Long time no blog!!!

Hello everyone! It's been forever since I've blogged and I'm so excited to say that I actually have some pictures to post! Scott moved all of our pictures over to another computer and I've had the hardest time accessing them for blogging. I will post them very shortly!

Love all of you!

A new arrival in the Henry family!!

Well, it's been a long time since my last post and I do apologize! I've been busy with keeping the house clean and all of the fun things that go along with selling a house!

BUT, we have had a very special arrival that I must tell you about before I catch up on us...

Our sweet baby nephew Corbin Jackson Henry was born July 22nd at 2:16am, weighing 8lbs 12oz and he was 21 inches long. Blaine and Steve are doing wonderful and enjoying "Baby Bootcamp"! Corbin was a big little fella and last Monday morning, after doing a sonogram, they felt it was time to induce (conveniently on her due date!). They began the induction that morning at 11. Blaine was determined to have little Corbin without having a C-section and labored until about 1:30 Tuesday morning (including pushing for two hours!!!) until finally they decided to do a C-section. Corbin had his first pediatrician's visit yesterday and he's doing great! He's already gained back a 1/2 pound of the pound he lost before leaving the hospital. Blaine and Steve are wonderful parents!! We're so happy for all of them!!

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Daniel turned 17 the day we arrived at the beach so we had a little luau for him to celebrate complete with leis and "lanterns". It was so much fun! I can't believe my Daniel is 17!

Our trip to Edisto Beach

We went to Edisto Beach with my family last week and had such a wonderful time!! We couldn't have asked for better weather and the boys absolutely loved the beach this year! They both loved playing in the sand and water and as we thought last year and confirmed this year, Ethan has no fear of water...he would run straight for it without any hand holding. We definitely had to keep a close eye on him! They both loved "hopping" over the waves and splashing, and one of their favorite things to do was stand on boogie boards at the very edge of the water and "surf" when the waves came in. It was too cute!! I didn't get too many pictures on the beach because those little fellows kept us hopping, but my Mom was able to get some so I will share those with you when I get them. Thank you Mama and Daddy for a wonderful week!!

"Cickle!"

The boys had popsicles for the very first time a few days ago and LOVED them! There's nothing like sweet little purple and red mouths and chins! It's so cute how they will always look at eachother and grin when they're trying something new and exciting like that.

I Nine Video!

My cousin Matt is in a band called I Nine (he plays the bass guitar). They recently performed for a Fox morning show in Dallas. Here is a link to the video!

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=6494567&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=5.2.1

The Tough Questions...

I was so heartbroken when I heard that Tim Russert had passed away last week. He was always one of those people that if I ever had a chance to meet him, I'd want to go and give him a great big hug...just a nice guy who's loving and caring nature showed through all he did. I was reading up on a blog of an author that I've read a couple of books from...a South Carolina girl (GRITS!), and she had some great thoughts on this...are you willing to ask the "tough questions" to others, and just as important if not more so, to yourself? I've attached a link to her blog if you'd like to read it. Hope everyone is doing great. Much love to all of you! I'll be updating the blog on our trip to Edisto Beach soon. :)

http://www.denisehildreth.blogspot.com/

Scott's car accident

Scott was in a car accident last Tuesday...thankfully he's okay!! Just a little sore but no scratches or bruises. He was coming home from work when a car coming toward him was stopped to turn left and was hit from behind, then forced into his lane...he almost hit them head on but luckily was able to react quickly enough to swerve before impact. (Scott's car is the black car) The driver in the white car (a Mazda Miata!) had a mild concussion, but as you can see from the photos was lucky!!

Just some cute pics from the boys' birthday-day

Especially notice the icing on Mitchell's face when he's eating cake...Captain Jack Sparrow?! :-)

Happy 2nd Birthday Ethan and Mitchell!

The boys and I traveled to Aiken to visit with family on Friday while Scott stayed home and did some work around the house. We missed him so much and he missed us so much too!! My sweet baby boys had their 2nd birthday on Saturday and we had a wonderful day full of celebration. We began the day with lots of Happy Birthday singing on the porch swing...as you can see from their expressions...Mitchell enjoyed it somewhat but Ethan thought we had lost our marbles. He had that look the entire time we were singing (Ethan is pictured on right)!! :-) Daddy called to wish his precious boys a Happy Birthday and they didn't quite know what to think when they heard more singing on the phone. Grandmama Sharon made the boys a special pancake breakfast which they thoroughly enjoyed, and then we played, played, played.

They have changed so much this past year...their vocabulary has really increased and they're beginning to copy many things that we say like "ready" and "alright" and "okay". Ethan calls Mitchell "baba" and Mitchell calls Ethan "be-be". They love eachother so much...they actually gave eachother a kiss today for the very first time. Happy Birthday boys!!!

