Happy Christmas!

We have had a nice Christmas here.  We're all sad that it is almost over but grateful that we have been able to spend so much time together.  I hope everyone else has had just as wonderful of a day.  Merry Christmas!! 

Henry and Daddy fighting off bad guys.

 

Henry's tent with a little Christmas tree.  You can see his new sleeping bag and garbage truck.  Other presents are in there with him too.

After watching parts of Brave, Henry spent the rest of the night on a bear hunt.  He protected us from lots of stuff today.  Santa picked well! 

Getting Ready

I am always take fewer pictures than I think I do. We had family here and did not get a single picture of it. (I know pictures exist, just not on my camera).  Grandmother, Faye, Emily, Ian, and Rubye were here to help us decorate our Christmas tree.  It was a nice, fun Christmas-y evening. 

These are some of my favorite pictures of pre-Christmas fun.

Helicopter helped us decorate the tree.  Henry attached ornaments to the helicopter hook then flew them to the tree.

Henry and Daddy made and decorated a train shaped rice krispy treat. 

Cousins

Henry and Rubye are sweet together.  Henry loves seeing Rubye and I think Rubye loves seeing Henry.  She watches everything he does and he loves to help her and play with her.  It's cute.

The other night Henry and I were driving around with Emily and Rubye.  Henry and Rubye were both in their car seats in the back seat talking to each other.  Rubye was babbling like 6 month olds do and Henry was repeating all of it to us.  As he was telling us something she said, she kept talking and Henry looked at her and said "What was that?"  I guess he was really interested in what she was saying and didn't want to miss any of it.  Funny boy.

Fire Hazard Gone

Let it be known that I am currently cooking on 2 big burners at the SAME TIME!!!!  A few weeks ago we got a new stove.  This is very good because the last one was completely missing one big burner and the other was a bit of a fire hazard every time I turned it on.  

This isn't the first time this has happened this month but I smiled to myself when I thought about it and wanted to share. 

Somewhere I have a picture of the old stove and the new stove but I can't find them (they may have been deleted in a panic to capture Christmas fun), so you'll have to just imagine old, terrible, fire hazard stove and new, beautiful, 5 burners on a glass stop stove.  So beautiful in fact that when it was delivered, Henry said "It's beautiful Mama!"  A stove that is beautiful even to a 3 year old little boy.  Now that you've got it all pictured in your head you can imagine how happy I am right now.

Summer Vacation

This summer we got to go Oregon for Rubye's baby blessing and to spend some time with my family before Caleb headed off for his mission.  (He leaves on Tuesday!!)  We did had a lot of fun and I'm glad we got to go!

The pub we ate at on our way.

Fish and chips does not sit as well with me as it used to.  Henry had a blast in the Hotel pool though and lucky for both of us, he has the best Daddy ever that was willing to swim around with him for hours.  

 

 

Henry's pallet at G.G.'s

 

Feeding fish at the Hatchery

We spent a day at Silver Falls.  It is a fun little hike where you start at the top of the falls and end up walking behind them then around the pool at the bottom.  Henry loved the waterfall and all of the caves around it.

We spent a couple of days at the coast.  Henry LOVED the beach!  He's talked about it ever since.  We built sand castles, walked on the beach, flew a kite, went swimming (in an indoor pool), had seafood and lots of fun!

(A picture of Daddy looking out the window at the ocean.  One of many beach condo pictures taken by Henry.)

 

Henry "lub"s Rubye!

 G.G. and Henry

I would really reccomend the condo we found.  It could easily sleep 8, there is an indoor heated pool, pool table, sauna and it is right on the coast.  There is a balcony and picture window overlooking the ocean and it was a good price.  Can't get a better combo than that!  I wold love to go back again!!

The second day at the coast we went walked around a couple different towns.  Henry had fun watching all the boats, seals, fish and crabs.

