Happy Birthday Henry!!

Thank you blogging world for reading my last LAME post. I tried to win a photo shoot but I did not win. No surprise there.

Because the last post was so lame and uninformative, I feel like I should actually write something informative. We really have been quite busy since my last post, so I'm going to try to catch up.

Henry turned 1 since my last real post! Happy Birthday Mr. Henry!! Emily, Ian, Emmett, Chelsie, and Janae all came down for General Conference. It was perfect timing! They were able to help us move into our house and be here for Henry's birthday party. We went to the city park here in Payson. We kept it low key, but it was fun. You might have noticed that the cake was a Costco one. Yumm! It was moving day and there was no way on Earth I was going to worry about making cake.

We love our 1 year old! He is fun, loves to be "helpful", cute, cuddly, energetic, easy going, and entertaining. We are so grateful to have him!

One Year Stats

Words: Mama, Dada, Teda (Teddy/any dog), whasat (what's that?)

Teeth: 7

Skills: Walking, manipulating objects, moving furniture, saying done with his hands (looks like "send it away"), blowing raspberries

Favorite things: Spatulas, stroller rides, Elmo, baths, Teddy

At first Henry wasn't sure about the cake thing,

but then he went to town.

The damage done.

Cleaning up in the park spicket.

Playing with some birthday presents.

In Need of Family Pictures!

I have been very much an absentee blogger lately, but there's been a lot going on. House buying, a few moves, Henry had a birthday, etc. More on all of that later.

I am here now for other reasons. I learned through Oregon people that there is an AMAZING photographer doing a photo session giveaway. I am here to let all of you know about it. Her name is Kristen Moss and you can check out her bog here. You really should check it out. She is amazing!

I feel like this post needs a picture, but I don't know that I even have any recent ones uploaded on my machine yet. See! I really need to win this photo giveaway!



P.S. Totally unrelated, but I don't like shows that require your undivided attention. They are very annoying and make me grumpy. Blog world: Thank you for that brief venting session.

11 Month Old Henry Baby

My little Henry baby is 11 months old (as of last Sunday)! Oh, how time flies. Besides being being all big and almost 1, he has also decided to take other steps to ditching the baby status. He's picked up walking! (Haha! He's taking "steps". I did not do that on purpose.) He took a few steps on his own early last month, but the decided he wasn't interested in walking and didn't try to walk anywhere with or without us holding his hands. Then he decided he was interested. Now he likes to try to walk everywhere. While exciting and extremely cute to watch, I'm kinda wishing he could have waited a little longer to learn this new skill. He was busy before, but now there is a whole new area of the world (kitchen) to explore. Really, it just motivated me to pack up everything but the bare essentials. He picks things up and brings them to me, sometimes (rarely) puts things back where he got them from, and regularly throws things in boxes for me. So, all things considered, I guess it's fun.

Notice the spatula in the bath tub? Don't worry. That one has been permanently assigned to the toy box.

The first of many facial falling injuries, I'm sure.

He has been very helpful lately. Teddy was at the back door letting us know it was time to let him in, so Henry went to let him in. Good effort.

He's been helping me pack,

make supper,

and empty my p.j. cupboard so I could box it up. I might not fill that back up for a while. It's just the right size for Henry to sit and play.

I have to admit. I love my baby boy. He's fun and I love spending my days with him. He's my best little bud.

P.S. Does it bug anyone else how Blogger takes the double spaces out between sentences? It sure bugs me!

It's August already?

So, like I said. I love summer and have obviously forgotten some things. Like how to take pictures. I was uploading the most recent and realized it's picture taking was not my strong suit in July. That's okay though. We've been having fun. Henry and I have been taking Mommy and Me swimming lessons. Obviously one cannot take pictures of that while your hands are full of baby and you're in the water, but I'm sure we'll get some of Henry demonstrating his new skills before the summer is over. Anyways, here are some of the few pictures I took in July.

4th of July corn on the cob for Henry!

Sparklers please?!

Emily, Ian, and Chelsie came down for Chelsie's birthday. While they were here we attended the Payson Scottish Festival, where we enjoyed Fish & Chips and root beer in cool bottles.

