Henry and That Head of Hair

5 times I have cut this kid's hair.  I would like to put on the record he's not even 5 months old, and I didn't start cutting it till he was almost a month old.  He's just got a lot of hair and it grows fast.  He gets that from both of his parents.  But I mean look at that face!  I'm so thankful that he can sit in his bumbo seat now.  It made it a lot easier to cut tonight and it went a lot faster.

Yes, I use clippers on his head.  I'm aware he's still very young, but it's the easiest way and I go very gently.  I cut it with scissors the first couple times, but it took forever and he doesn't sit still.  

This baby loves a good hair cut and a bath LOL.  He just entertains me!

Pumpkin Carving!!

We're a little late with the pumpkin carving this year, but we still had a good time.  Paige helped a little but as you can tell Daddy did most of the work.

Woody made an appearance again this year.  That is the pumpkin Mom helps with!

Here was Rob trying to get Paige to just get in there and dig out the insides.  

She did it!!  She grabbed a whole handful of the good stuff!

I just realized that I didn't take a picture of the final project.  I was cooking supper when they finished up things up.

Let's Go State

So the sweetest man from Rick and Gail's church sent us four kids to the Iowa State game on Saturday with his season tickets!  He asked the boys after Grace's funeral if we wanted to go.  I was then informed Rick and Gail were babysitting all 4 kids and the parents were off to the game.  It was so fun to spend some time with Ryan and Kristin with no kids.  We were supposed to be in Chicago this weekend but obviously didn't make it.  The four of us had a lot of fun tailgating. 

Kristin and I doing what we do best!

Ryan and I had a debated on which chips were better with your AE dip.

Our self portrait of the four of us!  This was before our rumchata shots!

We even ran into some great friends!

The game was terrible so Kristin and I started getting bored :)

This is how Kristin and I were using our phones since we had mittens on.  Yes I'm aware I don't have them on in this picture, but trust me I had them on all game.

Just some sisters sharing a diet coke.

Thank you Rick and Gail for watching the kids.  We had so much fun.  We all learned we're not as young as we used to be.  Ryan and I both fell asleep in the backseat of their van on the way home.  But we had a great time.  Then we all went home and watched the world series.  What a crazy series this has been.

Henry says, "GO CARDS!" No we didn't buy him a hat, that is Rob's from when he was little, but it fits perfectly!

Time Home With Family

Well we spent a lot of time in Newton over this past week.  Sadly Rob's Grandma Hartz passed away last week Sunday.  It was a sad but thankful moment for all of us.  Grace had a stroke 4 years ago almost when I was pregnant with Paigey.  She never got back to normal and didn't like her new way of life in a nursing home.  Last week she had another stroke and this time her body wasn't strong enough to win the battle.  But we know she's in a much happier place.

While we were home we spent a lot of time with Grandpa Hartz.  Henry was amazing through all of this.  He just let Grandpa cuddle on him for a long time.  I got some amazing pictures of them together.

Thank you to everyone for your messages and emails.  We appreciated all of them.

Henry Post!

Realized I have some new pictures of Henry that I thought I would pass on.  We moved him to a big boy car seat which means he rides in carts like a big boy!!  That hat just kills me!

Grandma Chapman this next picture is for you!  It's Henry's first Michigan shirt!

It's that time again!  I'm officially making baby food again.  Gail made our first batch since we used squash from her garden.  Today I made carrots so that we can add some variety.  This is one thing I love doing for my kids.  I even got a fun new toy that I can put my homemade baby food into those fancy pouches you see everywhere.  Fun times!!

This little boy!  He's just amazing!!

We started baby food!  Here Henry is trying squash for the first time ever.  So funny the difference between him and Paige.  Paige gave us a look like WHAT WAS THAT!  Henry is like FINALLY something with flavor!

Big sister is doing great too!  I realize I don't have very many pictures of her lately.  She's a lot harder to pin down.  Hope everyone is well!

Busy Busy Hartz's

Hey everyone!  How much did everyone love Rob's blog?  He had so much fun that day.  Paige is still talking about it.  Everyone at my office loves it when Paigey comes to visit.  She's so funny in the photo studio and likes to give the photographers a lot of sass.

Our life continues to be busy.  I'm working a lot but doing my best to balance working, being a mom, and being a wife.  But I have an amazing husband who helps me out so much and keeps our house going.  We've been off and running around our house.

We started a new tradition in our house.  We're doing Friday night movie night.  Daddy picks up pizza on the way home and I get the kiddos.  We all go to the basement eat and watch a movie.  It's so much fun!  As you can see from the picture Henry usually falls asleep.  It's been a fun thing to start.

We're trying to get in as much fishing as we can before it gets too cold.  Paige is getting more and more gutsy with the fish.  We finally got her to pet one before we thew it back.  She's really into measuring every fish that comes out.  Lucky for her we caught a lot of bass that Papa and Daddy wanted to measure.  This is Paige being our fishing assistant.  She's a pretty good one!

