Herring Happenings

The Debut of Baby Jesus

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:52:00 +0000

Clayton made his debut on stage last night as Baby Jesus at the Aldersgate Christian Academy (GBS) Christmas program. I had no idea how he would behave, but he actually did really well. I think he was in awe of everything he was seeing. Unfortunately, I couldn't see him, because I was behind the stage so I could take him in between times when he didn't need to be out there. But, Aaron kept me updated by texts and of course I could hear.

There were two really funny moments. One line from an actor said, "Look Mary, Baby Jesus is sleepy." However, at that time he was flailing his arms and legs and having a good time. Not at all sleepy! :-) The second time was when an actor said, "And now, Herod wants to kill him!" As soon as she got the words out of her mouth, Clayton pointed right at her and started crying hard! The timing couldn't have been better. And the crowed roared with laughter. :-)

I was so relieved that he did good and was also glad when it was over.

Running off some steam downstairs before it starts.

Poor Mary had her hands full, but she did such a good job with him. I think he was wanting down here. :-)

Taking a picture after the program of the actors.

The actors with the director, Kristin Foster. Clayton spotted me taking a picture, thus the "I'm done with all this" face.

I wanted to get a close up picture of Clayton with Mary, but, he was DONE!!

I think he was ready to see me again.

One more picture before we change his clothes.

Baby Time

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:48:00 +0000

We had such a good time in Missouri for Thanksgiving! One of the fun things I got to do was take pictures of everybody. I won't post the family ones since several are using them for Christmas cards, but here are a few additional fun shots we did just for kicks.

The four partners in crime: Elijah (Dana/Phil's), Karson (Mark/Jana's), Clayton (ours), and Emme (Jeff/Vicki's).

Just getting all the babies in the same picture was an experience in itself!

And now Tyson joins in on the fun

(Kendall & Leanna's new baby at 4 weeks 0ld).

The KKK: Kaley, Khara, and Kelsey! :-)

Mickey Mouse

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:10:00 +0000

We had a lot of fun this weekend with Mickey Mouse, aka Clayton. He didn't mind his costume at all and even left his hood up the whole time.

Deerfield Town Center had trick or treating on Friday night. It was so neat to see all the other children in costumes and just stroll around the shops.

They even had a small petting zoo!

Clayton was fascinated by the tall man on stilts that was juggling.

Clayton's first piece of candy was some Smarties. He loves Smarties and he clutched them the whole night - would not even put them in his pail!

Then on Saturday night we stopped over at Jeff/Vicki's. Here's Mikey Mouse and the Little Bumble Bee (aka Emme).

Clayton's First Haircut!

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Today was the big day - Clayton got his very first haircut!! His hair was so long I was afraid they might charge me extra. :-) We went to Cookie Cutters and they were so nice. He got a little certificate that says "First Haircut" on it with a little bag that has some locks of his hair in it and has a place for his picture. He was a little unsure at first, but did really good sitting pretty still. He sure looks like a different boy now!

Sickness has struck!

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:43:00 +0000

The little man is sick. I hate to see him not feeling well. When he woke up the other day, this is what his hair looked like. I did have to chuckle. I was so looking forward to his first haircut last week (since he's now one), but of course we have to wait until he's actually well enough to go out.

It's amazing what you do for your child when he's sick. He wanted to ride in the bed of his dump truck and it's getting much harder for me to lean over and push him around the house. So, Aaron rigged up this handy-dandy way for me to pull him around without having to bend over! :-) Clayton LOVES riding around like this and doesn't want us to stop. (I think this boy needs a wagon for Christmas!)

This is for Aunt Cindy: While I was waiting for the video to load, I had to look at some old pictures of when Clayton first "played" with his dump truck. This is when he was only a month old!

First Birthday!

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:08:00 +0000

Clayton got to celebrate his first birthday twice!

The first celebration was in Indiana at Aaron's parent's house.

Yeah . . . a Colts ice cream cake!!

Time for presents!

Clayton was delighted with the little barn from his grandparents!

My favorite picture!

The second celebration was here in Ohio. It was so nice to have my siblings here (thanks to GBS Homecoming - and we missed you Kendall & Leanna).

