Hendriks Family

All about Landon

2012-02-09T16:19:00.001-05:00

My Little man is now six months old! I think about how crazy I was to worry about having a boy. All i knew were girls. Well this little boy has got me wrapped around his finger. He is such a sweet little guy and i don't know what i would do without him.

My handsome men!

Can you say "mini Bryan".

January was a bad month for my little guy :(. I laid Landon down on the floor for a minute while i went into the other room to get something. I had just told the girls not to touch him, like i do 50 times a day. I left his sight for 10 seconds when i heard him scream and start crying. Right away i knew exactly what happened. Ashley just couldn't resist trying to play with him. He had just learned how to roll around and Ashley thought she would help him out. She didn't realize his arm was pinned back and just kept pushing him until his arm broke. I think i cried as much as he did that day. There is nothing worse than seeing your baby in pain. For about a month we had the challenge of trying to immobilize his arm. At first we tried the ace bandage but then resorted to safety pinning his arm to his chest. It drove him crazy not being able to move his arm or roll around anymore but at least he never seemed to be in any pain. We just got another x-ray taken last Friday and it is healing great. You can still see the break but at least he is able to use his arm now.

We just recently started giving Landon baby food. He seemed to like it ok at first but now he won't eat any of it. I think more ends up on his bib and face than in his mouth :) It's a little frustrating but how do you not love this face.

Landons 6 months stats:
weight 16.8 lbs (48th percentile)
length 27.5 inch (90th percentile)

Trick Or Treat

2011-11-10T08:32:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween!

Not a very happy little monkey

Unfortunately i didn't get any pictures of the girls trick or treating. Dad took them out this year while Landon and i hung out at home. They got enough candy to last them all year.....or a couple of weeks if mommy and daddy help them eat it :)

I'm a big girl now!

2011-11-03T10:25:00.000-04:00

My little Ashley was finally potty trained right before her 3rd birthday!!! (Oct 12th). For those people without kids, you are probably saying "big deal, why would you post this"? But for all of you Moms that have worked so hard to achieve this goal....HALLELUJAH!!!!!! No more expensive diapers! No more changing poopy bums!

Utah in September

2011-10-26T17:36:00.001-04:00

Last month Bryan had a 3 week break from school, so where did we decide to go on vacation...Utah of course.

Flying with 3 kids was a little trickier than with 2 but thank goodness i had Bryan with me this time. I wondered how my little 5 week old would do but Landon was an angel the whole time.

The girls where little angels when they were sleeping. :)

We went to the Salt Lake County Fair with Grandma and Grandpa Hendriks. The girls had a blast! This was the first time they were really big enough to ride the rides.

We went to Bear Lake for a week and stayed in Uncle Johnny's cabin. We had a full house with Brys family and extended family. The weather was a little chili at times and i can't imagine how cold the water was, but that didn't stop my girls. They were like little fish just like there Daddy :)

Kaitlyn got to help Grandpa drive the boat

My little beach bum

Landon and his cousin Jaycee. Just hanging out.

My little fish swimming at the pool.

We celebrated Kaitlin and Ashley's Birthday at Bear Lake. It was a little early but Grandma and Grampa wanted to take advantage of the chance to spoil there grandkids.

We went on a beautiful hike about an hour away from Bear Lake.

Bryan decided to try out the rope swing and plunge into the icy cold water.

They did not catch this fish but they sure looked cute holding it.

I would have to say the best part of the whole trip was getting a break from the kids and going to the Rascal Flatts concert with my sisters. It rained pretty hard on our way to the concert but stopped right when we got there. We were pretty lucky since it was outside at the USANA Amphitheatre.

We were finally able to get everyone together for family pictures (minus Larissa, she was sick)

Every time i go back to Utah i feel stronger that that's where i want to end up after dental school. Not that we love Utah so much but we really love being close to our family. They are the people that love you know matter what, that you can be completely nerdy around, and that you are stuck with for eternity :)
My brother Jason has battled brain tumors for many years now, and it looks like they are finally getting the best of him. His left side is now paralyzed and his latest tumor is not responding well to chemo or radiation. He is such a fighter and has the best attitude. This experience has brought us all closer to Jason but has also brought us closer as a family.
We love you so much Jason and are so glad we were able to spend some time with you. You are always in our thoughts and prayers.

Palmyra Trip

2011-10-09T13:03:00.013-04:00

After having Landon, I was in much need of a vacation. Since no one in my family had ever been to Palmyra NY, we decided to plan a trip in August to see the church sights. My Mom, Dad, and sisters Rachel and Tara were able to come! We got off to a bad start when my Mom wasn't able to fly out to Columbus with my Dad because of the flue. Luckily it was only a 24 hr. bug and she was able to come out the next day. The next day we planned to leave in the morning and make our 7 hr. drive out to Palmyra, stopping in Kirtland on the way. That didn't quite go as planned either. My Dad started feeling pretty sick that morning but insisted that we still go. We got a late start and had to make several stops for my poor Dad and for Rachel and i to nurse our babies so it ended up being very late when we got there. We were so lucky to be able to stay with Bryans 2nd cousin who lives there in Palmyra. Her home is a mansion that was built in 1824. She had plenty of room for us and was very hospitable.Grandpa and KaitlynOur first stop in Palmyra was The Hill Cumorah.

The Smith Farm and Sacred Grove.Love that face :)

While at the Hill Cumorah, my Dad started feeling so horrible that my Mom had to take him to the hospital. The Drs. found abscess's on his liver and a very bad infection. After 2 weeks of tests and medication they finally decided he was stable enough to go home. We felt so horrible having to leave them in New York. Even worse, he was never even able to see what he came all the way out here to see.

Love you Dad! We hope you continue to get better.

Landon is finally here!

2011-08-16T08:36:00.006-04:00

I thought i would post a few of my last month awkward belly pictures. Boy am i glad i'm not pregnant anymore :)
My due date was July 23rd so my mother in law flew out on the 22nd to help out for a week. Unfortunately the little guy was just to cozy to want to come out. I have always been really against getting induced, unless i get to be like 2 weeks over. After much prayer and contemplation i decide to go ahead and get induced 1 week after my due date. It took a lot of my worry and stress away knowing that Cindy would be here to watch my girls while i was in the hospital.

Here i am at the hospital getting checked in at 6 a.m. They ended up sending me home because they had a busy night and there were no rooms available. They had me call every couple of hrs. to see if one had come available. Finally i was able to go in around 5 pm. What a long night. I was sick with a horrible cold and it took me 12 hrs. to have him.

Landon Hubert Hendriks

born July 30th at 7:05 a.m

9 lbs 2 oz, 21 inches long

There is not a more amazing feeling in the world then when they hand you your precious little baby and you finally get to meet this little spirit that has been growing inside you (and kicking the crap out of you) for 9 months.

The girls just love their new baby brother! They also loved having Grandma to play with all week. Unfortunately She had to go home the day after i had Landon. It sure was nice having a week brake from the kids though. Thanks Cindy for all your help and doing so many fun things with the girls.

