At Home With Harper

Levi and Mallory absolutely ADORE their new baby sister! It's so awesome to see your kids loving on each other. They are constantly kissing on her, touching her, wanting to hold her, and trying to calm her down when she's fussing. Most of the pictures I have are of Levi and Mallory holding Harper. They ask all the time to hold her and then they ask me to take their picture. They also love to read to her. It's pretty cute.

Levi and Mallory have been playing really well together lately and fighting less frequently. In fact they are getting along so well that I have trouble settling them down sometimes, especially at dinner and bed time. Once they get each other laughing, the giggling just won't stop!!

Harper has been doing so well and she fits in perfectly into our family. She's a very easy going baby and eats and sleeps like an angel. Typically, I only get up once at night to feed her and she goes right back to sleep...but of course, since I've just typed this she will probably be up all night tonight! She had her two week well visit today and everything went well. She is back up to her birth weight, which means she gained 11 ounces in a week. Needless to say, nursing is going really well. :)

I am so glad that Harper is finally here and that I am not pregnant anymore!! I definitely think it's easier having three kids, one of which is a newborn is much easier than two kids and being pregnant!! :)

Happy Birthday!

She's here!!!

Welcome to the world, little one!

HARPER LOUISE

Born on October 4th, at 3:23pm

8lbs 13oz and 20.5"


Me, waiting for things to move along and very thankful for epidurals! :)

Just minutes old.

Yes, that's right, 8lbs 12.9oz!! My biggest baby yet!

Proud daddy!!

Grom and Harper
Grandpa and Harper


Mee-Maw and Harper
Uncle Brian, Aunt Nicole, and Harper


Levi meeting his sister for the first time.
Mallory finally meeting the baby we've been talking about!

They LOVE their baby sister!!!!
Our first picture as a family of FIVE!!

Around the House

This summer has been a fun and crazy one!! It seems like we were always on the go, but I can't recall all that we were doing! I'm very thankful for pictures, even though I don't take nearly as many as I should. I don't typically take my camera with me when I leave the house, so I've been missing out on all the fun stuff like the fair, the zoo, the park, etc. I do have a lot of "around the house" pics though, and I think they are pretty cute. So, here's what I've got for today. Most of them are a few months old! If it seems like I take more pictures of Mallory, it's true for a couple of reasons. One, she likes her picture taken and Levi, not so much. And two, I feel like I was slacking for a little while and I have soooo many pictures of Levi that were taken before Mallory was born, so I've been trying to even things out a little bit! :)

Levi's first day preschool in the Four's class. He was so excited!!

My kids LOVE bath time!!

Mallory playing with her new kitchen she got for her birthday.

We went to Virginia to visit my brother and his family. During the trip we attended a special ceremony for my brother's Army promotion. On the way there, Mallory and Levi were coloring. Never trust quiet children. I look back and Mallory had eaten 1/3 of a crayon. :/ At least it matched her outfit and it wasn't brown!!

He is so proud of his puzzles that he did ALL by himself! :)

This would make a really cute Halloween costume!!! :) But she was a little black kitty two years ago and these are just pajama's!! But she loves dressing up nonetheless!

Silly girl!

So, I've definitely had my work cut out for me going through girl clothes. These are all clothes that came from 3 different baby girls AND this isn't everything. I left almost twice this much with my cousin!!! What you see on my bed are only clothes from size newborn to 9 months! CRAZY!!!! I had to go back through and get rid of some more because I knew they would not all get used and I don't have enough room to store them all!

I put all the shoes, socks, hairbows, and hats on my dresser. There are over 25 pairs of baby shoes seen here...all under size 2!! Needless to say, I do NOT need any baby girl clothes! :)

Better Late Than Never

Mallory turned TWO!!!! On August 11th, Mallory turned 2 and we had a fun party! She was so cute and I think she loves having the attention on her. She will often pretend to be shy, but I think it's just her way of getting attention.

If I had more time and energy, I would have planned more for her party, but we just had a very small guest list of family and a few friends and cake and ice cream. She chose a My Little Pony theme, which was really cute. She talked for weeks about her "pony party" and she loves anything with ponies!

Since she's turned 2 she has been talking up a storm!! She is now talking in sentences and you can understand her most of the time. Before her birthday, she would just use one word and didn't really do a whole lot of talking. And it seemed like just overnight, she exploded verbally! She's too cute, and I love to hear here little toddler voice. :)

She was an angel at her 2 year well visit with Dr. Bowman. Thankfully she didn't have to have any shots. She hit a HUGE growth spurt towards the end of the summer. Not gaining much weight, she really shot up in height! She's finally fitting in age appropriate clothing. Other than newborn clothing, I don't think she's ever worn clothing sizes that fit her age! She's wearing 24 months and 2T clothing and it's making it easier to shop for her!

Levi is an amazing big brother. I am so thankful for him and I am amazed at God's blessings through this little boy. He watches out for her, teaches her things, and shares with her. Don't get me wrong, the two have their battles, but for the most part they get along very well. He still loves playing with his cars and reading books. He's become much more active and he loves to wrestle around with daddy.

Levi started his preschool year at the beginning of August and we all love it. He does so well there and I've seen such an improvement in his behavior at home. He always has something fun to talk about and I love all the things he is learning. He knows the Pledge of Allegiance and how many stars and stripes are on the flag. He's so smart and retains information really well. He's learning how to use scissors and write letters. So many things that I'm not good at teaching! I'm really proud of all he's doing.

As for the little baby growing in my belly, she is getting big and running out of room. With only two weeks left, we are all getting excited and impatient! Levi is so excited to meet his baby sister and talks about her all the time. Mallory loves to lift up my shirt and gently smack my belly, kiss it, and then point to my belly button and say "there's her foot". I must have said that to her once, because now she says it all the time. We've chosen a name for her and it's a definite. It has to be because I've already ordered her a bracelet with her name on it! I guess the only way we wouldn't use it is if she came out and was a HE!!! LOL Her name is Harper Louise and I LOVE HER NAME!! I'm getting so excited!! Both names are really special to us and are family names. Harper is my grandma's maiden name. My grandma was very, very special to me and had a major impact on my life. Louise is Scott's Grandma' Rauch's middle name and she is very special to us as well. She and Scott have a special relationship and I love the woman like my very own grandma!!!!!!!

I still have a TON of things to do to get ready for baby girl to be here. I haven't been nesting much, but maybe it will kick in soon! I'm hoping to blog more often, but it may have to wait until after baby gets here. I just don't have much energy or motivation these days! ;-)

Here are some pics of Mallory's birthday party.

Fourth of July Fun!

The Fourth of July was really fun this year! Scott wanted to get fireworks and shoot them off at his mom's house. He was really excited about it and was dying to see Levi and Mallory's reaction. We went to Mee-Maw's had a fabulous dinner and the kids played in the sprinkler and kiddie pool. And we ended the night with a "bang"!

Nowadays, when Izzy and Mallory are together, they are pretty much inseparable. They play very well together and they had a great time that day. They played in the sprinkler and kiddie pool even though the water was freezing cold!! They are so fun to watch! Levi was playing in the water too, but it didn't last long. He was having fun with daddy on the playground.













Levi LOVED the fireworks, Mallory, not so much. She actually loved them at first, but after the third round of black cats she got scared. I ended up putting her to bed early because she was scared and super tired. Levi, however, really enjoyed all the fireworks and did a very good job staying back. It was a great day all around!