Thankful Thursday

Have you heard?
There was a royal baby born this week.  Really, how could you not know.  I mean, it was only reported by every news channel on the planet,  every magazine, and an old town cryer..... for crying out loud.

Yes, this newest little royal dude had a few people waiting outside wanting to get a look at him, and hoping to get a pic or two.....

Throughout the whole "Great Kate Wait" and waiting to hear if the baby was a prince or princess, and then waiting another day or two for a name, I could not help but think of the baby born on February 21st of 2011. 

I wonder what that day was like.  


I wonder if there was a lot of excitement in waiting for that baby to come?
I wonder when that baby made its way into the world at 6:08 that February morning, was anyone celebrating?
Was there a town cryer there to spread the good news that a new baby was here.....

Or were they just crying?

Crying because, the baby that was born on February 21st,  didn't look the way a baby should.  Or were they crying because she was a girl.....

Or both.


 It makes me sad.  It makes me sad because royal or not, every life is precious and should be celebrated.  I don't know for sure what the morning of February 21st was like for her, but can only imagine there was probably little celebration for this new life.

What I do know is that her birth mom, birth father, or whoever took care of her for the first two days of her life, cared enough.

They cared enough not to put her high up on a hill or in a remote location where no one would find her, and where she would have surely died.  
They cared enough to place her on the street close to the police station where someone would find her.  They cared enough to leave her with a note with just enough information about her, but not too much to get themselves into trouble.

I choose to think because of all of this, they really did love her.

They just couldn't keep her.

She wasn't perfect.


Her "imperfection" is the thing that I am the thankful for today.  Without that, we wouldn't be able to call her 'ours'.

To us, she is perfect..... and is definitely a princess around here ;)

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

A lot of "Firsts" for Harper

I've been absent from the blog for a while... again.  We've been a bit busy.

We took Harper to her first not-quite-major-league baseball game at the end of June.  We have partial season tickets to the Roughriders, the AA league for the Texas Rangers.  As much as we like the Rangers, (and we do..... just not when they are playing the Cardinals in a World Series... or on tv at the same time as the Cardinals ) the  Roughriders are in the town next to ours, so it definitely beats the drive out to see the Rangers in Arlington.

It looks like she was accompanied to the game
with her very own secret service :)

Harper did really well at the game.  Of course, it if involves food, she always does well :)  

We sit right behind the Roughriders dugout, and Harper thought that the top of the dugout would be a great changing table for her Minnie Mouse.  I, thinking it was so cute, asked her if Minnie needed a new "bopper".  That's Henry language for "diaper" (Brannen called it that when he was her age.... it just somehow stuck).  Harper shook her head as an answer to my question and said in her not so quiet voice "POO POO!".  

Of course.  

Hoping she didn't disrupt anyone else's viewing pleasure, I quickly showed her the nachos, and shoved the diaperless Minnie back into my bag.  Diversion is key with this kid.

Road Trip!

All of Scott's family lives outside St. Louis, actually in Illinois, and only his mom and dad have been able to meet Harper. 

So, over 4th of July, we took our first ever road trip with Harper to see his family.  

All 10 glorious hours of it.  

Actually, she didn't do so bad considering this was probably her first road trip.   We did go see my family an hour and a half from our house, but compared to a 10 hour trip, that doesn't count.  

She DID NOT like Brannen using her pillow, or "pow" as she
calls it.  She didn't let up until he woke up and gave it to her.

Anyway, since we left after Scott got off work, we drove roughly half way and spent the night in a hotel.  Our first night all 5 of us shared a hotel since leaving China.   Harper was wide awake by the time we got there and was talking and laughing LOUDLY.  We kept tell her "shhh", and she did it right back to us.  :)

We were up and out the door early to get breakfast and get back on the road. 

 Luckily for us, the hotel had a "kids eat free" breakfast.  Little did the hotel know, they had a professional eater staying with them.  Harper ate just about everything we piled on to her plate!  Wondering if they are changing their policy after she left.  haha!

We wasted no time in showing Harper off.  My family lived in St. Louis for about 20 years, so in addition to Scott's family, I had some friends I wanted Harper to meet.  Although, we were only in town for 4 days, so I couldn't make it around to see everyone.  

My sorority sister adopted her daughter, Presley, from China when she was a little younger than Harper.  Presley is so beautiful and SO funny.  I was glad for Harper to meet her finally.  

Harper was quite reserved at first....

 But then came out of her shell a little :)

We said our goodbyes to Presley, and her mom Leslie, and then headed over to see a high school friend. 

 Harper loved Dawn's house because her next door neighbor had a ton of kid toys.   So Dawn set Harper on one of the riding toys, and sent her on her way down the sloped driveway.....

.... and she narrowly missed the parked car in front of her.  HAHA!  

 For the 4th of July, Scott's parents had family and friends over to meet Harper.  It was so fun seeing everyone, and Harper really seemed to enjoy it.  The 4th is also Brannen's birthday (12 this year!) so we made sure to celebrate.  This was the first time he's celebrated his birthday in Illinois.  

