Wow...We're back.

How time flies!! I can't believe that I haven't posted since August. I guess with my computer breaking down and taking about 3 months to determine that it wasn't just a programming error (thanks Bao for all the time that you gave it!!!) that the mother board went out and we needed a new one. Then we decided to wait 3 days for Windows 7 to come out and then just the time of getting all of the programs up and running. So far I like it and it works which is even more important in my book.

Everyone is doing well. Will is busy with work and school. Debi is busy with kids and work. Everett is busy being 2, however he will now tell you that his birthday is January 27. And Cole is busy trying to be as big as Everett. Cole started to crawl at 5 months, started pulling himself up on everything at 7 months and just yesterday his first tooth broke through. He is always watching Everett and wants to be just like him. It is really cute, even if it means that my baby is going to grow way to fast. Everett enjoys it other than when Cole tries to crawl all over him or tries to take a toy that he is playing with. We are working on sharing :)

Funny story. I am going to post it here so that I don't forget it- however I do so at my own peril.

Last Sunday I was getting ready to go to work, Will was watching TV in the living room and Everett was watching TV in his room. Cole got fussy and was ready for a nap. Since everyone was pretty content where they were, I wrapped Cole up, built little pillow barricades and put him in the center of mine and Will's bed. Will was a little cranky so as I as said goodbye, I wished him luck with the boys. About 4 hours later I get a phone call from him and hear this story.

Will had a skin tag on his shoulder, so being the health care professional he is, he decided to cut it off. Well, skin tags bleed a lot. So as he is in the bathroom trying to control his bleeding, in walks Everett dripping poop. He is doing well with potty training, he always pees in the toilet but we can't get him to poop there. So now Will is bleeding, Everett is poopy and Cole decides he is done taking his nap so he starts to cry. Will decides to take care of Everett and him first then he'll add Cole into the mix. Well, Cole is crawling and has learned how to get out of his wrap if he's not going to sleep. When Will goes into our room, he can hear Cole but he can't find Cole. Seems like Cole fell off the bed on my side- which is closer to the wall so we don't use that side for under bed storage much- and proceeded to crawl under the bed and get stuck in the middle of our Cal-King bed. Poor Will had to take apart the frame of the bed to even get Cole out. How he got under there, I'm not quite sure since there is only about 7" of clearance but he did. I have been laughing about it since it occurred on November 8, 2009, to be exact. I haven't asked Will if he laughing about it yet but even writing this I am chuckling. I guess we'll all find out what happens when he realizes that I have posted this :) Just the picture of Will trying to get Cole out makes me smile.

Hopefully, with life becoming somewhat normal again I will be better at keeping my journal of this fun journey. I guess time will tell.

First Prayer

The other night as we were getting Everett ready for bed we asked him who he wanted to help him say his prayer. After thinking for a moment he replied "I say it." So Will, Everett and I all knelt down by his bed and Everett starts to say his prayer. He was thankful for our family, the church, the prophet, and then he stopped. I prompted him to bless us have a good night sleep and then end it. After we finished I looked at Will and asked if this was the first time he had done it by himself. It was!!! And Will and I both got to be home to hear Everett's first prayer. I am so grateful for the "tender mercies". I never realized how great I would feel hearing my child pray to our Heavenly Father. I am so proud of Everett!!

Broken Heart

I am just trying to cope with the fact that I am headed back to work tomorrow. "40 hours in 4 days" here I come. As I was just feeding Cole it hit me that tomorrow I'm not going to be the one feeding him. He has never had more than a couple of hours of his life without me and now I am going to be gone for most of the next 4 days. Deep down I know that Cole will be fine. It's not like he will even realize that I'm not the care provider because he will be taken care of. I just am having a difficult time dealing with that fact.
I just keep reminding myself that I like my job and it will be nice to get yelled at by someone other than my kids....it just isn't really helping right now!

Funny Everett!

