Papaw is Here!

Papaw arrived Saturday night and is here to stay with us until early Thursday morning while Daddy is in Las Vegas for market.  We are very glad that he is here!  One thing is for sure, Leah has Papaw wrapped all around her little finger!  I'm sure he wouldn't want it any other way!

I had dinner going in the crockpot last night when he arrived (bacon ranch chicken, not a fan, don't think I'll be repeating that recipe, everyone else seemed to like it alright but it just didn't do much for me).  This morning he took Leah to McDonalds for breakfast.....a biscuit with sausage and jelly.  She LOVES these but only gets them when Nana and Papaw are involved in her morning routine!  After breakfast our doorbell rang.  It was Lyla asking Leah if she wanted to come out to play.  It cracks me up that all the kids in the neighborhood are already ringing doorbells asking each other to play.  It's so sweet, actually, I'm just surprised that we're already at that age.  It's a definite sign that my babies are growing up way too fast!  Leah, Lyla and Charlie bounced in the bounce house while Lane napped.  After lunch Papaw took Leah to the store just to buy a PEZ.  Spoiled?  Spoiled rotten indeed!  I'm actually surprised they even found one she didn't already have!  One day I must show you her PEZ collection.  It's really quite ridiculous!

Dinner tonight was Papa Murphys!  Yumm!  You can't go wrong with their chicken bacon artichoke delite!  After dinner was baths and bed, and then we'll get up and do it all over again tomorrow!

Luke left the house Saturday morning around 6 am.  When the rest of us awoke, there was a sweet surprise waiting for us on the table.  A sweet note for each of us from Daddy!

Commercials are a powerful thing!  Leah kept seeing a Pillsbury flaky layer biscuit commercial and decided she needed some!  I surprised her with them for breakfast on Saturday morning and she thought they were the best things ever!  She kept saying she wanted the "biscuits with flavor."  I thought she was wanting jelly or something but she really meant LAYERS.  She just wanted to pull the layers apart and eat them!  "No Mommy flavor, I'll show you," she told me as she pulled the top layer off.  "See!"

Laney Bug did some tummy time but lost interest once he got his hand in his mouth!  This boy is loving sucking on his hands, fingers and new found pacifier that we (Daddy) finally discovered!  Trial and error!

Here is one happy boy.....in his swing with his favorite pacifier, a blankie (he loves to snuggle with his blankie) and his new little favorite toy Sophie!

And he thinks his sister is pretty great too!

Finally Papaw arrives!  Last night he read Leah a Belle story aloud while she acted the entire thing out, page by page, silent as a mouse.  It was quite comical!

 Today those two played some more and even made a special video to send to Nana on her iPhone.  Of course Leah wanted to watch it over and over on Papaw's phone!

And totally unrelated to anything we did this weekend, but I just have to post Leah's drawing from Thursday night!  We were sitting on the couch and she was drawing in Luke's work binder.  I told her that all artists must sign their work so she wrote her name at the top!  They have been working very hard at preschool on writing their names and I would say she is doing a fine, fine job!  This was without even looking at the letters or anyone spelling it out to her, just all on her very own!  Way to go Sister!  We loved it so much that we told her she could hang it up anywhere she wanted!  It now adorns the main entryway hallway about three feet above the ground!  I couldn't have found a better spot myself!

Sushi

It was sushi night in the Hendricks house!  Leah loves her sushi (especially her rice, edamame and soy sauce) just like her Momma and her Daddy!  She actually does pretty good with her chopsticks too!  Once she gets her food into position, she can get it to her mouth!  We had hopes of playing Candyland tonight for family game night but some new show came on Nick Jr. (I can't even tell you the name of it) that Leah chose to watch instead!

Midweek Randoms

One of the blogs I enjoy reading daily posts "Midweek Randoms" each Wednesday, and because I have nothing in particular to blog about but want to post something so that I have these simple memories to look back on, I'm borrowing her idea!  :)

• Lane is LOVING the tv these days.  He sat up on the couch for quite awhile today doing just that!  Bad parenting?  I call it "mommy survival" as I'm trying to recover from a nasty head cold/cough that's really trying to do me in.

• This "mommy survival" also meant that we didn't make it to gymnastics this morning (our very first time to miss besides when we were at Disneyland which we already made up).  I was up all night coughing so I just didn't have it in me.  (This is a day I definitely would have called in sick to work.  That just isn't an option when your boss is a three-year-old and a three-month-old!)  Leah can make this class up on any given Wednesday evening (from now until this summer) so that makes me feel much better.  Her friend Shae is in the evening class so she will enjoy getting to see her!
• Leah has started becoming responsible for her plates after dinner.  She'll either put it in the trash or in the refrigerator (all without telling us where it's going first.....sometimes before we even realize what's going on).  The fridge is now full of her random leftovers as well as a few crumbs of random food (like globs of food on the shelves from her pushing her plates in).

• We have THE BEST State Farm Agent!  For Christmas, he sent us a very sweet laminated family picture (courtesy of the blog) along with a super sweet note and some homemade cookies!  We're his #1 customers!  :)  He's pretty awesome!  If you're in need of great Texas insurance agent, let me know!

