Christmas time is here

Well, we are full on into Christmas mode. Having fun with all of the decorations, lights, food, and presents, but making sure we continue to teach Zachary the true meaning of the holiday. He loves birthday's so he is very excited to celebrate the birth of Christ. Only, he's not quite sure why he is not going to an actual party. He'll figure it out!

He is also very excited for Santa Claus. He can't wait to meet him at my studio this coming Saturday. He told me he wants to hug him and see his reindeer. We are explaining the whole-it's not the real Santa thing. But, he does plan on staying up to see Santa this year. He's so into it this year, it's great!

As usual, we will be going to the cabin's for my family's Christmas in North Liberty. We leave next Friday after I'm done with classes for the fall semester. Looking forward to spending time with my family, although there will be no partaking in sledding this year! Then, on Christmas day we will head to Lawrenceburg to celebrate with David's side of the family and spend a couple days down there. Definitely not looking forward to all of the traveling coming up, but the family time is worth it! :)

Thursday the 16th start my weekly non-stress tests. We are nervously, anxiously, and excitedly counting down the last several weeks! Can't wait for an exciting 2011.

We wish everyone a blessed holiday season!

Halloween: Check, Thanksgiving: Here we come

So, Halloween has come and gone. Zachary loved everything to do with the season! He loves ghosts, and goblins, etc. I went to a haunted house one weekend and told him he couldn't go because I thought it would be too scary and he promptly told me that he is not afraid of anything-except spiders! He had a blast the entire month! He was Iron Zack and loved his costume, save for the mask. But, you could tell who he was nonetheless!

November 2nd marked Brenna's first birthday. The days and nights leading up to the day were horrible. I kept waiting for our world to end has it had the year before. But, the day ended up just being the three of us. We spent the day getting

and planting a Birchleap Spirea bush for her in our front yard. The bush will have green leaves with beautiful white flowers around the time of May and then they will turn an extraordinary purple in the fall! I wanted something that would show the most beauty in the fall. Since we have planted it, it has gotten healthier and the leaves have turned a dark red/purple. This beautiful weather we have been having helps preserve it a little longer. So, we honor our daughter with a plant we can watch grow and change in the seasons, as we are unable to with her.

Zachary, being truly my son through and through,

is well onto his way of Christmas thinking! He wants to watch Christmas shows all day and listen to Christmas music in the car (unless he gets the itch for his old favorite-OMG by Usher!)! How can I possibly deny this wonderful child those things? Simple, I cannot. But, I do sneak in my Thanksgiving specials in there too. We loves the Peanuts holiday trilogy, so he is always ready to watch that. I think he is starting to think that our Thanksgiving meal will involve toast, pretzels, popcorn, and jelly beans!!

I must say, I am looking forward to this holiday season with more Christmas spirit than I think I ever have. Last year was such a dark time for us. We only decorated for Zachary, I only watched a few shows for him, and I rarely had a note of Christmas music on. Let's face it, Christmas is about the birth of a miraculous child. We had just experienced the loss of ours. Everything about the holiday reminded us of that. And, being less than 2 months since she died, our emotions were still very raw. This year we look, with God, to the future and the baby to come shortly after the new year. This year we remember the gift that Brenna was, and the gift of life that God gave us by sending his son. And I'm sure there will be cookies and candy in there too! ;)

Here is a picture of all of us for Halloween!

Really, he's 4?!

Zachary turned four on Sunday August 29th! I can hardly believe I have a 4 year old. How I thought things would be different for him this year. But, he's still a happy well adjusted kid! :) We did his "kid" party at Bounce Town USA in Oswego this year. It was his first "friends" party. I think everyone had a blast! What is not fun about giant inflatable jump houses and slides? Seriously. If I wasn't pregnant there is a good chance I may have "tried" some of them! We also had David's parents up for most of the week which was a real treat. Zachary hadn't seen Pops (Don) in a while and he just loved every second of them being here. My parents made it up on Sunday for a few hours and of course that was fantastic for him as well! Overall, he had a great birthday and I am blessed to have the most awesome little Monster Face ever.

Well, as we start September, there is much to look forward to! Zachary has orientation tomorrow to see his new room and meet his teacher! He will be going Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday's this year!

