The Hendricks Family Experience

July 5, 2009

Happy Independence Day!

Filed under: Holidays — Steph @ 9:54 pm


Every year since we moved to New York we have gone to see the Independence Day concert and fireworks at the Trophy Point Amphitheater at West Point. This year it happen to fall on the 4th of July. It has taken us two years to learn were you want to sit and we didn’t want to end up watching the fireworks through the trees again so we went to the concert 5 hours early. It was very busy this year so we ended up on a rather steep hill. (We learned that you need to go spread a blanket the night before.) We still had a great view of the concert and fireworks. It was a little hard on the kids so the girls played in a little spot in front of us until the concert started.  They put on another great concert followed by a fantastic fireworks display over the Hudson.  We got two for one this year because in the background across the river we got to watch another fireworks display. It was a fitting backdrop for the West Point Concert and fireworks display.  The kids had fun picnicking, sliding down the hill and eating too much food (which they paid for later). Kate drove us crazy being the busy 2 year old.  She had fun being chased around, and digging in the dirt until the fireworks started.  She is not fond of the loud booms (I have to admit that is my favorite part of fireworks.  The louder the better).  She spent most of the display with her hands on her ears or hiding under the blanket. She refused to watch any of them even the ones across the river. Chris had fun playing with our new camera. I think he took over 200 pictures. Claire slept through the whole thing after a long day and when it was finally over  we quickly walked to our car and were able to  escape the traffic.   After a few u turns, one bloody nose, and 2 car sick girls we made it home in time to clean up and go to bed. I am not sure it was a restful holiday weekend but we had a good time.

We wish we could have slept in but today but  we had to get up and take the boys to Scout camp.   So this morning we took the whole family up to Ten Mile Rive and hang out for a little while before leaving the boys and returning home.   They were not sad to see us leave though I am happy Mason will still give us a hug goodbye.   It will be strange to only have four kids at home for a week.  There will be no time for rest this week as we get ready for our trip to Utah. I decided to make dresses for the girls. (What was I thinking! I remember you cant find any cute dresses out here.) We also have to take Chris’s bass in for some work, pick up the boys from camp and a million other things. But life wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t have my family to keep me busy. If you want to see some more of Chris’s shots from the fourth click here.

June 3, 2009

Claire’s Baby Blessing and Alexandra’s baptism

Filed under: Uncategorized — Steph @ 2:20 pm


Time for some catchup once again. We have been pretty busy. My parents came out for a week to visit. We didn’t do much but hang out and love the baby. At least I wish that was the case. We had several concerts that week. Jr. had a couple of Scout hikes he had to go on. Chris’s parents came on thursday and came straight from the airport to see Masons concert. On Friday we went shopping and got food ready for Saturday. It was a crazy week. On Friday our rhododendrons bloomed just in time for us to take some pictures Saturday morning before Alexandra’s baptism. My father baptized and confirmed Alexandra and then while we had everyone here Chris’s father blessed Claire. It was a great day. Alexandra was so excited she has been waiting for weeks. She is such a good sport to wait so we could do it all at the same time when our parents could come to New York. The kids enjoyed having their grandparents come to visit and see them perform. Kate enjoyed dragging Grandpa Stamm all over the back yard. She kept tapping her finger on her chin and saying, “I have an idea.” Then she would have him push her in her car or sit by her, or push her on the swing. They had a good time. She has been saying she misses her grandmas and grandpas and will be excited to see them this summer.  We have some more great pictures of Alexandra, Claire and the family.  If you would like to check them out click here.

May 4, 2009

The Princess and The Pea

Filed under: Kids, School, Talents — chris @ 12:33 am

Sarah decided earlier this school year to try out for the school play. She’s never tried anything like this before, including singing or acting in front of anyone, so we were surprised but encouraged her. She made it through all of the auditions and callbacks to find out she had won one of the lead parts in the play! Very exciting.

This was at the first part of the school year. She had weekly rehearsals and she spent a lot of time learning her lines and songs. Well, last week it all paid off. She performed for two nights and did a great job. She played the part of Gillian, who is supposed to marry the prince. This meant she had to sing a solo in addition to lines and singing with the rest of the group. She did a great job (and that’s not even a biased Dad’s-eye view!) and it was very exciting to see this side of Sarah. She is a talented girl and we’re very proud of her.

