Happy Birthday Henry!

On Wednesday, the 27th, Henry was officially in our family for 1 year! What an exciting year it was. We like to refer to Henry as "the Brute" around here because of his amazing strength and his desire to see things crash and hit the floor. He also loves to make any loud noises that will get him attention and generally squeals in delight when his little screams startle someone. He is full of emotion and usually that emotion is Happy and excited. He has such a sense of humor and seems to sense when someone is being funny, since he will always give a boisterous laugh.

Henry has grown by enormous feats and now weighs 28lbs 8 ounces and is 31 inches tall. He already loves to wrestle and is just plain loads of fun to have around. Though we certainly can't take our eyes off him, he is honestly into everything. He woke up bright and early on his birthday morning and it the best mood.

For Henry's birthday the boys got a wagon for two. It is really great and we already really love having it. Here is my great wrapping job and Henry was getting anxious waiting for Gavin to wake up, so he was taking a peak at it.
A Wagon! WOW! Thanks!
Here they are getting ready for a ride. We have already taken quite a few in just a couple of days. The only problem is when they start fighting in there, though it is also slightly funny as well.
For Henry's birthday we had dinner with some family and some friends at Red Robin, of course because this was Henry's place of choice... not because we all just really like the food. He loved it. He ate a lot and loved seeing everyone sitting with him. He got to have cake for the first time and he actually ate the entire piece. Aside from the frosting that got all over him, there wasn't much of it that missed his mouth, which is quite impressive for him.

No photos... please...

Well, it has been an interesting couple of weeks for us... we have gone from one illness to the next and were finally hit with the worst this weekend. After battling the stomach flu during the week, by last weekend we thought Gavin was well and Henry still had a horrible cough. So I finally took Henry into the doctor to find out that he was having asthma-like symptoms brought on by RSV. This led to several days of him hating his parents as we had to wrestle him down to get him to breathe in an inhaler through this stupid little mask 4 times a day, and give me a liquid steriod twice a day. Luckily he seemed to recover in a couple of days. Then Gavin came into our room on Tuesday night with a fever that hung out around 103 until we were able to get him to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon. They ran about every test possible on him in the office and said we should just try and treat the fever and that is was probably just the RSV. By this time, Caleb and I had both been feeling pretty sick for a couple of days, and I had mostly lost my voice... so we went into some home lockdown to try and get well and keep our mystery germs away from everyone else. By Friday, Caleb's chronic hives had brought themselves to a whole new level on top of the nasty cold and hacking that he had going, so he finally went in since his feet were so swollen he could barely walk. Of course, no one was much help, but they have atleast recommended that he go to a specialist and use a steriod cream on the hives. By Saturday morning, I thought that I was feeling a bit better and decided to head to the gym to take on the treadmill for 5 miles or so... somehow I finished it, but came back to Gavin with another fever and Caleb pretty much swearing that we better find him a burial plot. Finally by Saturday evening, after some great friends came to give Caleb a blessing, I headed him off to the urgent care because he could not take a full breath and had a fever over 103. They ran a flu test and when it came back influenza A they really weren't interested in much else we had to say and perscribed that he take a lot of fever reducing drugs and spend a few days in bed. (side note: Henry was the only one in our family that got a flu shot this year.) I think the day of care giving or the running wore me down since I felt worse this morning than I have in a couple days, but finally it looks like we might be on the mend. What a nightmare of nasty sickness... and we probably haven't even had it the worst of everyone I know. We have pretty much been homebound for 3 weeks constantly recovering from something. Luckily the boys seem to be better and we hope to ring in Henry's birthday in good health... atleast most of us.
Our only resolution... next year we will all get a flu shot.
And please, please, let spring hurry and come.

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a pretty low key Valentine's Day thanks to Gavin being up sick until about 4am that morning. Henry did get a new tooth that day and practiced using it on the Valentine chocolate box from Mom and Dad.

Though Gavin slept most of the day he still seemed tired by the evening activities and was happy, but not quite thrilled about pretty much everything.
Since Grandma Cardon was in town, we had our traditional Valentine's dinner at Nathan and Stacy's with their family and Grandma. Of course- there was plenty of heart-shaped pizza and cherry 7-up, and a strawberry swirl cake that I tried out this year.
Libbie came home from her basketball game, just in time for a pizza dinner. Henry was still waiting for his in this shot, but he ate plenty of it. Super cute smile from Mia.
Mallory was also a cute and happy valentine.Gavin was actually eating again by dinner and seemed to enjoy the food, but also seemed to wish that he was doing what Claire was doing....

