Harperisms

A couple (mostly Harper related) things for today:

• Harper is in this phase where she wants to know the name for everything. So, she walks around pointing at things and saying "Mommy, name?" It's cute and I'm glad that she's inquisitive, but after the 1 millionth time, it's slightly less cute.
• Keeping in mind the above bullet point... if Harper wants my attention and doesn't get it right away she will call my name and then click her tongue (ie. Mom, Mommy, Mom, click, Moooooommy). I have no idea where she picked that one up. It's great. Let me tell you.
• Harper is starting to talk about monsters these days. At first, she would just hold her baby dolls and tell me they were sad because of monsters. Now, she's starting to be afraid of them. She doesn't want to be the first person to walk into a room, especially if the light is off. I've explained to her that there are no monsters in our house, but she's not buying it. So last night I told her that 1. there are no monsters and 2. if she ever feels scared, she can ask Jesus to help her. This morning, she walked around the house saying "Jesus help me!" and when we pulled out of the driveway she said "Bye monsters. Bye Jesus." Baby steps, right?
• Harper's birthday was a good 3 weeks ago. But every day since then, she has sung happy birthday to herself.
• Finally these are popping up. Thank goodness. I was beginning to lose hope.

Good People Doing A Good Thing

Some of you know my friends Ryan and Allison. Right now, they are in Kenya on a Compassion International mission trip. They are blogging about what they see and experience there. If you get a minute, check out their post from yesterday (actually check out all of their posts, but especially the one from yesterday). Click here to read it.

Our Kid Goes Up To 11

Keystone Update 3 - Ski Day

What a day! I skied Keystone today and it was absolutely perfect. It was sunny and warm and not crowded at all. Here are some pictures that I took with my cell phone. The views might have been the best part.

This is a picture of the start of the one and only black diamond run that I went on. It was the last run of the day. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it or not. I am a very in control skier. I hate feeling like I'm out of control. So, I ski well but cautiously the whole time. However, there was a little piece of me that wanted to prove that this 30 year old mother could still ski the blacks like the 21 year old single girl that I used to be. So, I went down it. It was hard. But, I made it without falling (in fact, I didn't fall all day) and feel a small sense of accomplishment. The end.

Keystone Update 2 - Ice Capades

Today, Harper went ice skating for the first time. She did great! I was really impressed with her ability to balance on the skates.

I took this right after I got her all laced up. She really liked the skates and kept showing everyone her "new shoes".

I am not an expert skater and didn't want to take any chances while trying to balance myself and Harper. So... I wore these nice little slip on ice shoes instead of skates. They worked well.

Here, Harper is taking a break on some of the snow that they cleared off of the ice.

We had a great time today (and my talk went really well tonight by the way). Tomorrow we are headed to the slopes! Wish us luck!

Keystone Update 1

We've been in Keystone for about 2 days now and we're having a lot of fun already. Harper has weathered the altitude like a champ! Yesterday, we took a walk around the condo to get the lay of the land. Right outside our door is the largest maintained outdoor ice skating rink in North America. Harper loved watching the skaters. I think we're going to have to give it a try tomorrow.

She also liked looking at (and sitting on) the various ice sculptures that are scattered around the property.

But, her favorite thing so far has been making and throwing snowballs!

We've got a lot planned for the next few days. Stay tuned for more updates!

Happy Friday

Is it just me, or has this been a really long week? For me, this week has been extra busy because I have been trying to get things ready for a trip that Harper and I are taking to Colorado. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning. I'm speaking at a cardiovascular conference for work and she's coming with me to hang out and have fun. Some of our friends are also coming along to help me keep an eye on the kiddo. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. The conference is being held at a very nice ski resort (I know, I have a tough job), so I'm hoping to get some skiing in while I'm there. I also want to get Harper out on the slopes! I'll do my best to post pictures and videos while we're away. Until then, here's a video I took last weekend. It was the nicest day we've had all year - sunny and in the 60's! And then 2 days later, it snowed...