Henry is one!

It was a whale of a good time at our house for Henry's birthday!

I'm exhausted, and it has been one of the best days ever. First and foremost, Henry had a great time at his party. There is a long story with the cake, but a spur from that issue was the declaration that "first birthday parties are more for the parents than for the kids". Well, that may be true in some ways, but I tried to keep focused and tried to make it a party reflective of Henry's personality; I am so pleased with the result. The house was filled with tots his age to play with, great food (add sausage rolls to his list of faves- unauthorized snatching by the birthday boy, and special thanks to Audra, my mom, and niece Hannah), and the whole mood just seem celebratory and fun.... just like our birthday boy! We had a great group of friends and family in attendance, ones that have been influential to Henry (or us as parents), that we respect and really have had fun with, during this adventure called parenthood.
We did a brunch, and it turns out 10am is a great time of day for Henry. The theme was whales, inspired by our Nantucket trip earlier this summer, and we used nautical accents, which he just coincidentally got a collection of, from well-wisher gifts celebrating his birth.

Parenthood certainly changes you, as it is one of God's greatest blessings, and Henry has blessed us and stretched us as parents, growing us in immeasurable ways. I am so thankful that he is a part of our family!

A few pics from this special milestone...

Odds and Ends

Henry is 7 months. He weighs 24 pounds and is 30 inches long. We just went to GI, and can try slowly introducing soy as an ingredient. They say at 7-10 months most kids can handle some, and when that goes well we can tackle dairy. We've all had the allergy gunk, and both kids have had nasty ear infections, so we're trying to get healthy again. Henry needs to be off antibiotics before I alter my diet though. He is in love with his brother, and Pierce generally takes really good care of him, and does a good deal of entertaining.
Pierce is now 2 and 1/2. We joke that he's "3". But honestly, when I compare him to peers, I'm so incredibly happy with my sweet boy, despite his little tantrums or whining...could be a LOT worse! He's loving the alphabet lately, and is doing great expressively IDing letters, and giving their sounds. He's still cow crazy, and loves to go places with daddy. He loves to help and work, and one of his favorite past times, is "working" in his sandbox. I'm so proud of his creativity, love for books, and calm nature. He cracks me up, and fills my heart with joy when I see his imagination at work!
Things are going well at church; we are loving the "new" building at Texana. I'm working in the Two's in training class. I'm also helping with the women's retreat this year.
Jodi has asked that I help with the models for a children's fashion show in May, benefitting the Senior Center. That's getting under way, but so far so good!
Pierce is going to be a ring-bearer in Harrison Frist's wedding in Nantucket this summer. We're all really excited for that wedding, and hoping that he exceeds all the bride and grooms expectations!

Snow Day #2

I love my fun husband. The bad thing, sometimes I let him influence my judgement. Today it was me not protesting my 2 year old riding on the tailgate, while daddy snowboarded behind the truck.
Yeah, we're rednecks like that. Fun dad.
All fun and games until he fell off
If you look closely you will see an injured cheek and chin. Bad mom.

Record breaking snow day

It literally has not stopped snowing all day long. We thought the blizzard at Christmas was a lot of snow...nothing on this!!!

We've got chompers!

Click pic to enlarge

If you look really, really, really closely, you will see Henry has TWO new teeth. I'm embarrassed to say that his doctor found them (and YES I have been checking every day!!), but we got a laugh as it seems his amber teething necklace is apparently working. He's six months and 2 days. He's 29 inches and one ounce shy of 23 pounds.