Cold weather and Fun

So we have been pretty sick around here for the last couple of weeks, so we haven't been able to get out and do as much as we would like to. We are all really looking forward to warmer weather and no more snow... though that might just be a dream.
Just a couple of fun pictures... I was on the computer with my back turned the other day while Gavin was watching something on TV, and admittedly neither of us was looking at what Henry was doing. Then we heard kind of a clunk and thud sound and I turned around quickly to see Henry like this. As soon as we both looked at him he started to laugh. I have no idea how he got in there. It was super funny.

Then he just sat down to chill for a while and laugh it up at himself.

A trip to the Dinosaur museum

Yesterday we took a trip to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum with Grandma Cardon, Mia and Mallory. It was a great time. Gavin kept hoping that at some point he would see the real dinosaurs, so I think that some of it was lost on him. I was a lot more impressed than I thought I would be. There were a lot of great exhibits, and though we didn't have much time to read up on anything with the super excited kids, they really had quite a collection of fossils and bones. I would recommend it to anyone that hasn't been and ever thought that those things were exciting as a kid.

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything

Gavin's new favorite song to sing while playing and wandering around the house...

I had to catch him sitting still in the bath to get a video of it. He has always loved this song, but with the new previews for the movie, he seems to have it stuck in his head most of the time. And almost everyday when Caleb comes home and asks Gavin what we did today he says, "We din't do anything!" I guess we have to get out to see the movie with him soon.

Sledding Fun x

On Saturday, Caleb's lab had a sledding party at Sugarhouse Park. It turned out to be almost 40 degrees that day and with the out of control amount of snow that we have had this winter, it was a great sledding day. Henry lasted a few minutes outside and his first ever sledding run before getting in his seat and passing out for a nice long afternoon nap. Gavin, on the other hand had a great time and insisted on going down the hill by himself, over and over. We started out sending him from halfway down until he kept begging just to go from the top. What a thrill seeker, I wonder where he gets that.

Here are the boys as I pulled them from the car to the sledding hill we went on.

Henry's only sledding run. He was about ready to go to sleep here.We are certainly sick of the snow and ready for it to stop coming, but since the end is no where in sight... If you can't beat 'em, Join 'em.

January Fun

Aside from smashing up the house, we have been trying to find some other ways to stay busy.

Here is Gavin on the merry-go-round at the mall, which he is quite obsessed with whenever we go there. I finally caved and let him ride.

Henry was looking quite guilty in this picture because of course he just came over to these toys to dump them out and knock them over before moving on to something else. Nothing like getting caught in the act. Nothing makes me more anxious for spring than Henry's energy level.When I was at work one night, Caleb caught Gavin and Henry working hard together to load an entire box of teddy grahams into the back of one of their dump trucks. Atleast, they were hiding away in the corner together and not fighting over the truck and snacks.
So Gavin is my little helper around the house. He has always enjoyed helping with cleaning and dishes and laundry. I guess he just likes things to be organized, as much as I do. The other day he came across my sports bra in the laundry pile that he was "folding" and asked what it was. When I told him it was a bra to wear for running, he said to himself "Oh, to make you go faster." When I came back from putting a few things away, I found him trying to figure out how to get the thing on. I helped him straighten out his arms in it and then he proceded to run around the house. Of course, convinced that it made him go faster than ever. We won't point out that he has it on backwards, I am sure that is because it is more manly. We'll just say that those are his running shorts that he was hanging around the house in as well. I love a good blakcmail picture... He'll do whatever it takes to help him run faster.

I guess this is why we love people more than things

So when I was a freshman in high school, I spent several months in an advanced pottery class making a 2 foot tall vase out of clay. My very inspiring art teacher decided to enter it in our high school conference art show, where about 10 school go to compete and show their art. I won a best in show award, much to my surprise, and was asked to display the pot in several different art shows around the state. It was pretty exciting for my 14 year old self, and my aunt wrote an article in the county newspaper about it (since all of the small towns that we lived around weren't big enough to each have a newspaper of their own there was one for the county).

