My two year old Ri Ri!

Wow, we have been giving Lolie so much blog time, that I had totally forgotten to give my sweet adorable son his moment! Riley turned two five days after the birth of his sister. In a way it was fun because Nana got to be here for his first and second birthday! Seems how the two of our kiddos are so close it may become a yearly tradition! :)

So here is our Bugaboo's Stats!
Height: 34 1/7 = 50% (Finally average and not a runt anymore!) :)
Weight: 33.7 lbs (we get so many comments about how he is going to be a good football player some day. I just hope he gets enough height to have a chance.)

Below are pictures and things about Riley you may not know!

1. Riley loves numbers and Puzzles. When we take him to the store the first thing he points out is the number 9 and screams over and over "Nine Nine Nine."

2. Riley loves "coclate" (chocolate) as he calls it. Anything Brown is now known as "coclate" or "caca". He even calls people with dark skin "caca". It took us a long time to realize what he was calling them. The meaning was revealed when he got into the cubboard and pointed to the Brownie mix and called it "caca".

3. Riley loves soft things. He goes to bed with two plush frogs and has certain clearanced blankets. If you put anything on his bed not pre-approved he gets really mad and throws them off. Brandon has had many fun nights torturing poor Riley with this. Nana's Thomas blanket (in the picture below) has made the grade! :)


4. Our new favorite Veggie is.... SOY BEANS! Have you ever heard of a toddler loving soy beans? Well, my kids is not normal when it comes to food. He loves veggies, milk, and even ate a Tabasco marinated pickle. We don't usually have Tabasco pickles in our house. It was an accident that we even had it. Poor Riley turned bright red with tears streaming down his eyes, but he continued to eat it.

5. Riley is starting to love his little sister! We have some touch and go moments still, but I thought it was sweet of him to share his cars with her.

All in all we have a polite little boy who is now using lots of words. We even got him to say a short prayer the other night! We thought that day would never come. :p Getting a two year old to even sit through a prayer is like pulling teeth. We love our Bugaboo! :)

Hospital Visit!

Nana and Riley came to visit the Day after Lorelei was born. I was glad too because I missed my bugaboo and was very happy to see my mom! At first my little guy was apprehensive and afraid of the hospital room. So Brandon, Riley, and my mom took a quick trip to the advertised cup in the picture below. I was really excited to have my french fries and strawberry shake. I had been starving since the day I had Lorelei. I had to get to the hospital at 6:00 in the morning and could not eat any food. I went the whole entire day without any food too. The most I got was grape Popsicles and ice and by the time I had her it was almost 9:00 at night. The only thing I got to have after that was juice. Thank Heavens for a loving husband and mom to come to my rescue! (the next day of course)

Lorelei Alyse Henderson!

Here she is ladies and Gents! I realize the color of my pictures are a little funny, but I got this new and incredibly fun camera. I'm still learning to use it! But please enjoy this little cutie! :) My mom and I had a blast dressing her up. (There are still more dress up pictures not appearing in this post.) It's still so surreal that I am a mother of two now! :)

33 Weeks!

Some people have requested to see what I look like. So here it is! It actually looks like I shoved a watermelon under my shirt. :p The nurse says I am measuring a week earlier than my due date. Not sure how that's going to play into things, but I begged my doctor for and inducement date. I really don't want to give birth to a 10 pound baby. So This little girl will be induced on February 21st! :) (please ignore my tired colorless face)

It's just another manic Monday!

