Our First Field Trip

Last week, I went with Mary Claire on her first "official" preschool field trip! We had such a great time! There were enough chaperones for her class that I only had Mary Claire to walk around with all day. I couldn't believe it! I think the last time I had only one child to look after at the zoo was when John Owen was 15 months old. And he'll be 10 yrs. old next week! Here's some favorite pictures from our day at the zoo:

Feelin' "catty" in Cat Country!

Strike a pose!

Can you guess what she said when she saw this? hehe

The prettiest panda EVER!!

She loved riding the camel named "Cotton"!

Couldn't resist this photo...

And she insisted on taking my picture! :)

 Great memories made with my little girl!

My Partner in Parenting

This was part of today's article that I received from iMOM.
http://www.susanme.com/2013/04/be-thankful-you-have-a-partner-in-parenting/

If you have time, take a second to read the article.
I am extremely thankful for my partner in parenting!!

I love you, Jan Hensley! :)

Easter 2013

Ah, yes! Here we are...all happy, happy happy!:)

Mary Claire wasn't into looking at the camera too much in the picture above.

But in this one, she is POINTIN' TO JESUS!

He is RISEN!!

(While Jan's eyes are closed and Jonah cuts his eyes at his sister.)

Oh, the anatomy of the family Easter picture!

I'll spare you the other shots taken. hehe

We had a wonderful spring break week and Easter weekend. Very relaxed, no where to be really, and did pretty much what we wanted to. We still had swim team practice and a short orthodontic appt. for Mary Claire, but overall, a FREE from school/work schedule.

Here's some pictures that tell some of the story of our 2013 Spring Break and Easter:

We made resurrection rolls and read scripture from the Bible as we made them.

This was a special gift that was given to us when we lost Jan's mother in June 2010.

I leave it out all year, but it was a focal point of our Easter decorations.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” – John 20:26-29

 

Of course, the secular part of Easter is fun, too!

In the top left hand corner of these shelves are two of my favorite Easter decorations. The cross with nails and a smaller wrought iron cross a special friend gave to me when my grandmother passed away.

My favorite bunny with his carrot sweater.:)

I think I've had him for 20 years.

Our Easter candy jars with the book I am currently reading on the counter. It's The Whole Bible Story, and so far, I am enjoying it. Truth be told, I left in on the counter so that I would not forget to read a page or two everyday. My plan hasn't worked out perfectly, but I am slowly getting it read.

And for the candy, we are finally down to the last of the Starburst jellybeans! Oh my goodness!

I really think I need intervention when Easter rolls around every year and they put these jellybeans out at Wal-Mart!!I think I haven't eaten my weight in these! They are addictive...

Dyeing Easter eggs in our pajamas!

John Owen gives this dyeing thing a "thumbs up"!

Thursday night, our friend, Hutch, came to spend the night and we had a glow in the dark egg hunt!

Loads of fun!

Bunnies in a cup! (Pudding with coconut wafers, strawberry icing and jellybeans...super easy!)

Easter Sunday at Aunt Dinah's

I love this picture!

Does it remind you of The Christmas Story?:)

Aunt Dinah has this tradition of having the youngest child wear the pink bunny suit. Mary Claire wasn't the youngest one there, but she put the suit on...for a few minutes anyway.

Jonah "hopped" around in the bunny ears. Something tells me if the pink bunny suit would have fit him, he'd have put it on, too!

My grandmother and me

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

His is Risen!

One Spring Saturday

With snow in the forecast tonight, I am choosing to pretend that it is a comfortable 65-70 degrees with beautiful sunshine. I love snow, but after this past Saturday's perfect weather, I am longing for slightly warmer temps and outside time with my kiddos. More days like this past Saturday would be just fine with me...
We took part in the Cardinal Run last Saturday as a family. I did the 5k with my mom and dad (with my dad pushing Mary Claire in the stroller), and the boys opted for the Fun Run (1/4 mile).

I neglected to get someone to take a picture of the whole group with my camera, but I did manage to get pics of the boys.:)

It was a small event, but the kids had fun. Mary Claire decided, at the last minute, that she would not run in the Fun Run.

John Owen after the run!

