Congratulations Beckett!

We have found many incredible web sites to assist us as we homeschool Beckett this year and one of those sites is "Book Adventure"! Beckett earned 900 points by reading books and taking tests on them. He redeemed his points on a candy bar! It would have been so easy to go to any local store and get him a candy bar, but this had to be the one that was offered on the web site by one of their sponsors! We wanted to honor Beckett's efforts, so I called the 1-800 number to find the closest location of "The Rocky Mountain Candy Factory" and it was in Lebanon, TN! (2 hours away!) Fortunately, we were headed to Brentwood to visit Grankaki and Granbob, so we made a quick stop to redeem his points! I don't think he ever enjoyed a candy bar so much! It was well earned! Good job Beckett!

Don't worry, Helen got a cookie for all of Beckett's efforts! She just isn't holding it in the picture!

My "Willow Tree" nativity scene will never be the same! Not long after I had every piece placed "just so", action figures and dinosaurs started to arrive to see the baby Jesus! Even the Nutcracker left his post to check him out! Did you know that Buzz, Woody, Spidey and Sandman were there, too?

When we arrived home from church on Sunday, we found a new friend had arrived in the yard! He has been affectionately named "Prancer" by Beckett. Helen wanted to name him Rudolph, but of course, there is no red nose! The clues are beginning to come together, but still no clear cut answers as to how Prancer decided to make our front yard his new home! Beckett is just glad to have "an outside decoration"! The lights on our tree and in the windows just aren't enough for him! At least now, we have a lone reindeer to spruce up our yard for the holidays!

Merry

Christmas!

Quilts and Babies

Some of you have asked, "What does Helen do while you are teaching Beckett?" Well, here is what she did yesterday! She loves to play with her babies and yesterday she spread out all of our quilts from Auntie Mame and Grankaki and had quiet time with her babies! It was too cute! By the way, I figured out the "edit" thing! Shouldn't be a problem anymore! :) Thanks, Kathy!

Just a comment about the following post. I wish I had more time to learn how to do this blogging thing. However, I only understand the basics and don't have much time to explore how to make it look better! Anyway, when you read the following post, you will see how I messed up "Happy Birthday Ty!" The problem is, I can't figure out how to edit it properly! So, please excuse my off-center and misspelled heading! If you know me well, you know that it is killing me to leave it up there like that, but I don't have a clue how to fix it, nor the time to spend figuring it out! Ah, perfectionism! You gotta love it!

We Pick This One!

Well, actually, mom did! We picked the coldest afternoon to go pick out and cut down our Christmas tree! But it was fun! We will be decorating it tomorrow night and going to see Santa on Wednesday night! What a fun time of year!

We went to Chattanooga to celebrate Ty's 2nd birthday on Saturday! Ty is Beckett and Helen's cousin!He will turn two, get a new baby sister and have a visit from Santa all in one month! How exciting!

Our neighbors have had twins! They came over for dinner last Friday night and we had a great time! Noah and Turner slept through most of the evening, while Beckett and Helen had fun entertaining their big brother Carson! Sean and I even got to feed the twins while their mom and dad went to get some ice cream! Ask Sean about his "pump method" for getting Turner to burp!

We hope that you all had wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations! We enjoyed our visit with family in North Carolina! We had a fabulous meal on Thursday afternoon! During our stay, Helen and Beckett enjoyed dressing up in scrap fabric in Auntie Mame's sewing room, playing "the shower game" and "the bar game"! Sorry that I don't have pictures of any of those events...I do need to document them! Anyway, I am including a picture of Helen and Aunt Susi after Helen had clearly been enjoying something chocolate! The girls spent part of Friday shopping and having lunch in downtown Waynesville while the guys went to Cataloochee in the Smokies and hiked. They had a great encounter with some of the elk in that area! There are a couple of elk "viewing areas" there, but they were able to see some of them up close as they were hiking! What a great day! I forgot to mention the pretty snowfall we enjoyed on Friday morning as well! That is the latest from the Harper home! We are planning to cut down our Christmas tree this weekend, so new pics will follow soon! Take care!

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Family Concert
November 18, 2007
Tennesse Theater

Beckett and I took a "field trip" on Sunday afternoon to the KSO's Family Concert at the Tennesse Theater. It was a great afternoon! The concert was geared for children ages 3 to 8 and was very fun and informative as it taught the children about all of the instruments and the different sections of the orchestra. Beckett had fun before the concert trying to play the french horn and the violin! His favorite section was the percussion section which didn't surprise me at all! He is looking forward to the next concert for families in March when they will be telling stories through music and featuring "Peter and the Wolf".

We will be traveling to Waynesville, NC for Thanksgiving! We hope you all have a blessed holiday with your families and friends!

Beckett's First UT Football Game!

Sean and Beckett went to the UT/Arkansas game this past Saturday and had a great time! Highlights of the day included riding the bus to the game, watching the "Vol Walk" and getting to high-five many of the players as well as Coach Fulmer, and of course Neyland stadium and over 100,000 cheering Vols fans! It was a memorable experience for both father and son!!

