Project Central

I LOVE being a mom. Cohen is seriously the cutest kid ever and I have so much fun with him every day. The first three months or so were pretty rough for us...he wasn't the easiest baby, but even then I couldn't imagine not being able to be home with him every day. He laughs and plays and reaches and grabs and gets excited and talks a ton. He rolled over once but I missed it and I haven't gotten him to do it again. He is almost sitting up on his own and he eats rice cereal like a pro. His hair gets more and more red every day and it has actually grown on me a lot. I think it's cute. He has a giant swirly cowlick in the middle of his forehead that I'm sure he is going to hate one day but I think it is adorable. His little personality is emerging and we are having so much fun with it.

However, going from being a full-time career woman for the last ten years to being a stay at home mom has been a bit of an adjustment for me. I know, and strongly believe, that being a mom is the most important job in the world and every little mundane task you do every day is important and shows how much you love your baby. But sometimes, day after day of doing nothing but feeding, changing, burping, rocking, bathing and getting spit up/thrown up/peed on can sometimes make you feel like your contribution to society is somewhat minimal and you've sort of lost your identity a little. Well, maybe others don't feel that way, but I have.

My solution to this problem...I desperately need a hobby. The problem is, I have no idea what I would do for a hobby that is both affordable and something I can do with a baby right next to me. I've thought about learning to knit or crochet. I see all the cute little hats and scarves and flowers that other people make and I love them, but for some reason I just don't get that excited about making them myself. So then I thought about learning to sew. Slightly more interesting to me, but still not very exciting. Maybe if learned to do something cool I would find it enjoyable. Who knows. But I don't have a sewing maching, nor the money to buy one at the moment, so I guess that option has to be on hold for now. Unless someone out there has an old one they are wanting to get rid of?? I have started to enjoy cooking more but it's kind of hard to make great meals with such a young baby who needs constant attention. I know every other woman on the planet is capable of doing it but I haven't quite figured it out yet. I've still been trying, but I don't think it is going to become an art form anytime soon. Something I actually do get excited about is refinishing old furniture and turning old stuff into nice, new-looking stuff. Unfortunately, being outside in the garage in the middle of winter working with power tools, turpentine, and paint isn't really the best atmosphere for a four-month old. Guess that one is going to have to wait awhile too. So the only thing left that I could think of is getting crafty in my home decor. I'm not a real crafty person but I do love decorating so it's a good compromise. I'm terrible at being creative enough to come up with stuff on my own but I'm decent at taking inspiration from other people's ideas and making them my own.

So I decided I really need a project to work on and with Christmas around the corner I decided that decorating my house for Christmas would be the perfect place to start. I wanted to put up some different decorations than usual and use different colors than the typical red and green. I received most of my inspiration from a really cute blog that my friend Michele told me about, http://houseofsmiths.blogspot.com. I did my kitchen in silver, white, and different shades of blue. I did my living room in silver, pearl, and different shades of sage green. Here is the inspiration picture on the houseofsmiths blog:


Mine doesn't look nearly as cool but here is what I ended up with:

This is made out of 4 paper napkins, believe it or not. Probably one of the cheapest crafts you can make.

This is a magnet board I bought on sale at Roberts, as well as a pack of wooden letters, a pack of small magnets, and a wooden tree for like $0.79. I like this because I can change it up for different holidays or occasions and put whatever I want on it.

You probably can't read it because I didn't buy big enough letters, and I should have used all blue ornaments, but this spells out Merry and is hung right above the Christmas sign.

This picture is blurry but it's just a vase from my wedding with silver tinsel, blue tissue paper, and a string of silver beads.

This is the centerpiece for my table. nothing super fancy but it works.

The letters are still small but I learned my lesson about using all blue ornaments so you can read it better.

These next few are just old vases filled with branches from our yard that I spray painted white, and covered with green beads and silver ornaments from the dollar store. Then I took some silver picture frames, also from the dollar store, and printed out pictures of Cohen from our computer and hung them on as well. Sorry for the bad lighting in these pictures.

My $30 garage sale village. I made the little pond out of aluminum foil. I know, very innovative. I'm a genious.

Not a very good picture but I used champagne type glasses and put tea lights in them to make candles and then just put some greenery and some silver ornaments to give it some color. Again, nothing fancy. I'm thinking about getting some silver colored candlesticks and doing then napkin snowball flower things like I did in the kitchen.

And our tree that contains some unique ornaments we got from Salzburg, Prague, Venice, and Switzerland. Preston mostly loves playing with the train. Same with Tank.

So, that's basically it. Nothing big but it gave me something to do and helped me feel at least somewhat accomplished for the time being. Anyone have any suggestions for other good hobbies to take up??

Decisions Decisions

The time has come. The time when Preston is months away from graduation and we have to decide if we want to go straight to grad school or get a real job (and money) and settle down for a bit. We've heard from a few people now that trying to work full time as an engineer and get a masters in engineering concurrently is absolutely miserable so I think we've decided it's one or the other right now. Then once we decide that we have to decide where.

