Dear Friends,

I have been wanting to write a letter to all my friends about this hard yet beautiful season of our lives. I love real friendships with real women who aren't afraid to be real. That is why I love our friendship. BUT, I wanted to apologize and explain myself for my recent behavior. If I've seemed distant or preoccupied or unavailable, well that is because I am, sortof. I am that way because I am struggling to find a balance between child rearing, Jesus loving, spouse tending and friend having. I am sorry for the distance, the unreturned phone calls, the never made plans. I am sorry that I can't talk on the phone, that I am always feeding, changing, burping or loving on a baby. Well, actually I am not that sorry because this is the season of my life that I love doing those things. It is a sweet time that is somewhat consumed with childrearing, loving and disciplining. Thing is, I do love those things...but I do love friendships too. Although it appears that for this time the two can hardly coexist. It just seems that the time for me and you is few and far between these days. I do my best and only thinking in the shower...if you are a close friend you know this...because when we finally do talk I will say I thought about blah blah blah in the shower. Anyways, I was thinking about how little time I have gotten to spend with you dear friend. And then when I do get to hang out with you there is this little boy who sometimes turns into something we are all afraid of...and that usually happens when I am trying to talk to you, friend. Or the sweet precious princess that LOVES to eat. I spend most of my time these last few months boppy around my waist, baby on my, well you know...2 year old destroying my house. You are my friend, and you have children, or you want them, or you at least like them, so you understand what this season is about, don't you? Sometimes I am afraid when I come out of this crazy season of life that it will be just me and Jesus and no friends to show; because I can't devote the time I want to sustain our relationship...I hope that isn't true but it could be, couldn't it? You are busy too...that is what I tell myself when we don't talk. I hope I'm not being too honest here. I hope I am not the only one who feels this way. That is why I am writing you this letter. Do you sometimes feel the way I do? I don't wish other people to struggle, but if you struggle with this and we are friends we could at least free each other up for feeling guilty about our lack of communication with others that are potty trained and don't drink from a sippy cup. You and I, we have the best lives ever don't we? We aren't foolish to think that our busyness and stress and juggling act are the struggles that compare with those that are fighting for lives, or God forbid their children's. BUT we are where we are for a reason and God is in control of all of that. We are thankful, you and I, for what we have and don't for a second take it for granted.We get to love our children or families or both. I look at you and think how much better you balance these things, how your little ones behave so well and how you seem to make time...I am just trying to get the hang of it too. We live fun lives and do fun things and we both have an amazing God. But since we both love Jesus we can offer each other grace in this "child-centered time" so that when the little ones aren't so little anymore we'll be able to pick up where we left off. Well, I know this isn't exactly a fruit cake or a new year's resolution but I hope to see you soon friend! If not, know that I think about you and pray for you often and I hope you'll do the same for me. Happy New Year!

Love in Christ,

Stephanie<><

The Last of the Christmas Posts...I hope!

Micah and Popsy Wopsy

Sadie Jane with her favorite Uncle. He is so good with her!

Partners in Crime...Charlee and Micah in the back bedroom

Nana and Sadie Jane

We got lots of goodies from Mick's parents who always do way to much. So funny that while each kiddo had something like 35 presents...Micah opened a football as his first present and we had to beg him to open the rest. All he wanted to do was throw the football. Bay, Charlee Ray and Micah all opened their gifts first and Charlee was definitely the most fun to watch...she was SOO excited. After that we all headed home to find a place to store all of our new things. Micah's big gift from the Harper's was a train table and Mick came home to put it together. Micah got a few toolsets for Christmas so he "helped" put it all together. He played with it all night and this morning so I definitely think it will be a gift we'll play with forever. Pictures of our favorite gifts later...

Croupy Christmas

Sweet Sadie Jane and Mick. She wasn't feeling great and was so hot from everything we just stripped her down and she was so relieved she went to sleep on her Daddy.
So sweet. Crazy how cute all that back fat and tummy fat can be...when you are 3 months old

SayJ and her Budda

Neither of them were looking in this one but her face is too funny.

Micah and the batcave...opening his stocking.

What I didn't mention in my last post was that after our trip to the dollar store Micah turned into a child that I didn't want to be around. He had so many meltdowns and got so many spankin's that I told Mick if there had been a camera on me at the mall the Supernanny would have definitely intervened and set me straight. But we did the best we could all the while gritting our teeth and telling everyone Merry Christmas. Turns out while Micah was being a punk he was also getting sick because he woke up in the night coughing and not breathing well at all. He gets a type of asthma anytime he gets a cold so we were up in the night with breathing treatments and taking turns listening to him breathe. Sadie Jane is just as congested but mostly her happy go lucky self just with an insane rattle when she breathes too. We had my whole family coming over for breakfast at 930 and Mick and I woke up at 905! Micah didnt even get up to see his presents til 10. When he came down Hayden had already brought in his batcave and Micah could have cared less about the educational games I had gotten when he could play with the batcave:) Fortunately he didn't loose it when it headed out the door when Hayden did...We spent good time with my family and Mick made some delicious omelets. Then we rushed to his parents for more present opening and food.

Happy Birthday Jesus Party!

The cake we made...all we had was cookie icing to write on it with. Oops!
The kiddos...

right before Hayden threw Sadie Jane out of his lap!

Me and my sweet reindeer.

Here she is again... didn't realize my polkadotted toes were also featured here.

Boys ready to party for Jesus.

So silly...the necklaces they are holding were Hayden's gift he picked out for Micah.

