Sassy Seat

Since we weren't able to bring Henry's highchair with us for our stay in California, Henry's meal times have been a two person job; generally by the end of the feeding, whoever is holding Henry ends up with something on their pants or shirt. My mom suggested we look for a Sassy Seat for him, which sounded like a good idea since we'd be able to use it in restaurants after we got back to Utah. We were only able to find one kind in the very back of Babies R Us but we went ahead and got it (a little expensive-thank you Grammy). So far, it seems to be worth the bucks. Henry loves it! He likes sitting right up next to the table and feeling like he's one of the adults. It's so cute and I hope we can get a lot of use out of it.

And finally...they meet!

Even though we're just four hours away during the majority of the year, we have a hard time ever getting to visit our friends Jeff and Lauren in Idaho. School, work and SNOW always seem to contribute to the lack of visits. Luckily, we were able to work out some time to see each other while we were in Apple Valley visiting family.
I just 're-realized' that for Lauren and Jeff, this was the first time meeting Henry. We were lucky to see Ava not too long after she was born when they stopped in Provo while driving to California this past March, I think, maybe April. Anyway, it was so good to see them and see how much Ava has grown-she is the cutest, funniest little girl! As soon as we pulled out cameras, she was on it, crawling right over to you and then climbing right up to get a good close-up. Too cute!
Henry was a little nervous/shy, which is better than his usual 'hit and run' 'steal the toy' or 'tackle' approach to other babies. Ava was having a great time just laughing as Henry sat there. I think she must have either been really excited or laughing at how nervous Henry was; either way it was pretty hilarious.














Henry warmed up as the night went on and finally got so friendly as to take hold of Ava's little tushy with both hands!!! I guess we now know to watch this guy closely. ;)











This is right after Henry got friendly. I guess the opportunity was just too good to pass up!

It was so much fun to see good friends who have been around since I can remember and to see how we're all growing up (or at least trying to, right?) and starting (and adding to!!!) our families. Me, Henry and Johann are so grateful to know and love such good people and hope we'll always be able to have them in our lives!

Solids!

As most of you probably know, our first attempts at feeding Henry solids was not successful. We tried night after night for about a week but he wanted nothing to do with it. After about a week of not trying to get him to eat solids we thought we'd start trying again. For the first five-ten minutes he was not happy and doing the same 'throw my head back, spit out and cry' routine; then all of the sudden, he started taking it. Then he started liking it. He even grabbed at the spoon-yay! So now for about the past two weeks Henry has been having solids for dinner-it's great. His diet now consists of rice cereal, yellow squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas and bananas. He is also getting use to those Graduate Puffs, the sweet potatoes flavor which is really great for when we're out and there is nowhere for me to feed him. I'm sad he's growing up so fast, but love that he's learning all these new parts of life. Yum!

Snow Season is here

Well, it's officially the time when it begins to snow in Utah and doesn't take much of a break until April, sometimes May. While I love how snow contributes to the Christmas feel, I really, I really don't like how it contributes to the depression feel during winter semester of classes. Talk about a double edged sword. But for now, I guess I'll say, "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!"









Henry liked his first time watching snow fall.






Some pictures on our
"Christmas Sunday"
for our BYU ward

DARE

Okay, so this will probably be the most materialistic post I'll ever write (or so I hope). I can't help it: I love my new cell phone, the LG DARE. It is amazing. The last phone I had was my second one ever and it took me about a month to really start liking it and stop missing my old phone; not the case this time, I started liking it better that same day. Johann originally got a different phone but after using the DARE he couldn't help himself and swapped the new phone he'd just gotten for the DARE. So, if you're looking to get a new phone- I highly recommend this one. It may take you a while to get use to the touch screen but once you do, it's awesome. Thank you mom for the early Christmas gift- we love them! Alright, time to get back down to earth. ;)

Thanksgiving (the long weekend of long drives)

Indeed it was. We were quite the travelers this past Thanksgiving weekend.