Grad school pros-President Hinckley encouraged us to get as much education as we possibly can, and it's something we both believe is very important. If Preston can get some sort of assistantship we could get tuition help and a monthly stipend so we don't have to live in poverty for two years. Once he has his masters we would officially be done with school and not have to worry about going back later. Plus it may be able to open up different job opportunities for him and he would start out at a higher pay which is always nice.

Grad school cons-If Preston doesn't get some sort of assistantship we either have to live in poverty for two years or take out tons of student loans and go into tons of debt. (We have never had to take out a student loan and really enjoy being debt-free). It puts the settling down/stability thing off for a couple of years which is hard now that we have started our family. Preston is getting burnt out of school and could use a break.

Job pros-Well, these pros are obvious...stay out of debt, have some stability, move from Utah and settle down somewhere new, sell our current house and buy a new one that's not a million years old, not be poor for the next two years, Preston gets a break from school, we get health insurance, we have enough money to be able to save more and start working towards some of our long term goals. Oh, and if he decided to go to school later, whichever company he works for would most likely pay for it.

Job cons-Preston wouldn't get to continue his education as he would like...or if he does he would have to do it later while working, probably at a school that wouldn't be his first choice.

If we go to grad school it would either be Purdue, Cornell, Univ of Texas at Austin, or possibly CU.
If we get a job we are hoping for something in CO or WA, maybe MT or TX or OR.

Last week the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, WA flew Preston up there for a 2nd interview. Everything about it is perfect except the job itself. It's a government job so it's stable, has good pay and benefits, it's in an area that we love and it's absolutely gorgeous. And one of my very best friends lives up there and I would get to see her all the time which would be awesome. But the job itself is mostly sitting at a desk doing paperwork and Preston hates the thought of doing that. He chose to go into engineering because he wants to actually do engineering, not paperwork. On the one hand we wonder if we would be silly to pass up such a good job opportunity when there are so many people who can't find work. But on the other hand I want Preston to enjoy going to work every day, or at least not dread it. I firmly believe if you aren't happy in your work it affects all other aspects of your life. I want him to be happy. Especially after how hard he has worked. He deserves something that he will enjoy. I guess we will continue with plans to apply for grad school and continue looking for jobs as well. Then we can look at all our options and decide what is best for us.

Anyways, that's what's weighing on our mind these days. Here are some pictures of our trip up there.

I love this picture. His smile looks so cute!

He was a little horse for Halloween. I love this kid!


The view from our hotel room.

Cohen's first flight! He did such a great job. I was sure he would scream the whole time but he didn't make a peep. And everyone LOVED him everywhere we went. Can you blame them? :)

Short and Fat

I can't believe it's been two months already since I had this cute little boy. Time really does fly! He looks older than two months though...this kid is getting big! The first words out of anyone's mouth when they see him are "He sure is healthy, isn't he?" or "Oooh, look at those chubby cheeks!" or "Wow, he is going to be a linebacker isn't he?" Hahaha, I'd be offended but at what other time in your life is it so socially ok to be chubby? In fact, it's considered cute. Everyone loves a chubby baby. I just wish that applied to me. Why isn't my chub considered cute? Sheesh! :) He had his two month appointment this week and he is in the 90th percentile in weight and only the 40th percentile in height. When I told Preston he was like, "so basically he is short and fat?" Yep. Just like his mother. Poor kid. :)

The last month has gone by so fast. Our cute baby smiles and coos and gets excited about things all the time and for the life of me I can't get him to do it for the camera. He has been smiling for weeks now and I don't have a single picture of it. Every time I get the camera out he stops smiling and just stares. It makes me a little crazy but I will get one someday! Here are some recent pictures of our cute little guy.







A couple of weeks ago we went for a little family drive up in the mountains to see the fall colors. It was so nice to get out and get some fresh air. We brought Tank along for the ride so he could get some much needed exercise. Like the rest of us, he too is getting fat. Poor thing doesn't get as many walks now that we have a baby taking so much of our time. He rides in the bed of our truck and for some reason on that particular ride he really wanted to be inside with us. When we stopped the car at Cascade Springs our 110 lb dog seriously climbed into our truck through the tiny little window on the back of the cab. I have no idea how he did or what would even possess him to attempt it but it was hilarious. And he even managed to do it without stepping on the baby who was in the middle of the back seat. Crazy dog. I managed to spill an entire bottle of water in my lap so I was soaking wet all the way home. Then we saw a couple of moose which was cool. Then we saw a spider so big in the middle of the street that we could see it in the road from the truck while we were driving. That was not so cool. Yuck. It was a fun little family outing though! And even though they are nowhere near the beauty of my Colorado mountains, it was still nice to be in mountains, period.





Preston is working his butt off so that I can stay home with Cohen. I never get to see him and I feel so bad for how much stuff he is having to juggle right now but bless his heart, he never complains. I love him so much. He recently had 3 interviews, all with government programs (naval bases and air force bases) where he would get to do cool engineering jobs working on missiles and stuff, but I think we have officially decided just to go straight to grad school when he graduates in April. I think we are applying to Purdue, Cornell, Univ. of Texas, Texas A&M, Univ. of CO and Univ. of WA, as well as a couple of schools in Europe. By this time next year we really could be anywhere. It's all kind of up in the air but it will be a fun little adventure and I'm excited to get out of Provo and start off new somewhere.

