waiting for baby jesus...

I am so excited for the Christmas season this year! I just can't wait! I think part of my excitement has to do with how much Finn is enjoying all of the lights & decorations.

I couldn't wait to bring out my nativity set this year to show Finn. Unfortunately, I found every part of it, except for the box with Joseph, Mary & Baby Jesus. :( So each morning this week, Finn has walked over to the nativity scene and asked "Baby Jesus?" It started to seem like he thought the shepherd's goat was baby Jesus. :P

Thankfully, I had an epiphany tonight & remembered where I had seen Baby Jesus' box. So soon, hopefully, Finn will understand which one is Baby Jesus.

Also this year, Kenton wanted to find a Playmobil advent calendar to share with Finn. We found a fun set with a nice winter scene & lots of forest animals. On Christmas Eve, Finn will open the last box containing Santa. It's pretty cute & he's having so much fun opening a new box each morning.

Plus, Mummi & Pappa Henry have a different Playmobil advent calendar, so he's getting to open boxes at their house too! Just some of the fun ways that we're getting into the Christmas Spirit around here. :) We hope to get our tree this weekend so we can really decorate the house.

And here's a silly shot of how Mama keeps herself entertained during bath time! This hair-do was inspired from a classic photo of Uncle Brian as a little boy, with a much more impressive pointy hair-do. :P His hair must have been longer than Finn's.

happy thanksgiving

This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my parent's house. It was just our family this year, so it actually felt like a smaller group than it has the past few years.

Memaw & Papa carving the turkey & preparing the stuffing! Yumm!

Our little family.

Here's one of the first shots of my little pregnant belly. I am 17 weeks (4 months & 1 week) & I get to find out the sex of our baby in 2 weeks! We can't wait! :)
(Disclaimer - this was after eating our Thanksgiving dinner, so I don't think my belly normally looks quite that big!) :P

The family
Josh, Griffin, Gretchen, Mom, Ronan (peeking between my parents), Erik, Papa, Katrina, Kenton, Sadie, Finley, Tyler, Aaron, Cohen, & Becca.

My parents with their 6 grandchildren
Tyler, Cohen, Griffin, Sadie, Tyler & Finn

After dinner at my parents, we went to Kenton's grandparent's house to hang out...& to eat a little more. :) Finn especially liked the cranberries! He licked the plate clean! :P

The family
Kenton, Katrina, Finn, Breanna (Kenton's cousin), Papa Lew, Nana Lee (Marylee), Mummi (Outi), Pappa (Kevin) & Brian


And here's a photo from this morning....

Finn relaxing while watching his favorite movie (his only movie) Wall-E.
He usually watches for about 30 minutes before he needs to start wiggling around. :)

two year check-up

Today was Finn's 2 year check-up with his doctor. I was pretty impressed with how well he did in the waiting room & then again while we were with the doctor & nurse. The nurse asked him to walk over & stand on the scale to be weighed & he walked right over like such a big kid. He stood on the scale & weighed 29.6 lbs - in the 70th percentile. Then she tried to get him to stand against the wall to measure his height. He kept trying to look up at the nurse or turn around. Then he started standing on his tip toes to make his head touch the measuring device. :P She ended up having him lay down on the table to measure him. He is 36.75 inches - 3 feet tall! That's the 95th percentile! Such a tall boy. :)

He sat very still while the doctor checked his ears & mouth & listened to his lungs. He's been fighting off a cough for the last week & the doctor could hear wheezing in his lungs. So, he prescribed Albuterol to help clear him out. Good thing he likes taking medicine. He had Finn walk across the room, which wasn't a problem for Finn & then I asked Finn to show the doctor how he can jump. His doctor said most 2 year olds don't jump as well as he does! We're so proud of our busy boy. :)

It was a good check-up, but we'll be going back in a couple weeks to get a flu shot...couldn't do it today because of his cough. Finn didn't have to deal with any shots this time & that made him a happy camper.

happy birthday finn!

