We love Chalk!!

Sidewalk Chalk is a favorite around here! We make sure every year to get some in the spring. Its always so fun to be able to draw outside and then have the rain wash it away!!! (If it does rain!) The boys have especially loved it this year! Ty is always coming in with blue hands. I went to take a picture of him outside with his blue hands and Chase did not want to be outdone so he had me take a picture of him too. I also love Ty's pants in this picture. They are always falling down. He has nothing to hold them up and a belt is out of the question when its potty time!

Gone Fishing

This last week Ty got invited to go fishing with my dad and brother. He had THE best time! Ive got to hear about it all the rest of the week. Ive heard some interesting stories about it and wonder how much if it is true. Like he caught the fish in the eye ball and the guy they also went with lives in a cave. hmmm... I wonder what is going on in that little 3 year old mind sometimes.

I could not sleep all night thinking about him going off on a big fishing adventure without me. Not that I was jealous. I was nervous something would happen to him. I had visions of him falling into the water and never coming up, wandering off and never being found... on and on and on and on. I didnt sleep the whole night!!

He had to be up early 6:30. I went into his room and picked him up. He was still sleeping on my shoulder so I said "Do you wanna go fishing?" and he sprung up, wide eyed. And then off they went....

Chase followed me around the whole day. He was one lonely soul. I guess thats how its going to be when Ty goes to school. If Id go upstairs to put something away Id hear a little voice saying "Mom! Where are you?" He missed his buddy!!!

Sorry, I have plans.

Im so excited to get to take Jentry to the Taylor Swift concert in May!! She is a huge fan. When I heard she was coming to SLC we waited and waited for tickets to come on sale. Looked at her website all the time... but all that was there was "COMING SOON" Finally they went on sale! I didnt tell Jentry because I knew they would be hard to get and I didnt want her to get her hopes up. I found out that they were having a presale the day before tickets went on sale to the public. So at 10 am I was on the computer trying to get tickets. I was able to get six pretty quickly. But I needed 12 for all the people that wanted to go! My sister in law's Jamie and Missy and I tried for about another 2 hours but got nothing else. But I had six...and I was excited about that. When I went to pick up the tickets at Albertsons the lady asked me if I had bought them on a presale? I said yes and she said.. "Well you know what that means, no tickets tomorrow!"

The next day I was ready at 10 am again. I thought it would be easier then getting them on the presale but boy was I wrong!!! I couldnt get tickets for the life of me. I was listening to the radio as I was trying and the DJ guy said "Only singles are available now!" This was like 15 minutes into it. So I tried for a single, and got it. Tried for 2 and got those and then my SIL was able to get one more. We didnt get all 12 that we wanted but thats ok. (Those were for Brinley and her cousin that is her same age, Abby). They arent too bummed.

Oh and the best part...the tickets were only $20!!!

Jentry is so excited to go with her cousins!! I think this is going to be a great night!! We are going to leave right after school (Its the last week of School on Tuesday) and go up to the Cheesecake Factory (never been there) and then to the concert! We are super excited around here!

S-U-P-E-R Student!

Brinley was a super student in March. (yes, Im a little late in posting this!) She got 10 bucks and a certificate. She was very excited to come home and show me! Though, she doesn't look too thrilled in this picture. She added her $10 to her stash of money that she is saving up to get a rip stick. Yay, more ER visits.

A few easter pics...

We had a great Easter weekend!! It was a very busy one. We started off Saturday having an Easter egg hunt at Scotts grandma's house. She died a year ago but this is where Scotts family always had their Easter egg hunts as kids so we thought it would be fun to do it one last time! The kids loved running around getting Easter eggs! At the end Scotts mom gave out money that went with corresponding eggs. If you had an even numbered egg it was a dollar, odd numbered 50 cents and Egg number 33 was the coveted $5 egg!!! Brinley found that one. And boy was she excited!!!




