Christmas Card Flashbacks

Our family has never been one to send out a classic Christmas card photo. This year our cards are sure to be late as we just ordered them, but they'll be just as "special" as previous years.

Not familiar with our idea of a Christmas card photo?

Well it all started back in '08. I bought a Jane Fonda workout tape from Goodwill for 39 cents. It was all the inspiration we needed.

Jake came up with his outfit all on his own.

In 2009 we had a cat and it only seemed logical to dress up in our Sunday best and toss good old Housh straight up in the air.

I don't quite remember our living room looking like this...

Then in 2010 we went on a three and half week backpacking and hiking trip in Canada and came up with this beaut...

I was actually quite nervous about falling off the edge.

In 2011, we had this little fella and took the year off.

My tiny Boo Boo.

Now it's 2012 and we live in good old Wyoming. We had our neighbor take our picture and I'm pretty sure he'll never look at us the same again. Whatever did we do?

Henry met Santa.

And he doesn't like him. Maybe it's because he heard a rumor that Santa was going to re-wrap some of the presents H man got for his birthday and pass them off as Christmas gifts? Or maybe we should just be thankful that he isn't easily lured in by candy.

That's right. It's 19 degrees outside and the kid has no shoes on. Hopefully Henry shows us where he hid the one pair of shoes that fit him before it gets too much colder.

And we call him, Super Baby.

Jake had been envisioning this shot for months. And if we would have taken it months ago before Henry could move, or even weeks ago before he was a confident walker, it would have been much easier. Yes, it took about 200 shots to get this one. I know it's amazing that our one year old did not want to stand in one spot for more than .5 seconds. So how did we get this shot?? Easy. I taped two little snack puffs to the wall. If only we had thought of that in the beginning!

All superheros are bald. Right?

Yes, those are my very tense hands waiting to catch Henry. I don't know how dads so easily toss their kiddos in the air.

The Real Deal Birthday!

Baby boy turned one today. And in true boy fashion he fell on his noggin twice. There's nothing that says "I'm a one year old boy" more than a few bruises and bloody scratches, right? Or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better? I suppose it's a good thing that we didn't try and do his actual one year old portraits today, then again who knows what he'll look like next weekend!

So today was the big day. The day of chocolate. The day of sugar. The day of goodness. One would think that this woud be a good day in the life of Henry James Denbrook.

He, however, did not buy into the whole "chocolate is the best thing ever" mentality.

Do you see my hurt head?

To me, this face says, "I'd rather have your no sugar added banana cake, Mom!"

And while I did get teary eyed looking at pictures of my sweet babe from this past year, today was a good day. Today we celebrated. Today we felt loved.

Ghost Town

OOOOOOOoooooo. Ghost noises? I don't know, maybe?

After being back in town a mere 20 hours, we were ready for another adventure and decided to check out the nearby Ghost Town, Piedmont (why, yes, I did just give you a wikipedia link).

While Jake worked his photography magic, Henry and I fought the bitterly cold wind. Totally worth it.

And the black and white from a different angle...

I guess I should have waited until Jake was done with all his photos to do this post but then there might not be cleaning and laundry to ignore, so I guess you don't get to see the other buildings.

Those are charcoal kilns behind us. They were a good shelter from the wind until I got creeped out by all bird nests in there. Birds. Eck.

Come on, Mom. Look at my hat!

And here you have the cutest almost one year old in all of Wyoming. Or at least in my very humble opinion.

The Fake Birthday

Sir Henry turns ONE one week from today. Vomit. Say it isn't true. That little turd of mine cannot possibly be escaping babyhood, can he?

He was so quiet and so still back then!

Now that we are living in the wild west far from our families, we had no other choice but to give Henry two parties. One in Oregon with our family and one on his actual birthday in Wyoming with our friends.

I wasn't quite ready to give him sugar so the lucky kid got a no sugar added banana cake. Yeah, yeah, I know. Mama=no fun.

I think he liked it?

Check out those chompers, we're currently working on #7 and #8.

What are we going to do about that melon, kid?

Okay, so maybe he did get a few bites of a cupcake, but no chocolate til you're one, mister!

11 months!

It's so hard not to be cliche and write, "eleven months, where has the time gone, baby boy?"But man, oh man is it true. I truly cannot believe that my darling boy is eleven months old. That means he will turn one next month and that just makes my chest tighten.

Eleven months and still no hair? Come on, it's gonna be a cold winter!

Sir Henry is up to many a things these days. Around nine and half months he finally decided to crawl, and thank the good Lord that he figured that out because  things were starting to get ugly. He wasn't crawling for more than three weeks when he decided to start WALKING! And now the big boy is starting to climb. And more than anything else in the world, Henry is whole heartedly trying to electrocute himself. Oh the outlets, the bloody outlets!

This wee Denbrok is also big into big people food these days. "Bring on the whole pear and apple, please and I'd really love your coffee too, Mom." Of course this is spoken as loud ear piercing screams. Good thing, you're cute buddy.

And now for the shoe pictures....

Electric toothbrush...best toy ever.

I'm outta here, kids.

And since I never posted his nine or ten month shoe photos...

I hate to tell you this, but this will be the last time I lay nice and still for your silly photos.

And from ten months on, we shall also be documenting mama's toothbrush.