 

Henry having fun on our way home

 

Henry and his Great Grandpa Dixon

 A month later, I found Henry emptying his closet into his diaper bag.  I asked him what he was doing and he said "Go G.G's house and go beach!!"  Agreed, Henry.  Agreed.

Summer

Dear Future Me: 

When you "publish" this years book, put the summer posts where they should be chronologically. 

Thanks,
Busy and Behind

~

We had a fun summer.  I couldn't even begin to go through all of the things we did, but the whole summer went something like this:

 
A chaotic blur.  (In which Henry spent a lot of time wearing fireman hats and Teddy a leash.)

It was actually a pretty fun summer.  My lack of blogging probably had more to do with my desire to spend all my extra time outside or doing something fun as it did with our being busy.  I love being outside and for the first year since we've been married, I had a decent garden to spend time weeding and admiring.  The first part of the summer I spent figuring out how to get rid of the snails that kept devouring my plants.  Once that was figured out I was able to keep things alive.  

 

Fun with Daddy in the Sprinkler

 

A little cocoon we found living under the protection of our zuchinni

 

 

Brussel Sprouts!

They actually got some creepy bug on them so we just tossed the whole plant, but next year I know how to keep that from happening.

 

One of our pumpkins, an onion and some beets

 

We built logs of blanket forts this summer

`

A funny story about a little boy and bedtime

I just went to check on Henry and give him a kiss before I headed to bed.  I walked to find him in his fireman jacket and hugged up to a backhoe. 

Pretty funny! 

I had to record this before I forgot.  Sadly, I did not think to take a picture until the backhoe was moved and the jacket taken off but this is probably a good thing.  Picture with flash plus taking both of those things away probably would have woken him up.  (It was a close call without the flash factor.)  I'll just have to get with it and post Halloween pictures of him in his Fireman outfit.  Then you can pretend like he's covered up and sleeping with an arm wrapped tightly around his favorite mighty machine of the night.

Funny Quote Of The Day

"SOMEtimes supper is REALLY yummy!"

This is what Henry told us during supper tonight.  What delicious specialty were we eating?  RAMEN!  Oriental flavored Ramen!  Makes me so happy that I spend all that time and money making other things that apparently are less delicious. 

Best Day!

Saturday we were relocating a pile of dirt from our patio to the hill behind our house.  (Wildflower hill next spring!!)  As Nate was shoveling dirt from the pile to the wheelbarrow, Dozer was uncovered.  It's probably been there for a couple of months.  When Henry discovered the tiny bulldozer, he exclaimed "Best Day!!".  I like to think our snuggly morning, everyone being home, a few cups of hot chocolate had something to do with it, but either way, I'm glad he had the best day!

Dozer Update:
Since starting this happy post, Dozer has since disappeared again.  Most of Henry's night time prayer was about helping him find Dozer.  And that he was grateful  hot cocoa.  Hopefully we find Dozer again tomorrow.

Growing Watermelon

We have had a garden for two years now.  Both years I've thought how wonderful it would be if we could grow our own watermelon.  Last year we grew a watermelon that fit nicely in the palm of my hand.  You can see how well it went this year.  The one on the bottom could be a baby cantaloupe.  Maybe some other kind of melon.  I can't remember what I planted there.  All of my melon plants took up probably 1/3 of our garden.  And this is what I got.  I think next year we should do something better with that space. 

Happy Birthday Henry!!

Happy Birthday Henry!! 

As of Saturday, Henry is 3!  I can’t exactly say that it’s hard to believe he’s 3.  It's crazy that he's 3 and no longer a baby, but he is obviously no longer a baby.  Always my baby, but he is not a real baby any more.  His vocabulary has picked up like mad.  He listens to everything and will repeat any word that he hears and finds interesting, I suppose.  He will be playing (sometimes in a different room) and just repeat a word he hears and incorporate it into whatever is going on in his head at the time.  Because of this, we really have to watch what we say.  There have been a few instances where we have tried to retrain him in his sayings, but once heard it is not forgotten.  For example:  “Oh me dosh.”  While not the worst thing a kid could say, I would much prefer “oh my goodness” or something a little more removed from the real swear word phrase.   It is harmless enough though that it’s pretty cute when says it, especially when he adds in his frustrated or excited inflections. 

