Henley turned eighteen months old a few weeks ago and I just can not believe how big she has gotten! I look at her every day and think where did my little baby go! The personalities of both our children are sooo different and I love seeing the differences in boys and girls! Henley is such a talker...when she wants to be! She has been putting two and three words together for about a month or two! I hear someone talking and when I turn around I am always surprised to see Henley! I am not sure if it is being a girl or a second child, but she sure does seem to pick up everything! Right now her favorite words are no no, mine and telling/showing you her body parts! Brian and I laugh all the time because she has the most southern accent of all of us and it is too cute! If you could hear the way she says, bye bye you would think sometimes you were watching Gone with the Wind! Speaking of Scarlett, I think we most definitely have a drama queen on our hands! Wow, the tantrums this little girl throws are outrageous! I can not tell you how many times a day that I lay her on the floor gently so she can throw her fit! I make sure of course that I lay her head down gently because she is notorious for banging it on the closest thing she can find! I wait for her to calm down and then we go about our business and try to find a distraction! I have to laugh because I can already see the future and what drama ours lives will bring as she grows into a teenager!
Henley is still Miss Serious at times, but she so mischievous in nature! We can honestly say, she is always trying to get her brother into trouble! He can be a foot from her and she somehow finds a way to blame him for something...mostly just touching her! She knows when she is not supposed to do something because as she is doing it, she will look at you and say, no no. We have not quite figured out if she is going to be shy or not? When we are at home she is quite the busy body and very bossy, but she is not so fond of strangers. I think it takes awhile for her to warm up to people she does not know very well. If looks could kill, well her facial expressions alone are priceless! Total strangers have even commented on the looks she gives! I do not even know how to respond to that? It does not help that she is in that horrible stage at 18 months where she is attached to mommy! The stage where they are old enough to know something bad could happen and they want to make sure their safety net ( aka mommy and daddy) are with in an arm’s reach! It drives me crazy, but I would rather have that than the opposite! Christian went through that stage, but he also tested his boundaries and would just take off!
Henley is not a snuggler like her big brother and it breaks my heart sometimes. However, recently she has started to give kisses to all of us! She will walk up to you and kiss you on the mouth and make that uhm mma noise! Too cute!
Henley is definitely the musical one in the family! I have a video that is nothing, but nursery ryhmes. She gets so excited and dances and sings every time we put it on! She can already sing a few of the songs and her favorites include “ The Wheels on the Bus and You are my Sunshine.” I am trying to get some video of her singing You are my Sunshine because it is so stinking cute! The two words you hear so clearly are Sunshine and Happy and it is precious! She loves to play any musical instrument and jumps on the piano every chance she gets...maybe she will follow in my footsteps and play one day?
Last, but not least I have to put her stats in her for memory books. I found a website that makes your blog into books, so I am about to start that process. I want to have one for each year of their lives! These blogs are kind of their baby books!
Henley at her 18 month check up weighed in at 24lbs 8oz which put her in the 55% for weight. She was 32 1/4 inches long which made her in the 60%for height. Head was 19 inches which put her in 90% for that! The doctor said, she was perfect! We think so too! We love you Henley and you truly are our sunshine!
"What a beautiful day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!” Easter Sunday was a gorgeous day in Birmingham, Al this year! There is no better day than Easter to sit back and reflect on our lives! A day to celebrate and be thankful for the many blessings that God has bestowed on all of us! I am especially thankful for my beautiful family near and far and all the happiness they bring to our lives! My Aunt Punkin was in town for the Holiday and it was nice for her to get to spend time with the kids.
Sunday morning we all got up and went to church. When church was over there was an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids! Henley is so funny because once she discovered that there is chocolate in the plastic eggs...she stops at the first one! Henley picks up her first egg, sits down on the ground, opens the egg and proceeds to eating the contents! :) If she gets done with the first egg, well then she moves on to the next! I do not think she has grasped the concept, the more eggs you get, the more candy you have to eat! I think that this is probably a good thing!!! Christian on the other hand, no so hesitant this morning! He had a lot of eggs in his basket this time!
Once we got home, Henley took her afternoon nap. When Henley woke up we went over to my parents home and had yet another easter egg hunt! I have more plastic eggs than I know what to do with! If anyone needs any next year...give me a call! We had a nice dinner and hung out outside for the evening because it was just to nice to be indoors! Heather did not come home, but we were able to talk to her via Skype. It was so easy to use we need to get Debbie and Lynn to sign up and we can all talk via the computer! It was pretty fun!
I am trying to catch up with the blogging! We had a lot going on last week with Spring Program’s, Easter Parties and a couple of egg hunts! Here is some video of Christian’s Spring Program at school! However, there is not to much video of him singing! He was out of school for two weeks and his first day back was the program! Needless to say, he was not prepared! The 3’s classes sang a bunch of nursery rhymes for all of us and it was very cute! However, I think in the beginning Christian was a little shy because he had his hand over his mouth and kept pulling his shirt up? They were all so cute! Check out the little boy in the black turtle neck, so cute how he was singing his heart out! Another little boy, Ian would tip his hat after every song and say, “Thank you, Thank you!” This age is adorable and here is a little bit of footage of the few parts Christian actually participated! I watched this video and Christian was cut out a lot on the side. Make sure to right click on the video and choose watch on youtube or show all! This is the only way that you will be able to see him in the video! The blog has made changes and the only way for me to upload video is by doing it through youtube! Oh well!