Stairmaster

This was our entertainment last night before bedtime...Ethan climbing and sliding down the stairs. It was so cute! I hope the video comes through on the blog okay...this is the first time I've uploaded a video.

Superstars!

The Storm!

Tuesday was somewhat of a normal day...sunny and beautiful, a little humid, but nothing strange. Scott was able to get off of work a little early (a blessing!) so we took advantage of that and went to the lake to watch boats...one of our favorite pastimes. As we were watching the few on the lake, we noticed some very dark clouds approaching. We decided to come home.

Only about 15 minutes after we arrived home, we began to have very loud thunder and close and bright lightening and according to our local weather, we had a bad storm coming. Soon after that, the meteorologist said that there was rotation in the storm at Sixes Rd...this was us!! We of course freaked out, emptied the closet underneath the stairs, and jumped in as hail started pounding the windows and wind started blowing the trees everywhere. It was a frightening experience! It was all over in a matter of a few seconds but we were amazed at the aftermath.

We had very large limbs down in our yard and it was full of all sorts of debris, and our house had leaves and small limbs all over it. It was a scary experience, and not easy to clean up, but we were so fortunate. The tornado had just begun its descent on the street behind us and amazingly enough, we had no structural damage and didn't even lose any of our trees in our woods that we can tell at this point. We went driving tonight to the areas that were hard hit and it is so sad...trees down everywhere and tons of houses damaged. My heart aches for these people! I've never witnessed first-hand the devistation from something like this and it really hit me how your life can change in an instant. Amazingly enough, no lives were lost in the storm!

Birthday Celebration

I can hardly believe my babies will be 2 this Saturday! We had a little get-together at an area park last Saturday to celebrate. We had a "Cars" theme...their favorite movie ("tractor, tractor"), complete with 2 Lightening McQueen birthday cakes. Mia and Papa, Uncle Nate and Aunt Julie and cousins, and Uncle Steve and Aunt Blaine were able to come, along with our good friends Beth and Chris and their daughter Abby and their twin sons Jack and Ryan. Scott grilled hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill while our 4 very busy toddlers ran around and kept us all running! We had such a great time!

Happy Mother's Day weekend!

We had such a great Mother's Day weekend...it was like Mother's Day every day! We started out Friday evening by going to the beach at Lake Allatoona and having dinner and playing in the sand until the sun set. We all had such a great time and came home nice and sandy! We ALL worked in the yard on Saturday and the boys LOVED that! They played in their little choo-choo, pulled and pushed their wagon, and pushed their tractors around. They were worn out at nap and actually slept 2.5 hours...a long nap for them! We went to the lake again that evening and had a repeat of Friday evening. :-) The weather was so beautiful and we actually got to see a huge boat launch, which was a real treat on our small lake!

Sunday was lots of fun. For those of you who don't know, I "teach" the 2 year-olds every other Sunday at church. The teacher that I normally teach with was unable to teach this past Sunday due to a family emergency, so needless to say, I needed help!! My dear, sweet, wonderful husband came to my rescue and filled in for Susan. He was SO great!! He was wonderful with all of the kids (this didn't surprise me at all!!) and was a big hit with all of the boys. They all wanted to sit by him and play with him. It was an especially crazy Sunday because all of the kids were very giddy and excited (I guess because of Mother's Day?), so it was like having double of each child! He handled it all in stride and was like a pro!! It was such a blessing for him to serve with me. After church, Scott took us out for a Mother's Day brunch at O'Charleys. It was yummy...the boys could have been a bit more calm but we all still really enjoyed it. :-) We came home, put the boys down for their nap, and we both napped too! That was very nice! We wrapped up the day by grabbing a Starbucks and playing at home. It was so nice! I loved celebrating being a mother! Happy Mother's Day!!

I attached some pictures of the boys playing with their wagon and playing at the park this evening. The "close-ups" are Ethan in the tunnel, and he is also standing proudly at the top of the stairs. Mitchell is in the swing and in the 2nd picture on the dinosaur. He's also the one wearing blue shorts in the wagon pictures. They are growing up so fast!!

Home Improvement

The painters finished painting the downstairs on Saturday morning and did a fantastic job! We painted everything a very light khaki color and it turned out great. It really opens the house up and makes it look bigger. We already feel like we have a new house! :-) Our realtor came yesterday to take pictures and she should be coming tomorrow morning to put the For Sale sign in the yard. Eek! I still need to do some more decluttering in our guest room and we need to move a few large things like bookcases to storage. Slowly but surely we are getting there. I'm just trying to keep it all in perspective and not stress too much!!

