Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the Hendricks family!  We are having a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday in West Texas with my family.

Leah and the "tu tee".

She loved the "tu tee", especially the drumsticks!

Thanksgiving kisses for Daddy!

Somebody snuck in the turkey fryer!

Playing the piano and singing Christmas carols with Mommy!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Baby in Red

I've never seen you looking so lovely.

I've never seen you shine so bright.

I've never seen you looking so gorgeous.

The baby in red is dancing with me, cheek to cheek.

I've never seen you shine so bright.

Playing Dress Up

I've mentioned this before, but Leah is fascinated with jewelry.  She loves to look at it and put it on.  Tonight when I walked in the playroom this is what I found.....

She was wearing a "bracelet", "necklace" and a "purse"!  There are many times that I think she's such a tomboy because she's so wild and active, but it looks like she still has some girly girl in her too!

Early Christmas Present

Just when I didn't think I had anything to blog about.....

Tonight when I got home from work I found a new wrapped package sitting under our Christmas tree.  (Yes, we're totally crazy and put our tree up before Thanksgiving!  We will be travelling for the holidays and I want to come home to a house ready to go for Christmas instead of coming home and trying to find time to get it all done.  You know how crazy the month of December always is!)  I just assumed that Luke had gotten his special "From Daddy" gift for Leah.  I couldn't help but take a peek at the tag and it read "To:  My Beautiful Wife, From:  Your Loving Husband!"  Isn't he the best!!!!!  He had an overnight last night so I was happy to see he thought of me while he was away!  :)  After he finished feeding Leah dinner he told me that I could open my present.  Normally, I jump all over this as I am terrible with surprises!  I was always the kid trying to take sneak peeks at my presents under the tree!  Actually, I still try to sneak a peek to this day!  Terrible, I know!  Anyways, I told him that I could wait until Christmas but he insisted.  It didn't take much convincing and this is what I unwrapped.....

.....a Canon EOS Rebel XSi!  I have been wanting a nice camera for soooo long now, really ever since Leah was born!  We've been doing tons of research in hopes of getting a good camera soon, little did I know it would be tonight!  Thanks again, Honey!  You're the best!

Here's a couple of pics from my new camera.  I have tons to learn!  One thing I have read from alot of sites is to not use your flash.  I need to learn how to turn it off first!  I tried to photoshop these (as all sites recommend as well) but didn't really know what I was doing!  I'll have lots of time to practice next week!

                              

Bears vs 49ers

For Father's Day back in June, Leah and I gave Luke two tickets to the San Francisco 49ers vs Chicago Bears game.  Luke is a huge Bears fan so we thought this would be the perfect gift for him!  I also thought it would be fun for him to get to watch our own Red Raider, Michael Crabtree, in action!  He had planned for his brother to fly out from Iowa to go to the game with him, but that didn't work out so I got to be his date!  Ms. Pam, Leah's babysitter, was kind enough to let her stay the night with her so that we could enjoy the night in the city!

Luke had to work a little bit before the game in San Mateo so I was able to get some Christmas shopping done at the mall!  While he was visiting one of his accounts, he met a former 49er, Eric Wright, who just happened to be in the store shopping for some furniture for his hunting lodge in South Dakota.  Anyone who knows my husband, knows that he makes buddies with everyone he meets!  Eric gave Luke his phone number and invited us to a tailgate party.  Luke was so excited about his new friend when he picked me up at the mall.  I had to hear all about Eric, Eric, Eric.....how he is a four time Super Bowl champ, how he was the true star but usually gets overshadowed by Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott and on and on and on.  Anyone who knows me, knows I don't know a thing about football, much less players from my childhood!

To make a long story short, Luke called up Eric when we got to the stadium (dressed in our Tech gear is support of Crabtree), he got us into a private tailgate party that was full of former 49ers, media broadcasters, cheerleaders and lots of very important people (not to mention free alcohol and free food)!  Eric introduced us to lots of people who are, of course, now Luke's new buddies!  These people must have thought we were pretty important people, too!  :)  Luke wouldn't let me take pictures of anyone at the party because, in his own words, "Honey, I don't get star struck"!  I don't remember who won the game, but all in all, it was a fantastic evening!  The weather was beautiful, Luke and I got to spend a night away from home (alone) and I got some Christmas shopping done!  The only downside.....Eric Wright is all I've heard about for the past few days!  The other night we made homemade pizzas for dinner and I asked Luke what Eric might like on his pizza!  I haven't heard to much about him since then!

Where's Leah?

