Grace Elizabeth

Gracie was born Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 3:28 pm

She was awake and alert, just 2 hours old.

I know, I know.  Babies don't REALLY smile...

but this sure looks like a smile to me.

Look at these expressive eyes and all that gorgeous hair.

(Grace is 24 hours old here)

This little baby is very content with a full tummy.

After her first bath at home, all ready to be tucked in to bed.

(August 6, Grace's first day at home)

Precious Baby

We Love You.

p.s.  Emily is focusing on learning how to nurse and recovering so I am posting these pictures for her.  Stay tuned as she will start posting on her blog sometime this week (hopefully)

Fathers and Sons

Robert David Hendricks

Born April 8, 1959

Mark Robert Hendricks

Born February 17, 1983

Noah Michael Hendricks

Born July 14, 2010

Family Reunion Video

Rob made a short video of the family reunion using his new I-Phone. He recorded it, edited it and uploaded it to You Tube all from his phone.

He did a great job!
Check it out...

Character Greetings

Alaina was 10 years old the last time she visited Disney World and she was definitely NOT interested in standing in lines to get her picture taken with a bunch of PRINCESSES.

Well, this trip one of her goals was to meet as many Princesses (and hopefully PRINCES) as time and circumstance would allow.  Since she was missing her Senior Prom for her visit to the park she thought it only fair to try to get a dance, or at least a picture with a charming and handsome prince.

As luck would have it, our first afternoon visiting Magic Kingdom we discovered the spot where she could meet Prince Naveen and Princess Tiana.  She was THRILLED and had a fun and enchanting conversation with them.  They totally stayed in character and continued on the story of their lives together as they answered her questions and chatted with her. 

These two cast members had been meeting and greeting their guests for at least an hour before we got up to them and they were so charming and pleasant.  They didn't rush through Alaina's visit and chatted with her like old friends.  They laughed and joked with each other, just like a married couple.  It was fun for Alaina, and fun for us to watch.  

Towards the end of the evening, we made our way over to the Toon Town Hall of Fame to meet three more princesses.  We stood in this line for close to an hour and a half (if not longer) and all three of these princesses still had a smile on their face and a kind word to share.

Princess Aurora was the least chatty of the three and Alaina wasn't really prepared with a clever question to engage her (she'd tried to come up with a question related to each specific character or their story because she'd heard that makes for a more interesting experience)

 

The little girl who had been standing in front of us, so very patiently, was maybe three or four years old and dressed in her beautiful blue Cinderella dress.  Once it was her turn to visit Cinderella, she hugged her and and snuggled in as close to her as she could get.  We joked with the mom that she had found her soul mate because by then she had crawled up onto Cinderella's lap and looked like she was settled in for the evening.  This sweet Cast Member was so willing to give the little girl all the hugs she needed and didn't try to rush her on to see the next princess so they could get to the end of the line.  It was so sweet to watch the two of them together.

When it was finally Alaina's turn she asked Cinderella if she preferred having her dresses made by the mice or by the royal seamstress. Without missing a beat, Cinderella said the mice did a lovely job but she really loved the dresses from her Fairy Godmother and spun around to show off her lovely dress.  She asked if Alaina had found her Fairy Godmother yet and said that they tend to show up, "Just when you need them most".

What a sweetheart!

Belle was very TALL (and very beautiful)

Alaina asked Belle if she'd read "Les Miserables" yet. She thought it was appropriate since the story is set in France and Belle likes to read. I'm not sure if Belle or if the Cast Member answered the question, but we could tell she was getting tired and trying really hard not to show it.

We spent Sunday afternoon in Epcot World Showcase since we had a late flight home.

Alaina was excited to find Mulan in China.

Poor Mulan must have been melting. She was standing in the bright, hot sun with a heavy costume but she was sweet and interesting to chat with. They had a fun conversation about Alaina's Undercover Platypus shirt.

Snow White had found a lovely shady spot just before you enter Germany. 

Apparently, this Snow White can talk through her teeth while smiling! That's a pretty good talent. Her smile didn't change once in all the pictures we had of these two together.

