Crafty Cat

I know a lot of you are wondering why I'm posting so often and if you really care about my kid's projects...  But since Dan is away I like for him to have something to look forward to everyday.  I can't send a letter everyday, but I can try to post.  Then he doesn't miss out on the little things like school projects or weekend fieldtrips etc.   So join us if you will but if it tires you... visit a little less often.  

Chase came home with 3 different colored papers.  He had to make a Halloween creation.  Here is his crafty cat.

BIG CAT

LITTLE CAT

OOOOOOOOOklahoma

About 10 days before Daniel left we took the boys to our local playhouse.  It is a beautiful old theatre that has really great shows.  We had been looking for a musical the boys might enjoy and since we did live in OK for four years we thought we would try this one.  It was GREAT!! The voices were amazing.  The scenery just brought me back to where we used to live... big sky, incredible cloud formations, deteriorating wood sided homes and windmills.

One of the funniest things about the show was that there is a character named Ado Annie.  Piper hasn't really ever been able to say Ainsley so she has always called her Ado.  Ainsley was born in Oklahoma City.  

So we have Ado Annie in Oklahoma and Ado Ainsley from Oklahoma!

 

Here we are in front of the marquis.  Chase and I snuck our "OU" t-shirts in under our more formal sweaters.

Enjoying the Ride

I just had to take a photo of this.  We were outside the other night just chatting with the neighbors and eating popsicles.  Piper got hers all over her face.  Ainsley had been riding her bike but ran off with one of the kids and Piper picked up the helmet, put it on herself and climbed up the bike.  She was pretty happy with her accomplishment.

The Power of The Pepper

Two days before Daniel left, his company had an event that they invite all the referring doctors to.  It was in a beautiful location and was a really nice gathering.  One of Daniel's partner's wife is an amazing gardner/floral arranger.  She did all the decorating at the event.  She told us to take home any of the arrangements because she did not need 3 car loads of flowers.  This is the one I especially liked.  These pictures don't do it justice but it was beautiful and I loved the rich color and all the tiny peppers dangling down.

It only lasted 4 days or so because the peppers in the vase began to rot in the water.  My father pulled the chile pepper plants out and dumped the water when we were disposing of the arrangement.  Later in the day he happened to stick his finger in his mouth which immediately began burning his lips and tongue.  Oh the power of "the pepper."

Little Gift

Two weeks ago there was a baby shower for a girl who grew up in this ward.  I wasn't able to make it to the shower but wanted to make her a little something and drop it off.  As many of you know I decorate cloth diapers to make fashionable burp rags.  To my great pleasure Target now sells colored cloth diapers.  So I got a few and tried them out.  The only draw back that I can think of is that you can't bleach them. 

Iraq Address

For anyone wanting to send a letter, care package, or Christmas card to Daniel the address is as follows:

Maj. Daniel Hen...

345th CSH, OR section

Unit# 73325

APO AE 09333-3325

Normal US postage is required.  A stamp will do for a letter or card.  But be prepared to fill out a customs form for all packages.  I believe they offer a discount on some of their flat rate boxes for military.

Perfect Portrait

One of Ainsley's recent homework assignments was: with a parent- draw a picture of yourself.  I am no artist but I did my best.  I drew it out in pencil and she colored it in. 

Here's our best effort.

Sleeping Surprise

We made Daniel a Halloween pillowcase and tucked it into his luggage without him knowing.  We also wrote him little love/miss you notes that we tucked inside.  Last tour he found out that they issue you a sleeping bag but no pillow.  He was given a pillow in Kuwait by a departing soldier but used a scrub top as a case.  We did get him a case about half way through the last tour but this time we set him up in advance.  Now all he has to do is locate a pillow. 

Does anyone remember this post?

Bue-Tee-Ful

Piper likes to wear headbands.

She likes to put them on herself!

Isn't she Bue-Tee-Ful?

Hershey Park Happy

Saturday the 20th of Sept. we made our annual trip to Hershey Park.  I think it's always the highlight of the kids summer.  Unfortunately we had to take the baby this year but it went much better than I thought.  She did get bored and fidgety during some of the long waits in line but other times she was pretty entertained and loved riding the rides.  We went on as many rides as we could as a family and split up a few times too so an adult could take the big boys on some scary rides.

Dan really wanted Ainsley to get her face painted.  So we got in line for that and after Ainsley got to the front, MacGregor insisted that he too get his face painted.  So Ainsley was in one chair and Gregor in another and Piper is fighting to get out of the stroller yelling as loud as she could, "FACE  FACE".   So she too got a little paint. 

