5 year old in the house!!!

We celebrated our Henry's 5th birthday in June...the 14th....wow! Just like we all say, its flown by. What a remarkable kid he is. Loving, sincere, honest, dependable, fun-loving, silly, INQUSITIVE, and thoughtful are all words I'd use to describe him. I am amazed at the difference a year makes in a child and what they are capable of and are ready for. He's become much more adventurous this year and has really built his confidence in trying new things. He's more thoughtful than one just to jump in and try it...and that's ok! I see him as the voice of reason for his younger brother! God has blessed us with an amazingly, loving little boy that we are doing our best to train into a man who will love Him. I am so grateful that Henry has a heart that is responsive and already has a love for the Lord. When I think of my hopes and dreams for him, there are many, but the greatest is that he have a wonderfully real, exciting, adventurous relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ....all else will be handed to him, if he seeks first the kingdom of God.
How many hours did I rock this sweet tiny baby in my arms? How many times have I kissed his sweet face? How many times have I hugged his precious frame? How many times have I sung to him his special Henry song? The Lord only knows and I have enjoyed every single moment of it.
When I think of my life before him and how it has changed, I am amazed...My Jesus is who has changed me and my Henry was a catalyst for most of it. Children that you love do that to you, don't they? They make me search for what is real and what is lasting. Thank you Jesus for giving up your life, that I may have an abundant life NOW, here on this earth, with my husband, my children and my family and friends. I am so grateful.

In this first pic, I asked him to show me how excited he was for his birthday party that day....pretty excited, I'd say.

We had a rocket ship themed party...with rocket ship shaped invitations, jet packs, rocket shaped birthday cake, alien crafts and even an outer space room! Brent worked so hard on our basement, turning it into outer space. He built a rocket ship, hung stars from the ceiling, hung white streamers and put up black lights everwhere, so that it would all glow in the dark! The kids had a blast!!!!

Jet packs...so cute!

Here he is with many of his friends....

rocketship cake that was DELICIOUS.... Alison helped me make it!

I love having birthday parties...a focused day on each of the kids once a year isn't too indulgent and what great memories it builds. Each of their actual birth days were such a blessing to our family and we want to celebrate that!! HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY HENRY!

musings, by henry

well...I have a million and would probably have 10 million if I had written them all down...which my mom told me to do...of funny things that Henry has said. Why didn't I listen to my mother?!! Just wanted to share a couple of recent ones here. Henry is a funny, thoughtful guy and has somewhat of a flare for the dramatic. I don't have a clue where he gets that from (wink, wink).

He told my sister recently, with a very serious tone, "I have something serious and very true to tell you" and then he swung his arm in front of himself like someone on THE PRICE IS RIGHT, to direct our attention where he wanted us to look, and said "Tupelo ate all of the food off the table!" Yes, our dog had eaten all of the food off of the kitchen table. I fixed our plates and went out to get everyone from outside...when I came back in, the dog was almost on the table, finishing off the last plate! I was so angry at that dog!

Then the other morning we were eating breakfast...yogurt with granola and bluberries -yum, and he sneezed. "Mommy, I have have something SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny to tell you. I had yogurt in my mouth and I 'bless youed' and it came out of my nose when I 'bless youed'!" I love that he calls sneezing 'bless youing' and he has started this whole description thing when he wants to tell us something. He also must say to me one thousand times a day.."mommy, I need to tell you something"..and my reply, all one thousand times is "I am listening..."

More to come under the heading of 'musings, by henry'. I may even play catch up and plug some in as I remember...Mom, I wish I had listened to you.

Interesting Night...

Well, a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday night, Brent and I were just hanging out together after the boys were in bed. All of a sudden, we heard this scared, high pitched scream/cry from upstairs. We knew that it was Henry and thought he must have woken from a nightmare. He was already making his way down the stairs when I got to him. I asked him what was wrong and he could hardly answer me because he was so upset. Then he told me..."I swallowed a coin"..."you what?", I said!!! Again, he told me he swallowed a coin...( I love that he calls money coins...)

Brent and I weren't sure if he really did swallow a coin,or if he did indeed dream that he swallowed a coin. So, we began to ask him questions...are you sure? can you breathe? do you remember what the coin looked like? where did you get the coin? He could answer all of the questions without hestitation, so I knew that he was certain he did swallow one. He said he had his wallet in his bed and was playing with the coins... so I checked...sure enough, there it was.

I immediately was scared silly and so thankful that the coin didn't get stuck in his throat and we not know it...he had been in his bed for a while and we thought he was fast asleep! Thank you GOD for keeping him safe! I have to admit, I thought he was past doing something like that, but I guess I was wrong... he said "I wanted to see what it tasted like.."

So, off to the ER we went. We got there aroumd 9:30pm and sat in the waiting room for about 45 minutes (not too bad). As we checked in, he told the receptionist that he "swallowed a diamond!" He had calmed down by this point..we all had... and was quite talkative and excited to be receiving so much attention! We pulled out examples of coins to see which he swallowed. He pointed to the nickel and called it a freckle...so cute.

We were called back and taken to triage and he cooperated very well. Finally, the doctor came in...he was the 10th person we saw so far (one reason healthcare is so expensive???) and told us we needed an xray to see where the coin was in Henry's body. Henry was so brave! Brent went with him, but still had to stand outside the door. He didn't seem to be scared at all!

The xray came back and it was clear that the freckle...I mean nickel, was already in his bowel!! So, we were ok to go home and to check for the coin to pass. Needless to say, this was not fun. It would not be 'fun' in any circumstance, but during a pregnancy it seems to have another level of ....yak, barf, earl, to go with it!

Five days passed and each day an opportunity to check to see if the coin had passed...which it had not! So, we trecked back to the doctor and had another xray done to see where this infamous coin was! Luckily, we had just missed it....it was long gone!

So, this is one that we'll tell Henry's wife one day. Still when I think about what could've happened, I get chills. I am so thankful that he is ok and that it scared him enough that I don't think he'll be tasting money again. However, we are taking even more precaution to make sure nothing like this happens again. It was pretty scary. I will say though, that both of our families had experiences like this with my brother and brent's sister and they both survived as well. I think it helped to keep us somewhat calm to know that they had done the same thing.

Pretty cool x-ray, huh?