Our Summer So Far

2011-07-08T12:32:00.007-04:00

Last week we decided to take a few after church pictures of the fam. They turned out a little fuzzy (wrong setting on camera), but i wanted to show off the cute little dress i made for Kaitlyn! My sewing skills are not the greatest but i get excited when i actually make something and it turns out well. I love her little model pose. ha ha

Only a few weeks to go! I will need to post some better belly pics. I feel like i'm going to explode. ha ha. Just when i don't think i can get any bigger.........
When i went to check on Ash during her nap time i found her on the floor in her snow clothes. :). The other day when i peeked in i could'nt see her at all. After frantically looking, i found her sleeping behind the door. Maybe we need to get her a more comfy mattress so she will actually sleep on it. :)

Daddy daughter date at the zoo

Thanks to our good friends, we were able to snag tickets to the Columbus Crew/Salt Lake REAL soccer game. Unfortunatly it was last minute and we couldn't find a babysitter, so Bryan decided to take Kaitlyn!

Daddy's little helper.

Bry took some cute pictures of the girls when i was on my little Utah vacation in May. They enjoyed spending so much time with Daddy and he enjoyed spoiling them.

4th Of July

2011-07-08T12:17:00.003-04:00

This year for the 4th of July we decided to check out the Hilliard parade. It wasn't the most exciting parade i have ever seen (understatement), but the kids had a lot of fun gathering candy they were throwing out :)

Little soccer players!

2011-06-10T10:52:00.011-04:00

This year we decided to put Kaitlyn in soccer again. Although Ashley is only 2, we were able to pull a few strings and let her play with Kaitlyn on the 3 and 4 yr old team! She loved being able to play and even surprised us a little with some fancy footwork. ha ha. It is quite entertaining and a little frustrating to watch them play but i think they had a fun time running around the field with there friends.

They were able to play with their friends from the ward again. What a cute little team!
I guess my girls don't know how to do a thumbs up. ha ha

Spring

2011-05-23T12:46:00.015-04:00

Unfortunately i haven't been very good at taking many pictures, as usual. But i did get a few random cute ones of the girls this last month.

One of their favorite things to do is play in the hot tub. Their own little pool.

On Easter we invited some friends over for a BBQ and Easter egg hunt. With all of the rain we had been having, we were lucky that the weather ended up being so beautuful! The kids had a blast looking for eggs and eating all of their candy!

Kaitlyn and Ashley were invited to a Tinckerbell themed birthday where they got to take home fun little costumes.

On May 14th my sister Tara and her husband Matt were sealed together in the Salt Lake Temple! I love you guys and i'm so glad i was able to be there! It was also neat to have my whole family together in the temple.

I didn't want to miss their important day, so I left my husband and kids at home and took a 5 day vacation to Utah!

Thank you to my wonderful husband and great friends for being so willing to take care of my girls for me. What a nice break for me :) The baby will be here in 2 months so it will probably be the last one i get for a long time.

I was so excited to meet my new little niece and nephew for the first time. Lisa had her little girl Breanna on April 21st. She is such a little cutie! All of Lisa's babies are born with loads of hair while mine are all little baldies.

Rachel had Adam on May 2nd! I couldn't get enough of this little guy. He made me excited to have my little boy. It's hard being a first time momma, but your doing a great job Rach :)

Congrats Rach and Lis! I loved being able to shower your babies with loves :) I am so glad i was able to spend so much time with my family. I miss you!

We are having a baby.....

2011-03-26T21:02:00.001-04:00

After 23 weeks of being pregnant i am finally blogging about our baby :) This pregnancy has definitely been better than the other 2 so far. I have felt nauseous, sick, super tired and have thrown up almost every day for months, but i feel so lucky that i haven't been quite as sick with this one. Thank goodness i am to the point now where all of that has mostly passed. Now for the big uncomfortably belly and back pain. (Can you tell i don't like to be pregnant much :) As much as i complain and as uncomfortable as i am, i feel so blessed to be able to have another child and for the opportunity to be a mother.

From the very beginning of my pregnancy i knew we were having a boy. Besides the difference in sickness and how i felt, i just knew. A few weeks ago the doctor confirmed it, WE ARE HAVING A BOY! Bryan is soooooo ecstatic! I'm happy of course, but also a little scared. All i know are girls and all i have is pink. ha ha. The plus is i get to go do a lot of shopping. The downside is that i don't know how to shop for boys clothes. Lol.

Here i am at 5 months with my little basketball belly.

This last couple of months Bryan and i have actually been able to go out on a few dates.

One of them was the Mandiball. It's a dinner/dance event that the dental school puts on every year. Bryan's Mom was wonderful enough to fly out for 1 day to spend some time with us and watch the girls while we went.

A couple weeks ago Bryan and i were able to go out to dinner with our friends, the Palmers, then to the Ohio theatre to see "Les Mis". It was an amazing show in an amazing building.

The weather has been a little crazy lately. One day it's warm and sunny and the next day it's cold and dark. Ether way, we are starting to get Spring fever and my girls are so excited they are able to go outside and play again. One of there favorite things to do is go on walks with Daddy and their babies. :)

Happy Birthday to me!

2011-02-03T14:43:00.000-05:00

I am now officially in my 30s. I'm not sure how i feel about it yet, but like it or not i can't stop getting older :) So i have decided to embrace it. I'm not sure if i can embrace that gray hair i found the other day though. ha ha. I have also been trying to embrace this tiny little life growing inside me that makes me so very sick. He or she decided not to give me a break on my Birthday. Luckily it was only a morning thing. The weather was not looking to be in my favor either until Bryans patients called and cancelled their appointments because of it. It gave him a great excuse to skip school and spend the day with me. My wonderful husband took me to lunch and wrote me sweet little notes that he posted around the house. He really goes out of his way to make me happy and to make my Birthdays special. He also gets me the best gifts! Recently my laptop died on me and i was going crazy without it, so Bry surprised me with a 27 inch Mac desktop computer. I love it! My second present was Bryan finally shaving his beard! I think my hubby is a hotty with a beard or clean shaved, but boy do i prefer the cleaned shaved :)

We had to take a picture of Bryan before he shaved his beard. Hopefully he got this facial hair thing out of his system. :)

For my Birthday some friends and i went to Olive Garden for dinner! I am lucky to have such great friends! They really made my Birthday a lot of fun!

This is what most of our yard has looked like lately. Everything is covered in ice. I had never experienced ice storms or frozen rain until i moved to Ohio. Our drive way and street was like an ice skating rink.

Before our fun little ice storm hit, we had a couple days where it got warm enough for Bryan and the kids to go outside and build a snowman.

I love this picture! She could barely move in all her snow clothes. lol

Christmas 2010

2011-01-11T16:46:00.000-05:00

We decided to spend our Christmas in Utah again this year! Bryans parents bought him a ticket to ensure that he would be able to leave and come back when he needed to for school. That meant that i was left flying stand bye with the girls on my own again. I've done it so many times now, i feel like I'm beginning to be a pro. Luckily we made our flights ok, the girls were "pretty good" and Bryan was able to fly out 2 days after us.
When so many of our family on both sides live within an hour of each other, it makes for a lot of driving around, visiting relatives and a little bit of tug-a-war. Thankfully this year Bryan and i were able to compromise and come to an agreement of where were were staying and how we were going to spend our Christmas. We spent Christmas morning with Bryans parents and his Brothers family. Unfortunately i am horrible at taking pictures and didn't do very well with my picture taking that morning. Bryan got me something that might help me out with my bad picture taking.....a Cannon Rebel Camera! I am so intimidated just looking at it that it took me a couple weeks to finally sit down and figure out how to use it. Now that i think I've figured out the basics, I'm pretty excited to start using it!
Bryans parents got all of the grand kids these little sleds that look like little snowmobiles. Bryan, his Dad and brother took the kids out sledding to try them out. They had a blast!