Henry is obsessed with his toy gym.  We're so thankful for that!  It keeps him busy.  But he is trying out his exersaucer and LOVING it.

Rob and I got a date night!  Rick and Gail watched our kids so we could go to Des Moines and go out to dinner.  It was so much fun!  It was nice to go out alone to dinner.  Of course our date ended with us at Target buying diapers.  Oh the life of a parent.

The other night Henry was a little fussy.  I was in his room with him rocking trying to get him to settle down and he just couldn't get comfortable.  Rob came in and I said maybe we should read to him.  So Rob sat down and started reading.  The next picture absolutely melts my heart.  I walked out and came back to see this little man sitting with his daddy all smiles.  Rob read him 6 books that night while Paige and I ran errands.

Last little update!  We took the kids to the doctor on Thursday.  Paige got a flu mist and did pretty well.  Henry had a 4 month check up.  I almost died when they put him on the scale.  So I was guessing he was going to be 18-18.5 lbs, obviously we know he's a big dude.  So they put him on the scale and he was 19 lbs 11 oz!!  He is 27 1/4".  That is the 99th percentile for EVERYTHING.  The doctor talked to us about starting cereal and baby food.  Oh how I can't believe we're already to that point!!  I told her I was worried about how big he was.  She told me to knock it off because he's equally big.  She looked at Henry and said I'm going to watch you play football someday.  So I guess I don't need to be worried.  I mean it's pretty easy to forget being worried about all of it when you have this little man smiling at you everyday!

I don't know when my kids got so big.  Henry is sitting in a bumbo playing with toys now.  We went on a walk as a family tonight and Paige and I had a full on conversation.  We just walked and talked.  It reminded me of all the times I would go walk with my mom and just talk to her about everything.  I hope this continues for the rest of my life.

But he's doing great with cereal!

Hope everyone is doing well.  We're still trucking along.  There will be a lot of blogs coming up.  We've got pumpkin patch coming up, carving pumpkins, a trip to Chicago, and Halloween!  Keep you all updated!

Field trip with Paige - by Rob

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to join Paige's pre-school class on a field trip to the apple orchard.  I agreed to go and had no idea what I was getting myself into!  I decided to meet the class at the orchard as Paigey decided she wanted to ride in the big van with all of her friends.  I got to the orchard a few minutes before the van arrived, but I could hear Paigey yelling "Daddy!" the second the van pulled in.  As I expected, I was one of 2 dad's on the trip but the other mom's were great.  The staff at the orchard were great.  We had our own host that showed us around and kept the kids entertained the whole time.  Below is the first attempt at a class picture.  The kids seemed really excited to take the picture....

The rest of the time we spent looking at the goats, going on a hay rack ride, and play on my arch nemesis - the "pillow".  Half way through the hay rack ride Paige was asking if we were done yet and pretty much every kid agreed.  Apparently riding around in an empty pumpkin field with painted pictures of animals isn't very interesting... Who knew?

Paigey and her friends checking out the animals.

Dad making his best attempt at a self portrait.

Apple tasting time!  Paige ate all of her's and some of mine.  That kid loves apples!

This is my nightmare.  We have been to this orchard once before.  Paige really wanted to play on this large "pillow".  All I remember from last time is Paige crying because she couldn't get up the pillow and then crying when she couldn't stand up.  I quickly jumped on to "save" her and ended up being bombarded by little kids and ended up on the ground more than Paige.  This time around I was smart enough to let the teachers climb on.  The kids had a blast and Paige was only crying because she was laughing so hard!

At the end of the trip, we had to go to the store to get their famous cider donuts.  Paige was tired so her and her friend Fenley decided to park it on some hay bales.  Fenley has been with Paige since they were babies and she is just a doll.

The last attempt at a class picture.  The first set were great until we realized we were missing a kid.  No big deal right?

Paige wouldn't let me leave until I took her picture of her in "old people" clothes.

After we were done with the field trip I surprised Paige and drove her home with me.  The rest of the day was just Paigey and Daddy time.  After nap time (for both of us) we headed to one of her favorite parks.  Of course she got bored because all of the other kids were in school.  Apparently Dad is only cool by himself for a little bit.

Who doesn't love the wind in their hair?

She loves this slide.

So how did we end this awesome day?  Well by getting some frozen yogurt!  Paige always ends up with more fruit than yogurt, but I'm not complaining.  We talked to Mom on the phone for a little bit and decided she needed some yogurt too so we ran down to her work and brought her some.  Paige loves visiting Mommy at work and everyone their adores her.  All in all it was a great experience for me and one I will never forget.  I'm sure there will be more field trips for me in the future and I can't wait!  

This was my first blog ever and it only makes me appreciate what Nikki does even more!