Revival of the blog

Wow!! I'd almost forgotten about this blog until I got an email reminding me I hadn't posted in awhile. I'm not promising daily posts, but I am definitely gonna try and keep it a little more up to date.

Soooo.....since my last post....we have moved, had a baby, been on a couple trips, added a few cousins to the family and married off a bonus brother. Not to mention all the obvious goings on in our wild house. Kaiden is in kindergarten, Grace is in preschool, Amelia goes to MDO 2 days a week and the "baby", Sydney is 18 months old and goes to MDO one day a week. She's a doll

I'm just thinking back over the summer and wishing I could post tons of pictures from our vacation with my brother, his wife and their 4 kids, Kelley's and my 1st trip since our honeymoon and all the other fun that's been had.

There's no use in worrying about the unposted past. Hopefully I can do better at keeping our little blog, here, up to date!

It's good to be back!

Adventures of Emily and Jenny

my bf em, has our date nite chronicled on her blog. to see some funny stuff go to this link...
http://www.jonnieandemily.blogspot.com/

let me just tell you a little bit our friendship...
it all started when i was probably about 12 years old. i played church basketball at leawood and emily played for her church, bartlett baptist. as i came onto the ball court in my dorky jersey, retarded, bumpy ponytail with a horrible scrunchy, nasty, stretched out slouch socks and my fake, kmart brand "asics" tennis shoes, i saw her. there she was. in all her glory. with her perfectly tucked in jersey, her beautiful, long, blonde, shiny, flowing hair tied up in the most perfect pony tail you can imagine. it swayed and flowed like the hair in a shampoo commercial with every step and bounce of that basketball that she dribbled with her perfectly manicured nails. her makeup was also perfectly applied. her mascara framed her beautiful blue eyes and her pink lips shined freshly with every timeout and new quarter of the game. it was her... basketball barbie. this went on thru all of my jr high years. every basketball season i had to face her again. even more perfect than the year before. basketball barbie.
years passed and in 2003 i moved back to memphis and started going to highpoint. after a few weeks of attending i was talking with a friend after the morning service. can you imagine my surprise when i looked up and saw her. her gorgeous blonde hair still swoooshed with every step. it was her! basketball barbie went to highpoint! it was destiny. we were meant to be friends....i HAD to be her friemd!!
it wasn't long after that sunday that we met thru mutual friends. and not much longer after that, we got into the same small group. the rest is history.
everyone needs an emily in their life! not only is she absolutely gorgeous, she's hilarious, smart, fun, encouraging, kind and is seriously just as pretty on the inside as the outside (maybe even prettier, if that's possible). she loves people and is one of the most real people i know. out of all of my friends (and i have a lot) she was one of the few (and i mean 1 or 2) that was so unbelievable after my mom died. when other people don't know what to say or feel awkward or just act like everything is ok emily would call me, even weeks and months after she died and ask how i was, what i was feeling and just let me cry or talk and get it all out. i will forever be indebted to her for that. i'm so proud to call emily a friend. how sweet it was for God to bring basketball barbie back into my life...and this time we're on the same team. LOVE YOU EM!!

YES...we know what causes it!

we went on a little family vacation to florida the week before last. kelley, me and our 3 little bambino's piled into our honda pilot. nice and snug with all our luggage, baby beds, double stroller, beach bags and golf clubs. we hadn't forgotten a thing! and if we had...there was no room left in the trunk! we left on saturday morning and by wednesday i was expecting my little monthly friend...and she was late. when she was still a "no show" by thursday evening i decided to do one of the things i dread most...the test!

needless to say...it was positive (as always) and it was positive again on friday...and again on saturday evening...and again last weekend. VERY positive! believe it or not, we were VERY shocked. this one (as always) was very unexpected. it's really become kind of comical just how fertile we are. without going into a lot of details, we DO take measures to avoid this. it's become very obvious that we are not always in control of our lives. our best laid plans will not always work out exactly the way we hoped or wanted. but don't bless my heart. it may take a little adjusting, but i LOVE it!!

so, we are still in quite a bit of shock, but (at least i have) moved into excitement too! kelley, my faithful, hardworking provider is definitely on the stressed side of shock. but, like i told him, as shocked, surprised, caught off guard as we are, God is not, at all! He knows our wants, needs, income, square footage and vehicle situation. none of this has caught Him off guard at all. i'm not in the least bit worried. He is faithful to provide, and as far as i'm concerned the more impossible it seems, the bigger work He can do!

so, it's looking like hendrix baby #4 will be due on may 5, 2010. i go to the dr. at the end of the month. so far, i'm feeling pretty good. i've had a few fleeting moments of nausea, but i'm only 6 weeks today, so we'll see if that lasts or gets worse. i'll keep the pregnancy updates and all the other craziness coming. this should be interesting!:)

Happy Birthday Amelia Rose!