• I've been needing lamps for the living room for years now.  I finally just grabbed one at Hobby Lobby one day and I really like how it turned out.  Now I'll grab another one for the other end table.  Did I tell ya'll that we FINALLY got a Hobby Lobby!  You don't know how exciting this is for me!  Everytime I'm in there I can barely breathe, I'm just so excited!  I used to have to stock up when I would go to Iowa or Texas.  This is HUGE ya'll!

• Each month Leah comes home with a new calendar from puppy preschool that is adorned with something sweet that she made to correspond with the month.  February's may be my favorite yet!  It's our family sign!  AND Leah was so proud to tell us how she wrote 'I LOVE U'!  "I didn't do the heart very good," she said!  We told her it was PERFECT, and it IS!
 

 
• I've gotten several things framed recently that I'm loving!  Of course, our latest family picture!  When my friend Jennifer was here in September she showed me these birth prints and I knew I had to have them for the kids!  I matted and framed them and love how they turned out!  Thanks for sharing the idea, Jennifer!

• Leah has started making her bed, totally on her own without us even asking her to!  (I mean, I don't even make our bed daily if even weekly.  Lazy, I know!)  If I'm in her room she'll tell me to close my eyes and then when she tells me to open them her covers are pulled up and her pillows at standing up.  Today she did it when she was playing in her room by herself and I just noticed it when I went in later to put things away!  My baby girl is just growing up and becoming so responsible oh so fast!

• Daddy gave quick baths tonight!

• I have been DROWNING in laundry the last few weeks!  I FINALLY got it 100% caught up and put away today.  I LOVE three empty laundry baskets!

• Within two minutes of me taking the picture, each basket had something in it!  Uggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!

• Lane played princess dream castle with Sister (Sissy I mean, she insists that she wants him to call her Sissy) tonight.  He had fun eating Aladdin's head!

• Did you hear about the Dublin Dr Peppers?  Well, I don't even drink Dr Pepper (I'm a Coke girl myself), but when I heard my friend Janice talking about the whole Dublin Dr Pepper saga, I had to have some.  Kelley and I tracked some down at a local store in Sacramento and bought all they had.....a complete six pack plus six loose ones.  These are going in the safe in hopes of putting the kids through college someday!  :)

• I played MORE princess dream castle with my favorite girl after baths!  This is by far one of her most favorite toys EVER!  Way to go Nana and Papaw for the castle and Christelle and Christina (along with Mitch and Ella) for the princess (and one prince) dolls)!  Big time score!

• And finally something super sweet that made me smile that I want to remember that Leah said tonight.  She and I were walking to her room holding hands tonight as it was time for her to go to bed.  Just moments before (as she and I were playing princess dream castle) I told her that I had ordered her a beautiful dress for her to wear on her very special date with Daddy that's coming up very soon (ooooooooh, I can't wait for this one).  She asked me if it was a sparkly purple one because that's what she has been saying she wants all along.  Purple is my least favorite color of all so no, I didn't get purple.  I told her it was red and black.  "Texas Tech colors!", she said very excited!  Well, as we were walking to bed she looked at me and with the saddest face said "But I really wanted a purple sparkly dress to wear to my wedding."  It really was the sweetest sounding thing!  (Just for the record.....it's not a wedding they're going to, it's something even better!  She just lives in a world of princesses, fairy tales and weddings!)

Date With Snow White

On Friday, Leah (I mean Snow White) and I went on a little Mommy/Daughter date to watch Beauty and the Beast.  We went to the non-3D one because I've heard that the movie just doesn't look right if you don't wear the glasses for the entire time and I just don't think that we're quite ready for that yet!  We almost had the entire theater to ourselves (there were only two other people) so it was a very relaxing afternoon at the movies!  She really, really, really wanted to wear her Snow White dress since it was a princess movie so I let her!  It was pouring down rain outside so I told her I would carry her dress in so it wouldn't get wet.  Well, as soon as we had our tickets and our popcorn she grabbed the dress and put it on right there in the lobby as I was gathering our napkins and straws!  It was quite a sight!

After the movie we were off to lunch at Jack's.....Leah's choice of course!  This girl could live off of their macaroni-and-cheese!

While the girls were away, Daddy and Lane had lots of fun at home!

And finally just some random pictures from our weekend.  Luke worked Saturday morning and then we spent the rest of the day/weekend taking down our Christmas tree (we just had Christmas with my family last weekend so that's why it was still up) and tried to get caught up on laundry and cleaning!





Family Game Night

Last night Leah (I mean Snow White) got into the cabinet where the games are stored and decided she wanted to play Uno Attack!  After baths seemed to be the perfect time!  This really is the PERFECT game for us to play as a family with her right now.  It's all about matching colors, numbers and symbols so she can play just perfectly with little help from Mommy and Daddy!  Of course, she loves getting to "push the button" so Luke and I make sure she gets plenty of chances to do so!  Laney Bug even played with us!  He helped Daddy!

Daddy and Leah were silly!  Everytime someone had to push the button they would point at each other and say "Uno Attaaaaaaaack"!

Picture overload!  I couldn't decide which one I liked best!

After our game (which Leah won *wink*) it was time to curl up on the couch and read a bedtime book!  Leah's choice.....The Polar Express!  We're still in the Christmas spirit here in the Hendricks house!

During the middle of the story, Leah hopped up to come and sit beside Bubby.  I glanced over and she was holding his hand.  She LOVES this little guy, seriously LOVES him.

And just because she looked so stinkin' cute for school this morning!