Easter Weekend

What a beautiful Easter weekend in Gadsden! The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time.  Grammy came from Louisville to visit.  On Friday night we went to First Friday downtown.  There were so many people and we had a fabulous time! Henry got to visit with the Easter bunny too.  He did great but we didn't get an actual smile from the little guy.  We also enjoyed fried oreos and fried banana moon pies...this is our favorite treat at First Friday

I worked Saturday, so Henry got some quality time with Grammy.  That night we had a yummy dinner at Old Mexico to celebrate Grammy's birthday.  When we got home, we played a Ghafary Easter tradition....the Egg game.  Basically, everyone picks a dyed egg and tries to crack everyone else's egg.  The one uncracked egg that remains is the winner.  This year Henry got to play. 

He was all smiles until I cracked his egg!

These adorable little chicks cover the eggs for the egg cracking game every year.  My great aunt knits them!! Them are soo cute:)

 Easter morning we went to church.  It was the first time that Henry stayed in the nursery.  He made it about 45 minutes and they came to get me.  Apparently, he did not handle being away from us very well.  We quickly came to his rescue! 

We went straight to brunch at the Club and it was fabulous! Henry was all smiles..specially getting to sit between Grammy and Grandma.  With coconut cake coming from one side and bread pudding from the other...who wouldn't be happy!

Henry used my Easter basket from when I was little.

Happy Easter from the Smith Family!

Eleven Months Old

Henry has changed so much in the last month.  For one thing...he is much more vocal.  What he is actually saying remains a mystery to us, but he is sure of it!

He still fits in some 9 months outifits and can wear a couple of his 12 months.  He is definitely "in between."  As far as shoes...he is wearing a size 6.  His grandmothers took him to Hicks Shoes in Gadsden to get an official size and six it was.  He is still getting used to his new flippers and he will only wear sandals where he can actually see his feet. 

He is eating three meals a day and three to four bottles in between.  He is sleeping from 6:30 to around 6ish..so no complaints there!

He stays with Grandma and Grandpa while I am working.  And because of that he looooves music.  My parents play records that were mine when I was little and continuously sing and dance with him.  They even get my 90-something year old great aunt involved! Wouldn't you want a picture of that:) He loves to dance everytime he hears any song.  He loves anything with wheels.  His favorite toy is his xylophone..right now. And his favorite book is a musical Christmas one from Brenda and Jo.."Little Drummer Boy".

My favorite part of the day is when he wakes up and by the time I get to his nursery he is jumping up and down in his crib.  He has the biggest smile on his face like he has missed us all night long. It is the sweetest!

Five teeth!

He still doesn't like TV.  He loooves the remote, the iphone, the ipad, or anything else that has buttons or he sees in mommy or daddy's hand.  Here are some pictures of him in some adorable Indian outfits from the Parmars!!


His favorite snack is greek yogurt with any fruit, mashed banana, or Annie's cheddar bunnies.  And he looooves to run around the house without any clothes.  This is Godmother Shelley's favorite pic..Henry wearing socks she bought him in Denver!

 We go to Kindermusik class every wednesday.  It is so funny because he acts like a totally different baby.  He acts shy and quiet and just sits amazed at Mrs Kelly's songs and the other babies.  It's actually relaxing to just get to sit with Henry while he stays in one place.  I don't know why class is so hypnotizing but Henry is a different kid there!!

Henry looooves doors.  He loves to open and close them, play peek-a-boo using them, and the newest trick...slamming them on his fingers.  He has started to climb a lot more.  And now uses things to climb up higher.  As a result, we currently have three scrapes and two bruises..one on his cheek.  Lovely!

And if you are wondering how Savannah is adjusting to life in Gadsden.....

 HAPPY ELEVEN MONTHS TO MY SWEET HENRY!!

Ten Months Old!

Okay, I am ridiculously behind in my postings.  So much has happened over the last few weeks...fun dinners, trips, meetings, and more meetings...but they are just gonna have to be memories in my head I guess:) Henry has had some huge milestones but we are currently dealing with his latest...first time being sick! Let's start with the fun ones though....

Henry started walking early in February (Feb 9th to be exact).  He has now progressed to more of a fast walk that sometimes results in a trip or two.  He has also mastered spinning around to slide carefully off the couch.  There is just no slowing him down:)

Henry has five teeth now..and more on the way.  He has also started grinding the little boogers..which is not far from scratching nails on a chalkboard in my book:(

He is not a fan of anything pureed and just loves his bottle or table food.  Sometimes we can sneak in some greek yogurt but don't try to feed this baby "baby food"..not gonna happen.