its been a few days since the actual birthday and a few days since the actual par-tay, but what can i say...life's crazy and being late these days, as much as i hate it, is the norm:). late or not, i can't not celebrate the life of amelia rose a little in my blog.
i'll never forget the day i found out i was pregnant! kaiden had just turned 2 and grace was 7 months. i'm one of those people that, if there's a pregnancy test in the house, i'm gonnna take it...just because. i take a couple a month, just for the heck of it...and with me, you never really know anyways. it was a wednesday and i took my random test. i wasn't even "late" so i was absolutely mortified when it came up positive! somehow i kept it a secret from kelley until christmas morning when i gave him a photo album that took him thru pictures describing what a wonderful friend, husband, worker ect...he was, until the last page that told him what a wonderful dad he was with a picture of the positive test:) he was even more mortified than i was. this was most certainly not the way we planned our little family. 3 kids in less than 3 years was not ideal any way you looked at it. we spent the next 8 months trying to prepare ourselves and pick out a name for a boy and a girl, since we decided not to find out what we were having. but on august 14th, on the very moment that precious little baby girl entered our lives our worries and stresses melted away(at least mine did, kelley's doubled now that he has 2 girls:). amelia rose has been an absolute joy to our lives and there is noway we could imagine life without her. she is a sweet yet spirited little girl that loves to hug on everything from grace to her baby doll. she almost always has a huge, all gums (except for her 3 little teeth) smile on her face. her personality is wild and loud and outgoing. she adores her brother and sister and she's hardly ever been a minutes trouble. she just fit right into our family like a missing puzzle piece.
what a wonderful 1st year we've had with our little miggie (as grace calls her) and i'm so excited to continue watching her grow into the little miss priss that i can already tell she's gonna be.

twister

if you know me at all you know i'm beyond TERRIFIED of tornadic weather! this afternoon i gathered my children and headed to the tub for the 3rd time this year! i was just getting ready to head over to my sisters when i heard the tornado siren and i immediately started shaking, sweating and having the feeling that i was about to mess my pants...seriously! i'm sure it would be quiet amusing to see this taking place. i threw clothes and shoes on myself and all the kids so that we could run for help after the twister blew our house away. amelia, is not yet one and is completely oblivious. she was just wanting her green beans and apple sauce i had grabbed to feed her in case we lost the house and dinner was late. kaiden, on the other hand, knows exactly whats going on. with the 'wizard of oz' being on his regular movie rotation, along with(as mentioned before) him going through this routine with his scared momma before, he was gathering pillows and helping me pull the ottoman into the hallway. "momma, they said stay away from the windows" he was screaming as he shut all the bedroom doors. when we settled down into the hall, with radio in hand, he immediately started praying, "Lord, don't let the tornado come to our house." i know this may sound like i had a terrified little boy on my hands, but trust me, he's loving every minute of it. he was so excited and would NOT stop talking! yes, this is the little boy that i had to spank twice during the last tornado because he kept running out into the back yard, sirens blaring, rain pouring and trees bending so low to the ground. he was screaming, "i wanna touch the lightening momma!!" he's gonna be the death of me!:) and then there's grace. my sweet, calm, deep voiced little princess. if she asked once she asked 65 times. "da tomato comin' momma?"
we live less than 2 miles from where the tornado touched down but we all escaped alive, unscathed and with the house still standing. thank goodness we're ok and as far as i can tell we had no tomato damage either:)

Who's your daddy??

if you've driven I40w in the past 4 months and been anywhere near the 240 interchange you couldn't have missed the billboard with my hunk of a husband on it! yeah, the big, hot, 20 foot tall kelley head! i get excited just thinking about it...i mean, nearly 7 yards of the the love of my life! dang! but as crazy as i am about him i wish you could hear kaiden and grace go nuts every time we drive by. the first few times that we drove by, of course i made a HUGE deal! "look, there's daddy!!" "everyone wave at daddy!" "everyone say 'daddy we love you'!" kaiden had one minor melt down because he wanted HIS face on the billboard, but the promise that he would get a billboard when he was older settled him down for now:) now they just start screaming, almost before we can even see it. "hey daddy, HEY DADDY, daddy, daddy!" then the back and forth starts..."he's my daddy!" NO, he's MY daddy!" they're pretty funny...at least they crack me up.
the billboard has been up since march and is a reminder for me, each time i see it, just how blessed i am to have such a FABULOUS baby's daddy. how happy it makes me to have such a wonderful hubby and fantastic father and to have babes that adore their daddy. what a relief to not ever have to worry about my kids because they have a man they can look up to, that will love them unconditionally, take care of and protect them and set the example of what a true man of integrity should look like. as far as i'm concerned, when you have a dad like that, all is right with the world.
to hear kelley's billboard story go to http://www.imperfecttv.com/

Bonus Mom!

every wednesday nite since mom died i've cooked dinner over at my dads and we've had a great big family fun nite! tonite's dinner is a little different...it's special. we're celebrating leslies's birthday! leslie is dad's fiance' that i helped set him up on a blind date with. as i finished up the key lime pies (leslie's favorite) and covered the spaghetti sauce as it simmers on the stove (she requested anything with angel hair pasta) i just smiled thinking about how blessed we are to have leslie in our lives. as much as i miss my mom and as horrible as losing her was, is it not just so sweet of God to give us someone to fill the gap? how awesome! there are so many marriages that fall apart and end horribly and there are sooo many people that have terrible relationships with their mom. but, twice in one lifetime my dad has been able to love with all his heart and my siblings and i have had a mom that we adored and now this bonus mom! wow! i hate saying "step mom" it sounds so evil and wicked. but i'm really kind of loving the back-up mom, leslie.
just know that no one EVER needs to worry if i'm "ok" with my dad moving on. we are all more than ok! we are elated! our life is fabulous! my love for leslie and the excitement i have for my dad and seeing him act like a teenager again don't lessen the hurt that i still carry in my heart and always will until i see mom my again. i miss her so much. but they are 2 totally different things that really have nothing to do with each other. those emotions have to stay seperate. i'm very confident that when we all meet again it will be one huge family reunion and i'm certain that my mom will hug leslie with all her might and thank her for stepping in and taking care of my dad, seth and ellie and for loving all of us.
happy birthday leslie!!!