We left Provo around 4:30pm or so on Tuesday (thank you Devon for letting Johann off work early!) and made it to Apple Valley around 1:30am-ish. The drive was actually one of our better ones: Henry slept almost the whole time we were in the car and we had a nice stop in Las Vegas to eat at Inn-N-Out with my friend Amber who was driving home to Apple Valley as well.

Thanksgiving day we traveled to Henderson, NV where my cousin Nancy, her husband Justin and two girls Alexis and Ariana live. Again, Henry slept basically the whole way there and back-amazing. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and as always it was lots of fun to see family. Henry just LOVED Alexis and Nancy; I thought he was going to die of the giggles from Nancy running him around to chase Alexis.

Alexis playing 'peekaboo' with Henry while Nancy holds him

Dinner was delicious, I even really liked the yams and this is coming from a traditional 'no thanks on the yams, ma'am' kind of gal. Also, if you've never been around my family then you probably don't know how much we l-o-v-e to talk and occasionally stick both feet in our mouths. Anyway, there were some great lines delivered that night that I just have to share:

Aaron: "Yeah, Hamp looked crazy...you know like one of those homeless war Vets? Like not just any war vet but those crazy Vietnam vets." *note, my uncle Jim served in Vietnam...and someone said, "oh like Jim" and lots of laughter ensued.

Justin as he's brushing a 'my little ponies hair' says to Johann: "Don't worry, you get to the point where you don't even realizing you're doing it anymore."

Nancy: "You know if I wasn't mormon, I think I'd drink wine...you know sometimes you just have those days and need to take the edge off"
Everyone else: "Alright, lets all name what sins we'd commit if we weren't Mormon!

Good food, good company, good conversation. What more can you ask for? Thank you Ashby's for hosting a wonderful Thanksgiving!


The following day we headed to Riverside in California to be with Johann's family. His twin brothers had just recently sent in their mission calls and we were kind of sad because we knew with the holiday they would come later and we'd miss it by just a few days. We hung out for most of the day, Johann's mom made milanesas (sooo good) and we all made official guesses about where we thought Derek and Kaleb were going to be called.
It was around 7 or so Johann's dad decided to go get the mail. We were all sitting in the front room and Johann's mom says, "He's running, he's running!" which I thought, "huh? So?" Then he came in holding two big white envelopes!!! "I knew they had come when I heard him running-he doesn't run for anything!" (haha-I guess that's where Johann gets it from).

Some friends were called along with Bryan and Natalie who were out and once everyone got there we gathered in the front room for them each to open their calls. Derek opened his first, "You are hereby called to serve in the Rochester, New York Mission!" WOO! Next came Kaleb, "You are hereby called to serve in the Seattle, Washington Mission!" WOO! We are so excited for them and so proud of each of their decisions to serve missions. It was so perfect that we could all be there for their special moments. They'll be wonderful missionaries!Kaleb on the left, Derek on the right.
(I got this image off my sister-in-law's blog. Sorry to mooch Nat, but it was really cool!)

All in all it was such a nice weekend. We're so blessed to have a vehicle to drive to see our families, families who support us in any way they can, and a beautiful little boy-who can be a stinker sometimes but is such a strong and determined little spirit. We're so blessed to have a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ; to know that He has made it possible for us to return as families to live with Him and our Heavenly Father, nevermore to go out. In sum, we are grateful.

Beep Beep!

So I've been meaning to post some of these pictures for almost two weeks but kept forgetting until now- here is Henry's early Christmas gift from his Abuela and Anti-Gramps Simonds. He was already needing something like this so they decided not to wait another month and a half for Christmas. Thank you-he loves it!

6 Months Stats

Today Henry had his 6 month check up and aside from needing to get a few prescriptions due to his diarrhea I'm glad to report that he's good and healthy!

Height: 26inches/29.77 percentile
Weigh: 15.5lbs/12.93 percentile
Head Circumference: 16.92inches/25.29 percentile

So he is still a bit on the small side but the Dr. said it is nothing to worry about since his proportions are right on. The Dr. mentioned his size probably being one reason he eats so often even at night (thats right I still get up on average every two hours at night to feed Henry). He did say however that he should start sleeping more in the next month or so-oh boy can I hope.


