And the result is.....

Updates from the Top of the World

Weather on the Slope

Barrow, AK

	-16°F Fair Feels Like: -38°F Humidity: 79% Wind: ENE 13 mph Hour-by-hour | 10-day

Here's our beaten up child! He always has a goose-egg on his forehead. No I don't beat my child. He's kind of cute. He's really heavy too. Ugh!

Huxley and a little girl named Aliyah 'shared' their birthday party! Aliyah turned two 3 days after Huxley turned one and we have a lot of the same friends so it was perfect!! It was funny....Aliyah and Huxley didn't really know to blow the candles out so all the little girls you see in the picture ended up blowing the candles out before they could figure it out! We had lots of fun though. I was sure tired by the end!! It's amazing the toll pregnancy takes on a body!

Here's our little 'Charlie Brown' Christmas tree! Our first one!! We've never lived together during the holidays between Halloween and Christmas so I've never decorated and it's been fun! We found this tree at the second hand store for like 50 cents!! We don't have any ornaments up here either-thank goodness for construction paper, glue sticks and popcorn! Except Huxley has eaten most of the popcorn off of the tree now. I also made Applesauce Cinnamon ornaments and he's managed to eat at least a bite out of most of them. Oh kiddo! Oh and yes I do dress my kid in clothes that are too small for him sometimes. Don't judge me. Oh and yes we do have boards over our windows. We're really not as white-trash as we sound! Promise! :)

Here's our little dinosaur on Halloween. Better late than never! :) He's cute huh!

Well it's about time for another update right?! Yeah I think so! Let's see!

• Todd has officially finished his first semester of his MBA...Wahoo!
  
• Todd will finish the first semester of teaching this Friday....another BIG wahoo!!
• Huxley has four teeth on his bottom and I'm pretty sure all four molars (both top and both bottom) are trying to come in.....poor kiddo!
• I'm just about 6 months pregnant....yeah for being in the 3rd trimester!
• We find out what we're having in one week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• I finished my crazy semester of school-going to school full time is tough once it's not the only thing you're doing! And I got a 4.0. Thank you, thank you! :)
• We had our first Thanksgiving all by ourselves. Todd was in charge of the turkey and I was in charge of everything else. I won't lie it turned out WAY good! I think it's because no one else was coming over! Oh and my mom probably won't like my saying this but we even ate Thanksgiving dinner in our jammies! Oh yeah!
• Todd and I have officially made it through our first year of living together the ENTIRE year! Not bad except we've been married for three years now! We still plan on staying married too! :)

I think that's about it! We stay busy, busy, busy!!! We leave for Utah on Sunday night and get there on Monday. Such fun! Especially now that we have a rambunctious kiddo. I'm hoping he'll sleep a lot of it but we'll see!

Being A Mother....

is HARD!
It's been the most rewarding,
fun,
frustrating,
enjoyable,
spiritual
experience I've had.

A few nights ago after putting Huxley to bed I came out and looked around the house. I wish I had a picture but at the same time I know your opinion of me would change if you saw the condition of my house! It was awful. Todd asked if a hurricane came through. I replied that a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake and a 1-year old made their way through the house. Yeah it was that bad.

I loved it though.

I wouldn't want my house in any other condition right then. There were food crumbs on the floor. Boxes from the post office spread around. Toys everywhere, books all over. The only thing I could think of was my little boy had been taken care of that evening. He had food to eat, he had toys to play with, he was warm, he had a parent home with him all night, not a babysitter.

I knew motherhood would be hard but I never knew how much I would grow and learn from it. I'm so grateful to be a woman and that I have the opportunity to be a mother and raise my children in the Gospel. I always said I wanted to stay at home with my children but I never realized what a great blessing that is to have a husband who wants the same thing.

Sometimes I lose my patience and it's so discouraging. It's hard to know how to teach a little one. Sometime I feel like I'm not doing enough. This is a great talk that I like to read when I start feeling like that. Being a mom is what women are born to do. It's exactly what we're supposed to be doing with our time. I'm so glad I've realized this early on so that I haven't missed what's most important right now.

