It's All Happening...

Hello, everyone! Kate here! I thought that with me being almost 3 months old it was about time for me to do my first blog. I've been busy...really busy. Growing, changing, smiling, eating, sleeping...ya know...being a baby. Mum and Dad say I'm pretty 'chilled'...I think that's a good thing? Sometimes my tummy hurts and I cry a bit 'cause it hurts. And sometimes Carly gives me a little too many cuddles and I get tired of it and have to cry. But other than that, I like to hang out, watch the goings on and smile. I really like to smile and it seems to make people happy when I do, so I think it works out pretty well for everyone!

A few weeks ago I got my 2 month immunisations. They also told me I weigh 5.2kg/11.5lbs, am 58cm/22.8in long and my head is 39cm/15.4in around. All this nursing is making these cheeks nice and chubby though so I probably weigh a little more now.

My big sis, Carly, is pretty cool. She likes to talk to me, cuddle me, pat me, grab my hand and give me 'five', rub my head, hug me, kiss me, bounce me in my chair, lie next to me, hold my hand, sing to me and generally be near me...lots. I find her pretty entertaining most of the time! Tonight we took our first bath together. There was a bit more splashing than my normal bath but I had a great time!

We've been busy playing with friends, seeing old friends from out of town, going to a farewell and a birthday party, going to mums group, kindergym and Sammy's Pizza and, of course, playing at Sawyer and Grayson's house. For Easter Carly and Sawyer painted and decorated eggs and we all went to the Dads (Sawyer and Grayson's/ Carly's and mine) work Easter party too.

Mum and Dad have been busy going through our things for our lawn sale tomorrow. I will probably observe for a while then take a nap...I think Mum wishes she could do the same! In about a week the moving guys come to pack up all of our stuff too! It's all happening here! I'm looking forward to meeting all of my family in the USA in just a few weeks now. Well, I'd better go so I can get some beauty sleep! Check out our most recent pics and enjoy! ~Kate

Fun and games

Hello, everyone! It's Mum here. It's my first post on the blog and I find it very exciting! I have a little quiz for you- look at the picture to the right... whom is whom?? At least one is Carly and one is Kate. They look a bit similar, don't they? I think they're both beautiful...but then again, I am their mum!

We've certainly been busy around here lately. Days just seem to fly by, running around and taking care of two kiddos. There is always something to do...never a dull moment! Kate is growing more day by day, getting better head control, finding a bit more of a routine and smiling to charm us. She makes lots of eye contact, watches Carly run around and has started to coo a little bit as well. She loves music and smiles when we sing to her. And just yesterday I caught her smiling at the tv when Carly was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Carly's favorite from an early age). She's not 'low maintenance' with a bit of colic and acid reflux but she has them to a lesser degree than Carly did when she was that age. Thank goodness!

Carly is growing and learning so quickly. She does the alphabet song almost in it's entirety...that LMNOP part gets a bit muddled up, but who really needs those letters anyway?! She loves Kate and gives her kisses and cuddles to the point that Kate gets a bit annoyed after a while! Carly sings a lot with or without the music and is always saying something that makes me laugh. She's testing all the boundaries and sometimes rebelling against the potty training thing but generally does pretty well. She's 2 though...that's what 2 is for, right?

One thing I have found difficult at times is not being able to give either one of the girls undivided attention very often. Several weeks ago, our friend Bec came over and looked after Kate for a couple of hours so Carly and I could go have a moment! We went to the Reptile Centre and Carly had a GREAT time! We saw lots of snakes and lizards. Of course, Carly's favorites were the ones that moved plus the sea snake and the turtle. She sat very patiently through a little talk about snakes and lizards before we got to pet a few of the lizards. By far the highlight of the trip was seeing the crocodile and watching him eat. They only feed the croc every week or so and in winter only every six weeks, so it was great that we just happened to be there at the time and day they were doing it.

Carly and I had already seen everything in the centre and were about to leave when they told us they were going to feed the croc. We went outside and a few people had already stacked up, so I put Carly on my shoulders so she could see. On the menu for the day: rabbit. Carly immediately sees it and says 'RABBIT'! It was at that point I briefly thought...is this a good idea? Will she freak out and have nightmares forever from watching this croc eat the little rabbit? I thought...na, she'll be ok. Thank goodness I was right! The guy did his talk about crocs eating and then threw the rabbit to the croc. The silence of the moment after was broken by my beautiful little girl laughing hysterically, saying 'crocodile eating!' Apparently it struck her as insanely funny...go figure. We watched him finish off the rabbit before he was fed a kangaroo tail. As the croc went crunch crunch on the tail, Carly once again laughed through it. I'm pretty sure a few people thought her reaction was a bit surprising! We went down alongside the tank, where the croc swam by and gave us some good views of his teeth, before we headed for the car. As we walked through the parking lot Carly said, "Ha ha ha. Crocodile eating. Silly crocodile. Ha ha ha." More of this followed later in the day and she was very proud of her little stretchy blue crocodile, our souvenir from the reptile centre. It was definitely a fun outing and I'm looking forward to next Monday when we get to go do another Mum/Carly outing. Thanks, Bec!