We celebrated Finn's 2nd Birthday with a party at our new house. We had just moved in 2 nights before his big day, but we managed to get our furniture in place & kept everything else hidden in closets & the garage. :)

Sweet baby Addi & mama Nicole

Finn did fairly well, for a two-year old. He was not excited about any of the other kids touching his brand new toys...but we only had a few tantrums. ;) It has been a very long time since we have bought him any new toys, so I understand why it was tough for him. But we will be working on sharing now. :P

Our big gift to Finn, along with Mummi & Pappa Henry, was a play kitchen! He was pretty excited. All the kids surrounded it instantly, so we were pleased with ourselves. :)

Cohen's expression is great!

Finn's busy cooking something yummy!


Finn's great grandparents gave him his favorite gift of the evening - a ride-on backhoe. What could be better than that for our boy. He's been obsessed with backhoes for quite some time now. This was one thing that he had a really hard time sharing. :) Such a cool gift!

Finn has been talking about his cake for a couple weeks too...it's probably his favorite food. :P It was pretty tasty!

All of his friends & cousins, minus Addi who had already left.
Ronan, Griffin, Ethan, Cohen, Tyler, Emma, Sadie & Macey with Finn protecting his backhoe, front & center. :)

All of the kids had scary teeth in their party favor bags. It was pretty funny!

Tyler

Ethan

Sadie

Halloween

Every Halloween, the teachers in my class dress up for our Halloween party. I almost whimped out this year because I had so much going on, but I went to Goodwill the night before & threw a costume together. Turned out ok! :)
Left to right: Matthew as Charlie Brown, Tamy as a bunny, Katrina as Little Red Riding Hood (my basket didn't make it into the photo), Jacque as a pirate, Becca as a fairy princess, & Angie as a University of Oregon Duck's fan! :P

Halloween night, getting ready for Trick-or-treating. Finn as a ninja!


Kenton was a wizard (another last minute costume, except he's has his costume since middle school!) with Finn the ninja & Little Red Riding Hood! :)

We stopped at my parent's house and met up with all the cousins.
Griffin as Peter Pan, Sadie as Tinkerbell, Ronan as Captain Hook, Tyler as a Spider, Finn, & Cohen as a Spider too!

Don't forget the mamas & the dads! Josh was dressed as a mummy for his 2nd EWEB Halloween Dance & Aaron was dressed as Indiana Jones. I think everyone as Aaron's place of employment dressed according to a certain theme, but I missed the complete explanation. Becca had a cool spiderweb dress & cape, complete with little spiders & Gretchen was wearing a cool, light up, spider shirt. :)

It was pretty fun to hear Finn attempt to say "Trick or Treat!" & he definitely was into the treats! I'm trying to limit the sweets, but it's a little hard this time of year. ;)

Check back soon for pictures from Finn's birthday party. Maybe some before pictures of the house too, to go along with the pictures from the party at our new house...

sneak peek

We went to have Finn's portraits taken at JC Penney, since his 2nd birthday is right around the corner (next week?!). It was crazy, trying to keep him still & get him to smile. But somehow, they managed to get a few cute shots of our sweet boy.

Sweet.

This one cracks me up.
We didn't actually order any prints of this shot, but it sure is silly!

What a big kid! I sure can't believe we are the parents of a nearly 2 year old. Time flies, of course. He's really been blowing us away with his ever increasing vocabulary. His latest favorite thing to say (or ask) is "Wha' ya doin', Mama?" Really. He amazes me!