We then went up to my moms house for her birthday!! She is turning 31 ( *wink wink ) this year and we went up to celebrate. You would think we would have been the most exciting part of the day but no...it was when two ducks flew into her yard that she thinks followed her home from work! She ran out to feed them and had everybody cracking up that she was so excited about it. I guess these things excite you when you get as old as her!!

The next morning was Easter *and my birthday*. The kids were very excited to wake up to the Easter Bunny foot prints that he leaves every year. (sorry this picture is from my phone so its not the best...but you get the idea!)



After church we headed down to my grandma and grandpas house for lunch and an egg hunt! The kids loaded up on lots of candy and money eggs!! Lucky ducks! I say we do a money hunt for the adults next year. I could use a few dollars.










We then ended the night at Scotts parents house for dinner. (Did I mention we ate enough to last us a week!!) It was a great Easter and Birthday!!!

Another two year old!!

I always feel as if I have a two year old. But this is probably going to be my last. Chase had his 2nd birthday the day after Scotts. He has been saying he was two for months now though. We had a little family party for him. I went to walmart because I was feeling lazy and found him the cutest cake! It was made out of cupcakes and I thought it was the perfect cake for a boy turning two. It was a Little Peoples Farm Cake. How cute is that?!





Chase didnt believe that it was his birthday and everytime Id say Happy Birthday to him he would say, "NO ITS DADS HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" He was just not grasping the concept that it was HIS birthday!!! And he especially didnt like it when people were singing to him.



I cant believe its been two years since he was born. (I cant believe that with any of my kids!) Two years ago since I felt labor pains. LOL it feels like it was only yesterday!! This boy has been VERY entertaining his whole two years and always has us on his toes, whether its inhaling crayons or chopping off fingers..Im sure he has many more surprises up his sleeve!!! I love you my little Awza!!

My hubby is old!!

Ok not really but he is getting up there. Scott celebrated his THIRTY-FIRST birthday in March ( I know, I know, Im a little behind!) Its crazy to me that Ive known him since the wee age of 18 and now look at him...all grown up ;-) For his birthday we went out to dinner. Birthdays just arent as exciting when you are old!

Im not going to freak out...Im not going to freak out...

Im gonna freak out.

My back up hard drive died. Do you all know what this means? All of my old pics, videos, videos from the kids' birth. GONE! ALL GONE!

But Im not going to freak out.

I had TWO back up hard drives. One went out a little while ago...but I wasnt the least bit worried. I had my brand new Western Digital (supposed to be a great hard drive).

Well Scott went to get into it the other day and couldnt. Took it into the computer store. They couldnt. Said it was toast. Yay.

Im just freaking out a little.

I live with a bunch of sickos!!!

Im so sick of going to the doctor, I could puke myself.

It all started months ago. Scott got sick for like three weeks. Finally he went to the doctors and got on some anti-biotics. He ended up having a hard time with them and had to stop taking them.

Then I got sick. I still have a horrible cough from it and a stuffy nose. Its been at least three weeks.

Then Chase had his finger incident. Had to go to the hospital for that...and then to the docs 10 days later to get his stitches removed.

Next week Brinley comes down with the flu, ear infection and needed an inhaler.

2 days ago...Jentry wakes up with a sore throat. Yesterday it got worse. And this morning it was even worse. Took her to the doc and she has strep throat. She is the QUEEN of strep throat.

The doctor knows every Monday morning there will be a call from the Hendricksen clan. I hope he is enjoying all of my co-pays.

Smarty Pants....

She must get it from me.

He's killing me off slowly.

