Henry's first Christmas!

This post is for a certain Grandpa that pointed out I have been a posting slacker :)

Henry's first Christmas was so much fun! He got WAY too much stuff.

Daddy helped Henry open all of his presents. By the end of it he was really good at tearing every piece of paper off the boxes.

As we predicted, Henry loved the wrapping and boxes! He had a great time!

This is Henry with his presents from Santa! We were up at 7, which is usual, but he looks more tired here than normal.

Santa brought Henry this piano. He LOVES it! He dances every time it starts.

This was on Christmas Eve at the mall. Henry went to see Maelie talk to Santa and after they went to the play place.

Maelie is the best cousin! She was such a cutie explaining to Henry how the toys worked and what colors they were . I am so excited that they are going to get to hang out more!

Daddy helping Henry

Christmas wore my boys out!

Today we went to the park. Henry was so excited!! He was cackling while Rob was swinging him. It was so cute!

Rob was trying to get Henry to slide. He did it a few times, but was not all that excited about it! Rob is such a good Dad, and they have the best time together.

Call the police!

Someone took my baby and left me with this big boy!

He's getting more and more mischievous! He grabs this lamp pole and bangs it against the wall every chance he gets.

Now he can get off the couch by himself so I don't mind letting him sit there with us instead of on the floor all the time.

His new favorite thing to do!

He climbs in and out of this laundry basket all day long!
He's also started feeding himself! I thought this was never going to happen, but he just decided that he's very independent. We just started giving him gold fish and both he and Ollie are very happy!

He's also getting so close to taking off! We have videos that I'll have to get Rob to post later of him taking one step and then sinking over and over again! He sinks to the floor and then claps for himself! It is so funny!

With this new independence has come the decision to not wear socks anymore. He's sockless when I go to get him out of bed in the morning or for nap times! He's so silly!
I can't believe my baby turns ONE in just 23 days! This has been the greatest year ever!

Henry and Santa

This is from Henry's first visit with Santa! It was so much fun to watch our tiny boy talk to an old favorite of mine! I didn't know how he was going to do with this bearded stranger, but he did great. He even waved bye-bye so I think they are new best friends! I can't wait to see how excited he is when he sees what his new friend leaves for him!!

The Greatest Birthday Ever!

Today we celebrated my 24th birthday by going to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then running some errands I needed to get done. Then we all laid down and took a 2 1/2 hour nap! After that my friend Laura was sweet enough to take the beast for a while when we were at dinner, but on our way there we got an even better surprise!!!

A horse drawn carriage ride in the SNOW!!!!
It started snowing while we were napping and the carriage rides were going on in Laura's neighborhood and we just tripped into it!


It was so much fun! I felt very strong Star's Hollow vibes the whole time!
We left there and had a great dinner at Macaroni Grill, picked up Henry and are now watching Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Azkaban.
What a day!

Plus this was my first birthday with my beautiful boy!
Check out those teeth!!

We love OUR Troop!

The Caruthers house hold is both very sad and very proud to say that Rob is leaving in January to join the fight.
We were told Monday that this was coming, Tuesday to go ahead and start packing the house, Wednesday to get five giant shots (more to follow today and next Wednesday), Thursday that blanket orders are coming so that I can pack and store our house, and today a woman is coming to give me an estimate for the house.
Whew! It's going by way too fast. So fast we haven't been able to fully digest everything, and it seems like there's more to take in every day. We just ask that you'll be in prayer for Rob's safety and mental health over the next eight months. He's doing fine right now, just really bummed about leaving us and missing eight months of Henry (who wouldn't be sad about that!).
We are extremely proud to be a military family. This is not an easy part of the job, but it is a part of the job and I am so grateful to my wonderful husband and the thousands out there just like him that are also separated from those they love in order to preserve our safety and freedoms. How amazing it is that these people are standing in harms way so that Henry and I don't have to! Praise be to God that there is that courage in the world! And may the Lord be with each one of them.
On a slightly brighter note, this allows Henry and I to come back to Texas for the next 8 months. I'm thinking of it as a nice consolation prize until Rob comes home to us in September.
We just want to thank all of you in advance for your prayers and your support as we move forward with all of this.

Hanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving in New York City!!
We started our trip with a lunch with Julie. It was so much fun! Henry slept through lunch, but later Julie came and spent a few hours hanging out in our hotel room and Henry stalked her! He's in love with Ms. Julie.

Us a Rockefeller Center! The tree is there already, but it won't be lit until the 3rd.

At FAO Schwartz. Henry had had about enough. We left after this picture and took a cab back to the hotel to let him rest for a little while.

And this is us today at 37th and Broadway during the parade!!

We had such a good time. And as you can tell it was VERY crowded!

These are the opening balloons!! It was so exciting to be there in the mix with all of those people and the confetti everywhere!
The balloons are HUGE!

Henry and Daddy with Snoopy!

Henry and Mommy!We stayed for an hour but then Henry started buring his face in in Rob's jacket and his nose started turning red!

But this is a great shot of all those new bottom teeth!Oh yeah, it's the bird himself!

Henry had a great day and was such a good boy!When we left we went a block backwards and landed in the 'end zone' where they were bringing all of the floats and balloons to be deflated and disassembled. It was the place to be! There was no one there. I took this picture in the middle of 37th street! There was only like 20 people watching from here and a group of cops who also had their camera phones out snapping pictures. It was so cool!

After this we left and drove 4 hours back to Maryland and over to friends of ours from Monterey for Thanksgiving dinner. Blake is the Turkey King. We had a 20lbs turkey that was covered in bacon and basted in beer! Best turkey ever, Cowboys won, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! What a day!

*S*N*O*W*

Henry watching his first snowfall!

Okay, so it's not a blizzard, but it definetly put me in the mood for Christmas music! I'm getting really jazzed about this winter. The fall was amazing, so I'm hoping winter dazzles me too. The weatherman is calling this to be the coldest winter in recent history, which sounds terrible, but for someone who stays at home all day I say 'Bring on the SNOW!'

Henry and Maelie

Henry and Maelie got to spend a lot of time hanging out this weekend!

She is the best big cousin and Hendro loves her so much!

She is so sweet to him and is such a good sharer!

She gave him LOTS of love!

Hey, who wouldn't love this face?!
We can't wait to come back in December so Mae and Henry can play together some more! We love and miss her very much!