"Signs"

(Jenn) In Henry's thirst for new words every day, he has learned the word "sign." It comes in handy when we ride anywhere in the car -- he can now yell out "Sign!" every time he sees one in addition to "Car!" and "Truck!" every time he sees another vehicle. And I'm serious when I say EVERY time (you would have to ride with him in the car to believe it). This week, however, I realized that what he thinks is a sign is actually type-written words of any sort. Now, when we read books, he is eager to point out every "sign" he sees. He is no longer interested in any of the pictures on the pages or saying the animal sounds that go with the pictures. I ask, "What does the dog say?" and he ignores me and yells "Sign! Sign! Sign! Sign! Sign!" Story time is funny now but also frustrating. I hope he grows out of this one soon (I think he will, as he recently stopped identifying every wall he sees)!

A Jolly Holiday

(Jenn) The day Shug left, my parents arrived for a visit. My dad had a training for work in midtown for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so he took the train into the city with Ben on those days, while my mom stayed home with Henry and me. For my parents, I think it was mostly just a fun chance to visit Henry, and they were pretty happy to do just that. Henry loved having them, and he has been terrible since they left from the lack of extra attention. In fact, the day after they left, he kept looking around for them saying "pa!" which is his word for grandma and grandpa right now.

We had a great week working on projects, eating out, playing games, shopping, and visiting the zoo. The highlight for me, though, was Mary Poppins on Broadway. I have officially declared it my favorite NYC Broadway play, and I'm recommending it to everyone. I ordered the soundtrack, and I'm looking for a way to talk Ben into going again and getting orchestra seats! It was similar to the classic movie (same story, same great songs) but with just enough of a twist to make it new and exciting. They took out all of the parts that I remember wanting to fast-forward as a kid because they got a little long and boring, and replaced them with new songs and amazing special effects. Tap dancing on the ceiling? Why not? And while all of the classic songs were there, they were just a little different and sometimes placed in a different place in the plot. It really was miraculous. Everyone should see it!

Shug's Visit

(Jenn) A few people have asked me what we "did" while Shug was here (from March 15th-20th). I have to shrug and reply that we did what we do best -- sit around and talk! And if you know me very well, you probably know that I have the best time when I do absolutely nothing, as long as I'm with people I love. So for five days, I was basically transported back to life as Shug's roommate, with the subtle additions of a 1 year old son and a husband who came home at night. It was actually the perfect combination -- I got to have someone to talk to and be with all day (and someone to adore Henry with me), and then still had the wonderful feeling of having Ben return at the end of the day! And I love that Shug and I always have endless stores of meaningful conversations, even when we haven't seen each other for almost a year. What a fabulous friendship!

We got a major snow storm while Shug was here, and we really were house-bound for almost two of the days (and we had one crazy adventure trying to get to a Broadway play in spite of the snow). Luckily, we didn't have a full schedule planned, so the snow was fine (although coming from Alaska, Shug was looking forward to sun). After the storm, we did venture out to the Guggenheim and the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in the city and both fell in love with the MoMA. It reminded us both of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris -- rich, beautiful, moving art (and not quite modern enough to be the offensive type). We also enjoyed NYC hot dogs and got to see the St. Patrick's Day parade on 5th Avenue.

Happy Birthday Dad!

(Jenn) Today is my dad's birthday, and this post is a present for him (and also for my mom, whose birthday is on Sunday). It's the movie you've all been waiting for . . . "The Henry Show 2!" We made the original "Henry Show" about 6 months ago to entertain Henry so he would eat his breakfast. After 6 months, though, its effects have worn off, and he has desperately needed an updated version. So here it is! It's almost 7 minutes long, so I won't feel bad if you all don't want to watch it, but it really is pretty entertaining. I am happy to say that the Gerber mixed cereal is going down very easily now with no objections!