Brian has always been an avid skier and started at a young age. I on the other hand have always been a beach person. My mother being from California grew up skiing all her life and in fact my parents even have a time share in Beaver Creek, Colorado! I do not know why we did not learn to ski as children, but opted for the beach every summer instead. Growing up so close to the beach it was a no brainer for my sister and I when asked every year where we should vacation? I really did not know much about the west coast or snow for that matter. I was raised in the south my entire life and never really came into contact with the cold, white stuff ! :)
Brian and I have always discussed having an annual ski trip with our family. We want the kids to start early so they will never encounter the issues that an old, beginner like myself have. I have skied before, but by no means would I or do I have any desire to ski blacks!! I am perfectly content to stay on the greens and blues and leisurely take my time down the mountain! There is no dare devil flowing through my veins! However, I am sure there is a heart attack in my future as I watch our children become older and more advance in their skiing abilities! Two years ago we started this tradition when Christian was about to turn two years old. I was pregnant with Henley and terribly sick! We ended up canceling our trip to Colorado due to my misery! Brian was of course disappointed, but I think it was better in the long run for Christian. I think that 3 years old is the perfect age to start the learning process and getting him use to everything. The clothes, boots and weather are all new to little southern boys! However, Christian was a trouper and ABSOLUTELY loved every second of this trip!
Since last year was out, we decided that this was the year to start our tradition! We made plans to go to Utah since I had only skied in Colorado. I was so excited because I had heard how beautiful it is in Park City! We decided to leave Henley with my parents because it is pointless to pay for her to sit in daycare all day long. We knew that she would be much happier in Birmingham with her Grandma and Boppa. We missed her terribly, but it was nice to have one on one time with Christian. I feel that he gets neglected sometimes when I am busy dealing with his sister and we enjoyed giving him 100% of our attention!
We had been talking about our trip to Christian for awhile and getting him ready for what he was about to learn out on the mountains. We watched ski videos on YouTube and he really got excited watching all the skiing on the Olympics! He could not wait to get out on his ski’s and kept telling everybody that he was going skiing!
The first day we got to Park City around 1:00 and immediately got fitted for our ski’s and boots. We got Christian signed up for ski school and picked up our lift tickets. We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria in the Canyons and it was a ski in ski out. Perfect for those with kids and a lot of stuff to haul around! I could not imagine having to pack up all our gear and put Christian in a car seat and drive somewhere to ski! We walked out the front door and there was the Gondola to take us up the mountain! Christian loved the Gondola and was always telling everyone riding with us that he was going skiing! There is nothing cuter than a small child packed in snow clothes and boots! They look like little fluffy, puffy michelin men! I could not help but, laugh every time I looked at him in all his gear! He could barely move! It made me think of the little boy in the Christmas story who could barely walk because his mother has so much clothing on him when he left the house! That was Christian!:)
We were there for five days, but we wanted to do more adventurous things to entertain Christian. We chose a horse and carriage ride with dinner the first night. It was very cold and it was snowing. The scenery was picture perfect and once the snow stopped it was much more enjoyable! The guide was great and even offered Christian the chance to ride up front, but he was being shy. It did not help that he had been up since 5:30am and they were an hour behind central time! We went home afterwards and got some shut eye because the next day was a big one! Christian’s first time on ski’s and we could not wait to see what would happen!
Christian had to report to ski school at 8:30, so we were up early and on the mountain by 8:00am! I joined a group lesson to get a refresher course since it had been awhile for me! Brian met some friends that were in town and everybody did their own thing for the morning. We were meeting back at 11:30 to eat with Christian and check in with him! Christian was doing well with skiing and having fun, but unfortunately he was done with his lesson and wanted to be with mommy and daddy! We decided to take him out of class and keep him with us for the rest of the day. I am sure everyone has seen those parents and their children with the harnesses attached to them? Well, Brian skied with Christian and I the rest of the day. Brian would just hold onto him and keep him between his ski’s going down the mountain! That should tell you how skilled my hubby is on ski’s because I would of killed both us if I had even attempted something like that! Christian loved this and of course wanted to ski with Brian and I every day! However, Brian would never get to go down the crazy blacks if he did that, so Christian and I had a few semi-private lessons together! We learned a lot, had a fabulous time and came back home all in one piece! Here is some video of Brian and Christian skiing down the mountain!
I do not want to make this blog forever long, so here are some of the other fun things we did while we were there. The pool was heated to 120 degrees and of course the saunas were a must for our sore muscles! Christian was not sore and enjoyed hopping back forth between the two of them!
We took a dog sledding trip which was so much fun! Brian and I got to ride on the back of the sled for a different prospective and Christian got to yell, “Hike”! This is what made the dogs take off running! He loved it and in fact told many people that this was his favorite activity!
We went snowmobiling, had snow ball fights, made snow angels and Christian’s personal favorite eating snow! Yep, you read that right...eating snow. Christian loved eating snow every chance he got! We had to keep telling him to eat the white snow! I kept waiting for him to get his tongue stuck to a pole or something because every time you would turn around he would be licking the snow! Yuck! I know, but what can you do? He would say, “ I love eating snow, it taste like ice cream!” Well if that is all it takes to make you happy, I will shave you some ice every day! :) That is healthier than ice cream and if he does not know the difference it should not matter! Right?
We had a wonderful time and we can not wait to go back next year...if there is not a brand new addition to our family... :)
