Christmas Eve

Wow, what a busy Christmas time we have had!! I have barely had a chance to breathe, much less update my blog! There is so much to blog about, I hardly know where to start. So I'll do this one day at a time and start with Christmas Eve. GD had the day off, so he stayed home with the kids while I went to work that morning. A little before noon, it started snowing!! Where I work in Plano, it was snowing hard! Big, white, beautiful flakes! I always love it when it snows, but I was just a little worried since my brother was supposed to be landing at DFW at 3:30 that afternoon. He flew from Hong Kong to Tokyo and then Tokyo to Dallas. We were all anxious to see him and I didn't want the weather to mess anything up. I got off work early, around noon. Then I met my mom and Kason and we left Celina around 2pm to drive to the airport to pick up Rob. It was still snowing, but the roads weren't bad on the way there. We got there without any trouble and sat down to wait for Rob to make his appearance. Here is a pic of Kason and Mom at the airport waiting for Rob:
The weather didn't hinder the flight and we finally got to hug Rob's neck around 4pm! We hadn't seen him in a year and 8 months (not counting Skype!) so it was quite a reunion. He looked great!

Alot skinnier then last time we saw him. He said they eat very healthy in HK, none of that red meat and junk food we eat here. So of course that was what he was craving when he got here! On the way home from the airport the snow had continued and the roads had gotten worse. We saw quite a few accidents on the way home and even saw a car spin around on an overpass! It was a little scary! I called GD on the way home and we decided not to go to Pottsboro that evening for his Mom's family's Christmas. We hated to miss it, but the roads were just too dicey to risk it. So Mom, Roby, Kason and I stopped at Macaroni Grill and got food to bring home. We made it back to Celina safely and dug in to our Christmas Eve dinner from Mac Grill! :) Rob had been craving it and scarfed it down. After dinner, we got the kids dressed and went to church for the Christmas Eve Candlelight service.

I love the candlelight service, it is my favorite service of the year. The snow was really falling at this point!! Our cars were covered when we got out of church. Mom and Rob decided to spend the night since the roads were bad and they were going to come over early in the morning anyway to see the kids open their gifts. When we got home from the service Rob decided he was still hungry and ate 5 (count them 5!!!!) corny dogs!!! Piggy!! :)

We finally got the kids to bed and began wrapping presents. Lo and behold around 11pm or so the electricity went out!!! So we finished wrapping the gifts by candle light and flashlight. We got out lots of blankets and everyone went to bed. Rob slept in Kason's bed so Kason slept with us. Needless to say, between the cold and Kason, I didn't get much sleep that night! But it was so wonderful knowing Rob was home and we were all together. That is what really matters! So that was our Christmas Eve. Christmas Day blog coming soon..... :)

Breakfast with Santa

Last weekend, we took the kids to have Breakfast with Santa. We met our good friends, Chad and Crystal with their kids Jaycee and Koby. The kids had been really looking forward to seeing Santa. Especially Katie, she is so excited about anything Christmas. When we are driving in the evenings, she points out all the houses with Christmas lights and screams "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!!" It is so fun to see the excitement in her face! Both of the kids loved Santa this year and neither were afraid of him at all. We ate breakfast, colored pictures and of course had pictures made with Santa. It was a very fun morning! That evening, Gary Don and Chad went to the new Cowboys stadium to watch the Big 12 Championship game between Texas and Nebraska. They had a great time and were so happy that Texas managed to pull out the win. Kason was so happy too as he is a huge UT fan. (Wonder where he got that!??!) :)

It is hard to believe that Christmas is almost here!! We have our tree up and our stockings hung. Now if I could just find some time to finish my Christmas shopping!!! :) Kason has one more week of school and then is out for 2 weeks. We are so excited that my brother is coming home for Christmas!! We all talked to him last night and can barely wait to see him! He moved to Hong Kong in April 2008 and we haven't seen him since then. It has been way too long and we are so excited!! Yay! :)

Here are some pics from Breakfast with Santa. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

