All About Henry- 10 Months

At 10 months old, Henry is a hoot!

He has a huge head, a torso the size of a 2 year old, and legs the size of an 9 month old.

A few of his favorite things are: Bath time (He splashes so much the whole bathroom floor looks flooded when he's done), reading books (He literally could read books all day long), emptying things (AKA pulling everything out of anything), his alone time in his carseat (taking Dad to work and picking him up), his sippy cup, loud noises, and his new trick of standing up.

Henry's Christmas gift to us this year was learning how to crawl on Christmas day! He has been so, so close for many weeks and on Christmas morning, he opened a gift (a ball that electronically rolls itself and makes noise) and immediately started crawling towards it. No encouragement needed. It was a Christmas miracle! Cam and I were stunned when he started moving. We were like, WHAT THE WHAT?! Is this really happening? He has been on the move since then and is getting VERY fast. Nothing is safe anymore. He gets into e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. We are constantly rearranging things and very quickly learning that nothing in our home is baby-proof. We're working on that.

Since he started crawling, he also has started to pull himself up to a stand. He does this near furniture, and anyone's legs and anything that appears to him like it will hold his weight (although his judgement is a bit off), and especially his crib. His go-to leverage point is using Daddy's leg hair to get a good grip and climb up.

Remember how last month his issue was pushing himself into a sitting position in his sleep and then crying? Well, now he pulls himself up to standing in his crib and just cries. It's a serious problem.

Henry eats a ton of food. He continues to love all puree baby food and is now exploring into real table food and is in heaven. He loves any and all meats- chicken, beef, ham, any lunch meat, salmon, you name it, he loves it. He is a pro at picking up food with his pointer finger and thumb and can get the tiniest of crumbs that we can't even manage to get with our adult fingers.

Breastfeeding is still trucking along. Although I'm pretty sure I have almost no milk left. When he does nurse, he's done in like 3 minutes flat. Which is nice and fast, but I'm pretty sure he's not getting anything. Oh well, he's almost a year anyway so I'm not too concerned. Plus he drinks lots of water from his sippy cup throughout the day, so I know he's not dehydrated.

As for his sleeping...... where do I even begin..... Some days, he is an angel- takes two good naps (1+ hour each), and sleeps 13+ hours at night, waking once around 6am to feed. And then other days he is a little monster- refuses to nap altogether or takes over an hour to convince him to fall asleep and then wakes 30 minutes later (for both morning and afternoon nap) and then wakes every 1-2 hours during the night crying. So there's that.

The sleeping thing is really frustrating because some days he sleeps great! But it's all those other days that leave us pulling our hair out. We've tried a lot of different things and have yet to figure out how to help him sleep through the night. My most recent hypothesis is that he's hungry because I don't produce enough milk. But who knows.

He has started babbling a LOT more this past month. So far he does: B, G, D, M (his newest sound), and maybe more that I can't think of. His favorite trick is spitting, which is really cute except when he is eating pureed food and spits a mouthful of food all over you.

We sure love our little monster. He gets cuter everyday as his personality shines through more and more. Here are some pictures!

Photoshoots have gotten a bit more difficult these days... More pics from his 10 month shoot at the end

First visit with Santa

FHE with William

Selfies are hard

After months of teaching him NOT to rip paper, we reversed everything by encouraging him to rip open his presents. 

1st Bloody nose. Blast the dry weather this winter!

Rollin in the do-flow of 2 dollar bills

Brown Family Christmas 2015

Happy New Year! from Henry

10 months!

Most of the shots I got look like this

Or this

Or this.... you get the point. 

Until next time,

Anna

Advent Calendar- December 15th

What would Christmas be without Mariah?

Advent Calendar- December 14th

Beautiful....

Advent Calendar- December 13th

I am kind of a sucker for Christmas lights; I love them. I also love National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (yes, it is on Netflix). With that being said, there is nothing more frustrating than when the lights don't seem to work......

....yet there is nothing more gratifying when they finally do...

