King Henry for a Day

(Jenn) So Wednesday was Henry's birthday. He's 2 years old -- I can't believe it! He is suddenly such a big boy. Henry's already taking after me in his understanding of the importance of birthdays. He seemed to know how important he was from the minute he woke up on Wednesday. I played along and let him be a king for the day -- he got to choose everything! I tried my very hardest not to say no to him. For breakfast, he wanted his oatmeal cereal with sprinkles. Once he tasted it, he realized that it wasn't as yummy as it looked, so he wanted muffins instead. So he got to help me make pumpkin muffins. He helped with the stirring and wanted to taste all of the ingredients and lick the spoon a lot! After breakfast, Henry chose to go to the park, then play with cars and trucks, read books, sit on the potty (!), bring the ride-on truck down from the attic, go to the library, and go to the store. After Ben came home, Pat and Bernie came over for cupcakes and ice cream, and Henry got to open presents.

Of course, Henry's birthday didn't just start on the 28th. The celebrations began last Saturday with a birthday party at my mom's house while we were in Utah. It was a "Car" party, as per Henry's latest obsession. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of how much fun we had:

The racecar birthday cake (we had to hide it from Henry because he REALLY wanted to play those cars! He pulled them off immediately when we brought the cake to him for candle-blowing time!).

All of the kids got to ride in Grandpa Griffin's "yellow fancy blue car."

Grandpa was pretty excited to fire up the engine and give them all a ride. Sophie later reported, "Grandpa had a REALLY hard time driving the car because it is SO old!"

Grandpa let me try driving the car! Let's just say I didn't quite make it all the way into the garage before stalling it.

This is Henry's birthday playdate with his playgroup. We had this party the day before his birthday at our house! Everyone enjoyed licking the frosting off the cupcakes!

Utah Week

(Jenn) So technically we went to Utah for Dan's wedding, but we got to do lots of other fun things while we were there. Here are a few:




A trip to Provo to visit BYU with the kids and eat all the good Provo food we've been missing.










Fun times playing with cousins at Grandma's house (here is Henry wearing Ben's old cowboy hat, playing with Megan and Baby Seth).






A Hayride with the Iversons at the Dibble farm (brrrrrrr!).












Dinner afterward at Café Rio!







The Turkey "Bowl" with the Griffins. Henry and Ivan as a team beat me and Ben in the "couple bowling" round. 115 points!










Here's Henry with his prize money! The plan was if anyone got a turkey, they would get $50. Since that didn't happen, Grandpa Dave just doled out the prize money.






Snacktime with cousins at Grandma Lori's house. Check out her newly remodled kitchen!







We love candy cane cookies! My dad makes these nearly every other day from the day after Thanksgiving until after Christmas. A pretty yummy tradition!

Dan's Wedding

(Jenn) So Dan completed the Iverson family on Saturday, November 17th by marrying Autumn! Now all six kids in their family are married! It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful wedding in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. What an elegant bride, a charming groom, and a neat day altogether.

Our 4th Anniversary

(Jenn) Today is our 4th wedding anniversary! Can you believe it? The past four years have been marvelous and have gone by so fast. Like a good wife, I put together a little video to celebrate our anniversary. It's just a compilation of some of the best pictures from our 4th anniversary photo shoot. You'll be convinced by the pictures just why Ben and I are so attracted to each other, even after all these years.

Really, you should probably only watch this if you are really bored or tired. Just a warning before you push play!

Veterans' Day Weekend

(Jenn) Ben had work off on Monday for Veteran's Day. He has so few days off that we feel like we have to take advantage of all of these little holidays here and there! Anyway, it worked out perfectly that Amy and Dave also both had the day off on Monday, so we took a little trip to New Haven, CT.