I know this isn't a normal 'picture/update post' but I know there are moms who read this and they probably feel the same way I do sometimes and I hope they go and read this talk. It really is a good one and it just makes you feel good all over! :) Oh and you don't have to be a mom to read it! :)

Who is this kid and what have you done with my baby!?

WARNING: THIS IS A REALLY LONG POST! IT'S WAY OVERDUE THOUGH SO THAT'S WHY THERE IS SO MUCH! I'M SORRY!
This is my most recent picture of our kiddo. Notice that everything is pulled out of cupboards or the cupboards are just open. Yup. That's his favorite past time! He also likes croutons-he opens the box when I'm not looking and takes the bag out and grabs some. He must be my child!

This is at the Wellness Center-I went there for a Breastfeeding Awareness Activity and while I was in getting some info he had walked out to the play area and was playing! Haha! It was so cute! He just went all by himself and about 15 minutes later he came back and found me and sat with me for about a minute and then got down and went back out again. Todd had walked over from the school and found him playing and got this picture of him. Such a cute, brave little kid!

I wouldn't really put this on the blog but Todd wants me to and he made sure to take a picture of me with the bread so I should put it on here! But anyways! This is some totally awesome bread I made for Sunday dinner. It was really easy and it looks way cool! I know some of you won't believe it but I am slowly but surely turning into a cook-ask my husband! :)

Out at the last football game! It was pretty fun and Huxley like walking around in a snow suit!

Huxley loves his dad! His favorite time of day is when he comes home from work. Aren't my boys cute?

Food time is the best right now! He just loves to get all messy and dirty! I love it too! ;)

I love these pictures! I wish we had a picture of the clock but these were taken at 6:30 pm. He was out! I officially felt like the worst mom ever-my kid falls asleep in his high chair in the middle of a bite!

This picture totally reminds me of a model picture-all he needs is longer hair and a fan! Haha I'm kidding! I just think it's funny!

He is so fun to watch eat! He loves crossing his legs over each other and then curling them up on one side. SO CUTE! He loves his daddy too (that's who he's smiling at).

HUGE carrots that came in the box one week. He loved chewing on them! Notice the huge cucumber on the floor? I made way good pickles out of it! YUM!

Huxley LOVES it when we get our produce box during the week. He'll sit right down by it until I open it and then he goes right ahead and opens it and proceeds to take everything out and has to inspect every single piece that's in there-yes we have lots of bite marks on different fruit throughout the week! :)

This is a polar bear Todd went out to see one night. They do exist I guess! I still haven't seen one!

Such a cutie isn't he? This is his mischief face-it's pretty funny when he does it.

I know, I know, about time right? I've been thinking about posting for awhile and then I started to wonder why I haven't been posting. I mean I have the internet at home now-what else do I need. Then I remembered.....it's not that I don't want to post or something, it's that I don't have time to do it! So what are we spending all our time on up here in the Arctic?

