Author: jfwerth

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Activities

Sickness and the End of Year

It’s been a while since I’ve last posted – essentially a month and a half!  The time over the past month has been rather chaotic and filled with a number of activities.  As is common this time of year, Elise and I were both substantially busy with the end of the academic year.

A few weeks ago, one of the favorite activities was going to the circus.  I have been meaning to post photos of the event and will get on that soon (fingers-crossed).  Within the past couple of weeks, Elise has been battling a pretty mean virus that knocked her out for approximately 5 days and still has residual symptoms.  Jacob was also lucky enough to catch the virus, and stayed home with Papa and a brief stint with Nonni (Mary), while Dad and Mom wrapped up some major items at work.

As I write, we’re hanging out at Teresa’s house waiting to catch a plane to head east. We are leaving the kiddos behind, to be lovingly attended by the aunts and grandparents, and heading to New Haven, CT for Chris Thissen’s wedding.  Since we’ll be out there, Elise and I are going to take a few days and hit a few sites (Newport, Cape Cod, and Boston).

Look for photos of the past few weeks and the pending vacation soon!

Categories
Activities

Easter Egg Hunt

I was unable to get the video uploaded due to size, but have an alternative in place.  Be sure to check out this video of Jacob’s Easter Egg Hunt at the Degen’s.  It’s rather large, so you will have to download the movie in order to view it.

Jacob’s Easter Egg Hunt

Categories
Activities

Easter at the Zoo

Over Easter weekend, the family had a chance to travel up to Minnesota and see our families.  We took off on Thursday night and headed to Glencoe to get a jump on the three-day visit.  Friday was a gorgeous day and we (Fred, Cathy, Jacob, and Jon) enjoyed the warm weather by going on a walk with the red wagon – still going strong after 30+ years!  After church, we spent some time with both Great Grandma A and Great Grandma Jean.  It was a pleasure seeing both of them and having a chance for a more personal visit (as compared to family holidays).

Saturday morning we met Teresa at the Minnesota Zoo and spent some great time looking at all the animals.  The weather was a little rainy, so we mainly stuck to the indoor/protected areas, but there was plenty to see.  Later that day, we parted ways with the Werth’s and headed to the Degen’s.  After mass on Sunday, we had a great feast and a exciting Easter Egg hunt in the downstairs (as there was still snow on the ground).  While Henry was a little too young to participate, Jacob had a great time searching for the dozen eggs (I’ll see if I can get the video up…but it’s a bigger one).

In the meantime, enjoy these shots from the Saturday trip to the zoo:

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Categories
Activities

Photos from March

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Uncategorized

Photos from February

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Activities

January Photos (#2)

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Activities

Photos from January

As promised, here are some of the recent photos that I’ve been working through.  Enjoy the first of many batches…

Categories
Parenting

Feeling Better

After the last post we had one more bout of sickness. Jacob was running a very high fever and ended up having an ear infection. It has since been two weeks and he is off his antibiotics. Happily I can say that we’ve been sickness free for one week! 🙂

In the meantime, we continue to hang out, play, and watch the two boys grow. Henry is now eating solid foods (rice cereal) and quite the little smiler. The big moment this morning occurred when Henry rolled from his back to his stomach (previously he had only done the opposite). Pretty soon he’ll be rolling around! Jacob continues to build his vocabulary, loves finding the goldbug in his Richard Scarry book, and is starting to use the big porcelain bowl.

As I write, it’s a dull, rainy day outside which is helping all of the snowmen melt away. The whole family will be eager to get outside once the weather warms up! Until then, Elise has been busy indoctrinating the boys into our alma mater:

Henry and Jacob sporting their SJU gear!
Categories
Activities Parenting

Not so healthy

The past month has been a harder time at the Werth household. There’s been a variety of sickness going around and unfortunately we’ve experienced most of it – which is probably why I haven’t written anything lately!

As I write, Jacob is battling a stomach bug with a slightly elevated fever. About a week ago, and he was getting over an ear infection that came after a cold. Henry is on the tail end of a lung infection that had one scary trip to the emergency room (due to shortness of breath). Elise and I managed to dodge most of the sickness, except for one or two days each.

Despite the variety of illnesses, it’s been a decent month filled with family visits and birthdays. Jacob has continued to develop his vocabulary and speech at an astounding rate and Henry is becoming quite the little personality. He is now five months old and, upon a doctor visit last week, weighed in at 18 lbs and 26 inches.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last few days. Enjoy!
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Categories
Activities

Christmas!

This has been an exciting month at the Werth household.  Our activities included a lot of holiday-filled events, such as:

  • Visiting the reindeer at HyVee
  • Christmas light hanging on the house for the first time
  • Hunting for a Christmas tree at a local tree farm
  • Getting the tree in and set up!
  • Henry becoming more engaging and talkative
  • Playing and recording in a wonderful cantata at our church
  • Elise spending two days at home for snow days
  • The Werth’s (Fred, Cathy, and Teresa) coming down for Christmas
  • The Degen’s (Larry, Mary, and Laura) coming down for Christmas II
  • Enjoying the Christmas cards of many friends and family
  • Lighting up the fireplace and occasionally smoking out the house
  • Finally getting back to working on the downstairs remodeling (installing plumbing for a new bath tub)

It’s been a great time and I’ve enjoyed spending time with the boys, Elise, and our families.  Unfortunately, I did not get a Christmas card out this year and have been a little lax on the blog.  So… I’m hoping to get a number of updates and photos up soon – as I’ve recently gathered all of our photos from various places into one (the trouble of having many devices – phones, cameras, computers, etc).

For now, enjoy these photos of our Christmas holiday!