Oh The Places You'll Go...

Hey, it's Mom here! Well, on a friend's blog it says '2 months' since our last blog update. Could it really be THAT long? I mean, we have only packed up, traveled around the world, visited friends, found a rental house and 2 cars, Daniel started his new job....we really have been slacking, haven't we? I invite you to grab a coffee/water/Coke/your beverage of choice and maybe a snack too, sit back and walk through the last couple of months with me...this is going to be a long one!

After the last blog everything really started getting into motion! We had our combined lawn sale with some friends at our house. We got rid of the majority of our things and generally had a good time since 4 of our friends came to sell their stuff too! Carly's friends Nate and Laney were there for a little while at different times so she was thoroughly entertained, even though she was not quite sure why about 50 people descended on our driveway in about a 30 minute period of time! This was our second lawn sale in Alice Springs and they are something of a legend. They start sometime around 7 or 8am and only go for a few hours or until you feel like shutting up shop. We 'started' at 8am but people were arriving at 6.30 and almost everyone was gone by 8. We could have said 'no sales before 8am' but then we might not have sold our stuff, so we just had to suck it up!

That next week (6 weeks before leaving), I got in a fender bender backing out of my friends' (June, Craig, Sawyer, Grayson) driveway. We just didn't have enough going on at the time so I thought I would spice things up. I was backing out, looked both ways and continued backing out when I realized there was some pretty loud crunching of metal and my car had slowed significantly! The only thing I can figure is that he was in my blind spot at the precise moment I looked. We were all fine though a bit shaken. The other guy's car was totally fine but my poor car had not fared so well. One side of the back bumper was dragging on the ground, the trunk was all dented in and would not close and instead of a 'protege' it was now just a 'rotege' 'cause the 'p' had been a casualty of the accident. June and Craig came outside and took the girls in while I talked with the guy I hit (he was totally not worried about his car). Sawyer and Carly were happy to have more time to play and June made sure I was all ok while Craig taped up the 'blue car'. It looked pretty ghetto by the time he was done with duck tape...I think he secretly enjoyed decorating the car! We filed a claim with insurance and got a couple of quotes to get it fixed. The main quote came back at $7,500 to fix the car, but the car was only worth about that much. It took the whole rest of the time we were there (up until the day we left) for everything to come through. They wound up writing off the car and writing us a check, which was the best outcome considering the circumstances.

The prep for moving was pretty monumental, as it always is. Several of our beautiful friends looked after Carly a few times so we could get stuff done around the house in preparation for moving and after that for cleaning. Thankfully, Raytheon paid for our stuff to be packed or it would have been total insanity. The movers came bright and early Tuesday morning, worked the whole day, came back Wednesday morning and finally left at about 5.30pm that day. The house was pretty full of boxes and then very empty feeling! A few times when the guys were packing, Carly exclaimed 'that's my toy!' or something similar but she listened and at least tried to understand when we told her they were just putting it away for us for a while and we would get it back. We walked into the house after being gone for half of the day and Carly just looked around and exlaimed 'whoa! lots of boxes!' Kate did well with the whole thing, of course. She was still very transportable and slept a fair amount of the time which made it not too bad. Certainly, packing up and moving overseas is not something I would recommend to someone else with a 2 1/2 year old and a 3 month old!

The next day we went to our friend Rachel's 1st birthday party at the Telegraph Station and then we started cleaning for our final inspection of the house. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned then worked for hours out in the yard to pull weeds, mow, weed eat, trim bushes, etc. On Sunday (the inspection was Monday) we realized we were going to need help and got a couple of the young men from church around to help us (thanks Josiah and Jono)! The yard probably looked better than it ever had before and the house was pretty spotless. Of course, Monday morning we were taking one last look and realized Carly had colored on the wall with pen in a few places. Why did she have to pick the morning of our inspection to color on the wall for the first time!? We got the pen off with time to spare and passed the inspection with no problems at all. We breathed a huge sigh of relief after that was done, 'cause even though we were still living in the house for 2 weeks, we didn't have to clean again or mow or anything. Yay!

We slowly met with friends to say farewell and had friends come 'shop at the Hendersons' to get rid of food from our pantry, toiletries and cleaning supplies that could not be packed. We took our other car in for service before selling it to our friend Cliff. We celebrated with our friends Beth and Hermes on their engagement. Our friend Brian Carlgren arrived from the USA on May 15th. Qantas had some tickets that were much cheaper than normal so he booked a ticket to come over while we were still there and to help us travel back with all of our junk in tow. Brian saw some old friends, hung out and rested a little, helped us sort out our stuff, run around doing errands and then became our pack mule during the trip back.

