Christmas was great!! The girls loved their dresses from Grandma. Alexandra was a little disappointed that she also didn’t have a matching dress. We found Kate’s by accident, so we were lucky just to have the two that matched. They were cute. I tried to get a picture of Kate and Sarah together, but Kate doesn’t cooperate when the camera comes out.
January 29, 2009
December 24, 2008
New videos!
We have a number of new videos up on our YouTube channel. It’s been busy around here with Christmas concerts and the like. We have Chris’ first high school concert, playing his bass in both in the jazz band and the concert band, and Sarah’s very first choral concert. As you’ll see, they both did a great job!
Unfortunately we didn’t get a couple in, thanks to the local fear of winter weather. Mason’s choral concert and all of the kids’ piano recitals were cancelled, but they will be on again in January. This means we’ll have more to show everyone then!
To check out the videos, click here.
In other news:
- Sarah auditioned for a part in her upcoming school play, ” The Princess and the Pea”. She was chosen for the part of Princess Gillian. She will be singing as well as acting, and is very excited. She has rehearsals every week, and will until the performance in April.
- Mason passed his Board of Review and earned his First Class in Scouts. This new Scout troop has been great for the boys and they are learning a lot. Chris has taken on a bunch of service projects, including gathering food for the Washingtonville Food Bank.
- Chris has also been working hard on bass. He earned a spot in the All-County High School Orchestra. We have been told that it is unusual for a 9th grader to get in, so we were delighted!
- Allie is our constant piano player. She is always figuring out a new song by sight reading, or making up her own. Not bad for a seven year old! Both of the girls regularly play piano in Primary. They also don’t have to be badgered to practice. We like that.
- Kate is true to her nickname, “Busy Lizzie” (Elisabeth is her middle name). There is no keeping up with her! She has learned how to be a big helper from her brothers and sisters, and is eager to help with any project she can get in the middle of. She is also very excited about snow and Christmas presents.
December 10, 2008
It’s a Girl!!!!
This is Claire, we are still deciding on a middle name. Mason was a little disappointed because he really wanted a little brother but I know he will get over it because he loves to be Kate’s big brother. (He just wanted to kick Chris out and share his room with the baby.) We are thrilled and glad that she is healthy and growing. The scan took a while because she kept moving around. I guess she still has a lot of space to move around in. Our next step is bunk beds which is good because Kate is getting a little big for the crib.
December 7, 2008
After Thanksgiving post
 “Everyone is thankful for me!” |
 Thanksgiving dinner plate |
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Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now that we’ve recovered, we’re blogging about it. It was a busy week for us. Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks came out to visit from Utah for the week. Since the kids were in school at the beginning of the week, we didn’t get to go far, but we put Grandma and Grandpa to work and kept them busy.
We did go into the city the night before Thanksgiving to see the balloon inflation for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It took us an hour to get to the city, and then an hour and half to fight traffic and find a place where we could park. We ended up parking down near Columbus Circle and taking the subway back up to 81st St. It seems like everyone else had the same idea we did, and since we got there late we were out of luck. It was cold and crowded, but the kids had fun. We followed it up with a trip to an authentic NYC Chinese restaurant.
Thanksgiving Day was laid back. We didn’t go in for the parade because seeing the balloons was bad enough. Besides, you can watch the parade in HD and be warm at home. We decided to smoke a turkey on the grill again this year, and Grandma cooked another turkey in the oven. With all the side dishes, we had plenty of food!
We have a bunch of photos we’ve posted from our Thanksgiving exploits. You can see them by clicking here.
November 23, 2008
Fall comes to New York
 The giant leaf pile |
 Reflective fall leaves at Silver Stream Reservoir |
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I love fall, and I love the colors, but I hate the leaves. This big pile was the fifth pile we cleaned up that day. We cleaned up a total of 58 30-gallon leaf bags, for a total of 1740 gallons of leaves. This was the 2nd time (out of 3 times) we had to clean up leaves. The other times we only had between 18-20 bags each time. The only reason this is fun is so the kids can play in the leaves. The piles were so big they jumped off a step stool.
There’s also a very small window to get pictures of the fall colors. One day after getting the kids off to school, Kate and I ran around and took pictures of the fall leaves by the lake and by the trestle.
Click here to see our set of fall photos!
November 10, 2008
Kids’ News in November
A couple of Kids’ News items -
Sarah’s won an award at her school for Student of the Month in November. Her teacher wrote us a really nice note detailing what a nice girl Sarah is, and what an example she is to the other kids. We’re proud of her!
