Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. She is the greatest! I don't where I'd be without her. She's been my best friend for so many years, I cherish her friendship and love.

Here is a creative way to tell you about her:
E is for Everyone's friend - She is blessed with so many friends from all walks of life. Wherever she goes, she touches the lives of many and stays in contact with the friends too.
M is for Motherly - Obviously she is motherly to me since she's my mother but she is always taking care and fussing over others. She has to make sure everyone has everything they need.
M is Multi talented - If you start talking to her, you'll be amazed at all that she has done in her life. River rafting, syncronized swimming, baton twirling, and she can ever still touch her toes! :)
A is for Affectionate - She and I are snuggle buddies. Even in while I was attending college I would still go into her room in the mornings and snuggle with her before waking up fully. She has always told me that she loves me multiple times a day and I didn't realize that some families don't always do that. I am fortunate to have her love.
R is for Realist - My mom will tell you like it is. She is not "in the clouds" when it comes to ideas and she is good at telling you advice that is good real advice. She taught me to "own my own mind."
E is for Entertainer - She is always the life of the party and makes sure everyone is having a good time. She is a great hostess and can make a conversation with anyone.
E is for Empowered - She is quite a powerful woman. I'm amazed at everything she's knows and everything that she can do. She has always just picked herself up by her boot straps and kept on trekin'. She's been through a lot in her life and she never gives up.

I love you mom, Happy Birthday!

Christmas 2008

Here are some pictures from our Christmas 2008. We spent the 24th & 25th with our family. From Santa Oaklen got a Bob the Builder set and Salem got his "Spiderman set" that he wanted. :) Grandma Elaine made the pajamas and Grandma Josephson made them red hats. What a great Christmas.

2008 Blessings

Last night for FHE we listed some of the blessings that we received in 2008. I'll share some with you:

2008 Blessings (in no particular order)
* Heather became pregnant with boy #3
* Darrell received a new job position at his employer
* Salem started Kindergarten
* We received new windows and paint for free
* Darrell and I were able to go on a vacation to DC for our anniversary
* Salem & Oaklen were able to have a fun time with their grandparents while Mom & Dad were on vacation.
* Salem played tee ball in the spring
* Heather established a cleaning routine in the home, and it's working
* Darrell was not badly hurt in his bike/car accident
* Salem & Oaklen got to have free lunch at the park almost every day this summer
* Salem learned how to read
* We received free clothes, toys, food, and other things throughout the year
* Heather has been perfecting her bread making skills
* We were able to sell our car and buy a mini van
* The family got to go on vacation to Delta, UT
* Salem learned how to tie his shoes
* Oaklen learned how to ride a tricycle
* Salem learned how to roller skate
* Salem was able to take swimming lessons
* Heather was called as Primary President
* The family has been healthy all year with only a few bruises
* Darrell has been able to go running almost every morning
* Salem made more friends
* Darrell and Heather received no traffic or speeding tickets
* Heather continues to save money at the grocery store with coupons & sales
* Darrell installed a fence so now we can more safely play in our back yard
* Oaklen received an orange garbage truck for Christmas (We asked him what he was blessed with and that's what he told us.)

Merry Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Weekend Highlights

We had a fun, relaxing weekend.
1. On Thanksgiving we feasted with Darrell's extended family. We watched old family slides/pictures and saw some cool things. When we drove home I asked my family what they were thankful for. Salem said "eggs" and Oaklen said "Um...orange" with a big grin. :) Darrell was thankful for our family and I was thankful that we have a healthy family.
2. On Friday we spent the morning putting up our Christmas tree and decorations. The boys were quite excited and loved putting ornaments on the tree and putting up their Fisher-price manger scene.
3. Saturday we were able to see Santa arrive at the Sugarhouse Santa Shack in style riding in a fire truck. (There were 2-3 news cameras but I haven't been able to find anything online about it.) The boys had a great time. Salem said he wanted a "spiderman set" and Oaklen didn't say anything at first but nodded when Santa asked him "Do you want toys for Christmas?"

Here are some pics...(click to view a larger image.)

My mom the clown

Darrell can literally say "My mother-in-law is a clown!" For those of you who know my mom, you'll appreciate these pics...

We had a family Halloween get-together featuring M&M the clown. :) The kids thought it was hilarious! Thanks for the fun time!

The end of my KitchenAid era

When Darrell and I were registering for our wedding, he insisted that we register for a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. He said "to be a true Hendriksen, you have to own a KitchenAid." I thought "Whatever, I don't really understand the whole big whoop over them but okay, I'll register for it, I doubt anyone would be able to buy it for us since it's pretty pricey."

