Happy Birthday JD!

JD's birthday rolls around just days after our Birthiversary. Happy Happy Birthday Sweetie! I'm so glad he was born!

We celebrated by spending family time, K and I made him cookies

and by going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. (As a side note, I got a wrap and salad - who knew?). K was going a little nuts since it was loud, lots of different TVs playing different things, and it was close to her bed time and way past her dinner time so we don't have any photos.

We planned to truly celebrate his birthday on Sunday, but he threw up all day. Happy Barfday. I hope this year goes better than your birthday celebration and know that I love you lots and am so glad you are in my life!

Happy Birthiversary!

A week after K's birthday, my birthday and our anniversary share one wonderful day. We celebrated 8 years of marriage - what? 8? And I felt a little older.. but still so grateful for my sweetie. I had an inkling when I met him that he was a good guy. When we got married I loved him because I knew he was a great guy. After 8 years I know he is a smart, talented, compassionate, understanding, ever-growing, fun, kind, realistic, logical man who has hit the sweet spot of being responsible but still youthful. He is faithful to me, our family, and the Lord and I could never in a million years have dreamed up the perfect way he balances and mirrors me. I love how we have grown as a unit, and I am so looking forward to the many years ahead of us!

From the picture that started it all..

To our honeymoon on Maui

To 8 years later

We made some fancy soups for dinner. So delicious. The top is Lobster Bisque, the bottom is Cheese and we also made a Clam Chowder. It was the perfect meal (I had a cold also) for two soup lovers to share. Happy Anniversary!

Cool, Crazy Monkeys

JD took and passed his CCM! He said it was a beastly test, but he passed and in my book that means he ate that thing for breakfast. In honor, we made him a breakfast cake: ie a rice crispy pan. Congratulations, Sweetheart!

Happy Birthday!

K turned 2! She was sick with a cold, but it didn't ruin her day. We love our little girl! She has been such a fun blessing in our life these past two years. I can't believe it's been that long! From her sweet smiles, to her love of teasing she is just a pleasure to be around most of the time. I love her spirit of adventure, and her propensity to make friends. She shares our love of the outdoors and exercise, and it is such a treat to share the things we love with her. She is charming (when she wants to be), independent and loves figuring out how things work. She is empathetic, lively and loves to play with friends.

Of course we had presents - a train set from Popi which she loooves.

A baby doll and accouterments from Grammy - also a major win.
She pushed the baby and Popi's card around, read her card to the baby, fed the baby.. And her other older dolly shared in the fun.

The card sings Somewhere Over The Rainbow, IZ style, and lights up.

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner (what could be better for our little socialite than friends for dinner?) She loves chocolate haupia pie (She really is ours!), so we had that for dessert. She blew out her own candles and I have to admit, I sniffled a little that day thinking about how many things she can do now and how fast time has flown by.

We love our girl!!

(Chocolate) chip off the ol' block

We love talking about family, and remembering our own family history as well as learning about our distant ancestors in our family. Sundays I break out our family year books and the family ancestry children's book (soon to be series I hope) I home-published. They are accessible all the time, but on Sundays we refocus on them as a tradition.

Usually we read while we eat, and always we point out familiar faces and smile about those we love. Today K decided to read on her own, got the books off the table where they were laid and carefully opened one. She contentedly munched, and looked at pictures while the rest of us had a usually long (for our household) grown up conversation (also about family history, as a matter of fact).

Combining two great loves (three if you count Family): Books and Cookies. Yup, she is a Henderdaughter.

PS. Don't be surprised if I call you one day and ask for your personal memories of an older relation. In fact, plan on dusting off any photos you have because it's probably a guarantee for ALL of you who read this blog. I am actively seeking content for a new book to engage our children in the stories of their ancestors.. in a way in which I don't have to actively remember the details because my brain isn't cut out for that anymore.

Another rain lover

It's been rainy here, and a beautiful thunderstorm complete with lightning and hail brought our family outside (surprised much? It's in our ancestry).
K has been afraid of thunder since the Summer of the Lawn Mowers - along with any loud noises that occurred that summer. JD wanted to help her get over that fear, so he held her outside, warned her before it came, and they waved high to the booms (some of them were spectacular enough that it sounded like a 4th of July show). She's not over her fear completely, but she is about as brave about it as I can expect a toddler to be.

Not about to let a virus get her down, K wanted to go out and splash in puddles and catch rain and hail in her (clean) recently de-christened barf bowl. We ate the hail; it was delightfully cold, tasteless, and fun.

Teo was a crack up. We only have a video... stored in who knows what cloud.. but he jumped all around, catching the hail as it fell and snapping it up out of the air. Please imagine a ferocious wolf, lunging at enemies, then a shark nipping at bare ankles from under the water, then a prancing horse, neighing at the sky... and then replace those animals with a fuzzy black dog, and the other actors with tiny pieces of ice falling from the sky. It was hilarious. Every time one landed on his head or back he would lunge for that space as fast as he could... anyway. :cough: We love storms.

Our friends

We were lucky enough to meet our cute neighbors on one of the first nice days in February. We were out playing in the sun, and we hear "Hewwo! Hewwoo!" So of course, Korrali calls back "Hello! Hello!" Turns out it's a little girl 4 days older than Korrali - how perfect is that? They are very similar in temperament.

We have had several play dates - at one point the fence fell prey to toddler whim and one loose board turned into an entry to their yard and Korrali would just walk on over whenever they were out playing. The fence has been fixed, but our kind neighbors are cute enough to seriously debate whether or not another more permanent solution should be found to enable spontaneous playdates.

"Look, friend, a fountain is in this enclosure! O, and I guess there's a polar bear in there too."

"Where should we run to next? Our Adults want to go left, so we definitely should go right."

Korrali connects this friend with the word adventure.. so if I say we are going on an adventure, she assumes the neighbor girl is coming too.  This results in much screaming of her friends name in the car, and much running next door when we are late to other playdates.

We went to her b-day party, and one of the au pairs there assumed I was also an au pair. I laughed, then realized she was right - I was the youngest mom there by about 10 years. You'd think I was Mormon or something.
I hope you will forgive the weird face Korrali has started to decide is her having fun face..