I know, I know.... I am getting so behind on my blogging!! It is so busy this time of year, and I just haven't been able to keep up with everything! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We sure did. We went to Gary Don's Aunt Diana's house in Farmersville on Thanksgiving day. We all love "Aunt Nina" and she always outdoes herself during the holidays. I know she must go crazy getting ready for all the festivities and I try to help out as much as she will let me. It is always a lot of fun and A LOT of food!! I ate so much it should have lasted me the whole weekend!! (Which of course it didn't) :) Everything was sooooo good! After we ate, the guys went out back and played a game of touch football. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the football game has started to become a tradition. In fact, Kason had been looking forward to the game all week!! He had such a great time! Katie had lots of fun cheering on the football players with Aunt Nina's cowbell and pom poms! Thanks Aunt Nina for all you did to make Thanksgiving such a fun day!
After we left Diana's, we stopped by Oma's house in Blue Ridge to see my side of the family. The kids had so much fun playing with Aunt Poos and seeing the rest of the family.
Later that evening we came home and Paula, Kyle and Mom came over to visit. What a great day of family and food! We have so much to be thankful for!!
Mom spent the night on Thanksgiving night so that GD and I could get up at 3:30am and go shopping. Black Friday, baby!!! :) GD went to Target while Susanne and I started out at Toys R Us, then on to Walmart and another Target. Sus and I had a fun time and got lots of great deals! We stopped at Chic-fil-A for breakfast and made it home by about 10am. The lack of sleep was worth the sales!
I will end this blog with some pics from Thanksgiving day. Enjoy!

Parent/Teacher Conference

So I had a meeting with Kason’s teacher, "Mrs. D", this past Friday. I was a little nervous about the meeting even though she was meeting with all the kids’ parents. I haven’t met with her since school started, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. When I got there she sat me down at a little miniature table in a little miniature chair. The first thing she said was how much she liked having Kason in her class and what a cute boy he is. I wasn’t sure what to make of this….did she really like Kason or was she just buttering me up before she told me what a hell-raiser my cute little boy is?!? :) She proceeded to tell me that Kason’s behavior at school was good and there was nothing to worry about as far as behavior goes. (Whew, that is a big relief!!) She said he is well-liked by his classmates and loves PE and recess. That was no surprise to me, of course. Whenever I ask him what was the best part of his day he always says Recess and PE. :) She told me he is a little behind on his reading, but has made improvements in the last 2 weeks. I had noticed the same thing and asked if she knew what was making a difference. She said that is why she loves teaching 1st grade, because kids start off barely being able to read and then one day it clicks. With Kason, she said he seems to thrive on competition. All the kids in the class are reading the same 75 books. He is a little behind the average on getting through these 75 books. But another boy in his class is on the same book that he is on. So now it is a competition between he and this other little boy to catch up with the class. Whatever works, right?!? Mrs. D also said that Kason is great at Math. She said they play a math game in class called “Quiz Show”, boys against girls. One boy and one girl go up to the front of the class and have to answer a math questions. Mrs. D says that Kason almost always wins when he gets up there. She did mention that he needs to work on his handwriting. Boy, is that the truth!!! He just gets sloppy and doesn’t take his time making his letters. But all in all, it was a good parent/teacher conference and I am happy with Kason’s progress.

Oh, before I go, I do have to brag just a little more on Kason. He got his report card last week and made the A/B Honor Roll!!! He even got an “E” (for Excellent) in CONDUCT!!! Wow!!! He would also want me to mention that he won a basketball dribbling contest in PE a couple of weeks ago. I am not sure exactly what they had to do, but from what I could get out of him, they had to dribble down the court around cones and then shoot. There were 2 classes competing and Kason won! His daddy is so proud. :)

Family Christmas Pictures

Last Saturday morning, we went to the square in McKinney for our family Christmas pictures. Just getting there is an ordeal in itself, of course. It is not an easy feat (for me at least) to get 2 kids ready for pictures while trying to get myself ready as well. But I gave up on trying to make everything look perfect and just did the best I could, then enjoyed the experience. Here is the sweetest picture I took of Katie and GD walking around the square. It doesn't get much better than this!! :)
Our neighbor, Heather Flores was our photographer. She has taken our family pictures once before and does a great job. Maybe even more importantly, she snaps those pictures quickly which is paramount when you have small kids! Heather brought her son, Zach who is a friend of Kason's. It was a great distraction for the kids to have Zach to pal around with between pictures. He also made funny faces for the kids to smile at when it was picture time. Here is a picture of Kason and Zach that day: Katie especially liked Zach's funny faces and started making funny faces of her own. Here is a picture that Heather took of Katie making her funny faces:

The pictures turned out great. Be on the lookout for our Christmas cards in your mailbox soon! Here is a preview of one of the family pictures that Heather took. (This isn't the one on our Christmas cards, I don't want to spoil that for you! :)

After the pictures, we went to Mom and Pop's Popcorn which is the cutest little store there on the square. They had all kinds of popcorn and tons and tons of candy!!! The kids were, of course, like kids in a candy store! We told them to pick one thing and it took them forever because the amount of candy was so overwhelming.

It is hard to believe that Christmas will be here before we know it. But Thanksgiving is first! So I will say Happy Thanksgiving from the Hendricks family to you!! :)

Aunt Poos

Hello Blog World! OK, its time for me to catch up on my blogging!! Last Saturday we celebrated my Aunt Poos' birthday. For those of you who don't know my Aunt Poos, you are missing out!! She is beautiful, funny, smart, loving and definately spirit-filled! Her laugh and screams can be heard for miles when she gets worked up! :) And last week was a pretty big birthday for her. (I'm not sure she would want me to say which one it was, but suffice it to say it was a big one! :) So to celebrate, my mom, Poos, Oma, Jamie and I went to "The Chocolate Angel" tea house in Richardson. It is one of our favorite places to meet for a Girl's Lunch. They have delicious salads and sandwiches!

On a side note, I was surprised to see my great friend and neighbor, Susanne at The Chocolate Angel that day!! Who would've thought we would run into each other at such an obscure place!!??? Guess we really do think alike, Sus! :)

So the 5 of us were seated and had our wine glasses filled with my Aunt's favorite Reisling (which was delish by the way!). My Aunt had the special birthday wine glass that we decided should be passed along to each of us when it is our birthday lunch.
We ordered our meals and then Mom broke out the party attire for Poos to wear on her special day. Out of her bag she whisked out a tiara, boa and star sceptor. Poos had no choice but to wear her special birthday accessories. Mom told Poos that whenever she touched someone with her birthday star sceptor that that person had to do whatever Poos asked. I will just say that Poos took advantage of that situation and it led to some great girl talk! :) Here is a picture of the birthday girl in all her glory:

After our delish meal, we went to Jamie's house for cake and gifts. Jamie has a beautiful house in Richardson that I had not visited since they first moved in. We took a quick tour of the house. Jamie has decorated it so nicely and they did a lot of work on it. It is absolutely a beautiful and warm, homey home. I love it! Jamie had put together Poos' favorite cake, Angel Food cake. We had it with strawberries and whip cream, yummy!!

Next, we opened gifts. (Or did we do cake first?? I can' remember the exact sequence! :) Poos got some great gifts and cards. Mom and Oma surprised Poos by giving Poos a gift bag with a set of keys in it. When she opened the gift and found the keys, Mom told her she had to go out to her car and look in her trunk for her gift. So we all went outside and watched as Poos opened the trunk, and found a new 19 inch flat screen TV!!! For those of you who know my Aunt, you can already hear the screams and laughter that came out of her mouth when she found it! :)

It was so funny because on the way to lunch she was just telling us that the only reason she would go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving was if there was a flat screen TV on sale that she could use in her bedroom!! It was so great to see her so surprised and happy about her gifts!

Jamie's husband came home just in time to visit for a little bit and take a picture of all us girls. It was a great day of laughter, wine, food, sharing and love. I love my family!!

Sorry to Brag, but.....

I forgot to blog yesterday about Kason's huge improvement in behavior at school and Afterschool care last week! If you have ready my earlier blog, we were having some trouble with him in his Afterschool care program. He was getting in trouble for talking back, not listening, etc. Well, last week was a huge improvement!! He did not get in trouble one time during Afterschool care last week. And at school he was one of 4 first graders selected to get free ice cream during lunch time as a reward for good behavior in the cafeteria!!! (That is quite an improvement from pulling down his pants in that same cafeteria last year! :) We are so proud of him for making good choices last week! Way to go, Kason! Keep up the good work!!

The Cat's Meow

Katie Blair is talking so much! She will say anything! She told Kason that he needs to cover his mouth when he coughs. (She is still Katie Bossy!) She tells on Tucker when he lickes her. But this week, not only is she talking, she is meow-ing. Yes, you heard right. She is acting like a cat. We call her "Katie Cat". At home this past week, she wiould just come up to us and start meowing. GD went to pick her up at Tracy's one day this week and as soon as she saw him she says, "Meow! :) It is so funny!! We have no idea what started this cat imitation. I'm sure it is just something she picked up somewhere...who knows!

Kason came home early from school on Friday with a low-grade fever and ear pain. I took him to the doctor on Saturday morning and an ear infection was confirmed. He started antibiotics that day. He started feeling better almost right away. It is now Sunday evening and he seems to be back to normal. He still has a little pain in his ear, but no fever. To prove how well-recovered he is today, I have added a video below of Kason kicking a field goal in the backyard this afternoon. He loves to kick the football!!

But before the video, here is a pic of Katie Blair I took today. You may notice a little bruise under her right eye. She and Adelie were playing last night and Katie bounced off of Adelie and into the window sill. It didn't slow her down for very long. She had a great time playing with Adelie and Reid.



Hope you all have a great week!

Halloween Present, Halloweens Past

Another month has come and gone and now it is November!! I can hardly believe it!! I hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

Last week, Kason continued to get into trouble at the Afterschool program. It is always the same thing: talking back, not listening, rolling eyes, etc. We spanked him, took away video games, TV and even his football. But nothing seemed to really get his attention. So we finally warned him on Wednesday, that if he could not get through the next 2 days without getting into trouble he would not be able to go Trick or Treating. Lo and behold, the next day he got into trouble again. So now we had to follow through on the punishment. I think I was more upset than Kason was. I had been looking forward to this all month!! But a deal is a deal, and we couldn’t back down. (Actually, I totally would have backed down if it hadn’t have been for GD. He is much better at the ‘tough love’ thing than me!) So we told him that he couldn’t go to the football game on Friday night, couldn’t go to Trunk or Treat at church on Saturday afternoon and couldn’t go Trick or Treating on Saturday night. My heart was broken. On Friday, we did let him get dressed up to go to school. When GD picked him up on Friday afternoon, the girls at the Afterschool program told GD that Kason had had a GREAT day. When he got home, his behavior was exceptional. So GD and I discussed it and told Kason if he could behave himself the rest of the weekend, then he could earn back his Trunk or Treat privileges for Saturday afternoon. He was still grounded from the football game and Trick or Treating, but at least he could do something. He seemed happy with that, or at least happier.

On Friday night, my good friend Susanne came over and we made goodies to hand out to the kids at Trunk or Treating the next day. For those of you who may not know what Trunk or Treating is, it is a community event that our church offers where we decorate our trunks and hand out candy to the kids. It is lots of fun. Susanne and I had a great time visiting (and drinking a little vino!)

Saturday, of course, was Halloween. This is the first year that Katie understood what a costume was, although I don’t think she still understands the whole Halloween concept. She is still asking me if we can go trick or treating again! My mom and GD’s mom both came over Saturday afternoon and helped get the kids dressed so I could go up to the church to decorate my trunk. Trunk or Treating was a blast! There was a great turnout and the kids had lots of fun. I think Katie had a lollipop in her mouth everytime I saw her!! After Trunk or Treating, we all went to Susanne and Monty’s house for dinner. Susanne is a gracious host and awesome cook. Her chili was so yummy and the kids loved their “mummy dogs”! After dinner, GD and the moms took Kason home to fulfill his punishment of no Trick or Treating. He was upset, and so was I. But Katie was still raring to go, so Susanne, Monty and I rounded up Katie, Tanner, Adelie and Reid and took them around the neighborhood to go Trick or Treating. It was perfect weather with a little bit of chill in the air. The kids absolutely loved it! Katie sat in the wagon like a princess about half the time. But in between lollipops, she did go up to a few houses to trick or treat. However, if there was scary music or smoke coming from the house, forget about it!! She was scared! By the time we got back home, Katie was still on a sugar-high, but I was exhausted! I was so happy that we gained an hour Saturday night!! (Although Katie woke up at 6:30 the next morning!!)

Katie is really coming into her own these days. She is little Miss Thing!! We are going to have to start working on her little attitude, but right now it is totally cracking us up!! Yesterday, she had her baby doll in her stroller and I asked her how her baby was doing. She looked at me and said, “Don’t worry about my baby!”. I told her not to talk like that to me. She put her hand on her hip, looked me in the eye and said, “Don’t talk to my baby like that!” I had to stifle a laugh, the look on her face with that hand on one hip was priceless!!!

Here are some pics from the weekend.

I looked for pictures from past Halloweens, but could only find the past 2 years. I'm sure I have the prior years, but just didn't have time to search for them. I really need to get better organized! Enjoy!

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2007

Too Funny!!!! :)

You Just Never Know What They Will Do Next!

Hello Faithful Blog Readers (all 2 or 3 of you!) :) We had another action-packed weekend at the Hendricks’ House. Last week, Kason had some behavior issues at his YMCA Afterschool program. He got in trouble 4 out of 5 days last week. 3 of the days were for mocking, rolling eyes and talking back to the counselors. And one day was for saying “ass”. We have talked to the counselors and to Kason. We have come to the conclusion that Kason is being influenced by older kids at the program. They have kids ages K thru 5th grade in the same area. The older kids are setting bad examples, and I think Kason is trying to do what they do. And as for the “ass” day, apparently one of the older kids told Kason to say it. This, of course, does not excuse Kason’s behavior but at least gives us a little insight as to Why. So we had the whole “if-someone-tells-you-to-jump-off-a-bridge” talk with him. Throughout the course of last week, we have grounded him from video games, TV and his football, as well as a spanking on “ass” day. Ug! Its times like these when I wish I could send him to Private school and shelter him from the world!!!!
Anyway, moving on to update you with all of our weekend activities. I went to a “Girls Night In” at my friend Laura’s house on Friday night. We had so much fun!!! A little too much, actually. Before I knew it (and quite by accident) I had drunk a whole bottle of wine by myself!! Wow!! So, needless to say, I paid for all the fun I had at Laura’s! My kids don’t sleep in just because I need to. So I was up bright and early on Saturday morning after about 4 hours of sleep. Here is a pic of all of us at Laura’s. What a motley crew we are! :)

On Saturday, Crystal , Chad , JJ and Koby came over to go to Celina’s Fun Day on the Square with us. The kids were so happy to see each other! Jaycee brought Katie a little pink Hello Kitty purse filled with plastic jewelry. Katie LOVES it!!!! She carried that purse and wore the jewelry the rest of the weekend. She kept telling me that she was going to the “Palace”.

The kids had fun at Fun Day, eating snow cones, going on carnival and hay rides and getting their faces painted. It was great to see the Brown family, we always have lots of fun with them.

