Henry is 1!

Henry turned one today! Has it been a year already? To think, a year ago we were beginning the two week long ordeal of trips to NICU. He's so happy & healthy now.
The poor kid, his birthday planning got caught up in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, so although his party was scheduled, all the details were handled at the last minute. Our normal bakery choices were not open or without power, so I was at Kroger this afternoon checking for a fresh cake. I think I could have done worse. Fortunately, they had received a shipment of ice cream - that was the only thing in the freezer!! We had a good time at the party. Henry was more fond of the ice cream than the cake, and all he really wanted to do was get down and find things to climb on or get into. Lucky for him, he had a lot of help opening presents from the four birthday pros who crowded around the present area.

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike came on Friday night - I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Basically, the winds - more like breezes - started on Thursday afternoon and went through Friday afternoon. By Friday evening, the winds picked up and were probably around 40-50 mph by 8 pm. By midnight, they had really picked up, and we started getting hurricane force winds around 2:30 am. It was pretty frightening, as our house was shaking - it felt like being on a train. The big 100 or so year old oak tree in our front yard came down at 4 am. It bounced off the front of the house, hit the porch (and took out our new copper gutters), and then hit two other trees out there. I heard it hit (who could sleep?) and knew it wasn't good. The high winds continued until about 8 am and even then we had heavy gusts and tropical storm force winds until the afternoon. So now we are dealing with the aftermath. We've cleaned up the majority of the tree stuff (thanks to MMG), and repairs to our house started yesterday. Ike says he's getting a complex and feeling very self-defensive with all the negative "Ike" coverage. We have power again and water (though we're still under a boil water order), so we are grateful (so many people still don't have power or water). We are very fortunate that we are all okay and no one was hurt - that tree could have fallen more on the house (which did happen to a few of our neighbors). I don't have the official wind speed for our area, but I know downtown was 100+ mph. Since we are within two miles of there, I'm guessing we were in that same range. Natalie, Owen, & Henry did very well, though they have definitely been stir crazy and suffering hurricane fatigue.

Owen's 3rd Birthday

Owen's 3rd birthday celebration was this past weekend. We can't believe he is 3 already! We kicked off the weekend with a free concert at a downtown park on Thursday night. We saw The Iguanas, and Nat & Owen had a great time dancing in front of the stage. On Friday, Grandma Laura & Grandpa Roger arrived in the morning and Karen & Brian arrived in the evening. Owen enjoyed telling everyone he was turning three and holding up three fingers, only he uses his pointer, middle finger, and pinkie, and keeps the ring finger down (I guess that's easier than holding his pinkie down). Saturday was hectic doing last minute things before the party, but his party at the gymnastics place was a lot of fun and I think resulted in a lot of tired kids. We went out for a big dinner Saturday night to our newest favorite mexican restaurant. It was a good time. Everybody had to leave on Sunday, and Owen's actual birthday, Monday, was very low key. We ordered in and Owen opened gifts from school friends. Now we are getting ready for Hurricane Ike (it just had to come to the Houston area to find our Ike), and then Henry's first bday next week. Henry is doing great, by the way. He should be walking very soon, and he's learning words - he points to everything these days. He's done with pureed baby food - he wants whatever we're eating now. I've started eliminating bottles and he's getting cups of milk now. It all goes by so fast!