Playing at the Lake

     We had a ward activity Saturday at a lake in Shelby, NC.  Bishop Poole's (he was the bishop when I was in high school) brother owns a house on Lake Moss. There was two docks and a motor boat.  The kids were able to swim at one of the docks. The ward grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, everyone brought sides or deserts.  We all so had home made ice cream. YUM!
    We got there a little late but right on time for lunch.  It was a fight to get the kids to eat.  All they wanted to do was swim.  We made them wear life vests.  Ethan fought us with this rule.  He kept wanting to take it off. Poor kid also had trouble staying warm in the water.  He came out about four times with blue lips.  But we got to hand it to him because he kept getting in.

    Sydney did really well swimming.  She went with Haily, Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Ryan out on the motor boat.  Sydney sat in the front and said it was scary.  It took Haily till the very end to get brave enough to actually go swimming.  She did get in with Uncle Ryan because she thought Ryan would just hold her.  Ryan tricked her and made her actually touch the bottom.  After that she decided swimming was not scary.

 Of course there was a lot of talking by the adults sitting underneath the big tree. For some reason there was a lot of talk about pregnancy. All day the kids wanted to go out in the paddle boat.  Tracy finnally said she would take them out.  Unfortuantly she did not get a lot of help from the kids paddling. Unfortuantly she is paying for it today.
                                         
                                   

School is out for the Summer!

Friday the was the last day for school.  So this week was awards day.  Sydney's was Wensday and Ethan's Thursday.  Tracy was able to go to Sydney's but felt bad did not make it for Ethan's. Both got awards (medals)  for most improved.  Ethan got award for A B honor role.   Ethan and Sydney are looking forward to the summer.  When you ask them what they want to do for the summer they say two things: go to the beach, go to the water park. We will see.

BIG NEWS!

We have a big announcement that some of you may already know. We will have to change the name of our family blog by the end of the year.  This is because if all goes well we will not be 5 Little Harpers but 6 Little Harpers.  At the end of April we found out that Tracy is pregnant again!  Tracy is about 9 weeks along.  We were very shocked.  I kept asking Tracy if the doctors were sure she was pregnant.  Anyone who has talked to Tracy about becoming pregnant again will know that this was not planned. In fact a week before we found out Tracy and I were talking about what to do when Haily finally went to school in a few years.  Personally I blame Ethan.  He has for the last year told us that he needed a little brother.  We are praying he gets one but of course he would love a sister if that is who comes to us.  The kids are very cute almost all of there prayers these day askes for the baby and mommy to be blessed.  For some reason Thursday Haily descided to tell us that we need to name the baby Rex.  Not sure why she chose this name but I am not sure we are going to use it.  Tracy is feeling very tired and nauscious these days.  Today her back is really hurting her.  The Doctores have been concerned about her blood pressure already.  The doctors also cautioned her that she has a lot of risk factores for not carring the baby full term, so we are hopeful that we will not have another miscarriage.  Thank your for your prayers.

Little Dancers

The girls finished their dancing class this week.  As a result we were able to come to their recital. Grandma and Grandpa Harper came as well.  The girls were very cute as you can see below.  They really enjoyed dance and would love to take it again in the fall but we have to see if it is still in the budget.  If they do dance in the fall they will be in different classes.

                                                       Getting lose and ready for the big show

                                           A little sistely support to get the butterflies out.  Aren't they cute?

                                                                  Tapa,Tapa, Tapa

                                                              More Tapa, Tapa, Tapa

                                                      A little swan lake anyone? So graceful!

                                                         Even Ethan is getting down.

Mormon Helping Hands

  

Last weekend I went along with about 24 others from our ward to Alabama to help with the tornado clean up.  I left here about 6:00pm and got there about midnight.  We camped at the branch building in Jasper which is north of Birmingham. We got up and worked all day Saturday.  The weather was good low 70's and over cast.  My group, which dad was a part of, went to Cordova. This was a small humble little town. In a little valley. It was amazing to see the destruction that was still there. The main street leading to downtown was closed because all the building downtown was damaged.  

            The first work address we could not even find.  The next one we met a nice elderly gentleman who had a huge tree in his driveway.  Unfortunately it was too big for us to pick up so we could not help him. But we did listen to his story.  We heard a lot of stories that day.  He showed us the "storm shelter" he and his wife stayed in.  Evidently there were two tornadoes that came through that day, almost 12 hours apart.  He said the first tornado flipped his truck on his tomato plants. He said that he was wondering how he would get it out of his garden but the second tornado flipped it back into the drive way.
            Next we went to an elderly lady's home.  She had a number of trees down and an out building that had some damage. We got the tarp on the out building and cut up the trees and stacked it by the road.  The residents were told that if they got the tree limbs and trash on the side of the street then the county would pick it up.  Luckily we had Brother Frost in our work crew and he brought his truck.  We used it as a wheel barrow to haul the limbs away.  If we did not have it I think we could still be carrying tree limbs to the road.  After a few hours it got harder and harder to lift the wood. About 1:00 we went to a local church that was feeding the volunteers.
            The last address we went to was on the side of the hill.  The woman who owned it and a trailer on the street below was there.  Both of these homes were in shambles.  The trailer had a humongous tree that crashed through it.  The lady that was renting it told us she was in the kitchen when the tree came down.  Looking at the trailer it is amazing she survived.  Another crew came and started cutting.  They were actually scary to watch and we all thought it was amazing they did not hurt themselves.  At one point one chainsawer actually dropped his chainsaw when the large limb he was cutting fell down. Luckily he did not cut himself.
            The house we were cleaning had down trees and trash and furniture everywhere. It also had a trailer’s roof plaster on the electric pole.  We were not sure that all the trash was the tornado’s fault. The trees were not as large as the earlier place we were at but they all twisted in vines and the hill was more vertical.  We worked hard to get it cleaned up the lady was also determined that we tarp the roof.  It was missing some tin and had some holes over the kitchen.
            We were beat by the time we were finally finished. We got back to Jasper and were able to take a shower at a local swimming center.  I and dad decided to just crash in the tent.  Sunday morning we packed up and had a sacrament meeting.  We were all set to do some work but it turned out that there were no jobs left.  So we were able to leave a little early.  The only thing I would do different would be bring a camera.  Unfortunately I do not have any pictures to share.  If I get any from any of the brethren that went I will post them.

Sydney's Big Day!

 Our little princess had a birthday on April 28th. She was very excited and had been asking everyday for a week if it was her birthday yet.  Tracy made cup cakes for her for her class at school. I guess they were good because I did not get to eat one.  She came home with a gold crown which she wore all day.  After a special Dinner We had a little party with Grandparents and Uncle Ryan ( althought Grandpa Harper had to leave after getting a quick birthday hug to go to school).  As usual Sydney got a lot of presents so many that Haily offered to help her open them.  I think she really liked everything that she got.  The birthday cake was delicious.  All in all the day was pretty good for our Birthday Girl.

The Cub Scout Riders

 The Pack meeting at the end of April was on bicycles.  Ethan and the rest of our cubs all brought their bikes to church to ride.  Ethan's unfortantly has out grown his bicycle.  we probably need to get him another one and also work to get the training wheels. As you can see he managed to have fun. I honestly think he may have riden his bike more that night than any other time in his life. There was two city police officers that came and taught the cubs bike safty.  As you can see they set up a little course for the boys to ride around.  It was a great success I think.  All the scouts had fun and hopefull they learned something.