Christmas evening was spent at my sister Lisa's house with my family. We had a Delicious dinner and played a fun little gift exchange game. Bry and i walked away with a gift card and the most comfy, fuzzy snuggy I've ever seen :)
Love my sisters! I wish i would've gotten a picture of all the girls :( Sorry Mom, Aunt Carma, and the little ones)

I love you too boys!

Every time we are in Utah we get to hang out with our wonderful friends, the Offrets. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures with them but we got one of Ashley and their 2 adorable kids Everett and Scarlet.

We were able to go bowling 3 times while in Utah! Kaitlyn is a pro now!

While we were at the nail salon waiting for Grandma Cindy to get her nails, the nice lady said she would paint the girls nails while we waited. They even got to pick the color they wanted. Soo cute!

It was actually really hard to come back to Ohio. I don't miss living out out of a suitcase and having to rely on others for things like transportation, but i miss having lunch dates several times a week, playing with my family and friends and having babysitters. Our last week there i got the WORST cold of my life. It really put a damper on...well, everything. The stupid cold followed me home and is still in full force. Hence my laziness in taking my sweet time to blog about our trip. But here it is.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Halloween!

2010-11-10T17:28:00.000-05:00

This year for Halloween Kaitlyn was Tinker Bell and Ashley was an OSU cheerleader.
They had more than enough fun activities where they got to dress up. They also received more than enough candy. Since i don't really like my kids to have sugar, i guess i will just have to help them eat it :)
We went trick or treating again this year with some of our good friends. The kids had a great time despite the cold weather.Our friends, the Bowcutts, had their annual "Boo Fest" Halloween party. We don't enjoy dressing up as much as some people but hey it's only once a year. It's fun to see every ones costumes and fun ideas.

October Utah trip

2010-10-29T16:08:00.000-04:00

Since Bryan was so busy this month with school and tests, i decided to take the girls and go on a nice long 3 week vacation to Utah. We had so much fun hanging out with all of our friends and family! The girls sure missed their Daddy though and Bry could barely stand having us gone for so long. I'm sure he was able to get so much more accomplished without our distractions.

The girls helped Grandma and Grandpa rake the leaves. Actually more like scatter the leaves they just raked :)Grandpa Hendriks let the girls ride his horse "Red"! Kaitlyn had no fear. She looked like a natural . Ashley did ok but would get a little nervous at times. While we were in Utah the girls had their Birthday (Oct 12th) . I can't believe Ashley is now 2 and Kaitlyn turned 4! We had a little Birthday party for them. It was fun being able to celebrate with family! I made 1 cake mix in the 2 round pans so they could each have their own. Then we sang happy Birthday separately. I hope the don't end up hating sharing a Birthday as they get older. For now it's just fun for them to have a big party together.

My good friend Holly and I went to Gardener Village to check out all their fun stores and Halloween decorations. It's fun having a friend that you can go months without seeing and just be able to pick right up where you left off . Thanks for all the fun Holly! It was fun hanging out with you too Steph. Next time I need to snap some pictures of us. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

We will see you all again at Christmas. This time i will bring my hubby with me. No one deserves a vacation more than him. :)

Gettysburg

2010-09-28T12:46:00.001-04:00

It's been quite a while since we have been able to go on vacation so when Bryan's parents came out we decide to go on a little trip. We rented a van and drove 6 hours to Gettysburg. After a short movie and walk through the museum at the visitors center, we decided to get a tour guide to drive us around. We are soooo glad we did. This man knew so much about the war and Gettysburg, it was like he was there himself. There's no way we would've known who was who and what happened where without this man. Bryan and his Dad watched the movie "Gettysburg" before we left so they knew a little, but i was completely lost. And after 3 hours of our guide feeding us non stop information, i am still lost :) ha ha...maybe this war stuff isn't really my thing. I think the guys really enjoyed it though.I don't think this war stuff was for Ashley either. :) They call this "The Valley Of Death". (self explanatory)

I love this picture of Kaitlyn watching a bug.

Hello Mr. Lincoln!

Zoo, tomatoes and friends

2010-09-24T13:22:00.000-04:00

There is nothing more fun than getting together with friends on such a beautiful day and spending it at the zoo. . The kids had so much fun playing with each other and seeing the animals. It was nice for us Moms to play with our friends too :)

I love my girls in glasses! Soo cute

These are the 3D glasses we got from "Toy Story 3". That was their first movie in a theatre and they actually did pretty good. (As long as they had popcorn to shove in their faces :) ) They even kept the glasses on most of the time.

I love the hair! Ha ha. Kaitlyn is jumping on her little enclosed trampoline

My little cutie!

Ever since we moved into our house i have been wanting to start a garden but kept putting it off because i didn't even know where to start. I had never grown anything. My wonderful neighbor stopped by with 3 tomato plants so i decided to plant them and see what happend.

I actually grew something and they turned out great! i don't really like tomatoes but Bryan and Kaitlyn have been loving them. Maybe next year i will get daring and try squash or some other veggies too.

Last month Bry and the girls went with our good friends, the Murdocks, to the Ohio State fair. Unfortunately I was not able to go because of a sprained knee. But it was nice to get some alone time and it looked like they all had a blast.

In August i hosted a "Diaper Shower" for my good friend Britni who was expecting her second boy. What a fun group of girls! I am so lucky to have found such wonderful friends here in Ohio

Kirtland Trip!

2010-08-07T14:57:00.000-04:00

A little over a month ago, two of my sisters came to visit me for a few days! Unfortunately their 5 day visit turned into a 4 day visit because of a cancelled flight. :( We spent 4 days traveling all over Ohio. Our first stop was the Prime Outlet stores in Jeffersonville. Lets just say we over saved (especially Rachel :) ) The second day we traveled to Kirtland Ohio to see the Temple and some of the church sights there. Day 3 was spent relaxing and included seeing the 3rd Twilight movie "Eclipse" with some friends. The last day, my wonderful husband took the kids for a whole entire day while us girls traveled to Cedar point amusement park in Cleveland! Like usual, i wish we would've taken more pictures of our week but we did take plenty of Kirtland..
These are some of the rooms in the Whitney Red Store

These are some of the rooms in the N.K. Whitney store.

This store was very significant in church history. It was the place where the school of the prophets was held and where Joseph lived with his family for a while. The table shown actually belonged to Joseph Smith and that room is where he translated some of the Book Of Mormon and received many revelations for the church.
The many cute faces of ashley!

At the beginning of our tour, we received little comment cards to fill out and return to the missionaries afterward. Kaitlyn was so cute with her card! Every place we went she would stop and write on her card (little circles and scribbles) Sooo cute!

The Kirtland Temple! Unfortunately the "Community of Christ Church" would not let us take pictures inside but it was an amazing experience to be able to see inside and hear about it's history and the things that took place there.

Oh Tara, this was just too cute to not post! lol

I had so a fun week with my sisters! It was just too short :( Love you girls! xoxoxo Thanks for coming!

Our Summer So Far

2010-07-27T17:18:00.000-04:00

I have been really bad about blogging lately. Two of my sisters came out about a month ago and spent a week hanging out and traveling around Ohio with me. I have been really wanting to blog about it but haven't found a way to convert all of our pictures to jpeg. Hopefully you will see them soon. Other than that we really haven't done anything too exciting and my camera has been tucked away in a drawer for most of the last 2 months. Bryan has been extremely busy with Dental school, the MBA program and studying for boards. We finally have boards out of the way so we'll see how things will be with Bryans schedule now. I am so proud of how hard he has been working. We just have to keep telling ourselves it will all be worth it.