Sunday morning, Rob and Alaina headed over to Disney's Hollywood Studios so they could get in a quick ride on Tower of Terror and a couple of others (Rock 'n Roller Coaster was closed for refurbishing).  While there they stopped in at The Magic of Disney Animation and also happened to find

Mickey Mouse from Fantasia.

Mickey pointed at Alaina's Platypus shirt and gave her a big THUMB'S UP! 

She loved the extra attention that wearing that shirt brought her. 

Several actresses, visiting from the 1930's, were quite intrigued by Alaina's shirt and determined that she must be the agent for the Platypus and wasn't she clever to promote him that way. 

We spent Saturday visiting the different Resorts on the Mono-Rail and then we headed over to Downtown Disney for a little souvenir shopping and some Ghiradelli's Ice Cream Sundaes. 

We took advantage of these fun photo ops.   

Even though the characters aren't alive I think Alaina looks darling in these pictures and had to share them.

Magic Kingdom

We left home Thursday at 5:00 am in the middle of a cold spring storm for Midway airport.  It was supposed to be cold and rainy most of the weekend in Chicagoland.  When we landed in Florida, it was sunny with temps in the high 80's and that weather held out for us the whole weekend (a little more Pixie Dust for Alaina).

After checking in to our room we caught the bus to the Magic Kingdom and practically walked right into the park (except for a little glitch on our park tickets that was easily taken care of because computers are good and keep track of things they are supposed to even when new employees-in-training make a big and potentially very expensive mistake). 

Welcome to Magic Kingdom

We rode Jungle Cruise (Liked It!), Haunted Mansion (Liked It!), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Loved It!), It's a Small World (Loved It!), and Splash Mountain (Gotta Have It!)

For fun we walked through Minnie's Country House (Liked It!) on the way to the Toontown Hall of Fame where we waited in line to see Princesses Aurora, Cinderella and Belle.

We also spent time waiting in line to visit Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen at Liberty Square.

In Minnie's Living Room

We were enchanted by the lovely European Village near It's a Small World.  Honestly, we were enchanted by the ride too.  The song doesn't annoy me nearly as much as it did when I was a teenager and it was fun watching Alaina discover the dolls and animals representing all of the different countries.

Unfortunately, I somehow twisted my ankle which slowed down my ability to move as quickly through the park as we were hoping too.  Rob and Alaina were too kindhearted to leave me in the dust so they missed out on riding Space Mountain. 

Alaina didn't actually ride Dumbo, but couldn't resist taking advantage of this great photo opportunity.

I'd read online about something called a Dole Whip which is pineapple juice mixed with soft serve.  They are only sold in Adventure Land so while Rob and Alaina went on ahead to get a fast pass for the Jungle Cruise I stood in line to purchase a couple.  It was hot and humid and we were hot and sweaty and needed a little pick me up right then.  These turned out to be the PERFECT treat. 

Of course we had to walk through Cinderella's Castle.

I love this picture that Alaina took of the castle. 

What a great eye she has.

We stayed at Magic Kingdom long enough to see the SpectroMagic Parade. 

I was starving so Rob tried to find something reasonably healthy and not too sweet to eat while we waited for the parade to start.  We started looking for a place to stand too late so by the time we got situated it was too late to find any decent food.  Rob came back with a funnel cake loaded with strawberries and whipped cream.  It was YUMMY!

SpectroMagic is one of my favorite parades.  Partly because I'm fascinated by the lights on the performers that aren't attached to the floats.  I can't figure out how they can stay lit so long and so brightly.  The whole effect is enchanting and magical. Once again I found myself watching Alaina's face as much as I watched the parade itself.  My only regret is that we didn't try to get better seats a little earlier so she could have sat at the front of the crowd to really see the whole show. 

After the parade ended we started heading for the park entrance because we had an early morning at Animal Kingdom Park on Friday, and didn't want to fight the crowds leaving the park at the end of Wishes.  I felt badly because I really wanted Alaina to see Wishes and didn't know if we'd be back to the Magic Kingdom during this trip.  As we were walking down Main Street USA, we decided that a hot dog from Casey's Corner would be the perfect way to finish off the evening.  We were not the only people who thought this and the lines were practically out the door, so when Alaina heard the fireworks start booming she went outside and was able to see Tinkerbell fly down to begin the show.  She wasn't able to see all of it and once we finally got our hot dogs we slowly made our way to the park entrance but by walking backwards she was able to see a little bit more of the magic before we boarded the bus. 