Henry is 6 months

It is going by so much faster, having two.
We had a big day. Stonewater had it's first Sunday service at Texana Plaza, and I hear there were around 1600 people there; that is the highest attendance ever, for a "non holiday"! This month is the marriage series which is my fave that Jeremy preaches on. We had a good visit with Henry's WeeSchool teacher, then headed to the Rodeo in Fort Worth. Today was Parker County day, and Uncle Justin rode with the Sheriff's Posse in the Grand Entrance. Henry seemed to really enjoy all the activity, and diligently watched the sport (OK, when he wasn't flirting with the girls around us). Pierce was an angel, stayed in his seat calmly and had fun watching the show. "Got bucked off" is one of his favorite sayings, and he got to use that one a lot today. It probably paid off that there weren't any rowdy kids for him to feed off of, but he truly loves all things cow/ horse related, so he was elated to be going to The Rodeo! God bless him, his only request today was for ice cream (after seeing a snow cone), not any of the glow stick paraphernalia that they parade up and down the aisles. We promised him ice cream after the show, but couldn't find any- but he scored a skewer of chocolate covered strawberries, so I'd say he really came out ahead :)


Tutu bought him a lasso later, so he will surely love that new toy ("cow ropes" are a favorite past time, thought they are typically plastic pump tubing or sewing tape measurers). After the exhibits, we had Uncle Julio's with Tutu and Pa, and the boys. We missed the Superbowl, but nobody minded, LOL.
Regardless, it was a fun way to celebrate his six month birth day month (we laugh not knowing what to call these things...). He's just outgrown his car seat (22 pounds) and is sitting upright with a little support from us. He's an ok eater with rice cereal (once a day). Pierce and him love to hold hands, and he giggles and grins at Pierce's antics. Henry loves to be worn in baby wraps and has fallen asleep on me several times- I love that!!! He's very chill, until he's hungry/ tired/ gas pains, in which case you will certainly know about it! If a TV is on, he loves to watch it (I hate to admit), but he is fascinated by any kind of flashing light activity or toy. Henry started WeeSchool one day a week, and is having fun with some little friends his age, and his teacher seems very loving. We're really blessed to have two boys who are so sweet, friendly and low maintenence. Plus, they are just cool. I'm not biased or anything :P

Henry started cereal today

Not my favorite milestone, but I suppose as far as first cereal experiences are concerned, it was a success.

When we were fininshed, Pierce wanted a turn. That was pretty funny.

New addition to our family

With absolutely no prompting, when people would ask Pierce what he wanted for Christmas, he always replied, "big cow!". Clearly this was not the standard answer of a 2 year old. Santa did deliver a big cow at the foot of the fireplace (and a baby cow in his stocking), much to Pierce's delight. For a good week or two, I'd find a little bowl of water out in front of him too, as Pierce was diligent about keeping his cow hydrated. And at given time I can find my round hot-pads from the kitchen, strewn throughout the house, as Pierce has given the cow a "hay bale" and if a shrink wrapped package of diapers is missing, inevitably it is at the foot of the cow acting as "feed sack".

All foreshadowing! Shortly after New Year's, Ryan asked me how I'd feel about taking in a baby calf, and bottle feeding it. Now I had been with him a couple of times when we were dating, as he bottle fed a baby for his best friend Craig; It wasn't bad, really. With each year of marriage I am getting a little more savvy though, and know the right questions to ask, after such propositions are presented. "How much is this going to cost us? Where is the calf going to go, and what's THAT going to cost us? How many times per day does it have to be fed and how many of those feedings am I responsible for? and How long is this calf going to be on the bottle?" PS- I remember Jodi talking about the babies keeping her up at night, when they were pulled from their mamas....so I knew there would be a lot of crying involved, to boot! All of his answers were within reason, and there was the most important fact of all...our toddler is COW CRAZY!! So of course, I agreed to it.

This past Sunday was the day of adoption. After church, Ryan headed out to the Bar Oak Ranch, to pick up our new baby! This calf was a twin, perfectly healthy and had been nursing just fine, but apparently you get a better sized cow if there's only one on the momma, so this one needed to go.

Without further ado...

Insert your own caption here....

Becoming friends.

Want to know the really cool thing about this whole adventure? The calf was born on Christmas Eve!