11-11-11

 So, the blog has fallen to the bottom of the to-do list.  Sorry Grandma, I promise we'll be better bloggers soon.  We've been kinda busy lately... we're getting ready to move into our new house!

 Even so, how could I not post something at 11:11 on 11-11-11?  It's just too good.

FYI, Henry has been such a good 'helper' as we pack.

Such a good helper, in fact, that I've ordered a play yard (i.e., big metal baby cage) and big foam mat that will hopefully arrive sometime today ;)

We love our busy boy.

In honor of 11-11-11, these go to 11...

Happy Nigel Tufnel Day!

Papa and Nana's house

Scott went to Yosemite with his buddies so Henry and I took a trip to St. George to visit Grandma Great, Papa, Nana, and Koko.

We booked our flights around the same time so we could all go to the airport together.  Henry was being extra cute in the security line, making it the most pleasant trip through the TSA screening I have ever had.

La la la Luuuuuke.  Luuuuuke.  I am your faaatherrrrrrr.

For some reason it was 20 degrees hotter in the airport than it was outside, so Henry ended up hanging out in his onesie.  Being able to hang out in your underwear = one of the many great perks of being a baby.
Scott's flight left a little bit earlier than ours, so he walked us to our gate and we said adios.  It felt like the good old days when you could walk right up to the gate with your family and friends.

As this would be our first time flying without Scott I planned our departure around Henry's nap time.  Unfortunately, our flight was delayed over an hour so Henry fell asleep in the stroller.  Dang it!

I now have an even greater appreciation for anyone who regularly flies alone with children.  We survived, but I think it was a good idea to bribe our seat neighbors with chocolate.

Nana had her camera ready right when we arrived in Vegas.  She was pretty excited to see Henry.

Sadly...

Henry...

was not exactly excited to see Nana :(

He had a meltdown every time she held him.  She said, "I'm going to put you back on the plane to Colorado!"

We thought it was just stranger danger setting in, but then we handed Henry to Luz and Diego and he was totally fine.  Oh dear.

He was also totally fine with my Dad, my Grandma, my friends Sallie and Heidi, and pretty much everyone else.  Is it possible to just be afraid of Nana?  We wondered if it was b/c my Mom's voice is so similar to mine that it freaked him out.

Later that day we met up with my Heidi and her 4 darling kiddos for lunch.  How did we not get any pictures?  It was so great to catch up, she is still one of the sweetest people I know.  I wish I would have been able to meet up with more friends, but we somehow the time in St. George slipped through my fingers.  Hopefully we'll have better luck next time.

Thank goodness Henry got over his Nanaphobia by the end of the day.  He had a spectacular blowout and it was nice to have an extra pair of hands to help clean up.  When I say spectacular I mean SPECTACULAR... goo shot out the sides of his diaper and landed all over me.  I was sitting at least 2 feet away.  How is that even possible?

While we waited for the shower to warm up Henry smiled and cooed at Nana as she held his cute poop covered self.

The next morning we hit up the STG farmer's market with Rick and Cheryl.  Henry loves walking around big crowds in the baby bjorn.  He smiles and squeals and kicks his legs like crazy.

After church on Sunday Henry rocked out with his Grandpa

My grandma came over for dinner and we pretty much spent the whole night staring at Henry...

and Henry spent the whole night staring at Nana.  I was so relieved he was able to work through whatever was bothering him.

He even gave her some slobbery kisses.  So sweet.

The next morning Henry gave Nana more cuddles before we made our way to the awesome splash pad on Main street.

The water was pretty warm, so Henry was pretty happy to hang out on and splash on a rock for a while.

It was really fun to see my friend Sallie (we've been friends since we were 2), her sisters, and all of their darling kids.  It was even more fun to get a much needed hair cut from Sallie the next day.  She's the best, I'm pretty sad I live so far away.

To me, this is the epitome of summer.  Love it!  He was all splashed out.

I loved how much time we were able to spend hanging out with my Grandma.  We went to lunch at Mad Pita a few times and just hung out.  We think she's pretty awesome.

Henry was fascinated with her necklace

We thought he was going for the earrings next...

Instead he planted a big slobbery kiss on her cheek.  Sweetest moment EVER.  We all melted into big puddles of goo.

