Merry Christmas 2009

We are so thankful that we had a wonderful Merry Christmas with our family. Since we are expecting a new little girl in our family this year, we had a few changes to our usual traditions. I(Christine) have been put on bed/couch rest, so Brian was the hero of the day - cooking, hosting the family and doing all the other things I couldn't do. We were blessed to have my parents and Gram with us to celebrate our Savior's birth . We missed our other family members A TON of course, but we are giving thanks for our MANY blessings!

A Baby Changes Everything

Since the weather seemed to be holding out, Ethan and Allie and I went to see the Live Nativity at our church. It is our third year going and it was fun as always. There was a little misty rain but thankfully it was in the high 50s - not too cold. Our church choir sang several beautiful Christmas songs and the night of baby Jesus' birth was portrayed. The live animals and tons of hay made it feel more real. Since I have the privilege of carrying our precious new daughter this year, I have been struck with how Mary must have felt that Christmas night - that made me think of a song that is sung by Faith Hill called "A Baby Changes Everything". Oh how we praise HIM for coming and changing our world!


A Baby Changes Everything

Teenage girl, much too young
Unprepared for what's to come
A baby changes everything

Not a ring
On her hand
All her dreams and all her plans
A baby changes everything

The man she loves she's never touched
How will she Keep his trust
A baby changes everything

And she cries, oh she cries

She has to leave, go far away
Heaven knows she can't stay
A baby changes everything

She can feel it's coming soon
There's no place, there's no room
A baby changes everything

And she cries and she cries O she cries

Shepherds all gather round …
Up above the star shines down…
A baby changes everything

Choir of Angels sing
Glory to the newborn king
A baby changes everything, everything, everything, every day
Hallelujah

My whole life is turned around
I was lost and now I'm found
A baby changes everything!

Catching Up

Well, it seems my last post was in June. That is probably because life got a little (a LOT) crazy starting in July. We found out in early August that we were expecting an addition to the family!!!

So I was feeling pretty lousy for July, August and September. We did manage to go on a family vacation to Melbourne, FL in August - morning sickness and all! Brian and I also celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by renewing our vows and I turned 40!!! Hopefully, I will be posting a few pictures from these events eventually.

So we started the fall with a great anticipation of finding out about our new little "person" as Ethan calls the baby. On October 29, I had an ultrasound and we found out. IT'S A GIRL!!!

So I have started another blog "That Girl" for the pregnancy photos and the Lord willing, our new daughter's photos. So if I am "missing in action" on this blog again, check That Girl. I am going to TRY to update that one more faithfully.

Disney-Pixar Presents: UP

Today was a fun summer Saturday. It was in the high 90s here in GA so Ethan, Allie and I headed to our fun little local theater where we bought 3 movie tickets, 3 popcorns and 3 sodas for the grand total of $21.00. I know people, that is crazy. There are definitely some advantages to small town life:)
We saw the Disney-Pixar flick UP. It was SO much better than I thought it would be. I will post the link to the review that gives a summary. It actually had a plot - that is a bonus with a "kid" movie - believe me, I have seen my share that had NO plot whatsoever. After it was over, we all were talking about how much we liked it and Allie said, "That was the sappiest kid movie ever!"
No wonder I liked it:)
So we went home and hit the pool - Ahh summer:)
http://family.go.com/entertainment/article-653095-movie-review--up-t/

Silas Makes Us Smile

Well the Wii is a lot of fun and the pool is great but they cannot compare to the joy brought to us by a little squishy bundle of fun named Silas.
We cannot thank my sister Shannon and brother in law Sean enough for coming to see us and bringing this newest and very precious member of the family. He brings a smile to all of our faces with his charming personality and adorable cuteness! Four months old and he is already brilliant and has SO many adoring fans:)

Happy 15th Birthday Ethan!!!

