Emmett

Amy pointed out how completely terrible I have been with my blog. Since she has moved away and doesn't get to see my kiddos growing up and with my slacking on my blog, I am on her list. So these next few posts will be dedicated to her. We miss you Aunt Amy!I have a picture of Livie and I in the exact same position, on the exact same (ugly) couch. Thanks Daddy for capturing those pictures of us!
Emmett loves to swing and is such a content baby.

Emmett's first smile I was able to catch on camera. Actually it was totally a fluke. I just snapped a picture as he was starting to do this yawn sort of thing and this is how it turned out.

Emmett's first EasterEmmett in his Easter outfit. Such a handsome little man.

Random Pictures...

Livie is growing more every day. She is an amazing big sister and takes great care of Emmett.
Emmett & Great Grandpa Nelson

April 14, 2011 Emmett's first bath. He really loves the water and did well for his first bath.

I can't believe how tiny he is in these pictures! He has grown so fast! This is his bouncer that he loves!

Yay! A new post!

FINALLY! We have internet again! I have so much updating to do! But don't worry, I'll try hard not to overwhelm anyone!

Emmett's First Photo Shoot

On April 29 we finally got Emmett's pictures taken. I love all of them so much, I had a hard time picking! He cooperated incredibly well and only cried once. Wish I would have gotten them done sooner, but life has been so crazy! He is 3 weeks old in these.I really do love baby feet! They are so tiny and cute!
Emmett is a happy baby and smiles all the time.

He is so strong and has been able to hold his head up since birth! And I love all the wrinkles and his handsome blue eyes!

Emmett Michael

Our little additionEmmett Michael Hendrickson

April 8 at 4:51 am

7 pounds 15 ounces 20.5 inches

(Me just before heading to the hospital)

Thursday, April 7 was quite the day for us. It started out pretty normal. I took Livie to gymnastics and Dave headed for his busiest school day. After gymnastics, Liv and I went shopping for a few groceries. I didn't feel all that grand and had a couple of contractions at the store. I'd been having braxton-hicks since my 2nd tri, so I didn't think much of it. Dave was able to get out of school a little early, so Liv and I picked him up and took him to his car. (couple more contractions) When we got home, I decided (Dave made me take a nap) to take it easy and Dave left for work. I had promised my grandma we would see her that late afternoon, so when Liv and I got up from our nap, we headed out to see her. Since I don't have a surger, I took some fabric to my mom's and made some more newborn hats. I still wasn't feeling great, but wasn't having anymore contractions. Dave persuaded me to just buy pizza for dinner and had 2 more contractions on the way home. We had dinner (more contractions) then Dave headed back to work. As I was getting Livie ready for bed, I really started feeling yucky. I hopped in a tub to see if I could relax enough to get the contractions to go away. After all, I was going to be induced on Monday. Of course Livie was worried about me, so she came into the bathroom with a bunch of her tub toys. "Want some toys? They make you feel better." My contractions weren't going away and Liv was getting wet, so I finally broke down and called Dave. Our conversation went about like this: "Honey, you need to come home." "Why? Do we need to go to the hospital?" "No, I just can't take care of Liv while I'm in the tub having contractions" "But we are not going to the hospital?" "No, just having braxton-hicks. We are going to be induced on Monday. I just can't take care of Livie. Will you please come home?" Dave came home at about 9:30, called my mom and finished packing my bag. All the while I keep telling him, "We are going to be induced on Monday." "We are not going to the hospital." "They'll just send us home." "My contractions aren't consistent." When my contractions were coming 5 minutes apart, Dave decided we were going (I finally stopped protesting). We arrived at the hospital at 11:15 and got checked in. We got settled and the nurse came in to check me just before midnight and said, "You're already at a 5. If you want an epidural, better get your paperwork filled out." She hurried out the door and we hear her say, "We need to get set up in here, she's gonna cruise!" At that point, panic set in! Thankfully, all went well and our baby arrived just a few hours later.

