Harper is 9 months old, SuperBowl in Dallas, etc

Harper is doing great and really thriving. I weighed her today and she was 9.1kg (multiplied by 2.2 is 20 lbs). She seems quite tall and already appears to be 'outgrowing' her carseat. This past weekend was Superbowl here in Big D. By accident, my BFF and her DH flew in to visit from L.A. I was so thankful that they're really from Grand Rapids, b/c otherwise, they may not have tolerated the ice and snow and sub-freezing temps. Harper was on her BEST behavior. For a baby who is exceedingly cautious around strangers, she took to Denise and Jason like nothing I've ever seen! I think they even tried to see if she'd fit into their suitcases ;). We did an icy sightseeing tour of Dallas: Coopers & Billy Bob's in Fort Worth; Downtown Neiman Marcus and Southfork Ranch; finally Tex-mex tacos at Torchy's. We all had a great time!

I'm clearly not good at this!

So, now it's February and I haven't updated the blog since maybe November. Lots has happened. Here are the highlights:

• November 25th - made a small Thanksgiving dinner and the guests were the Archibalds. It was our maiden run with the new FP range and it was awful. Food was burned, though the turkey was '...best turkey ever!'.
  
• December 19th - hosted Pirate-themed birthday party for Spencer & William @home. It was a success, complete with bouncehouse, pirate ship pinata, 'walking the plank' into the sandbox & homemade cupcakes. A few friends from school were invited, along with their siblings (and parents) and some neighbor kids. It was a lot of fun but a VERY FULL HOUSE. Our wonderful friends, The Fisselers also drove in from Houston. We may not have pulled it all off without their help. We also got to enjoy a great visit! Also, thanks to Meme for making the very cool pirate swords for party favors.
• December 20th - Ruby had to go to heaven. Her pain and seizures returned and she just wasn't enjoying life. Spencer took it well & William is still working on it. We're pretty sure that he misses his BFF desperately but is unable to understand or express himself.
• December 21st - the boys officially turned 5! Amazing! Miracle!
• December 23rd - we headed for MP for Christmas. We made it in one piece. The kids had a wonderful time and Spencer talked to Santa on Christmas eve. It was the first Christmas without Clayton (or Reed), as Clayton was in Italy & France - tough. Reed was in Reed-land.
• December 26th - We returned to Dallas...to find our home had been ROBBED! Yes, they took TV's, laptops, jewelry & my silver! They also took our camera, which was full from the birthday party and photos of Ruby :(.
• Survived the enormous school break (3.5 weeks) only to be hit with a bad cold and miss some school. Then, snowpalooza February 1-4th
• January 30th - Harper turned 9 months old!