A Day for Firsts

I will post some pictures and stuff about our Christmas shenanigans a little later but I wanted to post these pictures and video hot off the press (or whatever). Today was Sophie's first try at the solid food thing and it went really well. She had some rice cereal mixed with applesauce (always a favorite of my kiddos) and she sat up pretty well in the high chair and got quite a few real bites in after it was spit out a few times. She really seemed to like it. We got some good video of her eating but we had trouble with the upload to this site. Sorry.
Also, today we took Sally out to ride her little tricycle and she was finally able to figure out how to push down on the pedal and move forward. Hooray! Her legs have actually been too short during our previous tries so she must have grown a little in the past few weeks.
We had a really nice day relaxing with the family, playing Shule's new Pokemon Monopoly with the boys, getting some chores done and basically just recuperating from the excitement of the Christmas festivities. Tonight we'll have a family movie night after family home evening- Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- I haven't seen it yet but the boys have. I'm sure it will be fun!

Sophie is 3 months!

As of yesterday, Sophie is officially 3 months old now. Time is so strange during the first year of a baby's life, in many ways it flies but at the same time it almost seems to stand still some days. She has been growing so much but she also still requires so much from me it makes for very long days. We're pretty sure that this will be our last baby so I've been consciously trying to enjoy all of her baby-ness but she is also our most fussy and loud baby which can be extremely trying. She can be super cute, though, so I can't complain. And last night she only woke up once (around 4:30am) to be fed, which was amazing and what I hope to be the start of a new trend. Sleep can make a huge difference in my abilities for patience and tolerance and such. She's sitting up with assistance now and makes really good eye contact with smiles and coos. Very rewarding! She's found her thumb/fist and gets so aggressive with it that she sometimes scratches her face. In fact, she gets so fiesty sucking on her thumb that it makes us wonder if she might be teething (I know it seems early, but all our other three kids broke teeth in the third month). I'm always hopefull that that's not the case because it's not so fun for a nursing mom. I am looking forward to starting her on some baby cereal sometime this month when she can sit up on her own. I don't care if the professionals say it's an old wive's tale, I know from experience that when my babies have started eating solids they sleep much better in the night. Part of me can't believe that she's already 3 months and the other part (the sleep deprived part) says "What? It's only been three months? It seems like a year?"

Fry's Marketplace rocks!

After dropping Shazer off at karate last night (that's why he isn't in any of the pictures) Jon and I decided to brave the grocery store with the remaining three kids to pick up a few things. We went to the closest store to the school where Shazer does karate, which isn't the closest store to our house so we don't shop there very often. We got super lucky because we came at a time when the store was doing some kind of promotional holiday party and they had free pictures with Santa (they didn't just let us take pictures but actually gave us a nice 5x7 for free!), coloring contest (Shule did a really nice job), cookie decorating (again, Shule did a really nice job), letters to Santa, and an assortment of sampling like at Costco on a Saturday. It was totally fun and very cool of the store. The store is very nice, new, and shiny and has all kinds of household items, not just groceries, thus the "Marketplace" in the name. They actually have a really good assortment of toys that are more cheaply priced than even Walmart. With gas prices being so low now, I may even go out of my way a little to shop there. By the way, Sally was absolutely horrified by the idea of having her picture taken with Santa- she buckled herself back in to the grocery cart after we had attempted to take her out, so, alas, no picture of Sally with Santa... and Shule was just too cool for that kind of thing.

Our home smells like gingerbread- yum!

Sally really wanted to do it herself but she couldn't push the rolling pin down hard enough to flatten the dough. Eventually she resorted to making the "ginger-boy" cookie cutter dance on top of the mound of dough. Silly Sally.

Many Pleasant Surprises

Ethan was baptized on Saturday, December 6. Here he is with his dad, (Jon's brother, Kelby)

The older Thwaits cousins

The whole Hunt/Thwaits gang (those attending)

We were really having a rough time deciding whether we should make the trip to L.A. to see Ethan get baptized or not. We'd known about it and had been discussing it for months, and a few days before it we still weren't sure. Of course, we wanted to go to be a support to Ethan and his family and we wanted to share his special day with him, but we also wanted to teach our kids by example how important it is to be there for each other, especially during special times like this and also to emphasize what an important ordinance baptism is. The main problems facing us were: the timing, Jon is in his last week of classes for the semester and has many assignments and two tests this week and then he starts finals next week and his homework and studying take up an enormous amount of time; our littlest ones, Sophie is only two and a half months old and still nurses every two to three hours, and Sally (2 yrs) isn't especially fond of long car rides either; and finally finances, the beginning of the month is when most of our bills are due which doesn't make a trip to L.A. very do-able. Fortunately, the cost of gas is awesome right now, so we were able to make the entire trip spending less than $70 on gas, and we were able to spend the night at my brothers, Jimmy and Jonny's, place in Santa Monica- so no need for hotels, and we brown bagged it the whole way with pb&js, and other travel friendly snacks. Because of the school issue we couldn't stay long- we'd have to leave early Friday evening from Tempe and head back home in 24 hours. So, at the last minute, after Jon had already told Kelby that we wouldn't be able to come, we decided to chance it with the girls and risk a miserable car ride. We were very pleasantly surprised that the girls did much better than we could have hoped. We only needed to make 2 rest stops on the way, to use bathrooms, gas up, and feed and change the baby. The rest of the time Sophie slept, and Sally was very content to watch movies on the portable DVD player. There was minimal arguing amongst the boys. Shule had a problem with leg cramps near the end of the trip, but overall things went very smoothly on the road. I had started as the driver because I wanted to let Jon rest after a long day of school and I don't like driving at night on the freeway, so I thought we could switch off later but the moon was so nice and bright that I just drove the entire way to Santa Monica. We arrived a little after midnight (their time) and my brothers were super accommodating- letting us all crash on their beds while they took the floor and sofa. We awoke early Saturday morning and got dressed in our Sunday best. Even though the Google map said it would only take about a half an hour to get to Kelby and Daina's church building I gave us plenty of wiggle room for the notoriously bad L.A. traffic or for getting lost. We arrived at the building with more than an hour to wait so we explored the neighborhood and found a nice playground for the kids to stretch and play at. When we got back to the church everyone else had arrived. It was really fun seeing the surprise on Daina and Kelby's faces. The baptism and confirmation were very sweet. I actually didn't get to see most of it because Sally isn't so good about sitting reverently yet and the baby was a little fussy, so I took them both and we walked around outside for a while to let Jon and the boys enjoy the baptism. I was relieved that the bishop allowed Jon to stand in the circle for Ethan's confirmation, even though Jon had forgotten to bring his temple recommend. I did catch the end of his blessing and there was a very sweet spirit. Afterward, we went to Kelby and Daina's apartment and had some pizza and ice cream. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins and we enjoyed visiting with Daina & Kelby, Daina's parents and Joe & Tori. We couldn't stay too long and had to leave before the kids wanted to. We went back to my brothers' place to load all our stuff up and we had to see the beach before we left (it's literally seven blocks from Jimmy and Jonny's front door).


