pumpkin patch

Last weekend my sister Mary came down from Austin and we all drove up to Medina to Love Creek Orchard’s pumpkin festival.  We had a great time and Mary made it even better.  We’re so lucky she’s at UT-austin now.

Painting Pumpkins

Mary’s mummy cat was by far the best

Wahoo!  A family picture.  We haven’t had one of these since Lizzie was born.

Our cute little pumpkins

 

The animals were the biggest hit.  Lizzie loved petting this pony and feeding the pigs.  She just ran around the pens jabbering to herself and squealing with excitement.  Henry was calmer but still excited.  His favorite thing was the snow cone we had for part of lunch.  I liked the band and sing-a-long.

Barrel rides.  Henry took great care of Lizzie.

snoring

I just put Lizzy down for an early nap and as soon as I lay her down she started fake snoring. Oh how she makes me laugh!

Family Reunion Day 1 and 2

Day 1 was a trickling in day.  Emily and Jared with their two cute kids were the first to arrive.  Henry was soooooo excited to see his cousin Sam.  Sam is two years older than Henry though amazingly patient about playing with younger kids.  Henry idolizes him.  Mary and my Mom and Dad arrived in the evening just in time to go to dinner at Beefy’s Backyard BBQ.  Yummy yummy food and really relaxed environment.  We ate in the backyard near the playground and the hardest part was getting the kids to stop playing and eat.  The adults had no problem eating.  Beefy makes some good burgers!

Day two was San Antonio Riverwalk day.  We did the Alamo, the river boats, and ate at Boudros for lunch. 

The Alamo

The boat (don’t you love Henry’s face?)

Look at my beautiful sisters!!!

Pioneer day—only posted 2 months late

Here’s a quick update.

Pioneer day.  Mormon holiday celebrating when the pioneers arrived in Utah.  Our stake always throws a big party.  Kettle corn, snow cones, bounce house, water balloon games, lots and lots of food, but every year the highlight is the pony rides.  This year was no exception.

Look at that cute cowboy!  And that sweet little pioneer girl.

Lizzy loved the horses.  As in when we got out of the car she made a beeline to them and she mostly just stood and watched them while we waited for our turn.  And here’s what happened when she had to get off her horse.

Is it wrong to find this picture funny?  I need to get the pictures my friend Sarah took.   She takes the best pictures of Lizzy.  Sarah, can I hire you for a photo shoot?

When the family gets together…

A couple of weeks ago all my family but Mark (we missed you Mark!!!) were able to gather for a little reunion here in San Antonio.  First can I just say I love hosting people.  Seriously, it was so much fun planning and organizing what to do.  Anyone else want to come visit? 

Here’s some quick snapshots of what we did—just to tide ya’ll over for the complete play by play.

Sitting around talking.  We Hedengrens do talking well!

Water games in the front yard with the cousins

Meals around our big table.  (It was fabulous to be able to sit around and just eat and talk.)

cousin time  (Nothing says togetherness like a gallop on a pony together.  Go Lizzy and Olin!)

Okay, that’s just some.  later I’ll post about sea world, six flags, guadalupe river, rodeos, caves, boats, and lots and lots of yummy restaurants.  For now I need to go to bed.  Henry’s got school tomorrow and that bus come way too early.  (7:12!!!!)

who’s got the look

Is Henry a future male model?  Please no.  This was his outfit on the way to a swimming party.  All parts choosen by him.  And the poses were all him as well.  As was the request for pictures.

Work it Henry, work it.

Kitchen

Sorry it’s taken me so long to put these pictures up, but for those of you that have been asking, here you go.  Here’s the results of way too many hours and late nights I couldn’t afford.  It was tough, but we think it was worth it.  And I love doing projects with Dell.  He’s great to work with and we always have fun when we’re building something together.

Here’s the new island/bar area.  This is my favorite part.  We took it from painted sheetrock to wainscoting with just some MDF, pine, and paint.  It changes the whole look of the kitchen.

A look at the new granite—love it!  And the new sink—may love it more.  And a peak at Lizzy’s head.  She wanted in on the action.

The rest of the kitchen.  Of course, now we need to paint the cabinets.  Maybe in a couple of months…  :)

shelf baby

Last night Dell and I were hanging a mirror in Lizzy’s room in preparation for the family reunion we’re hosting for the next week.  (More on that later.)  Lizzy siddled up to her dollhouse bookshelf, cleared a shelf and climbed on up.  Dell handed her a blanket and she looked so cozy we had to take a picture.

