New Beginnings

Lots of changes have happened to the Henry's since the last post... I am no longer working and have been staying at home with Carter since the end of April.  I am truely blessed that family has helped us get through the rough spots and it seems as though the sun is finally starting to shine on our lives. 
Our house has now been on the market since the end of April- our real estate agent, Anne, is planning another open house on the 26th. We finally got all the landscaping done to the best that we can and I must say the house looks great!  The last thing we have to do is stain the decks... I am having a garage sale the 17th and 18th, so my mother in law is coming down to help me with that and Carter and Adam is going to spray the deck in time for the open house. 

Tomorrow I will officially join the Thirty-One family and I am soooo exited.  The ladies that I have been working with so far are wonderful and I feel like we're friends already! On the 25th from 1-3 at my house, I am having my debut party for my first Thirty-One party and I am quite nervous about it, but super excited at the same time.  These products are great ladies- high quality and affordable. Check out mythiryone.com and click on the link to view catalog. Please let me know if there are any questions I can answer or orders I can place for you!! All are invited to the party if you live locally!

The next big thing is that Carter and I are flying back to Wisconsin for 3 weeks starting on June 27th until the 19th of July.  Few projects in the works while I am there and hopefully some parties for Thirty-One, so if anyone back there wants to host of party get in contact with me- opportunities for free stuff!!!!

Getting Closer

Last Saturday we met with our real estate agent Anne to discuss what we need to do to get our house ready to put on the market, thankfully we don't have a huge list of stuff to do!!!  I have already started to depersonalize our living room and spackling the holes on the walls while Adam's big projects are to get the bathroom done and pressure wash and repaint the deck- other than that a whole lot of cleaning and straightening up! The goal is to get everything finished so that we can list in 8-12 weeks- just in time for the spring market! I am hoping for a quick sale so that we could potentially be back in the northwoods for the beautiful fall colors.

Carter and the rest of the family are finally getting over the upper respiratory thing going around our area and to add to the fun, Carter is also teething again so I'm running around the house with Kleenex and the snot sucker so the boy guy can breathe. He's such a trooper though! I will be happy when the nasty viruses have taken a hiatus for the spring and summer!!

Our Big News

Big changes are in the works for the Henry Family. We've decided to put our house on the market and move back to Northern Wisconsin.  I am hoping to get it listed early spring and pray for a quick sell!  Adam has been given the go ahead to continue to work for the same company only working remotely from our new home- thank you to IPF for working with us! We are meeting with our real estate agent next Saturday to over what we need to fix or update before we actually get it listed... so after the big chrirstmas and birthday that Carter just had, we are scrambling to figure out where to put all the toys before the agent comes!

We are also the proud parents to a 1 year old little boy who has now starting walking on his own! He is also the proud new owner of 2 front bottom teeth that are about 1/4 of the way up- late bloomer, but hopefully, he'll have no cavities like his momma!! Carter has also started to use some of the sign language that we learned with Amy! He can wave bye-bye and uses the sign for more, we are working on adding in the sign for please and thank you! He's growing up so fast! He also just had his 1 year well child check and has weighed in at 20.7lbs and 29.5 inches tall!

We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2011!!

A Birthday and Christmas

December was a big month for the Henry crew...

December 3rd marked our little man's 1st birthday! It's so hard to believe that the year went by so fast, if only the pregnancy would go by that fast!!! We celebrated by driving back to Wisconsin during a horrible snow storm in every state EXCEPT Wisconsin! Carter was a great little traveler, while mom and dad on the other hand were a little stressed and anxious about the weather situation. Carter's party was held at the Americinn Splashland and boy did he enjoy that- he took right to the water and it seemed like he actually remembered some of what he learned in swimming lessons!  We had lots of fun playing in the pool with all our friends and then afterwards we had pizza and cake and then opened presents! Carter got lots of great toys that he is still enjoying!! It was so great getting to see everyone and thank you to everyone who helped celebrate our little man's 1st birthday- you all made it a very memorable one!

We were in WI for two weeks and had a great visit- but as always, never enough time to do everything we wanted! Carter and I will be flying back in July for a week so that the little man can experience Lake Superior- not froze! Hopefully, we will get to do some stuff we weren't able to do in December!

Carter enjoyed his first christmas at our home- he was quite fascinated by the tree, but thankfully, never tried to pull it over or take down any decorations. We enjoyed the holidays by having grandma and grandpa come down christmas morning and have breakfast with us and open some of his presents.  We then Skyped 'nana' and Dennis so that they could watch Carter open his presents from them. Carter made out so well, that it took ALL day to open everything. Some highlights of gifts he got were: a new Radio Flyer wagon, Dino the Dino, building blocks with a table and my old bouncy horse, Bingo!