We also have a lot of doctor's appointments lined up! We have 3 for me this month including our ultrasound at 19 1/2 weeks on the 15th (!), a regular appointment, and a heartbeat check. Zachary visits an Opthamologist for the first time for his eyes and then he sees Dr. Olsen on the 17th for his 4 year old check up. I love these appointments. I love seeing how big and long he is and how much he doesn't weigh!

I hope to post more pictures later in the week or early next week on his first day of school!

Zachary's 4th Birthday Party

Nothing says fall like...

Leave your answer in the comments. For us fall means FOOTBALL!! And football means, COLTS football!! We live for Sunday's. And Monday's. And then Thursday's and Saturday's too. The NFL does a great job of only letting us suffer two days with no football! Something else that starts in the fall (and usually carries over to late spring) is our need for corned beef! We used to cook it with cabbage, but I don't like it and David soon gave it up. So now it's just beef with carrots and potatoes. Still a damn good meal! There is just something about football and corned beef that feels like fall to me.

I also love the change of the season. I wish I lived in a land called-Fall. Where the weather 9 months out of the year was always fall-ish. There could be some days of cooler weather, mix in some rain, etc. But just the overall crisp beautiful fall day. I love all activities fall. Visits to orchards and pumpkin farms, hayrides, pumpkin spice latte's from Starbucks, apple cider, warm apple cider, caramel apple cider etc. I have been trying to get a group together to do the Naperville PD's annual hayrides for about 5 years now. I'm telling myself I will go this year.

Fall also means school! I always loved back-to-school. You got to buy new things, get new teachers, see your friends again, get back into school activities and sports. It was always a fun time of year for me. We just learned Zachary's new school teacher for the year. Mrs. Schamburger. We are very excited to meet her and see all the wonderful things Z will be exploring and learning this year!

The rule for me this fall is to stay busy, busy, busy. The thought of coming into Brenna's 1 year anniversary is so terrifying to me that I hope that if I just stay busy and not sit and dwell on it, I can make through the 1st and hardest anniversary.

Well, here is to a great start of fall (although it really is still a month away) and all the things we love about it!!

So much for staying up-to-date

I always do have the best intentions of getting on here and staying current with our household happenings. And then life happens. Is that fair to say?! So, this summer has just gone by so fast! We've had a lot of fun at the pool and visiting with friends and having family in. I think being busy all the time has made it go by so quickly. Our kick off to summer was our great big family vacation to Disney World!!! Zachary did great in the plane and we all had a wonderful time! Zachary loved meeting the characters and was very well behaved. He was more impressed with the parks than the gift shops and our wallets were thankful for that! Our first day in FL we were able to take a trip to the beach so Zachary could visit the ocean for the first time. He loved it! He didn't want to leave the water! Our weather was great the whole time. It rained a little one afternoon, but when you are in the "Happiest Place on Earth", how can you complain? Below is a slide show of our trip.

Upon our return we found out that we are expecting another baby due Super Bowl Sunday! This fills us with much joy, sadness, excitement, and hesitation all at once. Every emotion under the sun! I am 15 weeks now and besides the sickness stuff, all has been well. And, thank God, moving pretty quickly. We are not going to let the baby wait until February to come and will induce between 37-38 weeks depending on how mommy, daddy, and baby are fairing. Continued prayers are appreciated!

As the summer wraps up we are excited for fall, preschool, football (of course!), great new students at the studio, a growing belly, and much much more. Maybe if I don't tell myself I have to get on and update, it will flow easier and happen more naturally. Here's to hoping!

Disney Trip 2010

First Year of Preschool is Over!

Tuesday May 25th was Zachary's last day of 3-year old Preschool. How sad! We have decided to keep him in preschool 2 more years so he will turn 6 right at the beginning of his Kindergarten year. What a year this has been! It's an adjustment for any child to go into a different learning environment, plus we were planning for Brenna, then dealt with her death. Zachary has had a lot to deal with. We are so proud of how amazing he has done! The more socially and emotionally aware he gets of himself and others brings up questions about Brenna. It is sad when he asks us questions, but we continue to explain how much we love her and wanted her with us. Zachary has also accomplished so much with his writing, numbers, letters, shapes, etc. He loved school and I was glad that he didn't miss one day! He, of course, loved his teacher Mrs. Dowler! She was fantastic and just the person we needed. He would often like to roll play at home with me being Zachary and him being Mrs. Dowler. She was great at taking pictures and capturing moments through out the year and made each parent a CD slideshow! We are definitely going to miss her! On the last day it was warm enough for shorts, so I decided to put him in the same shorts as his first day (different shirt) and see how they compared. His is our big boy! Here is Zachary on his first day and then on his last day!