We had a great time this weekend in the mountains with our family! We played games, ate lots of food, shopped and enjoyed the fall colors! Thanks Nana and Papa for a fun time at the cabin! It was so fun!

Happy Fall Everyone!

Just a few pictures from the past week.

Playing in the leaves next door!

A trip to the pumpkin patch!

Carving our Jack-O-Lantern!

Bugs Bunny and The Incredible Hulk!

Enjoy! :)

Sorry that there have been no updates recently. We have had a slow few weeks! We don't have anything very exciting to report! Beckett is doing great in school and is really beginning to read very well! He is enjoying it now because he doesn't get stuck on words as often! He is also learning how to count money and how to tell time! Helen is doing well, too! She had tubes put in her ears about a month ago and has not had anymore ear infections! She loves to sing and play with her baby dolls! She keeps us laughing every day with her facial expressions and funny comments! I'm posting a picture of Beckett reading a story to Helen. I'm also putting up a picture of them playing in the rain yesterday in their pajamas! The rain was certainly a welcome event and they couldn't just watch from the front porch....they had to get out and enjoy it!

Just a few new pics to share of our recent trip to see Grankaki and Auntie Mame at their "quilting cabin" in Crossville last week! They each got a turn in the canoe with Grankaki and got crafty with Auntie Mame! Helen enjoyepiecing together fabric as well as dressing herself in scraps and Beckett was all about learning how to use the sewing machine! We had a great afternoon!

What a great trip! Our trip to Cincinnati was so much fun! I'm still not good at downloading the pictures how I want them to show up, but you can get an idea of what we did on our three fun days! Wednesday night was the Reds/Cardinals game! We had great seats and lots of fun. Beckett and Helen especially loved all of the ball park food! Our hotel had a great indoor pool which we needed in the morning and the evenings because it was so cool! We had fun swimming quite often! On Thursday we went to the Cincinnati Zoo. The highlight for me was the manatee exhibit! The kids loved the polar bears! Our last day was spent at The Creation Museum. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it to everyone! Hope you all are doing well!

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to check in and let you know that we are headed to Ohio and Kentucky for the next three days! Last year during the World Series, Beckett became a Cardinals fan and we thought it would be fun to take him to a game! It was hard to find tickets in St. Louis, so we decided to go see them play the Reds in Cincinnati! We are going to the game on Wednesday night and then we are thinking about going to the Cincinnati Zoo on Thursday. We are coming home on Friday after we spend a good part of the day at The Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY! Some of you have asked us about it and their web site is http://www.creationmuseum.org/ if you want to check it out! I'll post an update and pics when we get back!

Helen is feeling much better and we are looking forward to the weekend! Beckett celebrated his half birthday on Wednesday with his favorite blue ice cream at Maggie Moo's! Hard to believe that he is half way to six years old! Hope you all have a great weekend! Go Vols!

No new pics today! Although I could take one of our new bathroom floor! Sean's weekend project was to lay tile in our guest bathroom. He has worked very hard tearing up the floor and laying the tile! Tonight he will put in the grout and on Thursday night he will put in the new toilet! Exciting times at the Harper's!

I just wanted to ask you all to pray for Helen. She has been very sick all weekend and is still having a rough time. She began vomiting last Thursday night around midnight and was very sick for about 48 hours. When she threw up again on Sunday morning, I took her to our pediatrician who discovered a double ear infection. All of that background to say, it is Tuesday afternoon and Helen just had another vomiting episode. I called the doctor's office and they said that "it's probably a bug!" You think? Anyway, she has had this virus and ear infection for quite a while and has lost about 6 or 7 pounds. Please pray that her little body will heal and that she will begin to recover soon! Thanks!

I hope to post good news and fun photos soon! :)

Always looking for a bargain, we decided to go to the grand opening of the old Riviera Theater downtown this past Tuesday! Regal Cinemas has restored the old theater and they were showing recently released movies for $1.00 each! The three of us went to see "Meet the Robinsons" and we each got our own popcorn and drink for under $10.00! (And parking was free!) My kind of day! We started school a little earlier than usual that morning so we could get to the 12:15 show! Of course, we had to make a trip to Mast General Store for candy after the movie! It was a fun afternoon!

I heard how easy it was to set up a blog site, so I thought I'd give it a try. My intent will be to ocasionally post pictures and Harper family updates so that our friends and family can keep up with our latest endeavors. So here we go.......

As you all know, our most exciting news in the last two weeks has been that our 5 year old son, Beckett started Kindergarten! He is doing well and loves everything about it, except for the occasional grumblings when it comes time for handwriting. We are homeschooling this year and it is going very well. Thanks so much to all of you for your support and encouragement. We have learned so much about the homeschool movement and have been so impressed with the many families we have met who homeschool as well as the organizations that support homeschool families. Most of all, we are grateful for the opportunity to continue Beckett's (and Helen's) education at home where we can pass on our faith and values and teach them the most important lesson of all... how much God loves them.

We would love to hear from you all. I'll try to post at least once a week and I'll try to learn about all of these options. Right now, I'm not really sure what I'm doing and I don't know how this is going to turn out. We'll see. Take care!