My first attempt at a birthday cake!
(too bad Marianne B. lives too far away, now!). :-)

Kaley's birthday is 3 days after Clayton's, so they celebrated together.

Enjoying the chocolate ice cream!

All his cousins were just as interested in the presents as he was!

Caught the end of Kaley's.

Jiggin' at Old Fashioned Day

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:46:00 +0000

Clayton loves music and he certainly demonstrated this for us at Old Fashioned Day at UBC a few Saturdays ago.

It was pretty cold, so we did our best to make sure Clayton stayed warm.

It was so good to see my cousin, Rachelle.

Sarah (Rachelle's youngest girl) and Clayton enjoyed playing together.

Going inside to warm up!

The end of a long day.

The Little Monkey

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:25:00 +0000

Clayton recently discovered his monkey house shoes. He usually just carries them around and plays with them like a toy. I tried putting them on his feet yesterday and he loved them!

Homearama!

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:15:00 +0000

I love going to Homearama and we always enjoy seeing the new homes with Mark and Kristin. This year the homes were "scaled back" a bit and cost around $700,000 - $850,000 instead of over a million. Still way out of my league, but it's still neat to see how people decorate.

We started off by meeting for supper at this really cool restaurant called Mimi's Cafe. They have great food and since it was our first time there they gave us a box of huge muffins to take home with us. What a nice touch!

The chicken pot pie that Kristin and Aaron had was soooo good! Wish I could make this at home.

I had salmon with asparagus and so did Mark. Clayton sure enjoyed the mashed potatoes!

This was the neatest thing. These music notes were filled with scraps of sheet music. It looked so amazing. This was actually in a bathroom and there was an old saxophone in the corner of the shower!

The cribs for these twins were so pretty. And I just loved the names and sayings on the wall above the beds.

How cool would this be for a game room in your basement!

I thought this was a neat idea! This was in the entry way off the garage.

And what neat pictures for a laundry room!

I loved this gigantic fork and spoon on the wall of a kitchen.

Wouldn't an outdoor fireplace like this be cool?

This shower had a remote control so you could turn it on to warm up before you ever got out of bed!!

These were only a few of the many pictures I took. Some really neat stuff and some really strange stuff. :-) But, we had a lot of fun.

Clayton update

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Here are some of Clayton's 10-month pictures.

. . . and he's off!

Clayton is walking! He's now 11 months old (no teeth yet, but he sure can move)!

Extra Zucchini?

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:54:00 +0000

I LOVE this recipe that is on my calendar for Zucchini Crescent Pie. You must try it. It seems like it has a LOT of spices in it - but it's definitely good!

You can click the link above, or here it is:

INGREDIENTS

2	tablespoons butter
4	cups thinly sliced zucchini
1	cup chopped onions
2	tablespoons dried parsley flakes
1/2	teaspoon salt
1/2	teaspoon pepper
1/4	teaspoon garlic powder
1/4	teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/4	teaspoon dried oregano leaves
2	eggs, well beaten
2	cups shredded Muenster or mozzarella cheese (8 oz)
1	can (8 oz) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
2	teaspoons yellow mustard

DIRECTIONS

	Heat oven to 375°F. In 12-inch skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and onions; cook 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Stir in parsley flakes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil and oregano.
	In large bowl, mix eggs and cheese. Add cooked vegetable mixture; stir gently to mix.
	Separate dough into 8 triangles. Place in ungreased 10-inch glass pie plate, 12x8-inch (2-quart) glass baking dish or 11-inch quiche pan; press over bottom and up sides to form crust. Firmly press perforations to seal. Spread crust with mustard. Pour egg mixture evenly into crust-lined pie plate.
	Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. If necessary, cover edge of crust with strips of foil during last 10 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Yummy!!!!

Clayton's Dedication

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Clayton's baby dedication was Sunday morning at church. I was worried that he would not be still or quiet, but he actually did pretty good. The only thing was he kept grabbing Bro. Durr's microphone during the prayer. :-)

We were so happy to have Aaron's parents and Cameron, and Vicki and the children with us for the dedication and lunch!!

Clayton is officially done with baby food! Everything he used to like he would spit out, so now table food it is. He loves mashed potatoes!

Emme and Clayton - playing together like ole' buddies!

