Henry J. Banks: December 2008

It's been an eventful month for the Banks family. Matt and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary on the 18th, Henry had his very first sleep over at Grandmom and Pops house, and oh yeah, his first Christmas too! It was so much fun watching our little Henry experience his very first Christmas and all the fun that goes along with it! Though he doesn't understand Christmas or Santa he certainly understands the joy of tissue paper and gift bags!

Hangin' around getting ready for Santa!

This year we went out with the Schopperts and cut down our Christmas tree! There were so many beautiful trees I wasn't sure I would be able to choose!

We had a very special ornament to hang on the tree this year.

It was the very first one we hung.

And Henry was very pleased with his Christmas stocking!

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandmom and Pops house.

Pop and Henry checking out the tree.

Our family

Henry loves Grandmoms music box. Every time she opens it to play it for him he closes it for her!

Henry opening his first Christmas present!

And as the evening drew to a close, our little boy waited patiently for Santa...

Merry Christmas!!!!!

A lot has happened in the past few weeks that we are so excited to share with all of you! Henry is a few days shy of 5 months now and just went to the pediatrician this week. He is 18 lbs 11 oz and is 27 1/2 inches tall!!!! I'm sure it's not a shock to anyone that he's almost off the charts in size. He has started on rice cereal and is sitting in his highchair like a big boy these days. Most important of all... Henry had his very first Thanksgiving! Matt and I have so much to be thankful for this year. We feel incredibly blessed to have our little Henry here with us and for all our friends and family who have supported us in welcoming him into our lives. Our love and thanks to you all!!!!!

I wanted to document every second of Henry's first Thanksgiving so I started taking pictures right after breakfast. We played dress up in Daddy's hat, Daddy read some stories to us and then we worked in our cubicle. Whew! It was a pretty busy morning!

Then it was off to Aunt Callie's for the traditional Cornelius sour beef and dumplings Thanksgiving feast.

King of the feast...

After dinner Henry watched a little football with the guys.

Friday morning we all packed up and headed to Pennsylvania for the traditional Banks Thanksgiving! Not everyone gets to have two Thanksgiving feasts so Henry is a very lucky boy!

Here's Henry helping Grammy beat the pants of everyone at Rummikub!

He also spent some quality time with his cousins!

Every year Henry's Grammy and I go to Flemmings to buy a Christmas wreath. This year Henry was able to go and he loved it! Before he helped us pick out our wreaths Henry did a little posing as Santa Claus!

Henry's first taste of rice cereal...he was a little confused at first but caught on pretty quickly. However, I think he's still wondering where we're hiding his prime rib.

This was the day Henry sat up on his own for the very first time! I couldn't believe it! We were sitting on the sofa and he just popped up and sat there looking at me as if to say, "what's the big deal mom?"