July random pictures

Ace's first pool experience

brothers playing

Easton wanting to go see Grandma

boo boo...poor guy..wiped out

Ace trying to console him with his toys

loving our musical monkey this month

Avocado's..not so much

July brings fun fireworks

Easton's new bike helmet...he loved wearing that thing all over the house

We love apples

Playing outside in the water

Warren County Fair

For family night Indianola was having their county fair. Easton was so excited to go to the county fair and see the animals and get to see Grady and Jace. I've never been to the Warren County Fair. It was actually pretty fun. It was smaller than what we're used to but the boys had a great time riding a couple of rides and seeing all the animals. Even Ace did a great job being in the stroller for a couple of hours. The boys also got to ride miniture ponies..

Easton had never been on a carnival ride. We chose a car ride and then a little miniture roller coaster. After the car ride, i had to pry Easton off the car. He did not want to leave. I'm sure he could have road that little ride all night long. We then took them on the little miniture roller coaster. Jace and Easton barely made the height cut off. The whole ride...you could hear them laughing and having a good time. It was so cute and I even got it on video. All three boys loved that little ride.

Steph and I even got to ride the Zipper. Growing up the zipper was our favorite ride ever. I cannot actually believe that it's still a ride at the fairs now a days. Even though my stomach was a little upset...i still decided to ride. We ended up riding with two of their girls that attend their church. I rode with one and steph rode with the other. I think our bucket spinned the entire time. It was crazy. I was so ready to get off since all we did was spin. Ugh...but it was so fun.

We all had a great time at the Warren County Fair

Easton and Mommy Date Night

Since we didn't have any plans scheduled for tonight. I decided to take Easton to his very first big screen movie in the park. Pleasant Hill at Copper Creek was having a free movie night at the park. They were showing a bugs life. The weather was perfect and Easton was so thrilled to be going to a park to watch a movie. He was just mesmorzied at the big screen, the free popcorn and the fireworks show after the movie. He actually sat and watched the entire movie. I was so proud of him. Normally he doesn't have the attention span for those kinds of things but he did so good. After the movie they had a fireworks show which was awesome. We sat by the lake and took in all the cool fireworks. It was almost better than the actual 4th of July fireworks Altoona put on. We both had an awesome time and it was the perfect night for a mommy and easton date.

The Boys

Is my baby really going to start crawling soon. Ace has mastered getting up on all 4's and even starting to scoot backwards. I cannot believe at a little over 6 months he is on his way to crawling. Easton took forever to finally crawl. I don't think I'm ready to have Ace start crawling yet. That means i have to go through the entire house and baby proof it, put up baby gates and watch him more closely as to what he's going to get in to. Right now he's so easy because he just sits there and cannot move...oh boy....things are going to change when he really gets the nack of crawling. So exciting :)

Poor Easton has been struggling at daycare lately. Vicky says he is such a follower. One little boy in particular is getting Easton in trouble all the time. It's not the little boy getting him in trouble...it's Easton following whatever the every Brayden does which gets him in trouble. The other day Vicky took them both into the bathroom to go potty since they were both starting to potty train...well she left them alone and after a few seconds could hear them laughing and just having fun...she proceeded to go in to the bathroom and here they both were with their hands arms length in the toilet splashing the water out. Thankfully neither of them had used the actual bathroom yet but still..apparently water was everywhere. Both boys were in trouble and were unable to play outside and had to take their naps early. Hopefully Easton will realize that following Brayden will result in him always getting in trouble. Maybe he'll learn that he needs to do his own thing and be a leader and not a follower. He normally does excellent at daycare...

Easton had his very first dream the other night. Now that we got Ace sleeping through the night...of course the other one would have to wake up. I woke up to Easton crying...i went in there and asked him what was wrong and all he said was...it's scary...it's scary...I asked him what was scary and he pointed over by his little table...all he kept saying was..it's scary mom...it's scary...i told him that he had a dream and that dreams aren't real and to try and go back to sleep. Thankfully he didn't wake up Ace and was able to go back to sleep. The next morning the first thing he said to me was "dream was scary mom...really scary". I didn't think they remembered their dreams but apparently Easton did and all he says now is dream was scary....poor guy.

Ace is loving actual real food. He has such strong chompers that it makes me nervous giving him real people food since he can chomp them off in big pieces. He's tried so far..string cheese, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, green beans, pizza, scrambled eggs, banana's, apples, peaches, spaghetti, chicken, steak and pork...he really liked the corn on the cob. He tends to gag on everything which i think is normal but it still makes me so nervous. Easton was a choker when he started real food...i am almost certain Ace will be a choker as well.