Chris Jr. won a spot on the All-County High School Orchestra. He worked really hard practicing for this slot. Apparently it is unusual for a 9th grader to get a spot in the High School Orchestra, because the other kids have been playing for so much longer in some cases. His hard work made the difference here – he practiced on the audition items for at least an hour a day, 6 days a week. This was in addition to piano practice, and bass practice for school and jazz band. What a great achievement!
November 4, 2008
Surprise?
Well, some of you may be surprised. But we weren’t surprised. Baby # 6 is something we’ve been planning on and now it’s on the way. The baby is currently due on May 4, but is likely to be born earlier than that.
We got the first picture of the baby on Monday. It is about 14 weeks along at this point, so this shot is really zoomed in, it’s only about four inches long at this point. We told the kids on Monday as well, and they are really excited. They are constantly asking Stephanie if she can feel it, and making plans for its birth and living arrangements. Kate constantly is coming up to Steph, pointing at her belly, and saying “baby in belly!” Mason hopes this one is a boy because he knows it is his last chance to have a baby brother. If it is, he is planning to kick Chris out and have the baby live in his room. Mason figures that Chris won’t be in the house for too many more years, and also that Chris is an obnoxious teenager, so he needs his own room. The girls want to come to the baby’s birth. Chris was 7 when he saw Allie born, and Mason was 10 when he saw Kate’s birth. (No, they don’t get to see the full scene – they stay up by the head of the bed) This has led to some interesting observations, like Chris thinking Allie was covered with bar-b-que sauce, and Mason cutting Kate’s cord. But it seems to have been a good experience for them.
We’ll post more as we get pictures, and we’re excited to find out what it is! We always like to know so we can plan ahead, and we’ll still be surprised at 16 weeks. Who needs to wait until 38 weeks?
November 2, 2008
Our new YouTube channel
As we’ve indicated before, we’ve decided to kick .Mac/MobileMe to the curb because it is sucking (sad, but true). However, our other Apple iApps work just fine, and are pretty awesome for free apps. iMovie has a feature that allows direct publishing to YouTube. YouTube gives out free accounts. So our newer “low cost” blog solution can now do video as well!
Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/user/hendricksfamilyny
I’m putting up the videos from the piano recital and All County we had published previously on .Mac. What this also means is that I will need to start working on editing video again… so watch for updates…
November 1, 2008
Halloween 2008
Halloween, as usual, is always very busy. This year we decided to add some fun by decorating outside. We have been saving milk cartons for a couple of months to make 3 more skeletons to add to the 3 we made last year. To this we added lights, a ghost, a pumpkin, and some scary sounds coming out of the garage. We had to scramble to set up the last of it after running around most of the day finishing up some errands and running to the girls’ school twice for their costume parades. We tried to light up the skeletons with some black lights but they were too weak. We got an excellent idea from our neighbor using fluorescent ballasts and bigger black lights. We will be looking more into that next year. Of course we also had some very last minute costumes to throw together for the boys who had to dress up at the last minute. If you don’t know what Mason’s costume is, you are not alone. He went with a friend to a crazy neighborhood that really gets into Halloween. Only one person knew who he was dressed up as. He claims he is Spaceman Spiff, the space man from Calvin and Hobbes. It didn’t matter, he came home with half a pillow case of candy. This year, Junior decided to stay home and pass out candy. As it got dark, he would stand real still by the porch with the rest of the decorations and as people reached in to get candy he would scare them. (If you look here real close you can see him by the porch) He got a few people really good which was hilarious. One girl only touched his arm and when she realized he was real she jumped back and screamed which scared the rest of the group. He had a lot of fun and can’t wait to do it again next year. (more…)
October 29, 2008
Sarah’s 10th birthday!
Hard to believe, but Sarah is turning 10. She’s into the double digits! She had a fun birthday. Mason organized a trunk-or-treat activity at church, and invited a bunch of her friends. They came dressed up, and a few went all out and decorated their car trunks accordingly. We like Mason’s selflessness with things like this (but you know, as parents, we wish it extended further sometimes – like working together on chores, or just getting along. Oh well, we take what we can get.)
Sarah also had a custom cake she designed with Mom. It had a Disney princess theme, and she got to pick everything out. She did pretty well in the presents department too – some clothes and books that she really wanted, and a new baby doll that actually eats, drinks, and fills its’ diaper! Gross! Also included was a cupcake machine that was also on the wish list. She has not offered to make me any cupcakes yet, but I will keep asking.
