It's the funny little things...

I love when kids say things wrong. My favorite is when they say a real word, but it's just not the right word.
Kacy said, "I'm extra cold because I am wearing noodle straps." noodle straps = spaghetti straps (both girls have said that forever, but it always cracks me up!)

We LOVE Frozen!!!

Adilyn, Kacy, and I saw Frozen way back in December, and we loved it! We got the soundtrack, and watch little video clips on the Internet all the time. The girls love "Let It Go" and "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" so much. They have little moves that go along with it, and they know most of the words. Adilyn likes doing her "performances" for everyone, and Kacy will join in. Even Brooke will sing, "Let it go, let it go, let it go...." and do all the moves that Kacy does. Last weekend, Cory was out of town, so I decided to take them all to see it again in the theater. I didn't know how Brooke would do sitting for two hours! She will watch TV, but she is usually running around the house during a 30 minute show. She was a little squirmy for the previews, but the minute the movie came on, she was captivated! The girl didn't move the entire time. She sat in my lap and watched the whole thing. I was so happy! The bigger girls, of course, loved it just as much as they did the first time. And by bigger girls, I mean me, too! I love it! It's cute, funny, great story line, and wonderful music. I can't wait until it's out on DVD :)

Bedtime Talk

I love the girls' bedtime! Not because it is finally quiet in the house once they are all asleep, but because it's usually a time that I get to spend a little extra time with each girl alone. It may be a minute or five minutes, but it's special. Luckily ours is pretty simple and low drama. We have had our moments of one or more of the girls not wanting to sleep, but overall it's pretty easy. Sometimes it's just reading a book. Sometimes it's chatting about the day. And sometimes it's just an extra long snuggle. The other day, I was talking to Kacy about the importance of telling the truth. She likes to tell stories, not really lies about stuff, but just made up stories. The problem is that she doesn't say that it is made up. She will tell a story about something that happened at school. It's obviously made up, but she doesn't say that it's made up unless I ask her. When I say, "Kacy, that's not true!" She says, "I know, I was making it up!" Anyway, I was trying to reinforce the fact that it's awesome to make up stories, but you have to tell the person that you are making it up. So, that lead to her wanting to tell me a story. She starts, "Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Mommy and she....." So cute! Love that girl, made up stories and all!
Another night, Adilyn wanted me to tell her some jokes. For the life of me, I could not remember any jokes, so I resorted to making them up. We told a few dumb ones, then I said, "The baby chick asked the mama chick why she always shopped at Walmart. Why? The mama chick said, 'because it's cheep, cheep, cheep!" I don't know why, but I started laughing and I couldn't stop. I mean, I was crying/laughing! Adilyn said, "Geez, Mom, why is that so super funny to you?" Once I got myself together, she told hers, "What did one apple say to the other apple? I can't wait for core-ination day!" Thank goodness for Disney movies and princesses having coronation, so Adilyn could create her first good joke!
Like I said, I love those little moments with my sweet little girls just being themselves. Love them!

My Tribute to the Tahoe

It's been 12 years, 200,000 miles, and many memories, but it's time to say goodbye to my sweet Tahoe! Well, maybe not goodbye just yet because she is still sitting in the driveway until who knows when, but I got a new car! Gerad and his dad once again came through with a great deal for us. We got a 2011 Expedition with only 24,000 miles. It's really nice, and it was a fantastic price! But, I need to take the time to say thank you to my Tahoe. Some places that the Tahoe took us - Fort Worth a countless times, Austin on a weekly basis back in our rock climbing days, the river in our boating days, many a park in our kid days, the Frio a bunch, Colorado, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma (where a deer interrupted our trip to Arkansas). Some memories in the Tahoe - driving around for what seemed like hours during all of our showings when our house was for sale, Zoe peeing in the backseat on our way home from a climbing trip and making it forever have "that smell" when it got humid outside, accidentally locking Adilyn in the car when she was about 2 years old, the girls playing "driving" for hours, washing the car with the girls in their diapers, and many more. Of course, the biggest adventure that we had in the Tahoe was our journey into parenthood. I honestly remember like it was yesterday being the the backseat on my knees with my head in the carseat that we had put in the car to bring our first little baby home trying to breath through my contractions. I truly thought the baby was going to be born in the Tahoe. We took the Tahoe to the hospital for every delivery, and we brought each one of our sweet girls home in it. Truly memories that will not be forgotten! So, Tahoe, thank you for getting us from place to place for all those years. We will forgive the breakdowns in the middle of Interstate 10, the broken CD player, the leaking oil, and the smell that you had sometimes (it wasn't usually your fault anyway, blame those stinky old milk sippy cups or the dog or kid pee)! Wherever you go from here, know that the Hendersons loved you, and we will remember all those memories that you were a part of! :)