NC Trip

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:28:00 +0000

We really enjoyed our trip to North Carolina last weekend. Aaron had to go to Raleigh for a week of training with his job, so Clayton and I decided to go along for the weekend so we could all see Kendall and Leanna in Thomasville.

This was Clayton's first time to fly and he did so well!

Strollers are a wonderful invention!! We were without Aaron on the return trip, and my hands were full.

They have this amazing store in Lexington called The Candy Factory. I loved it there!

Packaged candy and homemade stuff too!

I love these suckers and apparently now Clayton does too. He went crazy over trying to eat it.

Kendall & Leanna in front of their cute house. We really enjoyed our time with them!
(We'll have to go back for more Lexington BBQ!!)

Clayton was fascinated with the large mirror in the hotel at Raleigh. He played in front of it for the longest time.

A few August Happenings

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:02:00 +0000

August sure is flying by! Here's a picture update of what we've been up to recently.

Clayton loves chewing on cucumbers! I slice them really big so he can't swallow them whole and he'll chew away on them. Of course he wants one for each hand.

Erika and I braved the crowds (and I do mean crowds) of people at the opening of the new Cincinnati Outlets here in Monroe. It was so crazy with people, but we still had fun looking around.

This was the line for Auntie Anne's Pretzels - clear out the door and around the side! These are really good pretzels, but come on, it's a pretzel, people!!

I didn't stand in line for a pretzel, but settled instead for my tradition of a picture with the mascot!

Clayton has discovered how to open the cabinet doors and loves to "play" in the kitchen while I'm in there.

The other day he fell asleep on the floor in the living room with his foot all cockeyed like this. I could not believe he was sleeping so soundly since it sure looked uncomfortable!

Cameron is learning to play the guitar and brought it along when he stayed with us for a few days. Clayton was fascinated with it and climbed inside the case! He didn't know what to think when Cameron pushed him around the room while he rode inside the case. :-)

Clayton loves those Gerber biter biscuits - and always manages to make quite a mess. It's definitely straight to the bath after eating one.

Clayton enjoyed his first ever Reds game and even got his own bobble head!

He would throw his hands up and clap when everyone else did - it was so funny!
We even made it on the scoreboard once! :-)

I took the school pictures for UBC last week. I put blankets down on the floor for Clayton to have a place to sit and play. Of course, he wanted to sit all around the blanket - not on it.

Startin' early - not really - but we do want him to learn to play like his Papaw!

Clayton enjoying his new little dump truck!

I thought this was the cutest picture of Aaron and Clayton on the front porch of Cracker Barrel.

And he's now reading - just kidding! But it sure looked like it here the way he is looking at this book! :-)

Coming Soon . . .

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Yes, it's true. Clayton is getting a little sister.
A baby girl is due to arrive December 28!

Moving into The House

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:22:00 +0000

After searching for over a year for a house, we finally found "the one"! After 10 years of apartments, it is such a blessing to have a house. I'm still not completely settled, so here are a couple of outside pictures.

Moving day was a flurry of activity. I was so glad our Unit arrived safe and sound. Only 2 items got broken - both were lamps and one can be repaired.

We had some great help - Matt was terrific at painting!

Yes, both Emme and Clayton somehow got into the paint . . .

. . . Clayton was a little more covered than Emme.

My wonderful mother shampooed the carpets for us!

Emme got a free ride from her dad!

Unloading, unloading, and more unloading.

Emme and Clayton enjoyed watching out the window.

Let the fun begin! Where in the world did all this stuff come from?!?!

Food tasted so good after working so hard and it was so nice of Bro. & Sis. Hooker to bring us a delicious fried chicken lunch!

10 years!

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Ten years ago yesterday (July 31st), I became Mrs. Herring! Aaron shocked me by bringing me these beautiful roses.

We celebrated at our all-time favorite restaurant - P.F. Changs - the best Chinese food ever.

Clayton's 9 month pictures!

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:40:00 +0000

I finally took some more pictures of Clayton! He was not into the hat at all, but he would leave it on for a little bit if I gave him the camera cord to play with. Of course, it went straight to his mouth.

Back in the Saddle - kind of

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:38:00 +0000

Whew! What a month it has been! We have moved (twice now) and are finally in our house. I am far from being unpacked, but at least we are in and I'm working on getting settled. I finally have internet again (hooray), so get ready for some posting!

