Henry's First Christmas

Bry got his wish and it started snowing on Sunday so we had a nice layer of white outside to enjoy. It was a beautiful white Christmas.

She pulled out a Lindt truffle first which she wasted no time in opening and getting in her mouth. Thus the bulge.
Then she pulled out an apple.

She's so funny.

Both arms in.

Looking at the snow outside.

This Christmas was brought to us by Amazon (mostly). Ha.

The aftermath. Computer was set up to video California family.

Emma was so excited to go out in the snow and have daddy build a snowman.

She wanted a picture with it but only paused for one.

Henry's first Christmas!!

We're so grateful for family sending us a plethora of gifts and feel so greatly blessed. I know I can do more to share my blessings with others and hope to get better at reaching out and giving more. Emma and Henry bring me such joy and I hope to raise them to think of others and to serve others. Emma is constantly wanting to share things with us and I love the joy and kindness she exhibits. Henry freely gives of his adorable smiles and I want him to keep spreading happiness. We are grateful for Jesus Christ and the endless bounds of His love for us. As Emma likes to sing "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and want to become more like Him. 

Four-month-old baby

Henry continues to grow, if somewhat slowly. He's tall (43rd percentile) and lean (<1st percentile) with a small-ish head (19th percentile); mainly, though, he is a happy and healthy baby. We will be able to start feeding him baby cereal/mush and pureed foods which we hope will help him fill out.

He finds his fingers to be very tasty and has them in his mouth most of the time he isn't eating. He frequently smiles at us although he seems to find less familiar people to be funnier than us since he'll laugh for other people who hold him but rarely laugh for us. His toes seem to fascinate to him and he grabs at them. Emma shows him her toys sometimes and he becomes very interested in them. Speaking of Emma, she has warmed up to him more in the past month or so. She continues to help with him as much as she can - grabbing a burp cloth, diaper, clothes, whatever for him. Very rarely does she say she's "busy" and doesn't help.

We're glad to have both our little ones who are filled with so much love and sweetness, and look forward to having Christmas as a family of four.

Here are a couple pictures from our ward Christmas party.

Emma is not a big fan of Santa so I talked with her ahead of time about taking a picture with him.
She told me she would "stand next to daddy" so here she is. She did it.

Our silly girl - she was okay without daddy the second time but still just standing by Santa.
Henry didn't cry for his first Santa photo! He is a friendly little guy.

Emma and Henry

Emma cracks me up. Here are some pictures I took a few weeks back.

This is Emma scooting away when I put Henry close to her.

She ended up with no where left to scoot so she decided to do this instead.


I moved Henry so their heads were closer together and they just cracked me up with their expressions.

Henry likes to watch his sister.

Two month baby boy

This post is a few weeks late. I was waiting to post until his 2-month appointment which was scheduled a few days after he hit 2 months. However, at the appointment I was thrown for a loop when I found out he had gained NO weight the past month and was <1st percentile for weight. Henry's doing well in every other area so the doctor wasn't concerned but I have had to add bottles to his schedule to make sure he's getting more calories each day. He was re-weighed two weeks after his appointment which was Monday and he'd gained 12 oz! So he's back on track but still has a lot of catching up to do.

He is a smiley, happy baby and we love having him in our family. Emma is warming up to him more and is as helpful as ever - she gets diapers, wipes and a changing mat for when I need to change him, she takes bottles when he finishes them and puts them on the kitchen counter for me, she grabs burp cloths if I need them, gets his binky for him sometimes when he's upset, turns on the music on his bouncer when he's in it, and sings songs to him when he's crying (my favorite).

He's long (70th percentile for height) and lean but doing great - just needs to pack on the pounds.

We are a family of four!

My mom took some pictures of us before she left this past Saturday so we have some of the four of us. Henry decided to come just before 3am on his due date - August 18th - and is 10 days old already. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14.9 oz and measured 20 inches long - nearly the same size as Emma when she was born but she had been a little over 8 lbs and measured slightly under 20 inches. Henry is a great little baby, and Bry and I are much improved in the baby-caring area from where we were a couple years ago.