• Well we do have an incredibly high energy infant who thinks he's a toddler. He's into everything and I mean everything! He started walking October 25th-the real no-hand on furniture thing. So he was about 10 1/2 months. Crazy I know. And it's been a rat race trying to keep up with him ever since! A lot of people comment on how he's walking early and they feel bad for me-yeah it's harder but at the same time so much easier. He's so much happier now that he can move around, he's gained a lot of self-confidence too, which helps him be brave and venture out on his own so I'm not always needing to be by him. He's also SUCH a great napper now that he wears himself out! He's sleeping about 13 1/2 hours each night (and not just a lucky night here and there, it's every night!-hey it took us 10 1/2 months to get there but we made it!) and then takes an 1 1/2 hour morning nap and 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Yeah I think people should feel bad for me now that he's walking! :) Just kidding! We've been very blessed to have such a healthy, alert, baby boy. He's not my baby anymore! I can't believe he's grown up! At the same time I can though. My mom always comments on how he wasn't a baby very long. Since Todd is such a great husband and father and we have been so blessed that I've been able to stay at home from Day 1 with Huxley, I feel like I haven't missed anything and the time he was a baby was very, very enjoyable but I think he was in the phase just long enough! I quite enjoy my little interactive, jokester we have on our hands now-a-days! He currently is growing a mouthful of teeth-it scares me. I've gotten so used to just the two little teeth on the bottom! About two weeks ago all four teeth decided to come in on top, however, the top right middle tooth has decided to go back under for the time being so he just has the 3 top teeth-I think he just wanted to be a live jack-o-lantern since we aren't able to have those in Barrow without spending a fortune! How lucky are we?! We don't even have to throw him away after a week or so! We get to keep our little pumpkin we've worked so hard on! :) His favorite words right now are 'Dada' and 'Mom' and 'Yeah'. He nods his head for yes most of the time but if we keep asking the same question he'll say 'yeah' in a tone that just says, 'hello, can you not see my head nodding?' He's super funny! He likes to laugh, especially at himself. He'll walk up and down the hall putting whatever he can over his head-clothes, a book, a blanket and then walk and if he falls or walks into the wall (since he can't see) he'll chuckle and get up and keep going but if he makes it all the way to the end of the hall without doing either he'll squeal and really laugh! Oh it's funny! He loves the older kiddos up here. He wants to be just like them and part of everything they're doing. It's fun to watch but I get the weirdest feeling watching and I just want to go help him do everything and help him not fall. Wow this has already turned into a long post. Anyways. As you can see this kid is a great big, wonderful handful! He has his days, and nights-especially those teething times, ugh-but I know it's worth it and I'm glad to have the Eternal perspective so that I can know without a doubt that it's all worth it.
• As for Todd and I. Well we're both full-time students (Todd's in his Master's program and I'm doing a Medical Coding program) Trying to make the best of life up here with what we have. It's been a good experience for us-looking back at where we started almost three years ago we've come leaps and bounds on so many things. We try and wonder what life would have been like if we had followed our original plan of sticking around Cache Valley until we were both done with school-it would have been very different, but I don't think it would even compare to the life we have now. It's funny how Heavenly Father works isn't it? We think we know so much about what He wants for us and try and plan around what we think He wants and somehow one little thing will change in your plan and you'll end up in a completely different place but with so much more faith and so many other blessings. Not that your plan was bad but Heavenly Father's is just that much better. Amazing isn't it? I think so.
• Speaking of plans. Around this time of year lots of people start asking what we're planning on doing-if we plan on sticking around in Barrow, or finding another teaching job. As of right now, we plan on sticking around!! We are still enjoying it up here and we still feel like we're in 'the right place at the right time' so why move somewhere else? We do plan on having......
  

ANOTHER BABY!!!!

• Our newest little one will be arriving sometime in early April. Many people look at us like we're crazy when we say we don't know the exact due date. Well I am still nursing Huxley and when you nurse-the rest of your body doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Well now that I've said that you're probably thinking that this little one was an accident. Well we're married-I don't think there are 'accidents' once you get married-come on people you know what you're doing. So anyways! I won't go into any detail since it doesn't matter. But we went to the Temple this past summer and were trying to decide what to do about family planning and we just felt like we should just keep going as we are and a few months later....we're having a baby! :) Huxley is really excited! He is going to be such a good big brother! We have a little girl in our Branch her name is Saryn (Jenna I hope you're ok with me posting about her) and Huxley loves to be by her! He gives her kisses and tries to eat her feet and tries to climb in and sit with her while she's in her car seat. He likes her a lot! I'm kind of excited though because maybe they'll grow up and get married! YEAH!! But he will be such a good big brother and I almost can't wait for the baby to come just for that reason-but for other reasons (like no sleeping, LOTS of diapers, and two kiddos needing my full attention) I can wait as long as the baby needs!
  