The first (Jonah) and second (John Owen) place Kids' Fun Run winners.:)

Jonah didn't realize he was supposed to run "down the chute" at the finish. He ran around the hurdles, but finished well ahead of everyone else.:) I made sure the race director knew he had crossed first despite some protest from his big brother about not running the right way. haha

We left the race, headed to get some lunch, and decided to take our lunch to one of the nearby parks. I laid on the bench beside where the kids played, and soaked up the sunshine. It was so nice!

It was on that bench lying in the sun, that I began to think about Spring Break and what our clan was going to do to fill our extra time next week. We are not traveling, and I'm sorta glad that we are going to be around the house with no agenda. Of course, I cannot let the week go by without some sort of fun actvity or two. I am going to take the kids to see the new Oz movie. But before they can see the new one, they had to see the wonderful original! So, Saturday afternoon, I used my resourcefulness (insert sarcasm) and sent a text to several girlfriends that live nearby to see if anyone had the Wizard of Oz. (I had already checked the local Wal-Mart and had no luck.) Thank goodness for friends!:)

Saturday night was movie night at the Hensley house!

Would you just look at these faces mesmerized by the scenes from the movie?

(Please don't judge the cups you see us using in the picture. We only use plastic when we eat in the living room while watching a movie. Laughed when I noticed our CASH EXPRESS cups were in the picture!)

Other than the Oz movie, I have some other ideas to keep us occupied next week. More than anything, we are hopeful that the forecasted snow is pretty to watch, but is out of here as quickly as possible so maybe spring can make its official debut! 

Happy Spring Break!

Time is "March"-ing On!

Is this really March?! I am posting today after a long blog hiatus. As much as I try to tell myself that I will make it my goal to post something once a week, or once every 2 weeks, it doesn't always work out. I don't stress out about it, though.
I could write on and on about this and that right now, and everything that fills this feeble mind of mine:), but I'll try use these recent pictures to guide my writing.

It's sad, but I have gotten too comfortable with taking life's pictures with my phone. It's more convenient and easier for a mom of three young ones to NOT have to carry the camera around with me. (Sorry, honey. I know you spent a lot of money on that camera for us, and I know you don't like reading those words.)

Gosh, darn it! I can't seem to grab life by the horns and slow time down. My kids are growing faster by the day, and I am again slapped with the reality that time is marching on. Could be that all of this is brought on by the fact that all 3 of mine are approaching their birthdays. I lovingly call it "Our Birthday Season".
My 1st baby, John Owen, is turning 10 next month, my Jonah will be 8 in July, and my Mary Claire will celebrate her 5th birthday in May! I have had all of their silhouettes done at the age of 5, and yesterday, we went for Mary Claire's silhouette appointment. I looked at it after the artist finished, and a lump swelled in my throat as I looked at this child that has transformed before my eyes.

One random school morning photo...my big girl!

Think she's a little bit shy?!:)

I snapped this picture of Jonah and his best friend, Bo, reading a Magic Tree House book together after school one day. They were taking turns reading the pages. These two are so funny when they come into the library after school. I will sometimes send them down to get a snack and Ms. Melanie, our "snack lady"/bookkeeper, told me that they come in and discuss which snack they will buy. She says she loves to hear their conversations! They discuss which one they could share and both still get a lot to eat. :)

And this is the same super- imaginative, playful child showing his excitement about Easter and the decorations we have laying around the house!

Do you see how big my "baby" is? (See picture below.)

Makes my eyes teary when I look at him these days...

(not the best quality photo taken with my phone)

He did awesome in basketball this year! I could really see some drastic improvements in his "B-Ball skills". Now that the weather is warming a little, he goes straight to the basketball goal outside when we get home.

Is this funny or what?!

John Owen is the one to the far left of the picture. His friend, Hunter, had a birthday party last weekend, and they all went to a local wrestling event. Oh my goodness! The boys were super-pumped! Can you tell?! 

I, on the other hand, found it a little disturbing...

Then again, I have never liked wrestling or the idea that a man in an awful looking suit would parade around throwing out threats to his opponent and then the two of them would act like they are hurting each other!

(Makes no sense to me whatsoever!!)

But, there's a lot of things that don't make sense to me sometimes.

Human suffering doesn't make sense to me or my heart. Don't get me wrong, I know that God has a reason for everything, even the things my human mind will never understand. Why my grandmother had to suffer from dementia is one of these things. What I saw happen to her over the course of 3 years was hard to watch. But on February 5th, God ended her suffering. He took her to Heaven to be with Him, and I look forward to our meeting again one day with bodies and minds made whole again.