Other New Things...

Other new things with the family include:
1. Carter is now a mobile guy and has been for the past month or so, he's pulling himself up and walking with help of the furniture. He's a lean mean speed machine and a handful! He just turned 9 months old already and we're already planning his first birthday party!
2. I recently passed my mastery level coding credential test- so I am officially done taking anymore mandatory coding tests!!!
3. I also just got diagnosed with having gallstones and will be having surgery on September 16- what a great way to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary :-( The highlight of having surgery though is that grandma will be flying out and staying with us for a week- we're all excited, including Adam- who will take this opportunity to go out elk hunting without his wife lagging behind!
4. Bowhunting season officially got underway this past weekend- we had a couple of elk within 70 yards but nothing came in close enough to shoot. Sunday we went deer hunting on a family friends land and had a blast- the weather was horrible- super windy and we saw nothing, until we started to pack up and had 2 bucks come in, upon further packing up I noticed 5 more out in the field, I tried to stalk them and got pretty close, but got busted by one that was bedded down- can't wait until next weekend, hopefully I will get one before my surgery!

New posts to follow soon, as I no longer have to study!!!  Wahoo.

Fair Time!

This year we went to both the Missoula County and Ravalli County Fair. Carter enjoyed looking at all the animals and petting a few of them too. Among all the animals we saw were camals, cows, horses, sheep, goats, alpacas, pigs and even baby pigs. This past Friday night we went to the Ravalli County fair with grandma and grandpa to see the picture of Carter that I entered. I ended up taking 2nd place in the division- we were all excited and even Carter smiled at the picture when we showed him. We enjoyed walking around looking at all the exhibits and watching the kids ride the rides and of course enjoying the fair food! We can't wait until next year when Carter is a bit bigger and mommy is excited to enter in some more pictures!!

Celtic Festival

This summer we enjoyed many fun family activities at Caras Park, amoung them was the Celtic Fest. We had lots of fun watching all the dancing and musical entertainment.  The other inside sales guys that Adam works with is the leader of the bagpipe group that performed- we enjoyed listening to the play and Carter learned how to clap that day and has been doing it ever since. Here are some pictures of the fun!!

Swimming Lessons at the Y

This summer was filled with lots of fun and firsts- the family enjoyed taking swimming lessons at the Y. Carter graduated from the shrimp group and is ready to start the next session after hunting season is over. He enjoyed splashing and making waves and made great strides- he came a long way from the first session. We started slowly in the shallow end and worked our way to the deep end- mommy included. Miss Pam, our teacher was so great with all the little ones and we met some great friends! Some of the highlights were playing in the kayak, sliding down the slide and jumping off the diving board. It was so much fun watching him interact with the other boys and splashing around!

It's Been Awhile!

Since the last post, we've been busy! We are currently counting down until this Saturday when Grandma will be here and it's my birthday! Carter has been a busy little man, movin' and a shakin', he never stops going! So here's a recap of what's been happening:
1. Adam has been enjoying his new job in Missoula- he was down in Texas again for training which made for a stressful week on mom, but we survived and were thrilled when he came back!
2. Adam also had a great first father's day. It was a great day - he also liked his father's day gifts, which consisted of 2 handpainted rocks done by Carter- I polyurethaned them and Adam will be taking them to work for paperweights! Adam also got a titanium engraved ID bracelet, which he likes as well.
3. Carter's first 4th of July proved to be more than the little guy could handle... it was a cool day but nice- we enjoyed running around town until it was firework time- he managed to stay up long enough to watch daddy's firework display, but slept through Missoula's show- which surprised us because of the loudness. He was a trooper though and not quite sure what to make of the loud booms and popping noises set off when daddy lit them off!
4. We've had a weird summer so far in regards to the weather, there was one week it was so hot and then the next it was only in the 60's, I hope the trend is to warm up a little, because we bought Carter a pool to go splash in. Now that he's a little bigger he's enjoying splashing and making a mess in the bathroom!!

Our future plans include:
1. Starting swimming lessons at the YMCA- this class is for 6 months to 2 years- it will be a great bonding time for him and I.
2. As mentioned earlier, Grandma will be here on Saturday and will stay with us for a week, we are looking forward to hanging out with her and spending money!!!
3. In September, Carter and mommy have enrolled in baby sign language class! As you can see, little man's schedule is filling up fast!
We are also looking forward to anything else life happens to throw our way!