Chase that is. I swear this boy will put me in the nut house before he is five. Saturday I was in my room getting dressed. Brinley had had a sleep over with her cousin Livvy at our house and all the kids were upstairs playing in the hall. I guess Brinley was trying to get into the room with Jentry and Jentry was trying to shut the door. Chase had has little pinkie finger in the hinge side of the door and Jentry shut the door all the way and smashed it. I hear Chase SCREAMING and Jentry yell "MOM, I shut Chases finger in the door... MOOOOOOOOOOOOOM HES BLEEEEEEDING!!!" I fling the door open to find blood gushing from his finger. All I could think about is Bethany (scotts little sister) got her finger chopped off in a door when she was 1. Scott is freaking out. Im freaking out. We grab him and take him into the bathroom and Im trying to run his finger under water to see what kind of damage we have but every time I take it out of the water it just fills with blood and I cant really see how bad it is. I could tell that his finger nail was just hanging there and that his finger was all attached but thats about all. Scott calls his mom to come watch the kids, I call Bethany and say "Can you come watch my kids!?" I didnt tell her why cause if I would have talked anymore I think I would have started bawling. She says yes and I hang up.

Chase screamed all the way to the hospital. Poor thing. He didnt want me anywhere near his finger. We get there and go into the triage nurse. He wanted nothing to do with her either. He didnt want her to touch him anywhere. She tried to put the little heart thing on his toe and he was flipping. He kept saying "NOT LIKE THAT!!!" Finally we got all that done and Scott said "Was that fun" and Chase said "YEAH!!!"

They took him back and looked at his finger. The doc decided to give him Katamine (I dont know how to spell it) but it puts them to sleep for about 20 minutes so that he could stitch him up. When they gave him the shot in his leg he flipped. It must have really hurt!! After a minute or two he was starring off into space and finally shut his eyes and went to sleep


The doctor took off his whole nail and stitched up his finger with 4 stitches. The doctor had said that the nice thing about this medicine is that they have amnesia and cant really remember about an hour before. And that they cant feel the pain at all. I dont know if I believe that, because when the doctor would touch his finger he would grunt and when he woke up he remembered everything we had seen before. (the fish, helicopter and me telling him the sharps container was ku-ku)

They bandaged him up and sent us home.



He did good with the bandage the whole day...but when I went in his room the next morning he had it taken off. And putting another one on was a nightmare! Then I went to get him dressed and THAT one came off! So we have been using bandaids and he leaves those alone. But changing them is also a nightmare. He doesnt like anyone by his finger. He uses his hand just fine but if anyone else touches it he screams.

Jentry had a hard time getting over it and I think she is more scarred about it then he is. I think they will think twice about shutting doors now.

(sorry, most of these pics are from my phone)

Buying Stock...

In this time of recession, Im going to buy my stock in Magic Erasers. I cannot get through the day without using this thing at least 3 times. Chase colors on EVERYTHING. He can find a crayon, marker, pencil, pen ANYWHERE! It doesnt matter how hard I try to keep them away. And heaven knows...he shouldnt be playing with crayons.

http://whatblog2.blogspot.com/2008/06/this-kid-will-be-death-of-me_21.html

Magic Erasers really are magic. I dont know what is in them...dont even know if I want to know what is in them. But I can scrub and scrub and scrub and not be able to get crayon off the wall. Use one of these babies...and I barely even have to touch it and its gone. MAGIC!

Happy Birthday Boo!

Brinley turned seven today. I can hardley believe it! Time with these kids just flys by. I was telling Scott the other night..I remember when they were baby babies...and then right now. Where did all the time in the middle go?!

She has been looking forward to her birthday for a long time. As all kids do!


We woke her up at around six and gave her her two presents. One was clothes, BORING and then another was a rainbow light. I thought she would be disappointed but she wasnt. I said, do you want to crawl in bed with me for a little while and when she walked out into the hall there was her bike!! Her last bike was a hand me down from Jentry and its on its last leg so she was SUPER excited to see a new bike!



She got special treatment at school and at home! She didnt have to write her spelling words 10 times and didnt have to do chores and got to play at a friends house.




Later that day my parents came and took us to dinner at Chuck a Rama with my grandparents and Kym, Cory and Shaylee (my sister and her family). She had a great day!!!

Brinley has been my sweetest child...but she has also been the one to push every button I have. I didnt know if we would make it through her 3's. She pushed her limits every day. But then she would come up to you and say the sweetest thing...it was her saving grace. Otherwise...I dont know what would have happened to us. ;-) I remember bringing her home from the hospital and looking at her while I was holding her and thinking, "I could have 10 more of you! You are so sweet." And I thought that for the first few...lets see..months? Then the true Brinley came out.

