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! ;)

Boys and their toys

(Friday, 6/24/11) This year for Corey's birthday I set up a time for him to go drive a sports car.  He's always told me that he doesn't ever want to buy a sports car but he'd love to drive one.  (I'll remind him of this when he's 50, lol!)  So, on the Friday before his birthday, he took the day off to hang out with us and we surprised him with a Lamborghini driving experience.  We got to look at all kinds of cool cars and collections before he sped away. 

Classics just the right size for Harlan.  Notice H and C's shoes... they're matching Sperry's:)

Dream on boys!

They had the cutest little boat that we got to put Harlan in for a few minutes.  He looked so cute just chillin' in the boat wearing his Sperry's. Ha!

Daddy and Harlan checking out the ride.  I think Harlan wants to drive

New Buddies

Harlan and his cousin Carson met for the first time today. Carson is 7 weeks older than Harlan. It was so cute to watch them recognize and get to know each other. Carson being older was definitely more interested in Harlan, he kept reaching out to him and wanting to "play" with him.   I have a feeling these two boys are going to be best buds!

Best Buds

Hug me Harlan!

High five!

Two peas in a pod

Water Baby

We took Harlan to the swimming pool for the first time today.  We decided to go right when it opened at 10am before it got too hot, and we were the first ones there.  We lathered him up in spf and put on his swim suit, hat and sunglasses and made the short hike down to the pool.  After a mini photo shoot we finally put him in the water.  We wanted to make sure and get all the pictures we could before putting him in because the water was SO cold it made mommy and daddy shriek.  But our tough little guy didn't even flinch when we dipped him in... he absolutely LOVED it!  It was so fun splashing around with him and he even made a friends with a couple of big boys (2 year olds).  We can't wait to have more water adventures this summer!  Florida here we come!!!


I can't wait to go swimming!!!



Just catching some rays

C'mon Mom, put me in the water already!

Testing out the waters



Splish, Splash, so much fun!




Whew, all that swimming wore me out!