He gave his Grandma Great lots of loves,

and a few more slobbery kisses.

Which obviously made Grandma Great very happy.

After months and months of hating tummy time Henry suddenly decided he would rather spend all day on his belly.  It has made changing his diaper a little difficult lately, but we're learning to adapt to our little rolling pin.

When he wasn't playing on his tummy he was super happy to play in the exersaucer.  It was funny to watch him bounce and squeal.

Scott finished his Yosemite adventure and worked a few days back in Colorado, then drove a bazillion miles to St. George to go to Lake Powell with us.  Right before he pulled up the Orton's stopped by to say hi.  Right before the Orton's got to our house our dear friend Jenae and her cute family came to stay the night on their way to a wedding.  It was so awesome to have so many reunions happen all at once.

 To top off a great day my grandma stopped by to say adios before we left for the lake.

4 generations.  Pretty cool.

Henry wanted to grab Jenae's cute little guy so bad.  Too cute.

We stayed up way too late getting everything ready for the lake... I'm pretty sure my Mom didn't go to bed that night :$

 

On our way out of town we picked up some Cafe Rio and Nielsen's Frozen Custard.  I love that two St. G classics are right next door to each other.

Henry was so captivated by the talking cookie monster toy at my parent's house that my Mom let Henry take it home with him.  I'm so glad she let us take that toy b/c it entertained Henry for hours and hours in the car.  He smiles every time it says, "Cooooookie!"

I can't believe how fast our time in St. George went.  I'm not sure when we'll get to go back, but I hope it's soon.  I need another red dirt fix.

7 Months!

Our big boy is 7 months old.
I absolutely love watching him grow, but I think it's happening way too fast.

This is probably one of my all time favorite pictures of Henry.  Such a handsome boy!

A few 7 month factoids:

• Henry is trying really hard to start crawling.  Fortunately, I think we have a while before we need to put up the baby gates.  We're having a great time watching him make attempts at mobility.  Even so, we're definitely not in any rush to have a crawler.
• Henry is great at sitting up by himself and is getting better every day.
• He's still a big drooler and is starting to show a few other signs that he might be getting teeth sometime soon.  It's pretty cute to watch him clench his little gums together, grimace, and growl.  As his primary source of food is still coming from me I'm in no hurry for those sharp little baby teeth to pop up.  However, -more than anything- I hope he doesn't have to feel uncomfortable for very much longer.
• He recently started waving 'bye bye'.  It's the cutest thing ever.
• Henry's hair grows so fast that we've already had to give him another trim to keep his hair out of his eyes.  Speaking of his hair, it has somehow magically stopped sticking up all over the place.  Awesome.
• One of Henry's favorite toys is the TV remote.  If he spots a remote he will roll across the room to get it.  Once the remote is in his hands he grins, pushes all the buttons, and 'sings' to it.  If you take the remote away from him he screws up his face, wails, and cries big crocodile tears.  Adorable.  So adorable, in fact, that I've attached a video so you can see for yourself.

• Organic cotton clothes, hypoallergenic detergent, and lots of lotion have made a HUGE difference with Henry's skin.  I'm so glad we found things that work for him.
• At Lake Powell we found out Henry gets hives from just touching eggs, bananas, milk, and nectarines :$ so we're taking it slow with introducing new foods.  Fortunately, taking our time isn't a big deal as Henry still isn't very keen on solid food.  So far we've tried rice cereal, sweet potato, and avocado (all mixed with my milk and all equally rejected).  We'll just keep trying and being patient.  I'm sure he'll come around eventually.

This photo just about sums up Henry's interest in food.  He'd rather throw his bowls and spoons across the floor than eat.

• When I took him to get a vaccination last week he weighed in at 17 lbs, 15 oz.  Big boy!
• He loves to go for rides in Dada's chair

We love Henry to the moon and back!

Henry's first trip to Lake Powell

My family has been vacationing at Lake Powell for about as long as I can remember.  Lake Powell is sacred ground to me, so I was pretty excited to take Henry for the first time.

More importantly, it was the first time we got to see Michael after he returned from his mission AND it was the first chance for the Winterholler and Lewis families to meet Henry.