Advent Calendar- December 12th

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and hi name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
~Isaiah 9:6

Advent Calendar- December 11th

This is what Christmas is all about! "Breath war!"

PS If you haven't heard of Kid History you may want to read this article first.

Advent Calendar- December 10th

"There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection."

Gordon B. Hinckley, December 2000 

Advent Calendar- December 9th

I remember growing up we always had to have THE best lit house in our neighborhood. After watching this, and plenty of other similar videos, there is no chance we could keep up with this Jones family.

Advent Calendar- December 8th

Although this video does not revolve entirely around Christmas, it embodies a message of hope for a better tomorrow. Christmas is celebrating the birth of an individual who has given all of us hope. Hope that we can live after death. Hope of relieving our burdens. Hope that we can live with our families forever. Hope that we can live with our Father in heaven again. Hope for a better a tomorrow.

Advent Calendar- December 7th

Don't get me wrong, I love opening gifts and surveying my loot on Christmas morning, but one of my favorite parts of Christmas is watching others open my gifts to them.

Advent Calendar- December 6th

I hope that we never forget the true meaning of Christmas as illustrated beautifully below by Linus.

Advent Calendar- December 5th

Christmas is all about giving and in the words of one of my church leaders, "giving until it hurts." WestJet Airlines went above and beyond giving with this elaborate plan:

Advent Calendar- December 4th

"To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the spirit of Christ."

Advent Calendar- December 3rd

Only 22 more days until Christmas!

Advent Calendar- December 1st & 2nd

Alright so one of my favorite things about advent calendars was when I forgot or missed a day, which meant that I could have TWO pieces of cheap chocolate on THE SAME DAY! After reading that you probably think I had a pretty deprived childhood....Anyways, since I missed yesterday you get to enjoy two pieces of chocolate today. Merry Christmas!

DECEMBER 1st
This video practically gives me chills. It will definitely get you in the mood for Christmas. It is a beautiful rendition of Little Drummer Boy. Wow....

DECEMBER 2nd

This is about my same reaction when I hear that Mr. Claus will be visiting:

Advent Calendar

It's December and that means we can officially start celebrating Christmas!!! I personally like to celebrate the holidays in order, which means I don't start hanging decorations, listening to carols, watching A Christmas Story, inhaling candy cane cookies, etc. until Halloween and Thanksgiving are over.  Ok, I am stepping off the soap box now...deep breath...moving on.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up in Ohio was receiving an advent calendar every December from the Grandma. This calendar consisted of a new chocolate shape for me to devour each day of December that passed. I could never really tell what the shapes were supposed to be; I'm sure they were Christmas related, but for all I knew they could have been a bunny or pumpkin. Anyways, they consisted of sugar and chocolate, so to me, it was gold. These calendars helped the month of the December go by faster for me because it always seemed like forever until Christmas. Now that I am a boring adult, I haven't used an advent calendar in years but I kind of want to bring it back. Well, bring it back in a "stress laden graduate student who has put on too much weight in the past year due to stress eating" kind of way. I thought I would steer away from a chocolate filled calendar but participate in a lighter calorie approach....A BLOG POST FOR EACH DAY! I am pretty sure I am not the only one doing this, yet we will still have good time with it. These posts will be short and sweet, primarily consisting of a video or a quote. I am not too sure who will read these, but if you are choosing to (which I highly recommend), ENJOY and MERRY CHRISTMAS! If not than click here.

Spring time is here!

First, thanks for reading our blog! Second, I am terribly sorry that I never post. I'm hoping once I graduate that I will be more inclined and hopefully have more time to blog.

We are finally in April and I couldn't be more excited. I love the pretty snow, but I love the hotttt sun SO much better!

Let me try to catch you guys up with what we have been doing the past few months of our lives....
For those who don't know, my family went on a big family cruise for Christmas! We went on a 5-day to Cozumel and Progreso, Mexico. It was so nice to enjoy the sun and relax at the beach and in the ocean when Provo was experiences negative degree weather! It was a much needed break. My family is so spread out that we don't get to see each other very often, so this time with them was highly valued and we made sure to make the best of it.

