::little wiglet::

He moves so fast it's hard to get a good picture of him, no matter how hard I try. Even this one is a little blurry because he was sitting up on a chair in the kitchen and I was concerned he was going to jump off at any moment--which he proceeded to do. He sure is a darling. Sweet faced and sweet natured. A good combination.

::climber::

My little guy could turn into a bit of a scary climber.

He's always trying to climb up on the couch, and anything else that seems accessible.

I'm probably exaggerating a bit though. He's not like some kids, truly climbing on everything. Sandy's so easy going you really don't have to worry too much about him. He's mellow and measured. So the climbing is happening, but not at too extreme of a level.

But when he gets up on something he's SUPER psyched. Like the couch. He bounces and chortles and looks like he's going to pitch off straight backwards.

And yes, he got too enraptured by Sesame Street and fell off the box at some point. Before that though, when I tried to push him bottom onto the box more he looked at me like I was SO RUDE.

Babies are ridiculous.

::unfestive::

Since I'm planning a post or two for tomorrow detailing the festive things that are happening around here, I thought I would tell you a few UNfestive things. You know, get them over with.

First, but not most bummerish is the fact that one of the strings of lights on our christmas tree has gone out. No amount of shaking or twisting or any tweaking will fix them. And they're halfway up the ten foot tree.
Such a bummer because every time I look at the tree it makes me sad--and after all that hard work! I want to fix it, but in the sake of simplicity (if you remember that was my theme word this year, or was it simple?) Anyway, in the sake of saying sane I should probably just leave it alone. And Kris says he doesn't notice it--so I'll try not to either.

But the real non festive thing around here has been sickness. Poor Sandy has been soooo sick. Turns out he's had RSV or something similar. Poor baby started wheezing and having a hard time breathing at the beginning of the week and we've been struggling with it ever since. Finally after a late night near visit to the ER (he seemed so much better by the time we got there, we turned back) we got into the doctor first thing the next morning and got some steroids. He's done so much better since. (though he HATES having a nebulizer held in front of his breathers for thirty minutes!)
So instead of decking halls and making cookies and watching Christmas movies the last few days we've been trying to take care of wheezy sad and pitiful cranky sick babies.

AND he's teething--he's got about four teeth coming in. So at first we didn't even know that he was really sick.
Anyway, he's doing so so so much better now and we're all glad since we had a couple of bad nights.
Thank goodness for modern medicine and solutions to scary problems.


So the sickness is pretty unfestive--and it would be sad if the others of us got it. I sure hope we can stay well.
But the fact that baby feels better is beginning to be festive--so that can be the opener for my festivity report tomorrow.

::kansas city::

In early November we got to go to Kansas City to see Kelly's family and to be present for baby Gray's blessing. We were pretty excited to go, considering it has been years since we've been back there. We're quite fond of Kansas City and there have been many things we've missed about it over the years.
The bummer was that it was seriously a whirlwind trip. We got there saturday afternoon and left monday morning.
So it was tough to squeeze in all we were hoping and wanting to do.

But of course, most importantly, we got to see family. Kelly and Lechelle had a nice little open house before the blessing with lots of yummy food. We got to hang out together for a bit there, and then go to church. The blessing was so nice and their ward seems great.
Before church we took a couple of photos, but Boston was NOT wanting to cooperate. Cute, but cranky!



This was the very cutest one:

And then the whole group of us Hendricks.

Some cute kids in there!

Besides the family time, we got to go and eat some of our favorite foods at our favorite places. The Taqueria Mexico was still there, just the same as when we left it.


And still delicious. Sandy loved digging into the rice and beans.

We also went to our favorite sandwich place--Planet Sub. Twice. And it was just so stinking good.
The funniest thing is that we started taking Max to Planet Sub (regularly) back when he was about Sandy's age. He would eat a little bite of the kid's sandwich and then be done.
Well Mr. Sand the crazy eater chowed the whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then asked for MORE!


