A Very "John" Update

I can't believe it, but John is officially 18 months old.  He is a snuggly little guy with a great arm and a wicked temper!  His vocabulary has recently exploded.  Some of his favorite things to say are "happened?"  (what happened?), "fishit"(fix it), and "ahveet" (have it!).  He is frequently heard requesting "shows ... Emmo" (Sesame Street), "lilk murr"(more milk), and "naa" (banana).  And, of course, his bedtime friends "Ma" (Llama), "La" (Lila - the bulldog), and "linkit" (blanket).  He loves to run and dance and knock down block towers that his big brother builds for him.  He is great at giving kisses and hugs and (his very favorite) high-fives.  

Here's John riding Pumba at ToysRUs:

John sporting some rock-star glasses and lips-kazoo he got at his friend Zack's birthday party:

Everything is a hat to John, even his cereal bowl:

Cowboy John:

John's 18mo. portraits.  Here he is "dancing":

Our not-so-much-a-baby-anymore John, 18 months:

Holidays 2011

Well, it's getting close to Valentine's Day, which I guess means that I should get around to posting our Holiday pictures.  Here is our one and only picture from Thanksgiving.  It is Will dressed up in his Native American oufit he made in preschool.  They each chose special Native American names and Will's was "Freezing Snowflake".  The feathers in his headdress (you can't really see them in the picture) each had something Will said he was thankful for.  They said "my cars, my letters, my brother John".

Despite they boys' terrible behavior on the morning we tried to take Christmas-card pictures we did manage to get one nice famiy shot:

This is a great video of Will's preschool Christmas program.  Will is the second one from the right.  See if you can pick out his voice (especially in the second verse!).

We spent Christmas travelling to see our families this year.  One day in Iowa and then two weeks in Florida.  To view the rest of our holiday pictures, click here: https://picasaweb.google.com/101967531136493799652/Christmas2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPHUn57i9Zv0KA&feat=directlink

Christmas Cards

I love sending out Christmas cards and a Christmas letter every year, so when I heard that one of the cutest online stationery stores was giving away 50 free Christmas cards to readers of one of my favorite blogs, I was totally in.

Tiny Prints ( http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm ) asked readers to post ideas on their blogs about how they display Christmas cards.  I love this idea I saw on etsy:  

It's a wire wreath made with loops for storing cards. (found here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/63647159/star-wreath-card-holder) We usually put the cards up on our mantle, but it fills up too quickly.  I'd love to hang this on top of our large mirror above the fireplace so we can show off all the cards we get!

If you have a blog and would like to enter to receive 50 cards from TinyPrints, check out this link: http://www.hostessblog.com/2011/11/a-rainbow-of-holiday-cheer-from-tiny-prints/

Halloween 2011

This year we had an even more fun Halloween than usual.  For the first time, we ALL (even the adults) dressed in costume and had a big Halloween party.  Here's the whole gang together:

From the left: Chris & Kerrie in back dressed as a Chippendale and a Playboy Bunny (very churchy); Kim, Derek, & Zack dressed as Barney & Betty Rubble and their son Bam-Bam; Doug, Candace, and Charlie dressed as Fred, Wilma, & Pebbles Flintstone; us dressed as farmers with a little cow and ear of corn; behind us are Adam, Mandi, & Lucas dressed as characters from the PBS show SuperWhy! Wonder Red, Alpha Pig and SuperWhy himself; and, Dan and Cara as mad scientists!

Are these our costumes or do mid-westerners just dress like this all the time?

Here we are on the day of Halloween carving our pumpkin.  (At least we didn't wait until the last minute!?)  Will is getting ready to take the very first scoop of pumpkin guts:

And after scooping with all his might, this is what he came up with:

Here's Will creating the spooky jack-o-lantern face:

All done!

Boo!

Oh no, when it gets dark John turns from a regular cow into a zombie-cow decapitating other cows and sucking out their brains with a sippy-cup!

We had a great time trick-or-treating with the boys.  The weather was pretty mild and the neighbors got a kick out of our family themed costumes.  After we were done, Will helped pass out the candy, which he really enjoyed.  Then we all watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" for the second year in a row.  I think we'll be making that a Henley-family tradition!

Grandparents Day??

This post is a little late, since it's from the end of September, but I'm just getting caught up.  Will's preschool had "Bring Your Grandparents To School Day" and since we don't live close to family, Will invited our friends Dan & Cara to be his special friends for the day.  It was a great choice because Dan and Cara took the whole day off and after school, brought the boys out to Tanners Orchard for some fall fun:

(poor John, had to be the lady)

Tanners has a huge play area will all kinds of farm equipment, vehicles, and playgrounds to play on. Here are the boys on the big wooden train:

John loves steering wheels!

On the tractor/trike dirt track. Not sure why, but Will went straight for the pink John Deere:

John's turn:

Caterpillar!  That's more like it:

John with Dan & Cara.  (ps- Dan is one of John's favorite people and yesterday (Nov. 13) he started saying Daniel.  It sounds like this "Naniel"... so cute!)

Last, but not least, here's Will picking apples.  They were delicious!

Thanks so much, Dan & Cara, for making my boys feel so adored!

Will's Many Careers

Here's just a few of Will's many careers the day we went to the Lincoln Children's Museum:

Postman

Pizza-Maker

Veterinarian

Fireman

Motorcycle Cop

Pilot

Astronaut

So much fun!

Kansas/Nebraska Trip

Last month we took a trip west to visit some friends and family.  First, we went to Kansas to spend some time with our friends, Jacob and Stacie, who moved away from peoria... but we forgive them.  Here's John and his friend, Abe.  They were born ten days apart.

Here are the boys checking out the tractor at Jacob's family's farm:

We took a day trip and visited "Big Brutus" which is a humongous piece of mining equipment.  That tiny figure in the shovel is Will:

After a few days with Jacob and Stacie, we headed north to see some of my extended family in Lincoln, NE.  Here is my grandma ("Gigi" to Will and John) reading with John:

We took the boys to the Lincoln Children's Museum one of the days we were there.  (More pictures in the next post!)  Here is John trying out the family business:

Gigi and Will playing legos during John's naptime:

We also visited Veterans Memorial Park where we found the bricks honoring my grandfathers and even a great-grandfather.

We also spent a day visiting my other set of grandparents.  They had all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins over to see us.  The boys really enjoyed meeting everyone!

We had a really great time on our first big family vacation as a family of four.  The boys did GREAT in the car.  On the way home we even stopped in Iowa to see Brandon's sister and her family.  I think we packed the most fun possible into our trip!  To see the rest of our vacation pictures, click here: https://picasaweb.google.com/101967531136493799652/KansasNebraskaVacation?authkey=Gv1sRgCPXbu6vdjMCAMQ#