Oh...the past 12 months or so

Since I'm not a regular blogger by any means, I thought I would take this time to lay out these past 12 months of our lives.  Mostly everyone in our lives are aware of these events so basically I'm blogging this for my own selfish reasons.  So I can remember this when I'm 50.  :)

1.) Found out that we were pregnant again in Oct. 2012!
2.) Bought a new house in Dec 2012
3.) Sold our sweet Webster house in Feb 2013
4.) Moved into our new house in Des Peres in March 2013
5.) Luke turned 2 in April
6.) And we welcomed our new baby boy, Henry Stephen on June 13th, 2013!

So I'll go ahead and start off with June 13th, 2013.  It was a day we'll never forget.  :) 

My pregnancy with Henry was pretty great overall.  My symptoms were very similar as they were with Luke, except for the fact that I sprained my ankle at 12 weeks and had two rounds of the flu.  That wasn't fun.  I was carrying mostly out front - just like I did the last time.  We decided not to find out the gender once again.  It's just too great of a surprise and the gender didn't matter to us either way.  The whole time my gut feeling was "boy" and since Henry had the exact same kidney abnormality in the womb that Luke did, I was 75% sure it was another little guy.  His left kidney was dilated in repeat ultrasounds, which is common in boys.  So I was somewhat prepared for more blue in the house.  Henry's delivery was the POLAR opposite of Luke's.  My water broke 6 weeks early with Luke and 19 hours later we had our sweet boy.  With Henry we knew his birthday would be June 13th.  We scheduled the c-section at 20 weeks.  I was so incredibly nervous for the delivery.  I guess the unknown is less scary.  Anyway, we walked into the hospital at 7am knowing that we'd have our baby in less than 6 hours.  The whole morning was calm and cool just like our little Henry.  He arrived at 12:18pm.  7lbs 3oz and 20.5in.  He was perfect with a full head of dark hair.  We were surprised by his size as we thought he'd at least be in the 8lb range considering how much both Scott and I weighed at birth.  We named him Henry (after my Grandpa Walkenbach).  His middle name is Stephen which is after Scott's dad.  The whole experience was wonderful.  I was up moving around the next day and my recovery was much smoother than it was with Luke.  We didn't know how we would love another little guy as much as we love Luke, but as everyone always says, it happened immediately.  Here are some pictures!  He looks a lot like his big brother.

 

 

     

 

Fall Fun

Fall is upon us and we can smell the leaves, pumpkin pies and Football!  Speaking of football, this is currently one of Luke's favorite words.  Maybe b/c Scott has been drilling this in his head as of September 2012 when Mizzou kicked off their first game in the SEC.  Regardless, it's adorable when Luke says it and obviously we ask him to repeat it over and over.  Luke basically repeats anything we say now so we've been forced to watch our words.  Some other hilarious Luke-isms are, "Yeah Beebee" (we're trying to teach him to say "Yeah Baby" when the cardinals score) and when we say "Jayhawk" he now shakes his head "No" and says "Booooooooooooo".  We're proud of that one.  Sorry Uncle Mook :) He also says, "More Peeeeees" trying to say, "More Please" and he's really exceeding our expections on becoming the biggest mooch for food on the block.  As soon as either of us sit down with a snack, Luke is right there in front of us, saying "More Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeees".  Oh boy! 

This past weekend we had a great time at the Des Peres Fall Festival and then the Pumpkin Patch at Struckmeyers Farm.  Here are some pictures! 

Serious little guy - especially when tractors are involved.

 Dada's so funny

 

 More interested in playing in the dirt than looking at pumpkins.

 We love Fall!!!

Birthday

It's been awhile since I last blogged so I thought today would be a good time to update everyone on what's been going on with the Tenholders these last few months! Things have been great and Luke is growing so fast. His first birthday was on April 20th. Here a few pictures showing all the celebrations. I think Scott and I had more fun celebrating than Luke actually did. We can hardly believe what a big boy he is now. Here are a few pictures of his actual bday.

 

 

 We visited the NICU at St. John's Mercy since he spent some time there after he was born.

 

 

 The Grandparents came over for dinner and helped us celebrate!

 

 

 Luke's first birthday cake made by Grandma Walkenbach.  It was an old family tradition - banana cake.  My Grandma Mark would make this all the time.  It was a success - Luke loved it!

 

 

 Scott and I bought Luke a radio flyer scooter.  It's a little big for him now but I'm sure he'll love it next summer.

 

 

We also threw Luke a big party on May 5th, 2012.  We invited all of our family and closest friends.  Luke was an angel the entire time - even without a nap.  He got some great gifts!  Thanks to everyone for coming and celebrating this milestone with us.  Here are a few pictures from the day.  We decided to make it a "Little Man" theme.  Thanks to Chrissy for designing this adorable invitation! 

 

And here are some pictures from the day!

 

 

 

    

It was a perfect day - we're very lucky!

Christmas with the Tenholder's!

It's hard to believe that Christmas was already 3 weeks ago.  Scott and I had a great time with Luke this year.  Even though he was too young to really enjoy the holiday it was still priceless watching him discover all the new things around him.  The first one being the big man...that is, Santa Claus himself.  Scott and I thought we were being smart by waiting until the last week before Christmas to take Luke to sit on Santa's lap.  Brilliant...I know.  Anyway, several people, including my mom had told me that the Frontenac Santa was by far the best, so that's where we decided to go.  We also thought that by going in the middle of the day, we would miss the after work crowd.  We were wrong.  We waited in line for 2 hours!  Luke was an angel the entire wait.  He was hamming it up for everyone in line.  Blasting big smiles to the lady in front of us and babbling the cutest little noises.  That's when we got to Santa.  His little, chubby, happy face immediately turned terrified.  He analyzed the white beard for a good minute before the bottom lip started quivering.  So for Luke's first picture with Santa, it was the typical cliche photo of Santa and the screaming child.  Like I said before, priceless.     

Halloween and Fall Fun

We've had a great Fall in the Tenholder house!  It's been fun playing outside with Luke, watching Mizzou football games and of course cheering on our St. Louis Cardinals.  We've stayed busy with family get togethers and Scott and I also went out of town for our 3rd anniversary so Luke got to spend some time with his grandparents.  All in all, it's been a fun first fall with the little guy.  Here are a few pictures from the last couple of months...

 Luke thinks he's so big with his big cousin, Kaitlyn.  He loves her :)

 Luke and Jack Tenholder at Jack's baptism in October.  FYI - Luke was in a cool polo and Jack was in a dress this time.  haha - had to get you back, Jack :)

 Luke's first time at the Pumpkin Patch!

 Just picking some cool music out with Dad...

 Luke the angry lion!

 Luke and his Grandma and Grandpa Tenholder with all the Tenholder cousins.  This family is literally growing by the year...SO fun to watch all these kids grow up

 

 Grandpa Walkenbach and Lukeman

  I tried to get a picture with Tess and Luke, but Tess was really confused and not cooperating.  :( Poor rat.