Here are a few pictures of our Summer so far.

The girls love helping Daddy mow the lawn

The water fountains at the park

This face makes me laugh

Kaitlyn got a trophy at the end of soccer season. She was so proud!

Last Saturday Bryans mom came out for a short little visit. We decided to spend our morning at the Columbus Zoo.

I love the look on Kaitlyns face :)

The girls are showing off their little monkeys Grandma got them at the Zoo.

soccer Girl!

2010-05-29T19:53:00.001-04:00

Our little girl was doomed from the beginning! Before Kaitlyn was even born, Bryan said she would be a soccer player :). After watching her play (or stand and look around) for 5 minutes we decided soccer might not be the THING she was meant to do. Lol!!! Ok, we will cut her a break. She is only 3 and all of the other kids were about as skilled as Kaitlyn. It's a little frustrating to watch but also the cutest thing ever!! With a little practice and time she just might be that soccer player Bryan has always hoped for. Amongst all the chaos, she did kick the ball a few times!!! Those were proud moments ha ha :)
I love the way her pictures turned out! Isn't her team cute? Kaitlyn was the only girl on her team, but she had no problem handling all these boys :) Here she is in action!

Tara and Matt's Wedding!

2010-05-19T17:04:00.002-04:00

My little sister Tara finally decided to tie the knot! I wouldn't miss it for the world!!! Although Bryan wasn't able to go because of school, i decided to take the girls and attempt fly "standby" to Utah by myself. The good thing about Bry not going was that i could stay there for 2 weeks instead of having to hurry back. The bad thing was having to deal with the girls at the airport and plane by myself and of course the fact that we will be away from him for so long. Surprisingly i made all my flights and the girls did pretty well. I still had my hair and sanity when i got back :)
We had such a great time!!! It was so much fun being able to play with our family and friends every day.

Here is a picture of the happy couple

The night before the wedding, Matt and Tara had a BBQ dinner for all of their family and close friends. It was a lot of fun, but oh soooo cold!
My mom grandma and Aunt all have the exact same look on there faces..ha ha You can't tell they are related :)

My mom, sisters and i decided to get pedis and manis before the wedding. Our toes were so beautiful :) but we forgot to take a picture of them :(

Tara and Matt were married on Saturday the 8th of May!

I wish i would've taken more pictures but i have plenty of the bridesmaids :)

Tara and Matt having their first dance. Aren't they cute!

I love this picture! Kaitlyn and Kylee had so much fun playing together. Every time they weren't together they kept telling us they wanted to play with each other. Even now that we are home Kaitlyn keeps telling me she wants to go back to Utah to play with Kylee. I felt so bad taking her away from her BFF.

Here is the whole Wilding clan, minus Bryan :(

My Dad and Tara having their father daughter dance. My Dad was fortunate enough to be able to marry them. It was a great ceremony! You did a great job Dad.

At the beginning of the Ceremony i had to walk down the stairs to meet one of the groomsmen then walk to the front. Well, my little Ashley wouldn't go to anybody so i had to carry her down with me then wrestle with her once i was in the front. She kept running over to my Dad who was in the middle of marrying Tara and saying, "Grandpa". Not fun. Kaitlyn on the other hand was so dang cute and funny! Kaitlyn was a flower girl with her cousins Cloe and Kylee and she followed them down the stairs throwing little petals out of her basket. Well Kaitlyn decided to place a petal meticulously on each stair....ha ha it made everyone lough.

I just love nerdy pictures! sorry girls i just had to put this one on here.

Little climber

2010-04-27T15:54:00.001-04:00

My little Ashley is quite the little climber. Every time i put her down to sleep i would hear her a few minutes later crying and knocking on the door. I couldn't believe she was climbing out of her crib. I decided to turn her crib around so the tall part that was normally by the wall was now in the front. There was no way she was getting out now. Well, that didn't stop her either. I couldn't figure out how that little girl was getting out so i decided to set the video camera on the dresser to see her in action. It was the most amazing funniest thing I've ever seen. She would somehow swing her body and leg over the bars then hold on with her arms while dangeling then she would drop. I was worried about her getting hurt until i saw her precision and skill in this escape. We decided it was time to convert the crib into a toddler bed. she loves it and actually stays in bed when i put her there :) this works way better than a crib!
I love it when they sleep with their little bums in the air!It's hard for anyone to eat a PB&J and not make a mess but Ashley likes to go a little overboard. Yumm!

This picture was too cute not to post! She actually went in her little potty for the first time a couple days ago!

My Kaitlyn is turning into a little girl. She is such a little sweetheart.

These two have so much fun together. I am so glad they have each other. I hope they will always be best buds.

I will be heading to Utah tomorrow for my little sisters wedding! I'm so excited to spend a couple weeks with my family. I'm not so excited about getting there. I will be flying standby with both my girls by myself. Wish me luck!
.

Easter Fun

2010-04-13T13:03:00.000-04:00

We started off our Easter festivities with an Easter egg hunt and BBQ with some good friends and their family. They had invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them in November and now Easter (Saturday). They have kind of become our family away from home. :). The girls had so much fun looking for eggs but unfortunately i forgot my camera :(

Ashley and Kaitlyn got spoiled this Easter, and it wasn't by Mom and Dad. They are lucky to have two wonderful Grandmas that sent them all kinds of fun and yummy stuff for Easter. Hat's, bunny ears, dresses, candy and more. Thanks Grandmas! we love you!

Easter morning! The Easter Bunny hid eggs all over the house and brought Easter baskets full of all kinds of fun things. Basically all they cared about was the CANDY!

Coloring Easter eggs!

Sunday after Easter they finally got to wear there pretty Easter dresses

Cincinnati

2010-03-06T14:32:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Bryan surprised me with a weekend getaway to Cincinnati! I have to say, this is the first time in our marriage he has been able to pull something like this off without me finding out or without just telling me out of excitement. He's never been good at keeping secrets from me. :) On Thursday night he told me his Mom was flying in and she would be here in a few hours. Wooo Hooo..... A weekend without the kids! How sweet of her to come all the way out here to give us some much needed vacation time.

We stayed at the Westin Hotel right in the middle of downtown so we were really close to a lot of fun places!
We went to the Palomino Restaurant for dinner.

We visited the Krohns Conservatory. It was fun to visit the different gardens like The Rain forest, Desert and tropical rooms. For a minute i almost forgot it was winter!

On our way home Saturday we stopped by the Outlet stores and went crazy shopping. We just couldn't pass up all the good deals! We got the Kaitlyn a cute little hat for $1 (can't beat that) and sunglasses for the girls. Kaitlyn loves her glasses so much she doesn't care if we are inside or outside, she always wants to wear them.

I love this picture of Ashley! She likes them too :)

Kaitlyn got her first haircut while Grandma was here! It was just a little trim.

We didn't want Ashley to feel left out. She wanted one too so Grandma gave her a pretend haircut :)

Thanks so much Cindy for coming all the way from Utah to watch our girls.

They loved spending time with Grandma and Bryan and I loved being able to spend time with each other.

COSI

2010-02-10T08:33:00.000-05:00

January was a pretty uneventful month. February has been a little better so far, although the snow has put a damper on things a little. Mostly because Ohio rarely plowes their roads so you don't really feel like ice-skating through the streets in your car :). I had my 29th Birthday on the 2nd (man I'm getting old) :) I have such a wonderful husband and friends that made my Birthday so much fun!
I have to say i haven't taken any pictures since we returned from our trip to Utah so i thought i would post some from our outing at COSI (science center) in December.