The Henry Show 2 on Vimeo

Vital Questions

(Jenn) There are a few vital questions every kid should be able to answer. Here Henry tackles two of them (you really have to use your imagination to understand them, although Ben and I are pretty impressed). Last night he also conquered "What's your favorite color?" (blue), but we didn't catch that on our camera. Enjoy!






Vital Questions on Vimeo

Pre-Breakfast Snack

(Jenn) I have heard many moms complain that they can't even leave their child to go to the bathroom without an ensuing disaster. This morning I came out of the bathroom to find that Henry had helped himself to a morning snack -- which he found in the garbage can! Why not?

The Beast Drops In

Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Jacob as our latest visitor. He was out this way visiting potential graduate schools for Marriage and Family Therapy, and he had the weekend off so he drove up to Jersey to say hello. We looked forward to this fun, short visit, but beforehand we had NO IDEA how good it would be to be with Jacob again! He is such a good friend to us, and we always have a good time, no matter what we do. In this case, we went for a run to the park (it was a beautiful 56 degree Saturday afternoon). Then Jacob went to a priesthood meeting with Ben, and to finish off the day we went out to the Cheesecake Factory to gorge ourselves on extremely good food. Classic Ben/Jenn/Jacob good times, even though it was short.

Here is a picture of Jacob. Remember, this could be YOU in this picture if you come out this way!

The Best Plastic Wrap Ever!!!

(Jenn) For the first 2 1/2 years of our marriage, I had this terrible box of Western Family plastic wrap with the worst cutter edge I've ever seen (it was peeling off the box), and it was really a mess! Unfortunately it was like a thousand feet long, so it never ended, and I couldn't justify buying a new one. So a few months ago, we finally reached the end of the roll, and it was a day of celebration. I replaced the roll with a box of Reynold's Plastic Wrap with EZ Slide Cutter. It's amazing! And I just wanted to share my happiness with everyone and whole-heartedly recommend the best plastic wrap ever! So far, every time I have used it, it has made perfect cuts, with no stretching, bunching, or overlapping to worry about. I know I'm geeky, but I'm urging you to buy the EZ cutter! You will not be disappointed. :)

Hysterical Henry

Hysterical 1 on Vimeo
(Jenn) I can't help but post this clip of Henry laughing. I'm not sure what got into him -- he just started cracking up about something (driving his car in the dishwasher?), and then kept it up for at least five minutes. If you don't get your fill with this clip, you'd better check out Hysterical 2 and Hysterical 3 on our Vimeo site.

Google Reader

(Ben) I just wanted to inform those of you who may be interested that Jenn and I stumbled across a handy little tool that Google has produced that can keep track of updates on sites that you visit often. It's called Google Reader, and you can check it out here. Basically, you can add any blogger webpage (like ours, or most of the rest of our blogging friends) to it, or any news or sports that you like to keep up on (e.g. CNN or ESPN), and a little button your Google Toolbar will turn green if there has been something new posted. This way we don't have to click through all of our links to see if there is anything new, we can just look at it through Google Reader. It's pretty cool. For those of you who already know about RSS feeds and are experts on this, well, you'll just have to forgive me for not being quite so up on all this technology! :)

President's Day

(Jenn) What better way to celebrate President's Day than taking a voyage to a dead U.S. president's home? And it wasn't just any dead U.S. president's home -- it was Thomas Jefferson's! Ben has a very limited number of days off (at least compared to the student's life of luxury we were used to), so we're really trying to take advantage of whatever we get. We left Sunday right after church and drove down to Richmond, VA to stay with my cousin Paige and her family. Her husband, Bubba, is finishing dental school this spring, and we wanted to visit them before they moved back to Utah. After six hours in the car, we arrived to a glorious Sunday dinner with family -- something we had taken for granted for 24 years. It was really fun to just spend a Sunday evening with family, even if it took six hours to get there! We had a great time with their three kids, and Henry was in Heaven with automatic friends.

