Henry's Birthday Party

We are so fortunate to have so many people that came to celebrate Henry's first birthday with us. We'd really been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. It it always fun to get together with everyone and especially to celebrate our amazing little boy. 

The weekend, however, did not start out well. I was supposed to have baseball games to cover Friday night, but after it rained most of the day they got cancelled. I was so happy to have the whole evening to prepare for the party. But the rain we thought was a blessing turned out to be a curse. When Nick and I arrived home from work we quickly (but not quickly enough) realized that the drain on our walkout was clogged and we had 1-2inches of standing water on it. This could only mean one thing, our basement was flooded as well. The water had leaked in through the door and our entire carpet was soaked. I mean soaked. When you stood on it the water came up between your toes. So Nick headed to Kroger to get a Rug Doctor and my good friend Mindy came over to watch Henry while we quickly moved everything to dry land. Nick spent the next 4 hours running the Rug Doctor with only a short break for dinner. Thankfully his parents came down with another fan and a de-humidifier. It was dry enough for my brother to sleep down there on Saturday night. Luckily we are only going to lose one bookshelf (shelf only no books) and the carpet is all dry now and there isn't ant smell. Needless, to say this not how we needed to spend the evening with 20+ people heading over the next day.

But the show must go on and we had decided on a baseball theme for our All-Star. Many would think this would cause some arguments in our house. In case you don't know Nick is an avid Reds fan and I a Cardinals. So which would we choose? I mean you can't have both. Well I guess you could. But what it came down to was the Reds/Cardinals themed decorations, plates, etc were twice as expensive at Party City. So generic baseball it was. We had a great time and enjoy the pictures below. Thanks you everyone that came from near and far to celebrate. We are so appreciative to have friends and family that love Henry so much. 

The shirt that I made for the birthday boy.

The birthday banner I made for Henry. 

Our "concession stand" that had sunflower seeds, peanuts, popcorn and cracker jacks. 

The awesome! cake made by our friend Stacey. 

Singing "Happy Birthday" He loved it. 

Henry is 1!

Ok, this happened yesterday, we know. But I wanted to wait to post until we had his one year "stats." We went to the doctor today and he is looking great! Growing like a weed no surprise there of course. He is healthy and happy and we couldn't be more pleased. He is very close to walking and has even taken a couple unassisted steps, but overall he isn't that interested and is more concerned with going places quickly and that means on all fours. He says "dada" all the time and has said "mama" occasionally. He babbles a ton but nothing that really is discernible. He loves to stack things and put things away or together. He loves his bear, Mickey, trucks and being outside. He is the sweetest little boy and gives us kisses all the time. The adjective that is used to describe him most often right now is "busy." He's on the move and shows no sign of slowing down. 

Yesterday I had softball games to cover but Nick and Henry came to visit. I am very lucky to have a job where that is possible. We went out to St. Louis Bread Co. (or Panera if you so choose) for dinner. We also, of course did the obligatory cupcake and let him get it all over himself. It was a great day and we are excited for Saturday when we get to celebrate our little All-Star with friends and family. 

Below are his one year stats. Like I said, he's off the charts on height but that's to be expected. There's also a couple cupcake pictures. 

HENRY JOSEPH MEYER

12 MONTHS!

32 inches (100%)

26.5lbs (75%)

Henry and His Bear

Henry's first week we took a picture of him with this bear:

For the next 51 weeks we took a picture every week. Some weeks it was at the end of the week and sometimes we couldn't get him to sit still. We missed only one week in all that time and we put them together a video. I've been trying to imbed the video in this post but it hasn't been working, so here's the link to Henry and His Bear. It's amazing seeing them altogether in one segment. He has grown so much and it such an amazing part of our lives. He truly is a blessing. Enjoy! 

New Orleans

A bit of a delay on this post but we wanted to share some pictures from the GREAT time we had in New Orleans at Lou and Christal's wedding. Back in April. 

This was an exciting trip for many reasons. I had never been to New Orleans and Nick had only been as a teenager. It was a great chance for us to get away and it would be my first time away from Henry. Needless to say, we were very anxious about leaving him, but still very excited for the trip. 

We headed out on Wednesday and stayed the night in Birmingham, AL. We planned on letting ourselves sleep in and waking up *whenever* and moving on to New Orleans in the morning. This plan was thwarted by the construction on the outside of our hotel at 7:30am.

So we were up and out and on our way to New Orleans and got there in plenty of time to visit Jackson Square with drinks in hand. It was a beautiful day and it was wonderful to walk around and be touristy before the rest of our family arrived on Friday. Below are a few pictures from our walk around the square. 

St. Louis Cathedral

Friday we woke up and headed out for a walking tour with some family and wedding guests. Unfortunately it was in the rain but we did get to have our first beignets and my brother and dad arrived. That night the bride and groom hosted a cocktail hour and got the festivities started out on the right foot. We headed out to Bourbon Street after that and the rest, as they say, is history. Here's some Friday pictures: 

Our adorable tour guide in the rain.

Nick and I before the cocktail hour. 

Jimmy and I on Bourbon Street.

Finally it was the day of the wedding and we got to be a part of something SO cool. There is a New Orleans tradition called a "2nd Line". It started with funerals and has become a part of traditional New Orleans weddings. After the ceremony, they opened the doors and there was a small band that led us around the streets of New Orleans, even down Bourbon Street, in a dancing parade of sorts. It was something that I can't imagine I'll ever be part of again but it was so much fun! Here's pictures of that:

The marching band.

The Bride and Groom

Getting ready to go.

The Groom's Parents.

Nick and I during the 2nd Line

Band back at the reception hall.

It was such a great weekend and we are so glad we could be there to celebrate with Christal and Lou. :)