Author: jfwerth

Christmas Tree Hunting

It was a strangely gorgeous day in Iowa City – 45 degrees and sunny despite it being December 8th. As a result, the Werth crew decided to go hunting for a Christmas tree. Upon the advice of Elise’s co-worker, we navigated to Handley’s Holiday Hillside Farm in Solon, Iowa. With Henry in tow and Jacob ‘running’, we set out to find the best tree. After some searching, much running, some yelling and some crying, we settled upon on a nice white pine. We flagged the workers and they came to cut it down for us. Jacob helped to drag it back to the truck and while Dad was getting the tree shaken and bagged, played on the model train. We headed back home and made use of our new tree stand while the boys napped. Unfortunately, we don’t have it decorated yet, but I’m sure there will be photos at a later date. For now, enjoy these photos of the hunt!

Tags Christmas tree

Parenting

Henry Finding His Voice

Enjoy this short video of Henry starting to find his voice. I know we definitely enjoy it!

Tags Henry, talking

Parenting

Henry Robert

Post author By jfwerth
Post date November 14, 2012

As Elise, Jacob, and I celebrate Henry’s two month birthday today, I thought it would be pertinent to publish a long-awaited post. On Friday, September 14th, Elise woke me up at approximately 4 am and said, “My water broke. It’s time to go”. After calling the hospital, gathering our things, and grabbing the sleeping Jacob, we headed off to the hospital.

Things were progressing a little slowly, so Elise was eventually given something to speed up the process. My co-worker ever-so-kindly picked up Jacob to take of him during the day (thanks Brenda!). A little after 4 p.m. Elise was told to start pushing. Henry Robert soon arrived into the world and was a beautiful baby boy (it was a surprise). He cleaned up nicely and weighed in at a healthy 8 lb 6 oz, and 20.5 inches, with a full head of dark hair.

The rest of the stay in the hospital was fairly uneventful – much to our satisfaction – as we did not want another 7 day stay in the NICU. The Degens arrived Friday night, and when everyone came home on Sunday, the Werths also had made the trek.

Ever since the 14th, it has been quite the experience learning how to manage two boys and juggle other necessities. Check back soon for more updates as I’m now getting around to updating our online followers 🙂

Tags Birth, Henry

Activities

Hanging with T

At the end of July, Elise and I had the opportunity to drive to Duluth, MN to spend some time celebrating the wedding of our college friend, Brittany. Due to the long trek from Iowa City, we dropped Jacob off at his Aunt Teresa’s house to spend the weekend. The two of them had a blast together, spending some of their time together at a fantastic park (I know I’m jealous!). Compliments of Teresa, here are the photos from their weekend together. Be sure to check out the giant Teddy bear – don’t worry, you can’t miss it!

Tags Jacob, Park, Teresa, Wedding

Activities

Fun around the House

July came and went fairly rapidly for the Werth family. We spent the 4th of July hanging out around the house and getting a few things done (including some flooring and cheesecake baking!). Hanging out at home during the summer, Elise and Jacob also spent some of their time building forts in the living room.

As the date gets closer for second child, we’ve been preparing and making sure we have the necessary equipment. Of course, Jacob has to make sure it’s good and ready! In the gallery below, I’ve also put in some of my favorite glamor shots of Jacob. We had been hanging out in the kiddie pool and upon coming in, the light was playing beautifully through the living room window.

Tags baking, flooring, forts, Jacob, pictures, pool

Activities Parenting

Fun at the Park

Sometime around the middle of June, we spent some time at the park and the local splashpad. I think you may have seen some of these photos, but I thought they were worth sharing again. I should mention that it was very windy at the splashpad. Also, we set up Jacob’s big boy bed to have him start getting used to it.

Tags bed, Jacob, Park, splashpad

Activities

Fat Lip and Father’s Day

Post author By jfwerth
Post date August 23, 2012

After our vacation to Wisconsin, the Werth fam celebrated Father’s day. The whole ordeal started when Teresa called one day and stated that she was bring Mom to a concert (some country band :P) in the Quad Cities. I thought this would be a perfect time for Dad and I to hit up a baseball game. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line I got my dates mixed up and had tickets for Saturday when the concert was on Friday. Well, I scrapped that plan and we (Fred and I) hit up two breweries in the Quad Cities while the girls were at the concert. So I called to reschedule the baseball game and moved my tickets to Father’s Day. How nice of Elise and Jacob to get me tickets!

So the three of us went on a Sunday afternoon to Jacob’s first baseball game. We had the best seats in the house and Jacob managed to snag a baseball (compliments of the nice man next to us). The pictures below show the fun, along with a nice, fat lip from I-can’t-remember-what.

Tags Baseball game, Father's day

Activities

Oh boy . . . summer recap

So now that the school year is upon us, I thought it would be good to catch you up on what the Werth family has been doing for the past few months (sorry 🙁 ).

Two posts ago, you saw Jacob getting a hair cut, Elise being pregnant, and good times in the new kiddie pool. After those photos, Elise and I took a brief vacation to northern Wisconsin. We stayed at the Heartwood Conference Center, a gorgeous family friendly haven in the outdoors. Elise and I called this our baby moon and really enjoyed the time relaxing, canoeing, and going for walks. We spent two nights at the center and then found a campsite in the Chequamegon National Forest. This was also the maiden voyage of our new “family” tent, upgrading this past Christmas from a two person to a six person! Driving back to the Twin Cities on Saturday, we of course had to stop at the Leinenkugel’s brewery for a tour and tasting.