Just Hanging Out With Henry

Where's Waldo? Can you spot Henry in his new fave hiding spot?
Daddy getting some rare Henry cuddles.
This picture is from our visit to see Santa at SF on Saturday. Henry was terrified of the whole experience and definitely wouldn't sit on Santa's lap or let Mrs.Claus hold him. The pictures that they took of us are of me holding Henry standing next to Santa with Henry looking away from Santa and shaking his head NO! Those should turn out cute :-)

These pictures are from our weekend. We were mostly snowed in..so we just had some fun around the house. Henry played with hangers (probably very unsafe...we supervised!) and hid behind some holiday decorations. We also went to see Santa. Those pictures to come..SF mails them to us.

Like Father, Like Son...

Here's a few pictures of Patrick and Henry hanging out at the Discovery Museum last weekend. We took Henry to play there on Saturday after we got his picture taken with Santa at State Farm. He had lots more fun at the museum than he had visiting Santa!

Snow Day!!

Helping Daddy make snowballs
Frustrated because he's stuck
Trudging through the snow
Ready to go outside

We had our first big storm/snow of the year starting yesterday and going through the night into this afternoon. I'm definitely more of a summer girl, but the best part about the winter is a surprise snow day! I love it when you think you'll have to go to work and then it surprisingly gets cancelled. Both Patrick and I both ended up being off today. Yes, State Farm was closed today...a big shocker.

Henry was fascinated by the snow this morning when he looked outside. He kept going to the window and pointing outside. When it warmed up a bit, we bundled him up and took him outside to play. He didn't know what to think at first and didn't love it too much. He still wanted to push his trucks around and when they got stuck easily, he got frustrated. I think he'll warm up to it though...he didn't want to come inside, so I think he started to like it more towards the end.

The Saga Of The Tree

Ok, so the post below is the story of how our Christmas tree came into being. Or at least how it became ours. Well, normally the story is the same from there for all...the tree comes home, gets decorated and shines bright with Christmas spirit. Not so much with ours.

I should first explain the way that the trees from this particular tree farm are expected to stand. The workers drill a massive hole into the bottom of the stump and then the tree is placed on a giant spike and stands up this way. It's not put into a usual tree stand with screws to hold it. Ok, so we got our giant (meaning bushy) tree home and Patrick put it on the spike and brought it into the house on the stand. We cut it open and very National Lampoon's style it poofed out and became much larger than we expected. They always look smaller when surrounded by other, larger trees. Anyway, it was up and decorated with lights and ornaments on Friday. Henry touched it once, made a face and then didn't bother it anymore which really surprised me!

Fast forward to Sunday night at 12:30, we were all sleeping when Patrick and I heard a huge, glass-shattering, bang/crash. Patrick immediately ran down the stairs and once I heard that he wasn't fighting off a burglar, I followed. Our Christmas tree had tipped OVER! And it was laying on the floor along with several broken ornaments, some lights, and lots and lots of water. We cleaned it up and put it on the porch, lights and all!

Monday night Patrick discovered that the hole drilled was crooked and the tree had probably been subtly leaning for 2 days. He decided to saw off enough of the bottom to make the stump narrow enough to fit into a normal tree stand. Well, after he sawed and stood the tree up in the stand, I was taller than it! It was less than 5 feet tall! It was so sad, but I decided to just decorate it and live with it this Christmas and realized maybe I was having too much pride in our tree. However, once it came back into the house it still wouldn't stand. It just kept tipping over. After a swift kick, Patrick took it back outside where we planted our miniature tree in a big planter we had mums in during the Fall. It also blew over once outside (yes, again), but once Patrick tied it to the porch it has been fine. We decorated it with Christmas lights and decided to put an artificial tree in our house this year. Apparently the other tree just wasn't meant to be!

Going On A Tree Hunt...

Last Friday we went to the Christmas tree farm (where Patrick worked during the winter in high school) in search of the perfect Christmas tree. It was a warm, sunny, beautiful day. At only 9:30 it was already 60 degrees! Henry had a lot of fun, mostly running around and weaving in and out of rows of trees. We really had to keep up with him or he could have gotten lost! Because it was so warm, the usually frozen ground was super muddy. By the time we cut our tree down and were heading back to the car Henry's pants and jacket were covered in mud. Both had to be taken off before we left for home, so he rode home in his shirt and diaper! It was all worth it though when we found our perfect tree (more to come on the tree...). Even the workers at the farm commented on what a big tree it was...we were very excited and proud of our find!