Sure enough, when it was Thanksgiving time (we were still engaged) and we had our annual Hendriksen family Thanksgiving dinner, all of Darrell's aunts started bringing in their KitchenAid mixers into the church to use for mixing & mashing the potatoes! I was amazed that they would literally bring their heavy duty mixer just for that, couldn't they use an easy-to-transport hand mixer? I figured there must be something cool about these mixers.

Later in January, while at work, my boss & co-workers asked me to step into my executive boss's office. There on the desk was a huge wrapped wedding gift. I opened it up and it was the KitchenAid mixer that we had registered for. I couldn't believe it! My mouth dropped open since I didn't expect such a large gift from them. (The standard wedding gift at my office was a basket full of various odd & ends & kitchen gadgets.) My executive boss, who was a single lady and could afford such a gift, just looked at me, smiled and said "you deserve this." That was a nice pat on my back.

I've grown to enjoy the KitchenAid. I liked being able to go get another ingredient from the pantry while the mixer is still mixing. The dough hook is, of course, great for making bread. It has served my family well for over six years.

This past year and a half I have tried (desperately) to make bread for my family. I've always wanted to make bread regularly and am now I'm doing it, but I still would like to perfect my technique and get a nice fluffy whole wheat bread. With my KitchenAid I could only put in a maximum of 6 cups of whole wheat flour (8 cups white flour.) That meant I could only make 2 small loaves of bread at a time, and I'd have to be making bread every few days.

I bought a huge stainless steel bowl($1 at DI) and started making bread by hand so that I could make 6 loaves of bread instead of just two. (I'd freeze 4-5 loaves.)

My family had outgrown our 4 1/2 quart KitchenAid mixer and I wanted something bigger. I was introduced to the Bosch Mixers and fell in love. (Sorry KitchenAid.) I watched a video comparing the Bosch to a KitchenAid for making bread and the Bosch won victoriously. I immediately wanted a Bosch mixer but since they were pricey I needed to "save up" to buy the mixer. (I thought that I'd do that just like Darrell did to save up for his guitar.) I made a spreadsheet (who knew?) to figure out how much I needed to save and entered the info whenever I made a few extra dollars (selling things, birthday money, babysitting, substituting a dance class.)

I was holding out for a brand new model, but this weekend I found a refurbished Bosch Mixer with a warranty from a reputable local store so I decided to purchase that one instead of saving a lot more money for a new one.

I put my KitchenAid up for sale on KSL and Craigslist and sold it today. It was a little hard for me to let go as I was giving the mixer to the lady who bought it. It's an end of an era for me. It was my learning mixer, and I've had fun memories with my boys making food using the mixer. I feel old now that I've upgraded to a bigger mixer, I'm in a new stage in my life.

I feel like I'm still a "true Hendriksen" even though I no longer own a KitchenAid, hopefully the family won't disown me. :)

My quest for bread perfection still awaits me, but I feel that I'm getting closer all the time.

What's new?

When someone asks the question "what's new?" It's often hard to think of something that's new for me or my family. Well, today we have answers to that question.

1. New Car - A van actually. Since our family is expanding we needed a bigger car and Darrell convinced me that we needed to get one now instead of waiting until I'm hugely pregnant to test drive the vehicles. We sold our Honda Civic last Thursday (Darrell almost cried, it was a good car) and ended up buying a Honda Odyssey the next day on Friday night. I searched many different car websites and ended up finding our deal through Overstock.com Cars. If you're in the market for a used car, check out Overstock cars, I found deals on there that I didn't find anywhere else. We were espeically excited to purchase our van at this certain dealership because now we get lifetime oil changes there for free and they'll even clean & vacuum it too!

2. New Garage Door Opener - Our 20-year-old garage door opener has been on the fritz for months and we almost always have had to manually open it. It wasn't such a bad thing since I got out of the car to shut the door in nice summer weather, but because we opened it manually, the garage wasn't as secure as we wished. We saved up our cash-back bonus award and got a Sears gift card to get the garage door opener for free. We of course bought it on sale too at the the Labor Day Sale. Darrell spent most of the day out in the garage installing the new garage door opener. I'm amazed with what he can do! We opted for the opener with the lifetime warranty and all the bells & whistles so now we're set for life. Yeah! :)

3. New School - Salem started kindergarten today. Darrell, Oaklen & I went to take him to school at 8:10 in the morning! I was surprised that I didn't get emotional this morning, no tears. (I must have gotten that all out of me when I cried in the checkout line at Shopko a month ago when we were buying him school supplies.) He was excited and had a good day. One funny thing he said to me as I picked him up and we were getting into the van was: "I thought she was going to teach me like 30 + 30 or something, but she didn't." :) I hope he has a wonderful time in kindergarten. He may not learn as much as he hoped but we can make up for that at home if he's interested. He's learning at such a fast pace that I'm amazed. My hope is that kindergarten will be a good social learning experience.