Daniel and Carly went to a fundraiser for a church camp a few weeks ago. It was a 'bush dance' complete with live band, dancing, limbo and a barbecue. Kate and I were going to go but she was having a rough night and I decided to spare everyone's ears. Carly had a great time running around with friends, singing and dancing and she looked so cute too! I've also included some Kindergym pics. We go to kindergym every Tuesday morning for about an hour. The kids play then do a 'warm up' of singing with some motions, play a bit more then do a 'cool down' with some more music. Several of her little friends go along too, so it's a great time for her to run around, play with friends, climb and totally wear herself out.

We are trying to enjoy lots of time with Carly's kiddo friends and all of our friends since we are moving in about 8 weeks! It's all going to happen so fast and we will be back in the USA before we know it. We head out of Alice May 26, do a bit of visiting with family then head to Texas to get ourselves sorted before Daniel starts his new job with Apex Capital Corp on June 15. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers over this crazy next few months! For now, enjoy our pics!
-Mum

Hey again, it's Carly here! Mum and Dad have been pretty busy and, well, Kate's pretty busy being a baby, so I thought I would give you a little update on our life here.

Kate is still the new kid on the block but I'm starting to think she's pretty cool. I give her lots of cuddles and kisses. She is pretty cute and has really soft hair I like to pat. She likes to look at me and has even smiled at me a couple of times! Sometimes her dummy falls out and she starts crying but when I put it back in her mouth she stops crying! Mum and Dad say I'm a great big sister.

Dad was off of work for the whole month of February, which I thought was pretty cool. We played lots, ran around the house, swam and went to town. Dad went back to work on Monday but we've had a pretty fun week! I got to play with my best friend, Sawyer, went to Kindergym and Sammy's Pizza and played with my friends at Mums Group today too. I have been learning so much lately. I know most of my colors and I like to sing the alphabet song (I can do it on my own up to 'G' but then I forget so I start over). I can count up to twelve if I really concentrate...but sometimes I just say 1...2...5! I've also been watching Mum and Dad change Kate's nappy (diaper) so I'm learning how to do that. But I think I will pretend I don't know- that's some yucky stuff!

I hear that we will be moving to the USA in a few months. I kind of like it here but Mum and Dad say we will see family and live in a new house and make lots of new friends, so it sounds like fun! We are going to a place called Fort Worth. Dad and I make forts in the living room sometimes...I hope Fort Worth is bigger than the one in our living room or it might be hard to fit all of us in there! Well, take a look at the pics and videos. Hope you enjoy them!

A quick month...

Hey, all! Carly here. Glad you have all found our new blog site. Make sure to read the post from Daddy (below) if you haven't already. So...the big news is obviously my new little sister Kate! I have to say that at first I wasn't quite sure what I thought of her. I mean, she's cute and all, but she cries, takes a bit of Mum and Dad's attention from me and even smells a bit sometimes! But she IS pretty cute and I like to give her kisses and the occasional cuddle so...she is growing on me. I keep telling her to get "up, baby" but Mum says she is too little to walk yet. I hope she figures that out soon 'cause I'm ready for her to play with me!

Nana was here until after baby Kate was born. We had LOTS of fun together and I'm a bit sad that she's gone now! We had lots of fun going to the park, running around the house, painting our nails (for the first time), giving massages, tickling, swimming, going out to eat yummy food, seeing the wallabies, coloring and all sorts of other fun stuff. A few days before Kate came to meet us, Mum, Dad, Nana and I even went to Standley Chasm, a nice nature area. It was raining a little bit but we walked around and saw some rocks, trees, little insects and all the flies came with us (the flies come out in force in Summer here).

All in all, I have to say that January was a pretty good month! February has gotten off to a great start with the arrival of Kate and Mum and Dad back from the hospital. If January and February were that great, I wonder what will happen in March?! I need to go to bed and get my rest so I can wake Mum and Dad up at 5am again...I just think it's a good time to greet the day. Don't you? Check out the pics from January! Love you! --Carly

P.S. If you have a Google account/email address, be sure to become a "follower" (over on the right side below the slide show) of our blog and you will get automatic updates when we do a new blog entry.

Another child another blog...

Welcome to the new Henderson Blog. Since we now have two Brainy Beautiful Babes(not to mention Mummy), we figured we would have to update. We've imported all the old blogs that "Carly" wrote, so you can feel free to peruse memory lane.