Ethan Mark Henry is 15 years old! June 4, 2009 was a great day in the Henry house. We surprised Ethan with a Wii! He is a pretty hard boy to surprise - he has been picking out his own birthday/Christmas presents since he was about 5. He was totally shocked and overjoyed when he saw that box! And, so far, this is the best present we have ever bought. The whole family loves it - Daddy, Granddaddy, Sean and Allie have been enjoying it just as much as Ethan has. We are so glad that Shannon, Sean, Silas, Grandmommy, Granddaddy, and Gram could be with us to celebrate - it made the day extra special! They all gave him lovely gifts as well - Wii games that he has been DREAMING of!!:) We all love that precious boy and thank Jesus for him every day!

Opening Day for the Henry Pool

We LOVE summer!!! And it was finally warm enough to get in the pool! Ethan and Allie were beside themselves with joy. We didn't have the deck last summer so the new "thing" is jumping off the deck into the pool. They are such little fish - it's a good thing I love fish!!!

Locks of Love

Our sweet Allie has been talking about donating her hair to Locks of Love for quite a while and she finally decided that June 2, 2009 was the day for the cut!! We are so proud of her selfless gift and her kind generous heart. We all LOVE her new short "do" and I think she might love it the most. I am so glad!!!

41 Years of Love

My precious parents celebrated their 41st Anniversary on May 24, 2009. Mother and Daddy are such a blessing to all of us and are the most wonderful parents (and grandparents) in the world! We were so glad to be with them that day - we all went up to Rabun County to the Dillard House. Only Gram had been there before and it was gorgeous scenery and amazing food. It is family style - they bring bowls of yummy country cooking to the table and keep refilling the bowls until everyone is satisfied. We definitely were!! I bought a Dillard House Cookbook and the history of the Dillard House and that whole area is very interesting. I highly recommend going there for a special occasion sometime!

Green Works

Now I am not exactly the "greenest" person you will meet. But Allie is determined to "greenovate" me. She asked if we could buy this cleaner that is supposed to be more "green" than the old cleaners I have used since the dinosaur age of the 80's. So, we bought it (very sceptically, I must admit) and it really is an OK cleaner - no big prizes!

BUT, I discovered a FABULOUS use for this stuff that is not really what it is intended for(sorry dangling preposition!). Wanna know what? .............. It kills flying bugs!! Now, FYI, I cannot rest when there is a fly in my house. It drives me nuts, and sometimes in the spring and summer, it seems like there are millions! (maybe 5 or 6) Back in college, in the good old aerosol (told you I wasn't green) hair spray days, I found out that you could spray flys with hair spray (in my mind this was better than spraying pestisides everywhere and I CANNOT stand fly swatters - squished bugs - YUCK!) and it would slow them down long enough to scoop them up with a paper towel (more waste, I know) and throw them away with no mess............ WELL, one day it occured to me that instead of wasting my hair spray and getting the whole house gluey, there must be something else I could spray on them to slow them down. VOILA, Green Works, works!! You wait until they land, spray them, and it totally makes them slow enough to squish!

I know this is a crazy subject, but it is the small simple joys that make my day!:)

Happy Mother's Day

It was a very happy mother's day. I am so privileged to live in the same town as my precious Mother and grandmother(Gram). I don't even have the words to say all they both mean to me. All the memories of happy times are such a gift that they both have given to me. All the money in the world can't buy parents and grandparents who adore you - it was simply a wonderful merciful gift from God that I received gratefully. I am a very VERY blessed girl to have Mother and Gram as examples of all that a mother should be. I love having this photo of the four generations. May 10, 2009

My Love Hate Relationship with Ebay

I started selling things on Ebay about a year ago. Some days I am super motivated and feel like listing tons of items and I get a strange thrill out of making the listing perfect and beautiful. I love making the font color match whatever I am selling and taking a million pictures until I get some that are just right. Can you say "control freak?"

And then they start changing the rules on me. Now you can no longer use a picture from another website(at least not from J Crew) in your listing. GRRR!!! Using those professional shots used to make my listings so much prettier. sigh. I mean the money is nice(of course!), but I think it is just the student in me that needs to do a little project and (in my mind) if the item sells well, that is my good grade.

I haven't had a real job or a real grade in about 15 years so I guess this is about as close as I can get. Maybe I should get Ethan and Allie to give me a report card on mothering. No nevermind. That would not go well.