We are SO excited to have such good friends living only 1 hour and 40 minutes away! We took the drive on Sunday after church and arrived at the Choules' house just in time for a lovely Sunday dinner. We laughed and talked and played games, and we just enjoyed being in the company of a wonderful couple in their beautiful home. I love being around Amy and Dave for two main reasons: 1) Amy makes me laugh more than any other person on this earth, so it's a blast to be around her, and 2) Amy and Dave are so madly in love with each other, being pretty recent newlyweds, that they remind me how much I love Ben and how lucky I am. They can't seem to find any fault with each other, which is a good reminder to all of us of how we should treat our spouses.

On Monday, Amy and Dave worked on getting us to fall in love with New Haven. I'd say they did a pretty good job! We took the Yale campus tour in the morning. It is a BEAUTIFUL campus, and I'm sure Ben would absolutely love going to school there next year (and I would love it too). After the Yale tour, Amy and Dave took us to see New Haven's downtown, a fun vegetarian restaurant for lunch, the part of campus where Dave goes to class (the Divinity School), and East Rock where we could see a view of the city from above. Everything about the day was beautiful, and we all imagined together how perfect it would be if Ben and I end up in CT next fall (Ben's doing applications now, and Yale is one of the 9 schools on the list). We had dinner and sang hymns together before finishing off the trip with ice cream. It really was such a beautiful time that I almost felt removed from real life and taken to a scene from Stegner's Crossing to Safety. What a blessing to have such good friends so relatively close!

Kara and Dave's Weekend

(Jenn) I'm playing blog catch-up today, so I'm going back a couple of weeks on this post. It seems like since Kara and Dave visited, I haven't even had a chance to come to the surface to catch some air! We're so busy getting ready to take another trip to Utah for Dan's wedding and Thanksgiving.

Anyway, We have been so lucky to have family only 4 hours away (on a good day with minor traffic) in Virginia. We have visited Kara and Dave and their family three times now, and it's been so nice just to have a home to go to and be with family. Last time we were there, we talked them into bringing the whole family up to visit us!

Nate had a few days out of school last weekend, so it was the perfect time for them to come. Our accommodations aren't quite as nice as theirs (our "guest room" is the living room), so for Kara, Dave, and the four kids, it was a tight squeeze! But it was so much better than having them stay in a hotel because we got to spend LOTS of time together, especially playing games and talking after the kids had gone to bed! If any of you have visited us, you know that our bedrooms are TINY, and so they really did use every inch of floor space as Nate, Jessica, and Caleb spread their sleeping bags out using the corners of Henry's bedroom floor.


We had a great time with the Ludlows. Ben and I babysat while they went to a Broadway show; we had church on Sunday and made sugar cookies with frosting; Henry and I went with them to the Statue of "Liverty" on Monday(which is what Jessica calls it); we played games at night; and we ate out at the Grand Luxe Café (yum!). On Tuesday, they toured the Federal Reserve and the Museum of Natural History before they went home.


I didn't get a lot of great pictures of the weekend because it was so hard to get 5 kids to all pose together at the same time! But we had a great time, and Henry especially enjoyed playing with all of his cousins.

Black Out Forever!

(Jenn)
So I've been "tagged" like 5 times this week and probably a few more times in the past month or two, so I'm finally going to do it and then say "Black Out Forever!" It's not that I don't enjoy reading all of your tag posts -- they are fun. It's just that I feel guilty when I never get around to completing my random things about myself or questionnaire or whatever. Okay, so which "tag" should I do? I just tried listing 6 random things about myself, and that's HARD, so I'm answering the questions from my cousin Kristina's tag and then posting a few random things about me. Here goes:

1. Best thing you cooked last week: Apple dumplings. Shug was here and we cooked and ate a lot of good food, and the one recipe she absolutely insisted on having was my Grandma Griffin's apple dumplings (basically little apple pie packets baked in a pink cinnamony syrup). A handful of those Griffin recipes are legends with my college roommates. Yum!

2. If money, time and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with whom? I would definitely go to London with Ben. I would show him EVERYTHING. And yes, we would have a babysitter.

3. When was the last time you cried? About 2 1/2 weeks ago when I finished reading These is My Words by Nancy Turner. I sobbed in bed so hard that I thought I would wake Ben up. You should read by book review here, and you should read this book. Do it.

