A Winter post for a snowy Day.....but seriously, it's MARCH!

I guess a winter review is in order especially on the eve of such a snowy day in MARCH! It is so cold and the snow is actually sticking.....well, at least on Nick's sandbox but still... I have no idea where to start except for just where we left off in November, so that leads us to Christmas Vaca in TX this year. It was cold, Hot, cold, Hot, you know, TX in the winter. Nick was confused about the whole snow thing and we said that was only in WI every other year....he wasn't quite so sure Santa was coming if there was no snow! I would say that we (as in the Hensley family) don't have alot of must have traditions (we are now on a cookiepalooza two year run....almost a tradition?) but I challenge any family out there to visit as many friends and relatives as we do......plain and simple .....YOU matter and if a car can get to you, we will be there. :) So here is a simple run down of our visits over a two week period.....bless Pat's heart, he loves me alot! :) 1. Girls Day out - a day with my RD friends from school and first job in FT.Worth.....fabulous! Came home to Cousin's PD and Davidson and sons. 2. Christmas Eve - My family and their Church family for Christmas eve service. 3. Christmas Day - My family 4. Quick trip to Oklahoma ....stop 1 - entire cabin filled with cousins,cousins, and more cousins. stop 2 - Aunt, Uncle, cousins and their families. 5. Cookiepalooza - Larissa (friend from StL and sister of my friend MK who passed away last year) and MK's family (Bobby and the girls). 6. Lunch with Pat's BF from high school and his wife Beryl. They live in the area also. 7. Dinner with my cousin Scott and his family along with The Davidson cousins again. 8. mini Kazapalooza with the Howells and Stone's. Park playdate and dinner. :) 9. Tornado Day....literally....a stop to meet Selah Segebarth and visit with all the beautiful Segebarth women! 10. STL - first stop - Meet and greet with new baby Hoagland and their extended family was in town too. Second stop - New Years eve at Michele and Alan Sulzer with my favorite pizza and just a "few" of their friends for game night..... I did not count the people but you will see in the slideshow that it was impressive.....and we do not even have pictures of some of the events......crazy!!! but we are truly blessed with great friends and family and great husbands who tolerate our need to connect! :) This free photo slideshow created with Smilebox This is an awkward segue but I really think this may be the last January for Amigo. He will be 15 in April and he has gone down ALOT in the past few months. I would say he has alzhiemers, poor vision and poor hearing. All of that leads to some funny happenings but kind of sad too. We have come home and thought he was gone numerous times and then there are the times like below when you don't really know what happened but it is pretty funny.....he has lots of those I've fallen (or sat) and I can't get up moments.....maybe this is one of them?? :) OK, this next pic is a school brag pic....Nick is doing well this year and although I will need to translate because they let them spell phonetically (whatever)......Nick's imagination is crazy and I could not believe he wrote this at school. If you click on it, you can see it better hopefully. It says.....How did the Monster get into the jar? Nick's reply..... He falled into the jar! He cry out Help! Nobody Heard me! he waited. He was sad. He was a fly monster. He like bugs to eat. He was half bug, half monster. some monsters do not love me. and he escaped. he was a secret agent. The great thing is this story required him to have kind of a timeline of sorts which means MOTOR PLANNING .....a neuro developmental thing that we have worked on in OT and he is doing it wonderfully! yippee! One of Pat's PT school buddies has a son adopted from Guatemala and 2 home-grown ones and we have enjoyed hanging out with them lately as the boys love to play together. I just love all the joy in this picture....such handsome boys! Baby Mason is not in the pic but equally handsome! We have now completed our fourth but first non-social worker required post adoption report (only 11 more!). We made our annual pilgrimage to the Capitol for the apostille and took Nick's friend Logan. Congress was in session and we got to see inside the big halls of the House of rep and senate. The boys had a fun time running around or into congressman/women. :) As usual February is a busy month with Meetcha day, Valentines and Nick's birthday. We also seemed to be sick the majority of it. Nick had "croup" and shared with me and then Pat and I got the stomach ick....thankfully only 24 hours of big ick, then just weakness and fatigue. But, we loved celebrating our boys 7th year. We can now say without a doubt that he has been with us longer than he was in the babyhouse. What a journey the last 4 years have been for us all! Nick requested a scavenger hunt like last year so he had a playdate with friends (while daddy and mommy went to an awards ceremony) and then ice cream then the big hunt when we got home. The clues were all over.....a snowmobile batman was hiding in the freezer....brrrrr! :) He wanted the packages (7 for 7 years) to have a saying like last year too. I guess this will be a birthday tradition while the excitement lasts! The day after Pat and I were sick all night, I was upstairs sleeping and Pat was doing the "watch the boy while we lay lifelessly on the couch" gig and Nick being the best boy and back rubber ever made this and put it next to Pat in the chair. So sweet ....... We have started March with a bang as the Snow continues to come down as I type! We have plans to go to Great Wolf for Nick's Gotcha Day and swim and play some Magiquest. He is so excited that his friend Logan (and Logan's mom and dad) are coming with us to celebrate. We will also stop in for a visit with Glenn, Cincy Karen and their new brood. Max cannot wait to introduce Nick to his new brother and sister from Ust, Kazakhstan. I have already had my visit this week.....could not wait 2 more weeks! I totally tried some of my Kazakh phrases....kind of...I will try more next week. Allie even answered me.....that so rocks! :) Love Languages! Pat's folks will be passing thru the first weekend in April on their way North......will be fun to see them and start springbreak with their arrival. Fun times! Adoption news.....absolutely nothing. We did find out that we haven't been approved yet because they are missing enough people for a quorum to vote. Apparently it is the psychologist position that is vacant. So that is what the hold up seems to be at least for now. We are not too disturbed by this except for the just not knowing anything.at.all. As all our Kaz friends know, 2 months is a fairly big chunk of time to prepare for so a little heads up would be nice. I will say that we have really had some great days with Nick and are really benefiting from "The Connected Child" parenting guides and info that we get from our counselor. So, I believe that God knew we needed this time for Nick still so we are just at peace that it will happen as God ordains it.....He did hang the stars and spread the seas.....I think we are good to leave it in His hands! :) I leave you for now with a Nick-creation.....he builds little worlds on our basement floor ....beware at night in the dark but ....wow, his vision and creativity just makes us proud. The picture really doesn't do all the little scenes justice but it was hard to get it all in the picture. He has little "plays" going on all over the floor. they are connected yet separate.....he has free spirited play as soldiers fight near a submarine with a space station nearby. We have encouraged him to think outside the box and boy does he. You might have to click on this one also to get the full effect but it is just so fun to watch his mind at work. He now intermingles superheroes, starwars, and batman.....the stories are hilarious....one of these days, I am going to hide the camera and get him in action. Hope this catches everyone up. I hope to document a few good Nick stories for his "journal" of sorts. I do love to go back and read the old posts so I try to tell myself that when I get so behind that it will all be worth it for memories later. We wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day and whatever else we missed since Christmas! We did not send out Christmas cards this year...will do better next year.....know that we love all of you and remember if you live near where we are going, we will come see you! :)