Day in the City

This is what the kids look like when you stay out all day.  

Yesterday was a Very Busy Day.

We left the house at 9 yesterday morning; 

got forgotten booster seats out of Daddy's car at work; 

went to coffee break at church; 

took 2 bicycles to be repaired downtown; 

ate a picnic lunch at the coolest park around;

played at the same park; 

went to the discount bookstore in the mall; 

ran to the mall bathroom in a very big hurry;  

bought several books and took them to the parking lot at Daddy's work;

the big kids read while 2 very tired babies got a late nap; 

went to the track and walked with Daddy; 

ate pizza and spent the night with hubby's brother's family.  

We have not been home long but these two babies are in much the same position as they were in this picture except now they are in their own beds.  

Quote from the 5 year old: "This is the best day ever."

Quote from the Mommy: "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."

Snow Days

 We don't live in an area that gets a lot of snow.  This year, we have not had any and it has been so unseasonably warm I don't think that we will get any before Spring.  So, since snow days are so much fun, here are some pictures from 2 previous snowy days.  One is in December 2009 and the other in 2011.

The scene outside our window, Dec 2009

The excitement on REH

SEH excited too.

TJH is excited but his is always reserved.

Yeah, BKH and I supervised from the warm living room. 

This was Jan. 2011.  All the kids went out to play but I only took a pic of SEH.

This has nothing to do with snow, it's just a sweet picture of littlest man, JSH.

No snow here either, just REH's awesome brown eyes and his tigers (favorite animal sporting his favorite color: orange)

Today: Sick 3 year old

Warm, glowing babysitter.

I steer clear of the electronic babysitter.  In fact, this is the 1.5 year old's first time watching a Baby Einstein movie in his life.  But I think he likes it judging by the fact that *note to self* this is the longest he has ever sat still.    Poor 3 year old has something going on.  Ear infection, maybe?  Whatever it is, she wants only to be held.  So that is what I am doing as I type and as the baby learns about colors from a goat.

Updated for accuracy: I typically steer clear of the electronic babysitter.  My kids watch movies/TV just usually not because I have something else to do.  THAT is what I meant. :)

Me, Age 4...or 5?

This is proof that my parents might not have wanted a girl after all.  I'm KIDDING!  I'm pretty sure they gave me this haircut because I had started the cut all my own.  I did that a lot and lost my favorite Goofy scissors due to constantly trying to be my own hair dresser.  Also, the styling options for my thick mop of hair was just as minimal then as it is now.  

Overall, the kids look like their Dad, but this one shows that they at least got some of my genes. 

Moving Pictures: 2006

These pictures are from our move to the house before our current  house (get that? It's hard to make sense when you don't want to be specific about where you live...).  Since we have been married (10 years this May 25th for those gift givers in the family...), we have moved 7 times.  This was TJH's 3rd move.  He was 3!  It was the first move that we were actually really excited about.  We were moving out of this little bitty apartment with no washer and dryer into this huge house with a washer and dryer, 2 refrigerators...2 bathrooms and a DISHWASHER.  We were moving up to the East Side!  I was pregnant with SEH and it was great to have room for our family to grow.  Fun fact: It is the only house that I have given birth to more than one child in--both girls were born there with the wonderful Debi Church, CPM attending.

Grandma and Grandpa have been a huge help in every single one of our moves.  They have threatened to not even pack a box in any future moves.

  

TJH's special horse.  We tried so hard to not let him get attatched to anything, you know not a blanket or anything....he made up for our immature parenting skills by attaching to a plastic horse.  That thing went everywhere and was necessary for bed.  We bought two more so that we were never without it.

It adds a lot to the pictures for me when I think about how JSH is now REH's age in these pictures.

We lived in that house from August 2006 until June 2010.  Definitely wins the prize for Longest House Occupied by the Hendersons.  Thanks to Uncle Seth for thinking to take these pictures and then posting them on Facebook so I could make up for not taking my own.

Bygone Days: Huntsville, 2009

The kids love to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  When we go, we usually work in a trip to the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center.  The kids want to go back again soon. If you click on the pictures, they get bigger. 

With Cousin, Z.  BKH and Z are just a few months apart in age.

Watching the lady get ready for a science presentation (it was a baking soda/vinegar rocket).

Watching the rocket go off.

This is the main event.  Too bad when we go back, TJH will be too old for it.

Grandpa did this too but his picture didn't turn out.  

SEH was too little to go in the simulator but we did this instead.

Who Are They Remembering?

