Valentines Day, Our Way

Tonight we celebrated Valentines Day as a family.
All of our babysitters are in relationships now,
so we opted to go out to dinner tomorrow
so they could enjoy themselves tonight!

So, Autumn and I created the "Henderson Diner"

 complete with a menu and everything!

We had chocolate fondue with fruit as an appetizer.
Coke, daddy's favorite as our beverage.
Heart shaped pizza as the main course.
And cupcakes as dessert.
Yummmmmmy.

We've never really done a family Valentines.
I think we'll start a new tradition of a family night
and then a mommy/daddy night.

Nothing wrong with sharin the love, right!?

02.14.2011

Today is one of those days 
I want to shut the blinds. 
Curl up in my bed. 
Put the covers over my head. 
And check out for the day. 


Today was due date for the 3rd Henderson 
baby to make his/her entrance. 


We proudly displayed this last June. 

And after telling our children, family and church, 
things started happening and we knew 
we were losing the baby. 


It was a hard week around our home. 
Not many words were spoken. 
Lots of tears were shed. 
Questions from a 9 year old were posed, 
that I had no answer to. 


The following few months came 
with good days and bad days. 
And the past few have been much easier. 
Until today came. 


I thought I'd be okay. 
I've been preparing for this.
But when my eyes opened this morning, 
my heart was heavy. 
My breaths were harder to take. 
And my insides have a void. 


I am thankful that tomorrow is a new day. 
I am promised to be made new. 
I am promised that His mercies are new every day. 
I really am okay. 

If I'm Being Honest

I met my parents in Destin today to let our 

daughter spend a couple days with them.

She was excited. 

They were excited. 

Heck, I was excited!

On my way home, I had to stop by Panama City Beach to do an insurance inspection. 

Everyone knows I'm not good with directions. 

So, I missed my turn onto the road where the inspection was. 

I was a little ticked upset at myself. 

You see, they're doing construction on the beach right now, so it's an act of Congress to turn around. It took me literally 10 minutes just to find a place to turn around and then make it back to the road I needed. 

When I finally reached the road I needed, I saw police lights flashing. 

I thought they were doing a license "check point" and my first thoughts weren't nice since I'd already put myself behind schedule for the day.  This is just what I needed.

As I approached the flashing lights I told the trooper that I was going into the subdivision at the end of the road for an inspection. He told me to drive through the police cars and go ahead slowly. 

Weird. That was too easy. 

As I slowly drove past the four police cars with flashing lights, I saw a motorcycle laying on the ground. Then I noticed the huge tree right beside the motorcycle. 

And as I passed the police car by the tree, the white sheet caught my eye. I won't go into details, but it was like a scene out of a movie. 

My breath left my body and I immediately started praying for that mans family. And then I thanked God that my 9 year old was not in the truck with me today. 

After calling to check on my husband, calling to check on my daughter and pulling over to compose myself a few times .... I had a talk with my truck walls. 

If I'm being honest, I just don't understand. 

I don't understand how my cousin, Angel, could lose her dad to cancer last year, when she was only 30.

I don't understand how my cousin, Jenn, could lose her baby girl, Makenna, days before her due date.

I don't understand how my friend Susan lost her husband to cancer last year when he had two girls still in elementary school.  

I don't understand how a man driving a motorcycle could take a slight turn, lose control, and his life is ended instantly.

I don't understand how a young Navarre high school senior, full of promise, lost his battle with cancer this week.

I don't understand how my friend Tracy lost her baby girl, Kristin, during her delivery.

I don't understand why our dear friends grandmother, Granny Lee, suffered so long before she passed away this week.

I don't understand why some of our friends struggle to have children and then when they do, their celebration is shortly met with defeat.
I don't understand how a precious child like Kate Mcrae has suffered with tumors on her brain for almost two years. 

Most days I can rationally and spiritually 
explain to you why these things might happen. 

Most days I grasp the fact that death is a part of life. 