• So that's another reason why I haven't posted. This pregnancy started out the same-pretty sick all of the time. With Huxley that ended at 10 weeks, well I think I'm about 17 weeks now and I'm still sportin the sick feeling. Bummer. So when I have a chance I usually am trying to catch up on housework-it's amazing how that piles up or lying down on the couch trying to feel better. Speaking of lying down, I did ok with Huxley not getting a nap during the day. I would just go to sleep really early during those first few weeks. With this pregnancy, I'm just barely starting to be able to make it through the day without a little 10-20 minute nap. I still sometimes find myself sleeping while Huxley is looking at books. Bad mom I know. I try hard though to stay awake! I promise! I also go to bed oh say around 8:30 pm when Todd is preparing his Seminary lesson for the next morning...on the couch. That thing is deadly I think. If I sit on it I'm pretty much a goner. Todd's been great about it all though. He tries to help me as best as he can. But, I don't attribute my extra tiredness all to the pregnancy-I have Huxley I'm trying to keep up with and school work and just being a wife and keeping a house takes a lot out of you. But if you've ever been pregnant then you know it does wipe you out. Also, if you've ever nursed a baby you know that it pretty much sucks the life right out of you. If you've ever done both at the same time.....you probably know exactly how tired I am! :)
  

Well as you can see. I do have good excuses for not posting. I am sorry that I haven't posted about a lot of fun things that have happened but just know that we are doing well and 'no news is good news'.

Well I think that's all folks! Enjoy the videos! :)
P.S. Sorry about the quality. I had posted them all-and if you live in Barrow you know how long it takes to upload things-and then noticed how bad they were. Just deal with it I guess! :) Oh and they are really long-I put them on here mostly for our mothers to watch! :) So I won't be offended if you don't watch them!

Got Em Working!

You can see the pictures now on the post that you couldn't see them before! I had to redo it all and just do it on Blogger. I couldn't figure out the whole Picasa thing. If any of you know let me know! Shayna-I can see your pictures so I'm not sure what's wrong with mine! :)

Does Anyone Know?

Hey Everyone!

So I posted a new post down below and the pictures I put on there are from Picasa. I just pushed the 'Blog This!' button and then I posted it. Anyways, now I can only see the blog post with the pictures on that computer. How do I change that so everyone can see the pictures? Anyone know?

Thanks!!

P.S. I'm off to Utah tonight to visit family! Oh and a friend who's getting married. Wish me luck! It'll be me and Huxley all by ourselves! Can we do it? We'll see!

Who Says I Don't Blog? :) (Take #2)

I think I got the pictures working so here you go!

Well...I'd say we're about due for an update! Let's see!

• Todd finished another school year...2/30 until retirement!
• We drove the good ole van back down to Utah from Fairbanks. We took eleven days to do it. Yes it was hard with a baby!
• We made it back down to Utah in time for Maren's (Todd's sister) wedding festivities.
• We stayed in Cache Valley with family and just hung out for about six weeks.
• Todd started his Master's in Business Administration in June so that's been keepin him busy!
• We braved another long flight back up to Barrow with Huxley and our missed kitty, Kali. It was a long few days of traveling.
• We're back in Barrow! Wahoo! It's good to be back home! Call us crazy (and a few have) but we just enjoy being back as a family in our own home.
• Todd has enjoyed putting new hardwood floors throughout our home. It looks WAY better!! He's a pretty good guy to have around! Although, we will miss our old floor...four kinds of linoleum, three kinds of carpets, stains and rips everywhere. It was a hard decision to make covering it up.
• Now Huxley. Man this guy is on fire! He is learning and growing so fast! He started crawling for real (not that tummy dragging stuff he was sportin for awhile). A week later his first tooth popped up on the bottom and three days later another one decided to sprout! He's 9 months tomorrow but seems to think he's much older! It's crazy to think that he's been on the outside world just as long as he was on the inside! It seems like he's been on the outside a lot longer. Anyways... He has decided he wants to arrange his own laundry from the nice organized piles I fold and put in his clothes organizer to shaken out and put in a pile on the floor in front of it. He has 'redecorated' my cooking cupboard and put all my baking things out on the floor. (Yes I know I should lock the cupboard door but as of right now...there is no door to that cabinet.) He has discovered that he can walk a lot faster than crawling and will walk from furniture to furniture. I've been trying for awhile to teach him to stick his tongue out and he just has never wanted to. Well I'm pleased to say that my teaching has paid off and he's learned to stick it out!! However, it is now CONSTANTLY out! He can say 'da-da'! I know at this age they are just saying words but I think he really does know that 'da-da' is Todd because when he sees Todd he'll crawl up to him saying it. He's kind of a jokester now. He'll do something and then look at us and then start laughing out loud. It's kind of funny and most times he's throwing a toy or food or passing gas and we can't help but laugh but we probably shouldn't encourage it by laughing. Basically this kid is a handful and is constantly going but we kind of like him and are glad he decided to come be with us.