Henry got his last dose of the oral rotateq and his first DTap. Yes, that is about four months later than when most babies get it but we're spacing his vaccinations out. I know lots of people don't believe that vaccines have any effect on babies other than what they're meant to but considering I don't react well to medicines like vicodin I tend to disagree with the idea that all medicine will do the same for all people and cause the same reactions. Okay, there is my rant. If you're interesting in spacing out vaccines too, leave a comment and I'll email you what we have on how to schedule them. *Hops off soapbox*
In other news Henry is full on crawling now which means I have to be extra vigilant about sweeping the kitchen floor-ha. He is also trying to stand independently. He gets himself standing up on the bongos then takes his hands off and can stand for 1-2 seconds then falls onto his bum. All I can say is Heaven help us if he starts walking soon too. We've already had to move the living room table to the office room to prevent accidents from crawling. I can't believe how fast he's growing up!

Time to collect Social Security because baby, you're getting old!

Six months-I can't believe it! Looking back at our pictures from the hospital just makes us realize how much he's changed in so short a time.

In honor of Henry's six month mark, here are six "Henrisms":

1. He loves waving his nakey bum in the air. That's right, you take that diaper off and he goes to town. Giving him a bath can be impossible some nights because he wants to roll over in the water and stick that little tush of his up in the air, same applies to diaper changing time.






2. If its musical he wants it. Papa's guitar, bongos and keyboard all really belong to him, just ask Henry. =)


3. When Johann and I both sing the 'opening song' for Family Home Evening he thinks its a performance just for him and sits there beaming.

4. During dinner time he doesn't want to be on the floor, in his crib or swing; he wants to be at the table with mama and papa.

5. You can tell when he's really tired at night when he gets silly and laughs hysterically at basically anything. He goes between lots of laughter to crying to laughing.

6. He is really a 43 year old man trapped in a babies body. He is so frustrated with not being able to move as much as he wants and he's pretty serious, especially with strangers; not a big smiler for those he's never met.


As far as development goes he seems to still be one the smaller side for his age, we'll find out for sure next week at his checkup.

He's been sitting independently for a while but now he is pro at sitting himself up, even in his sleep-whenever I hear him cry at night to be fed I walk in and he's sitting up in his crib, crying with his eyes closed.

He still doesn't have the crawl down completely, he can wiggle worm/crawl all over but not as fast as he'd like to. His favorite places are under the table and in a little corner between the tv stand and couch.Lots of times after he wakes up from a nap he pulls himself up on his crib railing, I thought putting it up all the way would encourage him to just sit nicely in the crib until I could get there, but he just stretches harder. What a stinker. In addition to that he is determined to master pulling himself up on his little swing in the living room and has actually done it a few times. Its funny watching him balance the back and forth as he tries to pull himself up. He's going to have amazing balance!

As you might have noticed from the post below, he's not all that interested in eating solids yet-at least not apple sauce. We were trying that because he was having some bowl issues and the nurse said to try apple sauce; we'll probably start trying rice cereal in the next few weeks or so.

Well, there is what is going on in the life of our little 6 month old Henry!

Our family

Torture!!!

We're thinking we'll wait a while to try that again. Ha!

Family Scripture

Ever since I can remember my family has had a 'family scripture'. Sometime while growing up my mom cross stitched, framed and put in up in the house where I imagine I must have seen it every day I lived at home. When Johann and I got married we talked about having a family scripture but never seemed to get around to it; at some points we thought we could just use the same family scripture my parents had chosen- "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"- but we still just couldn't decide.
This past week as we were reading the Ensign together something Elder Marlin K. Jensen said really stuck out to both of us.

