::a moab video::

We went to Moab this weekend to do a little running with my dad and brother. Kris did a little mountain biking too. We also got to do a bit of off-roading and hiking with the boys. We got back just a little bit ago and I scrapped together this little video for the boys to enjoy tomorrow. And since I've been so busy and such a terrible blog poster I thought I'd take advantage of the video and post it here so the fam can see it. And maybe I'll get some pictures up soon too--I hope so anyway!

The Nunnel from Ginna Hendricks on Vimeo.

::::

There are different ways of seeing piles and messes like this. Sometimes I can get discouraged and overwhelmed. Sometimes it feels like no matter how many times things get put away, they will get taken back out again twice as often

Sometimes at the end of the day it's just all a little too much!

But when I start to feel that way, I remember the little faces and the little fingers that got all these special toys out. I think about how quickly they grow and how swiftly the days and weeks fly by. I think about little boys with little cars.

I'm just so glad my guys live in my house. I'd take a house covered with toys anytime if my guys come along with it.

I guess it all just depends on how we think about things. If only things were always this clear.

::running sand::

Our Sandy loves to run.

It's one of his most favorite activities.


"Me wun???!" he says, and then takes off--so fast I can't even get him in focus.



Go Sandy Candy!


I wish I loved to run that much. And that it made me as happy as it makes my kiddo.

Cute kiddo.

::before & afters::

Our Sandy has needed a haircut for quite a while. He got a pretty bad one a while back--uneven, and yucky. His earcovers remained and all else was quite shorn.
So I've been very hesitant to take him back someplace for another trim. I've been trimming him up myself. Theoretically that could be good if a mom actually had any idea what she was doing when wielding scissors and comb.

It was this area right at the back of his head that was always the worst. When he slept he rubbed his head around and it got all nappy and tangled and stuck up funny. So I trimmed it more that once. The first couple of times it went well enough, but the last time I think I got overconfident and it really did not go well at all. It kind of looked like an angry animal had gnawed on the back of his head. OK--maybe not quite THAT bad. But I was embarrassed. We lived with it like that for a while and then finally took him to somebody real with a pair of clippers who took care of things.

And afters:

I could not get this silly child to hold still this afternoon. He was busy busy.

His hair is a little bit shorter than I was hoping for. It's cute though. I just don't like how old it makes him look. Where's my teeny baby?!?


Alright, that's all the blogging time I have for tonight. I'll try to carve some more out later. I miss posting!

::update::

On Dec 27th I went in to the hospital and had a procedure done which is called a U triple P. I also had a tonsillectomy and a tongue base reduction.

Yikes and yick you might say? And why?

Well because I found out I had sleep apnea, and I decided to just try to fix it instead of messing around with Cpap machines and etc. Besides, I've needed a tonsillectomy for a long time.

So the hope is that all this throat revision will be super helpful in the long haul. We'll see.

But it's taken weeks to recover. Kathy was here--she came the day before the surgery and stayed almost three weeks. She was the definition of a godsend. I was able to fully concentrate on recovering. And that was hard for me, but I wasn't allowed to worry about the kids or the house stuff. It was amazing.

Four weeks later now and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. It was so much harder a recovery than I thought it was going to be.

And then I had to start catching up with work after being out for two weeks, and that's been a task. So blogging definitely hasn't been a priority.

But hopefully I can get back to it soon because it makes me happy and I have lots of fun pictures to share. In fact I haven't even been able to show my Christmas photos yet! Soon.

Here is my Max holding the cute posters they made for me to see when I got out of the hospital. He wants me to keep them forever and never throw them away. Its truly tempting. In fact Kris tried to throw away this first one in cleaning up, and it was somehow found. It was truly traumatic. I think Max is over it now, but we'll see.


This is the cutest one. A few close ups for you then I'm out for the night.


Gorse bush!!!!!!?!?

::a few christmas photos::

Max helping Kris open up his mom's special present--a great big T-shirt quilt. This was Christmas Eve.



Kris was feeling awful on Christmas (and before and after). Poor guy was really sick!

My big present. I love it!!! Kris has a good story about retrieving it from where it was hiding in the van and carrying it into the house with Max. Kris was so sick he could hardly hold it up. Somehow it survived and I was totally surprised--even though it was something I really wanted!

Santa brought an awesome Hess truck helicopter for each of the boys. Sandy was in LOVE.



Santa also brought a gaggle of vintage micromachines--and a whole city to play with them in. That was also a hit.




It was a white Christmas!


Sandy got the best present ever from Aunt Kari: a full BYU football outfit, including helmet. Max was a little heartbroken that it didn't fit him. Sandy felt SO COOL.




Final photo, Sandy with his "baby art art" shirt, holding a "baby aurt aurt."

Looks like Sandy was the only one that really wanted to pose for me, so he gets to be the star of this one. Merry Christmas!!!

::christmas eve::

This is Christmas Eve via Instagram. I decided that it would be easier to just take some fun pictures on my phone and not stress out so much over photos and light and etc. This was especially good because Kris woke up sick as a dog, poor guy! He had some sort of yucky flu. He toughened up and went to lunch with us, but that was about all he could manage. Kids woke up happy and excited and raring to go. We ate bananas and then enjoyed a traditional breakfast of Captain Crunch. We used to eat that on Christmas morning, but I've recently decided that there's enough sugary treats Christmas morning, and I'm mor into bacon and eggs and that sort of thing. Anyway, for kids that don't get sugary cereal very often, this is SO fun.


After that I can't even remember what the heck we did. Probably we tried to decide whether Kris was going to be up for going to lunch or not. Like I say, he was tough and went for it.

He had a shepherd's pie--does that look good or gross? We went to the Zia Diner downtown. It's Max's favorite because they have delicious chocolate malts there. We usually get one and split it betwixt us all.

Kris drew some roads for Sandy's cars to drive on. I added some train tracks later.



Max was in such a good mood that he even colored all the stuff on his kid's menu. It was impressive. After lunch we ran a few errands--including retrieving my debit card which I left at the bank--super festive--and then we went home for naps. Sandy and Dad napped while Max and I wrapped presents and got other stuff done. We watched some good Christmas cartoons and just took it easy. Here's Sandy watching some Disney Christmas cartoons.

We were going to go up to Canyon Road and enjoy the lights, but with a sick dad that didn't work out so well. We just ate dinner and then read Christmas books, enjoyed each other's company and opened PJs of course.

Max wrote the cutest letter to Santa. I'm keeping it forever.

Sandy went to bed pretty early, and Kris and I read the Christmas story with Max. He finally battled it out with sleep and passed out at about nine, only to awaken at midnight and stay up until 2, poor guy. I took a few pictures of fun decorations just to add to the festiveness, since we didn't get out to see more fun stuff.


A darling camel my mom made.

Kris's special egg we got from Prague.

The end of Christmas Eve--my favorite holiday.