Hendrix 2014

*The weird mechanical sound in a lot of the backgrounds is my pump. I exclusively pumped
for 7 months, so it was pretty much constantly going!

Merry Christmas

December part 1

Doing December in two parts! Trying to be a bit more proactive on the blog!

My sweet boys!

Seriously I cannot get enough of this perfect face. I take a lot
of picture of Hendrix sleeping, he is going to think I'm a total weirdo
when he is old enough to know what is going on.

Cuddles right up to sleep!

I don't even know what is going on here.....

Bittersweet moment! We had to say good bye to one of our best friends,
Shelby, as she finished school and moved on to her next adventure!
While we will always stay friends and keep in touch, we will definitely
miss her cheery face, even if she did frequently school us in Phase 10!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Aldrich gave Hex a Christmas present.
It was his first one! He was seriously so excited about it. Also,
look at that tongue!

Reading the paper with Great Grandpa!

Dylan and I went to Baker to help Dad with some inventory
and met up with Mom and the Carlson's for lunch! Olive has the sweetest
little voice when she says "Hey Hendooo"

Partway through inventory the boy passed out!
We made a little nest of jackets so he could be cozy while he slept :)

Edgington's Visit!

Natalie and Aaron came and visited for a weekend. Dylan built them some night stands, so they came to pick those up. Dylan and Aaron went hunting a few times, but weren't successful. It's been unseasonably warm this year and the bird hunting has been terrible! Natalie and I went to a glass blowing workshop and made Christmas ornaments. We also made 2 batches of soap (pear basil bar and pear oatmeal shaving bar, the house smelled divine!), made a reindeer holiday craft, watched all the holiday movies, ate delicious food (at 4 batch of chocolate chip cookies!), and played about 15 rounds of Dominion, no exaggeration! It was so fun to have them here and was great to have some one-on-one time with their family!

November

November was so fun but went by SO FAST! I cannot believe it's December already! 

Carly and I did Christmas Mini Sessions together. It entailed a mini photoshoot with Carly and a custom Christmas card from me. We had 3 families sign up for the first weekend. This was our first attempt at something like this so we didn't want to get too carried away. It was a hit! We had such great feedback that we ended up doing a second weekend and booked 4 more families! We are already talking about how we can make next year even better.

This boy LOOOVES food and is doing fantastic eating solids! He doesn't
put a lot of things in his mouth (except Atticus's antler. How does he always
find that thing?!?) and doesn't enjoy "finger foods" yet so still not feeding himself
but he likes to play with the spoons!

Sleeping. With his legs straight up. For quite a while.

Hendrix found my boot in the living room and would not let go!
Dylan picked him up and the boot came with him. He carried it around the house
and just laughed at it.

Cousin time! "King Max" and "Hendrix the Great"
(according to Olive) are best buds already!

Nana got Hex a snowsuit and, clearly, it's the most adorable thing ever.
He likes wearing it too!

Carly, Glenda, and I found out last minute about a Christmas Bazaar in
Baker and decided to participate. We quickly gathered our crafty things
and set up a booth! Carly sold Usborne Books (which, btw, are awesome)
and some scrappy Christmas lights that Stella helped make.
Glenda sold various sewing projects (her American Doll dresses and
baby bibs were huge hits) and I sold soap and chapstick. It was so much fun!

Dads were hunting so the babies came too! Hendo sleeping despite the noise

Cousin Cuddles!

Couple of buds hanging out

We spend Thanksgiving with Dylan's family this year. We went to Haines Wednesday night and spent the night and did the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning. It was a 5k and the entire family (including Tom and Glenda, even though I didn't get a picture with them!!) did it! It's pet friendly, which is fun, so we brought our dogs and had a great time!

Ready for Thanksgiving Feast!

Since it is officially "Christmas Season" I couldn't wait
to introduce Hex to some of the classics. We started with Rudolf
and although he slept through a lot of it, I think Hendrix learned some
valuable lessons!

Too broke to Black Friday shop, but there wasn't anything I wanted anyway. I spent the
day making soap! I'm so grateful my sister Lisa got me started on this hobby. I'm
totally consumed by it now.

Jess and Terrah are moving back to La Grande! We are so excited! We helped them move in.
Troy is just 10 days younger than Hendrix. It was so fun to see these boys interact.

Hunting Season!

We have been blessed this year with hunting. Dylan got his buck opening day! He has had successful duck hunts as well, and it's second season spike elk right now. Tom got his spike yesterday (Friday) and Kyle and Sean got here last night and are out with Dylan right now! They weren't successful on their morning hunt but had a good time, came home for a quick nap, and went back out! Hendrix and I spent some time hunting too, but mostly we just watched from the warm truck :)

Dylan's buck

Tom's buck

Our freezer is full again!

Dad teaching Hendo about duck hunting and shot guns

Tom's Elk

Update: The boys didn't get their elk unfortunately! But they did go out duck hunting Monday morning and had a great time. The temperature is in the negatives but that hasn't stopped them!

The boys left early in the morning to hunt elk, came home for lunch and a quick nap,
and headed out again to hunt at dusk. The mighty hunters crashed hard!

Kyle and Hendrix had so much fun together. They were being so sweet and
I had to get a picture! My bright flash took them off guard.

Hendrix was ready to go hunting too!