Ace sleeping through the night finally

Finally after 6 months Ace has started sleeping through the night. Jesse and I have had several ruff nights having to get up multiple times during the night to feed Ace or console him if he woke up and wasn't able to get back to sleep. Since i am still nursing i'm mainly the one that has to get up with Ace. He is taking a bottle really well and is on formula so Jesse is able to get up with him as well if need be. It's been a while since i've had a complete nights rest. So it's been nice to be able to put him down around 8:30/9 and have him sleep until 7am. Easton was the same way...seems like when 6 months hit he was sleeping through the night as well. Wonder what it is with the whole 6 month time frame. Just thankful now that both Jesse and I are able to actually get a full nights rest.

Mini getaway trip for Jesse and I to Boston/New Hampshire/Maine 2013

Amazingly enough....Jesse actually won an all expense paid trip for him and a guest to attend the Loudon New Hampshire Nascar Race. Interstate Batteries sponsors Kyle Bush and the Interstate car. Jesse had put his name in months before and two people from the company get picked to go to every race the Interstate car races in. I was actually really shocked when he called and told me he had been picked. Interstate only pays for his way there, hotel and food..the other party has to purchase their own plane tickets/hotel and food. I definitely wasn't going to pass this trip up. I'm sure Johan would have enjoyed going to the race more than I would have and plus it fell over his birthday weekend but the wife gets first dibs on going...lol...

Interstate arranged all our hotel stay while in Loudon and purchased our plane tickets. I researched and found the best deal on the plane tickets and just gave Andrew (head of marketing) the flight numbers and such. We decided to fly out of Omaha since my sister agreed to watch the boys while we were gone and meeting in Onawa is half way for both of us. Little did I realize that we were only 30 minutes from Sioux City and should have flown out of Sioux City so we wouldn't of had another 1 hour drive back to Omaha. Everything worked out great though with the way it was set up. Jesse and I met my sister and mom in Onawa on Saturday July 13th at 9am. Our flight was suppose to take off around 1 so we wanted to be back on the road no later than 10 to make it to Omaha with enough time. We got all the boys dropped off and all their stuff. I had started telling Easton a week before that he was going to grandma's house and was going to get to ride in the tractor and see the cows..he was super excited and had no problems going with Michelle and Mom.

 Jesse and I headed back to Omaha and got our luggage checked and found our gate. Come to find out after sitting there and realizing we should have been boarding/taking off when we figured out our flight was delayed to mechanical issues. Since our first flight was delayed..that means we would miss our connecting flight in MN. We were not happy since we were suppose to be getting into Boston around 7 already and having to get the rental car and another 1 drive to our hotel. With our flight delayed that would put us in Boston even later. Luckily we were able to get on the next flight to Boston out of MN. We had a couple hour layover in MN which wasn't all that bad. The flight itself wasn't horrible. We finally arrived in Boston around 11pm...got our luggage which thankfully didnt' get lost...headed to the rental area...got all that squared away and finally was on our way to our hotel. Little did we know that Boston has several tunnels and such and our GPS wouldn't work. It was not a fun and smooth time trying to find our way out of Boston. Between being super tired and knowing we wouldn't get to our hotel till after 1am and then having to be up at 4am to be ready by 5am...it just wasn't fun. We finally got it figured out and GPS running and actually found the hotel that was set up for us in Bow New Hampshire. Morning was about to come super early.

Sunday July 14th - Going on no sleep and super tired made it for a long morning. We met the crew in the hotel lobby around 5:15...got some instructions and then followed everyone to the actual nascar track. Our duties were to hang banners/posters up in the hospitality tent and then to hand out hats and goodie bags to everyone that was invited to the Interstate tent. I ended up getting to know Jesse's co-worker Dustins girlfriend pretty well. She seemed really nice. We mainly worked together for the most part. The Dallas girls were not that friendly at all it seemed. The morning went by fast. We got everything hung up and looking good. It was around 8:30 when people started to arrive. I had to pump so i chose to pump in the restroom while we were waiting around. It wasn't the cleanest thing to do but it got the job done. Pumping is sure going to be a challenge on this trip. I almost thought about giving up nursing but then decided against it since I still enjoyed that bonding time with Ace....anyways.....back to the race.....It was amazing how many crazy people showed up at the tent. We were thinking to ourselves..how do these people get invited. They are crazy hillbillies..lol...Kyle Bush did end up showing up and talking as well as the owner of the Interstate Car. We never got to meet him or get an autograph but that's ok. Jesse isn't a fan of Kyle Bush anyways. Overall the morning was fun. We got tired and it was kind of hot out. Around 12:30 we finally started cleaning up and taking down the banners/posters. I held on to some pendants since Easton's theme for his birthday party is going to be nascar. Thought they'd look good for his party. Around 1:00 we were done and the race was about to start. We all headed down to the grandstands and found our seats. It was so unbearably hot outside and with sitting on metal bleachers and with the asphalt it was crazy hot. Since we were so tired Jesse and I ended up only staying till lap 75 out of 300. Someone had also told him that if you stay till the end it takes about 3-4 hours of sitting in traffic just to get out. We surely didn't want to endure that since we were both so tired. After we left the race and found our way back to the hotel we ended up taking a 3-4 hour nap and then going to dinner in Concord New Hampshire. The food was really good actually. We got to talking at the table and realized that we were only an hour or so away from Maine. I have always wanted to go to Maine. It's beautiful up there. We got some advise on what towns/beaches to visit and did our research back at the hotel. Thankfully we were looking forward to sleeping in on Monday morning since we didn't get much sleep at all yet.