Kaitlyns favorite part...playing in the water

Bry took Kaitlyn down into a little submarine. I don't think she liked it very much :)

Christmas in Utah!

2010-01-12T14:24:00.001-05:00

This year Bryan and i were lucky enough to be able to fly back to Utah for Christmas and take a 3 week vacation! Wow, 3 weeks seemed like a long time but we still didn't get to see and do everything we wanted. We had so much fun! It was so hard to come back.

Here is Kaitlyn reading the airplane security pamphlet. :). The kids were good on the plane as always but man are we exhausted when we finally reach our destination. How do you keep the 2 busiest kids on earth entertained for a full day of traveling.

This little girl can fall asleep anywhere. :) We really wore her out this trip!

Kaitlyn and Ashley were such good helpers to Grandma Hendriks. They helped decorate the Christmas tree (and un-decorate it) and helped grandma make dough in the kitchen. Don't you love Kaitlyn's fake, little, cheesy smile she always does for pictures:)

Christmas Eve and morning was spent at my parents house. The girls had a blast opening all of there presents and helping everyone else open theirs too.

After visiting Bryans family for their little get together of opening presents and lunch, we went to my brothers house for Christmas dinner. (Tara, Rachel, Lisa, Larissa and Carter lounging around)

We finally were able to get all of the Grandkids together for a picture. We found it is impossible to get them all to sit still and face forward let alone smile. Doesn't Kaitlyn look enthused!

Kaitlyns very first time bowling! She had a lot of fun until about half way through when she lost interest.

Date night with the family was a blast! We went to dinner then bowled for a couple hours! I have to say i finally beat Bryan in a game!!!

Oohhhh look at the happy couple! My little sister Tara got engaged a few days after Christmas. She is the last to fly the coop. We are so excited for her and Matt!

New years eve with my sisters! We spent the evening playing games and drinking martinelli's!

I wish i would've taken more pictures, but this always seems to happen. I'm sure this summer when i go back for Tara's wedding i will be plenty camera happy. I can't wait, i already miss everyone. Rachel and i became addicted to Super Mario Bros. for Wii. I miss playing with you Rach. I think I'm going through withdrawals..he he. Thanks everyone for such a wonderful Christmas!

2009-12-07T12:20:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

2009-12-07T11:45:00.001-05:00

I have been such a slacker this month. Although November has been pretty uneventful, I didn't even take pictures of the few things that were considered "blog worthy".

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, thanks to our good friends, Chad and Kate. Kates parents live here in Ohio and they were so gracious to invite us over and let us be part of their family. yummmm, what a wonderful meal. I attempted to make candied yams for my first time and they turned out deliciously!

Our little Ashley has a new favorite hobby, and that is climbing on anything she possibly can. Her favorite is our kitchen table and chairs. She has taken a couple little falls that you would think would maybe dissuade her from climbing back up again, but nothing stops her. We have now resorted to tying the chairs to the table with bungee cords so she can't climb up. A few weeks ago we had a chair that was not tied to the table, so of course in the 10 seconds we weren't watching her, she climbed up and took a little fall. She got a little cut on her eyebrow that we thought could possibly leave a scar. Of course these things always happen at night and on the weekends when your doctor is not available, so i took her to The Children's Hospital where i got to spend a few hours of my night. She was such a brave girl!I think it was harder on me watching her get her 4 stitches then it was on her.

Hopefully my next post will be full of pictures of our trip to Utah! We leave on the 15th and will be there for 3 weeks! We are excited to have Christmas with our family this year (last year was a little lonely hear all by ourselves) and we can't wait to see everyone!

October!

2009-11-01T15:51:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, i was given the experience of becoming Bryans very first patient! I don't know how i ever got so lucky. Jk hun :) This checkup was a 4 hour event. (not Bryans fault of course) He had to do a lot of poking and prodding and checking around for who knows what. Does this picture look posed or what. He didn't really work on me sitting up :) I considerd this good quality time spent together..he he I'm so proud of you honey! I was honored to be your first patient.

When we bought our house,we were lucky enough to inherit a hot tub with it! We finally decided to check it out and see if it worked. After changing and fixing a couple parts, we had it running! Kaitlyns favorite thing to do now is swim in her pool with Daddy!

One thing i never did in Utah was go to a pumpkin patch, but they seem to be a really big thing here. We happened to go on the COLDEST! day of the year (so far). We went on a hay ride to a field where we got to pick out a pumpkin and go through a little corn maze. The kids also got to pet a little bunny. Normally there are more activities and animals for the kids but we were so cold we just wanted to grab our pumpkins and go. We'll try again next year and maybe have a better experience.

The other day we went to "Boo at the Zoo" at the Columbus Zoo. The Zoo was filled with fun decorations and places set up for the kids to trick or treat.

Halloween has been a week long event for us. The kids have had to dress up 5 times for various events and activities. Thanks to Kaitlyn and Ashleys Grandma, they both had super cute Halloween costumes (thanks Cindy).

Kaitlyn and her friend Mason "trick or treating"
These two love birds held hands most of the evening.
We got together with a big group of friends and took our kids Trick Or Treating together. The kids had a lot of fun and ended up getting way too much candy. I guess i will just have to help them eat it all...mmmm

On Halloween night we went to a Party at our friends, the Bowcutts. Thanks for all the fun and food.
Bryan dressed as Ron Burgundy from "The Anchorman" (minus the mustache, it kept falling off) and our friend Nate was "Napoleon Dynamite"
Me, with my good friends britni and Allyson

This last month

2009-10-13T17:21:00.000-04:00

My girls turned 1 and 3 yesterday!! They are both so much fun and i don't know what i would do without them. I feel so blessed to be able to stay at home with them and enjoy every new thing they do and learn. Lately Kaitlyn has been talking in full sentences and saying the cutest things. We are still trying to get her potty trained. She tells me potty like 30 times a day. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't. It's making me crazy!!!!!!!! Ashley has been walking for about a month now! It's so cute to see someone so little walking around. Well, as we all know she's not so little :) but at least she is on the growth chart now and her weight has actually gone down since her last appointment. Her 12 month Dr. appointment was today and the stats showed she is 24 lbs (85%), height is 95% and head is 92%. She received 6 shots today, poor thing :( Not to mention her molars are coming in and have been very painful for her. Not such a great day for her.

Bryan and I went to our first OSU Football game! They played Illinois and beat them 30 to 0! Go Bucks! It rained almost the whole entire game. But while everyone else was wet and freezing, we were warm and dry in our full body rain gear (coat and pants). he he...I wish we had taken a picture. YES i know i am wearing a blue shirt. (An absolute no no because it is our rivals color) but i just hadn't put my red jacket on yet. (luckily i didn't get yelled at or beat up) :) Football for Ohioan's is like a Religion. They even change the days you trick or treat (Nope we don't trick or treat on Halloween) because they don't want that to interfere with football if it happens to fall on the same night. CRAZINESS!! Kaitlyn is turning into such a big helper. She wants to help us do "everything". Daddy let her help mow the lawn. Kaitlyn is also such a good big sister! The other day Ashley fell asleep on the couch and Kaitlyn took her "favorite" blanket and put it over Ashley. It was the sweetest thing!

They are peaking out the window of there new little play house. My girls are starting to play so good together. Kaitlyn is aways saying, "Ashley come here".

At the Zoo with the Gorillas.

Our September Utah Trip!