Henry wanted in on the action too.  But we convinced him the bottom shelf was more his territory.  Since we made the bookshelf we’re pretty certain of its structural load limits.  Or lack there of.

4th of July

With the 4th of July on a Sunday things got spread out and it almost didn’t seem like the holiday really happened.  The 4th we went to church, came home and had naps and then at the last minute decided to join Alec and Dixie, and Sarah at the parking lot of La Cantara to watch the fireworks from six flags.  I’m so glad we did.  We all had a blast.  I loved getting to talk with Dixie and Sarah.  Dell loved having time with his brother.  (Doug was a hero husband and stayed home with the little kids so Sarah just had the two big boys with her.)  And the kids loved waiting for the fireworks and the fireworks themselves.

Lizzy was tired and so wasn’t sure about the whole thing.  But the dog in the background kept her entertained.  She’d walk up and bark at it until it “talked back” then wander off, and then come back and do it all again.

The boys sat on to top of Alec and Dixie’s mini van.  Which was in itself super cool.  And with glowsticks….. awesome.  Then add in some fabulous fireworks and I think it was little boy heaven.  Not to mention the fact that the cool big cousins were so kind to the little kids.  Noble and Liam, you guys rock!

At the first “boom” from the fireworks display Lizzy burrowed into my chest but as the noise continued soon she and I were echoing each sound with a “boom” of our own.  Lizzy was pretty amazed by the colors that appeared in the sky.  She seemed to like the quieter, closer ones more than the big bangs in the sky.  Henry liked the big bangs.  Dell liked all of them, and I loved the ones that looked like golden popcorn shimmering in the sky.  Nice work six flags!  You put on a great show.  And we even made it out of the parking lot relatively quickly.

The continuing adventures of cinder-lizzy

Sure Mom, I’ll help with the dishes.  I’ve got a pair of shorts on my head so I don’t need to worry about my hair getting dirty.

Look what a good job I’m doing!

Hey look! I can brush my hair with this thing too.  (That’s when I leaped in and decided the dishes looked great and Cinder-Lizzy could find another chore to do.)

Drive thru?

Lizzy loves her little ladybug push/ride toy.  (Henry loves it too, but that’s a story for another post.)  Yesterday I found her in the pantry riding it and grabbing a snack.  She then scooted off snack in hand and I scooted off to grab the camera.  Here’s the reenactment.

Pulling up

Making her choice.  Applesauce eh?  Nice healthy choice Lizzy.

Riding off.  Just need to get me a spoon now.

I needed this

So yesterday was tough.  Lizzy was sick, Henry was actually really good, but I was stretched to the limit and the little things bothered me.  How I hate when I feel that way.  This morning I was checking my email and had a friend request from a young woman who I taught when she was a 12 years old.  (She's engaged now and about to graduate from college-- now I feel old.)  But on her facebook page she had this message.  It's from one of my most favorite talks ever.  The one I go to when mothering gets hard, because it does sometimes.  It made me cry, but helped me remember where my strength comes from.  So thanks Jessie, for putting this on facebook.  I needed it.  And in case any of you are having a rough mothering day too, here you go.

so proud of myself

Okay, now I sew a little—mostly straight line things like baby blankets and curtains—but I’ve never considered myself as someone crafty.  But the other day our Young Women’s presidency decided the girl’s needed something special if they completed our challenge of reading the Book of Mormon.  Now the president and second councilor are jewelry makers so we went that direction and you should see what we made.  (And I’m so proud of myself.  Due to Dell being on call our out with the missionaries a lot I cranked most of these out by myself while watching TV.  It feels good to have made something that really intimidated me in the past, but in actuality was pretty easy and loads of fun.  Anyone else need a courage necklace?  Dell’s on call again this week.)

Here they are.

We handed this one out to all the girls today.  They all get “courage.”  When they complete the Book of Mormon they’ll get the circle that says “strong.”  (Which fits in perfectly since Elder Bednar challenged our stake to read the Book of Mormon looking for “in the strength of the Lord.”)  The scripture on the card is from Joshua 1:9.  It’s the young women/young men theme for this year and one of my all time favorite scriptures.  “Be strong and of a good courage, be not not afraid neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

good helpers

The kids are pretty good at helping us with yard work and the other day we were trying to spread out a small load of dirt.  It was dumped on our driveway and we had to spread it about to the rest of the yard.  ( I use “we” lightly here, Dell’s the only one strong enough to carry the wheelbarrow full of dirt.  I spread the dirt once it’s dumped and Henry and Lizzy are responsible for picking out the large rocks.  Lizzy especially loves this.) 