We moved from GBS campus on June 20 into my brother's house. The UNIT is definitely the way to go. We loaded it up, they hauled it away, stored it at their warehouse, and then brought it to our house when we were ready to unload it. The trickiest part was deciding what we didn't need to have/use for a month.

Aaron and Clayton on Father's Day!

We really enjoyed our time in Missouri for July 4th weekend. It was especially fun to watch Clayton and Elijah (Dana/Phil's baby) since they are only 5 weeks apart.

We helped Khara celebrate her 9th birthday while we were home. Jana made her this amazing gumball machine cake!

The next week was VBS at Kenwood. The props and decorations this year were amazing!

The underground church was quite scary for some of the kids.

And all the shops in the market place - great fun!

I took Kaley (my niece, in the middle) and her neighbor friend, Madison (R) - they loved it! Here they are with Lauren. Kaley and Lauren called each other "half cousins" since they have the same aunt and uncle. :-)

The outside games were always a big hit!

We had a great turnout for the hot dog cookout on Friday night when the parents where invited.

I took team pictures of each family and these were given to the kids on Sunday morning at the program. It was a great VBS!

While staying at Jeff/Vicki's Kaley and I made cookies one afternoon with her neighborhood friends. I think more dough got eaten than actual cookies. :-)

We really enjoyed eating on Jeff/Vicki's new deck!

Clayton and Emme played really well together - except for when Clayton would take Emme's toys. For some reason, he always wanted what she had. She would squeal and he would giggle.

They played on opposite sides of the door for so long. :-)

We took a break from packing and went to The Cone. Clayton loved my chocolate ice cream cone!

Moving Time!

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:36:00 +0000

I once heard someone say that moving is of the devil. I think I believe them now. I love organizing things, but I'm feeling a little time crunch since we are moving on Saturday and I don't have time to pack like I would like to. I'm also wondering why I have so much stuff!?!

We are moving to the Monroe/Middletown area, but our house won't be available for about 3 1/2 weeks. So, my brother and his family have graciously agreed to let us crash at their place in the mean time.

This might be why I'm having a hard time getting the packing done . . .

Clayton is into everything now. He is very mobile, crawling and pulling up on all these new boxes he is finding.

He also wants to be right in the middle of everything. Trying to "help" Aaron take apart the table.

But he sure is happy!

My friend, Liz, took this great picture of Clayton when we were in Indiana for a wedding this last weekend.

Clayton Update

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:07:00 +0000

Clayton is now 8 months old, and he is crawling!!! Here's a quick picture update.

He loves for Aaron to take him on rides through the house on his little Tonka truck.

Playing with Papaw at Red Robin!

I promise his finger is really NOT up my nose - it just looks that way.

Chowing down on a Twizzler - his first taste of candy!

The Cone

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:39:00 +0000

We recently experienced the incredible goodness of "The Cone" with our good friends Matt and Erika. This is a really cool ice cream place on Tylersville Road in West Chester.

We should have known how good it was since we had to park in a lot a little ways away and walk to get there - thankfully, both strollers were in the trunk for Clayton and Hannah!

Everyone else thought this place was good too - they were slammed!

Enjoying my peanut butter parfait and Aaron enjoying his buckeye!

Taste of Cincinnati!

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:09:00 +0000

In all the years I have lived in Cincinnati, I cannot believe I have never been to the Taste of Cincinnati. We went downtown on Saturday night and had a great time - eating, eating, and more eating.

I'm not sure how, but Clayton slept for a good hour while we were strollin' along.

Of course we had to try Fried Dill Pickles! This was the first time I've had them in a spear - before I've had them sliced. I definitely vote for the spear - so good!!

Absolutely LOVED the Montgomery Inn ribs - I had never had those before!

Nothing better than good corn on the cob slathered in butter!

Little Emme - take 2

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:02:00 +0000

We did Emme's pictures again - this time she was feeling great! She even looks a little ornery in this first picture!

The cutest 3 year old!

HerringPhotography@gmail.com (Brenda) — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:16:00 +0000

Happy Birthday to my nephew, Camen Englund, who is turning 3 today!!

We were lucky enough to get a few pictures of him on Saturday. Lucky, because he's constantly on the move! :-)