We have a lot of catching up to do...

It's becoming more and more challenging to keep this blog up but I won't abandon you all, I promise.

Let's see...Josh and I had our first vacation in years a couple of weeks ago. Where did we go? I'm glad you asked. For our ultra-glamorous getaway, Josh and I chose Branson, MO. We had to pick somewhere cheap and within driving distance so off we headed to the Las Vegas of the midwest. Okay, not really. I mean we really did go, but I was kidding about the Las Vegas part. Obviously.

We stayed on Table Rock Lake and honestly, it was the most relaxation I've experienced since Harper was born. Every parent needs a good getaway! We stayed in a really beautiful condo overlooking the lake and mostly just slept and sat on the back deck. We did venture down to the strip and plunked down $50 to see the new Titanic exhibit. We also went go-cart riding (Josh's choice). Unfortunately we didn't catch any shows. We just couldn't decide between Shoji Tobuchi and the Circle B Chuckwagon Supper & Cowboy Music Show.

Here's a picture of me lounging on our deck in my cabin PJ's and "Branson Hair." FYI, Branson hair is BIG hair. I just couldn't get mine that big. Oh well.

View from our back porch:

A quick stop in Mima and Papa Gatewood's hometown, Halltown, MO:
While we were gone my parents babysat H. Here are some great pictures my Mom took:
In other Harper news, we decided to keep her at her old daycare. After all the teary goodbyes we realized how much the teachers love her there. We really had a hard time pulling Harper out and she just wasn't adjusting well. I know, I know...she wasn't even at her new daycare for 24 hours. She would have adjusted eventually but we are so, so happy that we decided to stay put. Harper is so excited to get to school every morning and her teachers give her lots of love and attention.

Also, check out Harper's latest trick:

She's standing up!!!

I'm also happy to announce that in order to spend some more time with Harper and get a little more work/life balance, I'm going to a four-day work week. It was a hard decision but a necessary one. I won't be missing much work but it will be just enough to help me catch up with life a little bit. I'll be starting my new schedule in April.

Josh has some exciting news also. He submitted an art show idea to a local, high-profile art organization. They accepted it and will be helping him curate the show over the next year. It will be a mixture of work from lots of artists and that's all I'm gonna tell you right now. There's a lot of planning to do but I am really, really proud of him and even though he might not say so, this is a really BIG DEAL.

That's all for now. Here are a few more pictures to keep you occupied:

New Daycare

This is Harper at daycare. As you can see, she actually loves it there. She has really enjoyed her teachers and friends at Montessori Academy. Tomorrow, she will be moving to a new daycare and that kind of breaks our hearts. She's been on the waiting list for the new place since before she was born. It has a great reputation and we know she'll be well taken care of but we had no idea how sad we'd be to put her through such a big change. This is Harper with her favorite teacher, Jackie:

We know that Harper is too little to really know what's going on but we wanted to make sure that Harper could see pictures of her very first teacher--who absolutely adores Harper, and who we hope might babysit once in awhile.

I don't have much else to report so I'll leave you with a few more random pictures...