Looking good Lizzy.

Go Henry go!

Pigtails

Look!  Lizzy finally had enough hair for some pigtails. 

Blackberries

Most of our garden is not thriving, but the blackberries…. oh the blackberries.  We’ve picked bowls and bowls full.  We’ve made blackberry cobbler 4 times and had plenty for snacking too.  I love sun warmed berries fresh off the vine.  In fact, it’s been two days since we’ve picked and I’d better get out there.  Hmmm, maybe blackberry cobbler for dinner tonight.

Aren’t they too cute.  They love each other so much.

Henry’s itching one of the 100 mosquito bites he got on the father’s and son’s campout.

The graduate

Henry graduated from pre-school yesterday.  I was surprised how sweet it was.  The sight of all those little kids walking into the cafeteria with their paper graduation hats made me tear up.  Oh dear.  I’m sorry the pictures aren’t better, but Lizzy had been woken up from her nap to go to the graduation and she needed to be held the whole time which makes for tricky camera work.

The graduates waiting for their diploma

Henry getting his diploma from the principal.  He got the award of “most inquisitive.”  Each kid got an award that the teachers came up with such great ones.  Best Puzzle builder, best helper, even best line leader awards were given out.

Henry with his beloved Mrs. James.  Can’t you just see how much he loves her?!  Really.  He loves loves loves her.  I’m so grateful for him to have had such a wonderful adult in his life.  And one that loves him too.  Thank you Mrs James for being such a great teacher.

log cowboy

Hiking back to the car in Lost Maples State park we had another river crossing.  This crossing had a nice smooth log section floating in it.  And Henry knew right away it was perfect for riding.  Here’s the log cowboy!

Lost Maples- memorial day

We’ve spent too many weekends working on projects so after spending most of Saturday working on the yard we were sure grateful for a holiday on Monday.  We packed up the kids and the camelback and headed for Lost Maples State Park.  It’s my favorite state park.  I love the hills, the cliffs, the trees, the river, and the… river.  Really, the river steals the show sometimes.  And the kids love it too.  Here’s so photographic proof of their love.

Lizzy was not hesitate at all, but walked right in.  It was very shallow where we started her playing.  At first she just wanted to horde rocks, but she soon got the hang of throwing them into the water and threw rocks for 20 minutes straight.  (She really is a Hedengren/Dunn.  Both my family and Dell’s are good rock throwers.)  I’d give her a pile of rocks and when that was gone she’d sign for “more” “please.”  But then that was too slow for her so she sat herself on a large rock and would throw a rock in, reach over and grab it out of the water and throw it again.  She kept throwing the same rock for a long time.  And it was a good rock, the size of a small grapefruit.  It made a very satisfying splash.  Lizzy would grunt her “1,2,3, boom” with most of the throws too.  She’s so funny.

Dell and Henry hiked up the stream a bit until they found this perfect swimming hole.  The water came up to Henry’s chest and he loved jumping and playing in there.  Lizzy and I hiked up when she tired of rock throwing in the shallow part and we introduced her to a little pond that came up to her waist.  She LOVED it.  She splashed and splashed the water and tried to grab rocks to throw in.

By the time we left this part of the river, Lizzy, Henry, and I were soaked.  Dell stayed dry because I was the one carrying LIzzy (and getting splashed by her rock throwing.)

The hike itself was glorious.  The temperature was perfect.  Just hot enough that being wet wasn’t uncomfortable, but cool enough that being dry was comfy too.  And the sky was my favorite shade of bright bright blue.

Henry hiked the whole way, though on the way up he started to run out of interest so we then had to be jedi soliders sneaking up on seperatist troups.  We set traps, cast spells (not sure where that came from, maybe super mario brothers), and snuck along as quietly as we could at times.  We each had a stick.  Mine a small wand, Dell’s large and curved and so was a bow, and Henry’s big thick stick (which he’d brought from home) was his sword/wand.  You can see his stick in the picture of him in the swimming hole.  He lugged that stick the whole hike and we even brought it home again for the next hike.

Lizzy, doesn’t sleep in her carseat very well, but it looks like the backpack is a better place to nap.  Here she is.

going, going….

GONE