Thankful, 2011 Edition

I've been trying to talk to Gunnar this week about what Thanksgiving is all about (right now, he only knows that it has to do with turkeys, because one of our neighbors replaced their yard full of "scary stuff" with a huge blow-up turkey) and what all he has to be thankful for. So that has ME thinking about what I'm thankful for. Of course the obvious ones jump right out...the gift of salvation, my husband, my son. I certaintly don't want to undermine those....they don't just get an obligatory shout-out in my "Thankful" post...it's just that I'm constantly aware of how thankful I am for those things, year round. I wanted to start a tradition though of thinking through what I am SPECIFICALLY thankful for, for each SPECIFIC year. Maybe some "not-so-obvious" ones, but ones to be thankful for, none the less. So, in no particular order:

1) Our church, women's bible study, and Cindy Hawks: The Biblical Womanhood study, led by the maaaahvelous Cindy Hawks, has been (one of) the hugest blessing this year. I have learned SO much from the study, (much of which I am still processing through), and having the opportunity to lead a discussion group has been awesome as well. I've learned new things, met new people, grown in my relationship with God, AND discovered how totally cool, smart, and godly our pastor's wife really is. By the way, Part 2 starts up again in January, so if you want to jump in with us, go to this link, and check it out:



2) The adoption of Enock Box: : Seriously, this has been such a blessing, for SO many reasons. First of all, have you seen or met Enock? How could he not be a blessing?? He's precious. Secondly, his parents are amongst some of our very best friends in the entire universe, and getting to experience such an awesome, life-changing adventure with them has been one of the greatest things ever. Third, their story has been a huge inspiration/motivation to us, and I know so many other people. Its very convicting, and hard to ignore, when you hear the statistics on orphans, and become aware of how very many there are worldwide, all the while knowing that there just aren't a lot of good reasons why you SHOULDN'T provide a loving home for one of them. I'm thankful to the Box's for putting their belief into action, and setting an example for the rest of us.




3) Our friends: I really dislike the phrase "do life together"...I just hear it used A LOT, and any phrase that I hear used A LOT starts to get on my nerves after a while. However, I have to say, I can think of no better phrase to describe the relationship we have with our circle of best friends. Over the years, they have become more like family than friends to us. I love being there for them, and I love knowing that they are ALWAYS there for us. I love that we love their kids, and that they love ours, and that our kids love each other (well, I'm convinced they do at least, whether they act like it or not). I love that we have fun together, but that we're able and willing to experience the not-so-fun stuff together with them, too. I love that they encourage me, challenge me, make me laugh, and tell me the truth when I need to hear it. I just looooooove them so!

4) Troubles: Yep, I'm thankful for "troubles", and the lessons I learned from them. I could spend an entire page (or more) writing on this particular one, but because I know how easiliy I could let myself ramble on, and how boring it would most probably be to you, I'm going to intentionally make this one the very shortest paragraph of all. Suffice it to say, my biggest trouble in life is my "addiction" to worrying, and this summer was pretty rough, in terms of how much time I spent worrying myself into a tizzy over stupid things. However, the blessing that came out of it is...I'm done with worrying. Yup, I am. At least, I am in the process of being done with it. More on that later, in a different blog post.

5) Pinterest: Yeah, I'm serious. I just don't know what any of us ever did without Pinterest. It is a big time hobby/leisure/unwind activity for me, BUT I think it's totally a worthwhile use of time. Look at all the greatness that has come to our household, from Pinterst this year:







Not even to mention the fact that Gunnar is practically a genius by now, from all the educational activities I've gleaned from there. So I'm thankful for that, too :)

Thanks for Yet ANOTHER Great Idea, Pinterest!

Picture Dumping

Today, I was accused by Nason of being a "hoarder"...of pictures. This comment was preceded by an attempt on our part to snap a cute shot of Gunnar, using my phone, and not being able to, because there was no available memory. Nason is right...I am TOTALLY guilty of hoarding pictures. Here's the thing: I have this irrational fear...a fear most likely shared only by people 80 years old and up....that if I don't KEEP my pictures (preferably in an actual, old-school album, but if not that, then at least on my phone) that they won't be "safe"..like, maybe this "newfound, internet-thing" won't be around forever, and when it goes away, I'll no longer be able to access all the pictures I had safely saved (or so I thought) on Facebook, my blog, etc. Ok, I know that obviously that won't really happen, but it IS the method to my madness. Anyway, as I scrolled through ALL the pictures on my phone, I came across quite a few that apparently were never deemed "Facebook worthy", but also were just too cute and/or too sentimental to delete, which is why they are now availalble on here, for your (and my FUTURE) viewing pleasure....