She is a homebody. She would rather be at home then anywhere else. Which is totally oposite of Jentry. She could care less if she ever left the house or slept over at anyones house.

She plays really well with Ty and Chase. And loves to play pretend with them.

From the day we brought her home from the hospital Scott has called her Boo.

So Happy Birthday My Boo!!! I love you!

Toothless Wonder...

Brinley lost her fourth tooth last night while eating a carrot. She didnt swallow this one like she did with the last one that she lost while eating. I think its so cute when kids lose their 2 top teeth. But hate when they get their permanent teeth. Why is it that baby teeth are so cute and so strait and then they get their adult teeth and they come in all funny looking? I think its so we can just have one more bill to add to the pile.




Anyway, the toothfairy came and brought her a gold dollar. She couldnt be more excited. For some reason she thinks she is going to use that gold dollar as bait to catch a lepracaun. She ran in from school today and went up stairs and made a trap. She is convinced Mr. Leprocaun is coming and she is going to take him to his pot of gold that will fill our house with gold. Good luck Brinley!

Yee-haw

These boys are crazy. They dont let you get anything done without being right under your feet...or in this case...on your back. Scott was fixing my linoleum that is curling by the dishwasher, until we get rich enough to get a new floor (never). The boys just hopped right on his back.

Me, I just smile and take a picture... Now dad sees how it is to try and get anything done around here with these two little hoodlums.

We went on a road trip.

Its HARD to get Scott to go anywhere out of Utah County. Seriously. He could never travel one more minute in his life and be fine with that. Not I! This weekend we took a quick visit to his Grandma Murrays house that lives in Cedar. We had a great time. I hope we didnt wear her out! But Im betting we did. The first day we got there she had a roast cooking and made us a great dinner!! That is very hard for her to do and we appreciated it so much!!! Scott went to see his Uncle Chris's shop. He heard the word "shop" and heard nothing else. Meanwhile Grandma took the rest of us up to Scotts cousin Kathryns house. The kids had a great time playing. I can only imagine the mess they made in the downstairs. I didnt dare look.


Later we went to Aunt Beth's to talk and play games! We had a great time!! The boys loved playing in the play room!! We also got to hear Jesse play the piano! WOW WOW WOW is all I can say about that!! She did awesome! And I even got a few (fifty) pictures of her. Ok, not that many! Jentry ended up sleeping the night over there and had lots of fun!







I loved talking to Uncle Raymond while we were there. He is Grandmas younger brother. He can remember so many details of his life Im amazed. When he was born the doctor used the forceps wrong and he has been handicapped his whole life. I've been told he has changed through the years and used to not talk as much as he does now. He can talk your leg off now and I love it! I love listening to everything he has to say. He has had an interesting life!! He is 75 years old now and he can tell you MANY details of that 75 years. I could seriously talk to him all day long!



The next day Grandma took us on a tour of the city. Cedar is a bigger city than I thought! Wow. It was fun just to ride a long with her. Even if we had to stop every other minute for Ty to go the bathroom!

Before we left we had to have a picture session. Grandma and Raymond were so nice to pose for 100 pictures!








After that we headed home. We still had homework to get done for Monday and I didnt want the kids too tired when they went back to school. But we had a GREAT time!! Im hoping to do it again this summer...that is...if Grandma doesnt change her number.

The results....

WE finally are done with painting. ITS ABOUT TIME! Its never ending, I tell you. You start one little project and then everything else starts to look horrible and you need to re-do that, and buy another this, and fix another that. It goes on and on. But I think we are starting to get it together. The only other things I want to do is buy a sofa table for the window and decorate that. Then I have to paint my shelf that was in the kitchen and decorate that. Then Im done....maybe. Here are some recent pictures.

To be continued.

