2013 memories

At the beginning of last year I found this fun thing to do on pinterest. (Who are we kidding? Everything is fun on there!) It was to keep a jar and when you did fun things or something momentous happened you would write it down and put it in the jar and then at the end of the year read them all together. Now, I did really well with this at the beginning of the year. However, as the year progressed I got worse at keeping track. I want to share here the things that I wrote down. And as my new years resolution,  I am going to try to do better to keep track.

January 9, 2013 - Today Henry is 18 months old! To celebrate that, it snowed outside! Snow is so magical! We enjoyed it as a family. We went and had breakfast at the testy chef. YUM!
January 22, 2013- Henry said 'GO!'
January 22, 2013 - Mommy got a job at Ameriprise Financial as an tax assistant.
February 1-2, 2013 - We went to Cannon Beach and stayed the night with Grandma Sue & Papa. We went swimming, roasted smores on the beach, played on the beach, did some shopping and played on the playground! The weather was SO beautiful! 
February 2, 2013 - After a bath mommy said to Henry 'All clean!' Henry said ' All cl---' He tried to copy, so cute!
February 5, 2013 - Daddy stayed home from work (day off) and flew his helicopter around with Henry.
February 12, 2013 - Mommy started her job.
April 4, 2013 - 1st IUI (Unsucessful)
May 20, 2013 - Happy Birthday Mommy!
June 8, 2013 - Moved to Puyallup into our apartment!
June 19, 2013 - 2nd IUI (Unsuccessful)
July 9, 2013 - Happy Birthday Henry!!
July 11-16, 2013 - Grandpa Beatty & Nanny came to visit for Henry's birthday.
July 13, 2013 - Henry's 2nd birthday party
July 13, 2013 - Met a friends baby.
July 16, 2013 - 3rd IUI (Unsuccessful)
July 26, 2013 - Henry's first Seattle Mariners games with Daddy, Mommy & Grandma Sue & Papa.
August 3, 2013 - Went to the church production of Pirates of Penzance!
August 13 -24, 2013 - Cousins in town!
August 14, 2013 - Took Henry to splash pad in Auburn with cousins
August 14, 2013 - BBQ with Mommy's high school friends
August 18, 2013 - Happy 7 year anniversary to Daddy & Mommy!
August 19, 2013 - Moses Lake with Mommy, Grammy, Teneal & Kyle.
August 22, 2013 - Movie in Lake Wilderness Park! Back to the Future!
August 23, 2013 - Henry said 'Wiggle, wiggle wiggle...' Like in the song.
August 23, 2013 - Drive to Portland, OR. Go to Cannon Beach.
August 24, 2013 - Kristen got married! Yeahy Kristen!
October 16, 2013 - Family pictures!
October 20, 2013 - Mommy speak in church.
October 23, 2013 - 2nd HSG.
October 26, 2013 - Teneal's band competition.
October 31, 2013 - Trick or treating with the family, and Henry's friends Aurorra & Derek & their parents. Henry was Thomas the train.
October 31, 2013 - 4th IUI (Unsuccessful)
November 4, 2013 - Happy Birthday Daddy!
November 13, 2013 - Got a new kitchen table.
November 23, 2013 - Jamie came home for Thanksgiving!
November 23, 2013 - Teneal's ballroom performance. 
November 26, 2013 - Casey & Jesse came home for Thanksgiving!
November 26, 2013 -  Put up Christmas decorations. Henry watched Polar Express which has become one of his favorite movies.
November 28, 2013 - Thanksgiving with Mommy's family!
December 13, 2013 - Go to Papa & Grandma Sue's community choir performance.
December 18, 2013 - Christmas at Papa & Grandma Sue's house.
December 20, 2013 - It snowed about 1 inch, everything shut down. Mommy & Henry played in the snow.
December 20, 2013 - Snowflake Lane in Bellevue!
December 21, 2013 - Family movie night. Watched 'Its A Wonderful Life'
December 31, 2013 - New Years Eve movie, watched Man Of Steele.

This year has been full of both up's and down's. Here is to 2014 being a fantastic year!

Its been a while...

It has been a while since I have posted on my blog. I can't believe that it has been over a year! I was really good about updating it often but I let it slip. I will do a hopefully short update here... SO my last post was about Henry's first birthday... wow... well, he is 2 now so I really let that one get by! After his first birthday, my step-dad, Todd passed away in August. It was very fast and very shocking. I have tried a few times to come here and write about it, but it is still very fresh. Hopefully I can get through it now. I don't think that I will go into great detail about it here. If you haven't heard by now, or want details you can let me know and I will be ok to discuss it. The year 2013 has been spent in a daze. Unfortunately I can't remember anything that stuck out to me about it. I want to be better about updating my blog again, so I am starting fresh from here. I am looking forward to the new year and hopefully joy that I can find within it. 

I am very excited for Christmas! I am excited for a few reasons... 1.) in June we finally were able to get our own place! We moved to Puyallup WA. We love it there! It is nice to be able to have our own space, and just be our little family. I am so thankful that we were able to live with Steven's parents for as long as we were, but I cannot contain my excitement to have my own place. It is a very nice spacious two bedroom apartment. This will be our first Christmas celebrating it on our own with just us. I love the age that Henry is at right now. He is so much fun! I love lights, I always have. My love for lights is nothing compared to his! Every time we plug in the tree, or drive by someones lights on he says 'OH WOW!!' Its pretty awesome and makes me smile every time. When we put up our Christmas tree, we put on The Polar Express for him. Normally our tradition has been to put on 'Its a Wonderful Life' while putting up the tree but I wanted to try something new to see if Henry would be more interested in that movie. Well, he loved it! We had a blast. Since then, it is his new favorite movie! He is constantly asking to watch 'Po Spess' Alll. The. Time. My most favorite thing this holiday season so far has been our nights. Growing up in my house we always had a book. It was a story a day until Christmas type of thing. My moms book has been falling apart for years. Last year as a gift to her, I re-typed the whole book and made myself and her a copy. This is our first year reading it just my little family. I love it. Every night we get the book out, Henry says 'Book' and then goes and gets his blanket. He then snuggles himself in the middle of Steven and I and I read the scripture and then we sing the carol that goes along with the story. As we are singing he looks back and forth between us and says 'Mommy! Daddy!' Continuing to look at us both. Then I read the story. It has become something kind of magical. I love it. I look forward to it every day. Christmas has become a whole other level of magic its a lot of fun.

