If you are not a grandparent of ours then you are not getting a Christmas card. That is our final family ruling on Christmas cards. So, here it is for the year. One quick disclaimer; I dislike this photo, but it was the best out of the million that we took and we had to get to church. Of course, on this photo the flash did something weird and washed us all out and Henry looks funky.
We are enjoying Pennsylvania and all of the new adventures we are having. Charles is enjoying his work and all of the home projects that are keeping him busy. Annette tries to keep things running smoothly while watching her tummy grow and grow. Charlie enjoys things that go (trains, airplanes, cars, trucks), playing with Henry, using the potty, and telling us everything that crosses his mind. Henry has a vibrant personality and is easily excited by his new discoveries in life. He is on the verge of walking and loves to play with Mommy's hair.
We went for a fun, old-time train ride down south near the border of Maryland. It was put on by the BYU Alumni, Susquehanna Valley Chapter.
It doesn't look like it in the picture, but Charlie was SUPER EXCITED about the train ride.
He talks about the train ride multiple times a day.
There were snacks and water for everyone.
Henry was also SUPER EXCITED about the train while we were on it. He kept making his excited face and squealing for joy.
The train was painted very old timeish.
Charles went to take a picture of Charlie and me in front of the train, but it was on video mode, so you get to see the screen shot of the video.
They had a fun train for the kids to play with in the gift shop so that the kids didn't destroy the place. They had a replica of the train going around on a track up mounted around the perimeter of the ceiling. Henry kept reaching for it and was kind of upset that he couldn't reach it and we wouldn't give it to him.
Sick kids can be hard, but with a camera it is fun to take pictures of their cute little pathetic-ness while sick.
Henry fell asleep on Charles' arm.
Henry found one of his blankets in the clean laundry and fell asleep with it on our bedroom floor.
The boys won't ever sit quietly and watch movies if I am not there sitting with them. They were sick enough to finally do it though. They watched lots of learning videos on YouTube.
We are expecting a cute, active, little girl on April 21st! We are so excited to have a new little addition. She is very active and is always moving. She has moved at both ultrasounds and moves so much and so hard she has already woken me up at night and can kick so hard to be felt on the outside by a hand. We are so happy!
Henry is such a sweet boy who loves to play and figure things out. He is growing big and strong and is always trying to do more. We love him and all of the funny things that he does. Henry is a great little boy and we love him so much. We are glad that he is in our family.
Side Notes:
1) For those worried grandparents that Henry might be cold with just a onsie on during the day, don't worry. It is about mid 70s in our home since the sun heats it up through the windows. It isn't very cold here, just about 60ish outside. We still don't need our heater. One day it got up to 78 on the main level and about 80 degrees upstairs.
2) Yes, Charlie has a huge chunk of muffin in his mouth. He often shoves the last bite in his mouth before realizing that it should have been his last two bites. Consequently he can't close his mouth, chew, or swallow. It never ends well.
We had our first snow in Pennsylvania on November 12th. Here we are eating breakfast watching the littlest snow flakes come down.
We went outside after getting dressed.
There wasn't much left.
But there were still some big grins.
Here is a funny movie for you to enjoy. Charlie steals center stage, but keep your eye on Henry. He had just began eating his half of the banana and devours it in no time flat.
Charlie is SUPER clean (I don't know how he is my child). He often wants me to help him wipe his hands clean frequently during meals. He loves to clean up his toys and likes things to be in their place. I do not take any credit for this. I encourage him to clean his room, but beyond that I haven't done much or insisted that his hands are perfectly clean every moment of the day.
The other day while I was showering the boys were in there playing in the cabinet under the sink. I looked out at one point and saw a lot of the stuff out of the cabinet. My first thought was, "Ugh, another thing to clean up." When I hopped out of the shower I saw Charlie closing the door to the cabinet. He pointed to it and said, "Away!" He was so proud that he had put it all away. I looked in to see what it looked like inside. It was pretty much all in the same spots. What an organized little boy.
Charlie has a little book of animal pictures that he studies regularly. He knows most of the animals in it. The other day he started hanging from the top bunk of their bunk beds (oh yeah, we failed to mention on the blog that the boys got bunk beds since there was a garage sale down the road and they were a good price). He kept saying, "moth" I really had no idea what he was trying to tell me about a moth. After looking at his book and making connections, I finally realized that he was saying, "sloth." He was hanging from the bed like the sloth hangs from the tree in the book.
The cutest moment of parenthood has happened. Henry was crawling and tripped and smacked his face into the floor (that wasn't the cutest moment). As I was holding Henry, Charlie came over and gave Henry the stuffed rabbit. Henry immediately hugged the rabbit and it made him feel so much better. I then realized that Henry did favor the rabbit. It was so cute to see him cuddle with it. I couldn't believe that Charlie knew what to do to comfort his brother and which stuffed animal would do best. Charlie is a sweet boy.
Here is Henry with his rabbit. He is eating/attacking it (in a very loving way) in the photo.
I thought that I would add a photo of his favorite animals. The lion is the most favorite.
Henry folds his arms for prayer. Claps when he is happy. Henry says "Ahh" when he is done drinking. Henry signs, "Food" when he needs more and signs "All done" when he is finished. When Henry spills his water on the table he will slurp it up off of the table.
Charlie likes to do all of these things with Henry since it is just so much fun. Charlie is also a clean freak and points out ickies, "Eeee."
My conversation with Charles on the Saturday post Halloween:
Charles: Should we cut down our Christmas tree today?
Me: Uh, its barely November. I was going to wait to do Christmas tree stuff until mid November
Charles: Oh. But the weather is so nice now.
Me: Okay, lets chop it down.
I am pretty easily swayed when it comes to Christmas.
We cut down one of the evergreens in our backyard. There are three of them there and we don't really care for any of them because they were poorly placed. We'll get trees to replace them next year. But until then, we have a free Christmas tree for the next three years! We chopped down the largest.
Charles used his circular saw to chop it. We watched from a distance.
We watched with safety. Charlie loves hats so of course he had to wear it.
Yea!
Oops! The pumpkins are still up. I quickly threw them out after this photo. We also took all of this free foam downstairs. Charles got it from work. It is soundproofing foam that Charles is going to put in the basement.
It's up! The tree trunk was too skinny for our tree stand so we had to rig it up with some plastic. We gave the tree a little bit of a trim at the top so it would fit and so that it had a little bit of a better shape.
We are quite proud of our homely looking tree. We like it so much because we didn't pay for it and because this is probably the type of tree we would have bought if we had bought a tree. It reminds me of when I was a kid. I think a lot of our trees looked pretty funny. I remember cutting one down that we had grown.
With the extra branches I made a wreath and then hot glued pine cones from the backyard on to it.
Henry wanting to join in the fun and eat my camera.
Saddened that his holiday cheer was squelched. (he's got to learn not to touch the tree)