4. 5 things you were doing this month 10 years ago:
- Studying for Beastie D.C.'s European History class with a bunch of crazy friends
- Trick-or-treating (yes, I trick-or-treated in high school. Did you?)
- Taking driver's ed
- Becoming good friends with Ben and starting to email him regularly
- Practicing "Lace" Christmas songs including "All I Want for Christmas is You" and "Hey Santa"

5. 5 things on your to-do list today:
- Go jogging
- Clean house
- Order wedding gift for Dan-o
- Babysitting 7 kids while parents go to Broadway show
- Prepare for YW class tomorrow (It's Saturday)

6. 5 favorite snacks:
- Candy! (jelly beans, caramel candy corns, sour balls, Hot Tamales, Reese's Pieces, etc.)
- Cookies
- Toast with cinnamon sugar
- Wheatables
- Cereal
(Do some of you really eat healthy snacks? Hmmm)

7. 5 bad habits:
- Eating lots of sugar
- Picking up speech habits and patterns of people around me
- Falling asleep in movies, esp. the temple movie
- Forgetting to move my car on street sweeping day
- Leaving fragile items in precarious places (this drives Ben crazy)

8. 5 places I've been:
- England
- France
- Holland
- Italy
- Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan

Okay, and now 3 random things about me:

1. I correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation in my head every time I read anything. I guess it's the English teacher in me.

2. I adore kids, but I don't love babies. I really want to have another baby soon, but I have a hard time getting used to the idea of taking care of a newborn. They're so hard to take care of, and they're not very interesting! I need to get over this soon.

3. I give Henry a lollipop and a package of fruit snacks EVERY time we go on ANY sort of shopping excursion. I think I'm probably a horrible mom. Oh well!

If you haven't been tagged yet and want something to do, consider yourself tagged!

Happy Halloween!

(Jenn) Here's the post you've all been waiting for! This is the first year Henry really understood what was going on for Halloween. We have been reading Halloween books and talking about trick-or-treating all month, so this morning when I woke him up and said, "It's Halloween!" he knew exactly what was in store. He was very good at saying "Tricka Treat" and "CANDY!" all day long! Henry dressed up as a garbage man. It was the perfect costume for him this year, due to his obsessions with garbage, trucks, and real live garbage men. He worships the garbage men in our neighborhood, and they know him and wave to him every time they pass! I'm pretty proud of Henry's costume too -- my creative project of the month. I can make costumes that don't involve sewing -- hence the duct tape!

Today we had a busy and fun day. In the morning, we went to the MOMS Club activity in Rutherford. The kids visited a senior center and Trick-or-Treated on Park Avenue. After coming home for lunch and a quick nap, we left for the Hoboken Ragamuffins Parade. We went with the Stephensons from our branch and met up with some families in the Jersey City Ward. We went to this parade last year and had to go again this year! I just love seeing the fun costumes and accessories some of the people come up with! We also trick-or-treated a bit in Hoboken before heading home. Henry visited the houses on our street before coming in for dinner. He ended up with quite the loot!

For the die-hards, there's a slide-show below:

An Extra Christmas Gift

If you are interested in donating an extra Christmas gift to a family in need this year, look at this list and let me know what you can donate. Just leave a comment or email me (jenny.iverson@gmail.com), and I will remove your item from the list! Feel free to email me for more information. Here is a list of the items still needed:

Clothing
Women’s pants (size 12-14) [got some]
Women’s shirts (size L) [got some]
Women’s skirts/dressy shirts (12-14, L) [got some shirts, skirts, dresses]
(Women’s clothing – maternity)
Men’s pants : black slacks, khakis (32-34)
Boys clothes, church clothes, pajamas (5t, 5/6 kids) [got black pants, sweater, hoodie, shirt, church outfit]
Boys clothes, church clothes, pajamas (18 months) [got Christmas outfit, some other clothes]
Baby boy clothes (0-3 months, 3-6 months) [got Christmas outfit, some other clothes]

Shoes
Women’s dress shoes (size 8 ½)
Men’s dress shoes (size 11)
Boys sneakers (size 6 – 6 ½)

Furniture
Sheets/bedding for 2 toddler beds
Child’s bedroom furniture
Crib
Changing table

Household Items
CD player/radio
Mirror
Picture frames, large and small
Towels, bath size
Towels, hand size
Kitchen towels
Wash cloths
Vacuum
Toaster

Baby/Child Items
Car seat, 40+ lbs.
Car seat ,20 + lbs.
Car seat, infant size
Toy chest

Toys
Power ranger toy (no guns)
Other toys ages 4 and 18 months

Other gifts
Scrapbook/scrapbooking supplies
4 CTR rings
Christmas ornaments/decorations [got tree, lights]
Money, spare change
Gift cards

A Beautiful Week

(Jenn) This past week was a vacation-at-home for me as I got to spend lots of time with friends. Shug, my roommate and amazing friend of many years, came to visit from Alaska! I talked Brittany into staying with us until Shug came (she's been living with us for the past few weeks), so they both stayed in our place for the week. I got to feel what it's like to live with roommates again! We had a lovely time: mostly lots of sitting and talking, going for walks, cooking, etc. It was just like old times, and amazing that we're still just as close as ever. Henry loved having both Shug and Brittany here, and he just went along with whatever we wanted to do. Ben and I both stayed up later than we have in years -- ah, the single life!

On my favorite day of the week, we took a drive up into New York (a town called High Falls) to see the autumn leaves and go apple picking. This time we went to a smaller, organic orchard run by a crazy guy named "Mr. Apples." It was beautiful, and we were the only ones there. We had such a nice day picking apples, visiting a waterfall, playing in leaves, and eating soup at a little café in High Falls. On Friday night, Amy and Dave came down from Connecticut to visit, and they stayed overnight. It was great to be able to spend time with them and get to know Dave a little better! On Saturday morning, we took a trip to the temple while Shug and Brittany babysat and then met us in the city (they bravely took Henry on the train themselves!). We went to the Museum of Natural History and then out to lunch at Alice's Teacup, a charming little restaurant and bakery.

Shug left early this morning, and then I dropped Brittany off at the train station at noon (she's moving to Brooklyn -- she found a temporary place there). I'm really missing the company already, and I think Henry is too! Henry has been mentioning Brittany and Shug in all of his prayers this week, and when he wakes up in the morning he immediately asks, "Where Brittany? Where Shug?" When we dropped Brittany off today, Henry cried for several minutes (probably because he thought he was going to get to go on the train too, but it was still pretty sweet :). We spent the last few days of the week trying to figure out how we can all live closer to each other. We won't be able to do trips like this for the rest of our lives! Alaska is definitely too far away! I wish I could just buy an old house in a beautiful cul-de-sac with big trees, and all of the neighbors would be my best friends and family. Let me know if you have any ideas on how to make this happen!
If you're interested in seeing pictures of our week, watch the slideshow below:

Bear

(Jenn) So Ben is really particular about what kind of toys Henry is allowed to own because he wants him to be manly in all respects. I'm not allowed to buy him anything related to kitchens or babies. It took a lot of persuasion (and deception) just to get a Little Tikes shopping cart from a garage sale for $2, which Henry absolutely loves. I wanted to get one of those doll strollers, and maybe even a little boy doll, but as far as Ben was concerned, that was out of the question.

Well today, Henry showed Ben that he can express his feminine side without dolls! Who needs dolls anyway? Today after church, "Bear" became Henry's baby, and it was pretty fun for me to watch him take care of it. As I was getting lunch ready, I heard Henry saying, "Diaper change, Bear. Change you. New diaper. All done Bear." Then he wanted to give Bear drinks from his sippy cup, and then he put Bear in the high chair. Once Bear was ready to go in the high chair, Henry did what a good parent ought to: he wheeled the high chair into the living room and said, "Car Show time, Bear" (If you have talked to Henry recently, you will know that pretty much the only thing that he cares about is Pixar's Cars. Naturally, a good little daddy would let his Bear watch Cars as much as possible).

I'm always excited to see that Henry wants to emulate me in every way. Of course he wants to take care of Bear, push his shopping cart, and help empty the dishwasher -- so he can be like Mommy! What toddler would want to sit at a desk all day making calculations? At least for this time in his life, I can be Henry's hero.

The Phantom of the Opera

(Jenn) An unexpected and rare bonus at Ben's work this month gave us a good excuse to do something we've been wanting to do -- attend Phantom on Broadway! I had seen the play in London and LOVED it, but Ben had never seen it! We both absolutely love the music and know it backwards and forwards, so it was something we really thought we needed to do while we were in New York.

Everything worked together for us. Brittany, our friend from BYU days, has been staying with us for a couple of weeks while waiting for an apartment in the city to work out for her (she's attending Columbia University right now). We have been fully taking advantage of her presence in our home by leaving and conveniently forgetting to take Henry along! She is now Nanny Brittany, and Henry is finally starting to really warm up to her. Brittany stayed with Henry while I went to meet Ben after work.

Anyway, it was great for me to get to go ALL BY MYSELF to the train station with no stroller, diaper bag, raisins, or dump trucks! At first I guess it felt a little strange, but I got used to it pretty fast. I met Ben at a place for dinner, and then we did a little shopping before heading to our show. Of course, Phantom was breathtaking. We had orchestra seats -- center section, about 15 rows back -- it was perfect! The voices of Christine and the Phantom were really amazing. We both came home singing with our heads in the stars. It was a magical night! Unfortunately, this is the only picture we took (these digital self-portraits are always a little scary. It took a few tries to get one without double chins). We meant to get one in front of the theater but forgot :(

Apple Picking

(Jenn) On Saturday, we went apple picking with Henry's friends, Evan and Aden, and their moms and dads (who happen to be our friends too!). We went to Riamede Farm in Chester, NJ -- about 45 minutes away from us. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great time. We tasted plenty of apples while we were picking them, and then we went home with $17 worth of apples! We probably got way more than we needed, but we just got carried away with the picking. Today Cindy, Jessica and I got together and made apple pies, but I still have LOTS of apples left and will have to come up with something to do with them! The apples are delicious and very flavorful. Definitley a Saturday well-spent!

Colors

(Jenn) I think it's funny how parents seem to embrace their child's "wrong" way of saying certain words. It's almost tragic when they start saying the word right, because it was so cute when they said it wrong! That's why my parents still call me "Dutchie" (Tanner's name for me) and use phrases like "So backwards!" and words like "Moosh!" (Brady's word for "move out of my way"). While we were in Utah, Ben's mom noticed that Henry started saying "orange" instead of "orngee," and we all lamented the loss of one of his funniest words. Well, I caught him starting to say "orngee" again and just had to catch it on camera before we lost it again. And if you want to hear it, you have to watch him recite the names of the rest of the colors in the Crayola box (which he is getting right about 95% of the time, up from 30% a few months ago)!

Friendly Strangers?

(Ben) So, Jenn's been telling you about an Indian man that she and Henry met in the park who gave Henry Oreos and Ritz crackers. Well, she ran into him again last Friday, and her conversation went something like this:

Man: What does your husband do?
Jenn: He works in the city blah blah....
Man: Oh, I think I saw him with you in the park one day.
Jenn: Really?
Man: Yeah, isn't he the chubby one?
Jenn: Uhhhh...
Man: I mean, not really chubby, but a little bit. He was jogging with you.
Jenn: Yeah, I guess that's him...

I guess chubby isn't the worst thing I've ever been called, but I'm not convinced he's such a friendly stranger! :) What is it with foreigners deciding that Jenn and I are fat?