"I share my witness that we must learn doctrine and teach it. If we do so we will increasingly be found in our homes and elsewhere, as Nephi observed, 'talk[ing] of Christ,...preach[ing] of Christ, prophesy[ing] of Christ, and...writ[ing] according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins' (2 Nehphi 25:26) Learning and teaching doctrine to our families is the greatest service we could ever render to them or anyone else because thereby faith in Christ increases and this is the surest anchor to our souls."

As we discussed it, we came to the conclusion that with everything going on in the world today, the best hope we can give to our family is found in Jesus Christ. Now we have have finally decided that 2 Nephi 25:26 our family scripture.

"...we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."
2 Nephi 25:26

Henry's First Halloween =)

It seems like with having Henry around, making sure to participate/celebrate holidays is so much more important. During this past October Conference, President Monson said something that made me and Johann really think about part of our job as parents:

"If you have children who are grown and gone, in all likelihood you have occasionally felt pangs of loss and the recognition that you didn’t appreciate that time of life as much as you should have. Of course, there is no going back, but only forward. Rather than dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future."With that always in our minds, we're doing our best to make sure we have plenty of pleasant family memories for Henry to look back on. We love him so much and want him to have all the joy available.

While Halloween may not be the best of holidays as far as meaning, it is definitely a fun one. Henry seemed to have a lot of fun playing outside in the leaves and taking pictures. He didn't even seem to mind having his costume on including the hat.

Since most of the people from Wymount loaded their kids in the car and drove off for parties and trick-or-treating elsewhere we decided to try and get rid of some of our candy by going to some of our friends apartments and giving them the candy we don't need in the house. We ended up at my old apartment and saw some of my roommates which was fun then headed to Josh and Rachel's. We stayed for dinner (thanks again!) and dessert and just had fun talking until one little scarecrow got all tuckered out and we had to go home for night nights.

Hopefully Henry will be able to look back at the pictures of this first Halloween with some pleasure!

*Note-sorry for probably putting too many pictures-I just can't resist!

He loves his Papa! Especially when he tosses him!

Henry caught in a 'tornado'! Isn't Kelly creative? Its also appropriate since we were planning on Johann going as Tin man and I was going to be Dorthy, but we just didn't have time. Next year, right?

Henry with Rachel and Josh. He sure does like Rachel; he's a little unsure of how he feels about Josh since they have to compete for Rachel's attention. haha. Silly boy.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wedding Time!

 

As you can see, Henry really knows how to 'get down'! :) This weekend we headed to Reno, NV for my cousins George's wedding. While Reno is probably not my favorite place in the world, it was so nice to see family and be there for George's big day!
Johann, Henry and I stayed with my mom and brother, Jacob, Friday night and were joined at the same hotel the next day by my Aunt Virginia and Uncle Javier. We all had a nice lunch together then went to the wedding at the bride's (Catrina) mom's house. I was pretty happy that the weather didn't get as cold as we were expecting and the ring ceremony was very nice. My Uncle Jim (George's dad) performed this, read some 'fun facts' about wedding tradition and gave both George and Catrina father's blessings. We stayed around for the reception, chatting with family then had to go when poor Henry finally got too tired for all those people. He did such a good job for being such a little person. All and all it was a great weekend. Being with family is so wonderful.



Henry trying to eat Uncle Jacob's foot while hanging out at the hotel




The most delicious crepes in the world. Thank you room service.
Henry's wedding outfit, hat and all.




"You may now kiss the bride"

Siblings reunited and chatty












Silly Boy
My cousin's daughter, Alexis, was one of the flower girls-isn't she adorable?!

Quick Family picture

CORNBELLY'S

Since the weather has turned back to Fall we decided we should head out to the corn maze before it changed its mind and winter returned. We were a little skeptical about how this outing would turn out since neither of us had ever been in a corn maze but it was so much fun! We started out going through the corn maze, which we were able to get out of on out own-yay! Hey, we had our doubts. Then we looked around the rest of the 'park' and saw the amazing pumpkins that were carved and walked through a giant monster. To end the night we went on a hay ride and we all had a good time including Henry. All and all it was a nice night of fall fun!