I think he may have the potential to grow up to be a competitive eater. YIKES. I better watch out.

So it was a fun quick trip. Wish it could've been longer, truly it only seemed like we saw Kelly & Lechelle for a few minutes. But we can do it again soon! We're always up for more Planet Sub.

::more on sand::

Just a little more evidence of how tidy my little Sand is. I really hadn't noticed it until after the birthday cake.

Any moms out there ever given their kids these gross things?

(Can you see his worried look? He's afraid that I'm not going to actually give him the food, but just take pictures all night.)

These things are gross. I usually don't buy these types of things because they are expensive and he eats them so darn fast. But I was at Target today and feeling generous--or just overwhelmed by all the merchandise--and I got this tub. I was actually thinking it was the cheetos type things. Anyway, I got home and got them out and realized they were the gross huge wagon wheels.
Sandy didn't care though, he was ready for them.

"Give me the DARN FOOD!!"

I got these things for Max one time and that was the last. He made such a soggy slobbery slimy mess out of them. So I was rather dreading it tonight.

Here's Sandy post first wagon wheel.

Looks perfectly clean to me really. A little on the bib, but nothing else.

And 2nd wheel:




And there he is with the leftovers--at some point he decided the wheel was kind of gross on his own. He thought real dinner sounded better.

Anyway, such a funny boy. And the differences and similarities between the two brothers is hilarious to me.

::beach baby::

This is baby, all ready to go to the beach--or maybe we had just come back from the beach? I can't remember. Anyway, he was an adorable beach baby. These were the only photos I took on our whole trip with my real camera. That's too bad but at least it means I was busy having fun with my hands full. Understandable with this wiggly thing around, right?

::way to go::

Way to go Fisher Price for making at least one toy that doesn't have flashing lights, obnoxious electronic music or require batteries.


Way to go for making a toy that excites my little guy so much that when he sees it he starts panting, he reaches with every limb he has and he wiggles.


And way to go Sand for turning into such a legitimate person--eating real food (lots of it), playing with toys and laughing at the funniest things (like when I blow my nose.)

Love that silly little boy.

::dinner::

Having dinner with four more kids than normal is no easy task. Not that it's not fun--just a lot more complicated. Good thing there were four of us adults vs the six crazy kids.


(KC says "I don't want what I have, I want THAT one!")

Surprisingly enough all of us adults survived the kid craziness and had a really good time visiting.
And I love that the table is outside--makes cleanup so darn easy!


Love those darling babies!

::overhauls::

I bought these cute overalls when we were in Phoenix last time. When I picked them out I thought that there was no way they would fit. They looked so big! But after a week or so I pulled them out to try them on him. And of course they fit. Snugly. The boy is huge! I love babies in overalls.

::just a teeny video::

Mostly for the fun of the grandparents!!
We think little Sandy is so adorable. He's almost figured out how to make his hands do what he wants--once in a while--sort of.

::suggestions::

Here are a few of Max's baby name suggestions. (Besides Sam & Sammy--his favorite so far.)

Eris--you know, like the dwarf planet.
Rico--just an awesome name he came up with (I'm sure not inspired at all by uncle Rico I'm sure. "My friends and clients call me UNCLE Rico.")
Max 2--that' pretty self explanatory, right? This is really one of his original and most persistent sugguestions. Two Maxes. Call me crazy, but I think yelling at one Max at a time is enough.

We'll see what else he comes up with.

::cousins::

We have Kelly, Lechelle and Boston visiting us for the weekend and we're having a blast. Max is enjoying his little cousin when he's not busy trying to tear Kelly's attention away from his baby.


Boston thinks Max is super cool, and I was excited when Max wanted to hold him.
He's a good big cousin.

We're really enjoying their visit so far. It's so nice to get to spend time with the new cute babies in the family! And the big people in the family too of course.


Two boys "taking a nap" and snuggling this morning. Fun times!