Another funny Henry-ism is his “Henry doing frazy!” followed by running in circles with hands waving in the air and crazy sounding yelling.  He will also let me know when something is driving him “frazy” with a “Driving Henry frazy. (shaking head) Henry like that.”  When he says “Henry like that” it really means he doesn’t like that.

He hasn't fully integrated I, me or mine.  Everything is “Henry do it”, “My do it”, or “My holp” (help). 

Henry’s Favorite Things:

Mighty Machines -  A Canadian TV. show about all kinds of trucks and big machines.

Choo choos & their tracks – I think his favorite Mama/Henry activity is when we sit and build his train set together.  “Hahoe” (backhoe - pronounced like hat hoe minus the “t”) and bulldozer push tracks to where there are needed, then we snap the tracks together.  It’s a little different every time and he has so much fun creating the little train world and placing all the trains, trucks and accessories in just the right spot.  Everything has to be delivered with a truck or train though (except when I sneak and do it when the trucks are busy moving other supplies).  It’s just not real if you sit it in its spot with your hands.

Building forts – And having Mama or Daddy in them with him.

Hire Frups (Fire trucks) – All fire trucks but especially one he found in his Uncle Calebs stash of Match Box cars.  He has carried it everywhere since he discovered it at G.G.s house.  He even has to have it to fall asleep at night. 

HaHa - His stuffed monkey.  Another sleep time necessity. 

Ranch - With everything including but not limited to cottage cheese.

Cottage Cheese

Fractor Frailer (tractor trailer) - He’ll stop and stare at parked tractor trailers, think for a bit and say “I’m big red!”.  Which is a line from Mighty Machines for those of you that are not regular Canadian TV watchers.

The beach – He has only been once that he remembers but he LOVES it!  I recently found him packing his diaper bag/suit case for his trip to the beach.  He has been asking for weeks for a trip to the beach.  He will ask “Beach?  Otay?!  Dea?!” (Pronounced like idea, but without the “I”). 

He sure is growing up!  He recently decided that he was no longer interested in wearing a diaper.  Ever.  I fought him every night for a couple weeks to keep him from stripping it before bed time.  Then he realized he could strip it in the middle of the night and that I would not wake up enough to put it back on.  After a few nights of naked Henry bum, we decided that he might be ready for night time potty training.  So far, he’s done an impressive job!  I can’t say I was ready for this process, but he was ready enough that it has been fairly easy so far (considering it’s night time potty training).  ***Knock on wood!***

He is a BUSY little boy but he is SO sweet!  He loves to hold and help take care of his cousin Rubye.  Every baby he sees is Rubye and “tute” (cute but with a “t”).  He loves to cuddle and gives us lots of hugs and kisses.  He frequently says “Lub each other!” (We love each other!) and lists off everyone he loves.  “Lub Mama.  Lub Daddy.  Lub Teddy.”  Etc, etc.  He tells me when I look “fretty” (pretty), points out “fretty” things all over stores, admires pretty flowers and sometimes picks them to give to me. 

He loves his Daddy!  When we eat supper before Daddy gets home he makes sure to ask that Daddy get home safely.  He loves playing with his Daddy and helping him with everything he does.  I think that his most favorite thing is when we are all home together.  If the world could be just the way he wanted it, I think we would spend all our days together.  Playing together, “holp(ing) each other”, going places together and just spending time together in general.  We love our little Henry and we are so glad that he is ours.  Happy Birthday Henry!

