Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Wicked with Harper

Last weekend, Harper and I went to Vegas to see Wicked with my mom. I hadn't seen it since 2008 and was really excited to go again. I was even more excited to see Harper watch it. It is no surprise that she loved it. She loved it with a great, big capital L. She is obsessed with Elphaba now and has been asking me all kinds of questions about her (for example, why is she the only green person? where did her powers come from? can Harper have a real grimmerie of her own? why is Fiyero so handsome? can Harper be Elphaba for Halloween next year?)

With The Wizard of Oz at Tuacahn, Harper being Dorothy for Halloween, and Wicked in Vegas, we have truly had a year of Oz around here. It's been great. I love everything Oz and am happy to see that Harper is into it, too (I just love it when we can bond over our nerdy interests). I am topping it off with an Ozish ornament for Harper's ornament this year. It came earlier this week and is just as perfect as I'd hoped it would be. I can't wait to hang it on our tree (AFTER Thanksgiving) and show it to you.

Until then, here are a few instagrams from our afternoon at Wicked. You'll notice that Harper insisted on changing into her Elphaba/Glinda shirt seconds after we purchased it. She didn't even want to wait long enough to walk to the bathroom. She changed behind a counter. I never thought I'd know anyone that got more excited about new clothes than I do. I was wrong.
Me: Say cheese.
Her: ELPHABA!!!

I realize that I am yet to blog about any of our other Oz events. I'll get there. Hopefully sooner than later (most likely later since last weekend inspired me to revisit the Wicked series, which is a pretty hefty undertaking since I'm in school right now). Until then, here is a little glimpse of our Halloween this year...

We also did a little bit of furniture shopping with my mom while we were in Vegas. Harper tried her hand at being a Bassett designer. She loved Bassett and had just as much fun in there as my mom and I do. She's a smart girl and knows that all of those fabric options are serious business.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Family Photos

We had some family photos taken last week. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that they are our first ever family photos. The only other ones we have are snapshots from our wedding and other events. I've wanted to do them almost every year but have put them off because planning outfits never sounded like a very fun thing to do (it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be). We missed our chance at good weather for outside photos so we went to a local studio. I love the photos of Harper and am pretty happy with our family ones. I only wish Hazel and Tucker were in them. I'm hoping we can get a family photo with them sometime next year. Hazel has been having some pretty intense eye issues and just wasn't ready for pictures this time around.

Anyway, we went to Fotofly in Draper and had a really great experience. I loved that we didn't have to go back for a disc. They gave us a code to access our photos, which were ready less than two hours after our appointment, online. Also, the photographer that we had was a sweetheart. She really understood Harper. She was so cute with her and got some truly genuine Harper faces and smiles. I was really grateful to her for that. Real smiles are always better than forced ones, especially with kids.


This photo is my favorite. It's just Harper all the way. The grin. The eyes. The FRECKLES. I can't wait to have this on my wall.

I had secretly hoped to have photos before Colt's hunting season beard got to be too long. Obviously that didn't happen. Colt is pretty proud of his beard and even styled it with wax before our appointment. I'm learning to love it and couldn't help but laughing my face off when this "Let it Grow" video popped up on my Facebook feed (seriously, watch it, especially if you have a beard growing/Movember enthusiast around).




As we were looking through the photos, I realized that this might be the last time we have official pics of Harper with all of her baby teeth. That thought really pulled on my heartstrings. I can't believe that I could be playing tooth fairy sometime this year. I'm. Not. Ready.


I don't know if I have yet mentioned Harper's cheetah obsession. She fell in love with leopard/cheetah print over the summer and has acquired quite the collection of cheetah goods since then (she even has a cheetah beanbag and chose to replace her princess backpack with a cheetah one). She thinks anything cheetah is SO cool and can't wait until she is old enough to get the cheetah bra that we saw at Target last week (heaven help me).



Thursday, November 13, 2014

In the Leaves

I recently upgraded to a new iMac. All of the birthday and Halloween photos that I want to post are on my old iMac. I'm working on sorting and organizing everything between the two computers. I'm hoping that the cold weather, which arrived just this week, will give me an excuse to slow down a bit so that I can have more than five minutes here and there at my computer.

The truth is that I am desperate for some down time. I've never been one to envy people, but lately have found myself feeling jealous of those that have more free time than I do. I'm working on simplifying my schedule and saying no to things that don't feel necessary. Something has got to give because I am stretched very thin right now and am barely hanging on, mentally and physically. I am ready for the cold weather and dark evenings to bring on a bit of a hibernation so that I can read, snuggle, and relax a little more.

Meanwhile, here are some photos of Harper playing in the leaves. We have a tree in our backyard that is as old as our house (over half a century). It is beautiful and provides much needed shade in the summer months. It also provides leaves each fall. Lots of leaves. Harper couldn't wait to get out and jump around in them once they started falling. Heaven knows that someone needs to enjoy them. Colt and I certainly don't. Raking and loading 30+ bags of leaves isn't quite as fun as...