I am so grateful for a wise husband who doesn't listen to me sometimes! Happy Daddy with baby Emmett!He is such a cuddlebug! Mommy sure loves it! "Big Sissy" as she likes to call herself, meeting Emmett for the first time. She is such a great helper (yes, sometimes too much. We had to have a talk about soft spots the other day) and loves "Baby Brother and Emmett."

Emmett all ready to come home from the hospital. He is such a great baby and we are so blessed to have him in our family!

Trauma

So there we were, at the dinner table, and like a three year old will do sometimes, Livie was misbehaving. So we told her that if she didn't stop she would get part of her Oreo dessert taken away. She persisted misbehaving so I was forced to executed the punishment, and I must admit, it must have been way more traumatic than I thought. Upon seeing her mere two Oreos, she hung her head down in remorse and told Steph and I, "It's hard being three!" I though it was hilarious, but I probably shouldn't have laughed.

Livie Got Her Ears Pierced!

On Wednesday, March 30 we took Livie to get her ears pierced. We had tried once before just after Christmas and she totally freaked out when the girl tried to wipe her ear with an alcohol swab. So Dave and I told her that she could get them whenever she wanted them. Her reply was always the same, "NOOO!! I DON'T WANT MY EARS PIERCED!" So on Sunday when I was getting ready for church, Livie pulled out some of my earrings and asked if she could wear them. I told her she had to have her ears pierced to wear mommy's earrings. "Ok, I want my ears pierced so I can wear Mommy's earrings." I was pretty skeptical. Monday came and she wouldn't let it go. Tuesday she played with some of her friends (all of which have their ears pierced) and she again asked if she could have hers pierced. Wednesday we had a doctor's appointment at which she informed the doctor that she was getting her ears pierced today. So, we took her. We filled out all the paperwork and let her pick out earrings. The girl at Claire's informed us that if we came back in an hour, she would have another worker there so we could do both at the same time. We left and picked up some lunch, with Liv talking all about getting her earrings. When we got back to the mall, she climbed up into the chair and said she was ready. She did AWESOME!! I am so proud of her, she cried a little after it was done, but by the time we got out to the car, she was ready to show them off!

We love you Livie! You are such a big girl!

Baby Shower

On March 26 some of my neighbors gave Baby Boy and I a shower. I really do have the best neighbors! It was such a blast and all the presents were so wonderful! Poor boy didn't have much of anything til then. We had such a great time visiting and playing a few games. Thanks girls!

Mustache March

So there was a competition for March's drill and Army ROTC. Betcha can't guess what kind of competition it was?! Did I mention how much I hate facial hair?? The worst part is military regulations don't allow the mustache to pass the corners of the lips. So it really just looks like a bad 80's cop mustache. Luckily, Magnum PI didn't last long. Dave came home that night and shaved. Thank goodness! He did point out that everytime he tried to kiss me, I would pull away. To that I replied, "Duh!!"

Dave's note: I won that competition and earned the privilage of being called "Rambo" the rest of the evening!

Farewell Sam!

Dave's youngest brother, Sam, was able to come and visit us one last time before being deployed. We had a big going away party and enjoyed spending so much time with him. Livie couldn't get enough attention from him. She got a large sticker book and loved placing stickers on people's backs (especially Sam's). Some people even had stickers probably where they didn't want them! That's my silly girl! We are so proud of Sam and his willingness to serve this wonderful country and protect us and our rights. We are the land of the free because of our brave countrymen and women. Thanks Sam! We love you and you are in our prayers!

A Big Milestone

Sunday was a big day for us. Livie sang for the first time in sacrament meeting! I was so proud of what a great job she did! She walked all the way to the front (of course we were on the LAST row!) by herself and stood right next to the mic and didn't even touch it! Yes, that is a huge accomplishment for us! She loves the mic in primary and I thought she for sure was going to take advantage of being next to it and Mom too far away to do anything about it! Our primary sang two songs, neither of which did Liv participate in. Silly girl! But I really couldn't be more proud of her just for standing there! I was slightly emotional (I blame the pregnancy) because Dave wasn't able to be there. Sigh, guess I should be use to it with the military. Maybe we can work on the singing part next time!

