Four months

Chad turned four months old on September 5.

We took him in for his well-baby checkup and here are his stats:
Weight: 15 pounds 5 ounces (45%)
Length: 25 ¼ inches (48%)

Time is flying by and our boy is keeping us entertained. He loves to grab onto everything in front of him, put things in his mouth, and play in his “gym.” He has become very vocal and loves to “talk,” sometimes very loudly! He has an adorable smile and loves to show it off to people…when he is in the mood.

Chad has been quite the traveler over the past month, flying from Seattle to Boston for a trip to Maine, then flying to Oklahoma, and then to Minnesota! He did really well on the plane with the exception of crying on one of the descents. (This mommy, who did four of five plane rides with Chad, is really glad we are not doing any more flying for awhile.)

We just bought Chad a highchair and have enjoyed being able to eat with him in his chair at the dinner table. As I looked at him sitting in it I could not believe how big and grown up he looks!

Tummy time

"I'm getting good at holding my head up!"

Just hanging out on the Boppy

"Did you just take another picture of me?"

"Let's see if I can fit my fist ALL the way into my mouth. Yummm..."

It's gonna get crazy...

Last week we got word that Joe's terminal leave got approved- meaning from August 11 until September 7 he is technically still in the Navy but on leave/vacation time! Yay! Lately Joe has been working a lot, often not getting home until very late (for example, tonight it's 8:30pm and he's still at work. Boo.) So we are especially excited that in a few short weeks, submarine work life will end- permanently!

In the meantime, we are preparing to transition out of the Navy world that has influenced our lives since the very beginning of our relationship four years ago. In the beginning of August, Chad and I are going to Maine to visit family for a week. Then we return and prepare to move all of our stuff to Oklahoma! Joe will be driving both cars from Washington to Oklahoma and supervising the movers and cleaning up our apartment. I'll be flying with Chad to Oklahoma and taking care of him. Once we get finished with that, we're all going to Minnesota to visit Joe's family and friends. Then he will pack up all his belongings there and drive them back to Oklahoma in a U-Haul.

For right now, our things will be going into storage as we look for work, decide if Joe will be going to college on the GI Bill, and decide where to live.

It's going to be a busy August, we appreciate your prayers!

The $50 School Supplies Challenge!

The bargain shopper is back! This summer I wanted to challenge myself to get as many school supplies as I could for $50. I will be giving these to Children of the Nations to support the education of orphaned and destitute children in Africa and the Dominican Republic. While I was volunteering there I heard about some teachers who brought pencils to the children in Malawi. Upon receiving them, the children immediately broke them in half! The reason? Now they had two pencils instead of just one. I hope to encourage that same spirit of resourcefulness and love for education.

I have to say, I love finding a great deal and stretching dollars as far as possible. It's fun! I think I could have gotten even more for $50, but having Chad makes shopping a little more time consuming so I limited myself to shopping at 3 stores (Staples, Walgreens and Walmart.)

Some of the highlights of what I got:
20 one subject notebooks for $0.15 each at Walmart
25 composition books for $0.50 each at Walmart
60 pens for $1.14 at Walgreens

60 pencils for $1.74 at Walgreens

Almost every item I bought was $1 or less!

What's for Dinner?

For the past several months, I have been in a pretty good routine of planning out what we have to eat each week. My general goal is to make a plan for what we're eating for either the next week or two, then create a grocery list based on that and go shopping. 

This has really helped me because I no longer scramble at dinnertime trying to figure out what I'm making and if I have everything I need to make it. As a result of this, we eat out less often. I can plan to use my crockpot during the day so meat is ready at night. I can switch up the meals I've planned for the week if I want to. I have a list of the meals we like so I can refer to it and not have to remember all of them each time I'm planning a menu.

This is what's cooking this week... I know you are so curious.

