Holiday Fun in the Lou

Every year, we head to St. Louis for Christmas a few days early. This affords us the opportunity to catch up with a number of friends who live in town, as well as those coming into town from around the country. On the Thurs. before Christmas, we went over to our friend Heidi's parent's home to visit. As you can see in the picture below, Aunt Hues came to STL with a toy for Henry, which immediately endeared him to her :) The highlight for Henry had to have been when he stumbled upon a large inflatable exercise ball that I guess Heidi was using to do her morning jazzercize routines. Anyways, Henry loved pushing that ball all over Nancy's house!

Aunt Hues with H Bo

On Christmas Eve, Laura and all her high school friends got together for lunch. Henry and Jack, April's son, got passed around amongst all the women of course!


P-South!



Two brothers from different mothers



On Friday, we went with the Andersons to the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour. In addition, Jen's friend Meg*** was also in town and went with us. Henry particularly loved getting into a truck that was on display in the lobby. While he was in it, he simultaneously would goat the other tour patrons to come up to the truck to 'fist bump' him. On the tour, Henry only really cared about 1) the Clydesdales, 2) the dalmations in the Clydesdale's stable, and 3) running from person to person trying to give fist bumps while the guide told us about the barley, malt, and yeast that went into the AB beers! If you can't tell, giving fist bumps is one of H Bo's favorite things (he has even taught everyone in his daycare how to fist bump).

***While in town through Christmas Eve, Meg certainly did her best to make a run for the title of 'Henry's girlfriend.' She watched cartoons on the couch with him, made him meals, and bought him a present. It was noted that Emily (current title-holder) did none of this. :)

Henry's favorite thing



Grandma and Grandpa A with the little guy

Plaza Lights

It is a KC tradition that the city flips the switch on the Plaza Christmas lights on Thanksgiving night as part of a large party. After our Thanksgiving dinner with the Andersons and Grandpa Bogart, we all decided to head down to take in the festivities. Henry didn't get too into it, other than when the fireworks started to go off. There were also a number of small kids in attendance for Henry to gawk at. As expected, for about 95% of the time we were there, no one but Grandpa Bogart was allowed to hold Henry. The other 5% of the time was only because Grandpa's shoulders would finally need a break! Henry would just cry until Grandpa could take him back. In fact, it got so ridiculous, that when we tried to take pictures with Henry, Grandpa B had to either stand behind the camera, or hide from Henry's sight!


Ready to go - sorry about the hat!!!

 

Yes, Grandpa Bogart is over the cameraman's left shoulder!



This was the embodiment of the night

Grandpa A and H Bo watching the fireworks.

Fall Fun

 This past fall, we all packed up and went to St. Louis. While we were there, we went by Forest Park to take some shots of Henry playing in the leaves. Here are a few of our favorite ones!

One Year Photo Shoot

Henry's one year photo shoot in Forest Park didn't go exactly as planned.  It was hot and humid day in August and it rained on us, but somehow Stephen managed to get some amazing shots of our little guy!  Note there are no pics of mom & dad,  Laura's hair doesn't handle humidity all too well so those shots will never see the light of day. :) As you can see, Henry wasn't real into his birthday cake.  I don't think any of it actually made it into his mouth! 

Halloween (written by the regular author)

After bestowing the honor of 'blog scribe' on the last post's guest writer, and seeing the lies that came out of that post, I have taken back all script duties. Not to spend too much time on last week's garbage post, but it should be noted that Henry is now regularly putting on his dad's KC ROYALS hat (not his Cardinals cap that his mom forces in his face every 5 minutes :) ). Additionally, Henry will attend no less than 15 Royals games/year as he grows up, and maybe one Cardinals game. So I will let you the reader make the decision as to what team Henry will be a fan of! If I were you, I would equate the 'guest post' to that of reading the National Enquirer.

On to this post. Laura and Aunt Jen made the decision that Henry would be a spider, and Bella would be a squirrel (since she loves to chase/cry/bark at them). On the Saturday before Halloween, we took Henry over to our friends the Lorei's for their annual Halloween bash. Henry's buddy Jack was there, and came as a very scary tiger! Henry loved the cookies Ashely had made, taking down three before dad decided that he had had enough night time sugar.

Watch out for this tiger and spider!

Henry's spider head was short lived!

 On Halloween, Laura and Aunt Jen got the 'kids' dressed, and took them over to Laura's friend Elizabeth's house for a party, while Reggie and Grandpa Bogart went to the Chiefs game. Laura loaded up Bella and Henry into his two-seater wagon, and they headed off to the party five blocks away. Henry loved his costume, and got a kick out of using the spider legs as his clubs to hit on stuff, including Bella. Bella was so dejected, she didn't even move when Henry hit her. Talk about some serious depression! Henry also loved getting candy. He hasn't grasped fully how it all works - he kept trying to eat it with the wrapper on :)

Bella: "Oh gosh, here we go again"
Henry: "You look weird Bella"

Our family - Bella hates life

Henry and Ned - Ned went as the car from Dumb and Dumber!

Time to find some candy

How much longer to I have to wear this

Here Bella, have this Apple Crusher - You'll feel better!

Henry's team wins the WORLD SERIES!!!!!

Back in the Lou soaking in 11 in 11!!!!!!!

 As many of you know we are a house divided, mom a Cardinals fan, dad a Royals fan.  So we left the decision up to Henry as to which team he would call his own.  The choice was obvious to him go with a winning organization full of rich tradition and the best fans in baseball or the Royals.  Henry wasn't around the last time the Cards won the world series but he thinks it's super cool that they won the night before mom and dad's wedding!!!! He's looking forward to a life time of games at Busch stadium and hopes to meet Fredbird and the Clydesdales one day soon.

Cheering the Redbirds on to victory in Game 7!!!

Jack & Henry- a new generation of Cards fans!!!

Say good-bye to the Wendy's Girl- First Haircut

After 14 months, Henry's hair had finally gotten too long around the sides and back. Reggie and Laura had started to liken him to how the Wendy's girl looks from the back! Laura's girlfriend Elizabeth offered to cut little Henry's hair, so we took her up on it! Afterwards, he really looked like a big boy! Thanks Elizabeth!!!!

What are you doing back there!?!

Make sure you blend it just right. I don't want a bowl cut!

New and improved!!!