Happy Thanksgiving

Yumm...stuffing & candied yams! My favorites! Along with pumpkin pie...& mashed potatoes & gravy. Our little family was actually just recovering from a stomach bug. No fun! So eating was a little bit tough. But we did enjoy our first real meal after being sick. Unfortunately, Kenton's mom got the bug just in time for the big day. So, she stayed home & we ate dinner at Kenton's grandparent's house with his dad & brother, Brian. We love having his family in town! It so great to see them so often. Plus, we get to celebrate all of the holidays with them too!

Finn liked the turkey, stuffing, & sweet potatoes, of course! He really enjoyed the little tastes I gave him of pumpkin pie! Yumm!


A semi-blurry family shot...I think everyone is looking in the general direction of the camera. We had 3 cameras on timers taking pictures at the same time. So it was a little tricky figuring
out which one to look at first. :)

Erik came down from Seattle & everyone was able to be together for the Hecht family Thanksgiving dinner, though we did miss Celeste. My stomach wasn't ready for round 2, but we enjoyed leftovers with my parents & Erik today. We actually had leftovers with Kenton's mom for lunch too! Spreading out the holiday celebration...

Sunday

playing blocks with the big kids

Tristan, Finn & Kaiden - 2nd cousins

We went to a brunch at Mike & Leslie's house on Sunday afternoon with all of the family. Sabrina & Tor opened presents then too. It was really neat to see all of the 2nd cousins playing together. Tristan & Kaiden let Finn knock over their towers & were really sweet with him. Tristan didn't even get upset when Finn started taking his stickers off of his book shelf. His patience with Finn really amazed us. I hope we can make more opportunities for them to play together.

After the brunch, we drove to Berkeley to visit Tom & Lauren (Kenton's friend from High School & my college roomie - we all went to OSU together & lived in the same dorm.) They have a new dog named Neko who was super friendly & loved Finn. She liked to lick his fingers & he didn't mind at all. He would just laugh & smile so big! It was great (as usual) to visit with our friends.

Lauren & Finn reading books

Tom & Neko

Sabrina & Tor's Wedding

Such a pretty, autumn wedding.

The toast. Sabrina's sister Melanie was the Matron of Honor & is giving the toast here. Sabrina's brother, Mike & his wife Leslie were in the wedding too, plus Tor's sister.

Sabrina's beautiful dress! They were getting ready for their first dance.

This is Finn's Great Aunt Kate holding Riley (his 2nd cousin). She's almost 7 months & crawling all over too! She looks very serious here (we also think that she looks like our friend Sandy). :)

Finn showed off for everyone by taking 17 steps! That was by far the most he had walked. He was really motivated by the stairs...which is why I am holding his hand in this picture. He was so proud of himself & really seemed excited to be walking! He's really getting better, everyday...scary!

pre-wedding fun

Here are some pictures from our trip to Sacramento & Berkeley. I'll try & post them in come kind of order & group the pictures together by days or events. We had a lot of fun & are very happy to be out of the car. That was a long long drive...for all of us. :)


Finn's first taste of an In-N-Out cheeseburger. Not impressed. I don't know whose kid this is...cause we were so, super excited to see that our hotel was on the same street as an In-N-Out. Unfortunately, we only ate there once...

We took a little walk around our hotel. There was a little path that led to a creek & supposedly a waterfall. I was in flip-flops & there were pokey bushes, so I never actually saw the waterfall. But we took cute pictures!

Eight Teeth! (One is still hiding a bit)

Grandma Outi, Pappa Kevin, Great Aunt Sharon, Great Aunt Jennifer, Great Grandmother Marylee (Bampa-as Kenton named her when he was a kid), Great Papa Lew, Great Uncle Bill (Jennifer's husband), Kenton, Finn & I (taking the picture) went to eat at Island Burgers before the wedding. Finn did pretty well & was good entertainment for all of his great aunts/uncles/grandparents. :)

Finn was not excited about the pool at the hotel. We hadn't been swimming since this summer, but he loved it then. We were surprised that he was so sad; I guess it was a little cold. He was "ok" when I got in with him, but was still concerned.

going to California

Only 1 dahlia bloomed this year...but it was pretty!

Tomorrow after I am done with work, we're going to drive down to the Sacramento area for Kenton's cousin's (Sabrina's) wedding. We'll be getting down there late tomorrow night, but the wedding is an evening wedding so we'll have some time to relax before the event. Then on Sunday, we're going to visit Tom & Lauren (Kenton's friend from high school & Katrina's roommate from OSU) in Berkeley! Yay! We have a lot of friends that live in the Bay area & it's always hard to travel in that area without seeing everyone. But, it's going to be a super quick trip & there's just not enough time.