You can see the other pictures from her party by clicking here.
October 28, 2008
Picture day!
This picture shows the biggest smile we got from Kate as we went to have her pictures taken (late 2nd birthday pictures). She smiled on command at home, but once we got to JC Penney’s she was not as excited. Luckily the girl taking the pictures had a fast finger so we had a couple turn out. She was actually pretty well behaved for a 2 year old, and even left the curlers in until Mom took them out.
Click here to see her other cute curler shots.
October 27, 2008
Hello world!
Hello again, hello.
We decided to move everything to WordPress because frankly, .Mac/MobileMe was just too flipping painful. You’ll see our old entries appear here as we migrate them, and new ones coming up soon. (Actually, the Plum Point post is new, but we backdated it because we never published it. Take a look.)
October 14, 2008
Family campout at Plum Point
We recently decided to have our boys join a community boy scout troop. The last two weeks have been very busy with meeting new people and getting involved with this new troop. We have met some really great people and the boys fit right in with the rest of the troop. They are very active and have a lot planned over the next few months. The boys will be getting ready to go on a 20 mile hike in November. It is great to find such an active scout troop. If you can imagine the boys actually run this troop with the help of some incredible leaders.
This last weekend they had their annual family camp out. So we went with the boys Friday night to Plum Point to go camping. Plum Point is a little park right off the Hudson River in New Windsor. It is supposed to be where the first trading post was in Orange County. We had a lot of fun even though we didn’t sleep well on the hard ground, with the trains rumbling by all night and gun shots (nearby hunters) ringing through the early morning air. Kate thought it was fun to sleep in her own sleeping bag even though she spins when she sleeps and ended up with me in my sleeping bag. It didn’t matter to me, I wasn’t sleeping anyway. On Saturday the boys set up stations to teach some incoming Webelos about their troop and Mason got to help build a monkey bridge. It took a good part of the day to build it but he got to be the 2nd scout across. It was pretty cool so we all took a turn and I think the girls probably did it three or four times. We were exhausted from chasing Kate so we did take the girls home for a bit so she could take a nap. We went back that afternoon for dinner and a bonfire. In the evening around the fire we got to experience a very loud and crazy camp fire program which all the kids really enjoyed. Kate fell asleep and it was getting cold, so after some quick marshmallow roasting we all went home, showered and crashed for the night.
Click here to view all of the photos from our campout!
October 5, 2008
Kitchen band-aid project
 Kitchen – Before |
 Kitchen – After |
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 Dining area – Before |
 Dining area – After |
It’s been a couple weeks since we posted. That’s because we’ve been occupied doing a quick makeover of the kitchen and surrounding areas. Our house hasn’t been updated since it was built. You can see this in the “Before” picture. Same linoleum and wallpaper as the house had in 1986, “rustic country” wood flooring that was splintery and nasty, and a doorway into the dining room that is not used. Also, there was no room for Steph’s buffet and hutch, where most of our dishes and the like are kept.
So we decided to do a number of quick things to make the kitchen and dining area nicer and a little more updated, but nothing too expensive or crazy, since we’re planning a full kitchen update in 3-5 years. So we figured that we would get the walls where we want them, put in a laminate floor, and do some painting. Pretty easy, right? Yeah, seems simple, but there was a little more to do than we thought.
Demolition was easy. Sheetrocking and prepping the sheetrock for paint was easy. Moving the wiring for the thermometer and phone was easy, but took time. Moving the central vac point was not too bad. Getting the laminate down seemed easy, but there were a couple of sections that were complicated, like the kitchen and laundry room. Apparently if you haven’t done this before, you should start in a nice square room. It took us a little time, but all of the linoleum is covered, the gross wood floor is gone, and the laminate is down. Some new mouldings and paint were added, and the kitchen is almost done. One wall is left to paint, and that’s due to the wood windows and trim that need to be refinished and painted.
Click here to view a full set of photos from both demolition and construction.
UPDATE: It’s done! The kitchen and dining area are finished. Some painting is left in the laundry room, but it can wait.
September 3, 2008
First day of school!
 Girls first day of school |
 Boys first day of school |
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After such a busy summer we were all excited for school to start. Chris is a high school freshman this year. It makes me feel really old, it is hard to believe how quickly time flies. Mason is in 7th grade and glad not to be in the youngest group at school. Sarah is in 4th grade and Alex is in 2nd grade. The girls were so excited to go to school they were out on the front porch waiting for the bus 20 minutes early. Oh, how I wish every school day went this easy!