Our latest adventure has been his virus which has been inhabiting our household for about 12 days now.  Little sleep, snotty noses, and sad tears has been a constant.  Needless to say..all three of us are exhausted.  It started with a two nights of high fever.  Poor baby spent a day crying and just wanting to cuddle.  Then it became congestion and a bad cough.  Two trips to the doctor later we had our diagnosis ...RSV and the beginnings of an ear infection :( The antibiotics for his ear have given Henry his first diaper rash and the poor guy still manages to want to play.  The rash has made changing his diaper almost impossible without two people.  We attempted to let him "run free" to air everything out..but that resulted in a total disaster.  Let just say we have used his weight in clorox to disinfect our bathroom.  His cough was pretty bad too.  The worst part was when his cough would cause him to spit up his whole bottle.  This usually happened when we were dressed and ready for work..of course!

Henry also got his first sorta black eye and cut up nose from his run in with mr.octopus.  One of his favorite toys just got in the way as he hobbled around his playroom.  I wish I had a good picture but taking pics has not been a priority this week.

Lance and I are now trying to recover from the virus ourselves.  I thought running after a healthy Henry was hard..but running after a half-sick Henry being sick ourselves is definitely not any easier.  We are praying hard to be rid of this and on to better things!

SOOOO...happy ten months to my sweet little Henry (a few days late). I pray the rest of this month will be full of fun times in this beautiful weather and no more boogies!!

Bath time

Nothing can capture the essence of our lives right now better than bath time at the Smith house.  A great word for it is chaos.  Henry is as sweet as ever but is definitely the definition of a busy body. 

I remember how bath time used to be...a relaxing time of singing and running water..and lavendar baby shampoo.  It was our go to trick to calm Henry down if he was fussy.  It also lead to a relaxing transition to sleepy time. 

Wow how things have changed.....

Our little mad man can just smell bath time coming.  In fact as soon as we make our way to the bathroom he gets the itch to bring on the chaos.  In fact, I don't really even know what his shampoo smells like.  I'm just happy it makes it on his head every night!

Although the relaxing bath time is but a memory..we do have a ton of fun.

We usually leave the bath more soaked than baby Henry.  His duckies though get most of the "abuse".  We still try to sing songs! And it is a real work out to keep this slippery little guy in the bath.  More often than not he climbs out and tries to make his way down the hall..away from his bedroom.

He can just sense the end of the day!

I know we will never go back to those sleepy lullaby lavendar bubble baths...but who wants that when you can have this:)

Keep keeping up with the Smith's

Hi everyone! I am so happy you having been keeping up with the Smith's through our blog.  We have decided to make our blog private, allowing our family and friends to see what's going on in our lives.  If you would like to continue to follow us please comment with your email address or just contact me privately.  We love blogging about our little family and love that everyone gets to keep up too...we would just like to know who "everyone" is.  Thanks for understanding!!! The Smith Family will be private by the end of the week:)

Love,
  Julie, Lance, Henry, and Miss Savannah

Nine months

Henry is now nine months old! He is as precious as ever and he has a smile that can melt your heart. He loves to laugh and squeal when he is happy and he is quick to show you his pouty lip if he is unhappy.  He specifically dislikes the word "No".  As soon as you give him a stern "NO" he turns to you quickly, gives you THE lip, which then turns to a cry, making the second NO a little harder to say and definitely not as stern:)

He loves to eat...not much change there.  He has about three food meals a day and bottles in between.  He now spits his pacifier out as soon as he sees food or a bottle coming...it always makes me laugh.  "Move out of the way paci...Henry's gotta eat;)"  Lance and I went on a baby food making craze and filled our deep freezer with gallon size bags full of pureed fruits and veggies.  He really loves his fresh food compared to the jars..but we still keep those handy.  Henry has also started to love yogurt as well...even straight unsweetened greek yogurt. I was kinda surprised..but then again this boy can eat!  We are working on him feeding himself.  He can eat and he can put everything else in the world in his mouth...but he won't put food in his mouth...we are working it;)

Henry is also a man on the go.  If he isn't sleeping he is moving.  Lance has to remind me that all the action is good..specially when all I want is to snuggle for like five minutes on the couch:) He is great at crawling and can crawl up the stairs (thank you Uncle Forrest and Aunt Catherine).  He can pull himself up to standing alone and with the help of the sofa can maneuver himself for a few steps.  He always has the biggest smile when he stands up!


Another new thing is his love for windows.  He can see out of all the windows in our house when he stands up...so that is his new favorite activity.  He just stares outside and fogs up the window.  He also loves pulling off people's glasses and putting them up to his face.  I know it is very bad to laugh at and reinforce but I can't help it.  He always laughs so hard when he does it!!

