::family::

Today I'm in UT for a quick quick little visit.

I thought these pictures turned out great, besides the fact that Kris is missing. It happens a lot so we're resigned to it by now.

Silliness.

::fixer of the gate::

I love it when my parents come to visit. It's so nice to spend some time with them and my dad always fixes as much of my broken stuff as he can fit in to his trip.
I had been saving our front gate for his expertise for quite a while.
I guess it's been rotting a bit on the inside, so it's been sagging and rubbing on the ground. The sagging effected the latch too, so it was really tough to open and close. And if it got left open because it was too tough to close, the wind would smash it into the gatepost and then it was impossible to open because the latch was buried in the wood. Anyway, you get the picture. I had friends standing outside and honking because they couldn't get in. My own brother thought I had locked him out when he came to visit and injured himself trying to climb the adobe wall.

It was about time for a repair!

So of course dad fixed it. And I took a few pictures of him because I couldn't resist. And it was just a good opportunity to document how he always takes good care of me.
And you're going to get to see all the photos because I like pretty much all the ones I took.



What do you think? Are these photos posed or candid?

And of course, wherever my family is to be found there is a surplus of cameras and camera-poeple. Look for the counterpart of this photo to show up here some time soon I'm sure!
(Mom was on her way to pick up Max from school for me so that I could take a little nap. Best nicest thing ever!!)


We lifted the gate back up and reinstalled it. The dang thing was so heavy.
Then while dad was on an adventure club bike ride with Max I located all the painting stuff and the right color of paint and painted/repainted the whole thing.
A finished project--amazing!! And now my life is seriously easier than it was before. I can go in and out of my front gate while carrying babyseats and such and actually close and open that gate. YAY!
So thanks dad, you're the best fixer dad ever.

These are pretty much the only pictures I took while my parents were here. We were busy running places and working a little and taking care of kids. Oh yeah and a little yummy eating out and some fun shopping. I didn't have much time for photos. So you'll have to go here if you want to see more. I like to see my house and kids through my mom's perspective, it's pretty fun. And she takes such great portraits!

So there you go. Happy green gate and happy me.

::UT trip in phone pictures::

At the beginning of Sept the boys and I headed out to UT for my youngest brother Murphy's wedding. It was a fun trip. We went out a few days early, then Kris joined us just for Saturday and some of Sunday. Then the boys and I stayed for a couple more days.
It was a little nerve wracking flying with two kids, but since Max is so big and Sand is still pretty easy--not moving around much--I think it could've been much worse.
The best thing ever was that the flight was really empty. So after all the stress of driving to ABQ, parking, taking the shuttle with all our luggage, checking in, going through security (always awful, but a million times worse with baby and baby stuff) and finally getting to the gate, we had a whole row to ourselves!
Like this:

He didn't sit like that the whole time, but even a bit of rest was nice for my arms. It was lovely.

Max had a cold, of course, so instead of going straight to my parents house where the incipient bridegroom was going to sleep, we crashed at Kathy's house. She wasn't there because Kelly & Lechelle had just had their second baby and she was out helping them.
It was weird to be in the house alone an we missed her, but we were cozy there.
Here's Max reading his favorite Hendricks house book--"Chicken Soup with Rice."


He recovered and the next morning we went to my parents to spend time.
I was lucky enough to get to be there when my sister Charlotte went through the temple to receive her endowments. If you'd like to learn a bit more about that go here. It was lovely, and I was so happy to be there. Thanks to Kari for watching Max and Meridee for taking care of my little Sandy.
Afterwards the rest of my family had to head out to some wedding festivities, but Sandy and I got to take Charlotte out to dinner at our old standby favorite, Los Hermanos in Provo.

Char and I don't get to spend a ton of time alone together and so it was really fun to get to hang out.

Next was the wedding.
It was great. We were so happy to get to be there. It was a beautiful day and everything turned out so well. Murphy looked happier than any person has a right to be and Laura looked gorgeous. Big congrats to the two of them, we're so proud and happy for them!!