2009-10-02T18:47:00.000-04:00

Bryan finished up his Summer quarter of school on September 2nd . That morning we boarded a plane to Utah to see our family and friends for a much needed vacation. (thank you so much Sheena for taking us to the airport at 4:30 AM.) It went by so fast and we were able to do so many fun things, i don't even know where to start.

We went boating a couple times at Willard Bay. Once with Bryans family and once with mine. The second time we went with my mom, sisters Rachel and Tara, and our good friend Holly and her little boy. The day started out beautiful! We knew there was a good chance it would rain later in the day but we still wanted to go out for a while before the storm came in. It started getting a little windy so we decided to head back to the dock. The second we got there the rain started pelting down so hard it hurt. Lets just say Bry vowed to never go by himself with a boat full of girls again. We had quite the adventure :)

Grampa let Kaitlyn drive the boat

Girls night out with Mom and sisters!!!! We went to Leatherbys for dinner, mmmmmmm. Then bowling!

Check out our form! LOL!! We played around at the little arcade attached to the bowling place and won some serious tickets. Wow Rach your rich :) We bought some bling with some of our tickets.

Aren't my sisters beautiful! I miss you guys so much. I love being completely goofy and nerdy with you. Don't worry i didn't post our nerdy pics. lol

Kaitlyn, Ashley and their cousin Cash swimming at Grandmas.

It was fun to see you Tyler and Amy. your little Cash is such a little cutie!

Our cute little princesses Kaitlyn and her cousin Kylee. These two used to play together at least a couple times a week when we lived in Utah. The older they get the more fun they have together. Too bad we are so far away. I miss playing with you too Lisa. It was fun hanging out!

Cute picture! Too bad Bryans eye was still crazy looking. I was surprised how fast it healed though.

Here is another picture of the big water slide Grampa Hendriks got for the girls Birthday party. Kaitlyn had a blast playing on it before we even turned on the water.

We got together with our good friends , the Offrets, and went to the park to hang out. We love you guys! We couldn't ask for better friends.

We finally got to meet there new beautiful little addition, baby Scarlet.

Everett and Kaitlyn. Soooo cute!
My sisters and there hubbies thought it would be fun to have a date night! Since Tara is not married we set her up with our friend Kurt. We went to eat at Texas Roadhouse then went mini golfing. This is a few of us after our date at Leatherbies. I think i went to that place 3 or 4 times while we were there. I just can't get enough of there ice cream. yummmmmy!

My cousin Kyle just returned home from his mission in Australia! We went to his homecoming and lunch at his house afterwards.

My girls crawling all over the table.

It was so fun to see everyone! We can't wait to see you in December!

Happy Birthday!

2009-09-23T15:00:00.000-04:00

While we were in Utah this month, we decided to throw the girls a little Birthday Party! Even though their Birthdays are not for another month (Oct 12th) we wanted to be able to celebrate with family!
Grampa Hendriks rented a big water slide for the kids (and Bryan, he he) to play on. It was a big hit! the kids had a blast going down the slide and playing in the water!

We made a little cake just for Ashley! As you can tell she loved it!Presents! Need i say more.... We were so glad that Grandma Wilding was able to be there. I called her earlier in the month to see if we could drive to Idaho to see her since we would only be 4 hours away and she said she would be coming to Utah to see our cousin Kyle that just returned from his mission. So she was able to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and we didn't have to drive to Idaho.

Shiner...4 days later

2009-09-01T17:44:00.000-04:00

Although the swelling has gone down a ton, Bry is left with an eye that is every color of the rainbow.
It has been quite interesting trying to study for finals when he's barely able to open his eye. Fortunately each day he has been able to open it just a tad more.

Shiner

2009-08-28T11:28:00.000-04:00

Bryan and I got in a fight last night and i didn't realize how strong i was......
Just kidding. Last night while Bryan was playing basketball with some guys in our ward, he got an elbow to the eye. Poor guy couldn't even see to drive home. We thought it looked bad enough that we should go get it checked out and make sure everything was ok. Our good friend Nate stayed at our house with the girls while Bry and i went to the ER. We were there from 10:30 last night to 6:30 this morning. Well, i left at 3:00 am and got a few hours of sleep while Bry sat and waited. Isn't that soooo ridiculous. It didn't even seem that busy to me. The Dr. said just by looking at it he was 95-99% sure it was fractured, but the CT scan showed that everything was ok. Once again we are sooooo lucky. Poor Bryan just crashed when he got home. He only got 3 hrs. of sleep the night before because he's been studying so hard for finals next week. Good luck honey! Don't worry, i still think you are one sexy man! :)

My little helper!

2009-08-26T12:41:00.001-04:00

We get to visit all of our friends and family in Utah next week! We can't wait to see all of you!

Ashley looks for any opportunity to "help" me in the Kitchen! :)

Boating!

2009-08-15T15:29:00.001-04:00

More fuzzy pictures. I wish i would've found Kaitlyns finger print on the lens earlier. :)

Our good friends Chad and Kate were nice enough to take us out on there family's boat a couple times this month. The Scioto River is only about 20 minutes away and is great for skiing. I was pregnant with Ashley last summer, so i haven't been able to wake board forever....and it showed, but we had a lot of fun! Of course Bryan didn't get any pictures of me but i got a couple of him.

Here are my kids latest injuries. Katlyn decided to just skip the two steps from our kitchen to the back yard and did a face dive onto the cement. She skinned up her forehead and her nose pretty good.

Ashley pulled on the cord to the blender that someone left hanging down (I'm not going to name names) :) and got a huge goose egg on her forehead.

This is Kaitlyn and her friend Mason at the Zoo holding hands. How cute is that!

We love the Fair!

2009-08-09T08:03:00.000-04:00

This year we were able to go to 3 Ohio Fairs! We went to the Jefferson County, Franklin County, and the Ohio State fairs. We just can't get enough of the delicious fatty fried food, people watching and hanging out with friends. The Ohio State Fair was by far the biggest! You know it's big when you have to take a shuttle from the parking lot during Their "not so busy time". I have never seen so many food stands in my life. Bry and i will be working off our enormously large and fatty corn dogs and funnel cakes for weeks to come. :)

Thanks for Fair hoppen with us Watkins. (nice baby Hannah!) :)
Our first time at a Tractor Pull! I think i still prefer Rodeos and Demolition Derbies.

Kaitlyn had so much fun petting and feeding the animals and going on all the rides. She barely made all the height requirements. Our little girl is growing up.

Kaitlyn and Daddy going down the big yellow slide with our friends Jeremy and Dax. They loved it!

Sorry about the fuzzy and discolored pictures. After inspecting my camera to figure out what went wrong, i found a little Kaitlyn finger print on my camera lense.

Ashley

2009-07-22T18:11:00.000-04:00

Ashley is now 9 months old! At her 9 month appt., the Dr. said she weighed 23 pounds. This means she is now on the growth chart! She is in the 97th percentile for her weight and height. Her whole life she has been over the 100th. :) I knew all this crawling around would thin her out a bit. This is such a fun age! she has the cutest little personality! She is now walking holding on to things and she dances to music every time she hears it :) She sais Momma and Dada and waves to us all the time.

Summer Fun!

2009-07-03T19:02:00.001-04:00

For the first time last week, we went to the "bunny park" to play in the fountains. The girls had a great time!

My little Ashley all dressed up for church.

Ashley got Kaitlyns little pool toy around her neck and just crawled around the house with it like that for a while. He he he.... It was cute.

Washington D.C.

