2010 in Photos

As 2010 winds itself down I decided to do a little tribute Caruthers style! Because we won't be near my computer when the ball drops I thought I would go ahead and get these up.
Henry, you had a GREAT year! You were a potty training pro, lived through a massive blizzard, took a bunch of fun trips, and had a lot of great visitors! Your Daddy and I have had the best 'year 2' with you and are thrilled to see what 'year 3' brings! You are a constant wonder and an amazing little boy and we are crazy about you.


The Highlights:
January- 2nd birthday
February- snowed in for 9 solid days!
March- Lorelai's 1st birthday meant a trip to DFW, and Daddy bought you a cool train set from Ikea that is still your favorite
April- Dad was promoted to TSGT, Easter (with Grammy though she's not in any of the photos...)
May- You moved into your big boy bed!! Mom and Ms. Julie took a trip to Philly and you got to spend a little time there too! We also took several trips to the zoo including a few times with Ms. Becca and Quinn.
July- Your 3rd 4th! Grammy and Papaw came to visit for a whole week!
August- the beach BABY! We spent over a week in TX including a weekend trip to the beach with Aunt Emmy, Kunkle, the girls, and Papa. You LOVED it!! This was also the first time you met your BFF, Ryder :) We also got a super exciting and super quick visit from Mr. Josh, Ms. Patricia, and Annie!
September- Grandpa, Grandma Terry, Bill, and Judy all came to Maryland for a long weekend! You and I also packed up and went to visit Ms. Arlena and her kids for a week in Arizona!! Unfortunately, the camera I had with me died so there aren't many pics to commemorate your first meeting with the Strodes, but that just means we'll have to go back!
October- Grammy, Grandma Dane, Maelie, and Lorelai all came to Maryland to see you! We had a great time playing in the leaves and showing them around!
November- Thanksgiving in New York is now our favorite tradition. It was crazy, loud, and COLD but you did great and loved getting to see Ms. Julie again! We can't wait to do it again!!
We also had our first sleepover! You and Quinn had a great time watching Cars.
December- We've already had our first snow fall and you got to see Santa and ask for a Little People Airport that you have had your eye on for a while now!

There are so, so, so many more things I want to add in here. Your first time playing with play dough, the water mills, Ribsy, you in the dirt, your silly faces! They are all on here somewhere and they are all precious to me. We love you!

Winter Wonderland!

Sorry we've been MIA this month! Tis the season I guess! To make up for my extreme blogger negligence I've posted several new posts today. Get ready for Henry overload!!

For a little over a week we've been teased with almost daily flurries. Just sweet little flurries that fell gracefully from the sky and appeared to dissolve before ever meeting with the earth. Then yesterday came and brought with it a winter wonderland that we couldn't resist! I'm sure our neighbors, who have all lived here for 50+ years and hate snow, think we are crazy!! Henry woke up from his nap and talked me into going out because he 'just reeeally needed to just put his footprints out in the new snow.' I bundled him up and set out to make some prints and take some pictures, but we ended up hanging out there for half and hour while Henry spent most of his time gathering snow in his mittens and throwing it at me! He's such a crazy kid!! We stayed out as long as we could before his face turned red, and are getting to enjoy it again today! I'm watching the weather religiously to see if we're going to get anymore this weekend. Fingers crossed!!

This is mid snow ball! Luckily his hands aren't big enough to hold a ton of snow yet!!

It was really hard to get a good photo of him, because he didn't stop! He loves being a snow baby!

So worth it! Grab your coat and mittens and come join us for some snow ball fun anytime :)

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Rob took quite a bit of ribbing over his gift choices for me last year. Mostly because they weren't great (O Magazine was one of the highlights....). So I'm sure to redeem himself (and shut me up :) ) he went ALL OUT this year! I love our headboard very much. Every mover that has had to come in contact gets the same speech about how I'm not that picky about our other furniture, but if something happens to my headboard I'll hunt them down personally. I had to talk Rob into buying it for MONTHS while we were in San Antonio, and finally got it the day Maelie was born. The thing is we've only ever had cheap comforters and cheap throw pillows for it. No longer!! Rob bought a fabulous, fluffy new mattress pad, soft-as-butter sheets, fluffy new duvet & comforter, and freaking awesome pillows! It's like sleeping in a marshmallow. Or a cloud. Either way it was the best present ever and he will not be hearing about O Magazine again!

Before:

After:

Don't mind the mess. Our room is a magnet for mess! Everything makes its way in.

Santa! I know him!!

We took a trip to the local mall, which is almost literally a ghost town, to see the big man this year. Thankfully, because there are no people, there are no lines!! Henry did GREAT! This was the first year he willingly sat in Santa's lap and talked to him without Rob or myself prodding him. We got there right as Santa was getting off his dinner break and when he walked up I didn't know if Henry would freak out or not. Santa walked right up to Henry, asked if he'd seen the reindeer, took him by the hand, and went to sit down in his special chair! I'll have to post Santa through the ages photos sometime (including the good one they took this year) so you can see! I had to stand pretty far back to use my own camera so the quality isn't great, but it's better than nothing!

Cookie Party

We invited a few of our friends from church over to decorate cookies and play a few weeks ago. It was such a great time we had them back again last week! I love watching Henry play with kids in his age range. Unfortunately, he does play mother hen (a little rough at times) with the younger kids. Sorry Max and Quinn!

This is our BFF Quinn. He's about 18 months old, and he's one of the ones Henry likes to boss, but he's also the one on the top of Hen's list everytime. He loves his buddy!

Sick way to start...

We've been in hiding a bit for the past month. It started with one sick little boy! Henry had a cold for over a week and then the fever came. It stuck around for 3 days with round the clock meds and finally ended with a late night/early morning visit to the ER when his fever hit 103.9 and wouldn't go down. They gave him some heavier meds, called it a viral infection, and 4 hours later I was holding a soaking wet, sweaty, but cooled down little guy. Here is the face of sick at our house:

I (not so) secretly love that the whole time he was crashing on the couch he just wanted Ribs and Katy! It was so sweet.