Harper got to meet a few new friends her age.   We tried to get a few pics with the Juelf twins, but it wasn't happening.  Hard to keep toddlers to sit still!

Scott's Aunt Shirley gave Harper some bubbles, her FAVORITE, and she wanted everyone to blow them with her.  

Ashlee was a good sport :)

She made her rounds to Katie and Aunt Jane for them to help her blow bubbles....

We had a good time visiting with everyone and catching up.  The weather was awesome!  It was unusually cooler and not so humid as it normally is in July, so we sat on the patio and the kids ran around playing with each other.  I wish our kids lived closer to their Illinois cousins, but since we don't, I'm grateful for times like this when they can all get together.  

Their cousin Grant.  What a cutie!

Meeting cousin Collin

Griff got a little baseball in

That night after everyone had left, we met up with friends to watch fireworks.  I was so excited to get to  take Harper to her first firework show.  However, she obviously had too good of time meeting everyone earlier in the day, because by the time it was time to leave for the fireworks, she was wiped out!  So, our newest American will have to wait until next year to see what the 4th is all about.  

The next day, Scott and I were going to take the kids and our nephew Colton to the St. Louis zoo, but apparently everyone else in St. Louis had the same idea because it. was. packed!!  We didn't even get out of the car (mainly because we couldn't find a parking space) so

 just decided to roam around St. Louis instead.  

We started off with lunch on The Hill and had some aweome pizza at Joey B's

A trip to St. Louis is never complete if you don't make it to Ted Drewes for some ice cream, so we stopped by there after lunch.  This was Harper's first time there!  And, of course, she loved it.  

We then stopped by one of my favorite places on earth, Busch Stadium.  That's right, home of the Cardinals.  When they built the new Busch Stadium, you could buy a brick to have placed on the walkway.  So, my brother and I bought one in memory of our dad.  Every time I'm there, I always go by to see it, and this time, I sat Harper down to get a pic by it.  She had just fallen asleep in the car so was not thrilled when I woke her up for another picture.  

I'm sure deep down she was thrilled to be there :)

On the way back to Scott's parents house, we stopped by to see a friend of mine, Chuck, who also wanted to meet Harper......

I made him take a picture with Brannen and Brannen's Longhorn shirt.  Chuck just LOVES the Longhorns.  Not really......  he's an OU fan, but I like to tease him about it :)

We made it back to Scott's parents house just in time for dinner...... and Harper got a little bonding time with Grandpa..... :)

Scott's brother and his wife live on a farm and we love to go out and hang out there for a while when we are in town.  They've got horses, cattle....and a goat!  The boys especially love it because they ride 4 wheelers out there and shoot guns.  

We were all excited to show Harper around the farm.  I wasn't sure what she would think about the horses, but in typical Harper style, she wasn't afraid and she LOVED them.  

Our sister.n.law, Tina, took Harper right up to the horses, and Maggie, the mule, wanted to get a closer sniff of Harper.  Harper squealed with excitement and thought that was pretty funny.  It has been so much fun introducing her to new things and watching her reaction.  

The boys didn't waste any time in getting Scott and his brother Mike to take them to the field to shoot.

They even let me shoot a few rounds..... watch out!!  haha!!

This picture cracks. me. up!  Scott and Mike are so different in many ways, but are also alike in so many other ways..... like the way they stand!

Our nephew, Colton

While the boys were shooting stuff up, Harper stayed at the house

 and picked weeds flowers for Grandpa.

Then, Tina started to get the horses out and ready to ride.  Harper was more than happy to help!  She tried to drag everything out of the bucket for the horses.  

Harper brushing Buddy with Aunt Tina

Once the horses were brushed and saddled, we tried to put Harper

on Buddy, an old sweet horse.  Harper freaked a little and didn't want

to get on, but then Brannen got on with her and she was good to go!

I love her expression! 

We call Tina the 'horse whisperer' of the family.  :) 

We basically had to pry Harper off of Buddy because she wanted to keep riding.  Tina had Buddy stop, and I was about to grab Harper, but then she leaned the other way as if she were trying to get away from me.   She then started to bounce in the saddle as if she was saying "Let's go Buddy! Giddy Up! "  It was pretty hilarious.   We finally peeled her off Buddy, but then she saw Bo, the goat.... and wanted to ride him!  Scott put her on Bo long enough for a picture :)

We all came in and were getting dinner ready.  Colton played his 

guitar a bit for Harper while they waited....

Soon, it was time for us to leave, and start packing for our trip home.   We all hated to leave the farm because its just a fun place to relax.  The boys are already asking when we're going back!

We finally got everything packed up and shoved back into the car for the trip home.  On the way, we stopped in to see my great Aunt who just moved back to Oklahoma.  This was her first time to see Harper as well. 

It was a fast and furious trip that seemed to go by in such a blur.  Glad I got pictures of it all!  I'm so glad we were able to take the trip and have Harper meet everyone.  Not sure when we will be in St. Louis next, or even what our next road trip will be, but we at least now know Harper is a good road tripper :)