Hey Everyone in the LC Valley!

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{Harper Reading Nook}

As someone who loves children's books, I've been inspired by a Children's Literature & Storytelling course that I took this semester, to find all the best books I can for my children's enjoyment (and mine)! I don't think I've ever enjoyed the library so much! Now that it's Spring, we've been checking out and learning about some great things that happen during Springtime. Here are some of our favorites:

An Egg is Quiet

by Dianna Aston & Sylivia Long

This is a beautifully illustrated non-fiction book all about eggs: their varying colors, shapes, sizes, textures, etc. The book covers eggs from dinosaurs to birds to insects and taught us so much that we didn't know!

This was an especially fun book since we had just dyed eggs for Easter :)
It introduces children to over 60 types of eggs!


Insect Detective
by Steve Voake

Inspired by current curriculum being taught in Madilyn's classroom we found some really fun bug books including this one. This is a non-fiction book as well that shares an array of facts about insects that we can see everyday! It shares information about insects from wasps (which we've seen already) to earwigs to dragonflies.

Every page has factual information presented in a fun way. The book teaches the anatomy of an insect with simplicity so you can tell if a bug you're looking at is an insect or not! Our favorite page is at the back of the book. It shows you lots of cool ways to be an insect detective, the first one being to step outside :)
The girls and I enjoyed reading this book then exploring our own front and back yard for insects.


Over In the Meadow
by Ezra Jack Keates

This is a fun counting book with equally fun illustrations. The kids get to count their way through the book with creatures like turtles, bumble bees, lizards and fireflies. The poetry format of the text lends itself to singing, which the girls really enjoyed.

We had a great time at our ultrasound on March 14th! There was no doubt that our baby was a boy. All of us are very excited that we are having a boy, but especially grateful that it's another healthy baby.

Now if August could get here!

Peep, peep!

Our nest is growing by two feet August 2nd!

This picture slideshow made with Smilebox

{What's In a Name?}

You might ask yourself, "What's with the new blog title?" and I must explain that while there were definitely happenings going on at the Harper house, happenings come and go so quickly. They've happened and that's it. What you're left with after happenings is history.

And so, we are making history; a history we can look back and laugh at, reflect upon, cheer and cry for, and about which we can be blissfully happy and thankful.

Here's to history...

{Summer Part 1}

We were so happy that we could make it to the Oakley Rodeo this year! It is one of my favorite rodeos. The other cool thing about it is, I almost always run into several friends that I haven't seen for a long time at the rodeo arena.

Ya can't beat it!

Staring Contest:

Lily VS Steer

Lily won!

Checking out the bulls up close...

What a way to end the night at the Oakley rodeo: a picture with the rodeo queen herself. I LOVE Lily's face in this picture! It is too funny.

A hearty laugh for anyone that can come up with a funny caption to represent what Lily might be thinking!

{Fourth of July!}

We spent our 4th of July at Jackson and Mindy's house. The kids had a lot of fun and my brother Jackson put on quite the show!

Lily and my newest niece Maren.

It took a lot of convincing for Madi to hold the sparkler. Even after she did it, I don't think she enjoyed it that much!

Lily loved the sparklers!

My nephews Maddax and Maxton and my Daddy-O

Josh and my nephew Marshall.

Little Marshall was so funny sitting on Josh's lap. Marshall kept yelling to Jackson, his Dad, when he was lighting the fireworks, "Git out der Dad! It's burnin'! Git out der!"

He was holding on pretty good to Josh's arms to keep him safe. At one point, he looked up at Josh and said, "Thank you much."

Catching parachutes

Madilyn and Lily took turns holding roman candles! Yes, it made me a little nervous, but they loved it!

My nephew Peyton and my brother Dan showed up to celebrate with us.

If you asked Peyton what fireworks said, he'd get this look on his face (see picture above) and say, "Boom, booooom!"

We had a really fun 4th of July!

{Visit to Great Grandma Mim's}

On Josh's last day vacationing with us, we drove up with him to visit my Grandma Mim. My mom had been staying with her over the weekend so we thought it would be a perfect time to go. We all sat out front in the sunshine for a bit, then decided to visit my mom's step-brother John. He lives just across the road from Grandma and has a whole bunch of miniature donkeys. Grandma didn't have any carrots to feed them so we took them Chips Ahoy cookies.

What can we say? We're health nuts!

This sign cracked me up!

When we came back to Grandma's, Lily found all her baby dolls and took care of them.

Madi couldn't resist coloring...

Since Lily was wrapping up the baby dolls in dish towels, my Aunt Jan, who had come to stay with Grandma, thought that Lily should pick out some fabric to make a blanket. Aunt Jan sewed the blankets up and Grandma showed Lily how to tie it.

We had a great visit there and the girls were happy to go home with new blankets for their baby dolls!

{Summer Part 2 - Fun With Family}

Madilyn and Lily had a good time helping Grandpa plant flowers and water the lawn.

The girls also enjoyed having Nana paint their fingernails!
What girl doesn't love being pampered?

Nothin' beats snuggling up with Grandpa after a nice bath!

I absolutely love this picture!

We went to a parade with Omi, Opa, Aunt Suz and Uncle Bryan. It was really hot, but the girls had a lot of fun gathering candy.

No better way to cool off than by getting wet...

Love this picture too!

{Play Date}

During our visit, we met up with my friend Kim and her boys Jackson and Alex. They had fun playing dress-up and splashing in the water.

{Little Mermaids}

One night, we drove out to swim and visit with my brother Nate and my niece Camila.

To end the night, Cami came over to Nana's house for a sleep-over. One thing I learned is if you are going to do a sleep-over, be sure to have them go swimming before bed. These girls were sound asleep about five minutes after being put to bed!