Monday, July 15th
Jesse and I actually got to sleep in this morning. It felt so nice. Even though we didn't sleep in long since we had planned to travel to Maine for the day we still got a little extra sleep. Driving to Maine was a breeze. It only took us an hour to get to where we had planned to go. Our waiter at the restraurant gave us several options on the best beaches in Maine to go and see. We finally chose York Beach in Maine. It had an actual beach and it had the worlds most photographed light house. Maine and New Hampshire have so many toll roads it's unbelievable. We ended up missing a toll road on the way there so i'm sure we'll end up getting a ticket in the mail sometime soon. HOpefully not. Maine was absolutely gorgeous. The light house was breath taking. The beaches were awesome. The sand was so different. YOu didn't sink when you walked on the sand..it was hard but still sand. There were so many people there it was crazy. I could have stayed on the beach forever but we had an agenda for the day so we could only visit for a couple of hours. I would so go back again and have always wanted to go to Maine so I was thankful that Jesse agreed to driving an hour and going and visiting Maine at least. At least we can say we have been to Maine. We decided to leave around noon. Our afternoon was packed with other places to visit in Boston.We toured the USS Constitution which was neat, walked some of the Freedom Trail, climbed 300 stairs up the Bunker Hill Monument. I barely made it up that since we had been going all morning and we hadn't eaten anything. It did have a magnificent view though. Too bad we couldn't stay up there longer..it was just too hot and way too many people. The climb back down was better. After doing all that we proceeded to get on the fairy and head downtown. Once we were downtown we got stopped by the street performers. Crazy enough Jesse and I both got picked to be part of their street forming acts and even got it on video. Pretty cool stuff. They definitely are some pretty talented individuals. Around dinner time we decided to head back to our hotel. Billy was picking us up after he got off work to take us to his house wo we could see Julie and the kids. We had a fun time getting together for a couple of hours. We didn't end up leaving till around 11 which put us back at the hotel around 11:30. Thankfully we have another full day here in Boston and we get to sleep in again


Tuesday, July 16th.
Billy took some of the day off so he could show us around Boston alittle. Basically the day was spent was walking around and going to different pubs and having a beer at each one. I of course didn't have a beer at each pub. The boys took a picture every time we visited a new pub and sent it to Johan to make him jealous. It actually was pretty funny. Billy took us around Harvard, we got to experience the sub way system, visited the CHEERS bar and got to walk around downtown Boston. After touring Boston Billy took us to their favorite sushi spot where we had some amazing sushi..so much better than Iowa's any day. I was in heaven. We had a great day but it was really exhausting after we were done. We ended up basically relaxing the rest of the night. It ended up raining so there wasn't much to do anyways and the fairy shuts down at 8 so we wouldn't of been able to get back to our hotel even if we had wanted to go out and do something.

Wednesday, July 17th.
Had to get up around 2:30 to make it to the airport since our flight was leaving around 6:00am. Tiring day forsure. I was so excited to get back to the boys. Apparently the boys did great at Aunt Michelle's and grandmas house. Ace even slept all through the night all nights he was there...man..wish he'd do that for us when we're home. I'm glad the boys were well behaved and had fun. When we got into Omaha we drove back to Onawa and met them. Easton of course didn't want to leave at first. Cried even because he wanted to go back home with Miley. Poor guy..he just loves the farm so much. The drive back was aweful. We were both so exhausted. Luckily we got home in one piece and the boys did great on the travels back. It was so good to see them both. I actually did pretty well being away from Ace the whole time. I definitely slacked on my pumping and hopefully that didn't hinder my production in any ways.

Overall the trip was well worth every penny. It was good to get away with just Jesse and enjoy getting to see new things we haven't seen before.