Sunday was a good day. We went to Sunday School and church then home for a nap. I got a much-needed 2 hour nap! Plus, the Cowboys won. Told ya it was a good day! :) Kason and I went back up to the church on Sunday evening for an adult’s bible study and kids program. While we were there, it began storming outside. We got drenched getting in the car but made it home. Our electricity went out a little bit before 10pm Sunday night and didn’t come on until about 4:30am Monday morning. Plus, Celina got 5 inches of rain!! Streets were flooding. The rain just kept coming down. And the lighting and thunder were so close! Katie slept through it all, but Kason could not get settled down. He was one sleepy boy this morning!

Oh, I almost forgot one other thing that happened Sunday afternoon. The kids were outside after we had all napped. They had been getting on each other’s nerves pretty much all day. Kason wants to be all over Katie all the time and she, of course, screams everytime he comes within 5 feet of her. They just play off each other. So Kason went outside and Katie wanted to go too. So we let them go outside. They couldn’t have been out there more than 5 minutes, when GD goes out to check on them. He finds Kason chasing Katie with his pants down, trying to pee on her. Thankfully, he wasn’t able to run very fast with his pants down and she was able to run away from him and avoid getting peed on. Really!!???!? GD and I were both livid. Kason got spankings again and sent to his room. In hind sight, I think he was just trying to bug her as they had been bugging each other all day. We explained to Kason how 1.) it is very un-hygenic (is that a word??) to pee on someone and 2.) he doesn’t need to show his privates to anyone, even his sister. Craziness!!! So I just wonder if this is something I will eventually look back on and laugh or if it indicates a more serious behavior problem? These kids!!!! You just never know what they are going to do next!!!!!!!! (Now you know why I drank that whole bottle of wine on Friday night!! :)

Anyway, hope you all have a great week and don’t let anyone pee on you! :)

Orange, Orange and more Orange

Happy Monday, Blog-readers!! Hope wherever you are, you are having as beautiful weather as we are here in North Texas . After seemingly unending rain during the first half of the month, the last 4 days or so have been gorgeous!! The sun is out and the air has just the right amount of chill in it. We laid pretty low this weekend. I got off work early this past Friday and took the kids to Celina’s Homecoming Parade. They loved watching the Fire trucks, police vehicles, football players, drill team and other floats drive by. Kason especially liked the floats that threw candy out to the crowd! It was a gorgeous day for a parade. Later that evening, Kason and GD went to the football game while Katie and I stayed home. Kason had a little bit of trouble with some adhesive eye black that they handed out at the game. He loved wearing them at the game, but the next day his face was broken out from them! He has always had sensitive skin so I guess these just irritated it. He was fine by Sunday morning though. Here are before and after pics:

On Saturday, Kason and I carved a Jack-o-lantern. We found the perfect pumpkin at Walmart. We went outside to carve it so we wouldn’t make a mess in the house. Katie wasn’t very interested in the carving. She was too busy bringing all her dolls and toys outside while we were busy carving. By the time I looked up, she had dolls, a stool, a blanket, her picnic basket and other miscellaneous toys outside!! That girl is busy!! Kason did a great job carving the pumpkin. After we had it finished, I had a very Martha Stewart idea to toast the pumpkin seeds. Actually, I got the idea from my mom. She used to toast pumpkin seeds when we were little and I remember them being sooo good! Unfortunately, mine did not turn out good at all. I cleaned the seeds, then coated them with a little oil and salt and put them in the oven for about 7 minutes. I got them out all golden brown and smelling yummy. The first taste tasted great! Unfortunately, the more you chewed the worse it got. I couldn’t chew them!! I think I either didn’t let them dry enough after cleaning them or you are supposed to boil them first or something. Mom, you’ll have to help me out with that next time!!

Sunday was a great day! I taught Sunday School and had a great class with the little ones, then went to Worship which was great as well. I got a 2 hour nap that afternoon and then went to Bible Study Sunday night. It was a great small group and the Holy Spirit was definitely present! PTL!! It was a great way to end the weekend. Now on to another busy work and school week. Hope you all have a great one!