Busy Busy Hartz's

Hey everyone!  How much did everyone love Rob's blog?  He had so much fun that day.  Paige is still talking about it.  Everyone at my office loves it when Paigey comes to visit.  She's so funny in the photo studio and likes to give the photographers a lot of sass.

Our life continues to be busy.  I'm working a lot but doing my best to balance working, being a mom, and being a wife.  But I have an amazing husband who helps me out so much and keeps our house going.  We've been off and running around our house.

We started a new tradition in our house.  We're doing Friday night movie night.  Daddy picks up pizza on the way home and I get the kiddos.  We all go to the basement eat and watch a movie.  It's so much fun!  As you can see from the picture Henry usually falls asleep.  It's been a fun thing to start.

We're trying to get in as much fishing as we can before it gets too cold.  Paige is getting more and more gutsy with the fish.  We finally got her to pet one before we thew it back.  She's really into measuring every fish that comes out.  Lucky for her we caught a lot of bass that Papa and Daddy wanted to measure.  This is Paige being our fishing assistant.  She's a pretty good one!

Henry is obsessed with his toy gym.  We're so thankful for that!  It keeps him busy.  But he is trying out his exersaucer and LOVING it.

Rob and I got a date night!  Rick and Gail watched our kids so we could go to Des Moines and go out to dinner.  It was so much fun!  It was nice to go out alone to dinner.  Of course our date ended with us at Target buying diapers.  Oh the life of a parent.

The other night Henry was a little fussy.  I was in his room with him rocking trying to get him to settle down and he just couldn't get comfortable.  Rob came in and I said maybe we should read to him.  So Rob sat down and started reading.  The next picture absolutely melts my heart.  I walked out and came back to see this little man sitting with his daddy all smiles.  Rob read him 6 books that night while Paige and I ran errands.

Last little update!  We took the kids to the doctor on Thursday.  Paige got a flu mist and did pretty well.  Henry had a 4 month check up.  I almost died when they put him on the scale.  So I was guessing he was going to be 18-18.5 lbs, obviously we know he's a big dude.  So they put him on the scale and he was 19 lbs 11 oz!!  He is 27 1/4".  That is the 99th percentile for EVERYTHING.  The doctor talked to us about starting cereal and baby food.  Oh how I can't believe we're already to that point!!  I told her I was worried about how big he was.  She told me to knock it off because he's equally big.  She looked at Henry and said I'm going to watch you play football someday.  So I guess I don't need to be worried.  I mean it's pretty easy to forget being worried about all of it when you have this little man smiling at you everyday!

I don't know when my kids got so big.  Henry is sitting in a bumbo playing with toys now.  We went on a walk as a family tonight and Paige and I had a full on conversation.  We just walked and talked.  It reminded me of all the times I would go walk with my mom and just talk to her about everything.  I hope this continues for the rest of my life.

But he's doing great with cereal!

Hope everyone is doing well.  We're still trucking along.  There will be a lot of blogs coming up.  We've got pumpkin patch coming up, carving pumpkins, a trip to Chicago, and Halloween!  Keep you all updated!

Field trip with Paige - by Rob

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to join Paige's pre-school class on a field trip to the apple orchard.  I agreed to go and had no idea what I was getting myself into!  I decided to meet the class at the orchard as Paigey decided she wanted to ride in the big van with all of her friends.  I got to the orchard a few minutes before the van arrived, but I could hear Paigey yelling "Daddy!" the second the van pulled in.  As I expected, I was one of 2 dad's on the trip but the other mom's were great.  The staff at the orchard were great.  We had our own host that showed us around and kept the kids entertained the whole time.  Below is the first attempt at a class picture.  The kids seemed really excited to take the picture....

The rest of the time we spent looking at the goats, going on a hay rack ride, and play on my arch nemesis - the "pillow".  Half way through the hay rack ride Paige was asking if we were done yet and pretty much every kid agreed.  Apparently riding around in an empty pumpkin field with painted pictures of animals isn't very interesting... Who knew?

Paigey and her friends checking out the animals.

Dad making his best attempt at a self portrait.

Apple tasting time!  Paige ate all of her's and some of mine.  That kid loves apples!