As far as the family goes, we're all doing well- Carter is growing big and strong, at his 6 month check in mid June he was 26.5 inches and 15 pounds... he's a lean mean eattin' machine! He's getting so big and it's happening too quickly! He is enjoying everything, he loves to get pears and applesauce and has started on some of the gerber graduates solids as well. He is "army crawling" around the house- no acutally crawling yet, it appears though that he would much rather stand than anything, and with Adam or my help he walks! It's becoming such a independant and happy little boy with such a great personality!
Adam and I are both enjoying parenthood and all the the joys that come with it! Carter has been such a great addition to our family, so have been so lucky and blessed!

It's Official!

We're pleased to announce the newest member of the sales team at Industrial Pipe Fittings... Adam Henry. It's finally official, Adam was offered the job and just completed finalizing the deal. We are very excited about the offer and Adam looks forward to being a member of the IPF team. He starts on Monday the 24th- and he's very excited, the poor guy was going stir crazy at home! He will now be commuting up to Missoula, which from our house to his work is roughly 45 minutes... quite a jont after only having to travel a few miles to his previous job.

Monday will also be Carter's first day back to daycare- he will continue on his old schedule- Monday and Tuesdays and then home with mommy on Wednesday and then will probably be with grandma on Thursday and Friday. Carter will join a couple of new little ones in daycare and will no longer be the youngest- so we're excited he'll have a couple of other little ones closer to his age.

Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes and words of encouragement that you have given us while Adam was laid off. We're hopeful that our luck is finally turning around!

Mommy and Carter's First Trip to the Ocean

Adam's new boss, Robert and his wife Cindy took us down to Galveston to experience the ocean first hand- this was a first for not only Carter but for mom as well. It was so big and very cool to see. The day we were there it was extremely windy and there were lots of big waves, which seemed to upset Carter- who cried every time I put his feet in the water...the sand on the other hand, proved to be more his speed. We also got to see a jelly fish on the shore and got a chance to pick up seashells- the next time we make the trip, I am bringing a plastic bag to collect more shells and by that time, Carter will be able to help me! Our trip to Houston was so much fun and we can't wait to return, for a longer period of time.

Carter's First Swim

Our trip to Houston marked numerous firsts for our little man- swimming was amongest the list. The hotel we stayed at had an outdoor, saltwater pool. Equipped with his Huggies little swimmers we took Carter to the pool. We had gorgeous weather both days that we were out and got some totally awesome pictures of him enjoying the water. He wasn't scared of the water at all and really seemed to enjoy splashing and playing- he even started "swimming" in his own little way by kicking his feet and moving his arms, of course daddy was there to help him. Daddy even dunked him a couple of time, which proved to be a fun experience.

Carter's First Flight!

Last weekend we flew down to Hosuton, thanks to Robert Jones at IPF. Adam had an interview with this company for an inside sales position. IPF was nice enough to pay for our trip- from the flights to the hotel to the food and then Robert and his wife Cindy, were nice enough to drive us to Galveston and act as our tour guide. We had such a fun time and can't wait to go back and visit for a longer period of time, instead of just 3 days. Adam's interview went well and we are awaiting to hear back from Robert.

This trip marked a number of firsts for our family, with the first being the plane ride. Carter did exceptionally well- he was certainly the hit of the flight making friends left and right. After we landed in Salt Lake City, we asked the flight attendent if we could get a picture with the pilot for Carter's scrapbook and they did one better, Carter and mom got to sit in the cockpit and get a couple of pictures- it certainly will be a memorable moment for mom and something to show Carter when he gets older- not everyone gets that opportunity! We also bought Carter a stuffed Delta plane that makes take off and landing noises- we took a picture of him holding it and we are sending a copy into Delta to say thank you for such a great flight and being so accommodating of us! Daddy and mommy are very proud of Carter for being such a trooper with all the traveling that we've done!

Adam's New Job

Adam had a job offer shortly after being laid off from his previous position. His new boss invited us down to the corporate office in Houston, TX. to see the company and to meet with him. His new boss is making the arrangements and paying for our flight down to Houston for the weekend. This will also be the first airplane ride for Carter, so we are very excited but anxious for the trip... luckily it will only be a short trip. I am hoping to get a picture with the captain for his scrapbook, hopefully, there will also be many more photo opps for mom to go camera happy!!

Adam's new company is called Independent Pipe Fittings (IPF) and he will be doing the same thing he did at Polywarehouse- inside sales. We are excited to hear what they have to offer and the potential Adam has within this new company. I am still holding out that he will hear something from his friend in Germantown and we can move back to the midwest, but somehow, I don't think that will come through- one can hope though!

Any tips from mom's that have flown with little ones would be greatly appreciated! I got a few from his doctor, but nothing takes the place as tips from experienced mom's!!

Standing?!?

Another new skill that Carter has managed to do is stand with limited assistance. Adam of course was behind him when he did get tired but he stood alone for a good 10 seconds or so. He's always been a strong little boy, prefering to stand up rather than sit down, right from the start.