Well I think that about does it! Sorry for the length but I guess that's just the way it is when I don't blog for awhile! Oh good news! The Henke's have INTERNET!!! What?! I know right!? Pretty crazy but we broke down and now we have connection to the outside world! Anyway! That might encourage more blog posts! Something to hope for right?

Well TTFN!!

He learned how to pull himself up on G & G Henke's stool! He was so proud of himself!

Doin laundry with Aunt Kristina!

He had been trying to learn how to drink from his sippy cup so Todd tried to show him. His face is so funny!! :)

Drivin down from Alaska! This is the Todd I talked to most of the day-the one in the mirror.

His pastime driving down from Alaska. Chewing on his blanket. They were some pretty long days! Poor kiddo!

Play time! Climbing around our luggage! In our cozy cramped quarters! Gotta love the van!

Swinging in Grammy and Grampy's backyard. He loved the swing! His excema is most obvious in this picture. For those of you who saw him....it was pretty bad and this picture is definitely on the up hill to recovery. We tried EVERYTHING! And I mean everything! We had no idea what it was until we got down to Utah and saw the Pediatrician (and by that time it was mostly cleared up). Everyone complains about the 'dry' Utah weather. Turns out it's not as dry as Barrow! His skin became clear with a little help from the moister climate and good ole Hydrocortisone cream. :) Poor kiddo.

Boys! I'm pretty sure this is a classic example of Huxley's top heaviness but it looks like they're wrestling! This is Ayden, one of the cousins! :)

I LOVE this picture! So cute! I'm glad I got it too. I lied him down to take a nap and I was making our bed and he was trying really hard to roll over and then I looked over and he had but he had also gotten up on his hands and knees. He was just smiling at me when I looked over and then started laughing! Hahaha oh these moments are the ones that get me through I think!

The Latest and Greatest

For your viewing pleasure! :)

Wanna know something!?!

Well hi everyone!! It's been awhile hasn't it?

Well you can take my word for it that we've been super busy and that's my excuse for not blogging! :) So what makes our days so busy? Well Huxley is the number 1 thing. Big surprise there I'm sure!!
And....
we bought a house and have moved in!!! :) That's been the kicker (or stealer) of time! I don't have any pictures on this computer so that will be a future post but it's up here in Barrow and we're lovin it so far! So since we bought a house that makes us more 'permanent' right? Well sure but buying a house was just a good investment for us right now so we went for it! That doesn't make Barrow our final destination though! :)

So the house....

• 3 bedrooms
• 1 bathroom
• A garage-oh yeah! One of the rarities of Barrow!
• It's a big fixxer-upper for sure!! When we're all done is when I'll post pictures so you can see the before and after!

