::decor ps::

I forgot to show you one of our fun decor things.
This really doesn't deserve it's own alone post, but it's fun and I wanted to include it, so here we go.
I went and bought a bunch of Christmas goodies at Trader Joe's in early December. And it was a good thing I did too, turns out, since when I went back some of my favorites were all sold out.
Anyway, the paper bags were special Christmas themed ones, and they caught my eye.
The side panels were made to cut into strips that could be made into a paper garland.
And so Max and I did it. I had to. They told me on the bag that I had to.
It turned out really cute.
Just another reason to love TJ's.

::festive part 2--decor::

So this isn't quite as festive as it once was meant to be--now that it's after Christmas. But sick babies will slow people down and put things off. Some things are just more important than blogging I guess.
Anyway, we did some fun decorating this year and I wanted to show you guys.

Kris worked hard and put up a bunch of outside lights, and they make me happy every time I see them.

This is just part of them, I couldn't get them all in the picture, and it was too cold to keep trying.

Kris specially wanted to get us some chile lights. He's wanted them for a while I guess. I think they're a tad cheesy, but as long as they're not on the tree I think they're fun.


In the corner of the pool table room, right by the chile lights is a little tree--it's the small one we cut down when tree hunting.
It's very goofy looking--a classic charlie brown type tree. But it's fun and it serves it's purpose. I went through and picked out a bunch of fun family pictures--mostly from Dec, but not all--and laminated them. Then I cut them out and put them on hangers and of course, hung them on the tree.

It turned out pretty darn fun, and I love seeing my little boys' faces dangling there when I walk by.


What do you think? Fun idea? I stole the germ of the idea from a good friend of mine who does something similar.

And now for more trees. I was excited to finally have some space to put up a little silver tree I bought several years ago in Kansas City. And that tree needed some friends. So we gained a few more trees as Dec went on.
So there are a few cute ones on the way into the living room.

Then on top of our built in TV cabinet (that we will eventually be changing and remodeling a bit, hopefully) is a little forest.


There are little birds and butterflies all hanging out up there in the trees. I love how the little forest turned out. It's so cheery and fun.
Then I put sparkly mylar star things along the shelves up high too--not until after Sandy swallowed at least one star though.
Then on Christmas Eve Kris was putting together our luminarios that didn't get put outside, and we decided to put them up on the shelf also.
They look SO festive. In fact I'm tempted to keep them up year round for mood lighting!

So there are my fun things I did this year. There's other fun stuff here and there, but these were the major ones.
And then of course, our awesome lovely tree that we will all be sad to see go. It's been a a good one.

It's so fun to actually have Christmas day, but isn't it always so sad when it's over--in so many ways?

::merry christmas 2011::

::festive & not festive too::

Kris has been practicing his trombone and baritone--mostly playing fun Christmas tunes. His dad used to really enjoy getting the kids together to play Christmas tunes on their instruments.

Anyway, today he got out the baritones to play a few tunes for Sandy. It was quite cute and festive. Well, it was until Sandy heard it.


He wasn't too sure at first.
Then he was sure.


Poor Sandy!



Yes, I picked him up and hugged him after this. No babies were harmed in the making of this blog post.
Poor guy just hasn't been himself since he got sick. He's tired and cranky and the steroids, though making him breathe (thank heavens) seem to be making him unhappy. Poor guy.
So not too festive of an attitude, but I do love his little outfit.

::festive part 1::

The first festive thing that has been happening lately is: SNOW!
Not today or yesterday, but a couple of days earlier this week we had lots of fun snow.



Snow is always fun and festive, and we're always glad for more moisture out here. Though the snow did make me nervous since the baby was sick. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get around to the doctor and stuff. But we didn't get as much as we were supposed to, so it was all fine and beautiful.

Next festive thing:
Sandy can breathe. He's SO cranky it's hard to believe, but he's breathing and sleeping and sometimes eating.

(this is not a good picture of me, but so cute of Sandy!)
And so far nobody else has been sick (though Kari's poor family back in UT is sick--can't blame it on us though!) So far anyway. We've all felt a little goofy, but it looks like we might get away with no sickys for Christmas. And that would be nice.

And last, for this installment anyway:
More snow.
Here's the front of the house, I think it looks so fun!

And here's a little darling cactus that looks to me so much like a little Christmas tree since it's so snowy.


More to come, hopefully later today!

::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.

::family shots::

In November we got together with a friend who did a family photo shoot for us. Unfortunately we had a limited window of time to do it in, and the light was super bad. So a lot of the pictures didn't turn out the way I wanted them to. We're going to redo the session at some point here when it's not so darn cold. But a few of them were cute, so I wanted to show you all.
We found a gorgeous house with big wooden gates and blue doors in their courtyard wall. The people there were kind enough to let us use their place as a backdrop. It made me want to go home and paint all our doors blue!




Sweet little boys:


That Sandy sure does love his brother!





And after the blue door house we went down to the railyard to try to get a few shots with the trains. But the boys were pretty much worn out by then. And it was windy and cold. And Max was hungry.
So we'll have to redo those too--but at least you can see what a cool setting it is there!



So there ya go!
I used a couple of the photos for our Christmas card and it turned out fun. I'll post it here later for those of you who might not've got one! (Or for those of you I sent them out to and then got them back later for various reasons!)

::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.