ONLY NICHOLAS AND HIS FRIENDS

Okay..........well this story starts back some time ago when Matthew played his first season of baseball. Well as most of you parents know, when you have a son and he plays any type of semi-contact sport, he typically wears a cup. Most boys love the day that they get to wear their cup for the first time. They knock on it...tap it with the bat....shift it around until it is in the right spot and so on.....Well on Matthews debut of the wearing the cup...Nicholas wasn't sure what it was and playing the perfect role of the annoying little brother, he runs around the house pointing at himself while shaking his hips back and forth yelling, "WEINER THINGY....WEINER THINGY....Matthew is wearing a WEINER THINGY......"!!!! Adam and I could barely contain ourselves. We were hysterically laughing. The thing that we have found with boys is that there is always something to poke fun at when it comes to stuff like this.

Fast forward a few years.....to just last weekend. We went over to our friends the Nate's to have some dinner and play this awesome game from Germany called LeGretto?!(something like that)....anyway.....as the adults are playing the game and the kids are thrashing around in the house....in just their underwear(Michael, 8, Preston, 6 and Nicholas, 8) Mind you Nicholas is always running around in his underwear. For some odd reason that we can not figure out, he likes to just hang out in his underwear. Needless to say on this occasion he had arrived at their house wearing his baseball uniform and as Nick would put it, "His Weiner Thingy" as well. Well as Nicholas is strutting his stuff around, Michael came up with a new name for the Weiner Thingy.......He called it a NUT BAG!!!!! Have you ever heard of a funnier name. I thought that Gina (Michael's Mom) and I were going to wet our pants we were laughing soo hard. I find that as a Mother of two boys and being surrounded by all of their friends that I have to be ready for what they throw my way. I am sure that there will be many more funny stories along the way. Thanks for the laughs Nicholas!!!

First Day of School

Better late than never is the motto when it comes to the Hendrix Family Blog! Yes, school did start 2 weeks ago....but since I signed back up for the PTA for something I thought was going to be a breeze and turns out it is not....my blog has suffered. Matthew started 5th grade this year at the ripe old age of 11! He is the King of the School and word on the street is that he is the love of all the teachers in the 5th grade:)Not to mention the ladies:)!!!Ahhhhh


Nicholas is in 2nd grade and is 8 years old! Notice the lovely shaggy hair? I asked Adam the Saturday before school started to get his hair cut since I was not in town and he said,"It looks fine!" Well I arrive home Sunday and he confesses that he needs a haircut but too late now...so needless to say he started with the shag but once the Law was back in town....it quickly was chopped off on Monday after school.



On Monday in the halls of the school after dropping Nicholas off in his class, I told Matthew that I was going to do the party dance once I left! He quickly reminded me that it was not just a single day party dance but a nine month party dance!!!! Thanks for the reminder, Matthew! So to all of the stay at home moms who look forward to school being back in after 3 months of vacations, sleepovers, fights, messes, hugs and kisses I dedicate this song to you...Celebration by Kool and the Gang!!!! Don't get me wrong.....I love my boys, they mean the world to me and I can't imagine my life without them. But with that being said, school is wonderful!

GREAT TO BE EIGHT

Where does the time go. It seems like just yesterday that Adam and I were sitting in the hospital holding Nicholas and wondering how on earth are we going to take care of two kids. Nicholas turned eight on July 28, 2008.

Nick wanted a Army cake with a battle ground. Notice the blood
on the enemies.

Partying with his cousins

We busted out the water slide!

When he turns 28, it will be July 28, 2028. How cool is that for a birthday date!!

Nicholas brings so much joy and laughter into our home. He makes us long for the energy that he exhorts on a hourly, daily basis. He hits the ground running from sun up to sun down. One of the greatest qualities that Nick has is he is very thoughtful. While shopping at Target, he will pass certain things and comment on which of his friends or cousins would like this or that. He would buy everything in sight for them if I would let him. He is also your biggest fan! While Matthew was playing baseball he would constantly be cheering for his older brother and when Matthew wasn't pitching he would be telling me that Matthew should be in because he thinks that he is the best at everything. We can learn a lot about kindness from Nick. On the side of laughter this is something funny he said, "I can not wait to turn eight!!! I get to get baptized! I get to go to Cub Scouts and I get to learn where a baby comes from!! " We have conquered two of the three and we are not looking forward to the third. We have a feeling that this time might not go as smooth as the last!!:)

IS THAT SUPPOSE TO BE A SODA BOX CAR?

For the last few weeks Nicholas has been asking to build a box car. I knew that I could figure out how to build one but felt like this would be a great opportunity for Adam to have some male bonding time with Nick:). This past Saturday, Adam and Nick set off on an interesting adventure that started at The Home Depot. 2 metal rods, 4 tires, a couple of bolts, a few screws and a piece of wood later, they returned to embark on what would end up being a disaster of a box car!

As most of us know it requires a bit more than a few rods of metal and some screws and bolts to make a box car. But Adam being the craftsman that he is thought that he could build one without a pattern or any previous woodworking experience.

Now most box cars have rails, a seat and definitely a steering wheel or some sort of rigged rope that allow the driver to steer the car. Needless to say, and you can tell by the pictures, Nicholas' box card had none of the above! His feet were his brakes if he need to suddenly stop. He was to drop them in between the first and second piece of wood and hope that he didn't break a ankle in the process.

A steering wheel would have come in handy to assist in guiding this one of a kind box car down the driveway. The car automatically veers to the left due to the fact that the front wheels are a slight bit wider than the back wheels. Measuring would have helped fix that, but that would have taken too much time:) Two of the neighborhood kids were over and advised Adam that their dad could soo make a better car than he did! What could Adam say to their honest comments. They were 100% right. He laughed about it and their Dad offered to help build Nick a actual box car.

What I love most about Nicholas is that even thought this box car didn't turn out like he dreamed it would(his exact words) he is proud of it regardless. He still thinks that it is awesome even though everyone who passes by probably wonders, "What on earth is that suppose to be?" As my brother put it so well, "He would be better off in a red wagon!" LOL. Hats off to Adam and for his attempt at his first, but definitely not his last, box car.