Breakfasts- Blueberry muffins, homemade banana bread

Sunday- Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce, Fresh Green Beans

Monday- leftovers

Tuesday- cooking day: Cottage Cheese Chicken Enchiladas, Ritzy Chicken Casserole (I'll freeze some of this to use for future weeks)

Wednesday- Joe has duty, I'm off the hook!

Thursday- leftovers from Tuesday

Friday- simple dinner- like frozen pizza or something microwaveable

Saturday- Grilled pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Another idea I may start implementing soon is to have a theme for each day of the week, like pasta on one day, stir fry on the next, soup/salad etc.

What works for you when you are preparing meals for your family?

If you're interested in Menu Planning, check out this post on Simple Mom, which inspired my post here today.

Two month photos

The two month checkup and countdown

Chad had his two month well baby checkup yesterday! He weighed in at 12 pounds, 1.5 ounces and measured almost 24 inches long. He also got his first round of vaccines (poor little guy! He did really well, considering.) 

Our little guy has been smiling and cooing more and building up leg strength. He is working on rolling over (and gets especiallly close when he's mad!)

As Chad turns two months old, Joe and I are counting down! Two months left until Joe's five year Navy enlistment ends. His official last day is September 7, but we are hoping he may be able to take leave before that so we can have time to move. Our prayer, hope, and plan is that Joe will be able to find a job in Oklahoma so we can be near family.

Some recent photos...

A bunch of babies

On Monday, we had a reunion of my pregnancy centering class- everyone brought their babies! The babies were born between the end of March and mid-May. It was fun to catch up with everyone and share stories and relate since we're all going through similar things right now with our little ones. And Chad enjoyed meeting some new friends.

Chad is one month!

Chad turned one month old on June 5! We are amazed at how the time has gone by, howhe has grown, and the new things he is doing. We are so thankful that Joe's leave was extended and he has had so much time off for us to be at home as a family.

New milestones reached in the last month:
- He started smiling!
- He has longer periods of being awake and entertains himself by playing on the floor in his "gym" or with his hippo mobile above him.
- He has been sleeping for longer periods at night (yay!)

Other fun facts:
- He loves to be near the light
- He has a good appetite
- He entertains himself by looking in the mirror
- He seems to like car rides
- He likes being carried around in our Baby Bjorn baby carrier
- He moves his head around with great force and likes to headbutt if hungry!
- He gets the hiccups often

Meet our baby Chad!

With great joy we welcomed our son, Chad Noah Henderson, into the world on May 5, 2009 at 4:11 am. He was 6 pounds and 13 ounces, and 20.5 inches long. I was blessed to have a healthy pregnancy and a relatively complication free (but certainly not pain free!) labor experience. As an answer to many prayers, Joe was able to be home for the baby's birth and about a week afterward.

After much deliberation we were able to settle on the name Chad. There weren't many boys names that I really liked, but Joe liked the name Chad. It is also the name of his uncle whom he never met, because he passed away at a young age. Chad Babcock (Joe's uncle) was known for having a close relationship with his father (Joe's grandfather), and Joe hopes that he, too, will have a close bond with our son. We chose Noah for the middle name to honor God- as Noah had great faith in his time, we hope our son will have faith in Christ as well.

The countdown begins!

The countdown begins for baby Henderson's arrival! It's only a week and a half until my due date- April 29. However, I have a hunch that our little boy will be arriving sometime after that. Maybe it's because I was two weeks late as a baby and so was Joe. Maybe it's because everyone is telling me that I haven't dropped yet and it's going to be awhile. (Thank you, lay obstetricians of the world.) Anyway, I'm trying to prepare myself for the possibility of him being as late as May 13. It's a little weird to be buying food with expiration dates past my due date. Baby continues to keep us entertained, especially me as in the past few weeks I have noticed him hiccuping!


Overall I am feeling pretty good, with the exception of having a 6 or 7 pound weight around my belly making movement a little awkward, which is to be expected. I've been really grateful to have some time at home to get things ready for the baby and just relax. 38 week pictures coming soon, I hope.

34 Week Photos

Taken in our backyard, it has finally warmed up to 50 degrees!!

