Time Flies

I have a lot of catching up to do but I feel like I have a good excuse...

We are so excited for our newest edition to join our family! 

This is what Henry thinks of becoming a big brother...I'll leave the interpretation of his facial expressions up to you.

Unlike Henry's pregnancy, this one has been very different. Starting at about 6 weeks, I was having really bad morning sickness (morning, afternoon, evening and through the night). I'll spare the details but it would be sufficient to say that it was really rough and I don't know what I would have done without Sam's help and support. He should win some sort of prize for being so helpful. I tried ginger ale, small snacks, sea-bands, vitamin B-6, etc all with no relief.

At my 8 week appointment, I was able to start a prescription (Diclegis), which helped me not throw up but it didn't eliminate nausea. So I also started taking Zofran, which basically allowed me to return to my almost-normal-self. I am so glad I live in a day and age where these treatments are possible. 

Therefore, my blogging was put on hold for a while. But now I'm attempting to catch up. 

I discovered a new craft! It is using freezer paper stencils to design clothes. All you do is trace and cut out your design on freezer paper with an exacto knife. Then you iron it to your shirt, paint it, and wait for it to dry. I'm excited to do more freezer paper stencil projects. I've seen a lot of cute ideas for onsies that I'll probably experiment with. 

Sam took Henry to the park and played on the swings when I wasn't feeling well one day. It's nice to be within walking distance of a park. Look at that hair blowing! 

And while we're talking about hair, Henry is such a funny kid. When we put him down for a nap, he'll lay on his stomach in the crib and use one had to twirl his hair. One day after his nap, I picked him up from his crib and this is what his hair looked like. I just had to take a picture!

For Halloween, we had a little monkey on our hands. He wasn't the biggest fan of the hood portion of his costume but he was really cute!

He's been caught red handed with my wallet! It wasn't the first time and probably won't be the last either.  But how can you be upset with a cute smile like that?

Little moments here and there

This post has pictures of little events that show Henry's personality.

Going to Target.
Henry loves books. Probably more than toys. Is that unhealthy? We actually have to hide his books and only let him have them occasionally or else he would just sit and look at books all day. Seriously. We have a book worm on our hands.
I needed to run some errands and he had a book in the car with him. I was trying to encourage him to let go of it and leave it in the car, rather than take it inside with us but he started to throw a fit. So...he brought the book with him and held onto it the whole time.

Walk in the park.

I'm trying to go on a walk every day while the weather is still nice. Towards the beginning of our walk I gave Henry a leaf to look at. I was really impressed that he didn't put it in his mouth the whole time. About 10 minutes into our walk, Henry stops jabbering and I stop to check on him and this is what I discovered. 

Fast asleep. Still holding his leaf. 

General Conference

General Conference was very challenging this session. Henry had a bad cold and everyone was pretty miserable because of it. Here he is paying full attention to Elder Oaks talk. He also paid attention to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

Picking Sam up from work

Being a one car family, we get to pick Sam up from work. When we get there early enough and the weather is nice, we park and sit by the fountain. He is such a happy little boy!

September fun

While my sister was here, I think I explored St. Louis more than Sam and I have explored it since we moved here. Here are a few of our adventures. 

Gateway Arch

We rode to the top of the Gateway Arch. You have to climb inside this tiny pod. The glass door closes and you can see inside the arch as you go up, and up, and up. It feels pretty insecure and shaky. And there are no seat belts! We finally reached the top and could look through the little windows. 

Henry liked the ride up to the top, but was uninterested once we got there.

630 feet is about 2 redwood trees on top of each other!

Gooey Butter Cake

We also tried out gooey butter cake, which I guess is very popular here. I had never heard of it before but people told us we needed to try it. They can come in all sorts of flavors but we just tried the original. I won't lie; it wasn't the best desert I've ever had. I'm pretty set on deserts having either chocolate, peanut butter or fruit. Gooey butter cake doesn't meet my requirements. But I can check it off my list as having tried it. 

We did take Jacie to Ted Drews Frozen Custard, which I think is pretty delicious. Their apple pie custard is soooo good!

Jewel Box

The Jewel Box is a greenhouse inside Forest Park. The architecture is probably the biggest attraction. The plants inside are a bit underwhelming, especially because they aren't labeled. Good thing it was free admission. They did have a really pretty water garden in front though. I've always loved water lilies for some reason. 

On her last day, we visited the art museum. 

These were some of my favorites:

Henry's Birthday (Part 2)

I'm not sure if I can say that Henry got the hang of opening presents. We helped him open the first present (blue paper), but for the second present (green) he thought it would be better to tear the paper with his teeth than with his hands. What a funny kid!

Henry wants to thank his grandparents for the cool gifts! He plays with them all the time! 

On his special day, we went to the St. Louis Zoo. It was a neat experience because other times that we've taken him to the zoo, he looks at the people more than the animals. But this time he actually looked at the animals and enjoyed them. He really liked big animals, like the rhino, elephants and giraffe. 

Latter that night we went to the Great Forest Park Balloon Glow. It is where all the hot air balloons that will participate in the race are set up in the park and lit up. You can walk around and get right up close to hot air balloons. 

I didn't take this picture but it's just so you get the idea. 

 We took these ones:

They were blowing them up on the lawn! We had our picnic dinner while we waited.

My sister, Jacie, was visiting us from Oregon!

Every few minutes, a loud horn would blow and all the hot air balloons would turn on their burners, which would light up the balloon. That way they would all glow at the same time and you can take pictures. When we were walking around, we weren't even that close to the burners and yet we could feel their heat. They are super hot!

Elephant Rock

We're trying to squeeze in as many nice-weather activities as possible before summer ends so we went on a hike to Elephant Rock State Park. It took about 1.5 hours to get there but it was well worth the drive. There are so many of these huge, red granite rocks scattered all around this area. The area was partially mined in the early 1900's. Red granite from this area was used to build the St. Louis City Hall.