He can now dance on command..a trick we like to show friends.  It started with my little song "Clap your hands" which resulted in a little bouncing on cue.  Now any tune can get our little man to do a jig.

Am I not supposed to climb on everything?

 We finally had to take away the firetruck from Christmas.  It was becoming a bit of an obsession..hopefully he will be just as happy with it when we bring it out next December.  Henry now loves his bear from Costco.  Every evening when we go to his room to head to bed he squeals as if he has never seen it before...he crawls up to it and dives into it and starts eating its nose.  It is soooo funny!

Henry still loves his bath..but bath time also means soak time for mommy.  Henry loves to splash and usually holds one rubber ducky in his mouth and one in each hand as he splish splashes all over everywhere.  He still HATES getting into his PJs after his bath.  It has become a lowlight of our day because it usually results in crying and screaming until he gets his bottle.  He is still sleeping from 7pm til 6:30..which is great! He is still taking two naps a day although they are getting shorter and shorter. 

His favorite toys right now are: his ABC train, his music panda, and his carseat...no joke...climbing  in and out of his carseat can keep him pretty occupied. He also loves the TV remote...Lance and I do a great job of keeping it away..my parents..not so much! He also looooves opening and closing doors...funny at first.  Now we just try to keep all the doors closed.  Because of his need for speed..we have now put most of his toys in a playroom upstairs.  It has greatly reduced the bumps on the head and tumbles because it is carpeted and has limited distractions. 

The Smith house is always on the move with little Henry around and we couldn't be happier!

New Years with the Smiths

To celebrate the New Years, Lance and I went to Atlanta with his parents for the Chick-fil-a Bowl.  I had never been to a bowl game so I was really excited.  I'm not a huge fan of massive crowds...so I was a little nervous too.  We had made our plans a little late so we had trouble finding a hotel room close to the Georgia Dome.  We did manage to find one room at Comfort Suites.  It was a perfect little walk to the dome and because it is right near Underground Atlanta, it had a perfect view of the Peach Drop at New Years. 

We had a delicious dinner at Ruth's Chris before the game.  We then strolled to the dome and I was so impressed that Lance's mom managed the walk with us.  She is awaiting her surgery to fix her knee...and spent the whole evening in a leg brace.  What a trooper!

 When we got to the the entrance of the dome, we ran straight into our friends, Kate and Jonathan...what a small world!!! I had just texted Kate to tell her we had just arrived at the game but didn't think we would get to see them. 

 The game was so much fun and a great way to celebrate the New Year's.  We left a couple of minutes early so we could beat the crowds out of the dome.  Our plan was a good one...until we ran into this crowd....

Not exactly part of our plan...we then had to make our way through the 100,000 people gathered around the peach drop.  Wonderful! Please picture this, the four of us (Darlene in her leg brace) moving inch by inch through all the crazies that had hunkered down in their chosen spot to ring in the New Year.  We finally made it so the Comfort Suites was in sight, only to see the police barracade that surrounded our hotel haven.  If only we had something to bartar with the thousands that remain between us and our "comfort suite":)  Judging all the 'smells' that we could smell as we made it through the crowd, I'm sure we could have found something to trade for a couple of feet closer (if you know what I mean...)

 FINALLY, we ran into a hotel employee who was wheeling an elderly man in a wheelchair through the crowds.  For a second, I pitied him a little more than us but then I saw it as an opportunity.  We quickly linked up with them and made it safely through the doors of our hotel.  With a huge sigh of relief and a couple of laughs, we stated the obvious...."we need a drink!" We made it to the elevator and were joined by a fun couple that had obviously been celebrating the end of 2011.  The woman so graciously sprinkled each of us with 'good luck glitter' for 2012 and wrapped mardi gras beads around Darlene's neck!  On any other day, I would have quietly hid behind Lance to avoid eye contact with this couple, but that night...I bowed my head right over so I could get a huge helping of the glitter. I needed all the good luck I could get;)

The fun didn't end when we got up to our suite...we had a perfect viewing of the peach drop and also two big fights that erupted in the massive crowd below.  It was both exciting and a little scary that we were just venturing through that exact spot.  We toasted the New Year's quietly in our room...thanking God for another year and for our survival of the exciting evening! What an INTERESTING way to ring in 2012!



On a deeper note...I feel so blessed by all that 2011 had to offer us.. a healthy and beautiful baby boy, a new home, a new path for our future in Gadsden, wonderful friends and family, and most of all we are blessed and excited for what 2012 holds for our little family! Happy New Year's to you and yours:)