Green Cousins

No, Harper's cousins are not aliens... at least... not that I know of. Well, Logan does have an alien t-shirt, but I don't think that counts. Jeff and I went up to his mom's house yesterday, and Emily met us up there with Logan and Emma. Harper and Emma somehow ended up with matching green and khaki outfits (we did not plan it). We took some adorable pictures of them sitting together. It is fun to watch the two of them play together. They take toys from each other back and forth like some sort of two-person juggle. They were doing this with Jeff and Emily's phones - which I suppose Harper and Emma would consider toys. I thought the below two pictures were great together since they swapped expressions in each picture. The third picture is for comparison from December. They've grown so much! The only missing part of the photos is their other cousin Cooper in the middle.

Oh - and yes, we are hoping to pass on our good music sense by playing quality music for Harper and dressing him in his Beatles shirt!

Fun Days

My brother Greg gave me a huge surprise when he visited last weekend... he brought our mom with him as a Mother's Day gift to both her and me. How sweet is that?! We had a wonderful time. Harper really enjoyed time with his "Ga" and "Ga" (what my mom said was "Grandma" as well as "Greg"). Below are some fun pix from dinner while they were here. He was squealing with delight while eating bits of peeled grapes, plain baked potato, and melons.


The following picture is one of our new favorites. The hat is a bit big, and you can't really see his great "Geek in Training" shirt, but who can resist this precious face?! Harper is such a happy, goofy, loving little boy. I wouldn't change a single thing about him, or the love that overflows in our happy little family.

EA Sports Active > Wii Fit

I have a shiny new toy! For those that have a Wii and are interested in fitness or losing weight, I highly recommend EA Sports Active. Sure, it's a little pricey at $60, but cheaper than a gym membership in the long run. Jeff and I picked it up this morning (it released today), as I've been dying for this to come out for for a month or so. I've taken it for a spin, and have already decided (from my first impression), that it is a better workout tool than the Wii Fit.

Let me give a little background here. When the Wii Fit was announced then available for pre-order, I wasted no time securing one. I pre-ordered it through Amazon, which was good because it was in such high demand, that they ran out of pre-orders, and continued to be out of stock for quite some time. It's release was almost as highly anticipated as the Wii console itself. I was thrilled when I got it, but I'll have to admit that I didn't drop any pounds by playing it. Also, it didn't really hold my interest as I had hoped - though I still love the yoga!

EA Sports Active helps you set realistic goals, lets you select your workout intensity, and mimics a gym and trainer experience overall. Really, it is continuous circuit training at its best. In my opinion, the problem with the Wii Fit is that it doesn't put you through an actual workout - it just has you select random activities at your leisure.

Alison Sweeney from The Biggest Loser describes it as a "trainer-in-a-box", and I definitely agree. The trainers are much more effective than those in Wii Fit. It employs new peripherals with a leg strap to sense leg movements as well as a resistance band. Though the leg strap is great (it detects leg movements), the resistance band is less than impressive. I'm sure when mine inevitably breaks, I'll just go get a "real" one.

So, I am beginning a fat-busting journey to get rid of these post-pregnancy (yikes, 9 months later) pounds... and some pre-pregnancy pounds too. I'm excited for my shiny new toy... I highly recommend it!

It finally happened!

I first walked through the doors of Airtouch Cellular, now Verizon Wireless, ten years ago. I was young, cute, naive, bold, and oh so peppy. I'm sure those of you that knew me then would agree. I hadn't planned to make a career out of working there, but that is essentially what happened. I also didn't expect that I'd ever want to be a stay-at-home mom. As I have written about before - they say everything changes when you have a baby. I just didn't expect my heart to change so much, too.

Well, it finally happened... my last day at work was Friday! Jeff and I decided that I should become a stay-at-home mom, and am so excited. Walking through those doors for the last time on Friday gave me such a thrill; the entire experience has been quite surreal. I think back to who and how I was ten years ago, and so much has changed. I feel like I grew up at that job. I look forward to focusing on Harper, Jeff, and myself. I look forward to exploring the things that I never had time for, and to get back into the things that I used to enjoy like painting, writing, and taking better care of myself. Becoming a stay-at-home mom is one heck of a mother's day gift!

On the topic of Mother's day, I had a great one. Jeff and I had an amazing day together. The three of us went for a walk at the nearby park, made some home made iced tea when we got home (YUM), and just puttzed around. We were neither lazy nor productive - we were leisurely. Now if only we can figure out how to achieve a situation where neither of us has to go to an office to work, things would be perfect.

And for the record - my first couple of days at home have been wonderful!

Daycare News Story

Below is a link with a video update to the story about Harper's former daycare provider. It's a bit surreal to see this happening to a place that we spent so much time, and to people that we entrusted with our son's care.

http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=91962@ktvx.dayport.com&articleID=91962