Introducing... Wyatt Nelson Hensley

At 4:30a.m. on Wednesday January 30, 2008 Wyatt Nelson Hensley came into this world weighing 8lbs. 1oz., 20 inches long. It was a fairly easy delivery, and we're so happy he's here with us! He is such a good baby and seems to be easy going so far! Maddie especially loves to hold him (I've got more pictures so far of her holding him than Jonas or Eliza!) They all love him, and it's so sweet to see them with him. I obviously don't look the best in these pictures, but that's okay you all understand I just had a baby right!? So I hope you enjoy seeing our new little one!We love him so much already!

perspective...

Happy New Year!! Its been a crazy week just trying to get back into our normal routine again. And again I have pictures to post from the Holidays, but what do you do! I'm writing to announce that today is my 30th birthday. It seems hard to believe that I'm 30. This used to seem like a number that seemed so old, and yet I don't. I was discussing with a friend yesterday what 30 is if 40 is the new 20? Anyone know??? I guess it's just 30. I'm not depressed to be 30 at all... I'm happy. I wish when I was 20 I had the same perspective on things that I do now. I'm sure in 10 more years I'll be even wiser. (I hope so!) I'm doing right now what I knew I'd be doing all along at this age, and I'm glad. Although I don't think I imagined at 20 that I would be pregnant on my 30th birthday with my 4th child, but I knew I wanted to be done having children by the time I turned 35! So I guess it all works out! I'm 33 weeks pregnant, so really not that much longer to go until our little guy is here! I'm getting excited for that!
I would also like to give a big cyber hug to my Aunt Delores today as it is also her birthday too! Happy Birthday Auntie D!!

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas...

Which looks like we will get as we are in Indiana visiting my parents for Christmas... and they have SNOW! Its been awhile since I've seen any, and the kids are pretty excited to get to play in it! I just wanted to post and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I'm typing this on Josh's laptop as we roll into town at 6:20a.m. after driving all night! Surprisingly enough we got here in 12 hours! After Christmas we are heading south to Florida to visit the Hensley family.
Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

the joys of motherhood..and rude people...

I love being a Mom. Do I love it all the time? Honestly no. But I love my kids, and I love that they are mine and their sweet personalities, and all the little things that I know about them that no one else knows.
Eliza is 2 and into being VERY INDEPENDENT... she wants to do it by herself regardless if she actually can do it or not. (yesterday she wanted to zip her coat up by herself). Anyway, last week was my last week to get some last minute shopping done for Christmas as Maddie is out of preschool for break. Eliza was up at 6:30a.m. and by 10a.m. she was pretty cranky and ready for a nap, but I figured we could manage a run to Target and go home. While there she got out of control, so much so that a really nice lady offered kind words of understanding, and helped me find something I was looking for. As I knew Eliza could take no more I ran to the check out lane, pushing a cart, and holding my screaming child and obviously big and pregnant; I get in line, and this lady I think thought she was helping, decided to loudly say (or maybe it was because Eliza was screaming) You need to go ahead because she's been screaming for a half hour and obviously needs to go home. (way to state the obvious huh?) And proceeds to try and direct everyone else to move for me. Everyone else in line had one or two things, I had a cart full, I said no it's fine as I didn't want to cut the old man holding a huge bench... thankfully a new line opened and the Target worker ushered me over, not before the nice lady from before started yelling at the other lady for being so rude to me. They started arguing for a minute. Needless to say, I was very mad at this lady for really making me feel worse than I already did and practically saying you're such a bad mom for letting your child scream like that and not leaving immedietely. Had I not been dealing with my 2 year old I probably would have said some not so nice things to this woman, instead I said nothing and did what I had to in order to leave the store.
So Sunday we go to a Christmas party after church for a guy that works in Josh's building that we've met before. Nice couple, big house, no kids at home anymore. There were kids there and our kids played great with them and had fun. As we were walking out the door a new guest had arrived who works in Josh's building, but Josh doesn't know him really at all. He sees me pregnant and then our other three walking towards the door and says: "Geez Josh 3 kids and one more on the way I'm sorry Man". I really could have just hit the guy. He doesn't know us!It was just a week of rude people last week, it made me want to yell out loud LEAVE ME ALONE!
I wasn't feeling very festive last week...but thankfully I haven't dealt with anymore rude people in the past few days!

pictures finally!

been a bit busy....