Here are the pictures.  I know there are too many of them but I just couldn't cut it down.

MacGregor and the SNAKE.

He's so relaxed, you'd think he was getting a massage.

First layer.

Second layer.

Final product.

Ainsley with the FLYING DRAGON.

I'm not sure why she picked blue - it's such a bold statement.  She surely didn't go unnoticed.

Piper - our sweet little BUTTERFLY.

She sat so perfectly still.

She was totally into it!

Trying to get a glimpse of what he was doing.

So happy with the result.

Our 3 painted kids.

Chase was such a good sport.  I'm sure he kinda wanted his face painted too but it started out as just one, not too unreasonable , but we ended up with 3 and it gets expensive.  He didn't complain or beg or ask to have his face done too. 

 We drove the sports cars.  It's only two to a car.  The three older ones ALL wanted to drive.  Ainsley really wanted Daddy in her car.  That left Piper and I to be passengers.  Chase was so cooperative about taking Piper with him in his car.  He drove really shaky and kept banging the tires on the track and Piper just laughed.  She sat really well his car and didn't want to exit when we had to get out.  She was ready for another ride.  And then we went on the Flying Falcon.  Chase doesn't care for it because it goes up really high - above the tree tops - and spins around while it rocks your car back and forth.  Again it was a two person ride.  MacGregor started throwing a fit right before it was time to get on that he had to ride with an adult (the boys were going to ride together).  So Dan ended up with  MacGregor an I with the baby.  Chase didn't want to take Ainsley but he didn't complain.  He just rode the ride with his head back and his eyes closed the whole time while Ainsley screamed and laughed in his lap.  What a good kid!!!!

Dan took the girls on the monorail while the boys and I went on the CLAW  (Ok Chase and I went, Gregor chickened out) and another small roller coaster.  We went on the Sky View - those little ski lift carts that take you above the park, in groups of 2.  We also went on the log flume.  I think that was my favorite.  We all got to ride together in one log.  We were deciding that 6 is a really good number because there was never an odd man out.  We got plenty wet and this is what happened to Ainsley's face.  She looks like a smurf!

We decided that next time we do the log flume before faces are painted!!  Dan took Chase on a couple other coasters while the other kids and I rode the giant ferris wheel.  We spent about 8 hours in the park and felt like there was Soo much more we wanted to ride.

This was the frog hopper.  My big kids LOVE it.  Piper was very happy to ride it with them but when it started dropping and stopping and dropping and stopping (it's a mini free fall ride) she wasn't so thrilled.

We had an awesome time and can't wait to go again next year.  We are already planning how we are going to be there when they open the doors so we can run and get on our favorite rides with no lines.

Relationships

I love the relationships I have with people.  I have lived in 7 cities in my life.  In each one I have met special people that are dear to my heart.  I enjoy continuing those relationships long after we've moved or my special friends have moved away.  On this trip we were able to connect with lots of special friends.  I kick myself for not taking pictures with each of them.  So sorry Jim and Jill, Doug and Fran, Stan and Shelli.  I don't know what I was thinking.

I already posted pictures with my lil sis Brielle, and my lifetime BFF Amy.  But here are a few you haven't seen.

Best Pal Al.  She and I lived on the same floor freshman year of college, in the same apartment sophomore year, and roomed together our junior year.  She came out to visit me in Dover, DE and I spent some time in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she grew up.  

The weirdest thing happened 3 years ago.  Al called me and said she was walking down her church hallway (in Taylorsville, Utah)  and saw a bulletin board with a picture of my boys hanging on it.  I said, No Way!  She was sure it was them and I asked what the picture was. She said that they were standing with a missionary.  Then we figured out that the missionary was serving in my ward here in PA and his home ward met in her building.  SMALL WORLD.  It was so good to see you Al.  

And here's Carrie.  We were roommates both freshman and sophomore years of college.  We've managed to maintain our relationship for 16 years now.  We made each other baby blankets.  Hers was much better than mine.  She made it for me the summer after freshman year.  Chase used it til the fabric got so thin you could see thru it.  I made her one too.  It was in the early days.  I crocheted it, started that same summer but never finished.  When I finally did finish 5 years later, they didn't make that color yarn anymore.  So the the first third was variegated green, pink and white and the second two thirds was all white.  It was hideous!!  But I wanted her to know that I had finished it so I sent it anyway.  I told her to keep it the trunk of her car for emergencies or whatever.  AWFUL!   

I spent 2 Thanksgivings at her house in Las Vegas.  She visited my house in Delaware and Valley Forge.  I have spent time at 3 of her homes in Utah - OK Carrie - your turn to come here.  We love to see each other and now our girls are having a good time playing together too.

