A Picture Says a Thousand Words

I love this picture of Kate! This about sums up Christmas for us. Kate LOVED the wrapping paper! She could have taken or left the gifts that were inside, but the paper--what a treat that was! We had a lot of fun watching her open gifts. Some of her favorite gifts were a doll from Gigi, a new toothbrush, a Veggietale DVD, and a container of blocks. We are still opening a few remaining gifts - her attention span isn't that long these days.

Brenden received an incredible toy train. It's big enough to sit on and ride around the room. Papa took some video of Kate on the train, so we hope to get that up soon. She actually figured out how to operate the train. I was amazed watching her. She's not a little baby anymore. She's so smart - figuring out how to do things on her own every day. Boy do they grow up fast!

Christmas Wishes

One Christmas tradition I look forward to is the arrival of Christmas cards! I really do get excited when they arrive. A few years ago, I started displaying them on our pantry door as part of our holiday decorations. I love to see how kids have changed, to remember friends from various seasons of life, and be reminded of the love of family both near and far away. As the door slowly fills up over the weeks of December, I am often overwhelmed with gratitude at the richness of our life: so many friends, so much love, so much to be grateful for.

We hope your Christmas is full of love and gratitude for all God has blessed you with- starting with the birth of His son -- the miracle that makes hope, joy, and love possible.

Merry Christmas,

Love the Henrys

2008

Ho...Ho...Ho

I say Santa, Kate says, "Ho...Ho...Ho". That's about all she understands about the concept of Santa Claus. Now her cousin, Brenden, gets the idea fully. We say Santa, and he says, "I want a Choo Choo Train." He is so excited about Santa, we think he's going to crawl out of his skin. Rumor has it that Santa has even made a telephone call to Brenden to check in on his train request. Kate's just not there yet. But in honor of tradition, Kate went to sit on Santa's lap for a photo this week. She held her hands out to me the whole time (hence Santa's hand on her arm). But all in all I think it went pretty well for a 16 month old who doesn't care for strangers.

We were pretty slow getting out tree up this year. Seems the Christmas spirit has alluded me a bit, but slowly we're getting there. Our tree was put up on Tuesday night. Josh and I finally decorated it tonight. And I must say it looks beautiful! I love sitting on the couch and seeing the white lights glow from across the room.

Speaking of the tree, Josh has been messing with Kate's mind. Our tree lights have an on/off button that you can step on to easily turn the tree off. Well when we first put it up, Kate got all excited and started clapping. So Josh turned the tree off when she clapped, and back on again when she clapped again. (CLAP ON...CLAP OFF...) So now my poor little angel stands in front of the tree clapping and can't understand why the lights won't come on! He's tormenting her. Isn't there a verse in the Bible about father's not exasperating their children? Poor, Kate. Anybody receive a Clapper this year in a white elephant exchange? We could use one.

Tagged Again...

Okay, I've just been tagged again for a little blogging game by my history loving, teacher friend, Judy. Funny thing is I was simultaneously tagged by Alycia too! This tag was actually a unique one I hadn't heard of yet. So I thought I'd play along.

The Rules: Go to your sixth picture folder,
find your sixth photograph and
blog your memories of the photo.

~~~~

So here's the photo: Kim at Colour Lake in Frederick, Maryland, taken in the summer of 2005.

Although this photo was taken almost year after the event, this marks a very special place for Josh and me. On September 24, 2004, after much nervous pacing from Josh around the front yard and the inside of his apartment, Josh and I decided to go to for a drive. We headed over to this little "lake". (It really was just a dirty duck pond that use to be a cool ice-skating rink in days gone by. But it is nestled in an old historic neighborhood in Frederick and really still has that quaint atmosphere.) Anyway...back to the story. After walking around the lake at least twice with Josh obviously very nervous, I asked him if he wanted to sit down on this bench. After another 20 minutes of nervous chatter this is where he asked me to officially start dating. And the whirlwind romance began. Engaged two months later on November 25th. Married a little over four months later on April 1st. Ah...those were the days!

The setting was more romantic that night in September under an oak tree with just a little light from an old street lamp. The humid August summer day photographed above doesn't really capture the romantic nature of the evening. Yet, I dragged Josh back to the park that summer so I could officially document the event for our scrapbook (which I haven't even started!). Here are a few more shots from the park (taken in August.)

After the park we headed over to Rita's for some gelato. I had to capture this memory as well.

Other random things I remember about that night:

1. Josh had borrowed a co-workers John Mayer CD in order to familiarize himself with the kind of music I like. And he surprised me by playing it on the way to Rita's.


2. I thought he'd never ask me...I knew it was coming all night but he was so nervous. I actually had to ask him if there was anything he wanted to talk about while we were sitting on this nice bench!


3. I went out to dinner with my dad and my friend, Stefanie, before Josh and I went out. I had a feeling that Josh was going to make things official and I was so excited that I couldn't eat anything at dinner.