So I'll just do a quick list of happenings going on here since I last posted and will (I PROMISE!) follow up with some fun pictures:
celebrated Halloween, Jonas as Luke Skywalker, Maddie as Tinkerbell, and Eliza as a fairy.. had so much fun trick or treating with Eliza this year especially when she realized she got candy!
-Jonas has been improving and doing well at school and church. He's really coming along with sounding things out, and writing... and was given a little award for most improved in reverence in Primary. I was so proud of him, and he was proud of himself as he showed his certificate! (his behavior has greatly improved all around, it's amazing what a difference a year can make!)
-Eliza turned 2... wow, time sure has flown by! She's become my little repeater. She loved her Elmo cake and balloons.
-Got to see both Jonas and Maddie's Thanksgiving programs, and they both did so good! Jonas is still singing this song about fat turkeys!
-Put our house up for Sale... as the market is so slow we decided we didn't want to be stuck trying to sell in a hurry... we'll rent the last half of our stay in Norfolk, which I'll be sad to leave our home, but glad it will be one less thing to be stressing about.
-Drove to Atlanta for Thanksgiving, had turkey and all the fixings at a hotel and saw the Colts vs. the Falcons... there were a lot of Colts fans besides us, I was surprised, Jonas went and covered his ears most of the time, but I think he had fun.I know I did, they won of course!
-In between all of this we've been battling chest colds, coughs, and fevers as the weather has been warm, then cold then warm again. Which of course is no fun. I'm still coughing and its been a week.
-I'm 30 weeks pregnant, and still doing good. I'm measuring a week ahead, but they won't change my due date... but I figure this little guy will arrive at the beginning of February.

For Marie... because she tagged me...

Okay, my friend Marie www.marieshecticlife.blogspot.com posted a comment on my blog and basically forced me to do this... okay I guess forced would be the wrong way to say it. She does live half way around the world so it would be easy to blow her off. BUT I figured what else do I have to do with the next 15 minutes of my life so I can do this. So I'm supposed to share 6 secrets about myself that most people don't know about me. I will say that I don't think Marie's were all that surprising!
so here it goes:
1) In order to get my 1 1/2 year old to let me do her hair in piggie tails in the mornings I will let her play in the sink and squirt as much soap as she wants to make BUBBLES. It's very wasteful I know, but it lets me get her hair done and she always looks cute.
2) I never have a clean scrapbook room. Okay this isn't a secret, most people know this, but you would think I could get it together with my own room and a door to close and get it organized. I'm working on it.
3) I wear makeup regardless of whether I'm actually going to see anyone else I may know, or not see anyone at all. I know it's weird, but I prefer to at least look decent for myself.
4) I exercise at least every morning at 6a.m. doing different exercise dvds that I've purchased (except yesterday when Josh says, it's 6:36a.m. honey and knew I wouldn't have time and didn't realize that he didn't set the alarm the night before).
5) I watch the Young and The Restless...yes I know there are better things I could watch... and I tivo it so I usually watch it when my kids are asleep but I've been watching it for years..yep it's my little dirty secret.
6) I sometimes play the what-if game with myself when Josh is gone. What would I do if something happend to him is the one that goes through my head. You know the would I stay in VA, go home to IN, get a job, etc.
I try not to do this one often, but when he's gone sometimes my mind kind-of goes that way.
Okay now that I've revealed some stuff about myself I have to say I will tag
Jenn (cause I know you're going to anyway!)
Cindy
Gina
Jenna (cause you haven't posted in awhile)

my own private clean sweep...

A few weeks ago my friend Barbara found out she is having her 3rd girl. The age difference between her 2nd and 3rd will be 5 years. She mentioned she had gotten rid of most of her baby girl things awhile ago, so I told her I'd give her some baby girl clothes since I know I'm having a boy! Anyway, I carried up 6 large plastic storage totes from the basement. I gave her three large trash bags full of clothes sorted out from 0-9months. Then I have a storage tote full of clothes that are wrong season that I'll give to my brother-in-law and his wife that just found out they are having a girl. Then I filled two trash bags and a large diaper box full of clothes that I don't even know why I ever kept them! Then on Monday I finally brought up the kids toys we'd put in boxes when we put in storage when we thought we were going to try and sell the house. I never brought it all up, but I decided once and for all to go through it while Maddie and Jonas were at school and Eliza napped and bag it up and put it in the car. So 4 large storage totes, and 2 medium size boxes later I managed to get 3 trash bags of toys and stuffed animals out of my house, and find a place in the attic for all the kids toys. It was a nice clean sweep for me. It felt so good to take all that stuff to goodwill! It was also like Christmas for the kids to see toys they hadn't seen in 6 months! They have seriously played with their toys more in 2 days than they have in weeks! I think I need to box things up like that more often!

Happy 8th Anniversary to us tomorrow Oct. 15th!