This is my nightmare.  We have been to this orchard once before.  Paige really wanted to play on this large "pillow".  All I remember from last time is Paige crying because she couldn't get up the pillow and then crying when she couldn't stand up.  I quickly jumped on to "save" her and ended up being bombarded by little kids and ended up on the ground more than Paige.  This time around I was smart enough to let the teachers climb on.  The kids had a blast and Paige was only crying because she was laughing so hard!

At the end of the trip, we had to go to the store to get their famous cider donuts.  Paige was tired so her and her friend Fenley decided to park it on some hay bales.  Fenley has been with Paige since they were babies and she is just a doll.

The last attempt at a class picture.  The first set were great until we realized we were missing a kid.  No big deal right?

Paige wouldn't let me leave until I took her picture of her in "old people" clothes.

After we were done with the field trip I surprised Paige and drove her home with me.  The rest of the day was just Paigey and Daddy time.  After nap time (for both of us) we headed to one of her favorite parks.  Of course she got bored because all of the other kids were in school.  Apparently Dad is only cool by himself for a little bit.

Who doesn't love the wind in their hair?

She loves this slide.

So how did we end this awesome day?  Well by getting some frozen yogurt!  Paige always ends up with more fruit than yogurt, but I'm not complaining.  We talked to Mom on the phone for a little bit and decided she needed some yogurt too so we ran down to her work and brought her some.  Paige loves visiting Mommy at work and everyone their adores her.  All in all it was a great experience for me and one I will never forget.  I'm sure there will be more field trips for me in the future and I can't wait!  

This was my first blog ever and it only makes me appreciate what Nikki does even more!

Life is NUTS!

Life continues to move at a crazy pace.  My work is very busy as we're taking on new clients which is very exciting!!  I can't believe the holidays are almost here.  September is almost over, soon it will be November and I'll be having a birthday that ends in a 0.  

My whole house has colds right now.  Rob and the kids are all coughing and stuffed up.  Henry doesn't have it that bad and Rob has it the worst.  I'm trying to healthy and also pump them full of emergen-c.  Thought I'd throw out some new pictures.  

This is what our driveway looked like for the garage sale.  Good golly I can't believe we had that much stuff!

 Here is Grammie and Paigey having lunch on the deck.  Please enjoy their table as we sold our other one at the sale.  Also I love that Paige is wearing a leotard.  Thanks Grammie for bringing it!

Just a little Grandma time before nap time

Mom and I with our much deserved beers!

Rob and I hosted a birthday party for my best friend Graham.  We had a bunch of people over to grill out and play games.  The weather was amazing!!  Rob also brought out a TV for college football.  Henry and him had some quality boy time before our guests arrived.  Rob doesn't enjoy having a boy at all if you can't tell.

Then I include these pictures of my children sleeping.  I just love both of them when they are sleeping, but every mom says that.  Paige is always sleeping in some way that makes her dad and I want to climb in and sleep with her.  Except we're not going down that road.  Henry is always spread all out now that he doesn't sleep swaddled.  For the first time EVER he slept through the night last night.  Let's hope we can get this to be a trend that continues.  I don't have high hopes for that!

Rob will be guest posting here soon.  He went on a field trip with Paigey and took a TON of pictures.

More Pictures!

Garage sale is OVER!!!  It was a very long week and a long Saturday but it was well worth it!  My mom helped me mark everything and get it organized on the tables.  I could not have done it without her.  Rob and I were so glad she was there to help!  We opened our doors at 7 AM and ended up selling until 2 PM.  Out of 15 totes of baby clothes (yes I'm aware that is NUTS, but 3-4 of them were not mine!)  We only have 4 totes left!  We sold everything big and almost had a fight in our driveway over our patio furniture that we sold.  Rob, Mom and I laughed so hard when the people left.  I'm not in the process of taking the rest of the baby clothes to consignment places before just donating it all together.  Thank you to Gail for hanging out with my kids all day so we could focus on the garage sale.  I have to get my living room cleaned up before we have friends up this weekend to celebrate Graham's birthday.

