Friday, December 23, 2005

Ode to the station wagon

How ironic that the lead picture in the last post showed us as a family (minus myself since I was taking the picture) standing in front of our station wagon. Two days later the transmission broke and began spilling parts along the Target parking lot, it only took a few feet before the car came to a complete stop. Christina was alone with the car at the time and got out to find ball bearings rolling everywhere! A new transmission is out of the question so this car is off to the giant recycling bin in the sky. It's hard to say goodbye to our long-time transportation friend but we have known for the last year that the time was near.

Now we're looking at ways to purchase a used mini-van, hopefully a good Toyota Previa, to fit our growing family. If you know of any deals out there please let us know.

Meanwhile, we need to sell off our production gear. Truth is that I haven't been using it for a year now and it can be much better used in someone else's hands. So, do you know of anyone in the market for a good camera package at a fair price? It's up on craigs list right now.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Oh Christmas Tree

Last weekend was our Christmas tree hunt. There is a small tree farm near us that let's you have any pick of tree for $20, it has become our tradition to drive out there, pick the perfect tree, saw it down, and daddy ties it up to the car while the kids enjoy hot chocolate and treats from the caretakers. When asked what his favorite part of Christmas is David said "putting up the tree and the decorations." It's a special day for us when the tree comes home.






All the ladies in the family (including the one that is arriving in February)...




Tired, but happy with the results...

She Flies!

My latest RC airplane, a WWII P-51 Mustang, has been coming together over the last few months and finally had it's debut in the sky thist last weekend. The next few flights will be about getting her trimmed in. Then I'm looking forward to flying some acrobatics again.




Hanging out with my friend Jeremy's "Formosa"...




And she's off...

Monday, November 14, 2005

Abigail's Flower Dress

This week Abigail and Christina are headed to California for Auntie Heather's wedding. I did a little photo shoot with Abigail in her spiffy flowergirl dress tonight. Click the picture below for an enlargement.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Belly Dance

Our new baby is coming right along. In fact Christina was asked twice in the same day if she was carrying twins - "No, just a Henderson". The little one is definitely making her presence known - both in wiggliness and in size.

We're close to deciding on a name, and we're busy shifting the house around the clear out space for the new occupant. So now we just have to get through the holiday's and before you know it we'll have a new Henderson.

Next weekend the girls are headed to California for "auntie" Heather's wedding. I'll try to sling up a picture of Abbie in her flower girl dress, and of course I'll send the camera with the girls for the trip.

So what are the boy's up to? David get's to tag along to work with me on Friday and see what exactly a web designer does all day. Then on Saturday David's Grandpa Larry, Grandpa Smokey, and Uncle Chad are coming over to help put in a whole new section of laminate flooring in the kitchen. Everything should be a disaster just in time for the girls to come home on Sunday afternoon.

We'll keep you posted!

- Adriel

Sunday, October 23, 2005

So blogging is supposed to be easy...

Blogging is supposed to be so easy that updates should just flow continuously, right? Well, sorry to neglect the posts lately folks, but... it's been a little busy! So here I sit in the living room rocking chair with my feet up on the exercise ball and the laptop in my lap. It's time to update the blog.

First, a movie recommendation. It was so off-the-wall that I loved it. In fact I just had to watch it again the next night. The movie is Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It feels like a movie that should have been made in the 80's, and it makes so much fun of culture. It's a movie about absolutely nothing, nothing that is except giving a good laugh. So go watch it!

Next up is the pregnancy update. We're busy making a baby over here at the Henderson house. Our on-the-way daughter is starting to stretch Christina out pretty good.

Now that our living room painting project is complete (notice the dark red wall behind the Henderson girls! That's one of the living room walls, the rest are a complimentary tan color) I'm starting to think about new furniture arrangements in order to fit the baby's crib into our bedroom. That involves moving my office desk out of our bedroom and somewhere else.... hmmm.

The trees around here are beautiful now, turning their colors and dropping the leaves. Of course that also means flu and cold season which has been afflicting us all. And probably one of the main reasons I haven't blogged much lately.