So it's our 8th Anniversary tomorrow, and unfortunately Josh is out of town for work this week. I absolutely love this song right now, and it makes me think about how I felt about relationships at that time we met, and then falling in love with Josh. So much has happend in our 8 years of marriage it was hard to pick photos to put on a slide show, really how do you pick and choose? It has truly been a great 8 years of marriage. I got the best Man in the world, who is my best friend, is a great husband, and father. I love you Josh! I look forward to getting a real date with you this weekend!

So sweet.....

Lately when a prayer is said, be it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, family prayer when one of the kids says the prayer (Jonas or Maddie that is) they've been praying for baby Wyatt (which is what he plan to name him) in mommy's tummy. So tonight for our bedtime prayer Maddie says: "Please help Mommy's tummy to get bigger." And my thought was, okay Heavenly Father, just the baby to get bigger and not the rest of Mommy okay!? I'm sure he understood what she meant. =)

It's a boy

Just an update for those I may have missed telling this to, we found out on Tuesday that we are having a BOY! We're very excited, and of course Jonas was/still is excited. I went to his school to have lunch with him after I found out. He had a happy look on his face, but seemed like he knew all along that he was right that he was going to finally get his little brother. He hugged me 3 times during lunch, it was so cute. He also has told anyone that he sees that he is going to have a little brother, he's very excited.

Weekenend whirlwind.....and catching up...

This weekend seemed to just soar by! Friday night the kids and I went on our annual ward campout at the Kiptopeke State park up on the eastern shore. It's such a nice park. Josh didn't get home in time to go, so it was just the kids and I. Thankfully there were some nice husbands in the ward to help me set up my tent, and Jenn and her kids shared the tent with us. It was fun. We enjoyed a nice evening eating and talking, roasting marshmallows for smores and throwing them at each other.
Saturday we went down to the beach that was near the camp area for a little while there were some kids in the water, but I thought it was a little too chilly to get in, although Jonas and Maddie both got wet. Then we headed home and spent a nice afternoon at home. Camping with 3 kids and being pregnant definately wore me out, by the evening I was very tired. I will post pictures later.
For now I'm enjoying some quiet time while Eliza takes a nap, and the older two are at preschool. I'm still trying to get caught up on housework that wasn't done while I was sick last week. My bathrooms are cleaned, but I still have tons of laundry to fold and put away, and more to wash. It's a never ending cycle. Tomorrow at 10a.m. I have my ultrasound appointment to find out the sex of the baby. I'm planning to go to Jonas' school to have lunch with him and tell him. It should be fun. I will post about that too.

A little older... maybe a little wiser

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to my 10 year h.s. reunion. (in case anyone out there is reading this is wondering, I did an extra grade between Kindergarden and first grade called reading readiness, so I was 19 for 5 months of my senior year, but I digress) It must be my month for getting reacquainted with old friends. First I got to see my wonderful friend Angie whom I've known since age 14, and then later introduced her to her hubby while in college. (my one and only successful hook-up.) Then another old friend named Eli from Minnesota that I have known since I was 16, we met at a Bands of America Summer Symposium, which was also a band camp in Normal/Bloomington, Illinois. (yes I was a big band geek! geesh!) Well, he and his lovely wife Tiffane spent an evening with us for dinner and a few games, and a little Sunday Night football too. (the Minnesota Vikings were one so we had to watch!)
Okay, so back to my High School reunion. I did not graduate from a large high school. Our class was 130 people. I had hoped for a bigger turn out, but it was small, but there was a turn out. It was fun to see people I'd not seen in 10 years, and find that most people are relatively happy, or at least seem to be. And for the most part people are the same, but seem to be wiser and mature. It was fun thinking back on the high school years. I had lots of fun, but I'm so glad I never have to be in high school again. Sure there weren't a lot of responsibilities, no little ones to take care of, no home to keep clean (just my room right mom!). High school was a blast, but there was a lot of drama back then that I think, why did I ever care about that? And now I wouldn't, but I guess you have to go through all that to
figure it out. Oh and the school is pretty much exactly the same as it was 10 years ago.
So we had some little door prizes at the reunion, and my friend Teresa's husband won this chair that we're standing around, so a few of us decided to take a picture with it. Fun times.

First Day of school, the suds....

So you may have wondered where I've been the first few weeks of September. Jonas started Kindergarden the day after Labor Day. His teachers name is Miss Berg, and he seems to like her pretty good. So far he enjoys school, but seems to be glad when he's home so he can get some free time to enjoy the computer and a break from learning.