So we have been wanting to paint for a long time now. But something always comes up or its not a good time or or or..... so we've never painted. The upstairs we have done but have never gotten to the kitchen, front room and upstairs hall. Which is what needed it the most.

Well today was the day.

We were passing the Home Depot yesterday and Scott said, "Do you want to go in and get painting supplies?" HECK YES I DO!!! He didnt think that also meant that he would be painting today. Im sorry to burst his bubble.

So we started the daunting task today.

Scotts brother came over to help (used to paint for a job). My job was to entertain the kids. We went to Carls Jr and played in the play place for 1.5 hours and then up to Scotts parents house for a couple hours. Then I came home and put the boys to bed for a nap.

Meanwhile Scott and his brother got the ceilings done. We will be doing the walls this coming week and then the trim. Or the other way around...who knows. Im very excited. The kitchen needed this SOOO BAD!!!

When Ben went home we started patching wall holes. Left the room and sweet little Chase dug out a huge chunk of patch that we had just patched. Hes so sweet...I could just... ;-)

We will be doing one wall chocolate brown and then all the rest of the walls a tan. Here are some before pics...ok not before... I guess they are "In progress" photos.

Uncontrolable Giggeling...

To most moms this is music to their ears. And it is to mine too. Except when I hear it coming from another room.

Uncontrollable giggling usually means one thing.

Im going to have a mess to clean up.

Be it...
Cheerios all over the kitchen floor
Noodles all over the floor
having to wash baby soap out of hair because I didnt put it up high enough.
Lotion slathered children
Water all over the kitchen floor because I forgot to lock the water on the door of the refrigerator.

The list could go on...and it does.


Theres two culprits and its a good darn thing they are so cute.

Ok people I am ready for Spring.

Is it too much to ask for spring to come in January? I dont think so. So I've been asking. And I thought I might fish my wish. This last week it has been raining. And it doesnt rain in the winter, right? So I was getting just a tad bit excited that I might see a little green! Lucy our dog was thinking it was a great idea too. There was a little patch of green grass that showed up in the back yard since all the rain has been melting the snow. Lucy thought this was GRAND! She ran and ran around in circles yipping on that small patch of grass. I felt like running with her. Expcept, I would be yipping "Its Spring!!" Well winter plays tricks on ya here in Utah. You think you are going to get a little taste of sun...and what do you wake up to? Feet of snow. Thats just how it is here. And every year, come January...Im sick of it. Im sick of coughing, sneezing, fevers, snot noses, cold hands, dirty muddy floors from people walking in the kitchen with muddy feet, dirty cars; cause I never wanna stand out in the freezing snow to clean them out.

I want spring!

I want to send the kids out in the back yard and not see them again til dusk, I want to sit out on the front steps and watch all the kids play in the street, I want long days, short sleeves, no boots, flip flops, bikes, scooters.....SUN!!!

But I guess I'll have to wait until May but until then...Ill just complain.

Science Fair!!!

Jentry did he first science fair project this year. Last year was optional and since she has a lazy mom... we opted out. This year, it was required. So we stole an idea that some other family members had done and did a project. It actually wasnt that bad and Brinley might end up doing the optional 4th grade science fair project when she gets to be that age.

The experiment was to see if changing the color of a drink affected the way people thought it tasted. Like if you made a grape drink red would people think it was cherry just because it was red. We bought some clear flavored drinks and put food coloring in them that did not match the taste. We tested Scotts side of the family at a family party so we could get many different age groups. Some of the drinks were hard to figure out and if that was the case, people went with the color of the drink. Black Cherry and Peach were such strong tastes that people usually got them right away.

On Friday she set up her project and Mandy and I went to check it out. I thought she would be there by her project but she wasnt. So I only got a picture of her project. And of course, I did bring my camera....but left it in the car. So all I got was a picture from my phone. Great quality, I know.

I am very proud of her for working hard on this project. I never have to worry if she will get her homework done. She always does. Most of the time we dont even have to practice spelling words. She just gets them right. I appreciate such an easy kid!!