Christmas Tree Farm

There is nothing better than looking for a Christmas tree in flip flops, mini skirts, and tank tops! One of the many reasons I love Texas :) We went to our favorite Christmas tree farm, Spring Creek Growers.  We all decided on the perfect tree, so we got Cory to brave the stickers and cut it down. After we picked the tree, we had fun climbing the big tree house and playing around the grounds. We were a little disappointed because they had moved their hay stack and duck races inside, and it wasn't nearly as much fun. That being said, we still had fun, and the tree turned out beautiful! I love this family tradition of ours, but the trees we get always have such weak branches. We may have to get lazy and get a pre-cut one next year so our ornaments can actually stay on the branches!

Dallas Arboretum

We drove up to Dallas on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and went straight to the Dallas Arboretum to meet Dad and Bonnie. It was a perfect day! The weather was fantastic, and we had a great time walking around and checking things out. The fall colors were beautiful. Anne, Kris, Taylor, and Terilyn met us up there, too. The kids had fun together playing on the stage, looking for all the "12 Days of Christmas" displays, and playing in the human-sized bird nests. After our day, we all went to eat at Torchy's Tacos and had some delicious tacos. A great way to end the day! 

Thanksgving in Fort Worth

We have not spent a Thanksgiving up in Fort Worth in a lot of years. A while back, we decided that we did not want to fight traffic during the Thanksgiving holidays. This year, my aunt, Bonnie was coming in from California, so Dad asked if we could please come up. Of course, we did! It was a wonderful time with everyone as usual. We had delicious food, lots of laughs, and the kids played. Nina, Tyler, and Walker came up for the day also, so it was nice to see them. After dinner, we decided to go for a walk in the neighborhood to walk off all that delicious food. We took up the whole road with adults, kids, strollers, and a dog. We always make our presence known!

The day after Thanksgiving, we hung out with Mom and Greg. We decided to make Mom's dream come true and go on the Forest Park Mini Train. It was a gorgeous night, and it was a lot of fun to ride through the park and see the fall colors.

Miss Manners

Brooke has always loved saying "please" and "thank you", but many times she overdoes it. She tells me thank you for the littlest things - I give her a toy that was on my lap, it's "Oh, thank you, Mama." Brushing her hair in the morning, "Thank you, Mama." Picking her up out of her crib, "Mama, thank you!" Just recently she has added, "so much" to this to make it even cuter. I put her in her car seat today, and she said, "Thank you, so much, Mama!" It's so very cute, and it always puts a smile on my face :)

The "Mouse" Was Caught!

I have mouse in quotes for the simple reason that it was NOT a mouse that I had to extract from the kitchen cabinet one amazing Monday afternoon! This was the Monday of all Mondays...it actually started on a Sunday night. We dropped Cory off at the airport and about 5 minutes down the road, we got a flat tire. Luckily, Shane was able to come rescue us. There were some issues with getting the tire off, and it took over an hour to get all situated. We didn't get home until super late, so I decided to let the girls sleep in a little bit for Monday morning. Well, that didn't work out very well! We ended up having to rush around to get everyone up and off to school on time. Then, I went off to Discount Tire to get a new one. I had thought that I would teach my class there. Unfortunately, there was no Internet there, which caused problems. Then, I got the wrong tires, had to order new ones, and wasted a whole lot of time. I finally got out of there, and headed home. When I walked in the door, I was hit with a nasty smell. It took me a while to figure out...the mouse trap hadn't been checked in a few days. I walked slowly to the kitchen cabinet, opened it up, and immediately saw gray fur...Yuck! I called Cory, and we came up with a plan on how to get it out. I was very proud of myself for doing it! Taking care of disgusting things is not the most fun, but it's necessary sometimes :)

School Feasts!

The Thanksgiving Feasts always crack me up! Thanksgiving cafeteria food, cute Kindergarten Native American outfits, and lots of little cute elementary kids! This year was even more fun because my mom was in town, and she could join us. Brooke is usually my only little feast sidekick, so it was nice to have her along. Kacy's class was so cute in their little shirts (which took me forever to dye and cut, by the way), their little Indian hats with their "feather forks", and their scarecrow placemats. Adilyn wanted to eat with one of her friends, Audrey, so we got to talk to her and meet her mother. It was a fun afternoon! And a bonus hilarious moment was watching Dana serve 2nd graders their food in a hairnet :)

Mouse Did It!

We have had a mouse or many mice in the garage for quite a while. Unfortunately, before we got around to trapping them in there, they made it into our house. One morning when I was making breakfast for the girls, a not so little mouse ran through the kitchen and into the cabinets. Yuck! Of course, in typical Henderson fashion, we didn't run right out and get a trap. The next morning, we woke up to a big mess of letter magnets all over the floor. When Brooke saw it, she said, "Mommy, mess! I make it?" I said, "No, the mouse did it." She giggled, and thought I was joking. We picked it up together. Then, she dumped them out again and said, "Mama, mouse did it!" And laughed again! All day long everything was, "Mouse did it!"
We caught one mouse, and I hoped it was it. Unfortunately, at least one remains. Even as I write this, I can hear him scurrying around in the drawers in the kitchen. So gross! I need to get some more traps, very quick!!!

Whoop!?!

We went on a very spur of the moment adventure the other day when Ryan called us up and told us that he had exactly 5 free tickets to the Aggie game that day. What better group to take them then the Hendersons?!? Only problem is that it was a pretty cold day, and there was rain in the forecast. We decided to go ahead and take our chances! We headed to Aggieland with all our winter weather gear. Once we got there, we stopped to eat at Blue Baker, and it was really delicious! Then, we headed to Ryan's tailgating area. We didn't know anyone there, but the girls made a few little friends, we ate some more snacks, then headed into the game. It was a long walk, it was raining decently hard off and one, and it was chilly! We finally found our seats, and we were happy to see that there were a few empty seats, so we had a little wiggle room. I convinced Kacy to sit on my lap to keep me warm, and Brooke went on the row in front with Cory. Adilyn stayed snuggled up next to me. They girls lasted about 30 minutes before they started asking to go. We kept them entertained until halftime. They really did enjoy the band and the corps running out! It was an adventure. The weather could have been much better, but we still had fun. Go Aggies!

Book Character Parade

The girls had a lot of different ideas about what they wanted to be for the book character parade. The idea is to dress up as your favorite character from a book. Of course, they can never just be a princess and dress in one of the million dresses we have! Kacy decided to be a girl from the Sleepover Squad (chapter book that she has never read), which meant she was going to wear a pajama dress. Adilyn wanted to wear her "Honey Swamp" outfit which is a character from Monster High. We didn't have a Monster High book, so I had go buy a book for her to take with her. She still has not read that one either. So, even though they both looked adorable, they obviously don't understand the concept of dressing as their favorite character. Maybe next year?

A Day at Blessington Farm

Cory was hunting down at the lease, so we decided to meet him for the day at a new pumpkin patch called Blessington Farm, which was pretty close to where he was staying. It was a pretty fun pumpkin patch, with some awesome slides! They were just huge pieces of this plastic stuff, and the kids loved them. I honestly think they went up and down those slides easily 50 times! There was a hay maze, lots of picture spots, some cool tractor bikes, a hay ride, a place to lasso, baby goats, a bumpy train ride, and a sand pile. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and it was a wonderful day! I love days when we are out and about, and everyone gets along :)