Later we went to Gardner Village, where Henry got to feed some ducks. The one on the left was kind of rude/aggressive and when we started to run out of Cheerios would jump up and dig them out from under Henry's leg. I thought this would frighten him, but Henry thought the duck was trying to play.

Henry (food) attracted quite the crowd.

After all of the company left, Henry was a helpful little boy and helped me roll up the air mattress. What a good helper!

Slacker Blogger

So, I've really stunk at blogging lately. I will eventually catch up. If I promise that I'll do it, I'm much more likely to. The truth is, I LOVE summer. I love being warm. I love that there are leaves on the trees. I love being able to drive and not have to worry about slipping across the road. I love slippers (flip-flops). I love shorts. I love not having to grab a jacket or two or three when I walk out of the house. I love trying to grow things (I'm not always successful). I love watering the things I'm trying to grow, even if they're almost dead. Summer is just the best! I can't let any of it slip by without enjoying it. Hence why I've been a worse than usual blogger. Of all the things I would rather be doing, blogging is not one of them. BUT I am way behind on Henry documenting and picture sharing, so I will get to it soon. I promise!

Oregon!

Here are some pictures from our trip to Oregon. We drove from Utah to Jerome to see Grandma and Grandpa Dixon, spent the night in Boise, then drove to Portland and down to Eugene. From there we went to Crater Lake and over to the coast. In a week and a half we had lots of fun and saw a good chunk of Oregon.

Caleb and Daddy at Crater Lake

It was bright up there with the sun and snow and all.

Pretty!

Henry got sick of all the driving.


After a couple switch backs I decided to take a picture. We hiked down to the lake.

Proof

On the way home we stopped to see the 2nd highest falls in Oregon. It was a pretty drive going there and back.


The coast! So pretty!
We decided that just when we convince ourselves that Utah is kinda green, we visit someplace that really is.


Heceta Head Lighthouse


See the cave(s)?



Hecta Head B&B. We didn't get a great picture of it, but it's pretty. Staying there is officially on our bucket list.

Tide Pools

Shark Tunnel at the Aquarium. Henry really liked watching the fish.

He wasn't so sure about his sea anemone hat.

Newport lighthouse

We got fish right off the boat! Yumm!

It was a type of pacific cod fish.
I love fishing boats.


Henry became a pro at crawling on his hand and knees while we were at my parents. Since we've been home, he's figured out how to climb the stairs. He's busy now!

Henry liked corn on the cob!

Sorry for all of the Henry pictures. Daddy was looking through my online album while we were there and like he said "You'd think you had a baby at home." It's true. We do.

It was a fun trip! Thanks Mama and Daddy for playing tour guide and showing us around! There was lots more we wanted to and could have done, people to see, etc, but time just flew. I'm sure we'll be back. Now that we're home, Henry is missing all of the attention, Nate and I are missing all of the help, but none of us are missing the car.

Happy Memorial Day!!

We are sad to see this weekend come to an end, but it was really a lot of fun. We went on a few long family walks, Teddy included, got stuff done, chilled, and had fun.

Today we had a lot of fun! We went to Camp Floyd and the Stagecoach Inn State Park for a Civil War reenactment. It wasn't really a reenactment, but they had 10 or so tents set up, people in Civil War era clothing giving demonstrations, and there were lots of activities for kids. Henry was not quite old enough to participate, but Nate was!

Nate got to fire a musket. They made him use ear plugs and protective eye wear. They also assured me that it was quite safe. I'm still not sure if they were just trying to be all gentlemanly, like during Civil War times, or if they really thought I was worried. If I would have had another dollar or they'd had change I would have shot it myself.

Henry did NOT like wearing the solider hat. I think it was because it was a Yankee one. Smart boy. (Confederate hats were not available.)


He got to pet a horse. I don't think they cared for each other.

The Boy Scouts are going to put up a flag in front of our house for all of the National holidays this year. All of the flags they are using actually flew in Afghanistan or Iraq. Kinda cool!