I wrote this a while ago...

but I'm just now getting to post it.  Some day I will probably do a big photo dump, but that will probably not be today.  I might as well post something that's already written, right?  As you read it just pretend that there wasn't a little bit of snow at the top of the mountains today.  Pretend like it's still blazing hot, that you're planning a trip to the pool, and the best sounding food in the world right now is a nice and juicy watermelon.  (Oh wait.  Watermelon still sounds YUMMY!!)

Summer has been busy.  Every time I think I have a second to sit down and post something about what we’ve been up to, something comes up and I am busy again.  But it is a good busy!  I LOVE summer!  I love being able to go places without a care for the weather.  I love being shoeless.  We have pretty much resorted to keeping our shoes in the car.  If we’re not in public, no shoes needed.  We have loved spending time in our back yard.  We’ve loved having people visit and move here.  All of it.  Rather than recant everything we have been up to, I will just post some pictures and maybe a short summary or two.  But I am going to do that later.  I haven’t even transferred all the pictures from my camera to my computer and it’s not going to happen right now.

Instead, I am going to talk about Henry.  (Surprise!)

While we were on vacation last week, his vocabulary and speech clarity skyrocketed.  I am very excited for this progress, but there will be things that I will miss.  I’m sure all of his cute little words will be gone rather quickly so I’ve decided to write some of them down before I forget any more.

Paw-berry – Strawberry

Hire frup – Fire truck

Ha-hoe – Backhoe

Icy – This one is new and very clearly pronounced, but it’s funny.  While he was in the tub on Saturday he would inform me that he needed warm water poured down his back by telling me his back was icy.  I’m pretty sure I use the word cold. 

S*it – Sit.  It was especially funny when he would tell Teddy to sit.  “S*it, Teddy.  S*it!)

Hoe hay – Hold me

Luh-Loo – Love you

All I want is the opportunity to fail.

Or succeed.  Preferably succeed.

I would like to add a little preface to this.  I wrote this after hearing about the Supreme Court ruling on healthcare changes.  I was (still am) a little upset about the ruling because I know the effect that has already had on my family and it will probably get worse.  Our premiums and deductibles have gone up ridiculously since the law passed and I don't see the Supreme Court okaying most of it helping that situation at all.  I imagine that we will continue to see our costs go up and our coverage go down.  Who knows where it will stop.  I hope that I do not offend anyone.  I don't usually judge individuals for the choices they make (at least I try not to but I am just human) because I do not know all of the facts.  The two most important factors that I do not have are what level of effort is your best and what you have been prompted to do by Higher Powers.  My business as to why you made major life choices are the same as to why we only have one child who is almost three.  That would be none. 

That being said, please don't be offended.  I do not assume you have no self respect because you take government aide. 

And here we go.  This is what commented on an article related to the healthcare ruling. 

I feel like I am swimming upstream.  My family is in that unfortunate spot where it would benefit our lifestyles for me to quit my jobs (yes plural and both decent paying), stay home with my child, my husband not work his extra job, stop paying for insurance, and just sign up for every government program available.  We would qualify!  We would be able to spend more time together as a family, have more kids, and get out of debt faster.  BUT, it is NOT going to happen as long as we can help it because we have more self-respect than that.  What is wrong with this country?  Why do we encourage dependence and discourage hard work? 

I am in my late 20's.  My husband and I are working SO HARD to be self-sufficient.  I think that living with a modest amount of debt (a reasonably sized mortgage and maybe a car payment) without requiring support from the government should be a realistic goal.  It seems to be getting harder though and I find it most depressing.  On top of the price of EVERYTHING going up every time you turn around, it feels like the some (probably well intentioned) people are making it more difficult all in the name of protecting my future.  PLEASE STOP PROTECTING MY FUTURE!!!!  All I want is the chance to succeed by my own hard work and choices.  I know that comes with risks, but I take more pride in a hard earned failure than in a "success" that is handed to me. 

