Lazy 5 Ranch

Friday we went to the Lazy 5 Ranch. It is this crazy place just outside of Charlotte. They have over 700 animals. They have giraffes, zebras, a rhinoceros, deer, sheep, goats, buffalos and many more. I am embarrassed to say that I couldn't even identify many of the animals! The animals are just out in the open and come right up to you and eat out of your hand. I was so impressed with Harper, because he wasn't scared of the animals at all. We met the Morrow's there. We hadn't met Lyla yet, so we were excited for Harper and Lyla to play! We brought a picnic lunch. Luckily the weather was warmer than it was supposed to be because it was really cold!

Keith, Lyla, Mary Lou and Harper

Harper and a pig

The Ware Family minus Allen the photographer

Harper and Lyla getting a wagon ride

Harper feeding an antelope

Harper feeding a deer. He actually got bit by a deer. He cried for a bit but he got over it. He just had a little blood on his thumb. The next day a line of teeth marks were visible. Poor little guy!

Feeding the yak (maybe)

Tommy feeding the giraffe

Liz and the giraffe

Tommy and the rhinoceros

This was my buddy. He ate half of my bucket of food!

Harper was not so sure of the GIANT cow.

Here is the GIANT cow, Johnny licking my jacket.

Harper took this picture, but it is the only one of Allen!

Giraffes

These animals were crazy. They were just hanging out by the trial and coming up to your car or wagon for food.Zebra with his head in a car!

Ware Thanksgiving

We spend every Thanksgiving with the Wares (and the Lancaster's for Christmas). We had a blast in Kings Mountain. Mary Lou always has fun activities planned for our time there. We arrived Tuesday night. We surprised them by getting their a day early (don't worry we called a day before we came). Wednesday we went to the church to play ball in the gym.The Kings Mountain library has a great children's department. Mary Lou always checks out a bunch of toys for Harper. This time she got the farm, some play dishes, all of the music instruments, a bowling set and some giant books. Harper had a great time playing with everything-especially the instuments. We started Thanksgiving with a big breakfast where we got to meet Meredith's new boyfriend, Trent. Of course with all of the family there, Harper wanted everyone to play an instrument. We make pretty good music!

Harper helping Grandma cook some of Thanksgiving lunch

We headed out for a walk to make sure that we would have room for Thanksgiving lunch at Barbara's new house. We had a wonderful meal with all of the Thanksgiving fixings. After lunch we went for a really long walk around Cramerton. Harper fell asleep in his stroller which was great! Of course the instruments were brought to Barbara's. Everyone was involved in the "band." Some even joined the marching band.Friday we headed to the Lazy 5 Ranch. It deserves a post all of its own-coming soon. Friday night, we drove through Mid-pines in Kings Mountain to check out all of the Christmas lights. They have a Santa handing out candy canes-Harper freaked out. I guess there won't be any Santa pictures this year!

Saturday was the free movie at the Joy Theater in Kings Mountain. They were showing Polar Express. Harper didn't make it very long during the movie, so Mary Lou took him outside to play. Then she watched Harper while Allen and I went to eat lunch and watch the UNC football game with some friends. We did some Christmas shopping for Harper on the way home! Then it was time for our free haircuts from Meredith. We were all struggling!

Thanks for a great Thanksgiving week Ware family!

FYI-Still doing great without the pacifier-it has been over a week. Not sure if it is because of the pacifier or being around grandma, but Harper's vocabulary has about doubled this past week. He will repeat words after you. He is just growing up so fast!

Harper Helps Dad Fix the Car

Harper helped Allen get the car ready for our Thanksgiving trip. It needed oil, new windshield washers and a blinker lightbulb. So handy!

Playdate with Regan and Henry

Our friends the Stringers are moving back to Atlanta. We are really going to miss them. We actually met them at our birthing class. Regan was born 2 days before Harper and she was in Harper's class at school. We had a playdate at Amy and Henry's so the kids could say goodbye and the moms too!

Friends Thanksgiving

The Bullman's hosted our annual Friends Thanksgiving. There was such good food. We are always so thankful for our wonderful group of friends. We are truly blessed.

Here is a picture of almost everyone-the Colvins left before we took it.

Here is a picture of some of the girls.
Cole and Harper

Harper learned how to work our camera last night. It entertained him forever. He took about 70 pictures. Most of them were of the ceiling, but here are some the better ones.

20 Months

Harper is now 20 months! We are so close to the 2 year mark that it scares me!

-He has given up the pacifier this weekend. I was trying to put him down for his nap on Saturday and he didn't want to go to sleep. He throw his paci, so I decided to hide it. He only cried for a few minutes and then fell asleep. That was also true at nighttime. He did throw a fit at his nap on Sunday, but I didn't cave and he eventually fell asleep. Sunday night not even a cry. Hopefully the paci is a thing of the past! I wanted to hold onto it for the drive to Michigan at Christmas, but we will survive!

-He is still continuing to learn more animals sounds. He must be learning some at school, because he knew owl and bee and I didn't teach him those.

-He is constantly learning new words. He even said Thanksgiving as we were walking into church yesterday. Granted he hasn't said it again, but we will work on it more this week.

-He loves playing with our hand-me-down Little People Christmas. He calls Santa-Noah (from the ark) and he calls the reindeer-good girls (dogs).

-He still copies everything that we do, so we really have to watch what we do. I climbed on the fireplace to plug in his horse game into the TV, then he tried it. Not good!

-He has entered the terrible twos. He is all about throwing tantrums. Especially when I tell him no or make him do something he doesn't want to-like come inside. He may throw his head down on the ground, become a limp noddles, bang his head into the wall, lick the wall, bite something including mommy or daddy's shoulder. He also has entered a whiny stage which is a total change of character for him. Hopefully this all will pass soon, it is really testing my patience!

Fun times in the car!

No!

Harper has taken a liking to the word No. He usually doesn't even use it when he means no. I thought I would get a video of it though and he didn't want to go take a nap!

Being Mommy

Hopefully, Allen won't get too mad about this post! Harper was walking around in my shoes, with a bag on his arm and pushing a shopping cart.
At least this video shows him acting like a boy by running his shopping cart into the furniture!

Wearing Daddy's visor

Cheese!

Does the visor and beer mug make Mommy's shoes look more manly?

Trying to carry too much-just like Mommy does!

Pillow Talk

Harper is really into mimicking us. The other night, Allen got a pillow and laid on the floor. Harper went to the couch and got his own pillow and laid on the floor. It was so sweet. Now he keeps putting daddy's pillow on the floor and makes Allen lay on the floor with him. He is so smart!