Patrice and Chris were nice enough to invite the whole family to stay on their houseboat 4th of July weekend (thank you!)  Sadly, not everyone could make it.  As my family is now spread all over the country from coast to coast it's pretty hard to get everyone together.  Actually, it was pretty miraculous to get 4/7 Staples kids together in one spot on a holiday weekend.  I'm sure we'll try again next summer ;)

Of course we took a bazillion photos.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Henry loved nomming on his life vest.  He loves nomming on everything.  Teething?

Henry had his aunties wrapped around his little finger all weekend.

This was the last time Henry wore a shirt on the houseboat.  As expected, Lake Powell in July was as hot as the surface of the freaking sun.  So boyo pretty much spent the whole weekend nakey.  Good times.

No, Henry didn't grow a soul patch on his chin... Uncle Chris tried to feed him chocolate pudding.  Oh dear.  He's still not quite sure about food yet, so apparently it didn't go over very well.  I think he looks like a pensive little man in this pic.  I wonder what he was thinking about.  He was probably trying to figure out why the grown-ups keep trying to shove spoons in his mouth.

Los dos Capitans.  What these guys say goes.

There are few things better in this world than sitting on the beach at the lake with your Mom and sisters, some chocolate, and a bunch of trashy celebrity gossip magazines.

It's so great to have Michael home from his mission.  He was a trooper giving the little cousins rides on the wave runners all day.

The wave runners were pretty popular all weekend.  Good thing we had a substitute to keep the kiddos happy while they waited for someone to take them on a ride.

Speaking of rides... I'm pretty sure Dylan would have been happy if we could have provided him with 24/7 towing service.  That kiddo is a pro on the big tube.

When Dylan wasn't being towed he was patiently waiting to be towed again.  I like his style.

 Henry wasn't so sure about his first encounter with cool lake water.  He's never experienced water cooler than his bath, but we wanted to make sure he didn't overheat.  We thought we'd start slow by letting him sit in a little bucket of water.  As you can see, it didn't go very well.  At least he looks an adorable little surfer in his sun guard swim outfit.  Gotta protect my pasty baby from the harsh sun.

 It took a whole team of people to cheer him up.  After Henry cooled off a bit we decided to give him a break.

He was a happy camper for the rest of the day, hanging out in front of the portable AC with Dada.

That afternoon we tried feeding him some rice cereal... which is still an no go for Henry.  I can't say I blame him, that stuff is kinda gross.  We're planning to try veggies soon to see if he likes something with a little flavor.

Later that night we tried putting him straight in the lake.

Aunt Sharisa had the magic touch! 

Henry still wasn't sure about getting his whole body in the cool water, but he was more than happy to kick his feet around.  Progress!

Beth and Ella found a really great place for us to have dinner that night.  I'm not sure it gets any better than this.

Henry loves his Nana.

Aw, little family!

I love my boy!

Ella is a great explorer

and about as cute as possible

Heaven on earth.

The family roasted made s'mores.

The best part about sleeping on a houseboat up the lake:  waking up to views like this.

A switch must have flipped in Henry's mind overnight b/c the next morning he absolutely loved being in the water.  (also, the distraction of a bazillion beach toys might have helped)

I loved seeing Henry play with his cousins.  He loves being around other kids so much.

By the afternoon we had a hard time getting Henry out of the water.  I'm so glad our boy is a water baby.

Lake Powell is the best place I've ever seen for stargazing.  Before we left home I downloaded a really great astronomy app for the ipad called 'Star Walk'.  It was a huge hit, I highly recommend it.  You point the ipad at the sky and the app shows you which constellation you are looking at.  Very cool.

Nana brought lots of fun things for the grandkids to do. 

Everybody loves Nana!

Henry thinks his cousins are pretty cool.

I thought it was pretty cool that the glow toy made Henry's entire little hand glow.

The next morning was spent cleaning up and getting ready to head home.
BTW, I just want to nom on my boy's delicious rolls.  Look at that back fat.  I'm so proud!

Henry absolutely loved being entertained by Beth and Ella as we drove the houseboat back to the marina.

These girls are acrobats!

Scott took a turn driving.  Aye aye, cap'n!

Nana and the girls played Bingo.

Henry and I took a nap.  This pretty much sums up how any good trip to Lake Powell should end.
A big thank you to my family for a fabulous weekend.  We love you guys and hope we can get all 7 of us to The Lake next summer.