Busy Month

Well, as promised, May has come with a lot to do! Sometimes to break up the routine, we like to do a family "camp-out" in the living room. We blow up mattresses' and do S'Mores and popcorn. The last time we did this, Zachary loved it! This time, he only wanted to marshmallow's instead of the whole S'More, then didn't actually sleep downstairs with us! He decided to sleep up in his bed. But, then Sunday night he wanted his turn to sleep downstairs again. Of course that didn't happen!

Our friends Brittnie and Luke got a puppy a couple of months ago, so we have been taking some trips up to visit them and have Zachary play with Kyla. First he did not want to play at all and informed me afterwards that he no longer likes dogs, only cats. But, he did warm up to her. It takes him a little bit while she gets all of her excited-ness out of the way, but he will play with her. Yesterday after our visit both Zachary and Kyla were asleep with in 15 minutes of our departure!

Tomorrow we leave for Disney and we can't wait! It's finally here! Zack tells us that he doesn't want to go. But we know once we are into the journey he will love it. I still have classes tonight and David work, then it's finishing packing, to bed, early rising (3:30ish!!) then to the airport! Many, many, many photos to come!!

Ahh, May

I can hardly believe that May is already here. With it comes some ups and downs. May 2nd was the 6 month mark of loosing our precious baby girl. Sometimes it's hard from me to think that she has been gone so long, then other times it seems way shorter. These are the struggles we have every day of missing her. Of course in May is Mother's Day too. Since I have lost my own biological mother, it is always a day of blessings and sadness. I am thankful for Pauline, my earthly mother, and for being a mother myself. But, my heart misses Joyce, my heavenly mother, and my baby girl Brenna. The day was nice, though. Zachary told me Happy Mother's Day every chance he got (still on Monday too) and also sang some songs for me that he performed on the Thursday before in school. It was great. He cracks me up. I got some beautiful cards from both friends and family as well as some pretty flowers and the newest Sookie Stackhouse Novel I had been wanting! The boys made me breakfast and I got to relax most of the day. Not too bad.

May will also bring some great fun for us! On the 24th David and I will be celebrating our 7 year wedding anniversary!! And on the 31st I will be turning 25! Again! But, the biggest thing May brings to us is...DISNEY WORLD!!! We are so excited! We can hardly wait! We have a countdown calendar where Zachary puts a star on everyday. Today, we are 17 days out. 16 if you don't count today since today has already started... ;) This is our first real family vacation with Zachary and I can't tell who is more excited at this point-me, Zachary, or David!

We are busy wrapping up the end of school as well as continuing with things for recital. June will be here before we know it!

Zachary sings the blues

Well, not really, but he did sing. Well, sort of. April 22nd Zachary had his music program at school! We were so excited. And, since Grandma and Grandpa were in town helping out Amber, they were able to come too! The program combined Mrs. Dowler's (Zachary's class) class and Mrs. Wierig's class. They all did so great. It took Zachary about a number and a half to get warmed up enough to sing, though he never did belt them out. We were surprised because Zachary is not shy at all and he had been practicing earlier in the morning with Daddy. But, he did get into it. We enjoyed such songs as: God is So Good, Octopus, Where is Thumbkin?, Three Little Sausages, Mr. Sun, Ten Little Fishes in the Sea, and Itsie Bitsie Spider and Variations. The best came at the end when Zachary wrapped his little arms around his waste and gave a grand bow! It was great! Enjoy some pictures of the day!

It's time to try this again

So, I will attempt to try and keep my blog up-to-date and full of happenings and pictures.