Living Planet

On February 19, we headed south to go to the aquarium. On the way down we stopped and picked up Ryan, Jen and Hailey. We had so much fun. Liv and Hailey loved seeing the different creatures.
Petting (or lack thereof) the stingrays. I don't know why they have this, the water is so deep that you would soak up to your shoulder before you could reach one. But Livie and Hailey sure liked playing in the water. I tried not to think about how gross that water had to be!Liv's favorites were the penguins, frogs, gator and spiders (really, she liked looking at the big, fuzzy, black tarantula!) She flipped out when we tried to show her the sharks. "I don't like sharks!" she kept telling us.

This is a little "reef" for the kids to play on. As you can tell, Livie kept poking her head out wanting me to take pictures. We had to bribe her to get her to leave.

We had so much fun and would love to go back. You can have birthdays there; maybe next year...

USU Basketball Game

On February 12, we went to the Utah State men's basketball game. We had a great time and Livie was totally into it. I was worried she would get bored after just a few minutes, she proved me wrong!She LOVED watching the Aggies play! And she could not get over Big Blue. Every few minutes she would ask us where he went.

"Show me a true blooded Aggie from Utah who doesn't love the spot where the sage brush grows!"

Playing Catch Up

I am so far behind! However, looking at my camera, I haven't been taking that many pictures anyway. Made me feel bad because Livie is growing so much each and everyday. I will do better so you are not just reading when you look at my blog.

Dave's birthday was on the 25th of January. Livie and I made him his favorite dinner and took cupcakes to his work (the next day because he took his birthday off.) We were glad he did because we had a crazy day full of surprises and frustrations. (Don't really want to get into the details, it still makes me upset.) And to top it off, our front porch started to sink and our little woodpecker friend is back to wake us up each morning, creating a home in our stucco. Gotta love HOA's! The next Sunday, we had cake with our families. Dave is still a little tender about his age, so we really didn't do much.

Valentines Day was pretty crazy, too! Monday's are our busiest days, so Dave headed to school and Liv and I headed for dance. We met back at home for a quick lunch so Dave could go to work, then I took Liv to Great's house and I went back to dance to teach. After, Dave met me and some friends at dinner. It was really fun to go out with them and nice to not have to cook. I wasn't feeling top notch and Tuesday came down with a cold. Luckily I am feeling so much better, because Saturday is the 6 year anniversary of our first date! Can't believe how fast time goes by! We like to do something special on that day rather than for Valentine's, so I am really looking forward to this weekend. Maybe I will actually take some pictures so I have something to post!

Olivia's 3rd Birthday

For Livie's birthday, she picked a PINKALICIOUS party. If you have not read the "Pinkalicious" books, you need to! They are super cute! We had a really good time for her party.First, the girls colored wood cupcakes Livie picked out. I thought these would only entertain for a few minutes, however, the girls all loved it!

Next we opened up presents. Livie got lots of fun things. Her favorite came from Amy, Derek, Allee and Pierce; it is Twilight Turtle which she named Dude (yes, from Finding Nemo. But she didn't like Crush, so she decided he should be Dude.) Dave and I gave Livie her first pair of tap shoes and I made her birthday outfit.
Of course we had cupcakes (again, read the book if you haven't!) Livie was super excited about having candles on her cake, but unfortunately she was not able to blow them out. She talked about it for the next week that she didn't get to blow out her candles.
Liv helped me make the cupcakes. They were pink lemonade ones. She helped me put the food coloring in, so they were neon pink!
The last thing we did was this cupcake pinata. Wow! It was a big hit! Livie picked out all the candy to put inside it . . . candy bracelets, rings and lipstick, ring pops, laffy taffy and princess wands.
I can't believe my baby is now 3! It has been the most wonderful 3 years. She makes me so happy and we have a great time together. I am so grateful we have been given such a sweet spirit in our family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA!