Oh, the Places You'll Go: photo recap

I have fallen behind on documenting all the celebrating we've been doing lately, so I thought I'd put it all together in one looooong photo post! Hope you don't mind :)

On December 17, we headed north to Cedar Falls for Dameon's graduation from UNI. He is now official Master's Degree in Principalship holder. (is that the right word? holder? i dunno...i'm not the one with the master's degree.) It was a long and grueling two and a half years for him, writing paper after paper, going to three hours worth of class every Wednesday night (plus way more in the summers), and going through lots of life changes along the way. We are all so proud of him for finishing and finishing ON TIME! It was especially neat to have Henry there, since he was just a dream of ours when the whole thing began back in August of 2009. After the ceremony, we went out to lunch at one of our favorite Cedar Valley restaurants: Bourbon Street. Yum!

The next day was the much-anticipated birthday party. We bustled around all morning decorating the fabulous Madison County Dessert Factory for the occasion. We were so very grateful to the Bonham Family for letting us use their space. And their cake? Outta this world! The party was a great success and we were so appreciative to our friends and family who made the trip to celebrate with us. Of course, Henry didn't like all the attention one bit. ;)

On the actual day of his birthday, I took Henry to jazz band rehearsal (per our usual Monday night routine) so he could celebrate with Daddy and the kids. An extra bonus was that we got rid of all our leftover candy and cupcakes. Dang, those kids can eat!

The week of Christmas was spent preparing goodies that I hadn't had time to do up to that point, wrapping gifts, and catching up on laundry. On Thursday we were supposed to take Henry for his one-year pictures and then we had planned to have dinner with the Lafrenz's. About a block from home, the realization that we may not have escaped the stomach flu set in as Henry got sick in his carseat. We turned the car around and canceled our plans, but still had hope that it was just a one-time thing. Nope. Henry continued to get sick off and on for the next few days. Then, as much as we tried to think positive, Dameon and I both got hit on Christmas Eve night and spent the entire night sick and trying to take care of the little guy. It was bad. On Christmas morning, Henry was seemingly on the mend, so we let him open a few gifts while we layed on the couch. I did manage to snap a few pictures of the poor guy...

THANKFULLY my parents stopped by our house on their way home from my grandparents' and took Henry to their house for the afternoon so Dameon and I could catch up on rest. We felt so bad sending him away on Christmas, but it just had to be done. I'm sure he had more fun anyway. Our families were kind enough to postpone their Christmas gatherings for us, so on the 26th we headed to Zach and Jess's.

Then on to Boone for Christmas with my family on the 27th. Here's Henry on his refurbished trike from Uncle Blake. He loves it! Especially the bell that says "I love my mom."