My computer has gone "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"! I don't know if I'll ever get it back! Sean and I spent some time trying to load the software for my camera on this computer last night, but it will not recognize the camera for some reason. I am a frustrated blogger! The technician who is working on our system says that he has not had this hard of a time trouble-shooting a problem in a long time! Great!

Anyway, just wanted to check in and let you know that we are here and we have so many fun pictures to share of the last few weeks! (Maybe one of these days!) We hope that you all had wonderful Easter celebrations with family and friends! Beckett sang in a children's choir at church on Sunday morning, so my mom and dad and Sean's mom and dad all came to church with us! We were all blessed as these kids led us to worship our risen Savior! It was a wonderful day!

Check back in a few days to see if the computer saga continues or if we finally have pictures!

Just playing around....still can't post pictures, so I'm playing with music! Beckett has been wanting me to change the music on our blog to Toby Mac! It took me a while, but I found a Toby Mac song to put on our site! I don't think it is one of Beckett's favorites, but it will have to do for now!

Sean took Beckett to his first concert back in the fall and they saw Toby Mac. (Christian rock/hip-hop artist) They both loved it! Sean was very impressed with what a great performer he is. He said that the concert was WELL worth the admission price! (Unlike our most recent experience with Mr. Van Morrison!) Anyway, Helen was so disappointed that she couldn't go. We told her that she wasn't "big" enough and that when she got "bigger" she could go. Not long after that, every day she would stand up very tall and say, "Mom, I'm getting bigger" and I would respond that yes, she was in fact getting bigger. Then she would say, "So when do I get to go see Toby?" Well, her wish is coming true! On April 26th, we are all going to see Toby at the Franklin Graham Crusade that is coming to Knoxville. Beckett (and Helen too) know many of the words to his songs and LOVE to dance around and jam to his music!

So, in honor of one of the Harper kid's favorite musicians, I'll leave some Toby Mac playing on our blog for a few days!

I am SO frustrated that I can't share pictures yet! Beckett pulled his second tooth this morning and I haven't even been able to post pictures of his first tooth! We might get our computer back tonight and if possible, I will add pictures from the last three weeks....so get ready!

Van Morrison was fantastic! He is truly a very talented musician and vocalist! Unfortunately, he is also very (how do I put this nicely?) let's just say that he wasn't very respectful of his fans on the night that we saw him. He only played two of the songs that he is well known for. He played for one hour and thirty minutes and I only knew the words to two of the songs! Most of his other selections were off of his most recent album that hasn't even been released yet, or are not nearly as well known as the songs that I was wanting to hear, like "Moondance" or "Into the Mystic" or "Brown Eyed Girl"! We were able to enjoy his talent, but it was definitely a let down that he didn't play any of our favorites! I guess that is a chance that you take! We stayed in Brentwood with my mom and dad and had a good visit! Helen stayed for a couple of extra days with them and mom brought her home on Sunday. This was her first time to stay with Grankaki and Granbob without Beckett and she had a great time!

We are having a pretty quiet week! Many of the school systems around here are on Spring Break , but we are continuing with our lessons. No vacations around here since we broke down and paid the outrageous prices for Van Morrison tickets........live and learn! We did take the kids to see "Horton Hears a Who" last night and then went to Moe's for dinner! It was a fun night!

Hope everyone is doing well! Hopefully pictures will be coming soon!!!

We are heading to Nashville this afternoon to see one of our all time favorite artists...
Van Morrison!! He doesn't tour in the States very often, so we have never been to one of his concerts! We had this dream that we would see him in Scotland when we were there years ago, but it didn't work out that way! SO! We have jumped at the opportunity to go to his concert tonight at the Ryman Auditorium! The kids are going to stay with Grankaki and Granbob while we get to enjoy the evening with Van! :)

Our computer is still in the shop and I haven't loaded the software to do pictures onto this "temporary" computer, so I still don't have pics to share! Hopefully by next week, we will be up and running! I have several fun pics to share, so I'll work on that as soon as my computer comes home! Hope that you all have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Beckett!

It is hard to believe that Beckett is six years old! We have had a great day celebrating his birthday! We started the morning with phone calls from all of his grandparents and then we were off to Bible Study Fellowship. We then met Sean for lunch at Chuck E. Cheese's for pizza and games! (one of Beckett's favorite places!) We took the day off from any school work and he got to see some friends at choir practice this afternoon. Marilyn had a cake for him this evening and he has received some nice gifts all day long! What a joy it is to be Beckett's mom! He is a kind-hearted, giving, fun, hilarious and thoughtful boy! I am so proud of him! We are thankful that God has blessed our family with such a precious gift!

There is a lot to share and I have some great pictures, but it may be a few more days before we get our computer back up and running! Personally, I think blogs are sort of boring without pictures, so I hope to remedy that soon! :)

The cabin trip with Sean's side of our family was great fun! Nana and Papa, (or as Beckett wrote in his journal on Friday, "the orjnl Harpers"...translation = original) Sean's sister and her family and our Harper crew loaded up and went to Gatlinburg for the weekend and enjoyed a beautiful cabin, wonderful weather (way too warm for snow), shopping, fly-fishing, hot tubbing and just enjoying relaxing time with each other! I have pics, but they will have to wait.....

Monday news.....Today was National Read-Across-America day, so for school today, we read all day! We went with the Dr. Seuss theme since this national reading day goes along with the anniversary of his birthday. So, we had green eggs and ham for breakfast, made cat-in-the-hat hats, did a few word finds and connect the dots from some of his stories, and read, read, read! Beckett was also able to take tests on all of those Dr. Seuss books on the Book Adventure web site and earned double points! Right before lunch, I was getting one of the computer tests set up for him and he said, "Mom! I think my tooth is ready to come out! Let's get to the bathroom!" So, here we went! Helen stood right beside him in front of the mirror and patted him on the back (he was a little nervous) and I took pictures like crazy! That tooth was barely hanging in there, so he played with it for a few seconds, gave it a little twist, and out it popped! He was so excited! I was too! Being the sentimental softy that I am, I have to admit that I teared up a little! It was such a huge deal for him and the pure joy that was on his face was just priceless! Maybe I'm over analyzing the loss of a first tooth, (who ME?) but it feels kind of like a right of passage from "babyhood" into the next phase of life! And I'm so thankful that I was with him when it happened and that we got to share in that excitement together! He didn't stop grinning for at least an hour! The next cool part of the story is that over a week ago when he first noticed his loose tooth, I started thinking about the whole tooth fairy thing and how were we going to approach that with him. I found a neat children's book on-line called "Throw Your Tooth on the Roof and Other Tooth Traditions from Around the World"! I ordered it from Amazon and it had been 8 days since it had been shipped! I was getting a little frustrated that it hadn't arrived! But wouldn't you know, when Beckett checked the mail this afternoon, there was the book! So, we enjoyed reading about the many strange and funny things that children from all over the world do when they loose their teeth! It was quite timely! Beckett still isn't sure what he wants to do with his tooth, and I think the whole tooth fairy thing is kind of wigging him out, so he wanted to wait another night or so before he did anything with his tooth!

So, that is the latest Harper Hullabaloo! Stay tuned for more as birthday number 6 is fast approaching! Blessings to you and your families!