~~~~~

Okay, now it's my turn to tag a few friends. I'm tagging Holly because she's such a good sport at these things, but she just had a baby on Dec. 8th (yeah Mia!!) so there's grace. She may play along in a month or two! However, I hope the rest of you will jump in sooner rather than later. Sarah, my Baltimore gourmand ~ Lindsey, my cousin who I miss a lot and think of often ~ Allison, Josh's friend now turned my friend who is much better at blogging than I am ~ and Jen, who has no chance of a white Christmas in Georgia!

Surprise from Papa Henry

A package arrived in the mail from Tacoma, WA addressed to Kate. There was also a second package that contained some gifts for Christmas from Grandma Ann and Papa Henry, so we decided to let Kate open the surprise package early.

Papa has begun learning a new hobby--sewing, and he made this bear just for Kate.
Be sure to catch her reaction at about the 1:55 minute mark.
THANK YOU PAPA!

(Pre) Christmas Toys at Gigi's (More Videos)

Christmastime is a VERY big event at Papa and Gigi's house. The yard and house are both decorated and festive. Kate loves it over there!

Every time that we drive up to the house these days, Kate gets really excited when she sees the lights in the yard. She is still learning the word "Penguin" but when she sees the lights, she starts waving her hands and talking really fast.

Many of the Christmas decorations at Gigi's house have lights and sound and are powered by batteries. When Frosty sings, Kate likes to dance. Kate was so fond of Frosty the Snowman, that he now lives at our house. (And the batteries keep going, and going, and going...)

And here is another animatronic toy at Gigi and Papa's house (thankfully, still at their house):

Videos

It has been a while since we've uploaded some videos, so this post has several videos that were taken in the last month.

One of the Henry family traditions is feeding ducks and geese at Christmastime. This is something that I remember from way back--all the way back to feeding the ducks with grandparents at the park in Boise. This is the first time that Kate has ever been this close to the geese, and standing her full height, she looks them right in the eye. By the way, this was also the first time that Kim has been out to feed the geese. I think that she was a bit nervous, especially if a goose got within ten feet of her. As far as Kate, I think that she rather enjoyed the outing. This video is a bit long at almost 7:20 minutes long.

Kate is so cute! Besides being cute, she really likes to have fun and laugh. One of her favorite things lately is to play in the curtains in the kitchen. She loves playing peek-a-boo in and out of the curtains.

One of Kate's favorite things to eat is "apple." Usually for her this means applesauce. However, she does know what an apple looks like, so when Kim unpacked some apples the other day, Kate was very insistent in asking for an apple. This is what she did with it.

Baby's Best Friends

Kate loves animals. She sleeps with her froggie and often her duckie too. Her teddy bears line the shelf in her bedroom. Her turtles and ladybugs greet her on the changing table. Her giraffe is downstairs every morning waiting for her affection. Kate also loves books that have pictures of animals. She knows most of her animal sounds - she roars with the lions, moos with the cows, and quacks with the ducks on a daily baiss. Just last week, Kate informed us that she knew the word wombat! (I guess Baby Einstein's trip to the Outback was educational!)

Shayla is Kate's best playmate. And the older Kate gets, the more fun she has chasing Shayla around the house. Kate even likes to wrestle with Shayla from time to time. (Don't worry we're very close by when this happens.) Shayla often wants to find a safe hiding place from Kate, but in general she is very gentle with Kate.

Yet, my brother's dog, Maddison is a gem of a dog. This huge Saint Bernard is any child's best friend. The kids climb on her, pull her fur, ride her back, yank her tail and even nap on her. Maddie takes it all with a gentle stride. Kate and Collin played with Maddie for quite awhile the other day. Here are a few shots from their day with the dog.