Emma is almost smiling. It was bedtime for her, so... 

This photo turned out unintentionally humorous.
Look out for the storm trooper [sock], Henry!

This I took before our family photo attempts.

We're happy and adjusting and enjoying time with visitors who have come to help - my sister was here the week Henry came, then my mom came and now we have Bry's stepmother. We're so grateful for the help and support we're receiving.

Guesses of Baby Boy's Arrival

One week until due date! Lots of guesses. We'll see who's closest.

August 13 at 2:32pm, 6 lbs 14 oz -- Aiden (nephew)
August 15 at 4:45pm, 6 lbs 7 oz -- Sam (nephew)
August 15 at 11:30pm, 9 lbs 4 oz -- Landon (nephew)
August 16 at 3:25 pm, 8 lb 1 oz -- Becca
August 17 at 4am, 20 1/2 inches long, 7 lbs 11 oz -- Isaac
August 17 at 4:30pm, 8 lbs 5 oz -- Bry
August 17 at 8:30pm, 7 lbs 1 oz -- Patrick
August 18 at 6:53am, 7 lbs 13 oz -- Roxanne
August 18 at 8:18pm, 7 lbs 14 oz -- Me
August 19 at 3:10am, 8 lbs 3 oz -- Mom
August 19 at 4:21am, 7 lbs 14 oz -- Chris
August 19 = "Next Saturday." "Be big little boy." -- Emma
August 20 at 12:01am, 7 lbs 8 oz -- Dad
August 21 at 7pm, 8 lbs 5 oz -- Allison
August 22 at 12:21am, 8 lbs 1 oz -- Rochelle
August 22 at 12:44am, 7 lbs -- Owen (nephew)

Belated Canada Day Post

A month ago today we were in Vancouver, B.C. celebrating Canada. Bry and I having been wanting to go to Vancouver since we moved to Washington and thought our 5-year anniversary would be a good reason/time to go. We decided to have our anniversary trip a couple weeks late so that we could be there for Canada Day and we had a wonderful time. Bry hadn't been in Canada on Canada Day for something like 10 years; it was Emma's first time to Canada; and it was Canada's 150th anniversary which is a cool milestone. 

We drove up Friday afternoon and got settled into our Airbnb and went to a mall where we walked for a bit and got some food. Saturday morning Bry ran out and got Tim Horton's doughnuts and Timbits (doughnut holes) for breakfast.

 

On Saturday morning we headed out to Stanley Park which is beautiful and really big. We walked along the Seawall for a long while, enjoying the perfect sunny weather and the salty breeze from the coast. We made our way over to the Totem Poles in Stanley Park, had a successful stop in a gift shop, walked some trails through Stanley Park to get to a playground, and walked briefly through the Rose Garden. We went back to our car and drove around to the west side of the park where we stopped at a beach that we walked on for a bit and at which I took some of my favorite pictures.

Emma found this large rock very interesting.

Canadian Geese IN Canada!

Lions Gate Bridge

Totem poles

Bry helped Emma overcome her fear of swings.

From Stanley Park we took a bus over to Canada Place where some Canada Day celebrations were taking place. They had a couple stages set up with musicians/performers, had a tent with little Canada flags and things, and a couple food tents.

There's a "Canadian Trail" at Canada Place that has different city names on the ground you can read as you walk along.

On Sunday we explored Queen Elizabeth Park which was pretty, although not very impressive having been to Stanley Park the day before. From the park we drove to Langley, B.C., where the temple is located and we ate a snack there. Then we headed on our way home. It seemed we were not the only ones who thought it'd be fun to go to Canada for Canada Day and the wait to cross the border was AWFUL (stop-and-go - mostly STOP - for about 1-1.5 miles that took at least 45 minutes to get through). Aside from that part, the drive was mostly smooth.

We got Canada shirts on Saturday that we then wore Sunday.