This is how we found Everett this morning. After he was wake, I was talking to him when he said "I took a nap today." I said "Why?" "It was really, really dark and I still tired." Makes me believe that he got out of bed really, really early and I am glad he decided to lay down and take a nap. Although I think his bed would have been much more comfortable. Funny Everett!!!

Herman kid's birthday party July 11, 2009

My two favorite little boys!

Everett was really excited outside of the bounce house.

This is how Cole and I started off the day. He was pretty happy as long as he could look around.

I offered to make this cake just for fun. I had done a similar one about 7 years ago and I thought it would be really cute.

We got invited to a triple birthday party for Joe, Hailey and Kade Herman. They had a bounce house (which I believe Everett was in for about 30 seconds), lots of friends and great food. we had a blast!

Bonfire at Big Corona! July 10, 2009

Our good friends the Colliers invited us to attend a bonfire to celebrate summer. It was the perfect weather for such a great time. We ate hot dogs and had smores. What more could you ask for!Everett had his first fruit punch from the can. I'm not sure how much got in his mouth but he sure enjoyed it!

The whole family had a fun time at the beach with our friends.

After dark some vendors were selling light-sticks. Everett thought they were the coolest thing in the world and loved playing starwars with his new friends!

4th Of July

We started out the day at the Newport Beach Second Ward's pancake breakfast. Everett loved eating the pancakes.

Cole was happy and content just hanging out with Mom.

We ended the day watching fireworks over the bay. It was an amazing show. Everett was sitting on the fence and I got to cuddle with my two boys. Granted I was trying to keep Everett from falling down a cliff into the ocean and Cole just didn't want to be put down. Good times!

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern impassion'd stress, A thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness. America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for heroes prov'd, In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life. America! America! May God thy gold refine. Till all success be nobleness, And ev'ry gain divine.
O beautiful for patriot dream, That sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears. America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood, From sea to shining sea. (lyrics by Katherine Lee Bates)

I am always grateful to be reminded of what a wonderful country we live in. Today in church we sang "America the Beautiful" and I got choked up. I am grateful for the men and women that have sacrificed so much so that I could enjoy my freedoms today. I so marvel at the people that have worked and sacrificed for all the blessings that I take advantage of. What an amazing legacy our generation has been given.
It is my hope that I will strive to follow with a legacy of my own. That I leave the world a better place. I believe that if I teach my sons righteously and with the Lord's help they will be my legacy. I am so blessed to have them.
I give thanks to my father for passing his love of our country to me. He was a role model of a citizen who would fight for his country and beliefs. I hope that our armed forces today are filled with people who have the same convictions that my dad had.
I am so proud to be an American!

Great friends and beautiful babies!

Thank you to my friends. My long time friend, Stacey took pictures of Cole for me. I asked her to help me fix a collage for his room. With Stacey's crazy schedule, 3 kids, a niece getting married and then my schedule and life, it has been interesting trying to orchestrate it. We finally did the pictures at Smallwood Park ,by my house, while all the other kids played. I think she did a fabulous job and I love looking at my sweet baby.

Carrie and I went to the park to do some pictures of all the kids to use for Fathers Day. We were going to go to the beach but due to cranky kids, overcast weather, and not wanting the sand in Carrie's freshly washed and vacuumed van, we changed to T-winkle Park. When we got there my camera had a dead battery and Carrie's camera was flashing low battery. It was really funny, so much for all our planning! It turned out great. We only needed to keep the kids clean for a few minutes as we did a really fast photo shoot. Then we got to spend the rest of the time playing on the toys and with the ducks.

Go Lakers!

To say that we are Laker fans is an understatement. Truth be known, Will and I met because of the Lakers. I love watching the games. I love hearing about the players. And I really love that the Lakers are doing so well this year. This picture was taken on Thursday, June 4, the day of the first game of the NBA Finals.
I say it loud and I say it proud "GO LAKERS!!!!"

Funny Everett

The reason this blog came about was because I was telling Carrie how funny Everett is these days. She told me I had better start writing down the things he says or I would forget them. So this entry is all about Everett.