New Thoughts on My Job

Last semester things were pretty easy with the online teaching job. There were days that I wish I could just go back to my lazy days, but every time the paycheck comes I decide it's worth it.
Some thoughts as I am nearing the 5th month of being a stay at home working mom...
I get to get Adilyn and Kacy up and ready for school.
Brooke and I can hang out all day together.
I don't have to get dressed.
I can still meet up with friends and do moms club stuff.
I can go to all the school meetings and parties and lunches without worrying about missing work.
But...I have to balance everything. I need to do work, but Brooke needs me to get her apple juice. Laundry piles up, but so do the papers to grade. Kacy wants me to read her a book, but a student needs help. I need to go grocery shopping, but a powerpoint needs to be finished. The list goes on and on. There was always a balance, even when I worked outside the house. The thing is that you feel like you should have more time. You should be able to get it all done because you are home all day, but the days end too quickly.
Things have gotten a little more difficult this semester because I was given the job of being a testing coordinator. That means that I have to be at testing every single day that there is testing. It went from maybe having to test 17 days or so, to definitely having to be there for 29 days. Grrr! There was a bit of a stressful couple of days trying to figure out childcare for Brooke, but I think we got it all worked out. A mom from MOMs club is going to watch Brooke some days and some days her 12 year old daughter will come over here to watch them. We will see how Brooke does! I sure hope that they change them next year. It's just not fair because you don't get paid any more for it, but you have to sit up there and you are expected to still get all your work done. Oh well, I have decided to stop complaining about it for now. We will see how that works out for me :)

Caddo Lake Camping

I love that we are getting to experience so many of Texas's state parks! We ventured a little further away from home last weekend and made the trek up to Caddo Lake State Park with the Hrobars and Brandon. We got in pretty late on Friday, but we had a wonderful day on Saturday! The weather was great. It was a little chilly in the mornings and evenings, but during the day was fantastic. We went on an extra informative nature hike where we got to try out a new system of little headphones. We hung out at the campsite, the kids went off into the woods to create their own "campout" space, we tried to fish a little bit, and the girls and I played at the park. In the evening, we had a fabulously warm fire and a great dinner! For dessert we tried a new version of s'mores made in sugar cones. They were delicious! We woke up on Sunday and rented some canoes. We didn't think Brooke would sit still in the canoe, so Cory took both girls. The Bald Cypress trees in the lake were amazing! I think they would be even more beautiful when they were green, but it was still pretty beautiful. We were so glad to have Brandon along with us. The girls just love him. Brooke and him sat at the picnic table and "talked" for a while one evening, and it was really cute to see them together! Adilyn wanted to hang with him during the whole nature walk, and kept holding his hand during the walk. 

Father/Daughter Dance

Cory took Adilyn and Kacy to the YMCA Father/Daughter Dance. It was so cute! They loved picking out their dresses and shoes. I can only imagine how many dresses and shoes I will have to shop for in my lifetime! They are a mess. I swear they tried on 20 pairs of shoes each before they found the perfect pair! They loved how fancy Cory looked, and they had a great time dancing and playing at the dance. I love seeing Cory being such an important male figure in their lives. I hope that they can find someone as great as him to marry! Poor Brooke was a mess. Good thing she wasn't old enough to know what she was missing! Next year, little one, next year!

Icy Trip to Ft. Worth

There was an in-person training up in Dallas, and I had asked Dad to take off to babysit Kacy and Brooke for those two days. Adilyn stayed home with Cory. We woke up the morning that we were supposed to go, and it was snowing! The forecast for Dallas was ice and snow, too. I decided to try to go, but the very first bridge we got to had two wrecks from the ice. At that point, I turned right around and headed home. The weather cleared, so we decided to go on up later that day. We got up there safe and sound, hung out with Dad and Kris, only to get an email in the morning to say that all the training for the next day was canceled. Dad took two days off for nothing, but at least we had a good time hanging out with some of our favorite Fort Worth people! Anne and the kids came over for dinner on Friday and Brandon came too. Kacy got to play in the snow, even though she only lasted about 5 minutes. I am lucky to have made it up there safely, and I am lucky to have such a wonderful family. So all in all, it wasn't a total loss!

"Okay, Mama!"

Brooke is something else! Now that she is talking more of her personality is coming out even more. She is hilarious, and she just loves to be "cute". Any time the girls laugh at her, she just keeps on going and entertaining them. Her favorite thing to say is "Okay, Mama!" She says it almost every time I say anything to her. She also says it in every style voice - happily yelling, laughing, crying, or my favorite super sad whiny voice. It's pretty funny! Sometimes she doesn't even really mean okay because she doesn't actually do what I ask her to do, but it's funny that she knows what I want to hear.
Her other favorite thing to say is "apple g" or apple juice. I made the mistake of giving her juice much earlier than I did the other girls, and that girl is apple juice crazy! Kacy likes to call her an "apple juice master".
Other than that, she pretty much copies any and every thing that anybody says. I asked her the other day what she wanted to watch on tv. She said, "Monster Eye" = Monster High. She has never seen it, but she hears the girls talk about it all the time. It's always amazing to me how language develops so quickly!