the rest of the story

And clearly there is something wrong with my blog account or something else because I can still see my pictures like normal on my computer, but when I upload them here, they have the colors on them. So strange. So here goes more big news: 1. My brother-in-law Byron is now the associate athletic director of business at the University of Arkansas. We are proud of you Byron and soooo beyond excited that Byron, Marla, Mckinley, and Brooklyn will only by an hour and a half away now! And razorback games galore. :) 2. We are having a baby in February. I keep snuggling with Maelea more and looking at her sweet baby face because it won't be long until she's not the only baby anymore. But we are excited! 3. Alex is working at a physical therapy clinic and is loving it. I am so proud of him and happy that he is enjoying what he is doing. God has been so amazing and so good to us and has blessed us in so many ways!

Big Changes

In the last month and a half we have made a few big changes. We moved from our home in Terrell, Texas and moved back to Arkansas. These are pictures of Maelea's first sprinkler fun this Summer and it was at our old house. When I was looking at these, it made me miss that place.

She was so adorable. She didn't really want to just run through it and it always surprised her when it hit her face. And the rest of the pictures won't upload correctly. They look fine on my computer but weird when I upload them.

it may not be summer break, but it is a break

Thank you long four day weekend, you have arrived. Let's not forget why we get this long weekend, thank you for those that served and we should all pay tribute on this Memorial weekend. Now I will back it up again. Just like you knew I would. These are our two terrible, I mean the best Easter pictures, we got that day. It was kinda cool and windy and no, Maelea did not wear those tennis shoes with that dress. I don't know when she put them on.

Maelea loves being a student in my class. She's one of those students that likes to run around and get things out of other kids desks and run in the halls. I hope this is just a phase we're going through and that in three years she will be ready to stand in line and keep her hands where they should be. She takes after her dad.

I had a fun girls weekend with Nancy and the other bridesmaids in Dallas. Lots of fun and greaaaat food.

We have 2 1/2 days with students and then the teachers have their last day on Friday and then Summer break, here we come!!!

In no particular order

Of course I should back it on up and post about Easter pictures and such, but no I'm going to jump right into this weekend. Andrew and Sarah got married yesterday and it was a beautiful, love filled wedding. Friday was field day, so I couldn't bare to leave my kids with a sub ALL day, so we took a half day and left at 11:30. We drove straight to Des Arc for the rehearsal dinner. We got there and changed in the car. Fun. On Thursday Charity called me and said Maelea had a fever so Alex left work early and got her. After she woke up from her nap she still had a temp so he took her to the doctor since we were going out of state. We didn't want to take any chances. Of course they tell us that it was probably something viral, but that they didn't see anything wrong. So off we went Friday. She didn't have a temp but as soon as we sat down at rehearsal dinner she only wanted to sit in my lap and lay her head on me. This is the one picture I have of rehearsal.

Maelea saw Andrew and she wanted him to hold her the entire time. I went and got her from him so he could visit with everyone. It was HIS rehearsal. Good thing, because roughly three minutes after that, Maelea started to fuss, then proceeded to throw up all over me. Then she did it again. Alex was downstairs getting his food, so one of the other groomsman, Taylor, at our table got me some towels and ran and got Alex. Bless Taylor's heart, he saved the day. I stood up with Maelea and headed downstairs, holding her to me along with all the puke. Alex was coming toward us and was kinda shocked then we headed outside. We got to the vehicle and he took care of her and then I got all cleaned up. Changed from a dress into jeans and t-shirt. Of course I'm thinking she feels better, she's stomping around and talking so we go back in. She falls asleep on my lap and wakes up about 45 minutes later. Of course I'm feeling so bad because I thought everyone had seen the fiasco, but not many people did so everyone continued on business as usual. But this 45 minutes later thing, she wakes up and sits on Alex's lap, fusses a little then throws up on him. His turn. I pick her up and rush her back outside. We all change, again. Good thing we came straight there because we had our suitcases in the Tahoe so we had clothes, but we were beginning to run out. We get loaded up and I take Alex to rehearsal and then head to his parent's house to give this sick baby home. About 15 minutes after I drop him off, Maelea pukes again. It is pitch black outside but I pull into a driveway and get her out and clean her up and everything else that I can see then I put her back in her seat and off we go. After we got to his parents house she just wanted to sit with me so for the first time ever she slept in the bed with Alex and I that night. Thank goodness she didn't throw up anymore or have any more fever. This part was not fun. But this part was.

Alex was the best man and Maelea was the flower girl. She was back to normal, well maybe a little more than normal. She was wild.

She kept staring at Sarah's dress. It was so adorable. But by the time the wedding started I was ready for her to head down the aisle. I was soooo nervous, but she walked down with the ring bearer very well. She stood there for a little bit.

The she was held.

And then I had to put the camera down and get her off the steps. She did ok. She made another trip back up with the bridesmaids and then sat with me for the rest of the time. Fussed a little in between. But I kept telling myself, she's not even two yet, she's still a baby. She sure was glad she could run around.

We had a fun time at the wedding.

Not at the rehearsal.

that time of year

Holy cats, its busy and wild up in here! Lots of fun stuff going on here and there. Nancy sent this to Maelea quite a while ago asking her to be a flower girl in her wedding. How adorable is this????

I'm so far behind that I am just now showing you the only request I made from Alex's trip to New Orleans. A (ben-yay) however the heck you spell it. It was delightful.

And here are a few pictures of Maelea with her Grammie and Poppy. She was showing off her reading skills.