I think this shirt is cute! A friend gave it to me recently.

Me laughing at Joe being silly.

One of Joe's favorite photos.

34 weeks, the Baby Stuff Invasion, and LOTS of diapers

Wow- so here we are at the 34 week mark of the pregnancy. (Updated photo coming soon...) At the most we have 6-8 weeks left before Baby Henderson arrives. We are so excited to meet him.

A quick update on me & the pregnancy- I continue to do well and be healthy, thankfully. Mostly I'm just continuing to get larger (and I still have a big appetite)! I have had a bit of upper rib pain as baby continues to take over more and more space. "Little Legs" has been kicking and moving around quite a bit in the last couple weeks, with movements sometimes visible on the outside of my tummy. Fun! Sometimes I will find an hand or foot (not sure which) and push into it a little bit with my hand. Little Legs will sometimes kick back as if to say "Hey! My spot! Let me be, Mom!" I'm now going to the doctor every two weeks instead of every week.

As Little Legs (or Baby Beluga as Joe sometimes calls him) continues to make his presence known, our home is being invaded by baby stuff! In addition to the gifts we received at the shower and the things we bought so far, we had two friends from Joe's submarine with boys give us a ton of clothes and other useful things. We bought a dresser/changing table from Babies R Us last week and I am borrowing a rocking chair from a friend.

Finally, as most of you know I've become a more frugal shopper this year, and I got a big kick out of of stocking up on diapers with coupons and great deals. (I was excited to find this post and all the great comments about stockpiling them on Money Saving Mom.) Would you believe that I have over 700 diapers and over 700 baby wipes? Now let's just hope that Baby H doesn't have an allergic reaction to Huggies or I will cry!

Baby Shower Photos

The ladies I work with each week in the COTN Communications Department- Karen, Suzy, (me), and Pam.

Karen hosted the shower in her beautiful home.

When people tried to estimate the size of my pregnant belly, some were just a "little" off...

Awww... cute froggie outfit. One of many nice gifts.

All the lovely COTN ladies who came to the shower!

Me and Baby H. at 31 weeks!

The peanut butter and jelly themed cake! Thanks Pam!

My other cake, made out of diapers and receiving blankets. Thanks to crafty Karen!

A wonderful baby shower

On Saturday February 28, my friends at Children of the Nations hosted a wonderful baby shower for me. I feel blessed to work beside and know these ladies personally during the past almost year of volunteering there. My friend Karen hosted the shower at her lovely home and my friend and supervisor Pam was her right-hand woman helping with the details. I have worked with both of these ladies every week in the Communications Department at COTN.
We enjoyed visiting and played some shower games, including "guess the size of Aimee's belly by estimating it with this piece of string." Though I didn't compete for a prize, my guess was almost exactly how big around I am. Some people apparently thought I was pregnant with octuplets by the length of their string! We also had a fun peanut butter and jelly cake... since after all, I will soon be transitioning to meals consisting of those ingredients. :)
I received many wonderful and thoughtful gifts and enjoyed hearing all the wisdom shared by the moms at the shower.

All dressed up!

Here is my handsome sailor all dressed up in his "dress blues." On Friday, February 20 they had a change of command ceremony to transition from one captain to the next. I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to get some nice photos in his dress uniform, since who knows how many more times he will be dressed up like this? We are thankful for our friend Annie who was nice enough to do these pictures (she has a talent for photography just like Joe.)

30 weeks & Living Larger...

So, this was supposed to be a video update. I tried!! We recorded a 29 week update with our new camcorder last week. But due to some technical problems I gave up trying to upload it!! Hopefully we (or more specifically Joe) will figure that out before the baby is born so we can share some video.


I've now reached the 3rd trimester and the 30 week mark of the pregnancy. That little boy on my baby countdown ticker is quickly approaching the end of the line. Crazy. I know our little boy will be here before we know it.


