Kirtland

This weekend, Ben and I were chaperones for our stake's Youth Conference, which took place in Kirtland, OH. It was great. It was the first time I had spent a night away from Henry, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't even cry once. It helped that he didn't even seem to notice I was gone. Ben and I got to spend a lot of one-on-one time together, which doesn't happen very often. It was like a really long date, where we had 6 teenagers to take care of and slept in separate rooms.

We spent most of the time at Youth Conference touring church history sites. We went to historic Kirtland and were shown around the different buildings, like the Newel K. Whitney store. Seeing all of these buildings that I've learned about (mostly in seminary) made everything a bit more applicable. And it's really quite an experience to be able to walk where the prophet walked, and see spots where Heavenly Father and Jesus came to speak to our church's early leaders.

We also visited two farms, the Morley farm and the Johnson farm. My favorite site of the weekend was the Johnson farm. It was beautiful and encouraged my (our) dream of ditching the city and buying a farm.

Our tour guide for the Johnson farm was great (much better than our grumpy tour guide in Kirtland who got mad if you so much as brushed against the wall). He knew a lot, and he and Ben were even twinners.

I'm kind of a history nerd, so I really like visiting old homes and seeing how people in the 1800's got along without all the stuff we have. I'm always blown away at how clever people were, and I often find myself wishing we didn't have so many excessive things. Though I do appreciate not having to do laundry by hand (been there, done that) or spend all day cooking dinner.

 The best part of the entire weekend, in my opinion, was getting to see the Kirtland temple. We went on a tour through it on Sunday and then got to come back and have sacrament meeting there. Most of the meeting was the youth sharing their testimonies. We finished by singing the Spirit of God, which for those of you who don't know, is the hymn that was written for and sung at the dedication of this temple. It was an amazingly powerful experience, one that I know I will always remember.

18 months!

My buddy is 18 months. I hope you're sitting in a comfortable chair, because we have a lot of photos documenting this adorable kid. And you're only seeing a small fraction.

He's trying to give up his nap already, but he's not quite ready. He'll go a few days without one and then just crash.

He talks all of the time, which most people don't realize because he's shy. Most of it's babble, but he has a few words. Of course there's "dog", which really applies to every animal and sometimes cars. He can wave and say "die die", which he does whenever he wants to go outside or explore by himself. He can also say "doll" (ball), "shoe" and "daaaaaaa!" (dad). Plus we taught him to sign "more", though he's transformed it to mean "please". It's really helpful and has cut down on some of his frustration.

He absolutely loves to play catch. And he's good at it too, he can throw pretty far and catch the ball.

He has a really cute way of running. He kind of revs up, like he's going to take off in flight.

He always has something in his hands. Random objects, like the stick and doorknob pictured here. Every time we go outside, he finds a stick right away. Then he usually upgrades for a longer or thicker stick throughout the walk. Other current favorites are pens, markers, crayons, legos, cups, remotes, and screwdrivers.

He is very affectionate. He loves to give hugs and kisses and will do so upon request. One of my favorite things is to have him wrap his arms around my neck. It makes me feel like a mom.

He loves to fly.

 

He has a very charming smile for the camera.

He loves to dance. This consists mostly of twirling and stamping his feet, but he'll dance any time music is on and he likes to perform for Albee, usually while singing.

He always finds hills and will run up and down them repeatedly. He's getting good too, he can hit a pretty high speed before he tumbles over. I tried teaching him to roll down a hill, but he didn't care for that.

He almost always has something specific in mind that he wants to do. He'll take my hand and lead me to a certain toy, or push me down on the floor so he can climb on me, or hand me a book so we can read together. He is very busy.

I just love this kid.

No really, look how cute he is.

Photo Friday

Happy

Do you ever have those moments where you stop and think, this is what happy is? I've been having a lot of those lately. I love my little family. In the past week, Ben made dinner five nights in a row. And then sometimes he'd even clean up the kitchen afterward. I started to feel bad after awhile, but things just happened that way, where I was doing something else or there was a recipe that Ben wanted to try. I love that he cooks, and that he's good at it. He's just really thoughtful.

Henry is getting so interactive. He understands a lot and responds when we ask him questions. We've even finally got him doing a couple of signs. He also runs into the room any time he hears music and starts dancing. One of my favorite things he does is when I tell him "I love you," he gives me a kiss in response.

One of his favorite things to do is read. I often walk in to a room to find him sitting on the floor, surrounded by pillows, holding a book. He likes to drag Ben or me down on to the floor with him too.

He pulls those pillows down off the couch by himself before he lays down. I find that quite funny.

They're even accidentally matching. Can you see the resemblance?

He's also started snuggling with this stuffed bear that my Nana bought for him. He carries it around his room before bedtime.

Yum

If there is one passion that Ben and I share, it is all things culinary. It's a dream of ours to become foodies/master chefs. I'm not sure when it started, but for as long as I can remember, we have been trying new recipes at home and exploring new menu items at restaurants. We've tried snake, crocodile, bone marrow, and quite a few other "unusual" foods. But for us, it's not just the excitement of something weird that draws us--we like to examine new flavors. We often try to recreate dishes we've had, and quite frequently when either one of us cooks, it's completely experimental.

For my Mother's Day present, we picked out a variety of herbs at Eastern Market, and I planted them in a pot today. I'm really excited--I already have the beginnings of about a half a dozen meals planned out in my head. But I'm kind of a nerd about it; I read up on each herb's requirements for water/light/soil and I planned everything out before I planted it. My goal is to one day be able to recognize every culinary herb by sight and smell. I told you, I want to be a foodie. Not to make a career out of it, just to fully appreciate food and all the potential flavors your mouth can experience. I get excited just thinking about it. We definitely don't just eat to survive over here.

Three

Happy anniversary to my sweetie pie. I couldn't have imagined a better guy myself. And I think we look even better now than we did three years ago.

See it for yourself

Forgive the shakiness of the camera--I was trying to film Henry while pushing a stroller and holding a leash and walking backwards. But it sure is a cute video.