2009-06-23T14:55:00.000-04:00

Bryan is finally officially done with his first year of Dental School! Yay! Before the Summer quarter started up, Bry got a 1 week break, so we decided to take advantage of being so close to so many amazing places. We went to Washington D.C. We had a great trip! We left late Sunday night so the kids would sleep the whole way and we could have some peace for the 6 hour drive. We had peace but realized on the way home how much we missed out on the beautiful scenery. I couldn't believe how green and beautiful it was.
Monday, after sleeping half the day, we decided to go visit the Arlington National Cemetery. I thought "How interesting could a cemetery be" but it was more about how i felt when i was there. Seeing the thousands of graves of those who fought for our Country was surreal. We watched the changing of the guards at The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier and visited the grave sight of John F Kennedy. The girls slept just about the whole time. Thank goodness for the double stroller :)

Bryans Mom was able to come with us on our trip. She was such a big help with the girls, and we really enjoyed having her there with us.

On Tuesday we were able to visit a couple of the Smithsonian Museums; the Museum of Natural History and The Museum of National History.

Kaitlyn and Ashley were troopers. They are still too young to be able to enjoy anything that we saw, but they hung in there, and were happy most of the day :)

On Wednesday we went to see the Lincoln Memorial/Reflecting pool/WWII Memorial/Washington Monument. This little section is what i always thought of when i pictured D.C, so it was fun to actually be able to see it all. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as cooperative as the first 2 days we were here. It rained pretty hard for most of the day.

One place we were looking forward to seeing was the Holocaust Museum. After getting up early and standing in a huge line to get tickets, the building was evacuated in the pouring rain because of a fire. We found out later in the day that it was just a fire drill, so we were still able to go through the museum.

Zoo

2009-06-01T17:32:00.000-04:00

Lately we have had wonderful weather and a desire to get out of the house and enjoy it. We bought a season pass to the Columbus Zoo. We only live about 15 minutes away, so it's been fun to get together with friends and go about once a week. The Zoo is sooo big, so there's no way to see everything in one day. We just go for a few hours at a time and enjoy the different areas and animals each time. I'm sure we we have many more Zoo pics to post in the future.

Happy Anniversary!

2009-05-21T12:59:00.000-04:00

Today i have been married to my honey for 5 wonderful years! (May 21st)
I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have found someone so amazing to spend the rest of my life and eternity with. I married my best friend, and i couldn't imagine my life without him.
As I was reminising, i found pictures from our honeymoon. Remember these Bry...the good ole days. :)

I can't wait to have many more moments like this. But next time i will be in a one peace and maybe a long T shirt. :)

The Polynesian Cultural Center was beautiful! I can't wait to go back! Maybe for our 10 year (hint hint)

Bry, We have been through a lot in 5 years.....5 moves (one across the country), 2 kids, and many good times and not so great times. I just can't wait to have many more TIMES with you. I love you so much and am so happy to be on this journey with you. It just gets better every year!

Videos of Ashley

2009-05-11T12:05:00.000-04:00

These are a couple videos of Ashley we took last month. I thought they were pretty cute and funny.

New Pics

2009-05-04T12:30:00.000-04:00

This was Ashleys first time eating rice cereal. She wasn't sure what to think about it.

Isn't she the Coolest!!!

Surgery!

2009-04-22T14:27:00.000-04:00

For the last couple of months our little Ashley suffered from an ear infection that wouldn't go away. We tried three different antibiotics but none of them seemed to work. She absolutely hated the stuff. Half of it would end up on her bib because of her trying to spit it all out. The worst part of it was the diaria and diaper rash it gave her. The poor thing was fussing and crying all the time, always holding her ears. She couldn't sleep at night either. I was getting up 4-10 times a night with her. Finally i decided enough is enough and called a Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. The Dr. said she would need to have tubes put in her ears. The tubes will help the fluids drain out of her ear preventing further infections. She will probably need to have these in until she is about 3 yrs old.
On Monday we went in bright and early (5:45 am) for her surgery. We basically had to wait 2 hrs. for a 5 minute procedure. The saddest thing was right after surgery when they brought her in to me. The anesthesia does something weird to kids and my poor girl was crying the saddest cry I've ever heard. Nothing i could do would comfort her. Not even feeding her. :(
By the time we got home she was asleep and doing well.
We are so excited for this ear infection drama to be over.
She seems to be doing great now!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T18:01:00.000-04:00

Easter Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day! We couldn't think of a better way to spend it then with our Ohio family. We barbequed outside, played some games and enjoyed visiting with each other.

The kids had so much fun searching for Easter eggs!

Kaitlyn was spoiled by the Easter Bunny! She not only recieved a basket full of candy but she also got a new bike!

2009-04-10T15:42:00.000-04:00

Our little Ashley will be 6 months on Easter. I can't believe how time flies. This is when things really start getting fun! We just started giving her rice cereal (As you'll see in our next post):), She just got her second tooth (Good for her, bad for mommy..ouch) :) and she is sitting up by herself. We had to share this video of Ashley scooting along, it's so dang cute and funny! She will be crawling in no time!

Newport Aquarium

2009-03-27T17:18:00.000-04:00

On Monday we went with some friends to the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky! The Aquarium was only a couple hours away and the weather was beautiful. Kaitlyn had so much fun! She couldn't stop talking about the "fishies".

Spring Break!

2009-03-25T16:30:00.001-04:00

Spring is finally here! The dark cold depressing winter felt like it was never going to end but the last couple of weeks have actually been pretty nice. I have found myself feeling happier and wanting to get out more. Kaitlyn has loved being able to go outside and play again! The best part is i get to have my husband back for a week while he has Spring Break! Bryan has been loving being able to spend time with his girls, and we have loved having him around.

2009-03-07T14:10:00.000-05:00

This Picture was too cute to not put up.

This is Ashley and her cousin Kash. They are only 9 days apart and met for the first time last month!

Utah

2009-03-07T13:51:00.000-05:00

Here are are a few random pictures we took while we were in Utah last month. Well, most of them were taken by Rachel (sister) with her new camera.
Kaitlyn had so much fun playing with her cousins, and i had so much fun playing with my sisters and Mommy of course. We had lots of girls nights out! Which i didn't take any pictures of. I don't know what my deal was...i hardly took any of our trip.

Funeral

2009-02-23T16:54:00.000-05:00

On February 3rd, Bryan's Grandpa passed away. This has been so hard for Bryan because they were so close. He was the kind of Grandpa that never said I love you, but SHOWED him by always being an active part of his life. He was always at Brys soccer games, taking the boys on fun outings and teaching them new things. He will be missed so much.
Luckily we were able to fly to Utah to attend the funeral. Even though it was under such bad circumstances, we were excited to see our family and friends. Some of them got to meet Ashley for the first time! Bryan had to get back as soon as possible for school, but i got to stay an extra week!

2009-02-23T16:46:00.000-05:00

Hubert G. Hendriks, Sr. "Dutch" Hubert G. Hendriks, Sr., age 78, passed away February 3, 2009, due to complications following surgery. Hubert was born September 22, 1930 in Groningen, Holland, to Willem and Annie Hendriks. He married the love of his life for 55 years, Peggy Copinga, September 17, 1953. They immigrated to Salt Lake City in 1954. Dad was an avid soccer fan and brought his love for soccer to Utah. Dad was instrumental in forming the youth soccer program. He also played and was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Utah Soccer Association Hall of Fame as a referee. Dad was an avid outdoorsman and loved hunting and camping with his family. He was a master electrician and worked at the U of U and Kennecott. Dad will be missed by his wife, Peggy; sons, Hubert (Cindy), John (Sue) and Ron; grandchildren, Branden, Bryan, Tyler, Willem, Steven and Christine; five great grandchildren and beloved pets, Derouge and CoCo. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Nel. Funeral services will be held Monday, February 9, 2009 at 11:00 a.m., at Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary, 2350 E. 1300 S. Family and friends may visit Sunday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., and one hour prior to the service on Monday at the mortuary.