Last week I had my most recent doctor checkup and everything is progressing well with the pregnancy. I have been very healthy and the midwife is happy with my progress. She says I am very "normal."


Baby Henderson is doing well and becoming more active. He still hasn't kicked me really hard yet, but I have felt him moving around more in the past few weeks. Joe got to feel some of his kicks too right after coming home from being underway. My belly has grown larger and my belly button is almost gone!


As a part of our pregnancy centering class we took a tour of the Naval Hospital Labor & Delivery wing. The rooms are very nice and they showed us all the monitors and tools that they use during labor.


Joe has requested paternity leave from the end of April (or whenever the baby is actually born)through mid-May. Even if this leave is approved, it's not a guarantee that he will be home for the birth of the baby. However, it is the best way for us to let his command know when the baby is due and hopefully they will approve leave and allow him to stay home from going out to sea if that situation comes up. Please keep this in your prayers for us. Thank you!

Joe is HOME!

I'm very happy because Joe is home tonight (Monday). He has been out to sea for almost a month... and overall 3 of the past 4 months! He worked incredibly hard with very little sleep this time underway so hopefully will get some time off to rest and relax.

25 Things

This was something I had fun thinking about and putting together for Facebook- reposting it here for those of you who are not on Facebook! :)

25 Random Things about Me
1. I LOVE country line and partner dancing and learned how to do it while living in Connecticut.
2. I really don’t like barbeque… can’t even stand the smell of the sauce. Ewww…
3. I was blessed to have a really romantic wedding proposal story. Joe donated a granite bench to our favorite park in Connecticut and had the proposal engraved on the underside of the bench!
4. Text and picture messaging annoy me. I just don’t like them (actually just blocked them from my phone). I admit, this makes me feel a bit old.
5. My favorite high school activity was debate! (Lincoln-Douglas debate) I learned a ton, got very comfortable with writing and thinking on my feet, and achieved success throughout my four years. My biggest accomplishments were winning the Oklahoma state championship and qualifying for the national tournament.
6. I had the opportunity to give the closing prayer at a Billy Graham evangelical rally in Dallas during my junior year of college. Talk about a little scary- there were over 70,000 people in the stadium!
7. I became a Christian at age 19 after a year and a half of searching, seeking truth and watching Christians at my college live out their faith.
8. I love a challenging, in-depth Bible study. Beth Moore, Precepts, and Bible Study Fellowship have been my favorite ones so far.
9. I am a total chocolate snob. Seriously, people, any other dessert doesn’t even remotely tempt me.
10. I am extremely picky about what movies I will watch, but not at ALL picky about what I will watch on TV.
11. I have a very low pain tolerance- if it is even below freezing I am probably whining about it. Please don’t ask me how I am going to deliver a baby.
12. I love my sleep.
13. I have always been a serious student… worked very hard in high school & college to get good grades. Unfortunately, I’ve run out of steam.
14. I will NEVER be a vegetarian. I love my steak, hamburgers, and ham way too much.
15. I really wish that I had artistic talent or could sing.
16. I was the editor of my high school newspaper.
17. I didn’t realize how much I like sunshine until I moved to Washington.
18. I am extremely competitive and unfortunately sometimes a poor sport. If I have thrown something at you, I’m sorry… I am working on it.
19. I absolutely loved my college experience. I have great memories of my time at TCU and am so glad I had the opportunity to go.
20. I am NOT a pack rat. I love getting rid of stuff we don’t use.
21. My dad’s family lives in Maine, so I have had the opportunity to visit almost every year since I was a baby. It’s beautiful in the summer.
22. I have developed a great sense of appreciation for military members and their families over the past three and a half years.
23. I agonize over buying gifts for people. I obsess over whether they will really like the gift or use it.
24. I played clarinet for four years, starting in sixth grade, and loved it.
25. I have a terrible memory for life experiences, but am great at remembering names, numbers, addresses, and other random useless info.

Creeping up on the third trimester...