Most days. 

But not today. 

If I'm being honest.

Today I'm struggling.  

Big Day for A Little Boy

Our son, Easton, has apraxia.
Basically, he struggles with speech. 
His mouth doesn't make the words his mind wants him to say. It's a developmental issue that can be overcame, it just takes a lot of work, therapy and parent involvement. 


Easton had been receiving speech therapy from the age of two until he turned three. One day a week therapy just wasn't helping much. He needed more intense therapy.


The state of Florida has a program to help toddlers with their speech. They really want students ready for kindergarten, so they will do whatever they can to help the process.


Long story short, we went through months of evaluations, tests, and appointments to accurately diagnose Easton. We wanted all other potential issues to be ruled out. Thankfully, it is just a speech issue. But at about age 2 1/2 the congnitive skills begin to slow down if the auditory (speech) skills are not normal. So, with knowing Eastons cognitive skills would soon be affected, if not already, we decided to take action.


Easton was offered speech assistance five days a week for the entire school day. We decided against every day, all day. He's still our baby ya know! But, as much as it breaks mommys heart, we have his best interest at heart and knew what had to be done.


So, here's our new part time preschooler!

Make Me Smile

I think I'm a pretty simple girl.
Not much fluff.
What you see is what you get.

So when people keep asking what I'd like for my birthday it's hard to think stuff up. So I've been making a list!

Here's how you can put a smile on my face ...

A stockpile supply of this stuff.
It's heavenly!

This one can come be in any form.

Gift card, lunch date, food to go.

You name it, I eat it.

I kinda freaked out and thought I wasn't allowed to wear jeans from this store since I turned 30 last year. I've changed my mind since then. They're my favorite jeans and I'm okay with adding more to my wardrobe! 

My mom has one of these and I realized I NEED one.

I do not enjoy cleaning out my microwave.

The only thing that would be better is if I'd been the one to invent a microwave food cover.

That would be pretty sweet!

Key Words here are: Cinnamon Dolce Latte

But if I wanted to be all fancy and make my own coffee,

I'd have to choose this little mini maker.

I've tasted some friends and it seems like it'd probably be worth the cost. I'm still up in the air about it!

So, there's some ideas.

Since my birthday is tomorrow, this list is probably too late for anyones liking ... but seriously, since when have I ever been on time!

Now, it's your turn. What would be on your

"Make Me Smile" List?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.

This will make me smile too ...

Perfect Weather

For Painting

For Sharing

More Sharing

For Sun Bathing (in January)

For Bike Riding

And For Mean Muggin'

How was your "Perfect Weather" day?



Our First Ever Christmas Alone

This Christmas was a bit different than any in the past.
There used to be hustle and bustle.
Running here, running there.
Packing the vehicle full of luggage and presents.

So a few years ago my husband and I decided we would
break all other tradition, and we would have Christmas
morning at our own home with our children.

Well, since all of our family are a couple hours away,
this was a tough decision.

But when we made that decision, my mom let me
know very quickly that her and my dad would love
to be at our house Christmas morning, if we were okay
with it, so they could see their grandkids open gifts.

It's always worked out beautifully.
UNTIL THIS YEAR.
My dad came down with the flu on
Christmas Eve. There was no way he was
making the trip to Panama City Christmas morning.
He couldn't.
And even if he could, I wasn't so
sure I wanted to take the risk
(we haven't decided on flu shots yet for this year.)

Once reality hit me that this would be the first year in 
30 years (yup, 30 years, folks) that I wouldn't see my 
parents on Christmas Day, I put my big girl panties 
on so that my kids (especially Autumn) would have a 
good day despite the fact that it was just gonna be our
little family of four.  

It turned out to be great.
We had (thankfully) got the kids a few board games
and a couple movies as their gifts.
So, we made breakfast for lunch
and spent the rest of the day just us ...
playing games, watching movies, talking ...
in our Christmas jammies!