Cutie cousins

Here's a few pics of Henry and Gabe playing together when Dan, Sara, Gabe and my mom came to visit a few weekends ago. I love the boys in their matching outfits...they're wearing them from their pictures taken earlier in the day.

A Beautiful Bride

Yesterday our good friend from college, Leann got married. It was so great to see her...it had been almost 2 years! She's the same sweet and fun girl. Her wedding was beautiful and the reception was really pretty and elegant. We had a lot of fun...we all loved the food!

Henry had a sleepover at his Grandma and Grandpa Vance's. It sounds like he had lots of fun and was a good boy. His cousins Isaac, Caleb and Hannah also went over to play so he had lots of friends to play with. They wore him out, too...he slept really well last night and napped well today! It's always hard to leave him, but I do feel like I worry less and less when we're away. I am able to rest and trust that he is in good hands.

Henry running on the beach

This video is from our vacation to Florida. Henry was warming up to the water and getting braver around it. Although he still wasn't too brave...he would wait just long enough to see the tide washing in and then run away from it as fast as he could! I find myself a bit irritating on this one...one thing "run"!!

New Blog

I changed my blog to beta (?). I have NO clue what it means or what it did, but it makes me be able to upload pictures super fast! Before blogger used to time-out a lot when I was uploading pics. Also, I changed my template for fun just to mix it up! The pictures below uploaded speedy quick.

Sneak Peek...

Dan, Sara, Gabe and my Mom came down last weekend. While they were here we took the boys to get their pictures taken together. They both were perfect during the pics and they turned out really cute.

More to come on the Christmas cards...

Trick-or-treat!

Happy Halloween! Henry dressed up as a dinosaur and we did some trick-or-treating with Brandon, Emily and baby Charlie. Charlie was dressed as Curious George and Brandon dressed as the man in the yellow hat. It was hilarious to see everyone in costume. And poor Brandon, despite his great costume,no one could quite guess what he was dressed as! We rode in their van together and made a few stops at friend's houses then we went to get pizza. Both babies did really well. I wasn't sure how Henry would do with getting in and out of his carseat several times, but he had lots of fun. And it helped that there were doggies at all of the houses we went to!

He is loving dogs lately. We might have to see what we can do about that for Christmas?? Patrick's heart is softening...I overheard him say to Henry, "we need to get you an outside dog"..he didn't know I could hear him! That's a step! I'm wondering if there is a battery powered dog that might walk and bark and do other dog things. I would settle for that for now! Far less work.

Anyway, it was a fun night and Patrick and I ended up with some yummy candy to share!

Fall Fun!

The weather has been beautiful here for the past few days so we've been able to get outside and enjoy some nice Fall fun. On Sunday Patrick and Henry did some raking. It's funny because even though we don't have any trees in our yard, we get lots of leaves from the wind blowing them all our way. Henry loved driving his truck in the leaves the most.

Monday night we brought our pumpkins inside and Henry helped carve his first jack-o-lantern! At first he wasn't sure what to think when we cut it open and starting scooping it out. But he quickly became interested and helped with the scooping out of seeds and pumpkin goo (does anyone know what this stringy stuff is called?). He would scoop some out and then scoop it right back in! He lost interest after a while, but he was fascinated once he saw the finished jack-o-lanterns all lit up!

Beach Baby

We got home from Florida last Saturday. It was such a great vacation. We all had so much fun. The weather was almost perfect (only two days of rain), the beach was beautiful and all of the rest and relaxation was wonderful! Henry-to our surprise- was very cautious of the ocean and acted very suspicious of the waves washing onto the shore. He would stand on the edge of the shore and when a wave started to wash up he would run as fast as he could in the other direction. He wasn't crazy about the pool either. But he LOVED the sand! Most of our time was spent playing on the beach in the sand. Patrick and I made lots of sand castles and Henry knocked lots down! He also loved having his feet and legs buried and he loved chasing the sea gulls. It was such a great time and I loved to watch Henry having so much fun playing there. Our friends Emily and Brandon's baby, Charlie was such a good boy. He did great traveling and he absolutely loved swimming in the pool. He was so brave and would swim for hours in his little floatie or kick around wearing his water wings.

During one of the two rainy days, Patrick and I took Henry to the zoo. As you can see in the picture below, we were able to feed giraffes! It was a very different zoo...the animals were living in their natural habitats so we could observe them and see what it would be like to see them in the wild. Of all of the animals we saw(including zebras, gorillas, chimpanzees, hippos, rhinos)Henry's favorites were the ducks which he loved feeding.