This is a poor scan of the old newspaper clipping. I am sure you are all wondering what could actually possess me to put this old picture up on my blog.... Well...
I have kept this pot with me where ever I went. In college it survived 2 dorm rooms, 2 apartments, and one house. Since I left college and got married, we have lived in 3 different places and have had the pot in our living room most of the time. In our duplex it sits next to the fireplace, or at least it did.

Yesterday when I was coming out of the kitchen, I heard a loud thud and a crash and I knew what had happened. My little Henry, had climbed over the pillow barricade that I use to keep him out of the corner of the room where the heater vent and the vase both are, and had proceed to use his brute strength to tip the heavy and otherwise sturdy vase to the ground. As you can probably guess, I knew before I entered the room what had happened, and what I would see when I got over there. It is safe to say that I was pretty upset and distressed about my art work of 14 years prior being bashed. And there is no salvaging it, aside from the large chunks that broke off in several places, there were also a lot of small pieces missing.

After having a good little sad cry for my once cherished possession, I came back in to find Henry oblivious and continuing to dump out toys and knock books of the shelf. He gave me a big happy smile and just laughed at his destructive little self.
How could a person stay mad at such a cute little face? Not to mention the fact that any sad pouting is lost on a 10 month old.

So, I would like to request a moment of silence for a lost work of art, from all of you that were dedicated to read my whole sad story.

In my own defense, I don't think that I have strong attachment to many worldly possessions, But I guess I just needed a reminder... After it is all said and done, I can't take a vase with me anyway. However, I can take my strong, crazy and happy little Henry into the eternities.

Grandpa Cardon knows best

Before the cold weather storms started, Caleb worked really hard for a few days to put up rain gutters on the back of the house, since we were told by a structural inspector that it would help the settling of our old house to direct the water away. Well, shortly after that we were visiting Grandpa Cardon in Lindon and Caleb told him about putting up the gutters. Grandpa could not have disagreed more with the engineer and proceeded to share with us his strong dislike for rain gutters. He then told us a story about the year that he added them to his house in Logan and then spent the winter being disgusted at the fact that they just froze up and caused his whole house to have icicles all winter.

After we got back from New Mexico, Caleb and Gavin were outside messing around and when behind the house to find a nice surprise. They climbed the tree and broke down some of their treasures, and brought them around to show me. Gavin was a bit more excited to see the result of the new rain gutters than Caleb was, but Grandpa had warned us. So I guess in the future, we will have to ask him advice before some of our home improvement projects.

Gavin has now made it his job to point out all of the houses with icicles as we drive around town.

Exciting Developments

You might be wondering why my 10-month old with his sippie cup can be seen under the title exciting developments. Well, it is because just yesterday, Henry finally decided to start drinking out of his cup. That's right, finally. We started offering him the cup at 6 months, and waited for him to start drinking from it by about 7 months like Gavin did. However, Henry is determined to prove the differences between him and his brother, and by 7 months he was pretty much just an expert at pitching the cup across the dining room. He actually even broke one from throwing it so much. So, we just kept giving him one every day or so, sometimes adding the most sugary beverages that we could find to coax him into using it, but he was not to be bribed. Yesterday he was having a snack and I came out of the kitchen to find him chugging away on the cup and when I congratulated him he just got a huge smile, like "Mom, Can you believe that there is something for me to drink in here? Wow!" It was pretty funny, and we are all pretty excited about it. I never thought that these stages of eating and drinking could be so great.

Holly Jolly Christmas

We spent our Christmas in New Mexico with all of the Marshall Family this year. It was a great time and the first time that we have all been together in several years. I have 4 siblings and there are now 11 total grandkids, so it was perfect to be around all the excitement of Christmas. We didn't love the drive that much, but we made it there and back safely (with only one incident of a dead battery on the way home), so we are always grateful for that.

We had a new family picture taken to show the updated clan, and boy was that just as fun as pictures always are.

The most fun was trying to get a picture of the grandkids though. Alaina is the oldest at 15 and Sara is 6 months and the youngest, so there was quite a range of age and personality. This was the shot that we chose because you could actually see all of the kids, and really it was just hilarious. As in all occasions of photo taking, there were some tears shed.

One poor guy sits alone...
And the cute people who started the whole crazy thing... don't they look good? This was there first professional photograph since sometime which we think was in the 80s.
We had a good Christmas and Gavin has been lonely for Nana and Vatti and "all the kids" at their house.