God has blessed me with some pretty amazing friends.

These girls have been there for me through it ALL, and I cannot imagine my life without them.

They came to the funeral for my grandmother, and I was not expecting any of my friends since it was in the middle of the day on a Friday. It was so nice to have all of them there, and made me feel special that they sacrificed a work day/day at home with kids to be with me and my family.

Thanks, girls! I love you!

Crystal, me, Allison, Nora

In closing (and while completely changing the subject...haha), I look at the picture below and feel thankful for my marathon experience I had in December. I am now training for a sprint triathlon. That's right! I signed up for the one I previously posted about, and I have been working hard since January. The swimming is DIFFICULT for me! But, with hard work, determination, and maybe a little luck, I hope to be able to raise my hands in victory at the finish, just as I did when I completed my first half marathon in 2011 and marathon in 2012!

Memphis in May Sprint Triathlon, here I come!:)

If anyone reading this has not signed up for the Go Lucy Go 5k, please go HERE to get signed up. Your support helps us reach out to families affected by childhood cancer! A wonderful reason to train and run...or walk!!:)

Thank you!

A Part of Our Family Heritage

So many times I think I've taken for granted the fact that I've known and had close relationships with all 4 of my grandparents. I certainly appreciate it more as I get older.
My children have known all but one of their great-grandparents. When I say they have known them, I mean they've had a relationship with them, and I hope they will remember them for the rest of their lives. My children have been blessed to have their great-grandparents and grandparents for funny conversations on the phone, attending their birthday parties and ballgames, sleepovers, and spending time visiting with them in their homes. Unfortunately, for my paternal grandparents, these visits have included hospitals and nursing homes in the last couple of years, but these special relationships can't be hindered by the location of the ones you love.

I read in my ParentLife magazine last night that helping your child make a connection with their heritage helps them develop a sense of who they are. (Makes sense to me.) I realize there are circumstances that don't allow some people to connect with their heritage, while others make a choice not to. It actually is hard for me to imagine the sad truth that there are so many people disconnected from their families. If you know your family's heritage, consider yourself blessed, as I do, and tell your children or family about your family history. It doesn't have to be "fancy stuff"; mine certainly isn't. My heritage includes happy,wonderful times interlaced with disappointments and struggles.

But it is who I am.
And these people are just part of my heritage.

This is my dad's father, Jeryl Banford Phillips.
He was born in 1920 and fought in France during WWII. I can't begin to imagine what he saw and experienced while serving our country. I know he spent many years of  his life after the war fighting depression and post traumatic stress disorder. He was a gentle, caring, active grandfather who loved fishing and working on motors. He helped me pick out my first car, a used red Honda Prelude, which he called a "peppy" little car. Thus, my friends and I dubbed the car "Peppy" when we were being silly and giving our cars names at 17 years of age. Papaw had 2 sisters, both are deceased. I only knew one of his sisters, Evelyn. She lived in Jackson, too. I met his other sister, but I don't remember her at all really. She always lived in another state.
Papaw died of cancer almost 3 years ago. God allowed it to be a quick process. He went into the hospital in October 2009 and died in March 2010. During that time, I drove to Jackson as much as I could with my kids so we could visit with him in the nursing home before he died. I was driving home from work the day my mother called me to tell me he was gone. I think he passed away peacefully.

This is my dad's mother, Annie Rea Wamble Phillips. She was born in 1926 and her father worked for the railroad company. The railroad company moved their family to Jackson, TN when she was a young girl. The picture below is of my Mamaw and Papaw when they married. She gave birth to 2 boys and 1 girl, just like me. My father is the oldest of her children, but their roles have reversed tremendously in the last couple of years. My grandmother was diagnosed with dementia right around the time of my grandfather's death in 2010. The dementia has progressed so that she has spent the last 1 1/2 years in a nursing home close to where we live, and we have been told she might not have much longer to live. I am praying for mercy and no suffering, and I believe that God will make her whole again soon. She has been a wonderful mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

The picture below is of my Mamaw and Papaw in the later years of their marriage. This is how my mind's eye will always picture them. (Please forgive the quality of the photo. It's a picture of a picture.)

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This my Papaw in Sept. 1977. And that baby is ME--only 4 days old, I believe.