Where did Leah go?  I don't see her!  Do you?

(She was saying "shhhhhh" as we were whispering "Where's Leah?")

Here she is!  Ta da!!!!!

Shhhhhhhhh!  She disappeared again!

Helper Girl

Leah loves to help Mommy and Daddy with things around the house.  This weekend she helped Daddy with a little house project and helped Mommy with the laundry.  Who do you think appreciated her help the most? 

15 Month Checkup

This morning after gym class we ventured over to Dr. Sherman's office for Leah's 15-month well visit!  I love, love, love her pediatrician!  We started out with a different doctor when she was born but too many things happened that we didn't like so we switched to Dr. Sherman after lots of referrals!  Here's her current stats:

Height:  30 3/4" (60th %)
Weight:  22 lbs, 1 oz (40th %)
Head Circumference:  46.5 cm (70th %)

So basically, she's tall and skinny with a big head!  :)

Leah danced to the music that was playing while they were checking her weight.  The nurse said that she was the first child to ever dance on the scale!  That's my girl for ya!

Leah has been battling a cough for the past month (since we were in Texas).  We've been to the doctor twice for the cough in the past month so today was time to try plan C!  Plan A (watch and wait) and plan B (antibiotic) failed to make much of a difference if any at all.  Plan C is to try a steroid and treat it as asthma.  I pray that this is the answer because her cough is terrible.  I know that other moms are scared to death that she's spreading some horrendous infection, but she is not contagious in the least!  We do need to make this cough go away, though!

Leah also got her regular flu shot today and she was such a big girl!  SHE DIDN'T EVEN CRY AT ALL!  She sat on the table like a big girl, watched the nurse give her the shot in her leg and then started playing with the band-aid as soon as they put it on!  You would have never known she got a shot!  I am soooooo proud of my tall, skinny, big headed girl!

Dancing on the scale!

How much do I weigh?

How tall am I?

Waiting on Dr. Sherman!

Fifteen Months

Things we want to remember about Leah at fifteen months:

• She loves to wear jewely......bracelets, necklaces and even rings.  She has way too much fun sneaking into my jewelry box!  She will bring the bracelets to us to put on her.  She takes "C" shaped toys and puts them around her neck like necklaces!  We're not sure where she gets this as I don't wear much jewelry!
• She has learned how to open doors so our bedroom, all bathrooms and the office door are now locked!
• We've dropped her morning nap at home so she now just takes one (two-hour or so) afternoon nap.  This makes running morning errands much easier and has pushed bedtime up a little to between 7:30 and 8:00.
• She LOVES bread.  She could live on bread alone!  We have to hide it from her because if she sees it while she's eating she'll point to it and start saying "beh, beh, beh" or "mo, mo, mo" (more) until she gets some bread!  The other day Luke was unpacking groceries while I was feeding her dinner and she spotted the bread come out of the bag immediately!
• She loves to be outside and cries when it's time to come back in.
• She's a talking machine, almost all of which we understand.  She doesn't get away with whining for what she wants anymore!  We tell her "use your words" and she'll either sign or tell us what it is she wants........generally "eat" or "mo".
• She has a mouth full of teeth, but she's way too busy to stop and let me count them!
• She is still very much attached to her pa pa (pacifier).  I know this is a terrible habit that we have on our hands but I don't want to take it away from her just yet because we travel way too much.  I need her to have it when we fly to keep her ears from popping!
• She has started to like blankies and likes to carry them around with her and snuggle with them.
• She tries to put socks on by herself.  It's so cute!  She misses her foot everytime!
• She has started to tell us "no" and shake her head!  Generally, it's while she's eating and she doesn't want another bite.  I'm not quite ready for this one!
• Her favorite thing to play with at home is in the drawers (kitchen, office, bedroom, bathroom) that are off limits!  She likes to pull things out, one by one and throw thm on the floor.  She likes to pull things out of one of our bathroom drawers while we're getting ready in the morning.  It is "baby proofed" but she still pulls things out through the small little slit.  I'm generally standing in front of the drawer when I'm putting make-up on and she tries to push me out of the way so I always tell her to say "excuse me".  This morning she was pushing me over saying "me, me, me" and I couldn't figure it out for a mintue, but she was saying "excuse me".  It amazes me how fast she catches on!  She has a playroom FULL of toys but would much rather play in Mommy and Daddy's things!
• She still loves to dance and dances anytime she hears music, no matter where we are.  We have a little nightly family dance that we do to "I Gotta Feeling" from the Black Eyed Peas.  This is part of our family weight loss program!