Ace - 6 Months

ACE 6 MONTHS

Ace 6-7 months. July 11 - August 11

     1.) 7/13-7/17 - first time away from mom and dad. Met Aunt Michelle and Grandma at Onawa so mommy and daddy could go on their Boston trip that daddy won. Ace did absolutely great. Slept through the night every night. Girls fought over him. Michelle and Grandma didn't have much of a chance to hold him
     2.) 7/18 - Visited Julie and Johan's new house
     3.) 7/20 - Abrams 1 year birthday party - Easton gave everyone a show by undressing down to nothing
     4.) 7/21 - First time doing baby led weaning. Tried avocado's and string cheese. Ace has some strong chompers because he would constantly bite huge chucks off. Did very well for the first time
     5.) 7/23 - Slept the whole night
     6.) 7/25 - 6 month pictures with the help of Jill - Ace did great
     7.) 7/26 - Daddy duty while mommy attended Britts party. Ended up going to bed early due to crying all night long
     8.) 7/27 - first time trying scrambled eggs - loved them
     9.) 7/28 - Indianola fair for family night
   10.) 7/30 - 6th month check up with Dr Owens. Doing great. Weighted 15lbs 6oz and was 26.9 inches long. 8% for weight and 48% for height. Dr said you're able to start on meats.
11.) 8/02 - Ace loved trying steak and potatoes at Johan and Julies house. Easton's first day of potty training
12.) 8/04 - Henningson family reunion in Denison. Visited Yellowstone park and took pictures of the boys and played in the water with Grandma and Paige
13.) 8/05 - Ace tried sweet corn, potatoes and chicken..absolutely loved sweet corn
14.) 8/08 - Ace's first cold - horribly fussy at daycare. poor guy
15.) 8/10 - Blank Parks Zoo and splash pad with Steph and Abram. Both boys had a good time playing with Abram. Ran into sister and her family at the zoo

Sleeping Patterns: Finally sleeping through the night. Morning naps around 3 hours and then cat naps in the afternoon. Ready for a nap around 5:30-7 and then bedtime from 8:30-7am.
Feeding Schedule: table foods at night and all formula and baby food during the day - loves table food
Sounds and Motions: crawling everywhere..talks non stop...loves screaming
Likes: pulling mommies hair, grabbing faces, crawling to toys, banging head against crib or doors, stroller rides from brother, when fussy loves it when mommy sings to you
Dislikes: being tired and mommy leaving the room
Favorite toys: sucking on match box cars...the jumper
Learning: spit food out at mommy when being fed, speed crawling, recognizing his name

Golfing

Since Jesse has been working for Interstate batteries he is able to schedule times at Beaver Creek Golf Course for free. He can take one guest and golf either 9 holes or 18. This weekend he decided to take me golfing. I of couse haven't golfed since high school. I had to borrower Julies golf clubs. We were able to get Julie and Johan to babysit. Overall we had a good time. It was so hot outside though so that made it a little unbearing to say the least. I of course sucked at golfing and could barely hit the ball. I did seem to get better as the day went on. We ended up only golfing 9 holes and did one or two on the other course just because Jesse hadn't been on that course before. Jesse did pretty good considering he's been golfing several times already.

Daddy Duty

Well since Vicky decided to take the day after the 4th of July off and I wasn't able to take off work since so many people were off work already..it was up to Jesse to play daddy for the entire day. He's only been alone with both boys for a couple of hours at a time..not a whole day. Luckily both boys slept in till 9:30 since we had such a late night the night before. Apparently both boys did wonderful for him. Both napped and weren't all that fussy. He was even able to get dinner on the table..I could get used to that :). He did a great job with both boys and I knew he could do it.

4th of July 2013

For the 4th of July a bunch of us got together (Katie/Luke, Glen/Sara, Johan/Julie) Wednesday night the 3rd and hung out in the parking lot of a school while we waited for Altoona's fireworks to start. We grilled and did some fireworks. Had a lot of fun. Easton this year actually got into doing sparklers and the little snakes. Couldn't do much else with fireworks since we were in city limits and it's against the law in Iowa. Ace did really well with not being that fussy and also did well with the noise of the fireworks. Had a great time with friends. Easton also enjoyed staying up way past his bedtime. He was still going strong at 11:30 when we finally got home.

For the 4th the boys and I joined my sister in Indianola and swam at the aquatics center and also attended Indianola's 4th of July celebration. Jesse joined us later for dinner and the fireworks. Indianola definitely has a great fireworks production and they also lit up some hot air balloons..had bouncy houses and food. Definitely a good time. I'm sure we will be attending that every year hopefully since it was such a good time and the boys loved it.