Cornbelly's

Kbull 93 was having 93 cent night at cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point. That's a steal considering it is usually $10.50/person. (It is still going on today if anyone's interested you go to kbull's website and print off a coupon) It was fun except I had to go to work so we didn't get to stay long, maybe we'll go back today.

Elder Harper Comes Home!

My youngest brother returned home from his mission in Hondurus Thursday night. I was so excited to have him home. It was nice to have him finally meet Haylie for the first time. He and Tate already started having wrestling matches.

Merrill Family Time

Kalun's brother Jason came out here to visit from North Carolina. He brought his adorable daughter Chase who most of us haven't gotten to meet yet because they live so far away. Chase is 2 months younger than Haylie. It was so fun to watch the two of them together. We did a ton of activities while they were here and were able to get almost all of the family together which rarely happens because of distance. Here are a few pics from our adventures.....

Aren't I pretty?

I don't know how I ended up with such a girly girl, I have always been more the tomboy type. Haylie is very girly. She's always putting on pretty shoes and playing with her hair (the tiny amount that she has :)) and carrying a purse. So, we bought her some play purses, however, those are not good enough she knows they are fakes. She has to have one of my purses. Then the other day she apparently found some very old lipstick (I don't think I've worn lipstick for a least a year, probably longer) and decided to put it on. It is always funny to watch her be a little lady.


Tate didn't want to be outdone. He gets jealous when I take Haylie's picture and not his so he hurried to grab some purses and told me to take his picture too.

A moment to brag...

In my life I'm often very proud and excited about things my kids and husband are doing and accomplishing, however sometimes I find it hard to be excited about things I accomplish. I mean really, it's hard to brag about changing 10 diapers a day and doing laundry. It's hard as a mom for me to take time for activities that are just for me and that I enjoy. Anyway, this last month I did two things that I am really proud of, so I thought I'd take a moment to brag about two things I did I'm proud of.
The first one was that I ran a 5k. Even though I've been working out a lot, I haven't ran on a treadmill or other since high school. So, my goal was to at least jog half of it. However, I jogged the whole way without walking and finished with a fairly descent time for my first 5k. The second thing was that I actually used my sewing skills I haven't used since like jr. high. A girl in our ward works for Adoption Exchange, which is a place that places foster kids for permanent adoption. They had just placed a family of 8 children with the same couple which is remarkable. But, of course the financial burden of taking on 8 kids was stressful for the young couple so she decided to make quilts for them. The catch was that we ended up making 8 quilts in 24 hours, tieing and binding them and everyting. For anyone who knows anything about quilting, that is crazy. But we did it, and they turned out so cute. A super nice lady donated all the fabric. And then we worked like crazy. I can't believe we got them all done. It was a super gratifying experience. Well, I'm done bragging about myself, but here is a picture of all the quilts wrapped and ready to be delivered to the family.

Uncle Kalun

All of our nieces and nephews have always loved Kalun. He is the fun uncle that will wrestle with them, play with them, and teach them things their parents don't want them to know, but they love. Anyway, we babysat our nieces the other day and as usual Kalun was their source of entertainment....

Discovery Park

The kids and I went to discovery park the other day, I forgot how much fun that place is. We were there for over 2 hours, Tate and Haylie had a lot of fun. It was a good reminder that sometimes the cheapest and simplest things are the things the kids enjoy the most.

Lunch with Haylie

I thought I'd share what a typical lunch at our house looks like. Haylie is very stubborn and independent. She won't let anyone feed her, she has to do it herself or she won't eat. And of course her favorite foods are the messy ones. This day, she wanted yogurt. She also refuses to wear a bib. She rips off any kind you put on her. So I now just strip her down to her diaper for most meals.

Tate's Itty Bitty Soccer

My favorite part of watching Tate's soccer was at the beginning. The coaches would have them stretch and do sit-ups, push-ups, and jumping jacks. Most of the kids were hilarious because they didn't quite have the coordination to do anything the coaches were doing, but they would all try. This is a pic of Tate trying to do a sit-up.



Tate wasn't really sure if he liked playing soccer in a gymnasium with like 50 other kids running around. But he was really cute when he tried to play. Everyone just runs after the ball and kicks it where ever they want. Not many of them understood what was going on even though the coaches tried to teach them.



Haylie wanted to play soccer just like Tate, she kept trying to be the goalie.

Family Vacation at Flaming Gorge

We spent the last week up at Flaming Gorge. It is a long standing Harper tradition to spend a week every summer up there, I've been doing it as long as I can remember. This is probably my favorite place to go. When we come around the corner and see the lake, it just feels like home. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning and I just can't wait to ski my guts out until I am so physically exhausted, I can barely crawl back into the boat. Sounds fun doesn't it? Anyway, this year was no exception, we had a blast and skiied and skiied and skiied. Staying in a tent for a week with 2 little kids is always a bit interesting, but we still all had fun.