Please!  If I choose not to have insurance, then that is my choice.  If I get sick in the process, then I should suffer the consequences of either massive amounts of debt or a lack of health care.  (We do have insurance and pay dearly for it because we think it is important for us.)  If I choose not to save for my retirement, make poor decisions in how I choose to save/invest, or even just have plain old rotten luck, I keep working until I can afford to quit or am otherwise forced to.  Society needs to be compassionate.  We cannot forget those among us that are suffering despite all efforts, but we also need to be conscious of that line where, once crossed, we go from being caring to enslaving ourselves in hopes of happiness and security.  Look at history.  I do not recall a single society that was enslaved (literally or by a form of taxation) and happy with their overall situation. 

Having Fun With Henry

Nathan was gone half the week, so Henry and I decided we should have some fun.  It was super smoky outside so we mostly stayed inside. 

Wednesday we went and did some window shopping our friend "Shell".  No pictures, but it was fun!  After window shopping and supper we went to Home Depot to drive the "beep beep buggies".  You know the buggies (aka carts) that look like trucks and have steering wheels and all?  He LOVES those things!  I've learned to save that errand for last, that way all the subsequent stores aren't disappointing and I can use Home Depot as Henry's incentive to be good.  "If you don't listen, we can't go drive the beep beep buggies!"  This works like a charm!

Thursday was supposed to be our play outside day, but it was raining ash so we opted to stay indoors.  More, my lungs hurt when we went outside so I made Henry stay inside too.  It was okay though.  We made brownies instead.  Yum!  Henry had fun helping.  He especially enjoyed tasting the batter at every step, licking the spatula, and cleaning up.  He is a good helper!!!

 

 

Friday he helped me work a little.  We picked up some keys for Emily and checked on the new house.  He was rather disappointed when Emily, E-O, and Rubye weren't there.  They will be next week though!  Hooray!  I think Henry is extra excited about this.  He keeps talking about all things baby related and how he wants to hold Rubye, hug Rubye, swing Rubye, and everything else he can think of that babies need. 

This was not taken this weekend, but here is Henry in the tree of their new front yard.  He climbed up there again yesterday.  It is a good tree climbing tree.  Especially considering the ladder that's attached to it.  That makes it extra perfect!

Was gonna post some stuff today

When I realized it's been a whole month since I've posted ANYTHING, I decided to post today.  When I realized how much has happened in the last month, I decided I needed to post something soon.  Probably today.

After the death of Tall Silver and Handsome (that's what Emily named her computer that we bought from her), it took me at least 2 weeks to clear him out of his home and make way for Spot.  (No idea why it's name is Spot.  It just seemed to fit.)  For a whole 3 days I had a beautifully clean office space that was only missing a couple up-cycled magazine holders and a colorful picture or two before it deserved to be in some sort of blog post about being frugal and making what you have look nice, cozy, modern, and family friendly.  Then I checked the mail.  Now it has almost returned to the catch-all state it was in before its new occupant moved in.

As part of our little office spaces cleaning and rearranging, I decided to minimize the number of cords I had to see and mess with every day.  That and mobility are the best parts about laptops, right?  Thinking about how this little dream of mine would come true I remembered this lovely USB port that we had upstairs, sitting in our cords box.  Brilliant!!  I could plug all of our stuff into one long strip of ports, shove that behind the file cabinet, and just have the one cord that I could nicely place between the printer and external hard-drive.    Excellent!!!  Well, I figured I would probably run into problems, but chose to not think about it and deny the signs until I had to.  The problem with digging technology out of boxes that have been sitting under the bed for years is that it's probably old technology.  Every time I plug it in, I get some little thing pop up saying that my device could perform faster blah, blah, blah... Who pays attention to those little things that pop up anyways?  (Yes.  My part time job and pre-Henry full time job is at a software company.  I pay attention to that stuff there.  I just don't like to do it at home.  Computers should just work.  Good thing one of our perks is super-duper anti-virus.)