1) When you ask Everett what my name is, it's "Debi", when you ask what Will's name is, it's "Babe".

2) Everett loves to run up and say "I need a hug right now!"

3) Whenever Everett gets hurt he comes to Will or I to "kiss it better". The other day while he was sitting on the potty he told me "My penis is owie, kiss it better". I quickly told him that no one gets to kiss his penis better. I kissed his head for it to spread through his body.

4) When the singing begins in sacrament meeting Everett likes to sing full-throttle. He doesn't let not knowing how to read quiet him down, he just sings a song he knows like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" or "Bah-Bah Black Sheep" to whatever hymn is being sung.

5) Potty training. Everett goes from standing at the toilet saying "I don't like it." to watching me change Cole's diaper saying "yucky diaper."

6) Today Everett brought Will his Nerf gun. The look on Everett's face as Will was shooting at him was great. It was a mix of fear and excitement. Then when the gun was empty, Everett gathered all of the balls up and ran over to Will to do it again.

7) Everett came into the bathroom as I was getting out of the shower. It was right after I had Cole so I still had my stitches and everything from the C-section. Everett walks up to me and he is looking at me and says "It's broken." I laughed and said "yeah, Mommy is broken". Then I was looking at his eyes and ask him to point were I was broken. He pointed lower than my stitches and said "Mommy's penis is broken."

This post is going to be added upon as needed. Everett is almost 2 1/2 years old and is always making us laugh.

The start of a great Memorial Weekend

May 23, 2009
What a fun day. After spending most of this week tied to our apartment I was very antsy to get outside. We ended up at Huntington Beach State Park. It was a beautiful day. The sun was out but it wasn't too hot. We headed to the beach just for a walk along the boardwalk, however the water and sand were calling to us. Everett enjoyed playing in the water with Daddy and building sand castles with Mom. Cole enjoyed his first trip to the sand and was really very happy lying on his blanket. Since I wasn't planning to spend a lot of time there I didn't take sunscreen. Fortunately, while I am suffering my poor sunburned back, my boys are fine- must be that Samoan blood in them!

Sick Day

May 21, 2009
My poor sick Everett!
Everett has a fever. When I took it this morning it was 101.7. He has been lethargic all day and quite the cuddlier. Thankfully my Mom came and spent this afternoon with us. I can’t believe how hard it is when both kids want a part of you. I asked my Mom to take these pictures so I could document how I was able to hold both these boys at once!
Everett still asks to go to the bathroom but had only gone once. I have snuck on a diaper under his big-boy underwear and figure that since he really isn’t eating or drinking anything, it’s a hard day to force him to use the potty.

When Will got home from school Everett at least started to act like he had more energy. I'm not sure if that is the medicine working or Everett getting better. Tonight at 7pm Everett even begged to go nigh-night.

Still going strong

May 19, 2009
Yippee! Everett only used 6 underwear and had 8 successes. Who says potty training is hard? Just kidding... it is VERY messy and time consuming.

Potty Training

May 18, 2009
Today is the big day. I am going to potty train Everett. We started by going to Target and buying 3 packages of white underwear. I figure with the package Will bought that 26 big boy underpants should be enough to get started. Everett handled it really well. He got all the fluid (juice, milk and water) that he wanted. He used 20 underpants, went to the potty 16 times and I only had to do 2 loads of laundry.

Everett's hair

May 14, 2009
We shaved off Everett’s hair! Ouch!
Will decided he was ready to shave his hair a couple of days ago. He asked Everett if he wanted to do it too. Thankfully Everett said no.
Today Will and I were going to trim Everett’s hair using the largest guard on the razor. We tried for a while but that didn’t work. We ended up with just a mess of hair all different lengths. I looked at Will and said “Go ahead and shave it.”
Now Will and Everett are twins! Thankfully Everett’s hair will grow back.

Welcome Cole Farrell Heninger!