On Monday we drove another hour to Monticello, which is the home of Thomas Jefferson. We toured the home, which is beautiful and very interesting. Unfortunately, the grounds are not as gorgeous in February as they are supposed to be during the spring and fall, but we could imagine what it would look like. After the house tour, we zipped back home to get to bed before another week of work started. It was a quick trip (probably a little too quick -- we spent 13 hours of the trip in the car and 19 hours out of the car), but it was fun!

Wow Songs

(Jenn) For my sister Kati's birthday, I compiled a CD of Wow Songs. A Wow Song may not be an artist's most popular or even their best song, but it is the one that, after you listen to it, you think "Wow." If you are cool, you know what I mean. Sometimes the wowness might not happen on your first listening either . . . it's like one day it just amazes you. My list started with 30 songs and was cut down to 18; I tried to reduce it to the very meatiest. Here is the playlist. I highly encourage you to download the entire list from iTunes and take the Wow Challenge! If you don't want to, leave a comment with your address and I'll burn you a disc. Also, feel free to comment on any of the songs, artists, or albums on the list, or suggest candidates for Wow Songs II.

Clucking Practice

(Ben) Henry has recently made several breakthroughs in his communication skills. Jenn now posts Henry's "Word of the Day" on our chalkboard because he is literally learning at least one new word per day. He may not remember the new words the next day, but overall he has caught on to the concept of using language to communicate over the past couple of weeks. These new words are making our lives so much easier. For example, when Henry is full he now says "done" instead of throwing the rest of his food on the floor. Or, a couple of days ago I asked him to throw a wrapper he found in the garbage. He promptly walked over to the garbage and threw it right in! I couldn't believe it! Of course, he then proceeded to dig through the trash to find something else fun to play with. . .but at least he understood me, right?

Along with all of these words, I decided that it was time for Henry to learn some new animal sounds. Yesterday we started with clucking. Check out the video below. I'd say he's coming along pretty well. :)




Henry and Dad practice clucking on Vimeo

Baby Ball Book

Ball! on Vimeo

(Jenn) Catch this clip of Henry reading his favorite book right now: My First BYU Book (it was a gift from Grandma Iverson, who bleeds blue). The book gives him plenty of chances to practice his favorite word: Ball! We're pretty sure he can now be classified as super-genius, because he can identify ten different things as "ball." In fact, right now the following words are also pronounced "ball": baby, bye-bye, bottle, dog, balloon, book, apple, binkie, blanket, potato, and burp.

Sandy Hook

For MLK Day on Monday we took a day trip to the Sandy Hook area of New Jersey. We had two main purposes for our journey: 1, to visit the house Grandma and Grandpa Whitesides used to live in, and 2, eat at Carrabba's, our favorite Italian restaurant chain. It took about an hour to get to G&G's old house in Long Branch. They lived there for 5 months while Grandpa was in the Army, stationed at Fort Monmouth during WWII. It was nice to see their little white house (we were happy that it was still there) and then to spend the rest of the day getting familiar with the area where they lived.


Long Branch is only minutes away from Sandy Hook, which is a popular beach area in the shape of a hook. It was a pretty misty day for sunbathing, but it was perfect for lighthousing. We checked out the lighthouse on Sandy Hook (the oldest operating lighthouse in the U.S., pictured) and another in nearby Highlands (the Twin Lights). Henry especially enjoyed some time to run around in
the sand and watch the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, which were terrifying to him. We were amazed to see a few people actually surfing in the freezing cold water! We also stumbled across The History House, an old officer's house on defunct Fort Hancock, located on Sandy Hook. The house is furnished to look as it would have during WWII. It was fun to get a feel for the time period when Ben's grandparents were in New Jersey.
We ended the day with a fabulous meal at Carrabba's. We fell in love with this restaurant in Provo and were mortified when we found out the nearest one to us was 50 minutes away! It was a good excuse to go there, and the Chicken Bryan and Mezzaluna were superb, as always.