Anyway, if you're interested in seeing more from our lovely photo shoot, go to

http://www.smilesbywire.com and enter the following:

Customer Name: KATRINA HENRY
Access Code: LTPP0204108017JCP

The first half of the photos are examples of different specialty prints we could order.
The last half are the unaltered versions.  We ordered prints of P7, P10, P12, P13, & P19
in case you're curious.  Enjoy!  He's a silly but sweet boy!  :)

big news

So, I figured it was about time to get back to blogging after such a long absence. I'm getting so very behind on all that's happening in our lives & it's about time I made an official announcement that I'm going to have a baby! :) We are so very excited to be expecting our second child & can't wait to experience the new baby stage all over again!
(our baby bean is laying on it's back in the photo with it's head on the left, feet on the right - for those who may struggle with understanding an ultrasound image) :P

This was taken at my first doctor appointment on October 6th. I was 9 weeks pregnant then & now I am 11 weeks - on Thursday, I will be 12 weeks or 3 months along. My due date is May 7th, 2009 but I will be scheduling a C-section about a week before that date. I am excited to find out if we are having a boy or a girl, but I have to wait until December 12th! I know time will zip by during those holiday months, but it feels like a very long time to wait. :)

Anyway, please keep our growing family in your prayers! We are in the process of getting our new house ready with new paint, carpet, tile, etc. We're hoping to move in before Finn's 2nd birthday (November 6th) but that all depends on when the carpet can be installed. So for now, we wait, while working on the house & staying with Kenton's parents. It has been really nice to be with family & to have Brian back in town. There are always extra eyes on Finn, which has been so helpful...especially as I am not always feelings 100%. So far, I've just been feeling nauseated...no vomiting. Yay! :) I will keep everyone posted as my pregnancy progresses & will try to post before & after photos of our new house as soon as possible.

visiting portland

On Saturday, October 11th, we drove to Portland & stayed with my Aunt Robin & Uncle Truls. We were in town to visit our college friends, Lauren & Tom, but were able to help celebrate Aunt Robin's birthday! It was fun to stay with the Neals & to get to visit with my cousins, Hannah & Elle. Finn really enjoyed playing with them & fell in love with their dog, Tivi. :)

On Sunday, there was a wedding shower for Tom & Lauren, who are getting married in the Bay Area next May. Margie & Casey hosted the shower & we visited with friends from college while Finn played with their daughter, Mabel. We don't all get to see each other very often, so it was a great chance to help celebrate Tom & Lauren's engagement. It was also a really good opportunity for Finn to get to know them again. The last time we saw them was almost a year ago, so he's changed quite a bit since then.

Lauren & Tom were subjected to a little bit of mild embarrassment. :) Margie & Casey quizzed them on how well they know each other. This was Lauren's answer to the question "Who is the worst driver?"

This was Tom's answer! :)

Finn joined Mabel in playing dress-up. I think he would fit right in at the Eugene Saturday Market! :P

Queen Mable & Kung Fu Master (?) Finn
What fun!

detering orchard

On Saturday, October 4th, we went to Detering Orchard with our friends Carolyn & Jesse. We just expected to go and have some apple cider & maybe pick out a pumpkin, but there was a whole celebration going on! They had free samples of apple cider & apple crisp with ice cream + free wagon rides through the farm. We ended up staying for a while & having a great time!

I was especially happy to have Kenton around this weekend because he was gone the previous weekend on a trip to Alaska. He flew up last Friday & then drove down with his brother, Brian. They made great time & got home in just 3 days, but Finn & I really missed him!

Finn kept himself entertained on the hay bales while we waited for our turn on the wagon ride.

We got on the wagon just as it really started to rain.

Jesse & Carolyn

Happy Finn.
Just about 23 months old!

Our beautiful horses + the cool wagon driver that was cheerful, despite the weather.

Emma Leann

On Friday, September 26th, our friends Jon & Amy welcomed their 3rd child into the world. On Saturday, Gretchen & I went to visit sweet, little Emma. She even opened her eyes for us!

I like that you can see Amy, smiling in the background...relaxing with a cool wash cloth on her forehead. :)

Emma & me.

Congratulations, Jon, Amy, Ethan & Macey. She's such a great addition to your family!