This photo was taken on Tuesday, Jan. 20 when I was 25 weeks. It's hard to believe, but I am creeping up on the third trimester! This is my favorite maternity shirt and shows off the belly well. Everyone seems to like "belly pictures."

I had a pretty quiet week, but I did do some reading- especially On Becoming Babywise which focuses on a specific approach on infant routines. I also finished... pretty much... our baby registry at Target.

I've also been wanting to start a baby memory book (one of those pre-made ones from Hallmark, I have given up on scrapbooking... too many decisions and I'm not creative enough!) But I decided before I would let myself buy one I need to finish the one I bought for our wedding! So I've been working on that, ordering photos and enjoying looking back over all the details of our wedding.

I feel blessed-I am continuing to enjoy good health! And, there are a few ladies at my church who are planning a baby shower for me. Having just moved here a year ago, it means a lot to have my church family showing their care for us in this way.

Pregnancy update, 25 weeks

I love free baby stuff! We got this "Baby's First Seabag" for attending a short Budget for Baby class put on by the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. Most of the info covered was common sense but I did pick up a few good tips. There were so many goodies in this bag: onesies, sleep-n-play outfits, booties, two crib sheets, burp cloths, bibs, a receiving blanket, AND a hand knitted blanket and bootie set. Awww...

This Wednesday I reached the 25-week mark of the pregnancy. Baby H is making himself comfortable and I am getting rounder and finding it harder to bend over. In the past few weeks I have definitely noticed him moving around, although the movement is very gentle. I know he is moving though because at my doctor's appointment this week the midwife had to chase him all over to get his heart rate!

On another random note, I have had many people asked me what I am "craving" so far during the pregnancy. I haven't noticed anything specifically, just a continuation of my major food loves/temptations: mainly chocolate and soda! And (maybe this counts) recently I have been eating a grilled ham and cheese sandwich for lunch almost every single day.

I feel that now with only a few months to go I am finally starting to get in gear as far as preparing. Here are a few of the things on my to-do list for the next few months:

Clear storage space, set up registry, do some reading about newborns, attend La Leche meetings (breastfeeding support group), childbirth class, research and purchase major items (car seat, stroller, bassinet, possibly video camera), car maintenance, income taxes, stocking up on baby & household supplies, prepare baby announcement mailing, make and freeze some meals. Anything else I should add to this list?

Christmas, a wedding, and a monkey

Joe and I recently returned from spending a week in Oklahoma for Christmas and my brother's wedding. We had a wonderful time, except for the two days I was really sick for some odd reason...which I will of course not blame on my unborn child. Thankfully, despite a huge snowstorm that basically shut down the Seattle airport for two days, we were able to fly out together on Dec. 23rd.

Baby Boy Henderson received his first gifts including my favorite, this adorable sock monkey from my mom. I love it! I'm sure my friend Elena has already thought of a name for little monkey just looking at it now.

My brother and sister in law had a beautiful wedding on December 27. I am so glad that Joe and I both got to attend. In addition to seeing family, I saw many friends from Bartlesville that I haven't seen in years.

Pregnancy photos, 22 weeks

Here are some updated pregnancy photos of me at 22 weeks. One at my parents' house in Oklahoma, one at my brother's wedding. I have to say, I was initially all enthusiastic about taking photos of myself while going through pregnancy... but when sorting through the photos I find myself thinking... am I really that big? :)

Our little boy

On December 15, we found out that we are having a little boy! This ultrasound picture was taken at 20 weeks and 5 days. The little one was in just about a perfect position to show us that he was indeed a he! His arms were curled up around his head and his legs were hanging out with lots of room. It was wonderful to know that everything is on track with the pregnancy and see the ultrasound tech zoom in on various areas showing his developing internal organs and even the umbilical cord. The highlight for Joe was seeing the baby swallow during the ultrasound! We also found out that I have an anterior placenta, meaning that the placenta is between the baby and the front of my belly... this explains why I haven't felt a lot of movement and kicking yet, because he is kicking the placenta instead!