Here are just a few pics (maybe a little more than a few):

boarding the ship

like the turban? 

Mexican coke! Cam's fave

nice and sunburned

our nightly activity... games!

after the kids are in bed. 

We had such a fun time and can't wait to do that again in the future. We love you guys!

Next, we had February! February is my favorite month because we have Valentine's Day AND my Birthday! For Valentine's Day, Cam surprised me with an explosion of love notes, along with a dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme. For dinner, we went to Applebee's for half-off appetizers! :) Such a great day. For Cameron, I baked a Strawberry Rhubarb pie- from scratch. crust and all. It took ten years. But he loved it and it was delicious :)

BYU Phantom of the Opera- SO good.

Before...

After!

Valentine Surprise!

For my Birthday, I turned 22 and Cameron made me a REALLY nice dinner for me all by himself. He also gave me several gift-cards to some of my favorite places. He is basically the best husband ever. 

Bruschetta?

Happy Birthday to me! :p

Well, that's all I can think of right now. Also, I'm going to try to start blogging more. I know I say that every time, but I really want to blog more than once every 6 months. 

I hope you enjoyed our blog! 

-Anna

7 months- 3 1/2 months later...By Anna

[early December 2012]
We have been married 7 months! So weird. But awesome. Anyways...

Since I blogged last:

• We celebrated Cameron's quarter-of-a-century Birthday!
• Went to a lot of awesome Halloween parties
• Went to Nightmare of 13th (haunted house).. It wasn't very good. Not scary. 
• Celebrated my brother, Luke's, birthday by going to see the new James Bond movie 
• Celebrated Thanksgiving with Cameron's family
• AND
• Started our rounds of Christmas parties!

OH, I forgot to mention that we bought a Christmas tree and lights and we have lots of ornaments and it is BEAUTIFUL. I love to just look at it until I make direct eye contact with one of the bulbs and then the LED light hurts my eyes.  We also started a trend in the compound of apartments we live at. We were the first to put up lights going up our outside stairs and people are following suit! And we know we were the inspiration because one couple actually told us that we were :) YES!

My mother is taking all of her children and families on a cruise for New Years and we are BEYOND excited!!! When we are super stressed with school, we just start day-dreaming about the cruise and we feel all better.. for the moment.. But yes, we are stoked. Family is the best. For real. 

PS I forgot to mention that my brother, Luke, got engaged a few weeks ago! We are very happy to have a new sister-in-law, Rachel, and look forward to their big day on May 18, 2013 :)

PPS My other brother, Logan, and his wife, Christine, are expecting a bundle of joy in April 2013. It's a BOY! :) The Christensen name lives on :)

I will now post pictures for you:

We were zombies for Halloween. Here is one of the many pictures we took :)

Don't be too impressed.. I did not make a cake. A friend dropped it off :)

My lovely sister, Nicole, sent us this gem in the mail :)

Snow in early November.. hasn't happened since.

PPPS Cameron and I would love to hang out with you. We will be free the week after finals and then we bounce for the holidays.

Love y'all,

Bananas

Christmas Break! By: Anna

This will be a quick recap!

I spent 3 weeks in SLC with my mom and then 10 days with the Browns in San Antonio, Texas.
Christmas was fun- it was just me, Luke, and Mom. New Years was also fun. I was able to spend it with my Provo friends and we had a grand ole time :)
During break I was able to get my wedding dress, buy a wedding cake, and do miscellaneous wedding to-dos. Very productive!
Texas was super fun! I got to spend some much needed time with Cameron. And I was also able to visit one of my best friends, Kelly Rogers! She leaves for her mission in a few weeks, so I was really excited that I was able to see her before the departure.
Leaving for Romania was a lot harder than anticipated... but I just have a lot of faith that this is where I am supposed to be right now!

If you want to follow my blog for Romania, go here!

I won't be posting in this blog during my trip.. and I doubt Cameron will be either, but I could be wrong!

