What's Going On?

We are in full blown beginning of the year mode! Getting back into the swing of things after moving and all of the fun Christmas events we had going on last month. John and I are now finally able to put our energy into building our house.We have picked a plan and we met with our builder and the draftsman {not sure if that is the term - basically he will be engineering the plans} to go over the tweaks we want to make on the plans. So far it is so much fun to dream up all of the fun stuff we want in a house. I hope to have fun blogging the process! For now I am on Pinterest daily scoping out ideas. Of course we cannot do everything we want all at one time, but the first focus will be the kitchen; putting our money into the heart of the home.

I have become a horrible mom never taking pictures. I need to take my camera back to the store to be sent off for repair again. The focus is all off and it messes up the pictures. I did grab a few shots this weekend though! Heidi and Harrison are growing so fast and I want to have every moment documented. They are so sweet and lovable - to me and to each other.

Poor Harrison cannot seem to catch a break with ear infections, croup, teething...something is always going on with him. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. He has had 6 teeth come in the past month, but I think we are about to have a little break for a little while.

Heidi is living the dream right now. We are staying at my parents' house while we build {we have tenants in our house} and my parents are staying at their newly renovated cottage on the river, but they are back and forth - so Heidi is pretty much loving having her grandparents here all of the time. We are building next door and Heidi is super excited about that as well! My little girl is growing up much faster than I am comfortable with. She recites things like the pledge to the American flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible at random. Ever since Hudson's birthday she has been asking questions about death, why Hudson had to die, why God is so big and we are so small - you know, small talk like that. Stab my heart - questions like that make me break out in hives.

Harrison loves to play with all of Heidi's toys!

Heidi loves to do anything with her kitchen stuff.

First Heidi shows Harrison the proper way to pose for a picture with paint!

I think we have another water baby! This little guy LOVES to be in the bath. You turn the water on and he is leaping out of our arms to jump in the water. Usually when I am about to put him to bed Heidi is taking her bath and he tries to leap in the tub with her when telling her good night. The pool is going to be interesting this year, that is for sure!

Walking With You - Naming Hudson

I have been following a blog called The Beauty of Sufficient Grace and Kelly, the founder, has created Sufficient Grace Ministries to help those that has lost a child. On her blog she has created a study called Walking With You where women tell their stories, read each others grieving, while praying for each other and helping to comfort one another.

Comforting Others With the Comfort We Have Received

(2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

This week (well, last week really, but I was away on vacation without internet access - and yes I will post back dated posts on my vacation!) we were asked to share about naming our children. John and I named our little boy Hudson Greer Henninger. Why? Because we liked the way it sounded. We wanted a name that was different, unique and something that flowed well. During our pregnancy we didn't tell anyone the name of our baby - we still hadn't quite decided ourselves.

John researched some names and we saw Hudson and then Greer and we really liked the way it sounded. No one else we knew of had that name and it was unique. So, for most of the pregnancy we called him Hudson. Before we even knew we were pregnant I wanted to name our child Cooper Folsom (Folsom was my grandfather/great-grandfather/uncle's name), but John's sister was dating (now engaged) to a guy with the last name of Cooper - we felt that would either be confusing if they got married (because they were only dating at the time) or be a hard reminder to her if they were to break up. John also wanted our first child's name to be something that we came up with all our own. We have plans for our other names when we have more children (Folsom, Thomas, etc - so if any friends or family members are reading this those names are taken and do not use them =) thanks!).

Right before we found out that Hudson was gone John and I had really started researching names and trying to pick out just the perfect name for our little guy. I remember we kept going back to Hudson each time, so when John met me up at the doctor's office he said, "well, we have a name for our first son - Hudson Greer". There was no way we could have saved that name and used it for another child. It would only remind us of our first little boy.

...and so it begins...

Today starts the anniversaries of Hudson's life. One year ago today is when John and I found out we were expecting our little boy...I can still remember the whole day like it just happened today - I even remember what I was wearing. Here is the post from when we found out the exciting news.

Scrapbooks and Savoring Memories

Throughout our entire pregnancy I kept a scrapbook - I scrapbook for everything. I had dreams of telling Hudson, "This is what mommy looked like while you were growing in her belly" and fun things like that. The first pages were filled with the three pregnancy tests I took and followed by belly pictures and ultrasounds. I sent out monthly e-mail updates to friends and family including the progressing belly growth and added those e-mails as well as responses to the book - coordinating with the month they were from or when ultrasounds were taken. Within the book I had pages where I had already set up the pages to add the future pictures we would take - the arrival of Hudson, a page for his first guests to sign, a page titled "from hospital to home". There was a page labeled for each month - January thru March to track his last three months inside of my belly and then April through December for pictures of Hudson. I had a section ready for his "firsts"...so many pages ready to be filled out.
Some of the pages will never be completely finished and those I took out, but the rest I left. I added pictures of Hudson's arrival and pictures of our family holding him for the first time - to say hello and goodbye. Hudson deserved that - we loved him beginning July 20, 2008 at 6:30 PM when I took that first pregnancy test and we will still love him for the rest of our lives. We even finished what we were able to of Hudson's baby book. So much will remain blank, but we wanted to remember all about Hudson; everything needed to be recorded so that nothing would be forgotten. We laid out Hudson's books and all of our friends and family were delighted at being able to see our little one as he progressed those 30 weeks. Some friends were even inspired to finish their own scrapbooks they had started over a year ago =)
The hospital took many copies of Hudson's little foot prints and we have those in his book as well as on a "Memory" certificate the hospital made for him. The certificate includes a small piece of his thick beautiful hair - we knew he would have a head full of hair! John and I framed the blue certificate in a white frame with a white matte and then added his monogramming (wooded letters John spray painted black) at the bottom of the glass on the frame. To hold the frame we bought a black wooden stand. My sister bought us a plaster kit for hand-prints; the nurses made Hudson's hand-print and added the plaster so we will always have a little hand molded for us to have. Eventually we will have a shadow box made to display the hand as well as the handmade (my mother crocheted) blanket we kept. We opted not have leave the blanket with Hudson and decided to keep it because it had his sweet smell lingering. The smell of Hudson was the best smell we have ever experienced. John and I did, however, give Hudson a new blanket because all babies need a blanket - especially since it is winter and cold.