4. New schedule - With Salem now in Kindergarten we have a new schedule. For months I was preparing for all-day kindergarten but last week they changed it to half-day because the enrollment was suprisingly high this year. I was bummed that they changed it but I'll just have to live with it and I'm sure things will work out fine. Since he's home by 11:00 each day, I've got to figure out lunch for the three of us. It was so nice this summer to just go over to the park and have the kids eat lunch there every weekday. I can't even remember what I used to do for lunches before summer!

I was planning on taking that same institute class that I took fall & spring semester, but now I can't because I have to go pick Salem up at that same time. We can still do story time at Barnes & Noble and go to the library twice a week so I'm thinking that the schedule won't be extremely different.

5. New wardrobe - The cooler weather is fun and gives me good nesting feelings. I need to change around Oaklen's clothing to switch to fall gear. It was nice for Salem & Oaklen to share some clothes this summer, there were many shirts & shorts that fit both Oaklen & Salem (or at least Salem convinced me that they fit.)

I'm not excited about sock weather. It's time to put away the sandals (I already put away my white ones of course) and get out regular shoes. Sock laundry is my nemesis and it's been so nice to only have a few pairs of socks once in a while in the laundry pile.

My belly is expanding and the baby bump is starting to be more like a pregnant belly rather than a frumpy blob. I haven't gotten out the maternity clothes yet but I need to soon. I conveniently have a couple shirts that are the maternity-shirt-style that are trendy right now that I wear often to make me feel more comfortable. I'm hoping that because I will be pregnant during the winter months instead of the summer that I can wear more of my regular clothes since sweaters & sweatshirts are a little more roomy. We'll see.

So, that's my list of things that are new in my life. What's new with you?

Vacation in Delta

Last weekend we went to Delta for a fun family vacation. Darrell's sister's in-laws live there so we went with Darrell's immediate family. The house is right on the shore of the reservoir. We slept in a tent (thanks John!) in their yard, went boating and played in the water & sand for 3 days.

This was a great way to celebrate Darrell's 30th birthday. I made a cake there and we celebrated with all 30 candles in the cake but we had a hard time lighting them because of the breeze.

Here are some pictures. We should have gathered for a big group picture but we didn't.

Happy Birthday Elwood

Today is July 16, 2008. This would have been my dad's 65th birthday. He's been gone for almost 19 years but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't still think about him.

Darrell and I like to think that Oaklen takes after my dad, although we don't have any baby pictures of my dad. Oaklen has the same shape face and eyes as he did, and possibly some of the same mannerisms.

Memories or things I miss about my dad:
* The big "daddy bear" hugs when he'd come home from work smelling like he had worked a long hard sweaty day.
* His legs - he used to wear short shorts to show off his great legs. Some of the shorts were so short that the pockets would hang out of them!
* As he would tuck me in, he'd tickle my tummy and do a sort-of Donald Duck noise with his mouth.
* Whenever he'd tuck me in at night, before turning off the light and shutting the door he'd put up his two fingers up (like the number 2, or bunny ears) and bend them up and down.
* Snuggling on his bed, watching Star Trek and listening to him laugh with his whole body shaking.
* His belt. He always had a cool belt buckle and a leather belt with "Elwood" or "Woody" engraved on the backside.
* He'd often wear cowboy boots, and sometimes his black cowboy hat.
* I loved his waffles. He'd use applesauce and make them really soft & heavy. I had mine with margarine & syrup but he'd put a fried egg in-between his two waffles and eat it with syrup on top.
* He didn't do my hair too often but when he did, he'd put my hair in "piggie tails" and twist it so hard it'd make my eyes squint.
* He taught me how to ride my bicycle. After I had learned for some time over at the high school parking lot, I went down the hill on my street and kept pedaling the whole way. He kept yelling "Coast, coast!" But I didn't know what the word "coast" meant. I ended up falling into Jensen's bush down the street because I couldn't control myself. :)
* My friend Tracee always said that my dad was the only one that could tickle her. She wasn't ticklish otherwise.
* The smell of sawdust reminds me of him. I'd sometimes be in the "shop" with him while he was working on something and I'd love to pick up the cool "quarters" that were on the ground from the electrical outlets and play with them. (The round metal discs that would come out of metal electrical boxes.)
* He used to drive an old blue Datsun truck
* He loved Snickers bars
* While driving he would sometimes open the door to spit on the road. Eew.
* I'd be riding in the truck with him and he'd reach over to tickle my knee & thigh, then he'd have to over correct the steering wheel.
* He had a pair of pajamas that my mom gave him that had kisses all over it. He'd wear them for valentines day and Christmas.
* On St. Patrick's day one year I tried to pinch him since he was only wearing his blue robe, but then he pulled out a sock from the pocket on his robe with a green stripe on it!
* I remember his permed hair. My mom gave him a couple of perms in the 80's.
* He got a black eye by dropping a wrench on it while he was fixing/preparing our van to travel across the country. All the vacation pictures have his black eye.

