Henry turns 8!!

Look at this guy...

On the left is little Henry just before he turned 1 when we were living in Germany. On the right, is Henry today, having a very happy 8th birthday.



Darin grew up with the tradition of a birthday celebration first thing in the morning. This is fun and great, if you love the morning. It just so happens that Henry is more me than Darin in terms of his feelings about the morning. Last night he specifically asked if we not wake him up early on his birthday. He said he would prefer to sleep in and open his presents after Darin came home from work. I think Darin was a little disappointed, but Henry seemed happy.

Of course, George and Darin share the same feelings about the morning. I heard George running upstairs at 6:30am to see if indeed we had wrapped any of Henry's presents. And then I heard him thundering down the stairs to tell Henry to wake up. So much for letting him sleep in!

Henry decided opening two presents without Darin wouldn't be so bad.

Then when Darin came home in the evening, he was more than ready to open everything up. Of course I am sharing the pictures of the presents I was most excited about. His first set of personalized scriptures.

And his very own personalized William-Sonoma apron. These were the things I most wanted to get him. They weren't at the top of his list. But as you can see, he's a good sport.

Anyway, it was a happy day around here. Somehow, many weeks ago, Henry got me to agree that he could skip school on his birthday. He reminded me of that every single day last week. It's almost what he was most excited about. A day off of school, for no other reason than to have fun. He got to play video games and stay in his pj's until about 11. Then we went to the mall to shop with his money from Grandma and Grandpa Z (he found a new game for the Wii). Then we played glow in the dark mini-golf, with Jane and Ruby. I have to admit it was fun. We even went for dessert in the middle of the afternoon. All the while he kept asking me if he would still normally be at school.

So a tribute to my first born son. My very first "raison-d'etre"; Our "first born in the wilderness"; Our own personal guinea pig to test out all of our fantastic theories on parenting. He is so good and so kind and so darn conscientious. I couldn't love him more or be more proud of who he is. This is a special birthday. He will get baptized in a few weeks and all of his grandparents will be there to watch him. Happy birthday Henry. You've given us much joy in these past 8 years. Here's to hundreds more...

P.S. (you know how I feel about that!)...

Ruby and this skirt have been inseparable for going on 36 hours now. Darin put her to bed last night and couldn't convince her to leave the skirt off. So when she woke up this morning with the skirt still on, she was over-joyed. I convinced her to put some clothes on (since the skirt is see-through), but the skirt goes on top of anything that she has had on today. She wore it to the mall, mini-golfing, to take her nap, out to dinner at CPK, and then again, back to bed.

Here are the girls looking all-together pleased. They had already been put to bed, but they heard the rest of us still awake, so Jane sprung Ruby (She gets locked in her room. Don't ask!), and together they came walking down the stairs. Ruby announced that she was all done with her "pacie" and ready to wake-up. When Jane saw the camera she threw her arm around Ruby and said "cheese". Hard to be mad when they look like that, but I was trying to be. (And yes, cousin Lisa, they are sporting different hairdos. I'm trying to grow Jane's bangs out, and keep trimming Ruby's. Just trying to help people tell them apart.)

And now, the longest post ever must sadly come to an end. Good night!