On March 30, 2009, we welcomed Cole Farrell into our family. It is quite a long story that actually started the week before.
On March 21, I didn't feel very good. When I got home I sent a text to Will saying I was turning off my phone and going to sleep. When I woke up several hours later, I was really hot and decided to take my temperature. Well, it was 102. Since I know that it is not good to have a temp when you are in labor and I was 3 weeks before my due date, I decided to call the doctor. She advised me to go into Labor and Delivery to be checked out. At the time I didn’t realize that temperatures for the Mom cause the baby to have a very high heart rate. Cole’s rate was normally between 130 to 140 beats a minute. When I had a fever it went to the high 180’s.
Will and I headed down to Saddleback Memorial and I was given Tylenol. Within an hour my temp was gone and we were talking about where we were going to go have dinner (it was 7:30 on a Saturday night, Everett was at my Mom’s and we thought we could sneak a date night out of it). The Doctor came in to tell us that they couldn’t find the cause of my fever so she wanted to admit me. I said for a couple of hours?” She said, “A couple of days.” I was surprised. I hadn’t even taken a toothbrush (thankfully the nurses hooked me up with not only a toothbrush, but toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner and soap!) However it was not my choice of vacation destinations. They told me that they wanted to keep me and give me antibiotic and didn’t want to release me until 48 hours passed since a fever. In my mind I had it all worked out that I would be going home on Monday. On Monday morning I woke up really hot and wasn’t surprised when the nurse said I was 102. I was really depressed all day long. Thankfully that was the last fever and on Wednesday I was cleared to go. I was scheduled to return to the hospital on Friday to attempt the external version (Cole had turned breech a month before). As I was talking to my nurse Wednesday morning, she worked it out so that they would do the version before I went home. As part of the version they came in to due an ultrasound to check the baby’s position (he was still breech) and to check my amniotic fluid level. It was low. I guess the fluid is supposed to be between 7 and 20, 7 being low and 20 high. Mine was a 6. My nurse came in and said that they were not going to do the version but the doctors were deciding if I was going to have my baby that day! Thankfully Will was there and wouldn’t miss the birth had they rushed me into the operating room. Finally my doctor came in and said that I was going to be released but that they were going to monitor my fluid the rest of my pregnancy, which was only scheduled to be another week and a half. I was scheduled to have a c-section for Friday, April 5. I went home and enjoyed sleeping in my own bed! Labor and Delivery beds are not made for comfort.
Then came Thursday and I went for them to monitor the baby and check my fluid. Both were found to be fine and they told me to enjoy my weekend and come back on Monday to be monitored again. I remember laughing with my nurse because I had left my cell phone in my car and if they wouldn’t have let me go home, how was I going to call Will. I had decided to go ahead and start my Maternity leave from work since they had scheduled me a c-section that Friday. I wanted to go to church with Will and Everett. It was a great weekend.
When I went into the doctors on Monday my fluid measured 1.6. They didn’t even monitor the baby and told me to straight to Labor and Delivery, I was going to have the baby today! I had to laugh because that morning I had thought that I should pack my suitcase but hadn’t. I called Will and told him to come to the hospital as soon as possible. From the time that I got to the hospital, I was there 4 hours, 1 of which was at the doctors before I had a baby.
Cole Farrell Heninger was born March 30, 2009 at 2:40 pm. He was 7 lbs 7 oz and measured 18.25 inches (however when I took him to the doctors a week later he had grown 2 inches…so I think there was a mistake in the measuring.) He is beautiful, adorable and a great baby!

Gotta love Disney!

Everett loved to meet the characters. He gave them hugs, kisses, high 5, and thumbs up. These are also some of the fun rides we were able to go on (the ride option were pretty limited for me- Cole was born 10 days later!)

California Adventure, March 20, 2009

Watertime!!!

We found this water park inside California Adventures Bug Life. I think we spent 2 hours just watching Everett and his good friend Tyler play. They laughed, they chased the water and really enjoyed themselves. It was the highlight of the day spent at California Adventures.