Girls...SayJ with her crazy eyes that she saves for photo ops:)

Haydee and his hat

Christmas Eve every year we go to church at the church I grew up in and then back to our house for dinner. This year I decided we would make the dinner at our houses a Birthday Party for Jesus and also let the boys buy gifts to give out at the party. With all that Micah gets for Christmas (I wont name names here) we don't have to buy him anything...but he has really struggled lately about giving and sharing and not being a gimme gimme child. So we wanted to focus on Jesus and also on giving. So I took the boys to the Dollar store at the mall (on Christmas Eve...not the best time to go) and they picked out something for everyone that would be at our party that night. Hayden definitely understood it more and that helped to instill the lesson to Micah I think. He so looks up to Hayden so that was a good tradition that I hope we started this year. The gifts they chose were quite humorous too. To name a few Budda got bungee cords and Pops got screwdrivers. All the ladies got Santa figurines...which were definitely the lesser of some evils at our particular dollar store. So prayerfully Micah will learn to be a giver and we can instill in him a sense of gratitude for what he does get.

Merry Christmas to you!

Due to the expense of the holiday's plus the fact that I sent out Sadie Jane's announcements and that I never send all the cards I intend I just didn't do Christmas card at all this year. Sad. We didn't have a picture of all for of us til now anyways. So here we are, just us four. Love it. Hope you had a Merry Christmas and celebrated Jesus' birth.

Much Love in Christ,

The Harper's

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Me, the kiddos and the girls!
Des and her babies:)

Sadie Jane was ready for this picture!

Des, Steph and Tash...with Micah being the only one looking at me!

Magan and Ashli...softball girls from FOUR years ago! Magan is graduating this year, crazy!

Stephanie with Say J, she'll hate that I put it on but her face so encompasses how she feels about babies...she thinks she doesn't know what to do...but my babies love her.

Things have been busy around here lately. In good ways and bad. The good is that we have had lots of lovin from friends and family...on Monday we had some of the older softball girls over for dinner and we had three different grades of ladies. They are all growing up so fast. I can't believe the first group of girls that I led in Bible study are now graduating from college. I also got to meet with them and have a minibible study session, like the prechildren days and it did my heart such good. Don't know if it helped them any but it helped me! So proud of all of them. Also courtesy of Mick I got to have lunch yesterday with a dear friend and just talk girl stuff. Ahh such a treasure that time is now when it is so sparse.

The bad is that things with my sister are not going what you would call well...not drug related that I know of so that is good...but things are hard in that arena nonetheless. I wont air our dirty laundry or her business on here since this isn't her blog...I only air my own dirty laundry not others. But I will beg you to pray for her, our family and reconciliation.

On the not terribly bad but also not so good side is that both kiddos enjoyed the lovin they've been getting from friends and family so much that they caught a cold from it. Micah is tough and not really phased by it except for the occasional night sleeplessness. But poor SayJ wants to know what the heck is going on in her nose and why it is making her feel so icky! Tis the season for sickness always at our house. But Christmas is coming like it or not and thankfully it isn't about the presents and the perfect house or the best cooked meal or the snotless shirts...because we got none of that. But we do love Jesus and it is about Him so that'll be enough.

Grandmama's Family Christmas

My cousin Jessica tending to Micah...with a paintball mask on.
Haydee!

Grandmama and Sadie Jane. She was such a good girl.

Grandmama with two of her girls.

Trying to get one of Gmama looking but she just couldn't stop looking down at SJ.

So sweet.

The whole fam...well minus those who left early.

Micah was thrilled to be in the picture.

We headed to LaGrange on Saturday for Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Both Micah and Sadie Jane did great in the car. Hallelujah! My cousin has a big house on a lot of land so the boys LOVE to be there. Plus my cousin Jessica who is in high school loves to help with the boys so I LOVE to be there too:) This was the first for everyone to see Sadie Jane and the first time in a long time for Grandmama so it was especially fun.

Santa Cow CHAOS

SayJ sitting pretty!
She wasn't sure about him, but she did way better than her big brother:)

Des and Sadie Jane...I think Des taught her to raise her shirt like this...those college girls!

Suzie, Me and Sadie Jane, Amy and Anna

Paxton joining the girls picture because I seriously think he thought that Santa Cow was hurting his Mommy!

Trying to get one of Sadie Jane looking but no luck.

Ahhh...boys. Let's just say there was a sigh of relief when we exited the building.

Would've been a cute picture if either of my boys could have cooperated.

Jayden and Micah dancing to the music.

Sadly, the best picture I got of all three.

Here I was trying to get one of Micah with his bff Jaxson but you can see that didn't work out.

Phew! That is all I have to say about our crazy night of Christmas festiveness! Mick got home late so we went racing out the door to meet friends for dinner at the chicken house and to sit with Santa Cow. Micah had been SOOO excited about seeing him and sitting in his lap. I mean he talked such a big game... went on and on about how he would protect Sadie Jane, etc. etc. and then we see him in the back and he goes beserk?!? Wouldn't even let me get close to him. Oh well. It was packed at the chicken house and there were 4 other families we knew there plus Des and her friends. So between Micah's meltdown, SayJ eating and diaper changing and the Santa cow fiasco frankly I don't remember if I ate. And then we left Sadie Jane on a chair...in her seat...buckled in but a bit unstable and a man comes up and basically reprimands me because someone walking by almost knocked her out. Sheesh. Give a lady a break mister. I mean I've told Mick not to do that but he could have said it a little nicer. But all in all it was still good to see friends and Micah had a good time when he wasn't in trouble. After that we went back to Nana and Pops to let our friends experience the brightness. Nana was so good and had hot cocoa and goodies for us. Thanks Nana! This was a good idea because the boys ran around like crazy and hopefully will sleep good tonight. We had fun watching them dance, trip over cords and copy each other...mainly our lovely wild child Micah. You can see trying to get them to take a picture was insanity. It was a fun but busy night and I am so thankful for friends and family. I am also thankful that we have no plans tomorrow night...well at least I don't think so as of now:)