Here are a few random pictures of him. I was able to get some pictures from the earlier years from my Aunt. These are the only ones I have.

Fortunate Dinner

Last month, Darrell's employer announced that they will reward people with gift cards every month if the employee rides his bike or carpools at least 3 days a week.

Darrell is a dedicated person, he rode his bike to and from work (9 miles each way) every day last month except one! Unbelievable!

So, last night Darrell treated our small family to Pei Wei restaurant using the gift card that he earned. We had great food and then of course, the fortune cookies.
Here were our fortunes:
Heather: "Wealth awaits you very soon."
Darrell: "You are a considerate and a thoughtful person."
Salem: "You have a deep interest in all that is artistic."
Oaklen: "Your mentality is practical and alert."

Camping at the Hendriksen Reunion

Last week we went camping in Wallsburg. It was for the OJ Hendriksen Family Reunion. We all had a great time, here are some pics, click on this big image to view the smaller images more closely.

A checkered daze

Today was a daze for me and my family. We're all sick. Darrell stayed home from work and slept most of the day. Both boys threw up last night. I've got a cough, the sneezes and runny nose, but couldn't rest since I needed to take care of the rest of them. We stayed home all day and finally went out on the porch in the evening to blow bubbles and get rid of our cabin fever.

Salem stayed in his PJ's the whole day. I think that has been the first time for that. He is getting more interested in playing board games. We played "Guess Who?" and Checkers. Playing those games brought back some childhood memories of my sister, Holly, and I playing.

For the Guess Who game, Holly and I arranged all the people with similar features to be together so it was easier to find them. Then we figured out the best way to ask a question to get more people eliminated, like "Does your person have facial hair?" instead of "Does your person have a mustache?"

When we used to play Checkers, Holly would get so mad that I would never move my back row. :) Then finally we'd have a face off between her last king and my last king. We'd both go to a corner and just move back and forth and never go out on the playing field. We were both so stubborn! Speaking of stubborn, it was really difficult for me to play with Salem and not be as competitive as I would have liked. It killed me to let him jump me when I knew it could have been prevented. But, I guess that's what every parent goes through. I'm sure you've read a sappy Hallmark card, or listened to a high school graduation speech that says "Mom, thank you for letting me win at checkers when I was a kid and making me believe that I really did win." I'll have to ask my mom or brother if they ever "let" me win (probably.)

Since it was Monday we did a quick family home evening. Salem went downstairs to get the FHE tree (chart telling you who does what.) Salem and Oaklen pretty much did the whole thing and Darrell and I just laid there on the futon and listened between coughs and sneezes. Oaklen chose the Sunbeam song, of course. He loves to jump and say the word "beam" and "him" at the appropriate times. Salem's lesson was on eating healthy food. He thought that it was a good topic since we were sick. He said "Heavenly Father told me that I'll get better today if I eat lots of feel good food." For the activity we played "doctor" with our medical kit. It's actually fun since you can really hear your "heartbeep" (as Salem says) in the toy stethoscope. My brother always liked to listen to mine to hear my little heart murmur. Bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum, SSSS, bum-bum...

We had air popped popcorn for the snack and knowing from my previous post, Oaklen dumped almost the whole jar of popcorn kernels on the floor. What a turkey! :) I always think about my friend Kristy when I make popcorn. She gave me the blue glass canister that I use to store the popcorn kernels.

Now they're all in bed and it's time for me to do the same. I couldn't go to bed without writing this blog post, otherwise I would have been thinking about it all night. It seems like I always have a blog post going in my head. It's actually fun to have a narrative of my life. Sometimes I'm able to write them down, other times they'll just be stored away into Heather's memory. Speaking of memory...I remember Kathleen in Jr. High told me that I was an elephant. I didn't quite understand, then she explained that I have a memory like an elephant.

Good treats at my house...

My small little family had family home evening tonight. Christa, my sister-in-law gave us a cute book for FHE from Gordon B. Hinckley's teachings. Today's lesson was on love. Salem is a very good listener and he answers the questions correctly, I'm so proud! Oaklen seems to understand that we're doing something. He's starting to fold his arms when we pray.

Salem got to choose the treat for tonight, guess what he chose? TOFU! Delicious...