The name of this blog which, of course, is part of a Bible verse, was chosen from a scripture book that sat on my Mamaw's coffee table at my grandparents' house in Jackson, TN. I spent a lot of time there. My grandparents spent the majority of their married lives in that little house on Lesa Drive. A nice, quiet neighborhood with lots of trees and nice neighbors. Pulling up in their driveway and seeing one of them standing in the door anticipating our arrival is a memory forever etched in my mind. Even before cell phones, they somehow knew we would be there soon. If I close my eyes, I can smell their house which usually smelled of freshly brewed coffee. They were avid coffee drinkers, for sure. I don't think I inherited that gene as I have just started enjoying small amounts of coffee this past year. I have always loved the smell, though. :) I can see the rooms in their house, the furniture, the backyard and my grandfather's shop out back. They are like clear photographs in my mind. The pictures of my dad as a baby and young man hanging in the hallway, the kitchen table which now resides in my house, the wooden high chair in the kitchen that all 3 of my babies sat in at one time or another; all of these things, crystal clear in my mind's eye.
Stay with me here...I am writing this for the sake of our family yearbook, remember?:)
I knew both of my grandparents' parents. That's right, I can remember all four of them. Regina Belle (What a funny little woman who, like me, was born on Sept. 4th.) and Lyle Lilburn Phillips, my Papaw's parents. Ed Augusta and Lois Pearl Wamble, my Mamaw's parents. I can remember their houses in Jackson, TN. I remember my great-grandparents', the Wambles', house the most. I discovered my love for butterscotch discs from the candy dish that always sat on my great-grandmother's coffee table. She had polio as a child and walked with a limp. My great-grandfather Wamble had big hands and loved to watch wrestling on T.V. Both lived into their 90's, and I was an older child when they passed away. I don't have much memory of their funerals, but I think that's how it should be...Remember the living moments, not the dying ones. I am extremely blessed to have known these people and to have come from these people. People who were not perfect or famous, but good people who lived by God's standards and valued family. I could say so much more about the memories I have, and believe me, I will take advantage of moments with my children to tell them more. I will tell them what they see on this page is but a part of who they are, and that none of this would be if it weren't for God. It is as He planned it...The good, the bad, the happy, and the sad. It's all a very important part of our family heritage.

Happy 20thirteen!

Celebrating the New Year with some great girlfriends!

Well, we are almost one week into the year 2013, and I hope it's not too late to wish everyone a happy new year! :) Sitting down at the computer to blog has been nearly impossible this week. Before our New Year celebration, I got all of the Christmas decorations down and the "Let it Snow" decorations up. I started back to work Wednesday morning, and the kids were back to school on Thursday and Friday. We joined a local YMCA (thanks to a 3 month gift certificate) this week and the boys practiced with the YMCA swim team this past Friday afternoon. They did great! Mary Claire and I enjoyed the free swim time from the corner of the indoor pool, where we could watch the boys practicing. I think we will aim to go 2 days a week after school for the next 3 months. I'm thinkin' this is great physical activity for the winter! I have even given some serious thought to training in the pool myself to prepare for a sprint triathlon...Oh my gosh, did I just say that outloud?! There is a nice mini triathlon in Tunica, MS in May that I just MIGHT set my sights on. :) Gives me butterflies in my stomach to think about it...got a lot of work to do.

http://mimsprint.racesonline.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=site.display&page_id=4467

I miss my running partner terribly! Jan still can't run due to his knee injury, and he hasn't been to a specialist yet. (I think I will have to make an appointment for him.)  I know he misses running. I hated running this weekend without him! Saturday, I ran the Hill and Dale 8 miler in Shelby Forest with my friends, Anna and Whitney. Then Sunday, I started the 2013 Winter Off-Road Race Series with my mom and my Aunt Dinah.
The first trail race quickly reminded me how much I prefer running on the road to running in the woods. In my opinion, the trails require more work. The scenery is great, but the terrain is harder. Oh well, one down and 3 more to go for January and February.

We are excited about 2013 and had fun ringing in the new year with friends last week. Here's a couple of pictures of the kids getting in on the celebration...

On New Year's Day, we ate our "lucky foods" and took Mary Claire and Jonah to see a movie at the mall. (John Owen went to spend the night with his good friend, Hutch.)Mary Claire was super excited to ride the carousel before the movie!

We hope your 20thirteen is super exciting and that you and your family are blessed throughout the year!
Happy New Year!
Love, Nicole