Christmas Party Fail

For the last couple of years we have been getting together with Jake's family a few days before Christmas to celebrate. It is always a ton of fun.  A whole day filled with yummy food and drink, cribbage games and the best company. It is one of my favorite days. This year however things went a little awry.
See all these happy people? Yeah, most of them (along with a few others)  would end up with the stomach flu later that night or in the coming days.

And see this adorable happy man? Yeah, he would later touch the gas fireplace and spend Christmas Eve in the ER with second degree burns (more on that later).

Boy do we know how to party.

The 12 month shoe.

It might be a little on the late side, but here is the little man and his shoe.

At 12 months:

Measures in at 30": 50-75th percentile

Weighs in at 21.5 lbs: 50th percentile

And the melon...18.75": 98th percentile

It appears we are raising a child who is 150% boy. This guy loves to tackle, destroy and climb. He also loves to reo-organize all of my kitchen cabinets (please let me know if you find my 1/2 cup measuring cup) and push anything that he possibly can.

Thankfully his picky eating days seem to be over for the moment and his favorite dinner is currently quiona, black beans and sweet potatoes. He seems to love the green smoothies I make for him and would nurse 24/7 if I let him.

From the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to bed he is on the move and full of chatter. All  boy and all delight.

And yes, he continues to save us money by not requiring any shampoo. One day kid. One day.

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.