Way to go Carter!!!

Look at this big boy!

As mentioned in the previous post, Carter was given the green light to start on some rice cereal. So, Wednesday night we tried it for the first time. He actually did extremely well- getting the bulk of it in his mouth. I did the "ping-go-hum" technique and he opened up his mouth first try. So far we have only fed him once a day as recommended by his doctor- so at 8:15pm we give him a tablespoon of rice cereal mixed with 2 tablespoons of breastmilk and he basically eats the whole dish, then at 9pm I breastfeed him and we put him down for the night. The process seems to be going well. We are now moving up to giving him the cereal twice a day for a few days and then we are supposed to do 3 times a day with breastmilk in between if needed- Dr. Heath said that his main source of calories still comes from me. We were also told that he will be more gassy and stinky!?!?!? Is that possible???

I can't believe that he's eatting big people food already, he's getting so big so fast!

Since the last post in March we've had two more dr. appointments for Carter... one to follow-up on his ultrasound with his urologist and the second with his regular doctor for his 4 month well child check and immunizations.

For all that don't already know, Carter only has one kidney now. The left one has inploded upon itself and is basically no more. His right kidney has increased in size to help compensate for the lack of his second one. Even though we wished the cysts would've just gone away, we are happy to report that his kidney function is wonderful with normal urine output! He will have to be a little more careful than other kids with sports, but other than that he should be fine. He will follow-up again with his urologist in September along with another ultrasound just to track the sole kidney's status. His urologist is also working with a pediatric urologist from Seattle to meet with us just for a second look and educate us with anymore current information regarding his disease. We look forward to learning all we can to help our son be the healthiest as possible!

On April 14th, Carter had his 4 month well child check complete with immunizations. This round of shots went much more smooth for all involved. For instance, mom didn't cry this time and Carter only cried for a few seconds and then was all smiles- he also didn't hate dad for the subsequent few days! He's growing well at a husky 13lbs. 13oz at measures in at 26 inches long. He's meeting all his major milestones with rolling over, babbling and recongnizing his name. We were also informed that we can start him on some rice cereal for the next three weeks and then at 5 months we can start on yellow and orange veggies and then at 6 moths we can start some fruits. So far with the rice cereal he's doing very well.

The next appointment up for us is his 6 month well child check in June.

Easter at the Henry Home

I am a bit delinquent about updating my blog, but after working on the computer all day at work- it's really the last thing I want to do when I get home.

So, without further ado...

Carter's first easter went well, we started celebrating the day before at an easter egg hunt at grandma Betty's work. Thank you to her for getting us a ticket so that we could make his first easter special. He got a cute gift bag complete with two cute little animals to play with at bath time. We also got our picture taken with the easter bunny- which he did very well and wasn't scared by him at all.

Easter morning we gave him his easter basket complete with a new ball with a rattle in the middle- he loves that thing and we take it everywhere we go. It's got octagon cut outs over the entire ball which makes it easy for him to grab and bite. We also gave him a bottle of bubbles- which we will have fun with this summer! We also celebrated by having him hold a sign with the year and event so that mom can scrapbook the event!

Happy first easter my beautiful boy!!!

Carter's Big Adventures!

I wanted to give anyone an update as to what Carter has been up to the past few weeks... 2 weeks ago, he mastered the fine art of rolling over from his stomach to his back and we're currently working on rolling over from his back to his stomach-he's so close, but his shoulder gets in his way- I would think that by the end of this week he'll have it down. He's also working on sitting up- he can hold himself up for a few seconds before he starts to fall, but he's definatly making progress!

He's also hosting his own Skype show- it's all Carter all the time and grandma couldn't be more excited to see him. He's certainly not camera shy- rolling over and getting those up close and personal shots for grandma- it's neat to see him interact with her even if it is through the computer. He loves watching the screen!

He's an amazing little boy and both Adam and I are very proud of him!

So for now that's what we've been up to the past few days... stayed tuned for another update!

Sick Baby

This weekend marked Carter's first cold. Friday night he came down with a fever, cough and congestion. The poor little guy sounds and looks terrible- but amongest feeling bad, he still has it in him to smile at daddy and I. Today, as I write this, he's definatly sounding better and we are making friends with our "snot sucker" thank goodness for those! Adam and I are having fun holding and rocking him, as he usually wants nothing more than to walk around and be active, so our cuddling time has been at a minimum lately, but he's definatly Mr. Clingy that past couple of days-which is totally understandable. I am very thankful that he didn't get sick until after I got home on Friday and that I could be with him over the weekend.

If anyone has any tricks of the trade for a sick child or basketcase mom, please let me know as we'll take any help we can get!