And here's my baby sis!  So glad I got to spend some time with her too.  Hope to come out when Dan returns to see her new little bundle.  Looking forward to see Piper and Emma play alot more.  Makes the best cakes ever!!!   Love you Brinn.

Boxes Anyone?

During the basement remodel, we had to box up all of our books, papers, folders etc... that had been down in the makeshift office and put them in the garage.  We finally unloaded them into the new office which was the old playroom which is really a formal living room.  Musical rooms.  (Doesn't HGTV say that unused space is wasted space and you have to make the space functional for you?  I think they did say that - which means you can use any room for whatever you want!!)  

We have already given my parents probably 10 of these boxes.  Daniel called me into the foyer the other night where he had built this little doosy with what we had left.  Good thing we have a vaulted foyer.  I think it's about 18 feet high so that puts the boxes at probably 16 feet.

No really, Do you need any boxes?

HOT PINK

This kid loves glasses, shoes, purses, etc...  In all of my mother's "cleaning out of her house", she came across this little pair of hot pink glasses.  When she brought them over, Piper just happened to be wearing hot pink pants and had a hot pink bow in her hair.

Of course I tried to get the perfect picture, but it was not to be.  But here are my attempts. (Her head is even a little hot pink with a blueish hue, this kid also climbs and runs, trips and falls-- ALOT)

Best Brownies

I found this recipe in an old Reader's Digest (May 2007) I was reading. (I never throw one away until I read the entire thing, cover to cover.  I have many around the house, all dog eared in different spots.)  It was in their "Top 100" issue.   They said they had tons of submissions but this recipe won and they said it was "sinfully delicious".  Sinful because it has 3 sticks of butter in it.

Anyway the brownie itself is homemade with 2 sticks of butter, cocoa, eggs, sugar, flour etc...  then you bake in a cookie sheet or jellyroll pan.  When the brownies are done you pour a whole bag of miniature marshmallows on top and continue baking for another 3 minutes or so.  Then  you make homemade icing from yet another stick of butter and powdered sugar, evaporated milk and more cocoa.

Super Rich...

Super Yummy!!!!

Metal Mouth

Poor MacGregor!!!

He has always had spaces between his teeth.  I thought for sure he would not need orthodontics but rather Chase would because his teeth have always been so close together.  I was surely wrong!!  The reason he needs orthodontics really isn't related to his teeth but rather to his skeletal form.  He has a flat mid-face.  His skeletal growth is pitched to have him grow into an underbite.  So they are trying to pull his upper jaw forward to keeps things even.

So the first thing they started with is a palatal expander.  I had my palate split years ago as well but I had a removable retainer.  I didn't have to eat with it on (but that's why I threw it away on my cafeteria tray the first day I got it, did find it in the trash though).  MacGregor's is cemented in.  He got it one week before we left on vacation and had to turn  it (expand it) 10 times.  He was soo miserable, couldn't eat a thing.  

Luckily, a day or two after the last turn, his mouth began to feel less sore and he learned how to chew and swallow with that big piece of metal suspended in his palate.

But wouldn't you know it?  A few days after returning from vacation he had another appointment with the orthodontist.  He said everything looked great and the expander was doing exactly what it should be doing - expanding.  BUT because MacGregor has always had spaces between his teeth, and the expander was pulling things farther apart, his front teeth were being pulled wider and wider apart.  SO he put braces on to pull the front teeth back together.  He has pressure being exerted in BOTH directions in his poor little mouth.

Silly Kid

The great thing is - once they move the top jaw forward - MacGregor may not need "the whole full set of braces for 2 years" thing because his teeth are fairly straight and have lots of space for those big teeth to come in.  Chase on the other hand is looking at 2 or more years of the full set of braces when all his big teeth finish coming in. 

Sweet Boys

I am nearly finished posting the pictures from our summer vacation.  There are still a few more up and coming, but I came across this one and I just had to post it.

In Utah we stayed with good friends who gave us their finished basement.  It had 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a family room.  The boys stayed in one room and we put Piper's port-a-crib in their room.  Ainsley slept on a mattress on the floor of the other room where Dan and I were sleeping.  

Piper did not sleep well on vacation and often woke up in the middle of the night or early morning.  One morning I realized that I hadn't heard her yet so I jumped up to check on her, I was worried that we had put her in our bed and I hadn't remembered and perhaps she gotten up and wandered upstairs.  But instead I found this:

Two cute boys who rescued their little sister from her crib in a strange house and let her snuggle up with them.