Well, that's enough for tonight. Next time I'll tell you about the "Daddy Cafe." I'm going to keep it short and sweet this time so I have more to talk about next time I log on.

- Adriel

P.S. - If you want to know the answer to life's greatest question you'll just have to watch Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. Of course that assumes you know what life's greatest question is....

Monday, October 03, 2005

Golly, at least it's free!

Marketing faux pa of the day

I found this banner ad on the Foxnews website today and it gave me a good laugh. A free PSP, but alas, it does come with what appears to be a cracked screen. Is it a screen shot from a popular game (Spidey?), or are they truly giving away cracked PSP's? Anyone up for trying to find out?

- Adriel

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Astronomy Adventures

On Friday David and the Justice boys down the street went to their first science class at the A.C. Gilbert children's museum. It was about all things space. They learned about moon cycles and black holes and came home with all sorts of fun things including a star chart. The museum even brought in one of those portable, blow-up planetarium and did a show. All of the boys had a great time, and so did the girls. Abbie's little friend came along as well and after running around the museum they decided to brave the drizzle to play in the sand. Covered from head to toe is a pretty good description of how they emerged.

After a quick clean up we all went to have Costco hotdogs with Adriel. On a Friday afternoon Costco is a busy place but even with 7 people we managed to find a seat and had a nice time. We finished up Friday at 'Friday Night Worship' at church and then back home for root beer floats and games with some friends. What a day!

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

It's a girl!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and found out that our third child is a girl. She waved to us in the ultrasound and curled up into a ball feigning shyness. Cute. So now Christina is ready to get busy picking names! Any ideas?

Afterward we went and watched the movie "March of the Penguins." It is a wonderful documentary, very inspiring and amazing to watch the cycle of life and the dedication of the King penguin parents in such harsh conditions. I'm glad that I don't have to hold an egg above the ice for months while Christina goes off to the grocery store (70 miles away) and picks up some fish to feed our little one with. A highly recommended movie, go check it out before it leaves the theater.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Field Trip!

Today the kids and I went to the A.C. Gilbert Children's museum. Our friends down the street, the Justices, came along. We were disappointed that the main Gilbert house is closed for new paint but we had a great time exploring the other house and the outside play structure. When we first arrived we were disappointed to find that all of the homeschooler science classes were filled but by the time we left they had added classes. We moms got all of the boys signed up successfully and they are excited to be able to take these together, it's always nice to have a familiar face around. I met the director and asked if they had any plans for art classes. She said that was a great idea and would plan those for the winter . She even took notes on the type of classes we would like! So now we will have even more fun to look forward to.

Monday, September 05, 2005

School and Space

For history this week we got to read some of the Legends of King Arthur. This was great fun! What little boy isn't fascinated with knights and castles exc.? We are signing David up for a once a month science class at the A.C. Gilbert Children's museum in Salem. Abigail and I will get to play with all the fun stuff while David does great boy things like dissecting eye balls. I am so glad for supplemental homeschooling classes! Eyeballs - YUCK!

For family night this week we watched an IMAX film about the space station. I am sure the effect would have been cool on the "really big" screen but we enjoyed it greatly at home with popcorn and all. As you probably know Space is a never ending fascination with David and he desperately wants to fly in the shuttle. For the next couple of weeks I will hear all of his unanswerable questions about the space station which usually involve impossible "what if's". "Mom, what if the moon got out of orbit and rammed the station..." Oh the impossible questions of motherhood!

Christina's Turn

I thought I would pop in here with a note. I can't let Adriel have all the fun, now can I? The pregnancy is going well and we are very excited about having this new little person in our family. With such an age spread between the kids I know David and Abbie will be great helpers and they are both excited about the baby. They do differ in their opinions on the gender though. David is sure the baby is (and should be) a boy while Abigail would prefer a sister.

School is going well and we are having fun with it. David's favorite subjects at our house are Bible and history. Friday the kids drew pictures of David and Goliath with sidewalk chalk while I read the story for our Bible time. David is generally shy about praying out-loud but when we prayed on Saturday after Bible reading we divided up the requests and he gladly lifted our growing baby in prayer to the Lord. It is a sweet thing for this mommy to hear her children pray. They get to the point without all of the flourishes, "God, take good care of our baby." and leave no one wondering about their feelings.

