PARTAY

Yep. I turned the big 2-9 yesterday. Camden and some friends surprised me with a birthday party. My little guys each made me a sweet card (Miles chewed his). Camden showered me with lovely gifts, including a Zumba game for the Wii and a ticket to the Time Out for Women coming to Harrisburg, PA next month. SOOO excited about both of those!

I requested experimental cinnamon rolls instead of birthday cake. Inside them we used brown sugar, chopped up apples, and walnuts. Talk about divine. Ahhhh......

I enjoyed some sweet moments with my family that left me feeling like the most fortunate, smiled-upon-by-Heaven girl there ever was. Discovering this was one of them...

Just Stuff

• We bought a treadmill mid-February and are enjoying it immensely.
• Camden and I signed up to run a 5K on May 12! Not the half marathon that my sisters are preparing for, but it feels that significant to us. We're training and loving it.
• Jarett blows our minds with how much he is learning, and how quickly he absorbs new information. He now knows the entire alphabet, upper and lowercase (except for some troubles distinguishing lowercase "b" and "d"). He is able to say the whole thing by himself, though he often forgets to say "M" and "U". He also recognizes numbers 1-10, and is LOVING counting that far. His favorite activities these days include puzzles, coloring with sidewalk chalk, reading, chasing the rabbit (named Delilah, or "Lilah", by the way), and defiantly opting not to do a thing his parents ask him.
• Miles is 7 months old. He is starting to pack on the pounds, weighing just over 20 at the last doctor visit. His mama spends the entire day squishing and kissing his rolls. He sits up (and spits up) like a champ and has the most beautiful blue eyes you've ever seen. He thinks his big brother is the most awesome person ever.

Boys 'n' Bunny

This is one of those times when I've realized I'm behind on the blog again, and then I start getting overwhelmed at all I need to post. In an effort to get things moving, here's an attempt at beginning.

Here are the photos I took on February 15 - Miles's six month birthday:

Jarett:

His handiwork one morning last week while I fixed my hair

He's been getting conflicting signals from his parents vs. from Miles. As seen here, he typically just goes with Miles's feedback.

Miles:

Brothers:

Gonna want to turn up those speakers...

Oh, and a random side note. This fella has entered our lives. Not your typical rabbit. It is clearly not a wild one, though we are clueless as to where it came from. Its home is under our shed, and it lounges around our back yard most days. It is not afraid to be around us, and has even let us slowly approach and pet it a few times. We're becoming quite attached to him, and we need YOUR input on what to name it. (We have no idea if it's a boy or girl, and it'd be nice if Jarett could at least halfway say the name.)

Lately

It has been every bit of three months since I've posted. Here are some little clips from the last few weeks.

Jarett started singing this little bit of a random song one night at the dinner table. After much deliberation and code-cracking, I discovered he was singing the "Five Little Monkeys" song wherein Mr. Alligator snaps the monkeys out of the tree.



When Jarett was this age, his favorite friend was the little yellow bear that my Granma Johnson made for him. It was while I was expecting Miles that I made what would turn out to be his special friend, Howie.



Him's cute.



Miles is 6 months old today! Hopefully I can do a photo shoot with him soon to celebrate the milestone.

In True Henderson Fashion

Thursday night we got about 2 inches of snow. So, on Friday, Camden left work a little early to come home and have fun with Jarett. Then, that night we got another six inches. While Jarett did enjoy being pulled around the back yard on his sled, Camden, in true Henderson fashion, had to one up the activity. He built a ramp. Jarett, also in true Henderson fashion, thought that it was the greatest thing ever.

Three Months

Hooray! Miles is 3 months old today! These were all taken this morning.

Happy birthday, sweet Miles. You are so loved.

Time Out

Two weekends ago I attended a Time Out for Women in Rochester, NY. I hit the road with 5 gal pals I'd rounded up. We had an absolute BLAST. I felt like my spiritual and emotional well (from which I draw what my family needs) was filled to overflowing. I couldn't wait to get back to my family and put into practice those things that the Spirit had taught me.

One of my favorite presenters was Hilary Weeks, an incredible singer-songwriter. I'm absolutely in love with her music; it is so uplifting, energizing, and motivating to me. I purchased her new CD (which just recently made #6 on the Christian billboard charts and #1 on the Indie Music Charts) along with a little book she authored this year called "Bedtime and Naptime...and Bedtime and Naptime". I'd like to share a little gem of a story I found in it last night (pg. 10-11):

One afternoon, I was making some orange rolls for dinner. When I was almost done, I received the prompting that if I wanted a rotisserie chicken (which I would need for the soup I was also going to make), I needed to go to the store right after making the rolls. I was about to leave when I remembered an e-mail I wanted to send. What difference would thirty seconds make? I sent the e-mail and headed for the store.

Upon arriving at the store, I went directly to the rotisserie chicken stand. I walked up just in time to see a lady stop in front of the stand, eye the very last chicken, and then pick it up and put it in her cart! I couldn't believe it! I wanted to say to her, "That's my chicken! Did you have any impressions or feelings about that chicken? Because I did!" If only I hadn't sent the email.

Turns out thirty seconds did make a difference.

I went to the deli counter and asked if they had any more chickens. The employee said, "No. For some reason the chickens have been selling really fast tonight."

I was able to find another option, and dinner went on. But as I thought about what had happened, I was so grateful I had seen the last chicken snatched up. If I had walked up and seen the whole stand empty, I would have thought it wouldn't have mattered how fast I got there. Instead, I was reminded that I need to follow the promptings I receive with exactness.

Thank goodness Heavenly Father reminded me of that principle using a rotisserie chicken, helping me to get it right now so I'd do better in the future when it really mattered.

I was reminded of something else as well. Heavenly Father cares about every detail of our lives. He cares about rotisserie chickens!

He cares about the big stuff, the medium stuff, and the very tiniest things in our lives.

And He will be as much a part of our lives as we will let Him be.

There. Now you love her too, don't you?

I love this reminder that Heavenly Father wants to help us in the minutest details of our lives. It's so amazing to me that the Creator of our spirits and the universe would send inspiration, even unsought, about when to buy a specific ingredient needed for dinner. Am I living so that I can receive such inspiration?