Love this guy

Happy New Year! :)

The Close of Fall 2011: By Anna

The semester is officially done. Seeing as this might have been our last semester at BYU, it was a little bitter-sweet... but mostly sweet. We are SO done with Provo traffic :)
The past few weeks our lives have been absolutely crazy, but it's been fun. We definitely made the best of it! A few notable events:

1. Dinner and a show with Dave: Dave (Cameron's Uncle) took us out to see a parody of It's a Wonderful Life, which is one of my all time favorite movies (as it was my Dad's, as well). It was very corny and we had such a fun time! We got this chicken, bacon, and ranch pizza, and it was divine. And we got some garlic cheese bread that was fantastic- and made our breath smell just as great ;) During an intermission, the announcerman called out Cameron and my names and asked us to dance for the audience because we had been newly engaged.... I wonder who told them... Dave... ;) It was very funny and I was thoroughly embarrassed. The best part was at the end when he told Cam to plant one on me and I turned away because I hadn't heard him... whoops ;)

2. The Brown Family Christmas Party:  A couple of Sundays ago, we went to Cam's Fam Christmas party. It was very fun! Those Browns sure do know how to cook! Food, company, songs, white elephant gift exchange (you should ask Cam what he got...;)), baby Max throwing up on Cameron 18 times. Oh, it was a party. I can't wait to join this clan :)

Cameron's second oldest niece showing off her goodies from fishing!

Cameron's oldest niece sporting a white elephant gift!

3. Lights at Temple Square:  Cameron and I did as all Provo couples do and went up to Temple Square to look at all the pretty lights. We didn't get a picture together, which kinda defeats the purpose, but we had such a fun time and we able to visit my mom for a little bit, too. We cannot wait to be sealed at the Salt Lake City Temple. It is absolutely gorgeous- we LOVE it. 

4. Brighton with the Father-in-Law: The Wednesday during finals week, Paul (Cam's Dad) took me skiing up at Brighton! It was the highlight of my finals week.. as you can imagine. It was fun to be able to have some one-on-one time with my future father-in-law and also to be able to snowboard for the first time this season. He didn't make me feel too bad about my pathetic snowboarding skills... ;)

5. Finals: Finals were... finals. That's all I have to say about that. Just kidding. I did surprisingly decent on all my finals, which is great. And of course Cam nailed all of his. He's a smarty-pants.


6. Goodbyes and Moving out: Saying goodbye to Cameron for 3 weeks was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I blame my emotions on birth control... or stress from finals... or maybe I just miss him, okay? And then there was moving out. I swear I hate moving. I don't know how it happens that I move around a lot. It seems like I move out every semester (I don't recommend it). But this was the first time I didn't have anyone to help me. Roommates were all out busy and Cam was partying in Vegas and then there was just me and a room full of CRAP that I should have just gotten rid of. It was a very long Friday night and even longer Saturday day, but eventually I got everything out. Thank heavens. I am currently living with my mom in her one-bedroom apt in SLC and we're having a great time!


7. Wisdom Teeth: I can't exclude that I got my wisdom teeth out on Monday! All 4 were little babies that were not ready to come out, but because I wanted to get them out while on my mom's insurance, we thought now was better than never! Recovery has been great! The first day was pretty rough (the lortab make me sick and i threw up all of my shake), but after I stopped taking that, I haven't had a problem. Swelling hasn't been bad. A little puffy, but not more than a little.

8. Christmas: Not much to report seeing as I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet. Good thing I'm not a mom or else I might be super stressed. I just have to get presents for my mom and Luke by Christmas day, seeing as those two people will be the only ones I will actually see. I will get everyone else's presents during all the sales :) Win. Win.

That's all, folks.
Thanks for reading. :)


PS. 2 weeks until I fly out to San Antonio and see Cameron and his family!
PPS. 4 months and 12 days until our Wedding!!
PPPS. I still need to sell my housing contract for Winter 2012- if you know anyone looking, PLEASE let me know. Here's the link to more info: $259 Winter 2012 BYU Approved Housing THANKS :)