Our Room at Animal Kingdom Lodge

We decided to really splurge on our room for this trip and made a reservation for Jambo House at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Disney also offers Kidani Village at Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is basically one of their time-share properties.

When I made the reservation I mentioned that we would be there to celebrate Alaina's graduation and asked if they could possibly put us in one of the Savanna View rooms. I told the Cast Member that we didn't care which one, we just wanted her to see as many animals as she could.

The resort is set up basically like spokes on a wheel with savannah areas between the spokes and behind the lodge and they have different groupings of animals roaming the various areas based on their temperaments.

One of my favorite parts of being on Disney property is the care they take in "THEMING" and they certainly met my expectations in this resort property.

The wallpaper in the bathroom was created specifically for Animal Kingdom Lodge,

as were the bedspreads.

I don't know if you can see it, but there are Mickey's carefully integrated into the African style print. Of course, Mousekeeping left a welcoming Mickey head on the bed and in the bathroom they created a little mouse out of a washcloth and had a card next to it that read, "It All Began With A Mouse". Even the light fixtures were made to carry the theme.

We stepped outside to see our view and I fell in love with the patio chairs.

While Alaina fell in love with the view.

When we checked in we found that we had been given the very first room in the hall closest to the check-in desk. At first I was annoyed because I thought we wouldn't actually be able to actually see any animals. I thought they wouldn't come that far down into the confined space but we ended up liking our location a lot.

As you will see, in my next post, we were able to see a lot of animals from our balcony, and after I hurt my ankle I was very glad we didn't have to walk any further to our room.

Images of Animal Kingdom Lodge

Alaina and I both love discovering the details of beautiful things so we really enjoyed exploring and showing each other the amazing detail and work that went into creating this extraordinary lodge.  Some of these are her pictures and some of them are mine. 

This is the roof of the Great Lobby. 

The craftsmanship in here is truly a work of art. 

There is a suspension bridge that connects the fifth floor across the lobby.  We had a birds eye view of the lobby and were at eye level with the beautiful light fixtures.  We were also able to look out onto the main savanna overlook and patio area from the bridge.

Aren't these stunning?

Here we are standing on the bridge looking out to the main patio area and the surrounding savanna.  They had storytelling every evening around the fire pit and I think they even offered s'mores.  I was intrigued by how they created the sense of a vine growing up the window.  It was a nice way to tie the large expanse of glass into the theme of the lodge and to tie the inside together with the outside.

Inside the lobby they had a lot of beautiful displays of African Art, including various Masks that are used in Tribal Ceremonies.  I wish I'd had more time to explore and enjoy this part of Animal Kingdom Lodge.  It's literally a museum right in the middle of the hotel lobby.  This particular mask is the Igbo Ijele created by the Igbo tribe from Nigeria.  They choose the strongest man in the village to carry this during special events and ceremonies.  This is the only Ijele known to exist outside of Africa.

I was trying to show the detail of the exterior in this picture ... the colors of the balconies, the amazing thatchwork on the roofs, the open air outlook (complete with rocking chairs which just invite you to come and sit a spell) 

This is considered a pool view (I cropped the pool out of the picture because you couldn't really see it through the trees anyway).  I'm sure that if someone paid for a view of the pool they might not be too happy to be right above the roof of the restaurant, but I got a kick out of the zebra striping.  Everything, apparently, gets themed!

There is so much more to show, so much more that we didn't even get to see.  You could practically spend a couple of days just exploring the lodge and participating in the planned activities that are arranged for guests.

Alaina was thrilled that we decided to stay here.  It was the icing on her cake.  The biggest con of staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge is the time it takes to travel anywhere else in Disney World.  It takes about ten minutes to get to Animal Kingdom Park and that is the closest.  The longest bus ride was to the Magic Kingdom and that took about 25 minutes. 

We were very lucky on this trip and didn't have to wait for the buses at all.  In fact, everytime we went out, the bus we were hoping to catch was either just pulling in or just pulling out and the driver was happy to open the doors for us to get on.  Coming from the parks was about the same.  We definitely had our share of Pixie Dust when it came to transportation. 

