Happy 1st Birthday Harper (and Halloween)

Our little Harper turned one today.  She has been as easy a baby as we could hope for, which I'm sure means she will pierced, tattooed, and in a biker gang by 13.  Until then, I am hoping that she is the Daddy's girl that you always hear about.  Little Shelley, or Finley as you know her by, is really starting to warm up to her sister.  Of course, at this age, that is a moment to moment thing, but she hasn't shoved any small objects down her throat - yet - so that counts as love at two and a half.

Before we kick this off, here is a quick video of Harper's birthday cupcake.

Our camera's memory card filled up, so you'll have to wait to see more of Harper's Birthday Blowout Spectacular when I can sync my Blackberry.

On the the rest of the show.

 Finley was adamant that she have the silly pumpkin, while Harper has the. . .



 . . . yes, the "spooky" pumpkin.  It was VERY clear which pumpkin belonged to Finley.



At gymnastics the week of Halloween, the girls got their faces painted.  Finley, if you can't tell, is Monty's mortal enemy, a bunny. 

In previous posts, I've mentioned how Harper is really using her awesome upper body strength (which she got from her father) to pull herself up.   She's now working on curls.

"Nobody knows the trouble I've seen.  Nobody knows but Jesus. . . ."  We baby proofed parts of the house last week, or as I see it, created confinement pens for Shelley's piece of mind. Here prisoners 001, 02.5, and 010 are in general confinement. 

 Finley was pretty excited about Halloween.  Finley couldn't contain her glee in being Strawberry Shortcake and she really wanted Harper to be a Flamingo.  Or a bunny, which is the costume she's holding in the picture.  To prove Shelley and I are well into middle age, she is a cowgirl.  Nope, not a "trampy" cowgirl, just a plain, ole cowgirl.  Or, maybe, based on her eyes, a devilish cowgirl, which still isn't as good as trampy, but it would explain a lot.

 Sorry, dogs, your costumes didn't get lost in the move.  Nor, with two little two-legged mannequins, did Momma get sick of dressing you, also.

"Handsome" Jack doesn't look so handsome now, does he, Finley?  Maybe I'm a little closer after all.

This is why we don't see Dixie in a lot of pictures -- she knows nothing good can come when the camera is out.  Looks like the flamingo is on the prowl.

Yep, nothing good ever comes of it for poor Didi.

Peas in a pod.

I went as a fan of the World Series winning Chicago Cubs.  On Halloween, you can go as whatever you want - reality is suspended for a night!!

This is Monday, the day after Halloween.  Kid you not, they were still tired from all of the barking they did the night before.

Now she's working on her calf raises.  Shelley and I really believe Harper is training pay Finley back for all of the toys she rips out of Harper's hands.

A nice moment where the girls are having a tea party.  You don't see a couple of minutes later when Finley rips the teacup away from Harper, which led Harper to start doing push-ups.  Payback is a comin'. . ..

This was today for Harper's birthday.  Finley was "helping" frost the cupcakes.

Baking seems very, very messy.

Because Finley is such a little helper, she is opening Harper's cards.  Meanwhile, Harper is locked into something.

And here's Finley putting them on the table.  It looks to me, however, that she palmed a $5 in the picture for her efforts.  Harper remains locked onto the target.

She REALLY wants it.

I know it looks like we are parents of the year, but her hand was well away from the open flame.  No children were harmed in the making of this blog.

Just to provide added value to this blog, a bonus feature, which is a behind the scenes look at the girls and their jack o lanterns.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween and thanks for checking the blog.  Many, many, many more happy birthdays, Harper Paige.