Nearly all of the Henry side of Kenton's family will be at the wedding & some of them haven't met Finn yet. So it'll be a fun to visit with all of the family. I'll be sure to post some pictures when we get back.

just for laughs...

Carolyn pointed out to us just how funny this picture is... I didn't really look at it before because we weren't planning on ordering Christmas cards. But when we looked back at it & saw the angel blowing the horn, with the words "Rejoice," we couldn't stop laughing. Kenton laughed so hard that he was in tears...Finn's face is priceless! :)

Finn's photo shoot

Here are some of my favorite shots from Finn's 1 year portraits. He was pretty squirmy & uncooperative...so I was surprised that they (JC Penney Portrait Studio) got some pretty cute shots. Kinda helps that he's such a cute kid, right? :)

Finn's first birthday candle

We'd been practicing blowing out candles for about a month before Finn's birthday. Every time he would see a candle, he would start blowing & pointing in that direction. So when we lit his birthday candle & started singing "Happy Birthday," Finn was ready! He blew at the candle through the whole song. When the song was over & the candle was brought closer, he blew it out in one try!

4 generations

Finn met his great-grandfather (Papa John) today (it was my first time meeting him too). We're hoping that the common trait skips a generation so that Finn can enjoy a full head of hair past the age of 20! We'll see... :) Doesn't look like there's much hope. It was neat to see Papa John holding Finn & enjoying his 1 year old energy.

one more thing:

I made these pages to display at Finn's party, & (of course) to add to my scrapbook. A photo from each month of his first year of life. I really want to do something like this for him, every year. Just wanted to share it, in honor of my son's first birthday. Sorry this picture is crooked & kind of fuzzy.


P.S. ******* Happy Birthday Cohen!*******

12 month check-up

Finn & I just got home from his 12 month check-up with Dr. Miller. He weighs 22 lbs. 6 oz (50th percentile) & is 31 1/4 inches long (95th percentile). We were happy to see his weight percentile go up from 15th at his 9 month check-up. He loves that solid food! He got 3 shots today & will be going back to get a follow-up flu shot in a month, plus 2 others that he was supposed to get today. Just figured it'd be nice to spread out the "ouchies" as much as possible. He didn't cry for the first shot - just furrowed his brow. But he cried for the second poke & screamed for the third. He calmed down soon enough.

He was definitely showing off the nurse & doctor - jumping, squawking, babbling, crawling at lightening speed...took 2 steps! (Earlier today he walked from Kevin & Outi's love seat to their ottoman: 4 steps, I think.) He even said "bubble" for Dr. Miller, after he'd asked if Finn could say any words that he would understand. :)

His check-up went well & the doctor said we're doing well! Now, we're going to start whole milk. So many new things to try now that he's one!

happy birthday dear Finley...

First ride in his front-facing (Big Boy) car seat. He looks so little! Needless to say, he likes facing the front!

First birthday - he opened so many neat gifts!

First birthday candle! He blew it out in one try! He was also trying to blow it out the whole time we were singing "Happy Birthday."

First taste of frosting, cupcake & ice cream! Yumm! He took tiny tastes until I set the cupcake down on his tray. Then he grabbed it & tried to put the whole thing in his mouth! He was a little unsure of the cold ice cream at first, but was so sad when it was all gone.

Such a fun first birthday party. All of our family (who lives in town) was there & Finn's friends Ethan & Macey brought their parents too. :) He was so spoiled with such fun toys. I can't wait to break into them tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who helped make his day so special!

I have a 1 year old!

Yay for being a big kid...

& for climbing & playing & getting into everything. Everyday is fun! There are challenges. But we're experiencing new discoveries with Finn & we're enjoying the adventure!

Finn had fun rocking back & forth in his car seat. He climbed right in (after bath time) while I was trying to get him dressed. We usually take our time during this process...partly because it's fun to play & partly because he's so squirmy & fast, so it's hard to keep him in one place long enough to get his clothes on him. :)

We're going to be shopping for a big kid car seat this week! I can't wait to see his reaction to being able to ride in the car in a front-facing car seat!

I often bring Finn out to the garage (our laundry room) to get clothes out of the drier. After I fill the basket with clothes, I plop him on top & carry the whole load back inside. Today he didn't want to get out & kept trying to crawl back on top of the clothes. :)

I love seeing new expressions in different photos. He's growing & changing so much, all the time.