Psalm 8

 ¹ O LORD, our Lord, 
   how majestic is your name in all the earth! 
You have set your glory above the heavens. 
 ² Out of the mouth of babies and infants, 
you have established strength because of your foes, 
   to still the enemy and the avenger.

My boys and I were driving home from a long day in the city today when we drove by a church with a cemetery similar to the one above.  The boys began to ask what it was for and I didn't want to get into it too much because they really are too young to process the concept of abortion.  A part of the conversation went like this:

8 yo (TH): That is a strange looking cemetery.  Is it military?

MOM: No, it is more like a memorial for people that died.  It is to remember people that died, they aren't actually buried there.

6 yo (RH): But there are no names on them.  How do you know who they are remembering if there are no names?

MOM: Well, those are people that did not have names before they died.

TH: You mean babies?

MOM: Yes.

TH: How did they die?

MOM: That is not really something that I want to explain to you right now, but I will say that it is a very awful thing but when you help at the Women's Care Center [our local pro-life pregnancy center] you help other babies live.

TH: You mean they were killed!?

MOM: [sigh] Yes, I do.  It is a very awful thing.

RH: I am so glad that does not happen in America.

MOM: That does happen in America.  We are in America, just not [our hometown].

[he is still at the age where he does not always understand that our town is a part of our state which is a part of the US...]

TH: How is that legal?

I changed the subject back to the Care Center and how we can help babies and such.  However, what struck me as we talked was how obvious it was to them that it was so wrong.  I did not explain anything about abortion but they are not dumb.  They know that a baby in their Mommy's tummy is as much a baby as the baby in our arms and to end that life is to kill.  

1 Corinthians 1 ²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. ²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God,righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Cosleeping Cons

We are sort of an attachment parenting family.  A mark of an attachment family, in some circles, is that there is a family bed.  We are only "sort of" in that my kids have their own beds and on good nights they sleep in those beds.  And "sort of" because when someone comes to our bed at night we don't turn them away.  Usually that means that about once a week someone shows up in the middle of the night and stays.  Sometimes it means that they come as Daddy is getting ready for work (which is early--5 ish) and stay.  I don't remember ever having more than two in our bed on any given night.


Until last night.


Last night, I shared the bed with all of my children.  Remember how many that is?  5.  Mmmmhmmmm. The oldest son rarely comes to us at night.  Once that child is in bed he is out cold until I roll him out the next day.  Last night though something was different and he showed up around 10. I would assume that he was having trouble getting to sleep.  Next was the Baby (1.5 yo).  Hubby brought him around 1AM because he heard him coughing his head off while he (Daddy) was working in the living room.  Next came the other son, 6 years old.  He slipped in and I barely knew he was there.  Next came the 5 year old.  If she comes in the middle of the night (which is becoming more and more often) she comes in like a tornado.  


Finally in came the 3 year old--she must have come because she realized she was missing a PaR-tAy!  However, as soon as I get her settled in the labyrinth that had become my bed, she asked for milk.  You have to understand that for my 3 year old, milk is the equivalent to crack.  If she asks for it she needs it and she wants it five minutes ago and WHY HAVEN'T YOU GOTTEN IT YET?  In seriousness, I think she has some sort of allergy problem and the cold milk is soothing to her throat.  At least that is what I tell myself when I allow her to flip out when I am not fast enough with her supply.  So, I had to shimmy myself out of the bed to get her the milk.  I carried her back to bed, milk in tow.  As I was placing her in her bed, tucking her in, Hubby's alarm for the day went off.


Really.


So, now I am up and 4 kids are somewhat peacefully sleeping in my nice cozy bed ( I took the baby to his bed as he is not big enough to stay in my bed with all his siblings without falling off...or being pushed off; 3 year went back to my bed as Daddy was getting ready for work).  


I love not turning my children away when they need us. We want them to always come to us when they want to talk or are scared or lonely. We feel one of the best ways to show this openness to them at their young age is in our nighttime parenting practices.  


The moral of this story is sometimes you get more than you bargain for.


After I publish this post, I am going to lay down on my couch.

Video: Kids Perform

PLEASE before you try to play this video, turn your volume DOWN.  You will thank me later.  This was taken  last year; it is dated March 3, 2011 and I assume my camera was correct.  So basically this was exactly one year ago.  Wow some things change so much and so much stays the same...

(Also, I don't know why I turned this video sideways while recording it.  I think it adds to the chaos.)

During the Christmas break last year, which was a very unique one for us with Dad home the entire month of December, the kids would ask to watch this video on YouTube.  This is what they were mimicking...sort of...