Life is continuing for us. Everyday we love and miss our Brenna Angel (as Zachary calls her) more and more. We all struggle and grieve in our own ways, but are in the journey together. The more socially and emotionally aware Zachary becomes of himself and others he gets more curious about why Brenna is not with us. We continue to need love, support, and prayers from our friends and loved ones. This is a journey that will not end of us. Change, yes, but end-no. We are faithful that God will bless us again and we are looking forward to that.

As for our Monster Face. Wow, let's write a book. Oh wait-that's what this blog is for! He is doing so great in school! He loves it and has made so many friends! He behaves so well for everyone

and loves to push buttons and boundaries with his mom and dad! We are looking forward to our first FAMILY VACATION to DISNEY WORLD at the end of May!! We are going for Memorial Day weekend and couldn't be more excited!

David (when he's not traveling) and I continue to do our Share meetings once a month. We have met so many great people who, unfortunately, share the same heartache that we do. But, it's nice to know that someone can relate. I just did the March of Dimes walk on Sunday with my friend Laura and her family. Over 6 miles! Wow!

The studio is doing great and we are getting so close to recital! We are getting ready for DDDC's last competition this weekend and I can't believe how fast this year has gone! We have our first annual summer dance camps and intensive at the studio this year and we are hoping they will do great. We are bringing in some great talent for our dancer's!

I am looking forward to the summer and hopefully getting a pool pass to Pelican Harbor again and just being able to enjoy time with my family!

Well, here's to keeping this blog going!

Zachary turns 3 and takes his own pictures!

So, my little baby isn't a baby anymore. Nope, he's 3 and starting preschool next week! I can't believe how fast this time has gone by and how blessed I am to have someone as great as Zachary is for a son. He is hysterical, independent, loving, and full of life. He is excited to start preschool and I know that he will love it and learn so much more than at home! He is very good with colors and is getting his letters better and numbers as well. The other day he told us the numbers on the clock! And, he was able to point out almost all the letter of the alphabet to me. He got his "V" and "W" mixed up, but that was all.

He also loves to sing, loudly. He'll get his toy guitar out and start singing "Life Is A Highway" from Cars, or he'll just go "Oh Yeah!" over and over again. It's pretty funny. Whenever the Imagination Movers come on the TV he grabs his "drum sticks" (read: Turner and Phillipe screw drivers from Handy Manny tool box!) and drums away. He is also into making up his own songs, which we don't understand at all! It's usually about bath time or eating or something like that!

Zachary is also into taking his own photographs! He loves using or camera to take pictures of the cats or his cars, or whatever is closest!

Zack Takes Pictures

As for me and David, we are pushing along. David has a 6 week reality series for BET coming up and I'm still getting sick and fat! But, the baby is growing and moving a ton and it's a nice reassurance! Just about 10 weeks to go and I hope it goes by fast! I'm sure it will with the start of the fall session starting today and auditions and company starting this weekend!

Zack's turns 3!

It's been a long time...

So I know I don't post often on the blog and I just want everyone to understand why. My blogger doesn't upload! Seriously, it's so slow, or it locks up and it usually never lets me upload pictures. It's very frustrating.

So, for the sake of typing a ton and not have it save I will give a short recap of summer this far and try to post more.

Zachary is almost 22 months old and has been potty trained for about 4 months. He does very good with it and I'm so glad he's out of diapers! We have a membership to the Pelican Harbor pool and he loves it! I must admit I do too, only I don't cry when it's time to leave! He knows all of his colors and is really good at recognizing letters and numbers. We are still working on his counting, but it comes. It's usually 1, 2, 4, 5, 11. He loves the number 11. It's in all of his counting.

Business at the studio is slow for the summer, but that is expected. We've been in business almost a year! We took the dance team to Myrtle Beach, SC for Nationals and they did a fantastic job. While it was nice to be away, I really missed David and Zachary.

David is still at Concept One, but is always looking for new opportunities to pursue.

The baby is due November 11, 2009 and the ultrasound we had on the 26th showed that everything is going great!

Well, at least I got one picture to upload!

So Smart!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Zachary has been doing so good with his counting and colors, etc.  Well, we bought him a "laptop" for his 2nd birthday.  It's a Thomas the Train and it has something like 32 activities.  There is one that asks for help finding letters and numbers.  I started playing with him one day and was shocked to learn that he can recognize almost all of his letters and all of his numbers!!  He's just grasping so much and learning like crazy!

