Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe Christmas is only two days away!  We're packed and ready to leave for Wisconsin tomorrow morning.  I'm taking Harper to see Santa Claus this afternoon.  I suspect that she will not enjoy it, but we'll see.  Last weekend we had a pretty good snowstorm so it actually looks like Christmas here for a change, but it seems to be melting fast.  Harper was pretty excited when we took her out to play, and she built a snowman at Debbie's on Monday.  We opened presents at our house on Sunday since we will be gone on Christmas.  Her favorite thing was the packing paper that came in the Sephora box...imagine that.  Here are some pics from the last few weeks...happy holidays to everyone!

Picking out a tree at the tree farm

Fun in the snow!

Notice Harper's dining companion at her table...she drags Santa over and likes to "feed" him

Welcome Baby Kade!

Kade Michael Ackley entered this world on 11.15.09, weighing in at 8 lbs. 8 oz. We are so excited for my sister Chandra and her husband Kevin. He is such a cutie!! We can't wait to meet him in person-Harper and I fly out on Thanksgiving for a quick trip to Ohio. Unfortunately Pat has to work so he's staying home :( We will miss him and I am not looking forward to flying with Harper alone...she is super antsy and he does a better job of entertaining her. It will be a lot of fun though, and I am very excited to meet Kade and see the rest of my family!

Week 2 of swimming lessons was much better...far less singing, which made me happy at least. Her favorite part was when they had to lay on their backs and hold onto a barbell-floaty device. She seemed to think the things on the ends of it looked like balls, and she kept LOUDLY yelling "ball, ball, BALL!!!!" for pretty much the whole second half of the class. When we got home we discovered a chewed-up bottle of extra strength Tylenol on the couch in the dog room, sitting next to a very guilty-looking Weimaraner (he got into Pat's work backpack). I made Pat take Leroy to the emergency vet, and luckily they confirmed that there was no trace of the drug in his blood...$280 later. We are happy he is ok, but he has been getting into everything lately!

I uploaded the rest of the birthday pics to shutterfly ( http://www.sheehan1.shutterfly.com )... Nikki did a great job, I hope you enjoy them!

We started parent/child swim at the YMCA last weekend. I expected her to love it since she loved going to the beach this summer, but she was a little unsure of the whole thing at first. She was fine getting into the water, but when everyone got in a circle and started singing she just scowled and glared at them and clung to me as tight as she could. The instructor even commented that she has quite an intense stare! I can't say I blame her; group sing-alongs aren't really my thing either. By the end she warmed up and was having a great time,so we'll see how next week goes.


Ready for swimming lessons!

Harper as Tigger at daycare...Debbie took her trick-or-treating at Bass Pro Shop

Harper as Raggedy Ann on Halloween...Pat had to work, so we visited him at the fire station

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Harper! It's hard to believe it's been a year already. We had her birthday party yesterday...I didn't take many pictures, but my friend Nikki got tons of great ones, I will be sure to post when they are done (check out her website here) Pat's mom Gloria flew in from Wisconsin and she was a HUGE help with the party prep, and she also made the cakes (chocolate zucchini cakes w/ whipped cream icing, shaped as pumpkins). We carved pumpkins and opened presents and she was one exhausted little girl by the end of the day.

Cake=YUM!!

Birthday Girl! Just woke up from a nap, and still in a daze.


Kissy face at Maymont Park

More pics at shutterfly

I guess I haven't been very good about posting updates lately...things have been busy as usual here. Today was Harper's first day with her new childcare provider. Her favorite teacher, Debbie, left the center to care for kids out of her home, and we followed. We were happy with her center, but the main reason we liked it so much was Debbie, so we think this will be better for all of us. She's currently taking care of Harper, 2 3-month old twin girls, and their nine year old sister, plus her (almost) four year old daughter Zoe. Harper seems excited to have a new house to explore and new toys to play with. I was worried about the change, but we made it through today and I think tomorrow will be easier for me.

Harper is learning new things every day. She acts very proud when she does the "more" and "milk" signs and is understood. She says dog, ball, mama, dada, hi, bye-bye (ba-ba), duck...she also tries to imitate lots of other words, we should probaby start watching what we say around her! She loves to give hugs-even when she is across the room and I ask her for a hug she'll run over to me to give me a hug. She loves to lay her head on Leroy and Baxter and gives them hugs too :) She is really quite sweet, I guess she takes after her mom (HA!). Pat is busy with work and bought a bicycle a month or so ago. He participated in a 50-mile race a couple of weeks ago and finished in the top group. The patio is FINALLY useable, even though it's not done yet. He had the concrete poured last week and will start on the brick columns and railings next. I can't wait for it to be finished, it seems like it's been under construction forever! It looks great though, and he has been working really hard on it.

Here's a video we took a couple of weeks ago of our giggle monster :)

Bathtime fun!