Happy Birthday Me!

2009-02-21T16:10:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to me...... On February 2nd i turned 28. Wow I'm getting old!

My sweet hubby took me out to dinner then invited some of our friends over for a little B-day party. Thanks Bry and everyone for making my B-day great!

2009-02-05T08:39:00.000-05:00

Ashley LOVES her baths!

This picture brightens my day!

How do you not love this little chunky body!

2009-01-29T15:01:00.000-05:00

Winter

2009-01-29T14:26:00.000-05:00

Will the cold and snow ever end? A couple of days ago practically the whole city shut down because of the snow. They even canceled School at OSU, but Bryan went anyway of course to catch up. In Utah this would've been just another snowy winter day. I don't think they know what to do in Ohio when it snows. Do they know what snow plows are? One thing we get here that we didn't really have in Utah is freezing rain, so i guess the icy roads might be a good reason to shut things down. Well, what do i care I'm home all day not having to worry about it. Being cooped up all day makes me appreciate the little things a little more. Like today, i was holding Ashley on my lap while watching TV and Kaitlyn ran upstairs (Usually that means she is going to get into something). A minute later she came downstairs with a Kleenex and one of those little suction bulb things you use to get stuff out of babies noses. i wondered why she had those until i looked at Ashley and saw a big booger on her Nose. Kaitlyn is becoming such a good big sister. Yesterday, Kaitlyn had Ashley laughing so hard. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Little moments like this bring me so much joy and help me get through these cold, snowy days.

SNOW

2009-01-26T16:31:00.000-05:00

We finally have enough snow for Kaitlyn to play in. This was her first time! Dad couldn't resist taking her outside with her new sled Grandma and Grandpa got her. She had so much fun!

2009-01-21T15:51:00.000-05:00

Ashleys Blessing

2009-01-11T18:10:00.000-05:00

Our little Ashley was blessed today. We were fortunate enough to have Bryans parents fly out here for the weekend so they could be here for the blessing. We were also asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting, so they got to be here for that also.

Columbus Zoo

2009-01-06T15:27:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago we went with our friends, the Williams, to the Columbus Zoo to see Santa and the lights. The lights were amazing! Unfortunately we weren't able to enjoy our visit as much as we would've liked because we happened to pick the coldest night we've had all year. It was 12 degrees (what were we thinking). We had Kaitlyn and the baby bundled up so tight they tripled in size :) Kaitlyn got to see Santa for her very first time. I'm not sure what she thought. she was so comatose from the cold she was expressionless, or maybe her cheeks were so frozen she couldn't move them. Despite the cold, we had fun for the 10 minutes we were there.

2008-12-30T21:41:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-30T20:46:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. This was my first Christmas away from my family. There were so many reasons why it was better for us to stay in Ohio this year...New baby, fix up the house, money....

One advantage was being able to stay home and relax a little instead of running to like 5 different relatives houses. Originally i wasn't sure how much relaxation i was going to get because of all the work i had to do to prepare for 6 missionaries joining us for dinner. Luckily we only ended up having 2. We enjoyed the company. I made homemade turkey and gravy for my first time and it turned out great (I knew eventually i would have to learn to do all this stuff. :) Thanks to modern day technology Bryan and i were able to see both of our family's using our web cams. Bryans parents enjoyed being able to see Kaitlyn open all of her presents. My whole family was at my parents house for dinner, and for a minute i felt like i was with them. boo hoo hoo. (yes, i was sad i couldn't be there with them).

Even though we missed our family's, we had a great Christmas.

Mom and her girls

2008-12-19T18:11:00.000-05:00

2008-12-19T18:08:00.000-05:00

BRYAN IS FINALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL (FOR 2 WEEKS)
I HAVE A HUSBAND AGAIN!

2008-12-19T17:58:00.000-05:00

Ashley had her 2 month check up on Wednesday and the Dr. said she weighs 14 lbs. She is way off the weight chart. he he

She is getting cuter and "bigger" every day. She is smiling all the time and making her cute little baby sounds.

2008-12-09T23:07:00.000-05:00

I finally got a chance to put some pictures in my photo album that i recently had developed. Here are a few of my favorites.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2008-11-28T14:36:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This was our first year away from family so we decided to get together at our house with some dental school friends that were in the same boat. For many of us this was our first attempt at making a turkey, stuffing, slush ,etc. Everything turned out wonderful! Who knew we could make Thanksgiving dinner as good as our moms and Grandmas!

2008-11-28T14:27:00.001-05:00

Here are the girls that came over for Thanksgiving.

We didn't get a picture of the guys because they were too busy playing ping pong and pool :)

2008-11-10T12:31:00.000-05:00

Our little Ashley was admitted to the hospital last week.

It started when i thought her tummy looked a little big. The doctor did an ultra sound and said her liver looked too big. She had to have an IV, blood tests, and scans of her liver. They made her go without milk for 11 hrs. It is the worst thing in the world seeing your little baby starving and going through all of this. After spending 24 hours in the hospital and all of the tests came back they said her liver was perfect. The doctors gave us the biggest scare. We feel so lucky and blessed to have such healthy girls.

Just when we thought nothing else could possibly go wrong in our lives, Bry fell off the roof. We were very lucky that all he hurt was his foot. We spent Saturday afternoon in the hospital getting x-rays. Luckily he didn't break it, but will be on crutches for a while.

2008-11-02T11:58:00.000-05:00

Kaitlyn was a little princess for Halloween.

This was her first time Trick Or Treating.

She had a blast!

2008-10-20T19:53:00.000-04:00

Our little girl is finally here!

She was born on October 12th, weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 21 inches long.

Everything went great! She is healthy and perfect and a great eater! When i found out that Ashley had the same due date as Kaitlyn, i thought there was no way they would actually be born on the same day. Well they now share a birthday. We threw Kaitlyn a little birthday party in the hospital room with cake, ice cream, presents, and her own new little baby that we let her pick out. She loves her little sister! We can't get her to stop attacking her with kisses :)

2008-10-01T22:06:00.000-04:00

We have been in Ohio now for 3 weeks. We have never been so busy.

We have been painting non stop and trying to get things fixed and unpacked.

It seems like it's never ending. But I love having a house!!! and our ward and neighbors are awesome. We feel so blessed to be here.

The baby is coming in a little over a week! I will be sure to post pictures as soon as we can.

2008-10-01T21:57:00.000-04:00

Here i am looking as pregnant as ever. I am now 2 weeks away from giving birth!

2008-10-01T21:52:00.000-04:00

Bryan just started dental school.

This is our family at the white coat ceremony.

2008-09-18T12:20:00.000-04:00

We are now in Ohio! It's been almost 2 weeks and we still haven't completely moved in. My life has never been so busy or crazy. when things calm down a little if they ever do, then i will send an update.

2008-07-31T18:52:00.000-04:00

We are moving to Ohio!

Bryan will be going to Dental School at OSU for 4 years

and the time has finally come to leave all of our family

and friends. We hope this blog will help us all stay a little

closer. We will miss all of you!

Our Family

2008-07-31T18:23:00.000-04:00