Maddie didn't start preschool until a week later, but the Saturday before school, she got the suds... a.k.a. the stomach flu. (the Suds is when Sponge Bob Square Pants gets sick, but he calls it having the suds) So Maddie missed her first day of school.
Eliza also got sick right in there too,
then of course a week later Jonas gets it, and still seems to be having small battles with it even a week later.
This weekend we took a trip home for my 10 year high school reunion (which I will post about more later, and by Saturday night I felt like I was getting it. I made it mostly home before really getting the beginning of it. At least I'm not throwing up like the kids, but still not enjoying how I'm feeling.
On a more postitive note I find out the sex of the baby Oct.2nd. So I'm looking forward to that!

Pennsylvania/NYC trip pictures

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

recovering from vacation and a recap...

After a week of GO GO GO on our vacation last week we are home. A few times on our way up to Philadelphia Josh and I took turns saying, "are we there yet?" because traveling with children during the daylight hours is much more difficult when everyone is in such close proximity to each other in the car. (I think you get my drift.) I think I did learn a few things for our next vacation that I'm going to share:
1. pack pants and jackets even in August! (It was cold the first half of the week, in the low 60s during the day!)
2. make sure that camera actually stayed on the charger long enough to get charged. (I got no pictures of us in Philadelphia, I was sad=( )
3. have 2 dvd players, girls and boys don't always enjoy watching the same things, and it does become an issue on a longer than 3 hour drive.
4. drive at night so the kids are asleep, it makes the trip go much faster. It's much more difficult on the parents, but a lot better for the trip!


Overall it was a fun trip. I will post our pictures later. Here's a brief recap of our trip....
went to Phildelphia downtown On Tuesday and saw Independence hall and went through it where the declaration of independance was signed, saw the liberty bell, ate a REALLY good cheese steak sandwhich (gotta do that in Philly right? )
Went to New York City Wednesday , went to the observation deck in the Empire State Building, went to Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty from afar (wasn't a good day to ride the ferry in the morning), went to the Disney store which was so cool, went to the FAO Schwartz (the one from the Movie Big with Tom Hanks and the giant keyboard!), went to Little Italy and had some really awesome Pizza from a small place that had cute outdoor seating on the sidewalk, saw lots of knock off bags, and lots of I heart NY shirts, went to Central Park and visited strawberry fileds, went over to the Alice in Wonderland statue and the water there, saw Times Square at night and ate at the McDonalds there before heading back to our hotel in Philadelphia. And we got to get on and off the subway a lot, and it was cleaner than I expected!
We went to the Crayola Factory on Thursday and saw how Crayola crayons were made, and the kids got to color on stuff and play!
Friday we went to Sesame Place, and Eliza called every single character she saw "Elmo". It was so cute, she had so much fun, but when we had dinner with the characters she was afraid to get close to them!
Saturday we went over to Trenton, NJ to visit Josh's cousin Michael, his wife Chrissy, and son Christopher. They fed us lunch, the kids played and then it was time to make our journey home.
We returned home at 11:30p.m. Saturday night.
Today was spent doing laundry and just spending a relaxing day at home. =)

Birthday, Busch Gardens, and Beaches just pictures

My list of things I've been doing

Because of lack of time at the moment to write a proper post I will list some things I've been up to, and will post some pictures SOON!
-went to Busch Gardens with some of my friends to celebrate Nicole's birthday
-went to the DC temple with the kids for a primary activity, also saw my sister Marilyn while there
-have had my other sister Christine and her two children visiting, we're playing lots of Mormon Bridge (our families card game played with Rook Cards),went to Busch Gardens (again) yesterday and have plans to go to the beach today
-Getting back to school supplies
-Cleaning kids rooms and toy room, trying to declutter
-Getting ready to leave on Vacation next week!!

First signs of life

Just a quick post, today I had doctors appointment and got to hear my baby's heartbeat for the first time. After doing this 3 times, it still is such a beautiful thing to experience hearing the heart beating of your unborn child inside you and know that there is life. At this point I'm not even showing that I'm pregnant being only 12 weeks. It's nice to know that there is something going on in there. =)

Fun in the sun..

Its been awhile(okay a month, but that's awhile for us!) since we've been to Watercountry, so this morning after we had breakfast I posed the question to the kids, " do you guys want to go to Watercountry today?" and received a very excited YES from all three. Within minutes the bathing suits were on, towels were loaded up, sunscreen was lathered and we were out the door. We had a fun time, and the day went by fast. We enjoyed our favorite slide Big Daddy Falls first, and then headed over to the kiddie cove where the kids played for at least 45 minutes in this yellow raft which they shared and did so happily for most of that time. I love days like this when you get out of the house, do something fun that everyone enjoys and then come home tired but happy. It was also a nice quiet ride home since the girls both fell asleep while we waited in some traffic trying to cross the Hampton Roads Bridge tunnel. Hopefully everyone will fall asleep fast and easy tonight!