Look at that Murphy's face!!
It was nice to know that somebody was there taking good pictures and I could just take a couple on my phone and call it good.


Here's Sandy enjoying himself in my parent's big play room. This little scooter was calling his name and he wouldn't rest until he got to sit on it. After that he didn't know what to do except fall off.

He's gonna be a bike guy, it's very possible.

And last but not least, even more happiness on the way home. They told me right away it was going to be an empty flight and asked if I wanted to take the carseat on. I was like, YES!!!. So Sand spent the whole flight in his seat and I actually got to read a magazine and closed my eyes for one or two seconds.

It was amazing. A taste of the good life.

There was lots more fun stuff that happened in between the few phone photos that I took, but they'll have to remain in memory. It was just so fun to spend time with everybody and be there for such happy occasions. Yay.

::science pt 2::

Remember this post I put up forever ago?
Well this is part two to that part one.

Remember that awesome science kit that we got Max for Christmas? We did a few of the experiments but then I had no time to work with Max on it for several weeks. When he heard that my parents were coming to our house for Sandy's blessing he was SO excited. He decided my mom would be perfect to do the science with, since she likes to teach him stuff and he likes to learn her stuff.
He was planning the science projects for weeks.
So when they got here he got her right to work.

Here they both are, wearing shirts that would be ok to be all stained by red cabbage juice.

While they were working hard, Sandy was hanging out with Grandpa.
Who was, of course, tweaking my bread recipe to make sure it works out here at extremely high altitude!


They did several projects the first day, and I can't even remember what this one was, but it was cool looking. My mom was so patient and sweet and had Max read the instructions for all the projects. He was in heaven.



And they did more the next day.....to be continued.....
and the requisite baby picture--this was from the same day and I just COULDN'T leave it out.

::blessing day::

So first thing, I had the toughest time ever picking which pictures to put up in this post. So I just picked a bunch.



A week ago today we were able to bless our sweet Sandy in church. If you'd like to know more about that please follow this link and read the section titled "naming and blessing children."
Kris gave Sandy the blessing and he did a beautiful job. He said so many sweet and precious things. I wish I had a recording of it so I could listen to it 100 times in a row and memorize it. We had lots of good friends from the ward standing in the circle, as well as my dad. I was so glad my dad could be there, and we missed the rest of our family, but we knew they were there in spirit. I'm glad that we have so much support from the ward though, since we can't live minutes away from the family. It's nice to know that a lot of the men standing in the blessing circle will be the same men supporting, helping and teaching Sandy (and Max) for a long time. That's special.


(I think this picture is so funny--just the angle of his head, his chubby mushy cheeks and the bubbles.)

Afterwards we gathered at our house with a few friends from the ward for snacks and chatting. Sand didn't even know the party was in his honor, but he had a good time.

(preparing for his party--he didn't even poop on his clothes!)


Speaking of Sandy, he was absolutely perfect at church, didn't make a squeak during the blessing. After his blessing he was held by Mrs. Evans, the wife of the dentist we bought the practice from (they came to the blessing, wasn't that nice?) and then he fell quietly and serenely asleep in her arms. That never happens these days!
What a great kid.

It was so nice to have my parents there. It was fun that they got to meet and chat with some of our friends and just be around for just general help and support. Kris and I are so blessed in the parent department. We have four of the best.
Anyway, my dad spent a lot of time with Sand, entertaining and snuggling him. Sandy loved it.


My dad also got a few giggles out of him during the visit. Some of his very first.

I just want to eat him up with that adorable little smile.


It was a wonderful day. I was probably too stressed out with making sure everything was ready and clean and all was going to run smooth, but I survived. Thanks to everybody for their help and love. We are so greatly blessed with friends and family (whether you were able to attend the blessing or not) I can hardly think about it without being overcome. We love you all. Thank you for loving us.


oh, and if you would like to see a few more pictures, including a couple of me, go here to my mom's blog.