Animal Sightings at the Lodge

We were delighted to find that the animals actually did come down into our little corner of the savanna. 

Some of the rooms that were further out might have been able to see more animals more often, but we were content with the ones that came down to visit.

This male Eland showed up every evening, as this seemed to be his favorite spot for sleeping.  He was there when we went to bed at night and if we were up early enough in the morning, he was still there.

Alaina swears she heard him walking around, clip clop clip clop. 

Rob and I didn't hear anything, but then maybe we aren't as in tune to the animals as our daughter is.

On Friday afternoon, before we headed out to the pool, the Grant's Zebra came down to visit. 

 There were actually two of them hanging out together, but this was the best picture from Alaina's camera (zoomed and cropped).

Friday evening, when we got back from the pool, the Eland was already settled in for the evening and the Reticulated Giraffes had decided to come down for a bite to eat.  There were three of them, but they were pretty far away from our room and by the time we ran down the hall to find a better view, they'd pretty much moved on. 

 If you want to see a really good picture of a giraffe, check out our pictures from our Backstage Safari at Animal Kingdom Park.

Saturday morning when we checked outside, the Roan Antelope was visiting.  Alaina was watching it eat when another guest started whistling.  She got a fun series of pictures of the antelope looking up and walking towards the sound.

There was a small watering hole a couple of rooms away from us and we saw birds visiting there several times but it was too hard to get a good picture of them. 

We also visited the main overlook area, just outside the main lobby area and saw Ankole Cattle, Greater Kudu and Thompson's Gazelle.  Disney brings in Cast Members from the African continent who act as Guides and will share interesting facts and information about the animals you see at the lodge. 

Rob and Alaina went out Saturday night to use the night vision goggles at the overlook area by the pool.  I didn't join them because I really needed to rest my foot at that point but they really enjoyed it.  I'm sure they told me all about it when they got back to the room, but frankly, I don't remember much of that conversation.

Adventures with Alaina

Alaina LOVES Disney ... 

She loves the movies, the cartoons, the channel, the tv shows, the characters, and their corresponding plushies.  In fact, I would be hard pressed to come up with one thing DISNEY that she doesn't love.

Now, a truth about Alaina is that when she loves something, she embraces it with her whole heart and her whole essence.

That is why it was so much fun to share this short trip to Disney World with Alaina.  She was delighted with each and every aspect and part of the trip.  She had a smile on her face the whole time (I believe that is a minor miracle when traveling with a teen) and allowed herself to absorb every detail, every moment and every memory that she could.

The fun started on the Magic Express (Disney transportation from the airport to the resorts).  During the bus ride they show an introductory video about the resorts and the parks and then follow that up with classic Disney cartoons.  Alaina moved behind us after the first stop.  She happily talked to the girls she sat next to and began watching the adventures of Donald Duck, laughing out loud at the funny parts.

Soon, the little girl sitting next to her (probably 11-years old) started laughing too.  Her younger sister looked at her funny and said, half sarcastically and half curiously, "Are you laughing at this cartoon?"  The older sister said, "Yes, It's FUNNY!"  Soon the little sister was watching and laughing too.

These girls had not made any comments or any noise until Alaina sat down next to them.  Her enthusiasm and willingness to be open to the fun that Disney works so hard to create meant that their fun began a few minutes sooner than they had expected. 

This was the magic that Alaina shared with us the whole time we were there and it was a joy to share that with her. 

A Funny Story

Alaina wrote and illustrated a True Story on her blog.  She has been a great storyteller since she could talk; many years ago she had a great desire to be an author (writing and illustrating children's stories while living in a trailer parked in our yard).

I don't know how many people actually read my blog, or how many of you jump over to her blog and read it but in this instance I highly recommend that you do.

Her blog can be found here:

A Miss Alainius Life (click on the name)

I get such a kick out of her voice and her instant art.  She just grabs her tablet and whips these pictures out without even thinking.  What really amazes me is how she is able to capture personality with just a few strokes of her pen.

By the way - the ducks she is referring to used to live in the canal a couple of blocks away from my parents house.  We would walk over and feed them when we would visit their Oma and Opa.  Sami was fascinated by them, snuck in through a hole in the fence and then when the ducks came after her, because they didn't appreciate sharing their space, she freaked out and couldn't figure out how to get herself back out.  We had to help Emily climb over the fence so she could save Sami. 

