To Cut? Or Not To Cut?

The week before Anna was born they did one last ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. To my delight the girl doing the ultrasound say, "WOW, look at all that hair!" I was so excited. I was born with a full head of hair and I guess I really wanted my baby to have lots of hair too.
The other day I was playing with Anna and I started looking at her hair. This is what I saw.

Now, I don't know if the pictures convey what I am laughing about. She has a funny little ring of long hair on top and quite the bush at the back by her neck. I pointed this out to Devin and said, "Maybe we should cut her hair so it is even and not so funny looking." He was holding Anna at the time and looked her in the eyes and said, "Anna, if mommy tries to cut your hair you scream as loud as you can." He was pretty firm that I was ABSOLUTELY NOT going to cut her hair.
Help! What do I do with this crazy uneven hair? I really want to cut it, just so it is even and not so crazy looking. Help!!!

Fun and Inspiring

Time is just racing by! There are so many things that I haven't blogged about. I use to be a Sunday blogger, but Sundays have been busier lately. I think I will now try to be a Monday blogger.
CLEAR BACK, at the beginning of January, can you believe January is almost over...CRAZY! We made a big switch at our house. I have had a gym pass for ... years! But with a little baby at home going to the gym has been harder to fit in. But I am one of those people who NEEDS to go to the gym. I compare this need to the need that some women have for just a little bit of chocolate every day. Life is just better when I have gone for a good run. I love running outside, but I don't mind running inside.
So, long story short, thanks to good old KSL classifieds we are now that proud owners of our very own tread mill. Can I tell you how great it is to just walk upstairs and be able to run while my baby is still sleeping peacefully downstairs? The only challenge I have found is that I have to get my lazy bum out of bed, pump, run, and shower before Devin leaves for work. This means I need to wake up early. It is worth it though. I am not a die hard competitive runner. I run because, for me, it really is fun. I also enjoy listening to Conference talks, CES firesides, and anything off of the BYU Speeches website.
It is so nice to have fun inspiring runs each morning. I have missed that SOOOOO much!
Also, I'd like to make a shout out to thank my husband and brother who lugged the tread mill up all the stairs. It made us realize that it would be near impossible to have a real piano hauled up to our house. We also decided that when we move, the tread mill will be one of the last things to go so that way everything will already be out of the way. At one point as they were taking it up the stairs we all started laughing and Devin practically ran Peter over with the big heavy thing.

Look closely at the picture of my brother being SMASHED into the wall at the top of the stairs outside our house. His face is SO funny. Thanks Emily for the great pictures!

Babysitter Question

Mom mom is my hero! She would drop everything to help anyone at a moments notice. And if she couldn't for some reason, she would spend the rest of the day feeling bad and wish that she could have dropped everything to help that person.
Lately my mom has been SOOOO nice to watch Anna for us so we could go to the temple, or I could go to JoAnn's (which is a nightmare adventure every time I have gone lately), and little things like that. She is so good with Anna and I love that my mom gets one-on-one time with her. But I feel bad always picking on her. I don't like feeling like I am taking advantage of Grandma if you know what I mean.
Devin and I have talked about possible getting someone else to watch Anna every once and a while, but the big question is....how much do babysitters cost these days???? I was not one of those girls who payed for my college education with babysitting money, so I have no clue how much babysitters charge.
So HELP! What is a reasonable price for a babysitter? I have heard that some girls charge by the hour, some just a flat price, and others by the number of kids. I'm just trying to get a ballpark idea of how this would effect our budge if we decided to get a babysitter for our little princess.

The princess, by the way, has discovered her hands this last week. She loves to just look at them and open and shut her hands. She is also getting really good at picking stuff up.

The Best Two Years

Two years ago today, Devin and I were married. How time flies! How life changes! It has been the best two years. We say all the time that we were so glad that we waited around for each other. Before I met Devin I was really envious of all my friends who had been married for YEARS. But I'd wait 28 years for him anytime. It just goes to show that the best things really are worth waiting for. I am SO glad Heavenly Father has a plan for me, and that Devin is a pretty huge part of that plan. Now our little Anna is here, and she was worth waiting for too! I can't wait to see what the next 2, 5, 10, 50 years + ...all of eternity holds for us. It's going to be fun, that much I know for sure.

A Closet A Day

Each day is special in its own way. Monday is shopping and wash day. Tuesday is banking, bookkeeping, and baking day. Wednesday is Family History day. Thursday is sewing day, and Friday is cleaning day. Today is Friday so I get to clean. After I had gone through the normal "have to be done" cleaning things I hit a point of rebellion because I just wasn't in the mood to vacuum. Besides Anna was sleeping and I didn't want to wake her up. I decided rather than vacuum I would pull out my good old "House of Order Handbook" and start my deep cleaning today. I love this book! It goes through step by step simple things to do to clean your house and keep it clean. Who says you have to wait until Spring to deep clean your house anyway?


Today we started with clothes and closets. I completely embraced my nerd-hood and had way too much fun cleaning out my dresser drawers and doing fun things like organizing my socks. I finally put all my maternity clothes away and cleaned out my closet. I love it when all my shirts are organized by color, sleeve length and type of shirt. I had so much fun doing it I even did Devin's side of the closet too.

I figured that if I just attack the closets in one room a day all of them will be cleaned before next Friday and then I can start the next step in creating a house of order. So this week's theme is "A closet a day keeps the dust bunnies away."

Extreme Gingerbread Houses

New Year's day means gingerbread houses for the Hendersons. The last few years have brought out the creative side in all of us. Each year we stretch the possibilities. This year a few of us went a little overboard. Several weeks before this event Devin and I began brainstorming what we should make. Last year we made a carousel. We decided to keep with the "Fair" theme and this year we'd make a ferris wheel. In order to make the ferris wheel we needed to break with tradition, which is using the store-bought kit in some way. Devin drew out the plan using random bowls, cups, apple cutters, funnels, and other random kitchen objects. I made the gingerbread and we carefully cut out the pieces we would need. Then on New Year's day we took the pieces over to my mom's house and glued them together and decorated our ferris wheel. I think it turned out great. The best part is that we really made the whole thing ourselves.

Now we thought our's was cool. We thought we had spent a little extra time. My little brother Peter went all out this year. He made Spaceship Earth, which is a large golf-ball shaped ride at Epcot Center in Florida. He is amazing! Not only did they make it out of gingerbread, but he has this little chip program thing inside that makes the lights flash and stuff. Now that is amazing! For full details you should see his blog.
This defiantly sets a new standard for gingerbread houses. We are now making extreme gingerbread houses. The sky is the limit. Any suggestions for next year?