Unfortunately, this also reinforces the fact that she’s growing up. I may have to get my rocking chair for the front porch, and the companion shotgun, earlier than I thought.

Click here to see a set of photos from the play.

The full video of the play is still uploading – I will update this post with a link in the morning. Unfortunately the HD was too large to put online, so we made it as big as we could.

UPDATED:  Here’s the video.  It’s about 35 minutes long, so grab some popcorn! You can also click here to go to the Vimeo page for more options.  Also, the Vimeo page has larger video, and the correct aspect ratio.

April 28, 2009

Claire’s first bath

Filed under: Kids — chris @ 7:43 pm

Well, it’s been 5 days since Claire was born. We brought her and Stephanie home from the hospital on Friday and spent the weekend trying to catch up on sleep. Monday Steph decided it was a good day for Claire’s first bath. Her cord came off and so she was ready to go. It would be a fair assessment to say that she didn’t like it. It was pretty much one non-stop scream from entry to exit. It was cute, and I’m sure one day she’ll appreciate bathtime.

Click here to see the photos of Claire screaming in the tub.  Pretty cute.

April 23, 2009

Welcome Claire!

Filed under: Kids — chris @ 10:00 am


At long last, Claire Allison is finally here! She arrived at 7:07 AM on April 23. She is 8 lbs 3 oz, and is 21.5 inches long. The girls came along to see the delivery and they were so excited and delighted to be the first to see Claire. They were full of questions and got the full tour of the facilities.

Stephanie is doing well, though she is tired and sore. She delivered Claire naturally, though this was not her intention. When labor finally kicked in (after 6 hours), it was too fast to get her an epidural. But everything worked out and now we have Claire.

She had a busy morning. Besides being born, she got the normal baby poking and prodding. She ate breakfast (she is really hungry!), got a bath, and took a nap.  Now the older girls are napping and I think I need a nap too.  We’re all going to visit Mom and Claire this afternoon, and it would be good not to be falling asleep driving to Middletown.

Click here to see Claire’s first set of photos.

UPDATED: Added some more pictures!  Click the above link to see them.

April 22, 2009

A couple springy photos

Filed under: House & Yard, Kids — chris @ 10:06 am

Since spring finally appears to be here, we have a couple photos with a springy theme. Click here to see the full set.

We’ve got the kids in their Easter outfits and some shots of tulips. Not everything has bloomed yet, so we’ll have more to come.

Tulip depth Kids in their Easter outfits

April 20, 2009

Washingtonville Spring Jazz Concert – now in HD!

Filed under: Kids — chris @ 8:03 pm

If you’re not a regular follower of our family, our oldest son Chris plays the bass, both upright and electric.  He’s part of the jazz band at Washingtonville high school, which is an extracurricular thing.  They had a concert a couple weeks back so we tried out the new HD camcorder.

He was able to use the bass that had pickups and could be amplified.  This means we were able to hear him over the rest of the band!  Very exciting.  The jazz band does pretty well for a high school group, and of course, we thought Chris did great too.  One funny thing though, he neglected to tell us he needed a black shirt to be “in uniform”.  You’ll notice he stands out in his bright white shirt!

We uploaded the videos to Vimeo in HD.  If you have a pretty recent computer (read: pretty speedy) and some kind of high-speed broadband Internet connection, you can probably watch in HD.  To do this, just click on the HD icon in the video.  You’ll see it at the top right of the video window when you put the mouse there.

 

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Click here to get to the concert videos

April 4, 2009

First spring rainbows

Filed under: House & Yard — chris @ 5:59 pm

In the midst of the rain on Friday, the weather cleared up long enough for us to get some rainbow shots. These pics were kind of on the end of the rainbows, as I had to run and get the camera.  But we did get some nice shots anyway!

Click here to see the rest of the pictures.

April 3, 2009

Mason’s 13th Birthday!

