My first Mother's Day

This year was my first official mothers day (Last year I had just found out we were expecting). Jeff sure went above and beyond to make me feel appreciated as a new mom and wife. He first surprised me with the most beautiful arrangement of flowers, my favorite fruit drinks, a movie, gift certificate and a sweet card for Harper. He then told me I needed to be ready to leave the house by 5. We drove down the Seward highway to Girdwood and attempted to go eat at our favorite restaurant but no surprise the wait was at least 2 hours so we headed up to Alyeska Ski Resort and had an incredible dinner at The Aurora.

 

While on our drive, just past belluga point Jeff screamed "Holy Crap..." I was startled and thought we were going to wreck or something. He then said he saw a whale jump out of the water. I didn't really believe him because the tide was just coming in so it was pretty shallow in the area. And the only whales in the area are Bellugas and they don't jump out of water. Then all of a sudden a small grey whale jumped out again. It was incredible. We watched it for a good half hour. It was a super tiny whale and was most likely stranded from it's mother (I'm not a marine biologist or anything but we did just go on our grey whale cruise so I feel like I know what i'm talking about :) It was hard to get a good action shot with his phone!

Jeff surprised me and spoke on Mother's Day. I was running late to church so when I got there just before the sacrament, I briefly looked at the program and saw his name on it. I started panicing thinking he didn't know about it, or they forgot to tell him. But no, he knew and he did a wonderful job speaking about his mother and about me as a new mother.
(Harper was WAY too vocal and playful for me to sit through Relief Society so we hung out in the mother's lounge. This girl is my everything)

I’m so thankful for the amazing husband that I have been blessed with who is always showing and telling how much he loves and appreciates me. I’m so thankful to be his wife and the mother to his little girl. I’m so thankful to be a mother. I have waited my whole life for this moment and after waiting so long it just makes it that much sweeter to have Harper in our family. I absolutely love being a mom and look forward to many more mothers days in the years to come.

Harper 4 months

Harper sure is the love of our lives. This month her little personality is really starting to shine through. She LOVES seeing herself in the mirror and just giggles and kicks when she does. She has found her fists and fingers and loves sucking on them. She rolls side to side but can't quite make it to her stomach or back. She loves laying on her play mat and will just jabber and coo all day long. What a pure joy she is to us.

Length: 24 inches

Weight: 14 lbs.

First time in the bumbo, watching T.V.

One day I went to check on Harper while she was napping and this is how I found her. We called this pic Harper-hussein :)

Harper and Kamdin. They weren't quite sure what to think of each other!

We introduced rice cereal at 4 1/2 months hoping it would help fill her up more (she wants to breast feed way too frequently and my milk supply can't keep up) and this girl LOVED it. I couldn't shovel it in fast enough. 

More 4 month pics.... overload!!! 

Daddy thought it was ok to give me watermelon and pineapple and the ward luau. I loved it but mom didn't like how sticky my shirt, face and hands were. But daddy kept feeding me anyway. :)

 Little stinker is all smiles until the camera comes out... but regardless she is one cute 4 month old!!

Harper loves laundry day... mom not so much since our apt is on the 3rd floor and the laundry room is in the basement... makes for lots of back and forth trips and one heavy load of clothes with Harp in the basket. But she loves the warm clothes and has often fallen asleep in the basket while I fold clothes.

Cuddling and crawling all over mom... this is what our days usually consist of after I work a 13 hr night shift... lounging on the couch all day, in our jambes!

Jeff took Harp up to Arctic Valley to scoop out some bears and she thought she was pretty awesome looking through his binos. This is a nightly ritual on the days I work since she loves car rides and being outdoors. 

Jeff sent me this pic one night saying "look mommy, dad says I'm getting so big that I can sit in the front seat instead of my carseat." 

This girl loves sitting on the counter in the kitchen while I cook, clean, or do dishes. She will grab at anything around her and think it's all funny!

One day I was taking a shower so I put Harp in her lounger by the tv and I came out to her sitting up on her own... and of course mesmerized by the tv. Needless to say I'm glad I buckled her in, cuz usually I don't.

First family outting of 2013

April 19-21, 2013

Jeff and I decided we needed a break from life and some alone time so we picked a weekend that worked with his work schedule and took off to Seward. We ended up booking a hotel since it's too early in the season to be pulling out our camper. So we took off Friday afternoon, loaded up the dogs and Harper and headed south. The forecast showed clear skies and sure enough it was in the 40's and just absolutely beautiful blue skies all weekend, until we packed up to come home and it was overcast and rainy. We had a blast and just enjoyed doing NOTHING, for the most part! 

A first for our little one... she was soooo hungry after traveling, the second I gave her her bottle she just grabbed it and fed herself.

Harper was crying that we had her car seat covered while we were out walking around but it was pretty windy with the ocean breeze so this was our resolution. She loved it and was as calm as could be.

Dinner with my love. He isn't a picture fan but sure puts up with my love of scrap booking our memories. Oh how I love him.

Saturday I booked us a Grey Whale Cruise. We've been on multiple whale cruises already but the grey whale one is only April-May while they are migrating to the Bering Sea. I know a few people who have gone and neither of them had seen any grey whales but they saw Orca's and Humpbacks. We were very lucky to see 4 grey whales and a few humpbacks. Plus Eagles, Mountain Goats, Sea Lions and other small Alaskan creatures.  Harper was truly an angel the whole time. She has turned into quite a little observer/people watcher and was just as content as could be.

Jeff and Harper passed out while we were headed out. The cruise is 4 hours total so there is quite a nice window to just sit back, enjoy the scenery and take a nap if you so choose.

Hello little Humpback. Our captain said this was a very tiny whale and it was probably it's first voyage alone up the pacific ocean. It wasn't as playful as we have seen other humpbacks on our other cruises but none the less exciting to see and watch.

And the Grey Whales appeared. (sorry terrible pic, I was too lazy to beat the crowds out onto the deck and just took the pic through the window.) Interesting fact about Grey whales, and probably the reason alot of people don't see them is they are bottom dwellers. They feed off the bottom of the ocean and surface every 10 min or so. So once you see their tail fins surface you have to wait 10 min for them to come back up because that tail means they are diving down. We saw them 3 different times, meaning we had to wait at least 30 minutes. Also you never know where they will come back up to surface, so to catch a good pic is challenging.

Sunday before we headed out of town we had a free pass to the Alaska Sealife Center and believe it or not as many times that we have been to Seward (7 to be exact) we have never been. So it was just fun to walk through. Harper sure LOVED watching all the animals, especially the outdoor bird exhibit.

Overall it was a PERFECT weekend getaway. We walked the boardwalk with the dogs, wandered the gift shops, hit up some new restaurants and enjoyed lounging in the hotel room cuddling as a family. We both needed this break from life and loved that Harper experienced her first Alaskan outing. This is the start to a great summer of camping and making memories.