Ride'em Cowgirl!

Here are some pics of Harper enjoying her new rocking horse, a gift from Great-Gram and -Gramp for her first birthday.




In the following pictures note how the old school springs have been replaced by Soloflex style rubber straps. This is so little kids don't get pinched in the spring coils. While Harper is at daycare I bust these out and do curls. Pretty soon I'm gonna be ripped!

Rehab is for Quitters II

Things may be going from bad to worse with Harper. A bottle of wine here and there is one thing. Every woman loves wine. But when she starts emptying forties, that's when I get concerned.

Here are two pictures from the grocery store I caught on my cell phone:



Look at the excitement on her face. She grabbed that Mickey's like it was Christmas Day and the card said "Harper".



Now this is just sad. Not even strong enough to twist off the cap, she's trying to gnaw it off. The one upside was that after she got it open, she remembered to pour some out for her homies. That's my girl!

Birthday Bash

We recently celebrated Harper's first birthday with a big party and it was a smashing success. I have to admit that prior to the big day, I was very nervous and a bit skeptical that we'd be able to pull together everything McCall had planned. There were a lot of elements and it felt like the final task on the Apprentice!

The first major job we undertook was converting the dead wasteland that existed between our building and our neighbor's into a fun family side yard. Here are before and after images:

Before


After


In addition, we had three kiddie sized pools out front, sidewalk chalk, a baby swing, several play areas and a mini petting zoo. The petting zoo featured four ducklings, two bunnies, a baby pig, and a goat.

Here are some pictures of our front yard in the midst of all the birthday commotion:

Kiddie Pool

This bully wouldn't let anybody else near the pool.

Petting Zoo

It's hard to tell, but there really are animals in there.

General Frivolity

You could've cut the fun with a knife!

One of the highlights of the day was our good friend Eric Bryant performing Harper's baby dedication. A baby dedication is basically our public declaration as parents that we will do our best to raise Harper with the understanding that she belongs to God, not to us. We will attempt to love her in the same unconditional way that God loves us.

Big thanks to Eric!

It really seemed like everybody had a great time and we were so thankful for all our friends and family who joined us. Thanks for making Harper's first the best birthday she's ever had.