This weekend I actually have a weekend away from the studio!  Woo Hoo!  We begin our "Diaper-Free Zone" on Friday morning!  I know Zachary is going to do a great job.  I bought him new Cars stickers and am ready to see his little butt in underwear!!!

This past weekend was so nice, weather-wise.  We were able to spend a lot of time outside!  We got Zack's truck out and he loved driving in it.  Which is nice since he always tells David and I that he'll drive wherever we go!  "I'll drive."

Trying to post pictures, who knows when they'll come...

Back on...

I know it's been several, several weeks since I've posted.  Beginning the semester at the studio, dealing with a pregnancy and then subsequent loss has consumed a lot of my time.  Oh, not to mention that I've been following around an extremely busy 2 1/2 year old!

We registered Zachary for Pre-School for the fall!  I can't believe that he is going to be 3 and in school.  He is going to have so much fun, though!  I have him in a 2-day/week-afternoon program.  He is so smart.  He can count (repeat) to 20 on his own!  He knows all the main colors-red, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, purple, black, and white.  He is talking in full sentences which can be fully understood.  Until he gets super excited and then it turns back to baby-nese.

We are looking forward to spring and being able to get outside to play more.  Hurry up Spring!!

Family Christmas 2008

It's hard to believe that 2008 has come and gone!  We look back at 2008 as a year full gifts, challenges, and excitement.  We kicked off the Christmas Holiday by spending our Christmas Eve together as a family eating dinner (David made and awesome rib roast!!), driving around to see Christmas lights (not many!!), making cookies for Santa, and then reading books by the fire before bed.  

On Christmas Day David and I had to actually wake Zachary up at 8AM (not his usual wake time) to get the party started.  Normally, waking that late would've been a present, but we were eager to open gifts and see how he did with his!!  Zachary didn't really get into the unwrapping thing.  It took him forever to get the paper off of his gifts!  He wanted to make sure all tape and paper were off one section before going to the next.  We tried to hurry him along as much as we could, we still have breakfast with the Stefanski's and church to go to!  After breakfast with his favorite person (Aubrey) and a great mass (the best gift of all is Christ as our Saviour) we headed home for lunch and nap.  

Then after dinner we checked the weather and saw that our trip to Lawrenceburg might be hindered by the ice storm that was supposed to happen over night, we rushed around to get packed and then headed out the door.  When we were almost to 88 I realized that I had left all the gifts for the rest of the week at home!!  Thank goodness for my sister!  She was able to get them for us.  Although, as I write this, I also realize I have yet to send Nani and Pa Pa theirs!!

Finally getting to Lawrenceburg at about 1:30/2:00AM landed us right into bed!  It's a very long drive.  The next day we just enjoyed our time with Nani and Papa.  Zachary loves being with them!  On the 27th we headed to Indianapolis where it was 70 degrees for a family party.  It was so nice spending time with David's side of the family!

On Sunday the 28th we headed north to my family in North Liberty.  We stayed the night with my parents and then stayed the next 3 days at a cabin and Potato Creek State Park.  We were really hoping for 3 days of snow fortes, snow angels and such, but since there was mid-60's weather-wise we had nothing when we got up there!  We still had a great time being with family and on our last morning there--it snowed!  We were able to go sledding for a little bit.  Zack didn't like the snow in his face at all and only went down once and then he and David spent the rest of the time waiting in the truck!  

After checking out we were finally on our way home!  And very ready for it!  But, as tradition has it, we always host the Giannassi's for Christmas Eve.  This was the 4th year in a row!  It was laid back and we watched TV and played games with Nick, Julie, and their son Noah.  

New Years day came and went with us trying to unpack and get organized.  In fact, the rest of that week and this week came and went with us trying to unpack and get organized!  Ha!  

The studio started classes this week and we are off to a good start.  We keep getting more interest and that is a blessing for sure!  We just pray that we continue to get more students, keep the ones we have, and that families are able to survive this economy!

Enjoy the pictures!

Christmas 08

Zachary's big boy bed!