Reasons Why I Shouldn't Have a Blog...and Why I'm Gonna Have One Anyway

I'm baaaaaack. I haven't "blogged" since...like...forever. Over a year for sure. Basically, I had decided I wasn't going to do the whole blogging thing. Here's why:

1) I don't have any amazing recipes to share, or DIY sewing tutorials, or insightful book reviews, etc etc (I'm kinda talking about you, Beth Carroll)

2) I don't have tales from my super amazing, life-changing journey to Uganda, to adopt my super precious, Ugandan son (Krista Box)

3) I don't live in a different state than the rest of my family/friends, thereby NEEDING a blog to keep everyone posted on our family (ummm...April Lamb?)

4) I don't take have an awesome camera, that I take amazing pictures with, wowing everyone with how beautiful my family (and photography)skills are (I don't know who to mention here)

5) In my old age, I pretty much have started to suck at technology. I don't know how to do anything "cool" on my blog. I don't really know how to do some of the most basic things really. You should be so impressed that I was able to mention people above, and link you to their blogs. That being said, my blog is completely dull, and really, evidence to all who see it, that I am technology impaired.

Those are some pretty good reasons for not having a blog, right?? So why did I decide, against all reason, to keep it, AND begin updating it again?

1) It sounds fun, so why not?

2) It's a good way, if nothing else, for ME to keep track of our lives, and all the sweet memories we're making now, while Gunnar is still young. I feel like even if no one else EVER reads the blog, it still won't be a waste of my time or energy, because I'll have a virtual scrapbook of our life, and for my sentimental self, that matters A LOT.

I know blogs are boring without pictures, and lord knows, mine needs all the help it can get, so all future blog entries (or at least most) WILL have pictures!

Peace out!

Gunnar's 9 and 10 Month Update....Long Overdue!

Well, I have COMPLETELY disappeared from the blogging world for the last two months. No updates, no pictures, nada. However, as I browse through friends' blog's, I feel a little bit better, realizing I am not the only one who has turned into a blog slacker (I mean YOU, Beth Losurdo, Krista Box, Michelle Hunt, and Mary Magee!).

Clearly, I am not a NEW new mom anymore...for the first six months of Gunnar's life, I faithfully posted a monthly update on the very DAY of his month birthday. Months 7 and 8 were posted a few days late. Now here we are at Month 10 (almost 11!!), and I'm two months overdue. It's not that the excitement or newness of having a baby has worn off, it's just that said baby is MOBILE now, meaning that mama has very little time for anything other than chasing after him!

At any rate, Gunnar has changed a lot in the last several months, and so has our life in general! As far as Gunnar is concerned, I refuse to do a list of every single milestone and skill he has achieved/learned, as I know that every single one of your kids have done the exact same things. It's not exactly groundbreaking news to anyone but me, that my 10 1/2 month old can crawl, pull up on things, wave, etc. (I guess I just DID kind of spout out a list). Suffice it to say, Gunnar hit 8 months old, and all of the sudden, he seemed to morph from "tiny baby who can't do anything", to "semi-toddler who seems more and more like a little boy than a baby". We are enjoying him more and more and more every single day. He is so much fun, and is really starting to show his little personality.

So what all as the Hengst Clan been up to since we last "spoke"?

- We moved into our new house! (Pictures below). We are loving it here! It's kind of weird to be in the same neighborhood, but in a totally different house (it feels really different, and really similar, all at the same time). I was sad to leave our other house, but the people who bought it are a really cool, young couple, and may just end up being our new friends! One strike against them- they painted over my beloved yellow walls on Day 1 of moving in. I loved that yellow so much!!! I can't believe they have the nerve to not share my same taste. Ha ha.

- We changed churches. We left Hill Country Round Rock, and are now at Hill Country Northwest. Still a Hill Country Bible Church, just a different location. Hey....kind of like staying within the same "neighborhood", just moving to a different "house". Ha ha. Apparently we like the idea of change, just not TOO much change. We changed churches simply because the location is drastically closer to our house. We miss HCBCRR, and all the people there A LOT. We are really liking our new church though, and Gunnar absolutely loves his little class. He actually cries when we pick him up, most weeks.

