Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend means that Devin is gone all weekend helping his Aunt Pam at a horse show. This means that Anna and I are alone for the weekend. In the past I didn't mind the alone time because I always had a huge list of things that I was trying to get done for the end of the school year. Obviously this year is different. We were in no hurry to do anything.

This morning I took Anna out the the cemetery where my father's grave is. I've always hated going out to the cemetery. I feel so much closer to my dad in the temple, so if I am missing him, I go there. But I can't take Anna to the temple so I was kind of excited to take Anna to the cemetery. Anna will never know my dad in this life. Memorial Day is a special day that I can help her know her Grandpa Henderson. We drove out just the two of us this morning and I sat her down and talked to her about her Grandpa. I felt bad that she is almost 7 months old and I haven't done that yet. Today Memorial Day took on a new meaning for me. I look forward to sharing so many things about my dad with Anna. I hope that as I share memories of him that Anna might come to know and love my dad as much as I do.

Should I Be Worried?

Anna is almost 7 months old. She still has not rolled over yet. She sits up great on her own now. She can cruise around in her walker. She loves doing "tummy time" and can now wiggle her way around in a circle to get objects. If she is on her back she wiggles until she can reach what she wants. But she won't roll over to save her life. Should I be worried? We have tried to entice her but nothing is working. Today she started to pull herself up on her knees a bit. Would it be bad if she crawled before she rolls over?

Happy Birthday Devin!

Today was Devin's 29th birthday.  He had a great day.  We had a nice pancake breakfast.  Anna and I brought him Wendy's for lunch.  Then we all went to Chili's for dinner thanks to a gift card that we got for Christmas.  Anna did great at Chili's she just sat in her high chair and played with her chains the whole time....That is after she tried to eat one of the coasters.   We then came home and had cake.  I made a caramel chocolate cheesecake.  It was REALLY yummy.   Devin got the 3rd Fablehaven book (it just came out in paperback), Bolt the special edition with all the special features, and this blue tooth thingy for his car. 
Happy Birthday Devin.  We sure love you!

Batter Up!

Unfortunately my mom got some complaints about some Snickers candy bars in her candy machines at the rink. It turns out that the Snickers were really old. (I guess people haven't been buying Snickers in a long long time.) She even had some of the guys at the rink taste them to see if they were really that bad...apparently they were REALLY nasty.
So today when I was at my mom's house there was this bucket with about 20 or so Snicker's bars in it sitting on the counter. After hearing the sad story I asked what she was going to do with them. She said that she was just going to throw them away. I asked if I could play with them first. I don't know why but I wanted to have some fun with them.

Zach and I went on the back porch and got out the NERF rackets and had a blast seeing how far we could hit them. (Well...Zach just tried to hit them.) We were having a so much fun my sister Marie decided to come out and have a go at it. While she was hitting I tried to catch them. It is a little scary having a twirling candy bar come flying at you. It was great fun. I see some real potential in this for an Olympic sport. I hope my mom keeps the candy bars so that Devin can try it. It was really fun.

Watch Out Here She Comes!

We bought this great little walker on KSL.com for a whopping $10. Anna has loved to just stand up in it and throw all her toys off of it or just bang them on the tray.

This week things have changed. Anna has a new favorite game.

Anna has officially learned how to make her walker move. She is so cute. She hops more than walks but it still works to get her where she wants to go. Our life will never be the same.

My Kind of Bling!

We had a convenient death in the family. Not long ago my i pod mini died. I bought my mini over four years ago. We have run many races together, mowed many lawns, and made made wonderful long road trips together. Sadly my mini died one day, he just wouldn't turn on. I didn't feel too bad because I bought the i pod touch two Thanksgivings ago. I am embarrassed to admit that my touch has become my brain, I call it my brain, it does such a good job reminding me of so many things, not to mention holding like 8 days worth of music with room to spare. There is only one problem. Running with a touch is not as much fun as when I would run with my mini. Devin has let me borrow his i pod shuffle a few times and let me tell you it is amazing! So with the death of my mini I started thinking about getting a shuffle to run with. Conveniently Mother's Day was today.
I opened up the beautifully "wrapped" amazon box (yes Devin didn't wrap the box) to find a tinny little case holding the bran new i pod shuffle. Now that is my kind of bling! I told him every time I wear it I'll think of how much he loves me. Devin knows me so well. I'm not the diamonds type, but an i pod is right my alley.
Here is a picture of our i pod family.

Now let me be a nerd for just a moment. Starting at the left you have my old mini which holds 6 GB of music. (not bad) Then we have Devin's shuffle that holds 1 GB. Next we have my touch with 16 GBs of happiness. At the end we have my new shuffle, still in the box that holds 4 GB. WOW! HOLY COW! 4 GB in that tinny little thing. Look how small it is compared to the old shuffle!

Now what sold me on getting this new little i pod is that it can now have multiple play lists. How cool is it that I can have a different play list for running music, Conference, BYU devotionals, and other fun music all on the same little i pod. This is so cool! Seriously look how small it is!

I told Devin this is the best Mother's Day present ever! Who wants a diamond necklace as a token of affection? I guess my i pod is small enough to be a necklace. :)

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

What Would You Do For Your Sister?

My family is pretty close. Whenever someone needs help we are there helping as much as possible. We were raised working together on all sorts of weird projects, thanks to the skating rink. I am grateful that we live close enough that we can help each other. Last week was a perfect example of this.
My sister has been in charge of the school carnival for the last few years. Each year she has asked Devin and I to help out making balloon animals. Last year she got the great idea to make the cotton candy during the day so that way they could just sell it that night. Unfortunately as she was making it in the gym at the school the fumes from the machine set the fire alarm off. (That was really funny, I was there teaching school at the time.) This year as carnival approached I could see my sister's stress level getting higher and higher. I asked what I could do to help. We then thought about the cotton candy. We came up with the idea to bring the machine over to my mom's house and I could make it and my mom could watch Anna.

Well....about 5 hours and 285 bags of cotton candy later I had to stop because it was time for the carnival to start. Can you believe that they sold out in less than an hour!!!! I guess I should have started sooner. It was fun reliving the good old days when my siblings and I would spend Saturday morning at the rink making cotton candy, pop corn, and blowing up balloons for birthday parties. Unlike then when there were four of us working together, I was glad I had my i pod to make the five hours go by quicker. I can now add to my list of weird accomplishments, "Filled up a suburban and outback full of cotton candy." or "Spent the day in a garage making cotton candy."

Oh, the funny things we do to help our siblings. What funny things have you done to help out your family?

A funny side note. As Devin and I were making balloon animals...AGAIN....at the carnival there was a lady who came up wanting our number because she was wondering if we'd come to her school carnival in the fall to make balloon animals there. I felt like saying, "Have you seen how lame our animals are? We just make it up as we go!" She still wanted our number.