Henry's New Suit

Jenn has been having a hard time convincing Henry not to pull off his mittens while he rides in the jogging stroller during her morning run. While it has been an unsually warm winter, it hasn't been so warm that he doesn't need his gloves! So, we found a solution: we bought him one of those one-piece snowsuits with the mittens hooked on to the arms so he can't pull them off. The suit that Henry got is brown, and we can't decide if he looks more like an Ewok or a rabbit. Either way, we got a kick out of watching him run around the house in it. He doesn't seem to mind it too much, and he hasn't cried during the morning runs for two days straight! It must be working. :)



Henry's Snowsuit on Vimeo

Utah Skiing

(Ben) Jenn forgot to mention in her Christmas post that another highlight for me was getting in a good ski trip to Alta with Dan-o. Sitting in a Manhattan cubicle all day at 37 feet elevation hadn't really prepared me for a full day on the slopes at 10,000 feet, but we still had a great time, and no one got seriously hurt. :) You just can't beat a day in the Wasatch!
Here are a couple of clips from the trip. The first is me dropping the cliff not-so-gracefully, the second is Dan doing a nice 180.



The Cliff at Alta on Vimeo



Dan's 180 on Vimeo


I also wanted to say that we had a wonderful time seeing many of our family and friends! Thanks for a great trip!

Merry Christmas!

(Jenn) We've been home from our Christmas Utah trip for three days, and I've finally recovered well enough to put up a few posts.

We had a fabulous time in Utah! We were there from 22 December until 1 January (although we didn't get home until 2 January, thanks to United Airlines. Maybe I should just get that part over with. On the way to Utah, all of our bags were delayed, and our carseat was completely lost. On the way home, our flight was delayed, we missed our 6:00pm connection, and the next available flight was not until the next day at 10:00am. So we took a little vacation in Chicago for a night, thanks to brother-in-law Mike's free hotel points! Needless to say, we are not too happy with United Airlines, and we can also put in a good word for direct flights).

Between the 3 days of traveling, we had a great time with our families. Highlights include the Iverson nativity production, Grandma Griffin's party, playing in the new "Grandkid Room," playing Mike's and Tanner's Wiis (is that how you make "Wii" plural?), singing around the piano, talent shows, visiting grandparents, a double date with Dan-o, The Pursuit of Happyness, eating at El Matador and Zupas (yum!), homemade caramels, peppermint ice cream/cookie sandwiches, swimming at the Clearfield Aquatic Center, exchanging gifts, visiting "real" wards for church, playing games with family, the Post-Christmas Friend Party, and just spending time talking with the people we love. The whole time just felt like a dream (not just because Henry made sure we didn't sleep too much), and we weren't sure which place (Utah or New Jersey) is home to our "real lives."

It was hard to leave, but we're glad to be home and back to regular schedules for sleeping, eating, exercising, etc. We already started looking for (direct) flights for next Christmas, although we probably won't act on anything soon! We've still got a summer trip to plan too.

New Links

(Ben) Just wanted to announce the new links on the left to more blogging friends. Check them out!

Far Far Away

(Ben) At church last Sunday I was asked to lead the music for Sacrament Meeting. I almost lost all composure while in the middle of "Far Far Away on Judea's Plain" when I looked down and saw Henry swinging his arm for all he was worth. He had his eyes glued to me and a huge grin on his face--so proud of himself for being able to lead the music too! He has carried his chorister talent beyond the chapel since Sunday. Jenn was at the grocery store on Monday, and he conducted every pop Christmas song that came over the loud speaker. After a few measures of each song he'd give up, but at the start of every new one he'd light up and "strike up the band," usually getting a fellow shopper's attention in the process.

We've just started experimenting with embedded video, so here are a couple of clips. As always, all of our videos are available through the link to the left.



Maestro Henry on Vimeo



Move your arms like Henry on Vimeo