Who would have thought that someone so sweet as this would cause something so crazy like this?!?!  My world was running smoothly. I had cleaned almost the entire house and was so proud that I wanted to make a batch of cookies. Unfortunately, I forgot one little thing. Riley has a fascination with hiding things in beds, the base speaker, toilets, drawers, pretty much anything that opens and yes the kitchen oven. Brandon and I have repeatedly told him that it is NOT an option to put things inside the oven. Just when I thought the message finally sunk in it obviously hadn't. I preheated my oven and noticed a plum of black smoke rising out of the boiler exhaust. Thinking that my oven was dying I turned it off and looked down to notice the flame inside my oven. Unlike the picture above, I used douses of water instead of baking soda. :p I ran around the house like a chicken with my head cut off opening windows, the front door, the garage door and gathering fans to circulate the smoke. My fear was having the alarm go off and the sprinklers dousing all of our things. While doing all of this I had to protect Riley as well and make sure he didn't go anywhere near the oven. When all was said a done I took inventory of what burned. Riley had shoved two hot pads (my favorite ones) and a rag on the oven coils. So instead of the sweet smell of cookies inside our warm house on a cold day of 8 degrees we spent 4 hours in a cold burnt smelling house with no cookies. :p At first I really wanted to cry, but I realized the humor of it all. Now I have a fun mommy story to share and the knowledge that children really do get into EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas review!

We started our season off by going to the Winter Wonder Lights at the Wildlife Experience! We got to see lights, Santas Reindeer, some of the exhibits, watch "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" (the original) and then hit Starbucks on our way home for hot Chocolate! :) All in all it was a fabulous night! :)


Christmas Eve was full of food and Smiles! :) We also got to see a house lit to music on our Christmas eve drive.

Here are some Christmas day photos of Riley enjoying some presents! :)

Then on New Years Eve we got snow! So the next day we took advantage of it and played. After 10 minutes of playing Riley looked up at us and said "All done".

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

Anxiety, Baby sitting, and Pregnancy oh my!

Anxiety, the wonderful genetically passed on chemical imbalance in the brain. (which haunts me on a daily basis) Baby sitting, the world which intensifies and highly aggravates my Anxiety. Oh and don't forget Pregnancy, the one that has contributed to large bulging sensitive veins, back problems, fun girl infections and lack of Energy. All these ingredients put together has made me one hell of a Madusa. My poor family. By the end of this year I'm sure they'll be asking Santa for a new mom and wife. :p

Don't get me wrong, I know my family loves me. The kids I baby sit I love dearly. But enough is enough. Taking care of others children is harder than it seems. The eating of boogers, sharing of germs, the demands, the melt downs, the separation anxiety etc. After a day of battle, I feel like my energy and emotional well has been taped dry. By the time they leave, Riley has attached himself to my leg like dentures to gums with a newly applied strip of poly-grip. (not that I would even know, I still have all of my teeth in-tacked). :p But I realized that since I got pregnant, caring for other kids has become more stressful, and has been affecting my whole family as well. That's when I realized that maybe making a little more extra money may not be worth it. My husband makes enough to put a roof over our heads and food on the table. We are blessed and I shouldn't feel guilty for putting my family first. So I have decided that the end of December is the final cut off for my services. I want to be able to enjoy the rest of my pregnancy and family without added stress. Sorry, for this little tangent. Sometimes you just have to throw things out there.

On a positive note, I have a wonderful husband and sweet little boy. I have been given so much and love my life. My point to all of this is "do we really need to add garbage to our truck that doesn't need to be there?" Sometimes, I think we as people in the society that we live in, think we need to do things we really don't need to do.

Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving! This year it was so much fun! Riley actually got to participate! :) It was so much fun watching the wheels turn in is head. He loved pulling out the pumpkin guts and got very mad when he had to go take a bath! :p He obviously belongs to the right family.

 Pumpkins from left to right, Brandon, Riley, and Brandi

Trunk or Treat night started off a little rough. Riley wasn't too excited about wearing a costume. He threw a little bit of a tantrum before we left. The pictures below were the best I could get. :p If you couldn't tell, Riley and I were the Monkeys while Brandon was our safari tamer. :p

 

Brandon could not keep his eyes open. He said the flash was too bright. :p

Riley's favorite thing of the night was the gigantic pixie stick. :p