::31 on the 31st::

(My birthday presents--my new computer for work and some fun stuff my mom brought for me!)

Today is my birthday! It's been a great day, besides the 20-30 minutes I spent on the phone with the bank, since they pulled our rent out of our account twice for Feb. Ouch.
But enough about that. The fun part of today is that my parents are here visiting. This is the first time I've been able to be with my parents for my birthday in years. Probably since we moved away from UT which was close to seven years ago! So how fun that they got to come out for the baby blessing and stay for my birthday.

I got to go shopping with my mom and sandy this morning while the boys went on a Land Rover adventure in the mountains (Max had the day off school for some teacher training or something.) We had a good time. Then we all met up at Harry's Roadhouse for lunch, which was delicious. Then we went home and relaxed for a while and then at the end of the day enjoyed pie and some sweet gifts.

Max served me a fancy breakfast this morning and it was delicious. He was very very serious about it too. Or at least he tried to be.

I couldn't be luckier.
\

::baby::

Meet my new 3 month old niece Ann.


I'm so glad I got to meet her before she got any bigger. She's adorable, isn't she?

::happy birthday mom::

It's my mom's birthday today. I'm far away, so the blog is standing in for a great big birthday hug.

Thanks for being such a good mom and taking such good care of all of us. Thanks for teaching us so much and encouraging us to learn about anything and everything we were interested in.
Thanks for always supporting us. Thanks for working so hard and never giving up. Thanks for loving us with all your heart.
Thanks for all the zillion things I could never list because there are just to many.

Happy birthday, LOVE YOU!!

::collaboration::

When I was in Utah I bought a knitting book that I'd been wanting. It's full of adorable patterns for toys and I couldn't resist it. But I didn't (and still essentially don't) know how to knit. So I assigned my mom to teach me how to make one of the toys. Which turned out to be a tougher assignment than I thought. Anyway, she started working on one of them, and finished it just before we left. It turned out super cute.

It's an adorable puppy. BUT there's a problem. It's a sleeping puppy, and it's supposed to have a little blanket to be wrapped up in. She didn't have time to make the blanket, so I took on the challenge when I got home. Which is a big deal for me since my knitting skills are so very basic.
So here's how her blanket turned out:

Yes, it looks kind of like a washcloth. And yes, as usual I picked out a multicolored yarn that made it so I couldn't tell if I was doing the stitches right or not. But it turned out fun. The edges only look good because the pattern had me crochet around them, and I'm good at that!
But I thought the blanket turned out pretty cute too.

But the cutest is when they're together.




Needless to say, Max is in love. He walks around shushing us: "The puppy is SLEEPING!!!!"
My mom and I make a good team. Now I just have to figure out how to do the more complicated stuff.

::all about Guy::

It's my dad's birthday today!
I wish I was in Provo to give him a Symphony bar. Or a tub of Almond Roca. Mmmmmm.

Here he is pretending to be surprised by the can of Almond Roca I gave him back in 1987 or maybe 1988. Convincing, right? One time I gave him a Symphony bar for some holiday and when I wrapped it I put a brown bow on it. When I showed it to him he said something about the color of the bow giving away what was inside. I just couldn't figure out how he knew what it was!


My dad, circa who knows when. Actually it's circa no beard. And that must mean it was before I was born because I've never known the man without his beard. That's a pretty impressive accomplishment, to maintain a serious beard for thirty years. He deserves credit for that.

I love my dad! He's the best dad, the hardest worker and such a faithful and strong person. I wish I was there to give him a birthday hug, and of course go out to dinner! I hate missing birthday outings.
But since we're not there, we just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY and WE LOVE YOU!!


And to close, here's a story that I found in one of my old journals. I wrote this when I was about eight. It's based on one of the fun stories dad used to tell us about when he was a kid. He has some good ones. My favorite was one about him falling into a red ant hill. I wrote and illustrated that one at one point but I don't know where that is. Wish I did.

Love you Dad! Happy Birthday!!