This toy converts from a "walker" to a "rider." Finn got a kick out of having "O's" in the little tray. He could snack & scoot at the same time...except he hasn't really figured out how to scoot yet. He'll get it figured out soon enough.

Happy Halloween!

Kenton never did get around to carving a face into his pumpkin. So it spent the evening on its side. :) We didn't actually stay home long enough for any trick-or-treaters. We have a lot of candy now...

We dressed up as a family for Finn's first Halloween. We were so excited about his dragon costume from Old Navy that we picked our costumes to go along. Kenton was originally going to be a knight, but we had better luck finding pieces for a "prince" costume. Of course, I was his princess. And he still has his sword, in case he needs to protect me from a grumpy, little dragon. :) It certainly wasn't a problem tonight. We'll have a second chance to wear our costumes on Saturday for our church's Barn Party!

Kenton wearing a wig from my mom. He looks so different, especially when he shaves & isn't wearing his glasses.

He was a happy dragon. He didn't mind his costume at all & didn't even seem to notice that he was wearing a hood. He enjoyed seeing his reflection in the mirror though.

pumpkin patch

On Thursday, my class took a field trip to the pumpkin patch at Lone Pine Farms. I love this event. It's one of my favorite highlights of the school year. It was very sunny & dry, but freezing! The wind was so cold. I had my sunglasses on & my hood on. One of the parents said I looked like the uni-bomber. :\ Hopefully, not quite so hairy. Altogether, we had a great field trip & the kids did great, despite the chilly wind.


The next 2 pictures are blurry because I forgot to take my camera off of manual focus before asking a parent to take some photos. I do not like it when I make silly mistakes like that. So they are sharpened & edited...don't look to close! :)

Our cute boots! We all talked about getting colorful boots for the trip to the pumpkin patch. We kept each other updated on sightings & sales. Then, we all ended up getting boots at different stores for different prices. I was super excited to have them and didn't want to get them dirty. I even walked around mud puddles. Kind of silly, but they're new!

Here's our incredible teaching team!
Tamy, Matthew, me, Jacque, Becca, & Angie

pumpkins

We carved pumpkins with our Bible study group tonight. We've done it every year for the past few years. Always a highlight! Some of us use fancy kits, others just wing it. But we always get a photo of the glowing jack-o-lanterns when we're done...or almost done. Kenton didn't quite finish so we laid his pumpkin on it's side. :)



Here are all of the girls in our group (plus Finn). Most of the guys carved pumpkins too, but I didn't get a shot of everyone together. We really enjoy our Tuesday nights; great fun & fellowship. Now, hopefully our pumpkins won't rot too much before Halloween rolls around. :)

Autumn on W Irwin Way

It's fall on West Irwin Way. There are some really pretty trees on our street. I've been wanting to take pictures of the leaves for awhile. Since we had such a beautiful day today, we went for a walk after dinner. It was still pretty warm out. And there was just enough light to get some good autumn photos. Earlier in the day, I planted some tulip & daffodil bulbs around our new tree (while Finn napped for 2 hours & 15 minutes - such a good napper!) courtesy of my mom. I am loving the fall colors, but am looking forward to next spring, to see all of our new plants in bloom...or at least with new leaves.

Daddy & Finn.

Everyone says that Finn looks like Kenton. There's certainly some resemblance...but there's some Mama mixed in there too, if I do say so myself. :)

Finn & Mama.

He really is getting so big. He wears 12-18 month clothes already because he's so long. I'm really curious to see how much he's grown since the last time we went to his doctor. His 12 month appointment is on November 7th - cousin Cohen's 2nd birthday!

The highlight of our walk for Finn was the kitty that followed us around. It even sounded like Finn tried to Meow! :) He definitely was disappointed when the kitty went away.

Papa's 55!

All eyes were on Papa opening presents at his 55th Birthday celebration. Erik, Celeste, Becca & I went in on a Zune accessory pack for him. There were 55 guests who attended...lots of friends from church and students from LCC...family too. Everyone wanted a taste of Papa's home brewed beers. Last week at work, he announced that he'll be retiring from LCC in June 2008! They're going to miss him. But we're excited for him, he's earned it!


Finn got an early birthday present from his Great Aunt Robin & Great Uncle Truls (& 1st cousins, once removed Hannah & Elle): a car with a dog named "Riding Henry" (in Finn's mouth). :)


Here's Ronan checking out Sadie's owie. He was being very sympathetic and sweet.


Cute cousins! They are such good friends. They play really well together and have so much fun!