Paige is getting bigger and bigger.  The things that come out of her mouth crack me up.  My mom was laughing over the weekend because she says Paige sounds just like me.  Which I know she does as she is a constant repeat of anything I say.  That will teach you to watch what you say.  She's LOVING preschool.  Her imagination has been so much fun.  Everything is pretend.  You'll notice pictures down below of a rocket ship that Rob and her built!  She's been loving the nicer weather and has been outside quite a bit.

Henry is still growing like a weed.  I'm so ready to go to his 4 month appointment and see how many more inches this boy has grown.  If this is a sign for when he's a teenager I'm in big trouble with keeping food in the house.  He's just been moved into 9 month sleepers as his 6 month ones were getting too short.  I forgot how fast they learn to do things as they get closer to 4 months.  He's so interested in sitting up.  He's been trying to roll over and I think he's very close.  Rob and I decided to give him some tough love this week.  We have officially cold turkey took away his swaddle blanket.  He is no longer allowed to sleep anywhere but his bed.  He was building some bad habits and Mom and Dad were not getting much sleep.  To our shock he's adjusting much quick then we thought he would.  We tried cereal with him this week as well and he was NOT a fan!  We will wait until 4 months to try it again.

Enjoy the pictures of our family.  We are just trying to get through life and enjoy every moment with our kids.  So excuse the mess in the background of images as we're learning it's ok to let things get messy if that means spending time outside with Paige, or watching Henry learn something new!

Paige's rocket ship!

Daddy even cut windows!

Big boy with no swaddle

Someone liked the highchair and being able to see everyone

Holy baby clothes!!

my cuddlebug

fresh out of the bath and someone is in need of a haircut

His sleeping face is so funny sometimes

Thanks cousin Colin for the sweet outfit!

This was while I was cooking supper...there was no noise coming from the living room...I found this

Still sleeping in the bathroom during dinner

Testing out the saucer to see if we're big enough yet.  He loved the toys.

Paige and The Dentist

Paigey had her first trip to the dentist!  We went to a very special dentist, my friend Rachael was Paige's dentist today.  Rachael and I have been friends since preschool.  We went to church together and danced together for many years.  Her and her husband just moved back to Des Moines and opened their own pediatric dentistry office.  Paige did so great today!  I was proud.  There were things she wouldn't let Rach do, but she's already talking to me about doing them next time we go.  I of course took pictures!

Thanks Rachael for an amazing first dentist appointment!!

Mama, Paige and Dr. Revell

 We went out for supper to Paige's choice of restaurant, which of course is Panda Express.  Thumbs up from Paige for a great day!

Thanks Rachael for her new t-shirt!!  She's sleeping in it tonight!

Hartz Update

So I haven't blogged about us in a while.  Things have been pretty busy around our house, especially for this Mama at work.  So I will give you a little picture update of our world.  The kids are both doing great!  Paige started her 3 year old preschool curriculum today.  So the summer fun is over and now they start learning.  She's pretty excited about it.  She's been surprising us lately with how well she can write her letters.  We've been letting her write on cards, etc.  So I'm interested to see how much better they get with them focusing on a letter a week.  Henry is growing and growing.  He has started to do so many more things in the last week or so.  I rolled him on his belly yesterday and finally saw him picking his head up off the floor.  I got really excited.  He talks and smiles at us constantly.  He's starting to enjoy holding onto toys and has found a new love with his blanket.  We're still working on breaking him of the swaddle blanket.  I can't believe he's 3 months old.

We're having a garage sale this weekend.  I'm not too excited about it but hoping my stuff sells!  I spent all day yesterday with Rob and my mom marking all of the kids clothes we are selling.  So fingers crossed for a good turnout.

Paige and Henry hanging out together

Henry and I on the deck enjoying the weather.

Rob reading to the kids before we got in the car

Rob and Henry watching football

Paige fell asleep while eating in the car on the way home from my sister's house

Henry and his new favorite thing...his mouse blanket

This is only a small portion of the totes

Rob and Henry now watching baseball...Working on Henry's head control


This is my favorite picture of Henry!  I put him in the bath and he's getting so big for his seat.  He just hung one leg off and was relaxing like hey there!