Two Boys and Their Girl

It is official, Paxton and Kellen are in love with Henslee.  It is also clear that we probably should not have named her the night before she was born!!  The whole pregnancy we called her 'baby sister' and now the boys refuse to call her Henslee!! They call her baby sister or baby girl, every once in a while they will agree to "henzie".  ;-)   

Our July 4th

Henslee celebrated her first holiday shortly after her arrival.  July 4th is one of our favorites around here and we tried to celebrate on a minimum amount of sleep!! Here was our day!

I am SO proud of my swimmers! 

Kellen

Paxton

CANNON BALL!!!

One week old, sporting her stars!

The boys thought they were throwing daddy off the waterfall, they would die out laughing when he would fall into water! 

I spent most of the day inside with Rotten, at least one of us slept! 

2 Brothers & A Treat

My favorite moments watching the boys is when they dont know I am watching.  I had given them popsicles and sent them outside.  They sat on the back porch chatting while eating their treat.  I stood at the back door watching and listening and they didnt even notice...until I had the camera!!  I just love hearing them talk to each other at this age, so sweet!

A Sleepy Crime Scene

***This post is for my sweet, mushy friend Laura B., who has cried at almost every single recent post!  

I went into the boys room for one last kiss before I went to bed, when I opened the door this is what I found!  Good thing the hall light was on I would have stepped on them both!  Nothing like falling asleep in the middle of breaking our 'do not get out of bed' rule!!!  And I love how Kellen brought with him to the crime scene the turtle night light!!!  Must be fun to be a twin!!

Happy 7 Weeks, Rotten!

I called Henslee the name 'Rotten' (spoiled rotten) about the second day in the hospital and it has stuck for me!! So here is Rotten at seven weeks! And I am very happy to report she is sleeping from 9pm to between 5:15 to 6:15am! Can I get an AMEN!

Celebrating Life x2

Thank you to everyone for their calls and texts yesterday offering prayers and support. It was a sad day, and more to come, but I am intentionally writing this post today because I know my uncle would say, 'stop your crying and celebrate life.'  SO, lets celebrate two of them!! Henslee and her daddy have back to back birthdays, Aaron's is on June 25th and her birthday is the 26th. We had a low key celebration for Aaron the night before my c-section. My mom, best friend and the four of us celebrated. Aaron said it was the best birthday ever!! This guy is not hard to please, a steak, a Fresh Market cake, some cheesy decorations, and a gift were all we needed!!

Our last picture as a family of 4!!

Happy 33!!

Bright and early the next morning we were off to celebrate Henslee Emeline entering this world!  Thank you to all of our friends and family who were with us on this special day, we appreciate it more than you know!  The c-section was thankfully uneventful and she arrived shortly after 8am, much easier with only one baby!

My best friend, Stephanie, and baby girl

Aunt ShaSha (Shannon) and sweet thing

My mom and Henslee

Kellen checking her out, he looked up and said, "she cute momma."

Favorite picture of the whole hospital stay, do I really have 3 kids?!?!!!!!

I have about 50 posts that need to be done to get caught up, stay tuned!!!

A Heartbreaking Day

This picture is of my Uncle Larry, me and my baby girl when she was 11 days old.  On June 11 he was diagnosed with cancer and roughly 8 weeks later he is now an angel in heaven.  My uncle was the life of every party, the best story teller you ever met, a die hard Alabama football fan, a decorated Vietnam vet, a lover of all 3 of my kids, a huge fan of mine and he was simply one of my most favorite people on this planet.  The loss of his presence will be felt at every family gathering, every discussion about politics or really anything...he always knew something about everything.  He never met a stranger and anyone around him felt like they knew him a lifetime.

Three weekends ago he told my mom he wanted me to come see him.  So Aaron and I packed up the kids and headed to Alabama.  I knew he wanted to say goodbye to me, on his terms.  I wont ever forget his smile and the jokes he made that day, I still laugh thinking about him getting up to go to the bathroom and saying, "Well this could take 5 minutes or 5 hours...stay tuned."  After the restroom he wanted to lie down in his bed and Aaron and I went into his room.  He had my Aunt Judy bring in scrapbooks and I was shocked that many of the pages included me, he had even saved my senior picture.  He wanted me to know I meant something to him, and we walked down memory lane.  We got ready to say goodbye and hugged and I kissed him at least ten times.  He grabbed one of my hands and held it in both of his and we locked eyes.  His chin quivered as his eyes filled with tears and neither of us had to speak a word, we knew what each were thinking.  Those few seconds will be forever ingrained in my memory.  Aaron hugged him and he told Aaron that he had gotten a good one with me.  Oh man, I miss him so much already.

He bravely donated his body to science and I will move forward believing he will help someone else battling this awful disease.  I HATE cancer.  Cancer may rob our loved ones, but for 33 years my Uncle Larry was a larger than life, beautiful, animated character in my life and that can never be taken away.