Christmas

So I'm a little late with this post, but here is our Christmas Eve, Morning and Day:

We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house with her and my two brothers, Aaron and Jacob. I think there were more presents this year under our Christmas tree than ever. Now, I think a lot of that had to do with one little man but to me it also represents some else: This year I believe was the first that everyone got presents for everyone else, individual efforts worked to form a collective whole 'greater' than had ever been achieved by a fewer number of people. It just showed and reminded me that the individual efforts within families are so important to the collective whole. So to me, all those gifts were not just nice things but a manifestation of a family working together in the interests of each other.

Henry wasn't exactly sure what was going on but enjoyed getting into his and everyone else's presents, especially Grammy's for some reason. He got a lot of nice things from everyone but I think his favorites are the Muno doll (the orange thing with one eye in the picture), the soccer ball from Uncle Jacob and the table Grammy got him- he loves pushing it around the room, silly kiddo. One thing Henry got that I really like is the toy chest from Uncle Aaron! The neat freak inside of me is very happy to have one now!

Oh I also forgot to mention our 'little' feast before we opened presents. We started the tradition last year of having mexican food for Christmas Eve dinner. My mom made chicken toquitos, enchiladas, spanish rice and beans. We also got tamales from one of the local places-Lolas. Aaron made a ton of salsas, some really good sauce stuff and guacamole. I guess the cooking gene went from my mom to Aaron instead of me. Poor Johann =)

Aaron working his magic


Christmas Morning we woke up and headed to Riverside to spend the day with Johann's family. Natalie and Bryan (Johann's sister and Brother-in-law) we there too which was nice. We opened gifts and had fun joking around. Everyone kept saying, "It's a sweater" which I guess if from the Three Amigos. I think I should probably see it before next Christmas! One of the gifts that was really special is a book of remembrance put together by Johann's mom with the help of his brothers Derek and Kaleb. Johann and Natalie each got one. It has all the genealogy from Johann's mom's side of the family as well as pictures and other significant records. It's incredible how she was able to put that all together and it is one special gift!
We spent the rest of the day playing games and talking. It was a really great Christmas!

Christmas Morning opening gifts


Playing with Abuela

Hanging out with Grampa

My two favorite boys


Merry Christmas!

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!