A Sketchbook Satchel for NYC

Alaina is heading to NYC early Saturday morning with a group of art students from Waubonsie.  I KNOW!  How fun!  They are going to spend hours visiting the fabulous museums there and doing other fun touristy things.  Tiffany, who is going to be Alaina's roommate at BYU next year is going too.  The girls figure this will be a good trial run and have already started sharing and working out a good compromise.  Tiffany wants to check her bag and Alaina is going to pay her $10 each way to carry her toiletries.  That way Alaina won't have to deal with carrying the minimum travel size that the TSA requires since she just wants to bring a carry-on.

Alaina wanted a bag to carry her sketchbook and pencils in, but also wanted it big enough to hold her wallet and a couple of other minimal necesseties (the Girl is NOT a purse carrier).  I thought it would be fun to try to make one for her.  So I went to my favorite place (Google!) and pulled up a couple of tutorials that showed exactly how to do this.  I let her choose from fabric that I already had at home and this is what we came up with.

I think it turned out really cute.  Alaina loved the giraffe print, but that cotton was way too weak to make the whole bag out of it.  So we combined it with the stripe and the polka dot and just used the giraffe print as the fun accent fabric (the colors actually match better in real life).  I added fusible interfacing to every piece of fabric on the outside of the bag.  I also doubled the bottom layers and quilted the layers together for extra strength.   

The messenger bag / sketchbook satchel was created from three different tutorials and piecing together parts from each.
MMMCrafts had good basic instructions and line drawings to follow, this was the main tutorial that I followed.
Heart of Mary had very good pictures but I wasn't about to try to insert a zipper into my first attempt at making a bag
Bluebirdbaby actually has each step broken out with an accompanying picture.

The tutorial for the fabric flower was found at Little Birdie Secrets

p.s.  I have more pictures, but it's late and Rob is very tired because he didn't sleep well on his trip this week and he's trying really hard not to get impatient with me.  Since I have work tomorrow, I knew if I didn't get this post up tonight, it might not get up at all, so I only put up one picture.  If you want to see more details let me know and I'll come back and edit this.

Mormon Prom

Today is Mormon Prom

also known as the Priest/Laurel Formal Dance

Alaina's group of friends decided to make it into a real event.

Josh asked Alaina to go with him

by stringing twine from our front door

through the neighborhood

all the way down to

and through

Jenessa's house 

to her backyard

where he stood waiting for her by the trampoline.

He attached encouraging signs along the way so she would know to keep going. 

if you want more details ask her

She happily said yes.

Hair and makeup was at Sarah's house.

Pictures were here.

Dinner was Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

at Giordano's.

Then the kids drove back here and met the LIMO for a fun ride to the Schaumburg Stake Center where the leaders of five stakes have joined forces to decorate, provide great food and good, fun, clean music for a memorable evening.

Friends from the Naperville and Joliet Stake.

Alaina borrowed the dress Emily wore at Mark and Em's reception. 

We decided it would be really cute if she added a petticoat underneath.

So I sewed one for her.

Resolving Resolutions

One of my goals from LAST YEAR was to go through my house - room by room, closet by closet, area by area sorting, purging and organizing.

Planning a wedding, reception and starting a new job got me sidetracked from achieving this goal.
Which is okay.
I'll just keep working on it as I can.

I wanted to redo the gift wrap area in our basement and since Alaina decided to host a party this weekend I realized it was now or never (or I'd just do what I've been doing and live with it "good enough" for another year or two).

I told Rob what I wanted and he built it for me.

Just Like That

How cool is he?

At one point he was banging the 2x4 in between the studs to create the shelf for the paper rolls to sit on and I asked him how he knew to do that.

His response....
"Granddad Lawrence"

I have mixed feelings about not ever getting around to finishing our basement - but then when I can do something cool like this between the studs and use the space effeciently I don't mind so much.

Thanks honey for being willing and able to accomodate me and all the gift wrap that I have collected over the years. 
If anyone needs to wrap a present, come on over.  I've plenty of paper (especially if you are looking for something in the RED family) and am more than happy to share