Henry's 1st Year

It is absolutely amazing to me how quickly a baby grows and changes. Sometimes it is hard for me as a mother to even notice because I am with them all day, every day. I love looking through the pictures of my babies as they grow up. Please allow me to share with you this little journey through Henry's first life.


(first picture)
Dear Henry,
You have brought me such joy from the very beginning of your life. From the first moment I felt you move within me to the first moment I saw you and to this day, my love for you grows and grows. Your birth was easy and perfect. 

I cut your cord and then helped clean you up while you laid on my belly. You were amazing. So beautiful. You brought an incredible spirit with you, one I hope to continue to nourish and let grow as your Heavenly Father would have it be. 

(first picture with me)
I am so blessed to be your mother. 

You've filled my heart and my life with love and joy. 

(1 month old)
Your first smiles made every challenge worth it. I knew you were smiling at me because you love me. 

(2 months old)
I love how much you love your big brother.
William adores you (even if he has a funny way of showing it sometimes). 

You brought many new challenges and experiences into my life. Your spit up was something I really struggled with. I couldn't believe how much one little being could shoot from their mouth. I didn't like being covered in it. But it was worth it. I'd do it all over again just for you! Your sweet smiles and your soft giggles and coos made it worth it. 

(3 months)
When you were born with red hair, I hoped it would stay. Your hair fell out, but it grew back just as red as the day you were born. It perfectly suits you! 

(4 months)
You've always had a great appetite. You've been a great eater since the very first time I held you in my arms and fed you. I couldn't believe how quickly you packed on your chub, but I absolutely adored each and every wrinkle and crease on your chubby body. 

(5 months)
I love being with you. I loved taking you to BYU football and basketball games. I know some may not understand, but BYU is very dear to me, and I hope to pass that love of the university and its sports on to you. 

(6 months)
I love how in tune you are. You're very aware of what is going on around you. I know that you already have a testimony. That is evident to me every morning and every time you wake up since the first thing you do is point to your picture of Jesus and say His name. Jesus loves you. Please always remember that and always cling to Him and His church.  

(7 months)
You definitely have a mischievous side. Those little wheels are often turning in your head trying to figure out what you can get into next. I love that though. You always keep me on my toes. And it reminds me of myself. I love seeing a bit of me in you. 

(8 months)
We sometimes call you Henry Bear or little bear. It started with this hat that I made you for Christmas. We also call you by the Japanese term for little bear. I think it suits you so well. 

(9 months)
We also lovingly call you Henry boy. I love hearing William call you his little Henry boy. I cherish the love you two have for each other.

(10 months)
The biggest challenge I've faced with you was when you refused to breastfeed at 10 months. I felt rejected at times. But as I prayed about it and as I did all I could to continue to give you that "liquid gold" (I finally came to really understand that term), I knew you weren't rejecting me. You were teaching me. I have a better understanding now for what other mothers may go through. Thank you for teaching me this very valuable lesson. This has been one of the best lessons I've learned as a mother. Thank you for helping me become a better person.

(11 months)
You're also teaching me patience.
I thought I was patient before, but I now know I still have much to learn!

(12 months)
Every moment with you is a gift.
I love you and I thank you for all that you've taught me and continue to teach me.
I'm truly grateful that you are mine forever.

Love,
Mommy

Henry - 12 months old

Here is a look back at Henry.
These pictures are from 4/22/11 through 5/21/11. But the update is from then until now.

12 month stats:
22 pounds
30 inches tall
47 cm head circumference
Overall he's in the 50th percentile. Seems perfect to me!


When Henry is happy (which is 98% of the time) he is really happy! He loves to play with his toys, with his brother, and with David and me. One of the funniest things he does is showing his emotion with his fists. When he is really excited/happy/angry he puts his fists up and clenches them as tight as he can! He also bunches up his face when he does this.  It is hilarious! I really need to get a picture of it! 

Henry loves hats. He'll often start giggling when you put one on him. I love it! 

Henry is an excellent cruiser.  He'll walk along the furniture all day long. He did take 2 steps on the 17th of May and then 5 steps on the 18th.  He'll take some steps here and there, but other than that, he just doesn't seem to care about walking. I wish he would though (famous last words, right?)! One of these days, he's going to amaze us all by getting up and walking/running all over. I just know it. 

Henry loves bath time. He loves to put his face in the water. He also is king of cheesy faces. 

Henry LOVES reading! And I love that he loves it. I was worried for a while because he really wanted nothing to do with it. But now I often walk in to find him reading. I love hearing his babbles as he flips through his books. It really makes me so happy that both of my boys love reading. My goal is to continue to foster that in them! 

This was Henry's first (and only) time wearing his sandals. He didn't know what to think of them at first. 

Then he decided he really didn't like them!
What can I say, we just prefer bare feet in this family (well, except for David). 

When Henry cries he makes some of the saddest faces you'll see. And he produces lots of big crocodile tears. It melts my heart and it makes me giggle. 

Henry does not like being growled at. Although he's getting more used to it now. Usually when we growl or roar at him he makes this face above. 

And then this happens. Yes, I am a mean mom. I purposely make Henry cry on occasion because we just love his sad little face! His lip puckers out and it is just so darling. We always comfort him. 

Don't worry, he still loves and trusts us. 