Our official church farewell from Alice Springs Baptist Church was on May 17th. This was a highly anticipated event, at least for me. Initially when we were in Alice, it was only for 2 years with maybe another 2 after that. Then we extended for another 2 and a very surprising 2 more after that. Every time someone would be farewelled (a lot 'cause it's a transient town), I would think 'that's going to be us one day'. Because we loved living there, loved the church, were so involved and enjoyed friends and the lifestyle, I knew this would be very hard. Daniel and I prepared something to say ahead of time...well, something for HIM to read since I was pretty sure I would lose it completely if I tried to do it. He did very well, said what we wanted to say and kept his composure, all while holding Kate and his piece of paper at the front of the church! I was pretty impressed that I didn't tear up until the end, when people gathered around to pray for us. It helped that Carly was walking circles around me and talking while Daniel was talking...she was pretty occupying, bless her!

We had a farewell with Janelle, Kim and June and their kids from Mums' Group, complete with yuuuuuuummy food, presents and a car cake. Carly had a great time with all of her friends, eating lots of food and playing. Sawyer gave her a little stuffed rabbit which has now joined the ranks with her bear, so she cuddles both at night. We had our last kindergym then our last Mums' Group, which we held at our house for more 'shopping at the Hendersons'. Kate turned over for the first time right in front of our friend June. I didn't see her do it but I saw that one second she was on her back and the next she was on her tummy. Now she is a total pro at flopping back and forth, rolling all over the place, scooting herself and everything!

Daniel finished up everything at work. Before Brian came, Daniel realized he had a few days of extra vacation up his sleeve. It worked out very well so he was able to take off some time that last week to hang with Brian and help with all the last minute preparation. He had a 'shout' at the bar at work, a combined farwell with another guy who was leaving. I know he enjoyed working at Raytheon in Alice, was challenged by it in his different positions there and learned a lot. But he was also looking forward to the new challenge of working for Apex Capital Corporation and the relative freedom of working outside the classified world (i.e. you can carry a cell phone all the time).

That night (the Friday before we left), Daniel had a guys night at the Indoor Sand Volleyball place and I had a girls night at my house with some people from church. I know the guys had pizza and chips but the girls were very serious about chocolate, with only 1 item out of about 10 being non-chocolate. We all had a great time, at far too much and stayed up too late. Saturday was our big farewell at the Telegraph Station. Our friends the Grells and Moyles organized it, provided food and drink and even a lovely book for our friends to write messages to us. We had a really great time and still feel so blessed to have friends who love us! Thank you!

We were there just long enough to see our church 'official opening' and ordination service for our friend/the pastor Sam Swadling. In the time we were there, the church embarked on a building program for a bigger facility, went through a time without a youth pastor, moved buildings, went through a time without a senior pastor, had changes to staff and services, etc. Though we have been in that building for some time and Sam has been our pastor for some time, it was really good to see the culmination of all of the work and change in the past few years. Monday our friends Sam, Bethany and Carolyn came to help us get to the airport since we didn't have our cars anymore, we all piled in and waved a farewell to our house, got to the airport late, dragged all our stuff in to check in, hung out with friends who had come to the airport and finally said a tearful goodbye.

The flight from Alice to Sydney was pretty trying with Carly testing the boundaries and throwing semi temper tantrums(she was REALLY tired) and Kate crying with tummy pain a majority of the flight. This was not an encouraging way to start the trip but thankfully this was the worst flight of the whole trip. We got into Sydney, found a taxi van big enough (JUST) for us and our stuff and went to the hotel for the night. Both girls were asleep after the trip and we unloaded all of our stuff and unhooked their car seats with them still inside them and got it all into the hotel room without either of them waking up! The guys went to get food, the girls both woke, we ate and stayed up late re-packing so that Brian could take yet another suitcase for us. Originally we had 5 suitcases but asked Brian to take one with him since he was just going back to Dallas...after just the trip to Sydney we decided we could do without more stuff and gave him another one so we only had 3 for our travels within the USA. We woke up the next morning, took a walk down the street to eat breakfast and have a brief walk on the beach and in the grass with the birds before heading to the airport for the long trek. Picture this...3 adults, 2 kids, 2 car seats, 2 portable cribs, 6 suitcases, a double stroller, 3 backpacks and a portable dvd player. Pure pandemonium. After about 45 minutes at the counter we all got checked in and even avoided charges for the extra bag of ours that Brian was taking back in his name. Went through customs with a very challenging Carly only to be told Kate couldn't currently leave the country because of some visa problem. We waited for about 10 minutes and a customs man came out and told us it was ok. We hadn't eaten lunch but our plane was almost finished boarding so we hurriedly got on and ate some crackers. Hey, at least we didn't have to leave Kate in Australia, right?!

Well, breathe a sigh of relief...this ends installment #1 of 'the trek'. I thought about naming this blog so many different things but 'the blog to end all blogs' did come to mind! Check back soon for the next installment...love from all of us!
Check out the pics (we do have some video, just have to get the time to edit it first)!

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!