I think there are five weeks of school left, something close to that anyways. Summer break has never looked sweeter. Well, I take that back, it was looking sweet about two years ago when I had feet that were swollen to the size of watermelons. I was also eating an entire watermelon by myself that summer. Ducky Dynasty is a new favorite show of mine on tv. It seriously ranks waaaay up with my faves! Have a fantastic weekend!!!

Maelea's Chick Pics

I figured it was high time for me to take some pictures of my own child.
They pretty much speak for themselves.







No, she won't smile when I try to take her picture, but will any other time we want her to.
Yes, she looooved the chicks so much. She just wanted to squeeeeeze them with love.




She kept saying "so tute" and "so seet" and "tweet tweet".





I love that little stinkbug. And did I mention we've hit the fun terrible two stage? Well we have. She's not terrible, but she has got her own personality. Haven't a clue where that comes from.

Happy Easter

We got home from church just a bit ago and I realized that I'm behind on posting some things. The service was good, Maelea went back to the nursery without crying, yeaaa! I did shove a pack of fruit snacks into her hand as she went to the lady in the nursery, but hey, no crying at all is great!

Let's finish up spring break, shall we?

Playing on the sew saw with Pippo.



Maelea and Reese are only nine months apart and right now it seems like they are really at the ages where they "play" together. I know in just a few years it will seem like they are the exact same age but right Maelea gets to be the big girl that shows Reese "how to do things."



Aunt Cheri and Granny came out to visit.




And now to more present day information. As most of you know, since you were texting me like crazy, we had some scary weather on Tuesday here in the Dallas area. Now, I know when my family and friends in Arkansas see that there is something going on in Dallas (well Texas for that matter) I usually get a message or call of some sort. But on this day, the messages were pretty valid because the bad weather was, well, bad.
Around 1:30 we all got a message from our principal that we were to watch and listen for information because a tornado had touched down in Lancaster, about 30 miles from us. My students were in specials, and I also don't get too worked up over storms or things like that at all. I really wasn't that worried. Then I got a few texts from family and friends telling me to take cover and are we ok. So I checked into it a bit more and saw that we really might be getting something. Then I thought of Maelea and Alex. Maelea was at Charity's and I texted her and said to keep an eye on the weather, which she was already doing and I called Alex because they were driving back from New Orleans. At this point, around 2:00, parents start coming up to the school to check out their kids, lots of parents.
Fast forward to 3:15. The bell rings for us to dismiss. Several of my students have left with their parents and then after being out there for a few minutes we are told to get inside and get into inside rooms now. I grab hands of students and herd others into the room my class usually goes into for tornado drills. Thank goodness Lynn was in there too. Everyone is a little scared and nervous but we aren't really seeing anything "bad" outside and it isn't raining or anything. After a few minutes I of course, need to use the restroom very quickly. I run in there and while I am in there, I look up to the ceiling because I seriously think someone is throwing desks at the roof and the walls. I realize it is hail, very large hail and I RUN back to the room we were in. No, I did not wash my hands. It is a miracle my dress wasn't tucked into my undies I was flying so fast. We shove desks over all the students and huddle down and cover them up.
At this point I text Charity to take care of my baby.
I hoped this is what Maelea was doing (one day looking for her boots.)



I say a prayer and then close my eyes. All the loud sounds and movement seem to stop. We get up and the teachers go into the hallway. People start coming down the hall saying that they saw it, it went right over/ by our school. Whattt??? I start getting texts galore and some say that Crosby, a school that is about 2 miles from our school was hit and the neighborhood it is in had several houses damaged. This is the area that was on the national news, 2 miles from where I was. Scary.

Alex texts me and says, what is going on? I call him and say I had just crawled out from under a desk and the tornado was here and it was scary and what are you doing and where are you. ajdojseoajjdke is what it felt like I was saying. He informs me that he is on his way to get Mealea from Charity's. I said, uh well I....uh, please call me when you get there.
Turns out it only took him 10 minutes to get there and it usually takes us 20 and he also saw the tornado moving and go back up into the clouds as he was driving. At this point he didn't know if it had gone by us, was coming down again or what.

We are still trying to get kids to parents and people were calling and looking and it was organized chaos. I get a call from Alex and he says, I've got her and I'm taking her home. I say, um what? I want you to stay there. There is more bad weather coming this way. He says, no I'm taking her home. I said, I want you to stay there. He says, ok. I say, so what are you doing? He says, I'm taking her home. I say, I don't agree with you. He says, ok. I say, so what are you doing? He says, I'm taking her home. I say, well, ok. I hope I see you there. And if it gets bad again, go hide in our closet by my shoes with pillows. That way if anything happens I will know where to dig for you. Call me when you get home.

I leave the school around 6:00 that evening. Go get chinese food, head home, and spend the evening with my family. We didn't really talk about the little "disagreement" we had about transportation earlier. We did watch the news and wow, it was so bad. You saw it, you know.

That school that was hit will reopen tomorrow, amazingly.
Thank you all for your support and care. This community has really pulled together.

More positive posts to come!

best buds visit

I can't believe how big Liv has gotten. She's growing up so fast and is so strong.



Maelea and Ingrid are so adorable together. Their personalities are different but I can see that they will get along so good.




And then my favorite pictures. Maelea loves the hot dog song on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (she loves the entire show too) so Alex played it on his phone for the girls to cut a rug to. Sooooo cute. And I think this is so fitting to their personalities.



I love spending time with the Henderson family.