blog slacker

Okay, so I've been a total slacker about updating our blog. I will try to do better. I need to since I love looking at all of your blogs and get so excited when you have a new post. So here's to a less slacker Anna in the future. Cheers!

Here's a quick update of all we've been up to in the past months.

Wonderful visit from Dell's parents. We love being with them. We had so much fun showing them our favorite bits of Texas. Hiking Enchanted Rock, eating at Rather Sweet bakery in Fredricksburg, and the stopping at the living history farm at the LBJ Ranch on the way home. Henry got to gather an egg from a real live hen house!

Here's a picture of Henry and Grandpa having a nice chat on their way down Enchanted Rock.

We Decked our halls! I love Christmas and putting up our Christmas stuff makes me so happy. I love having a Christmas house. For the first time ever we put up lights on the outside of our house-- way to go Dell! (Super efficient LED lights which are awesome!) And Henry and I handled the interior. Though Henry roamed back and forth and took most of the picture from the event. I love our Christmas tree. It is huge and bushy. Looks totally wild with branches sticking out everywhere and it was so tall we had to cut off some of the top since our 6-7 foot tree from Lowes was scraping our 9 foot ceilings. What else has been fun is how into the tree Henry has been. We have the lights on a timer and every night when they turn on Henry comes running. "The Christmas tree is sparkling!!!" He also loved hearing the story of each of our ornaments and when Grandma and Grandpa Dunn called that evening he gave the a telephone tour of the tree. "and that ornament, see (holds phone toward tree then brings back to his ear) is from when mommy was a little girl. And the star is to help us remember Jesus, and....." Super cute. I love almost 4 year olds.


Dell putting up the Christmas lights. Picture taken by Henry


Once our house was Christmasfied we headed to Utah for a quick visit with my parents. It was much too short but oh did we have a great time. Dell taught Henry to ski which was the highlight of the trip for him I think and I was so impressed at how well Henry did. (Since his mom is terrified of skiing and hates fulfilling her wifely duty to ski with her sweetheart.) But Henry just strapped on his skis and went off with Dad for an hour. Then, when they came back to the lodge at Alta to warm up a bit, I asked Henry if he wanted to stay with me and he said "nope, I want to go practice skiing some more." And off they went for another hour-- this time up the sunnyside lift. Henry's favorite things: "going super fast", red light green light, and bowling (where Dell would give him a little push and he'd scoot forward like a bowling ball.) The day after Alta Dell and Henry hit Snowbird and skied for another couple of hours-- this time taking several lifts. Luckily I got to hang out with my brother on the patio near the fire. It was great to have some time with Mark.

Little Skier

Other highlights of the trip include: Henry playing with cousin Sams and Eden, celebrating Christmas and birthdays, lights at Temple Square, gingerbread party with my aunt and cousins, the traditional Hedengren sibling lazar tag war-- oh how we have fun. Though being 7 months pregnant really hurt my ranking. Emily was the new queen of lazar tag. She dominated this time! Henry also loved going to the Children's museum in Salt Lake. He still talks fondly of the "boys and girls museum" and wants to go back almost every day (though we are moving to just twice a week mentions of said museum.) And I learned that I am super grateful for the USO where during our 3 hour layover on the way home I got a nap, some food, books, and met a really fun couple that happen to live just down the road from us. Small world huh?

Dell and Henry at Temple Square

Our most recent activities include scurrying for Santa, playing with family, and enjoy Texas in December. While we've had some cold (35-45 degree days) we've also had some 60-70 degree days and oh do we love those. Yesterday was such a day and we spent the whole day outside working on the garage, watching Henry race his trike up and down the sidewalk and we finished with an Arby's picnic in front of the garage after a last run to Home Depot. Oh what a great day. (If only BYU had won. Sorrow and sigh. Oh well, there's always next year. Go Cougars!!)