Now that we have that out of the way... The new addition, Kate Noel, is doing extremely well. She entered the world by c-section at 9:03AM on the 4th of February(Alice Springs, Australia time). She weighed 3.17Kg which is ~7.0lbs. See had and still has a FULL head of hair. In fact, we're pretty sure she needed a hair cut when she made her debut. She's still sporting a fashionable pixie cut, which looks quite cute at the moment.

Kate, although similar to her sister Carly in many features, is still very much her own person. Kate also likes to sleep A LOT more than Carly did which is making handling two kiddos much easier.

Carly was not happy about Mummy and Daddy being away from home for 4 days, but having Nana around seemed to keep her occupied from thinking about it too much. She was very happy to have Mum and Dad home and also baby Kate. Carly's reaction to Kate nursing for the first time at home was, "my turn". (Jen's face, priceless)

Things are going really well at this stage. Daddy has the rest of Feb off, so he will be slave to 3 girls, but let's face it, he loves it!

In case someone has missed this interesting fact about the DOBs:
Daniel 23-Sep
Jennifer 23-Jan
Carly 4-Dec
Kate 4-Feb

WARNING: This blog may be written in any family members "voice" so be sure to pay attention to who is telling the story, it might be a slightly biased version. Check out our most recent pics!

-- Daddy-O

Two birthdays and the New Year...

Happy New Year, everyone! And Happy Birthday to me- I turned two on the 4th of December. Mum and Dad say it's hard to believe 2 years have gone by already. Wait until I turn 16! =) To celebrate my birthday, I had some friends around to play, eat lots of yummy food and celebrate with Mickey cakes too. I had such a great time, I think I will have to have another birthday again next year! Later that night, Mum and Dad went to Dad's work Christmas party so I hung out with my friends Grace, Abishai and Elke. And I didn't even give their Mum any flack at bedtime!

Jesus' birthday, otherwise known as Christmas of course, was great fun. I can't say that I remember last Christmas very well but THIS Christmas I was all ready to rip into the packages and see the surprises that were inside. It was great fun...'til I got a bit tired of opening presents. But I took a breather and went back at it a bit later. We went to church and then came home and had pancakes (yum)! We all took a little nap and then went to the Gee's house to share in Christmas dinner and more playing with friends! I was pretty tired by the time I got to bed that night, but I think it was all a stellar way to celebrate Jesus' birthday!

We've been to all sorts of parties in the last month- farewells to the Goffs and Brains, little get togethers and Christmas parties too. We went to 'Family Day' at Dad's work too and I got to eat yummy food, see an actual snake (I kept my distance), play with friends and even went swimming!

Some of my biggest news is that on November 22, I started potty training! We have had a few rough days here and there but I do believe I'm getting the hang of it. I'm a pretty big girl, really! Next...driving.

Well, Nana came to visit a few days ago and will stay until my new baby arrives in early February. I am enjoying the extra attention, cuddles, kisses and lots of playing. I've even been trying out some of Nana's shoes and I do believe I like high heels!

I've got to run off and get into something fun now, but enjoy these pictures and videos!

Month O' Fun

October has been a VERY fun month! Come to think of it, most months are pretty fun 'cause I get to do cool new stuff all the time!

The first weekend in October we went up to Bathurst Island, north of Darwin Australia, for visit our friends, the Cooks. Mikayla ,4, and twins Tani and Lisa, 3, and I had a GREAT time, running around, playing games, playing outside, going swimming, cuddling and all sorts of other things. Mum and Dad had a great time with Aaaron and Jess too! We ate freshly-caught Barramundi (go Aaron and Dad!) and mud crab (thanks to their neighbors) and I went on my very first fishing excursion with Lisa and Mikayla. We even went to the beach one evening. Because there are crocodiles in the ocean here, you can't swim in it so we went at low tide, when there were some little pools left away from the shoreline. It was great fun and we got wet and dirty- what more could I want?! I do believe I could have stayed there and played with the girls forever, but after a few short days we had to catch the ferry back to Darwin. We got back to Darwin and stayed in a nice hotel that night and even went swimming the next day before catching the plane home to Alice Springs.

After returning home, I got a cold which was a bit of a bummer! But I got better a few days later and am back to my usual self! Our friends Adrian and Caren moved this past week to the East Coast. We had a farewell for them and it was very sad to see them go-- I hear Caren was even around when Mum had me! Last weekend was Dad's work Halloween Party for kids. I dressed up and went along and played with some familiar friends, Caleb and Sawyer. I got to wear my pretty ballerina dress again today for our Mums Group Halloween Party!

That's all, folks! Take a look at my pics and hopefully we will have some videos up soon too. Love to you all!