Bon Jovi was awesome!! They still sound so great and of course Jon Bon Jovi still has it!! Yes, ladies, he's even hotter than he was back in the day!! :-) Scott didn't enjoy it quite as much because they played lots to the ladies but bless his heart, he didn't complain at all! It was great to get away for a few hours and see a great concert.

Below, the boys are getting into the home improvement mode with us!! Never too young to start, right? :-)

Blaine's baby shower

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and I hosted a baby shower this weekend for our Blaine. We had a great time!! Blaine received lots of cute things for Corbin, including lots of adorable clothes, some cute hooded towels and washcloths (after this shower she will have a hooded towel for each day of the week!) :-), and a beautiful blanket knitted by my mother-in-law. We were originally going to have her shower outdoors on my mother-in-law's beautiful deck (we had my wedding and baby showers out there) but it rained. We moved all of the tables and chairs indoors and it turned out really pretty, rain or shine! Blaine's friend Karen was able to make the shower (in purple) but was already beginning to dilate! She should be having her son Gregory sometime this week. :-)

Afterwards, us girls stayed and our hubbies came with the kids and we had a family get-together. My mother-in-law's sister Char was down from Michigan to take part in the baby shower so we were able to spend time with her. It was fun! The boys spent lots of time playing with their cousins Allison, Natalie, and Gracen. They especially loved playing in the sandbox with Natalie and Gracen.

Yardwork

The boys helped me in the yard last week and they were so cute. First we "mowed" the pinestraw (because you know pinestraw needs a good mowing every now and again!). :) Then they helped me fill in the pinestraw in a new flower bed. They had a great time! It is getting really fun at this point because they can "help" me do things. Even though they lose interest quick, they still have a good time and I can get some things done with them outside. They've started listening alot better and don't run towards the street or into the neighbors' yards as much (key words "as much"!). They still go where they shouldn't occassionally but we're getting there! (In these pictures, Ethan is in grey and Mitchell is in red.)

Bon Jovi, baby!!!

We're going to see BON JOVI tonight!!! We (or should I say I??) have waited excitedly for this day to come! I loved Bon Jovi when I was younger...one of the best Christmases I had was when my brother gave me "Slippery When Wet" and we listened to it over and over that Christmas Day. Scott is not quite as excited as me. Lucky for me, maybe not for him, he didn't have to travel this week. :-)

This has been a CRAZY week! We are putting our house up for sale!! This was definitely a "last second" decision. We don't have much room in our house since we had the boys...two of everything starts adding up quick and two toddlers seem to require a lot of space for playing. :-) So, we sometimes will drive through neighborhoods and look at houses or go to Open Houses. Well, we were out looking on Saturday and found a house that is perfect for our growing family and in our price range. We went back Sunday to look again and decided that night to go for it. So, I met with the realtor on Monday and we derived a plan to get the house in order for selling. (The birth of the boys really rocked our world so needless to say, not many home improvements have been done since that time!!) The painter is coming THIS Thursday morning to start painting and we will be taking some small trees out of the front yard to open it up a bit and moving some things to storage. Can we say stressed?? A night out with Bon Jovi will be much-needed. :-)

We are not "set" on this house and are praying for God to show us His will. If it's His plan, I know it will be done. If not, that's okay too. He is in control. Hey, we'll finally get these home improvements that we've needed to do out of the way!! :-)

I'll definitely keep you updated on the progress, and my hair...hopefully I'll have some left once this is over! :-)

On our way to get our license!

Mia and Papa came over Sunday evening to visit and the boys had a great time playing in Papa's car, a Mazda Miata. They were definitely driving in style! :) Once we managed to get them out of the car, we went to play in the backyard and of course, they would manage to make their way back to the drive way to play with the "tractor". It was really cute.

New adventures

The boys have had some new adventures lately...eating cookies and learning how to drive. :) The boys LOVE cookies (Girl Scout Thin Mints to be exact, and they can say "cookie" as clear as a bell!). And, they had lots of fun playing in the van with Daddy while waiting on Mommy to get ready.

Ethan

Ethan was so sweet last week while brother wasn't feeling well. He played so sweetly and would lovingly bring Mitchell toys to play with or would rub his back and lay his head on his shoulder. He is such a loving child!! He did figure out a few things while I was tending to Mitchell...he learned how to reach the TV and turn it on and ask for "choo-choo" (Thomas) AND he figured out the baby-proofing to the computer! Luckily, he has listened to me for the most part and not gotten up to the computer but I don't know how long that will last! Redirect, redirect, redirect! The TV is another story...lots of "Choo-choo has gone bye-bye" by Mommy. :) Unfortunately, he may be getting what Mitchell had last week. He had a fever of 102 at bedtime last night. My poor baby!