I have been blessed to be able to physically attend at least once session of every General Conference for the last 9 years that I have lived in Utah. I thought this year would end that tradition but my friend had some extra tickets she was kind enough to give us and Preston's Aunt and Uncle in Salt Lake were kind enough to watch Cohen for us so we could go. It made for a nice little date for Preston and I since we don't get out much these days and we really enjoyed ourselves. Plus I also got to see Bekah, one of my very best friends who I never get to see anymore. I hate being so far away from all of my closest friends. It's so hard living in Provo because at some point almost everyone moves away. That will be us though soon!

Blessed in More Ways than One

This past Sunday we had little Cohen blessed at church. Most of Preston's family came into town for the occasion and it was a fun weekend. Preston did a great job with the blessing and later bore a sweet testimony which made me cry...as in sobbing, not just teary-eyed. I haven't done that in a long time, especially publicly. I am so grateful for such a sweet, tender, supportive husband who loves his family so much. A few years ago, before I met Preston, I was faced with the decision of staying in Provo a bit longer, or moving back to Colorado, which I missed terribly. I was so torn about it and spent a lot of time on my knees. I knew that no matter which choice I made, my life would move forward and I eventually would find someone to marry and start a family, etc. I knew that my Heavenly Father could see the bigger picture for my life, and knew me better than I knew myself and knew what was best for me. I prayed that I would be able to make the choice that would eventually lead me to the greatest happiness. I ended up choosing to stay in Provo (against my better judgment of course) and hoped for the best. Within 6 months I had met the man who would be my best friend and eternal companion and here we are two years later with an amazing marriage, a beautiful son, and a wonderful life filled with so many blessings every day. I am convinced that my Heavenly Father knew this is where I would find the most happiness, because I can't imagine having a life that would make me more happy than the one I've got. I am so grateful for a God who wants us to be happy and who not only hears our prayers, but loves us enough to answer them.

Me with my little man on his blessing day

A little family picture (and a good reminder of why I should wear makeup!)

Three generations of Hennrich men

Saren, Preston's sister, was nice enough to watch Cohen for us so we could go on a much needed date. We went golfing and I finally got to use my new clubs I got LAST Christmas. We both sucked bad enough that we opted not to keep score but it was fun to get some fresh air, some exercise and some quality time with my awesome hubby.

This isn't the best picture but everyone always asks how Tank does with the baby and the answer is that Tank LOVES the baby. If anything we have to keep him from licking the baby and waking the baby up by sticking his nose into the car seat, swing, etc. He hates it when the baby cries. Last night we were bathing Cohen and he was screaming, as usual, and Tank was whining outside the bathroom door because he was so worried.

Cohen, bless his cute little heart, has not been the easiest baby and I often feel like I might go crazy...but the good news is that it is getting better every week. I am slowly feeling more adjusted and more competent as a mother, thank goodness! I think he is going to smile (on purpose) any day now. It's funny how excited you get about the little things once you have a baby!

Anyways, that's the latest scoop on our happy little family. =)

He's Here!!!

So I'm almost 3 weeks late in getting to this but let's be honest...I've been slightly preoccupied with cuter and more important things. :) We finally had our baby on August 4th at 1:30am. His name is Cohen Crowley Hennrich. He was 8lbs 7oz, 20 inches tall. I won't bore you with all the details but here is a quick run-down: We went into the hospital at 6:15am on August 3rd to be induced. I was already dilated to a 4 but the pitocin did absolutely nothing. I couldn't even feel the contractions, even though they were steady and really close together. I finally went into active labor sometime around 2:00pm, didn't dilate all the way until about 10:30pm, and pushed for 3 hours. I was so exhausted! He came out looking perfect...not all wrinkly and bruised and battered like a lot of newborns...even though they had to use a vacuum to get him out. He was adorable and we were instantly in love!

The last couple of weeks have been quite the adjustment. I knew it would be hard but I don't think I realized how difficult it would be. It gets a little easier every day though, especially now that we are getting past those first couple of weeks. It helps that I have an absolutely amazing husband who is so supportive and involved and selfless. I definitely couldn't do this without him! I think Cohen is going to be a daddy's boy for sure. He and Preston are inseparable and Preston loves every minute of it. He is such a proud dad!

Cohen is beautiful and sweet and we are so anxious to start seeing more of his little personality come out. He is already so alert and curious. I have a feeling he is going to be smart like his dad, and have a similar demeanor. I admit my days have been somewhat monotonous. I struggle with not having structure in my life and I often feel like I belong in a dairy barn...but I know that it's totally worth it! I look forward to the next few weeks when he starts getting into more of a routine and I can have structure again.

We have so many cute pictures I couldn't pick just a few so there are a lot on here but oh well!



















I'm sure there will be much more to come but I wanted to at least announce his arrival before he turns five! Apparently even ten minute tasks are difficult for me to get around to these days (aka, he doesn't sleep much...and when he is awake, he doesn't sit quietly by himself for very long). Hopefully that part gets better because I am terribly unproductive lately!