Some other random bits about Henry:
He now has 9 teeth. His bottom left side tooth finally came through right after his birthday. And now he has his left top molar coming through.
He is still a really good eater, but he definitely has his picky moments.
He can say Jesus, what's that, daddy, bird, more, and moo.
He can sign all done, more, please, thank you, milk, and bird.

We love you Henry boy! 

Henry's 1st Birthday - The Party!

We held Henry's birthday party in the evening on May 21st at my parents' house. It was so fun to have most of my family there (just missing Becky and her family) and Terry, Nathan, and Amy! We had a hot dog roast with some delicious side dishes. Thanks to my dad for cooking all the hot dogs!

I decided to make cupcakes in ice cream cones for Henry's party. It was pretty fun and really easy! This is how they looked BEFORE Jacob decided to be "helpful". Thankfully most of them survived his helpfulness. (I love you Jacob!)

This was Henry's cake. We got this for free from our local grocery store. 

After dinner, we played a little game. We had ten balloons with 10 facts about Henry. My dad got the 10th balloon which had our announcement that Henry is going to be a big brother. 

This shows my dad's reaction! "Are you pregnant!?!"

Henry opened his presents after our little game. My dad was so kind to help him with all his presents. He received some very nice things. Thanks to all our family!

We then sang Happy Birthday and Henry "blew out" his candle. I didn't get any pictures of this. 

Henry had no problems eating his cake. He started with a finger full of frosting...

and quickly progressed to fist-fulls of cake. 

Then he decided that wasn't working either.
So he grabbed half of his piece and tried to shove it in his mouth. 

He loved playing with and eating his cake!

Delicious!

Waving to us! 

How can you not love this face?!!!

Squishy!

All done!
It's a great thing we did this outside. When Henry enthusiastically signed all done, cake went flying everywhere!

Henry had a great birthday!
Thanks to everyone who came and to Becky who called!
You all helped to make his first birthday a very special day.
We sure love our Henry!!!

Henry's 1st Birthday - Zoo Trip

On Henry's birthday we spent the morning/early afternoon at our local zoo.


The boys were very excited to be there! 

Henry was in awe of everything around him! 

We caught the boys holding hands as we were walking around. I thought it was adorable! Definitely one of those tender moments every mother cherishes.


Here are some of the wildlife we saw. The boys absolutely loved the elephants. The baby elephant was adorable! And the dinosaurs were kinda random, but pretty fun - especially the ones that spit at you! 

William really enjoyed the giraffes. He loved see their long purplish tongues. 

Henry also loved the giraffes - even those this picture would make it seem otherwise. 

With our zoo pass we get unlimited train and carousel rides. We didn't make it to the train because of how busy the zoo was, but we did ride the carousel once. It was so fun! William loved riding on the wolf. 

Henry also enjoyed the carousel. As soon as it started moving up he looked up and just stared in awe. He  loved going up and down so much he started dancing!

We had a blast at the zoo! We're so glad we got to spend some time there with just our little family before our big party that night. More to come on Henry's birthday tomorrow!

10 Fun Facts about Henry

1. Henry loves to crawl on his hands and feet.
2. Henry can sign more and all done.
3. He can say moo, mama, dada, this, and that.
4. Henry will eat anything - even dandelions!
5. His favorite book is Moo, Baa, LaLaLa by Sandra Boynton.
6. Henry does not like being tossed in the air.
7. He loves laughing and being tickled.
8. He LOVES playing with William.
9. He has curly red hair!
10. Henry is going to be a big brother in December!

Happy birthday, Henry!!!!

Our sweet Henry is one today!!! Happy birthday to our little bear. We love you dearly and are so grateful you joined our family!!!! Here's to many more happy years together.
Love,
Daddy, Mommy, and William

Easter

We had a lovely Easter weekend.

On Saturday the 23rd we had a fun Easter egg hunt with David's family and neighbors. William loved looking for all the eggs. He even stopped to look for some other hidden treasure... We sure got spoiled with lots of yummy candy!

William got a brand new Lightning McQueen bike from his Grandma Dougal. He was SUPER excited when he saw it. He ran right to it and climbed on. He's been working hard learning how to "pedal like mad" as he says. Thanks Grandma Dougal!!!
We spent Saturday evening with my family celebrating Easter and my niece's birthday. We had a great time with them! 

Sunday morning we awoke to some fun Easter baskets. We each got some books, some candy, and some other little things. Henry was so funny - he realized that his eggs made different sounds when he would shake them. So he found two different ones and would shake them together to hear their different sounds. It was pretty funny! Then one accidentally opened, spilling some M&Ms out. He sure enjoyed those!

I made the boys these really cute car mats.  They can be arranged in all sorts of ways. The boys have had lots of fun playing with them. I had a lot of fun making them - they were pretty time consuming, but the end product was well worth it!

After church David, William, and I colored Easter eggs. This was William's first time coloring eggs. He LOVED it! He had lots of fun dipping his eggs in all the colors.
That evening we had a lovely dinner with my grandparents, my uncle and his family, and another uncle.

It is fun to celebrate Easter with these various traditions. But we definitely stopped to take time and talk about the true reason for Easter. We are eternally grateful to our Savior Jesus Christ, for His atonement in our behalf and for His resurrection. We know that one day we too will be resurrected like Jesus and, that if we live righteously and apply the atonement daily in our lives, we will live with Him again for all eternity. Our lives would mean nothing without our Savior. We hope that you will join with us in remembering him not only on these special holidays, but in everyday of our life.