Cooking - not so much
Cleaning -"who's coming over?" asks a kid.
Laundry - THAT I can do - anything involving clothes is kinda fun.
Gardening - I killed my fake plants
Grocery shopping - only once a day (can't remember to bring the list)
Loving them - OK I rock at that.

Maybe I'll go back to school someday or get a job that involves a paycheck but for now it's back to Ebay :)

Happy Birthday Catherine!

Today is our precious Catherine's 11th birthday. She is the eldest daughter of my sister Lisa. They live in AL and we will miss seeing Catherine today on her birthday. Last year on her 10th she celebrated at our house(see photos). Ethan, Allie, Catherine and Emily(Catherine's sister) had a fun time together. They love being with their cousins.

Pogo Anyone?

Last night we came home from Five Guys (and a little shopping) in Commerce and I was reminded of Ethan's latest "thing." He has been dragging out all the ancient toys lately. His latest one is the pogo stick that I believe was also a gift from Aunt Shannon. (Apparently she gives all the gifts with staying power!) He has gotten amazingly good at it and can stay on for at least 35 bounces at a time (that was from the time we actually counted them). He is such a fun and funny boy. We all love him so much.

Awana Girls Sleepover

I forgot to take my camera to the sleepover so I am posting some Awana photos of Allie from the Grand Prix race that they had last month. The group shot is of all the homeschoolers that raced and the next is Allie and her friend Naomi who is a wonderful TFC student that has been so sweet to Allie. The last one is Allie with her car - it was so cute and Allieish.

So, the sleepover was LOUD. We had it in the Family Life Center(the gym), so we had plenty of room to spread out, thankfully. There were 24 energetic third-sixth grade girls who all had very healthy lungs. Everyone brought a snack and drink so we had lots of chips and dip, cookies, cupcakes, etc... all the things that I make myself walk past without picking up at the grocery store. YUM!!! They played on the gym floor with the Awana scooters alot, and they played "Sleepover Town" in the classrooms with all the rooms being a different business. We had a pinata which they LOVED and we managed to get it broken open with no injuries. We had ice cream, and then popcorn and a movie and finally called it a day around 2:30am, but they were still whispering at 3:30! The funniest thing to me was that especially several of the younger girls got GREAT joy in asking me what time it was about a million times during the night. They would find out, and squeal with joy that they had never stayed up so late - it was very cute. It was a very short night of sleep - the parents arrived at 8:30am and they were met with some sleepy little faces - none of which were ready to go home:) So, it is over for another year - Allie was blissfully happy the whole time and loved every minute of it, so it was worth it. I love that girl.

Springtime and a New Scooter

Ethan got a scooter many years ago from his Aunt Shannon for his birthday one year and lately, that has been the main attraction when Ethan and Allie go outside to play. They had been taking turns with his without complaining and doing very well sharing one. So today, we went and got Allie her own scooter as a surprise. I love to reward them for good behavior when they aren't cooperating just to get something - for some reason, they had never asked to have more than one scooter. Anyhow, Allie got a Razor with pink wheels and handlebars and she loves it and Ethan loves having his own one back! Now races are the main activity - I am praying for no broken bones!!!

HE is Risen!

HE is risen indeed!!! Sunday, April 12 was Easter Day. It was a beautiful sunny day, so in the afternoon, the Henrys and the Mitchells went to the TFC campus to take some family photos. Toccoa Falls is one of our favorite places to take pictures, but seeing the rubble of Gate Cottage was very sad. We had to run from the bumblebees a few times because of all the pretty blooming flowers, but otherwise it was a successful day. We love spending time with Sean, Shannon and baby Silas who slept through most of the pictures - SO cute!!!

Braves Win!

On Saturday, April 11, Brian had tickets to see the Braves play at Turner Field in Atlanta. He invited our bro in law Sean to go with him, Ethan and Allie. They all had a great time, stayed for the whole game and came home with new hats and lots of fun stories. Meanwhile, I had a rare day of shopping with only my sister Shannon and sweet baby Silas. We met up with Mama, Daddy and Gram for dinner at Artuzzi's and made a pitstop at Krispy Kreme on the way home. The hot sign was on! We were all blessed with a fun day together.