Well, I think this post has become more wordy than I thought it would. I will be better about posting, and I will add some pictures! 

Happy 1 YEAR OLD HENRY!!

I tried to post about how Henry took his first steps and it didn't work... :( So, I will post it here without video sadly. Four days before Henry's first birthday he took his first steps!! It happened July 5, 2012. I was downstairs and then I hear Geneen (my sister in law) and my mother in law yelling at Steven and I to get upstairs. We got up there and sure enough he was taking his first steps! Geneen would hold him and then balance him and then he would take off! He was a walking machine! It was so cool seeing him take his first steps. The following day we tried to get him to do it again and he fell... Since then he hasn't taken more steps. We try to get him to do it and he folds up his legs. One thing I will say about Henry is he can be very stubborn when he chooses to be. Lately we have gotten him to use walkers and he walks himself around. Except for the walls that seem to get in his way. :)

Anyway, on to Henry turning 1!! We decided to celebrate by inviting family and a few close friends to celebrate with us at Lake Wilderness Park. It was a beautiful day, so perfect! I had a theme planned out for his party and it was fire truck theme. I didn't think that I needed to go pick up decorations earlier and so I just went the day of. Well, went to a few different places and called others and none of them sell fire truck decorations! I was a little upset. I mean, I picked a really basic theme and yet I couldn't find anything. So then I changed it to a bears theme. Same problem, NOTHING. So then I chose trains. Couldn't find anything for that either! So, I settled on Cars (The movie). It actually turned out really cute! I got some kazoos to give out as gifts for the kids, a Cars table cover, and then some red plates and napkins. Also a balloon bouquet for Henry. He gets so excited about balloons when we go to the store so I was very excited to give him balloons!  Everyone that came brought a side or something and that made it super easy for the food. 

My little sisiter Teneal, has been planning to make Henry's birthday cake since he was born! She loves to make cakes and so I had no problem with her taking over the cake. She planned to make him a little bear just his size. For her birthday she got the molds for the bear, she was so excited! Well, this summer she has been in Utah. She ended up extending her stay and wasn't able to be here for Henry's birthday. :( She was very missed! My mother and I decided to take on the cake and see what we could do. I think we did an alright job for not ever having done it before.

Cake almost done

Finished product!

Happy birthday to you!...

Happy Birthday to you!...

Happy birthday dear Henry!

Yummy cake

Sawyer helping with the cake

Quite the look there Henry... :)

Cute birthday boy!!

 Time to open presents! :)

Happy birthday sweet Henry!

Happy 12 Monrhs Henry!

This is a very bittersweet post for me. This is the last Henry with his bear pictures... he is now 1 year old! He brings so much joy to our lives and I adore him. As I reflect on this past year so many thoughts run through my mind. I think about where we were and what we were doing a year ago. I look back at picture and its crazy how much he changed in 1 year! I remember everyone telling me how time would go by very quickly and I said yeah sure but man, it really did. I can't get a grip on calling him my 'kid' he is still my baby! Anyway, happy 12 months my Henry!

Cute boy!

SMILES!

Serious face

This one makes me laugh, he looks like he is pointing to his 'people' or something. :)               

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENRY!

Fun with cousins!! + 4th of July!

My brother in law Doug and his wife Geneen and their three kids Evenlynn, Eloise and Michael came and stayed with us for about 10 days. It was crazy, but tons of fun! 

Silly Evelynn!

Two cute boys. Michael and Henry.

Eloise and I, we were buddies.

All the grandkids!

Having a blast at the park

Henry loved walking around these bars

Park is awesome!

Big boy standing on his own

Big smile!

Silly kiddos!

One day in the backyard the kids played in a pool. The water was pretty cold, I tried to put Henry in there but he was only kind of ok with being in the pool.

Cute boys. :)

Eloise was trying to help Henry like the water...

 One day we all drove to Mud Mountain Dam. They have a little water area and it was a beautiful day! Steven tried to take Henry in the water but everytime we put his foot in or anything, he started screaming! Being on top of the mountain I am sure that the water was very cold...

I don't want to go in...

Henry is finally enjoying swinging! I was even able to get a smile out of him! (If you don't know my son hasn't ever been a big fan of swinging)

Cute boy!

And this is how Steven spent the day. He was so tired!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

This was Henry's first 4th. Unfortunately he, Steven and I have all been pretty sick. That didn't stop us from celebrating though! He only cried once at fireworks. We were watching the men light off fireworks and one was pretty loud and he lost it at that one. Otherwise, he seemed to really enjoy them. I wonder if that has anything to do with him being a July baby?! ;)

 We went to the ward's 4th of July breakfast. Henry wasn't old enough to decorate a bike and ride in the parade, but someone from our ward brought this cool car and was giving kids a ride. Henry didn't look too sure about it but I think he really enjoyed it.

Sparklers!

Taking a little nap so he could stay up later.

Watching fireworks!

Grandma Sue bought glow sticks for the kids.

Fireworks!

 I just realized that I did not take any pictures of the fireworks! All well. It was a pretty good show. We went to Lake Wilderness Park and watched them on the lake. It was very cool!