The beach was amazing-it's been two years since we've been to the ocean. The air and breeze were invigorating and a little chilly, but we were blessed with the most amazing sunset I've ever seen. The pictures don't do it any kind of justice. Even Jimmy and Jonny admitted that such an amazing sunset wasn't typical. It was overcast but as the sun went down over the ocean the light peaked through the clouds and reflected an amazing display of colors both above on the clouds and below on the waves. it was completely breathtaking! Sally loved playing in the sand but Shazer was the only one crazy enough to actually swim in the water. He was pretty cold by the time we left the beach but he and Shule got a nice warm shower before we packed up and left for home. It was Jon's turn to drive and he got us safely home without any problems. It took a little bit longer because it took a very long time to drive out of L.A. with what seemed like almost the entire city driving on the freeway. Everything went surprisingly well for such a rushed trip. It was definitely memorable and we were very glad to have made the effort!

Last night's Family Home Evening

Last night was our family's official beginning of the Christmas season. Since we've moved up to Tempe, so close to the Mesa temple, we've made it a tradition to go see the temple lights the first Monday of December for Family Home Evening. We started the evening with a prayer and a song from the Children's Songbook that the kids are practicing in Primary, called "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem". Then we read the First Presidency's Christmas message in this month's Friend magazine. It talks about how the way the Wise Men followed the Star of Bethlehem can be symbolic for how we should follow the Savior's example. Then we all piled in the van and went to see the lights. We listened to the Christmas music station and Sophie fell asleep in the van and slept the entire time. Sally was absolutely enthralled by the wonderland of twinkling lights and delighted in naming all the different colors she saw. Her favorite part was seeing the nativity with the baby Jesus and all of the animals and bright star overhead. We had a really nice time and even the boys heeded my call for reverence on the temple grounds. Afterward we usually have hot cocoa and doughnuts. This year I had forgotten to get doughnuts with all the busyness of unpacking and getting things back to normal after Thanksgiving. Shule was a little disappointed about the doughnuts (he was the one who reminded me of that part of the tradition) but he was appeased with hot cocoa. Then we got out the cool wooden advent calender that Linda got us about seven years ago and we let Sally put the first ornament on it. And so the countdown begins!

Sophie's blessing -November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving Jam

This Thanksgiving was one of the best and noisiest of all the Henderson feasts of the past. Everyone was able to make it: Jimmy and Jonny from Santa Monica, Austin and Tammy from Denver, us from Tempe and then my parents and Frankie and Jesse who live in Tucson, we even added a couple of my dad's brothers and father, and Jimmy's friend, Michael, from Switzerland for good measure. We brought down Jon's drum kit, electric guitar and amp, and then we borrowed Anne's bass and amp and there were multiple acoustic guitars passed around. I think everyone except my mom took turns jamming with each other. I even kept a steady beat on the drums for a couple of songs, and the kids jumped in and sang along. Sometimes there were too many people playing with very little skill but it was a totally laid back, fun time for everyone. My parents did most of the food and it was awesome. The day before Thanksgiving a big group of us went to see the movie Twilight, which was a lot of fun. After Thanksgiving there were trips to the park and stores and Tammy even took the kids to Skate Country. Jon had a good time playing some tunes with Jon Stone at the Bertoglio's house and catching a concert (My Brightest Diamond) with him downtown. It was Jonny's 27th birthday on Saturday so we sang to him and had some cake and played Apples to Apples and watched Son of Rambow. On Sunday Jon blessed Sophie in my parents ward and we had a nice afternoon of "goodbyes". We had a great 5 day break and even the packing and loading up the van and driving home weren't too bad. There was a lot to be thankful for!

Shazer is thankful

Shazer the Robot

The following was taken word for word from a Thanksgiving writing assignment that Shazer did for his third grade class (his teacher's name is Mr. Rethman) :

"I am thankful for my family. It is fun to play with Shule. Sally and Sophie are good for laughs. My parents are nice, and we have fun. I am thankful for school too. I learn there and have friends I would have not have a very good chance of having if there was no school. Mr. Rethman is funny and good for conversations. I am thankful for pencils. I couldn't do my art as good as it is without them. Also I am thankful for food. Food can taste good and they're helthey. I am thankful for books. They can hold fun adventures. Trees are very nice. They provide air, fruits, shade, and you can build tree houses in them. I am thankful for the enventers who made life easyer."

-too cute!