Henry just woke up, so I'll get to where I was going.  Old technology doesn't support new technology demands.  One cannot quickly or easily download pictures via old technology.  I'm looking for a new USB hub today.  Maybe.  JUST MAYBE, I will post some April stuff before it's June.

Money Karma

I am sure this will shock everyone and leave you wondering if you even know me at all. I am a tight wad. I prefer to call it frugal, but I think it’s a little more severe than that. I try to stretch every dollar as far as I can. I have a projected budget column and an actual budget column on my budget spreadsheet. I check said spreadsheet and update Quicken at least once a week. I enjoy hitting financial goals and beat myself up a little bit if they aren’t hit when I think they should be. I think if I spend money on something that isn’t a NEED (food, housing, utilities, Henry stuff), the next time something breaks unexpectedly or I am otherwise a little short on cash, it’s all my fault and I deserve the consequences.

Which brings me to now.

I was (until Saturday) in severe need of summer clothing. I had a couple pairs of shorts, a couple nice shirt or two and a few t-shirts at varying degrees of worn out. My slippers (aka flip flops) were also looking pretty thrashed (2 years old and a few doggie teeth marks). Saturday I was feeling good about the budget. I’ve been super good the last few months at not wasting money and felt like it was okay to go find me a new pair of slippers and some shirts to supplement my wardrobe. I found all of the above. I even let myself purchase a fancy (expensive-to-me) pair of everyday slippers, which I don’t think I’ve ever really done before. I think I’m pretty much set except I would like a new pair of summer Sunday shoes and maybe another pair of shorts.

I knew I would probably regret spending money. Sure enough, I a little bit regret it.

I spent money on Saturday. On Sunday, our computer died. I’m telling you. I have bad money karma!

I don’t say this to complain about money. Or to woe-is-me. I’m not really complaining at all. There are a lot of people out there that would love their problem of the week to be a broken computer. I am very grateful that that has been our toughest non-trial this week. Naturally, I always feel like we could use a little more money, but who doesn’t? I just think it’s funny. I think it’s funny that me spending money on me almost inevitably leads to something like this. So what do I do about it? Take whatever I spent on myself and put 10x’s that in savings. What else can you do with life besides try your best, plan ahead the best you can, then roll with the punches and find the humor in it all?

~~~~

I wrote this last week when I was frustrated with it all and without a computer to post. Now we have a new computer (HOORAY!). I didn't feel like changing all the timing of it, so pretend you read it last Tuesday. Now I can post Easter pictures, finish planning a baby shower, and make my family room a little more clutter free (hopefully) by clearing out the old desktop. Happy Day!

February

Yesterday, when I started this, I looked out the door to see where Henry and his Daddy went. They were playing outside, then I noticed it was all kinds of quiet. They're walking on the trail down the road. It was cute.

February was mostly a sick month for us. One of us was sick at almost any given point. And by one of us, I mean Nate. With a few exceptions. I'm glad the month is over and hope that the sickness goes away. Halfway through March has been mostly better. Henry does have some sort of cold or something, but it's just a runny nose and a cough. Nothing we can't handle.

Here are some pictures.

Henry helped his Daddy shovel snow after church one day. They have fun together. Oh! Our car passed emissions. That was big February news. No more Oregon plates. (Mixed feelings about this. Oregons registration is way cheaper and no testing. Oh well.)

His hair got so long that it looked like this pretty much all the time. It only looked decent for a second if I managed to get it totally wet and I got to comb it.

This is a bad picture of what it looked like after I half way cut it. I got a lot of it done, but Henry was done with the hair cut, so it's not that great. His eyes are kind of puffy from all the tears. Had you been listening to the ordeal from outside, you'd think we were torturing the boy. We tried all the tricks. It just didn't go over well.

Henry spilled some water on the carpet so he grabbed the swiffer he uses to help when I mop and mopped it up.