- Nason is working from home full-time now. That is, he doesn't have an office at Keller Williams anymore. He still isn't actually HOME full-time, as the nature of his job requires him to be out and about quite a bit, but as far as his actual office-work goes, he does it all from home. Last week was really his first week to do that, and it was a horrible week for him to use, to judge how he's going to like it. Gunnar was sick all week, and therefore, NO napping occured. In it's place, we had a surplus of crying/fussing/whining/overall loudness. Let's hope next week goes better, or Nason may start to rethink his decision.

- I'm still hard at work, training for my half-marathon. I'm up to 7 miles (should be up to 8), and I definitely still can't say it's gotten "easy". I just don't think my body is really meant to run. I pretty much hurt everywhere when I'm done. However, I'm going to keep going with it. I've gotten this far, I'm not stopping! I will say this.. once the race is over, I think I am hanging up my running shoes for a while, and switching gears. Yoga is sounding good to my poor aching bones right about now.

8 Months...What?!?

Gunnar is 8 months now!! I am tired, and ready for bed, but I am determined to do his 8 month update tonight. So here goes:

Gunnar crawls now. Gunnar eats all kinds of "solid" foods, and I am still making them myself, and still having lots of fun doing that. Gunnar's funniest moment this month was on vacation, when we had his pack n play set up in front of a mirror, and in the middle of the night, he sat up by himself for the first time (from laying down) and terrified himself half to death by staring at his reflection in the mirror. Gunnar STILL hasn't stayed overnight somewhere without us, and I am STILL not sure how I'm ever going to be ok with that, even though Michelle is adament that we need to do it SOON (and I admit, the idea of sleeping late while Gunnar chills with his grandparents sounds heavenly). Gunnar is napping like a champ, and has even taken a few 3 1/2 hour naps lately. Gunnar is still the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful little person that I know!

THE END

Vacation!

We just got back from our first vacation as a family of three. We went (of course) to South Padre Island. That is definitely our most frequented vacation spot. Nason's parents own a condo there, which they graciously allow us to stay at when we go, so it ends up being a pretty cheap vacation. Last year, around this same time, we went for our "Babymoon", and I vividly remember saying, "this will be our last time to come here before we have a baby". In fact, I think I posted a blog entry about it. If I was a bit more blog-savvy, and knew how to post that link into this entry, I would do so. But I'm not. Anyway, this vacation was interesting. Better than past trips to Padre in some ways, not as good (well, just different) as past trips in other ways. Better, because we had a perfect mix of "alone time" and "friend time". We were there for 10 days, and for four of those days, we had the Box's and the Hunt's join us. For three of the days, we had alone time, just me, Nason, and Gunnar, and for the remaining three days, Nason's parents joined us. DIFFERENT (or not as good) in that we maybe didn't have the right expectations ahead of time, about what a beach trip would be like with a baby. Gunnar just did NOT like the beach. Not at all. He didn't like the sand, he didn't like the heat, he didn't like the sun, he didn't like the ocean. We tried all kinds of creative ideas, trying to get him to enjoy it more, and he just didn't. He did enjoy the pool, but only for about 20 minutes at a time, and then he grew bored of it. What DID he like to do? Play inside the condo with his toys, and play in his baby pool out on the balcony. Both things he could easily do at home. Oh well. We knew ahead of time that going on vacation with a baby (or with kids in general) is definitely a different kind of fun than going on vacation without. However, we thought it would be an even trade off, getting to watch GUNNAR have fun. We didn't factor in the possibility that he might not. Although we should have..I mean, he is only 8 months old after all. What can you really expect?? Anyway, here are some fun pictures documenting our adventures is SPI....





Andrew and Michelle were staying at a hotel down the road from us, so we got to take full advantage of their hotel's nice, kid-friendly pool.



The Lovely Box Family




Nason and Jake made a rule that for 24 hours, they could only drink beer or milk. Here they are at 9 am one morning, drinking beer and smoking cigars.


All in all, it was a fun trip, and I think we've decided to try to make it an annual tradition. Hopefully, in subsequent years, Noah won't be scared of the sand, Camp won't be scared of the water, Gunnar won't hate everything about the beach in general, and the Losurdo's can join us!!