Home is Where the Heart Is

Howdy Y'all!

We love being home!  It is so much better than staying in hotel rooms and traveling in the car for hours on end.  Since we have been home, we have been very busy though and I am ready for it to all slow down a bit.

Thursday night was not a good night - Harper was super fussy until about 2 am and finally we ended up in the recliner downstairs.  Friday was the first time we had to be up for a specific reason (a doctors appointment at 11 am) and we barely made it.  It was my first time to have to take a shower and get myself and Harper ready and I have to say that I hope I get better with it.  :)  I love this picture below - it looks like Harper is up to something or she is somehow trying to come up with a plan to get out of her doctor's visit.

Her "almost" 2-week appointment went well.  She has gained a pound since leaving the hospital - she is now up to 9 lbs, 6 oz and she is 83rd percentile in both height and weight.  The doctor had one little concern with Harper.  She has this hole that looks like an ear piercing on her ear called an ear pit.  He was not overly concerned with it, but he wants her to have a kidney ultrasound because babies that have these ear pits are more likely to have kidney problems.  We will see what comes of that in the next few weeks.

Harper knew she was having company this weekend so she decided she needed to take a nap during her daily photo session. :)

Her grandmother couldn't wait to get her hands on her and she even brought her a sentimental gift.  It was just so sweet and reminded me so much of Toy Story 3 when Andy passed down his toys.  We are so excited to have such a sweet memento of Tony's childhood.

On Saturday, my mom, dad and Hailey were coming for a visit - the purpose for their visit was to bring back our sweet dog Toby and pick up some furniture we have had in our garage for quite awhile.  My sister and her adorable daughter Ava decided to come as well and they TRIED to surprise me...but, they didn't quite pull it off.  I called my mom earlier in the day while they were on the road and she was so short with me that I had a feeling Ashley was in the car too.  I was right!  :)  It was a great half surprise though.

Saturday night we all went out for a big family dinner at Abuelos...it was us (me, Tony and Harper) with Tony's mom and dad, and my whole family too.  It was great to all get together and have a great meal and fawn over our beautiful new baby girl.  After dinner, we took Harper on her first walk down to the park in our neighborhood and then the cousins decided to all hang out together on the pull out sofa downstairs.

Sunday morning we decided we needed to do a little photo session with the cousins - and some of the pictures turned out so cute!

After the photo session, Harper went out for her first shopping experience.  We went down to the mall in Fayetteville for a couple of reasons - 1) it is an indoor mall vs. the outdoor mall we have in Rogers and 2) Ashley needed some Proactive and that was the closest place we could find that sold it.  The babies did quite well at the mall so Harper must be quite the shopper at a young age!  Tony and my dad cleaned up our garage while we were gone - they put up some shelving and it looks so much better now!  We ended the day with some dinner at PF Changs!  Love that place.  And, I won't even embarrass my sister by telling you all how much she ate.  :)

Today was the day that my family was heading home and a tragedy struck us before they left.  My mom had gone outside and didn't shut the door completely when she came back in.  Then, there was a gust of wind that blew the door open and out runs Toby, our sweet dog.  My family looked for him (on foot, in the car, had the neighborhood looking for him) for 2 hours and we never found him.  I have been in tears on and off all day today...and now it is nightfall and I hope that he is safe out there somewhere.  Poor dog has never spent the night outside before.  I have made some signs with his picture and Tony put them up around our neighborhood.  There are some sweet little girls in our neighborhood that even put up their own signs.  It was too sweet.

Toby, please come home...we miss you tons!

The next couple of days are big days for us too.  We are going to the lawyer's office tomorrow afternoon to sign some paperwork and on Wednesday we are heading to the Benton County Courthouse to finalize our adoption.  They moved fasted on this...but, we are so excited about it.

That is about it for now...sorry it was a bit boring and long.  :)

Toodles!