It's a work in progress but it's nice to call it ours! It has heat and water and a roof, there's not much else that we need! So since we have room you all know what that means.....
WE HAVE ROOM FOR COMPANY!!
So come and visit us! :)

So the other thing that most everyone checks my blog to see updates on....Huxley! :) He's a grand ole kiddo! Can you believe he's 5 months today?! I can't!! He just loves life!! At 16 weeks-4 weeks ago- when we went in to get our second dosing of shots (poor kiddo) he weighed 14 lbs. 15 oz. and was 25 1/4 inches long! Not bad!! Last week he weighed in at 16 lbs 7 oz and about 27 inches long! He's basically growing up WAY too fast! :) He has a few tricks up his sleeve now. They include:

• Fake coughing-I think he discovered that I hurry to him when I hear him coughing so now he has this little fake one he does and when I come to check on him he has a super big smile on his face! So cute! Instead of crying in the middle of the night or when he wakes up from naps that's the sound we hear. It's a nice change and makes me laugh!
• Raspberries-also another favorite. He likes to do a combination of both the coughing and the raspberries. We're pretty entertained!
• Bubble blowing-He can saturate his whole chest in about 5 minutes!
• Playing with his feet-he loves to kick his legs and he's discovered that if he holds onto his toes his upper body moves with his legs. It's cute!
• Rolling from side to side on his back-He can't quite make it all the way over from his back to tummy but he sure tries moving back and forth! He can roll from his tummy all the way to his back though! He's super kid for sure!
• Putting his binky in his mouth! He misses his mouth most of the time but he's getting pretty good!
• He LOVES the guitar! Todd will get it out and play when Huxley is being fussy and Huxley just get mesmerized! He even moves his hand like he's playing!
  
• Melting his mom's heart every time he smiles. He has the cutest smile in the whole world! His cute little eyes smile too!

He can do lots of other things! He surprises us everyday with things he's learning and doing. He's pretty amazing!

Well I think that about does it for now! I've uploaded more pictures on our online web album-the same website in the post below. The internet is slow up here so I'm not sure if they've uploaded or not. Sorry if they haven't!

Adios!

Our Teenager!! 13 weeks!

Hey Everyone!! Yes we are alive!! :) You know those lists that they tell you to make...the ones that list all the things that you need to get done and you number them or separate them into: need to get done, maybe get done, won't get done. Well Blogging has ended up at the bottom of the 'won't get done' list! Sorry! That's what happens when you don't have internet and when you do it's really slow and you have school work to get done!

Anyways!! Here's the bambino! He's 13 weeks old! I haven't weighed him today but last week-12 weeks-he was 13 lbs. 8 oz. and was 23 3/4 inches! Pretty good considering at his 8 week check-up he was 10 lbs. 6 oz. and 21 1/2 inches! He's done a lot of growing!! We enjoy him mucho!!

As you can see he smiles! He loves to smile! He likes to talk too. He is one NOISY kiddo! Everything he does he makes noise with-including sleeping! He wakes us up quite frequently laughing or grunting or squealing. Speaking of sleeping. He sleeps about 9 hours at night and then takes 4 2-3 hour naps during the day. He eats every 3-4 hours and he apparently is getting enough to eat judging by his size! :) He loves to eat! He gets very impatient when he has to wait! He still doesn't really spit up-if he does it's a very minute amount. He loves to kick his legs and hit his arms against his tummy like Tarzan. He's starting to enjoy his bath and gets really excited and tense and kicks around! It's pretty cute! He's starting to swat at things and hold on to them. It's fun watching him learn and grow. He's starting to explore the world a lot more! He still has his plug but only has it going to sleep and sometimes not even then...he's quite fond of his fist. He tries to stuff the whole thing in his mouth....he hasn't had a whole lot of success with that! He's started to suck on just his thumb too-it's kind of funny, he'll put one finger up his nose and then have his thumb in his mouth! Oh so cute!

There's TONS more about this little guy! I just don't really have time to write! Sorry! There's lots of pictures to look at though. Sorry it will take too long to load them on here so I just put them on our web album so if you want to look at them...go ahead!! :)
Just copy and paste it! :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/todd.elaine08/Huxley02?authkey=Gv1sRgCI7pvoDPw43Lcw&feat=directlink
P.S. Since the internet is so good up here, it froze while I was loading the past couple weeks of pictures and videos. I'll try again another time! :)

Well that's all folks!!