It's here!!  He loves it and went right down!!  Enjoy the pictures!

Thanksgiving and Benjamin's Birthday

Happy Thanksgiving!  We spent the morning of Thanksgiving at home and then after Zack's nap we went to Amber and Rudy's for dinner.  It was good turkey, good stuffing, and good family!  Later that evening we came home and put up the tree.  Zack wasn't interested in helping, but he is all about the tree.  It has to be on all the time and he says good bye to it at night before bed!

 

We are well into the Christmas season!  This is my favorite time of year.  For so many reasons.  Aside from all the decorations, 93.9 playing non-stop X-Mas music, people in good moods, cookies, candy...it's a time to remember why we celebrate.  This is all the beginning.  The time we celebrate and rejoice at the birth of our Savior.  We are truly delivered because he was delivered to us.  

We are busy with the studio and David has a big shoot that will take him to San Francisco next week.  We are also getting Zachary's big boy bed on Friday!!  We are so excited and can't wait for him to get it!

Untitled from Amelia Hendryx on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving and Benjamin's 1st B-Day Party

Now that it's Thanksgiving...

Now that we are to Thanksgiving I thought it was about time I put pictures of Halloween up!  Sorry, I've been slacking!  November has been a crazy busy month.  Halloween was a ton of fun.  It was SO nice out that we stayed out until like 8-8:30 at night!  Zack had a great time trick or treating and we finally got him to say "Trick or Treat" to people as he grabbed the bowl into his pumpkin!

And, since it's Thanksgiving our family has so many things to look back on and be thankful for!  Here is my list:

1) My family-David and Zachary are truly the best things in my life

2) My faith-God has truly delivered to me this year.  He has protected, cared for, and loved our family without fail

3) My friends-they have stood by me and cheered me on.

4) My partner/studio-Dance Dynamics has been a journey and I can't wait to see where Brittnie and I are able to take it!

5) 2009-the thought of being able to start a new year with so many wonderful things behind me is so amazing.

So, as you enjoy the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cresent rolls, pumpkin pie, eggnog...you get it, on Thanksgiving Day, truly take the time to express why you have so many things to be thankful for.  You may be surprised how many you have!

Zachary got tickets to Playhouse Disney Live! On Tour for his birthday and this past Sunday was finally show time!  The show was up in Rosemont and Zachary fell asleep on the way, which was fine.  When we got there we were some of the first few to enter the theatre.  We right away bought Zack his new Winnie the Pooh and then got some drinks and popcorn and headed upstairs to wait to get in.  Zachary we good in the theatre and loved the popcorn!  Even more, he loved the show!  It was great watching his reactions.  Every time a new character came on stage he would just stare at them and then he would start to interact.  Even though he is going through a big Pooh phase, he was most in awe of Mickey Mouse!  David and I wondered if he noticed that Daisy and Pluto got the shaft and were not invited on tour.  Hmmm.  After the show he stayed awake until right when we pulled up to the house.  Even though it was later, we put him in his crib and he slept about another hour or so.  Enjoy the pictures and video (not good quality) of our great time at Playhouse Disney!  We can't wait to visit Disney World for real!

                                                            Mommy and Zachary
                                                            Daddy, Zachary, and Pooh
                                                            Zack and Pooh
                                                            Zachary, Mickey and Little Einsteins

Here is Zachary before the show.


Pre-Show Playhouse Disney Live!! from Amelia Hendryx on Vimeo.

Zachary dancing to Choo-Choo Soul!!  He's getting down.

Dancing at Playhouse Disney Live! from Amelia Hendryx on Vimeo.

So much to say...

Hey there blogger friends!  So, there is much going on, but I'm too tired to type everything.  Zack is growing and getting so smart everyday.  I understand his speech better and better everyday.  His sentences are really coming more intricate.  David is doing well.  He's been having a lot of weekend/overtime shoots.  We are thankful for the work, but it takes away from some of the only couple/family time we have.  I'm busy-busy too.  The studio is coming along and will be finished this month!  Woo Hoo.  So excited for it.  

I know I put pictures of Zack in the previous blog, but here is a slideshow that holds more pictures.  Enjoy!

Zack's 2 year pictures