he's not even 7 months!

today i was hit by the crazy awareness that xander is really not even 7 months old yet. he acts so much older and interacts with us so much. he is so much fun and such a joy! i just love him!
he was playing peek-a-boo with me and trying to get me to chase him around the house. he would crawl a little bit and then look back at me. when i would tell him to get back here he would just giggle and crawl a few more paces. then stop and look back at me. then he giggled and went around the corner. when i went over to check on him, he was just sitting there watching the corner, waiting for me to come get him. he squealed in delight as soon as he saw me and tried to crawl away quickly. he is so cute! and so much fun!
he keeps me quite busy. i don't know how i will ever get everything done before we move! thankfully kim faires picked him up and gave me a few hours to get things done today...what a blessing! i got more done in those few hours than i have in the last few weeks! then i headed over to their house for family dinner which was very good-like always. but a day is not over, unless there is a little shopping to be had! which we did. 1 aleah and i hit up some bargain shopping and got some cute clothes for 3 and 5 dollars a piece! we love a great deal!!! (we did each pick up some pretty spicy shoes too...but we paid with cash so that doesn't even count) ;)

stress free = great hair!

I know it has been awhile since I have posted any new thoughts, but in case you didn't know- Brandon, Xander and I are moving in one week and still have no idea where we will be living!!! There is a lot of loose ends for us to tie up and deal with right now. Trying to get ready to move, find a new house in a new town we know very little about, say goodbye, clean, finish shopping at my favorite spots...the list goes on. There is just so much to think about that I have been reminding myself not to get stressed out. This is a hard thing for me to do since I like to have everything planned and in order beforehand. If you know me at all, you know that is the biggest understatement of the year! ;) So as I have been freaking out about everything that has to get done- I realized that I should just relax and let it all be! Hakuna Matata... But that wasn't as easy to do as it may seem. Until I realized that if I stress out too much, I will start to get grey hair and then I started having this vision of my hair all growing in wild and freakishly long and unaturally bright sliver and scraggly. Oddly enough, it was curly too and stuck out all over the place. I looked like a haggardly old witch! So now, I am convinced more than ever not to worry about it. Everything will work out...I am just anxious to have some answers. But I know God will provide. He always takes care of us. He never fails. We are so blessed- I don't know why I ever worry. But when my mind starts to get away from me, and I start to think about all the little things we have to take care of- I just envision the scraggly old "me" witch hunched over with knappy silver hair and I have to just laugh at loud and let it all go!

Breaking up is hard to do...

Tonight was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.  We hosted an appreciation dinner for our high school ministry volunteer staff this evening.  It was very nice to be able to relax with our friends and enjoy our last "meeting" with everyone.  Although we are sad to say goodbye, the night was surprisingly filled with a lot of laughs.  We all just love each other so much and really have so much fun together.  Everyone had such nice things to say to us...it was really very special and made us feel so appreciated.  The GIRLs were especially outrageous tonight!  Good times...

This is following an especially emotional evening last night.  The Youth Group through an awesome party for us, starting with the world's biggest limo as transportation to the church!  There were about 60 students crammed onto the Mexico bus, hanging out the windows, waiting outside our house to take us to the party!  The night was full of so many students, friends and parents with such thoughtful words for us.  Thank you to all of you who helped make our night so special.  We really felt so appreciated last night and love you all so much!  We will miss you...

Another good day...

Any day that I can find time to scrapbook with a friend is a good day in my book. Becki came over this afternoon and we had a great time talking and scrapbooking while Xander took a two hour nap! That is a lot of scrapbooking!!! It never seems to be enough time though...

This evening we got to go swimming at the Trent's house to celebrate Jon's birthday.  That is always fun because Xander can be quite entertaining in a pool.  He gets so excited and starts flailing his arms and legs and squealing until he finally gets in the water.  And then he just flaps around with this huge grin on his face for the whole time.  It is quite cute!  Needless to say we took a ton of pictures since Xander is oh-so-photogenic! Unfortunately they are on Becki's camera so you will have to wait a few days to see them! Until then...

$14.23

As always, my Sunday mornings start out a bit rushed! It is a bit difficult to get myself and Xander fed, bathed, dressed and out the door by 10:15 am.  This rarely happens on time, because inevitably there is some sort of untimely issue that always manages to save itself until the moment I am trying to load up the car!  Plus, Xander always decides he wants to take a nap about 20 minutes before it is time to leave...which also tends to complicates things.  Why can't he wait until we get to church to take his nap? Today, Xander decided to practice utilizing the full range of his vocal cords during the sermon.  Up and down, loud and louder...he has quite a joyful little spirit! Finally Aleah decided to take him outside to walk and play with him until it was over.  And THEN he decided to fall asleep!!!  We enjoyed a nice lunch at Yuet Bistro and then Aleah and I met Jill at Khols to get in a little shopping.  I found some great jeans and adorable sunglasses...on sale, of course!  Afterwards, we were feeling a little tired (Shopping can really wear a girl out!) so we headed over to Dutch Bros to visit Chelsea and enjoy some cold drinks.  I got my favorite- blended Chai tea, again.  Later we got to hang out with the Barnes and the Faires' for Sunday Night Family Dinner and watched a little of the Olympics.  I feel a great sense of accomplishment when i can look back on my activities and realize I had a very full day- all for the low cost of $14.23!

Brandon Hendriks the best real estate agent the world has ever seen!

My day started off great with a lovely blended chai tea that Kim brought me. It really hit the spot! We were supposed to be scrapbooking, but we didn't get much done(ok- we never even pulled out our stuff!). Brandon was in quite the feisty mood with many sarcastic comments but we can't complain because he kept us entertained as he pretended to be a homemaker! Ha ha! We are enjoying watching Xander learn how to crawl around while we show the house to all the many renters Brandon lined up to view and potentially rent our house. It was quite eventful, in a very uneventful sort of way...Later, I went over to the Barnes and had some awesome guacamole! I was just telling Bran that I wanted Anna to make some. It is soooo good.  And I don't even like guacamole. ;) Then my day took a sudden twist when we headed over to the Faires' to pick up some scrapbooking supplies. Anna and Kim played with their stickers and I got to talk to Tyler for a long time. It was really great to catch up with him...He is a good friend and I forgot how much I liked hanging out with him. ;) Now I am heading back to the house and hope that Xander sleeps through the night so i can get lots of beauty sleep!

Joining the Dark Side

So, today Kim Faires came over to help we create my new blog. We decided that this would be a prudent choice, since "the Hendriks three" will soon be moving to Modesto and need a newand easy way to communicate frequently! I never thought of myself as a blogger, but I guess I am converting to the dark side! I am really excited to start posting daily pictures (of xander, of course!) so that I can keep everyone in the loop of all the happenings in our exciting lives! Stay tuned for more, coming soon...