl
* Being with his dog, Betsey
* Splashing in the bath and his rubber ducky of course
* The Wheels on the Bus song
* Snuggling with mommy (ok that's mommy's favorite thing,   and I'm trying to soak up every minute of it while I can)
* Roughhousing with Daddy (aka being thrown in the air)
* Blowing raspberries
* Chewing on anything he can get into his mouth
* He has recently lost his interest in the TV, at 3 months we couldn't get his eyes away from it unless we turned it off and now he barely acknowledges it... I guess it was a phase, I hope!

These first six months have been such a blessing.  We can't wait to see what the future has in store!
(Professional 6 months pics coming soon)

Summer Lovin', Had me a Blast...

(Harlan) I met a girl, crazy for me...(Khloe) Met a boy, cute as can be!

(Summer 2011)
This summer Harlan's sweet cousin Khloe spent a lot of time with us.  We like to call her a "little mama."  She LOVES babies and will play with them any chance she gets.  Actually, she loves them so much she not only plays with them but she will do everything being a mama entails, including washing bottles and changing diapers!  This girl seriously has a gift, she is amazing with babies. (Did I mention she's 9!!!)  So, 'big mama' jumped at the opportunity of having 'little mama' come stay with us any chance she could.  Harlan absolutely loves his Khloe and would get the biggest smile on his face as soon as she came near him.  She was such a BIG help for me and Harlan.  Having her around made it easier to go run errands, get things done around the house and to just sit and relax for a few minutes.  We are SO sad summer is over, we will miss having our Khloe around... but like Khloe said... there's always the weekend!

Say No to Mullets!

(7/31/11) At 5 1/2 months old Harlan was in need of a haircut!!! With his genetics, this poor baby was bound to be a hairy little guy. His hair in the back had gotten SO long, Mommy couldn't stand it any longer and we had to cut it off. I don't know if this counts as his official 1st haircut, since it was done at home and we mostly just trimmed the back and sides, but either way we got rid of the mullet. Thank goodness!

Before:

After:

Video made by Nana: 

Summer Vacation

(7/16/11-7/23/11) We took our first family vacation this summer to Destin, Florida.  When I say family I mean FAMILY!  Both sets of Grandparents and all of Harlan's aunts, uncles and cousins were there, 22 people in total.  When we first decided to take this trip, everyone was going to fly to Destin and we were going to rent a car when we got there.  Well, when we really started thinking about how much STUFF we needed, Corey and Uncle Billy decided to take one for the team and drive.  I think we might have been the first family to ever rent a Uhaul for a one week vacation! ;) We all stayed in one big amazing house right on the beach.  We pretty much relaxed all week and would walk out to the beach as we felt like it.  Some of the group went deep sea fishing and snorkeling.  Other than that it was hanging out at the beach all day and just enjoying the view.  It was so fun to take Harlan into the ocean for the first time and let him play in the sand.  He is definitely a water baby, he would instantly relax when we took him out into the water.  He loved it when we would hold him up in the air and splash him back down into the water.  Needless to say, Harlan got all kinds of attention all week long, and mommy and daddy had a plenty of babysitters.  We all had such a great time and feel so lucky to have such a wonderful and fun FAMILY!!!

Here are just a few pics of the thousands we took... mostly of Harlan of course. (professional beach pictures coming soon)

Uhaul is loaded and ready

Harlan's first day at the beach
The house in the middle is the one we stayed in

Amazing view

  Beach time pics...

Harlan is definitely loved...

With cousin Reid

My Aunt Jenafer Digs me

Chill time with Uncle Daniel and cousin Vann

Aunt Angie and our coordinating stripes

Nana cracks me up!

Aunt Dana and cousin Gus

Super Fun Vacation...

Raspberries!!!

(7/7/11) So, spitting on purpose is normally pretty gross, but for some reason when a 5 month old does it it's really quite entertaining. Harlan's latest trick is doing raspberries!  He started off by mocking us when we would stick out our tongue, then he would crack up if we made raspberry sounds with our tongue and lips.  In this video you can see he is trying SO hard to get the sounds out.  He can't quite figure out the breathing and blowing thing at the same time, but when he does he is definitely proud of himself.   We not so quickly learned that maybe we shouldn't have carried on and on so much when he spit at us because he has now mastered the trick and we get covered in his sweet, juicy, saliva! ;)