Friendly Strangers

(Jenn) I love people! I think the cool fall weather has made everyone in our greater neighborhood in a good mood recently. Henry and I jog at a nearby park 3-4 times a week (okay, I jog, and Henry rides in the jogging stroller) in the mornings. The weather really has been amazing -- cool and crisp, with hints of the beautiful autumn that's coming. I can't help but be in a good mood, and I guess everyone else is the same way. I keep getting comments from all sorts of people as we pass them -- mostly things about the jogging stroller, since very few people seem to use them here. This week I've received the following comments:

"Wow, that's a very nice carriage!"

"Where do you get all that energy?"

"Pretty soon, he's going to be pushing you!"

"Looks like he gets the comfy ride."

"Show off! (ha ha ha)"

Maybe these seem like regular comments, but it really is pretty unusual for our area, especially coming from complete strangers. One of my favorite things in the world is when people open up to each other for no other reason than to share humanity together. Probably one of the best reactions we've received is from an Indian man we pass frequently at the park. He happens to be there almost every day at about the same time we go, and so he always says hello to me and Henry, and we share a few words as we pass each other. On Monday, in his broken English, he asked if Henry likes Oreos. This morning, he showed up with a package of Oreos and two boxes of crackers for Henry (he works at Nabisco). Who does things like that for random people they pass on a morning walk? I'm telling you, people can be amazing. I tend to like them.

Conversation between me and Latina woman at church yesterday

(Jenn)
Her: (reaching to rub my belly) Seester, you pregnant?
Me: Nope, not pregnant.
Her: What? No, not pregnant? You sure?
Me: Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
Her: (continuting to rub my belly in amazement) But your belly, so Round!
Me: Just fat, I guess.

I guess the major differences between how she handled the conversation and how I would have are: 1) I would have NEVER asked that question in the first place, and 2) If I had asked the question, I probably would have stopped when she said "Nope, not pregnant."
Ah, the beauties of cultural differences!

Caramel Candy Corn

(Jenn) Ben and I went to Target the other night specifically looking for candy, and I was excited to see that the Halloween candy was out on the shelves in full bloom. I immediately thought of candy corn, and when we finally found it amid the flood of chocolate, we were excited to see a new variety: Brach's Caramel Candy Corn. Anyone who loves candy corn (I know many people don't) will know that Brach's is by far the only brand worth buying. Brach's also makes excellent Milk Maid caramels, and so naturally, their Caramel Candy Corn is a winning combination. They kind of have the taste of buttery caramel popcorn. If you don't like candy corn, caramel, or those buttered popcorn jelly bellies, you might not like these. But for those of you who agree with my taste in candy, I just had to recommend them! Happy Autumn (okay, not officially until this Sunday, but we can still enjoy it, right?)!

Sunbeam Song

(Jenn) Henry got to practice playing the piano and singing at the same time while we were at my Mom's house. He doesn't sing very many songs, but "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" is one of his favorites. While we were all in another room, we suddenly heard Henry pounding on the keys and intermittently yelling out "beam!" and "him!" It was pretty funny. This clip shows him singing and playing both with and without help from Dad:



Sunbeam Song from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Fancy Blue Car

(Jenn) Henry would highly recommend the book "Who is Driving?" by Leo Timmers. Each page shows a different kind of vehicle (wonderfully illustrated), and you get to guess which animal will be driving that particular car! It's pretty fun. One of the vehicles in the book is a "fancy blue car" -- basically a fancy blue Chevrolet from the 50's, similar to the car pictured on the left. Henry was thrilled when he discovered that my Grandpa Griffin actually OWNS a fancy-blue-car, and he is currently storing it in my dad's garage! You might have seen in the slide show below that Henry got to play in the fancy-blue-car while we were in Utah. He was in Heaven! The funniest thing about it is that he hasn't quite figured out that the "blue" in fancy-blue-car actually signifies the color of the car. I guess he thinks that any 1954 Chevy would be called a fancy-blue-car. Listen closely on this clip to find out what color the fancy-blue-car actually is:



Fancy Blue Car from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.