Filed under: Birthday, Kids — Steph @ 8:19 am


Here I am getting behind again. Having three birthdays six days apart makes it difficult for me. At least that’s my excuse. A few of Mason’s friends came over on Saturday and Chris took them to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D at the IMAX theater. When they came home the ran around outside playing whatever it is 13 year olds play. There were plenty of sticks, oh I mean swords involved. We made pizza but apparently they only kind his friends eat is cheese, (boring!).  They claimed they were not hungry because they ate popcorn at the theater. It is the only group of boys I have come across who where not ravenously hungry after running around outside for an hour. They did have a well balanced dinner of ice cream and soda. They finished off their evening playing on the Wii. On Sunday, Mason enjoyed opening his gifts, eating his favorite special meatloaf and 4 cheese macaroni and cheese.  We followed it up with a white chocolate cheese cake covered with Reese’s peanut butter cup crumbs and white chocolate.  After the amount of birthday cake we have had this month it is good we don’t have another birthday until August.  Click here to see more pictures from Mason’s birthday.

March 29, 2009

Best Birthday Cake Ever!!!

Filed under: Birthday — Steph @ 8:38 pm

This is my slice of birthday cake. Thank you Michelle for finding and introducing me to the best cheese cake I have ever made at home. I missed that she wasn’t here to help me make it. It was so good I had to have some for breakfast too. Then I didn’t look at the scale at the doctors office. It was worth every extra pound. That is why I try to make one only once a year, otherwise I would become very fat.

It is 32 oz. of cream cheese, 1 cup of unsalted butter, 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 2 cups heavy whipping cream, and 6 eggs. Whipped up and then cooked in a water bath, which insures it is cooked evenly. It comes out extremely rich and creamy.

Click here to see more pictures of my cheese cake.

March 23, 2009

Happy Birthday to me!

Filed under: Birthday — Steph @ 8:43 am


Chris thinks he will be ridiculed for buying me a washer and dryer for my birthday. I could have certainly had a new ring or something but boy am I excited. They are going to make my life so much easier. No more bending over, so many washing, and drying options, quieter and most important a much larger capacity. I was able to wash and dry twice the amount in half the time it normally takes me. Now on to my yummy water bath cheese cake!!! Yum Yum!

Claire’s baby quilts

Filed under: Kids — Steph @ 7:49 am
Claire's baby quilt Claire's patchwork baby quilt

I have finally finished Claire’s quilts!!! I normally only make one, but when I went to buy the backing for the first quilt I saw the cutest new fabrics and I just couldn’t pass them up, so I decided to make a smaller patchwork quilt as well. They both turned out really cute and I am very glad I was able to get them done before she was born. Click here if you would like to see some close ups of her quilts.

March 19, 2009

Happy 8th Birthday Alexandra!

Filed under: Birthday, Kids — Steph @ 2:50 pm

Yesterday we celebrated Alexandra’s 8th birthday. It took me most of the day to convince Kate it was not her birthday. She is catching on and Alex was nice enough to let her help open her gifts. She even sang a nice happy birthday song to Alexandra instead of to herself which is what she has been doing since the party on Saturday. Between the two of them we have the cheesiest grins I have ever seen! If you want to see more pictures from her birthday click here.

March 16, 2009

Only 7 Weeks Left!!!!

Filed under: Parents — Steph @ 8:57 am
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It is hard to believe how time flies. If I have my way it will be more like 5 weeks. It has taken me 6 kids to let Chris take a picture of me pregnant some where other then at the hospital. I regret this, especially when the other kids want to see pictures of me when I was pregnant with them. We all know you look your best while you are in labor. I was trying to get a picture of Kate feeling the baby, which usually involves her sticking her face right into my belly. She would not cooperate, which is pretty normal for her when the camera is out. We can’t wait for Claire to come! (I think everyone here is tired of me being pregnant!) March is such a busy month it should help us all pass the time.

Build-A-Bear Party!!!

Filed under: Birthday, Kids — Steph @ 7:44 am

Final shot!

Originally uploaded by Hendricks_NY

Alexandra has been going crazy for weeks waiting for her birthday party at Build-A-Bear. I think she woke up at six in the morning and started asking if it was time to go every 30 minutes. I took her to pick out an ice cream cake and balloons to pass the time. Everyone had a great time picking out their animals and marching all over the store. We then came back to the house for cupcakes and ice cream. I think everyone ate 3 or 4 cupcakes before running off to play. Later in the evening we took her out to eat at 5 Guys burger and fries. Thats one party down and one more to go. What was I thinking having 3 birthdays in March all a week apart.

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