Hurricane Katrina

Yes, we are going to feel the financial effects of Hurricane Katrina for years to come. Yes, there are probably vast improvements that can be made in emergency management (no amount of simulation can prepare for the contingencies involved in a real life disaster of this size).

Yes, the poor were disproportionately affected. Yes, yes, yes....

But let's take a step back, stop and think about the enormity of what just happened to a city on our nation's soil. Let's leave the bickering and blame for later and get to working together as a nation of individuals to help those that are in need, re-root the homeless, and work to heal our economy. Civilization requires a government to lead the people, but the people must do the work. And it is the spirit of the people that define the civilization, not the government.

And to those in New Orleans that this week put on your drag and marched in the decadence parade despite the city's condition, shame on you! By remaining in the city only to flaunt your lifestyle you are putting those in need in greater danger, distracting rescue efforts, and proving that you care more about your personal desires than those around you. Find something productive to do or get out of the way of those that are suffering and those trying to help.

If anyone reading this knows of ways we can help please post comments to this entry. Christina's parents are going to be taking a displaced family into their home this week, this family has lost everything and needs clothing for a 3 year old girl, they have clothes for the older boy (8 years old I believe), toys, activities, car?, job... and I would assume clothes and supplies for the parents as well. The family coming to stay with the Betz's are related to the their next door neighbors. If you have anything that can help these folks please call or email Christina and she'll get you connected up with the family.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Last Adventure of the Summer

We packed up this last weekend and headed off to Loon Lake near
Reedsport for some time with our friends the Nielsens. Here's some
shots from the weekend.














Saturday, August 13, 2005

Tillamook getaway

This last Monday Christina and I took a day off and drove out to Tillamook. Our first stop was pancakes and then off to the Tillamook air museum. What a place! The museum is housed in an absolutely huge WWII blimp hangar which held 5 K class blimps during the war. (Each was twice as big as the Goodyear blimp). These blimps kept the western coast safe from enemy submarines and provided escort for ships travelling across the ocean.

Well the blimps are there no more, but now there are around 50 planes on display. Here are just a few shots. The first shot is the hangar, something like 7 football fields would fit inside the hangar, let alone the fact that it is 15 stories tall!

Here's me, Adriel, in front of a WWII dive bomber, this was the largest rotary engine plane ever built, and boy was it big for a single pilot plane....


Christina in front of a WWI pilot mockup. (We were taking the audio tour, that's why we have headphones on.).

The famous DC-9, probably the most successful commercial plane ever. It's a beautiful plane, especially there in person. Very graceful design of the 1930's.

And Christina's personal jet... (Of course with today's gas prices it would be parked in the garage all year).


Speaking of planes in a garage, I found my dream project for "when I grow up." This is a kit that, in the '70's, you could purchase for $1500. With today's materials the same experimental plane can be put together for around $7000. Guess what engine it uses?... The same as you find in the old VW bugs!



When I was a missionary kid in Indonesia we flew around in these little Cessna 185's. As a kid they seemed much larger, now my head hits the wings (Christina is a cute little button, much shorter than I)...


Here's a Bell Ranger, you see them all over the place as news and police choppers. I love helicopters, they are amazing mechanically, but was surprised at how small this chopper was in person, when I stand next to it I can look right over the top. Not any bigger than a mini-van.


Well, after Christina finally dragged me out of the museum we headed to the Tillamook Cheese factory and then out to the beach for the afteroon. Later we enjoyed some outlet mall shopping and then a dinner date. Here's the beautiful Oregon Coast beach shot...

Catching you all up...

Hey, this is Adriel, I'm the Dad of the Henderson family. Christina is the wonderful mother who keeps us all going. David is 8 and loves space stuff (he wants to be an astronaut). Abbie is an adventerous 4 year old who loves to dance and grab our attention in any way possible. Another is on the way, in Christina's tummie right now, he or she will arrive in February.

We have two pets, both rather excentric. Kodak has been with us the longest, he is a very large gray cat. Toby is a Beagle, but watch out! - he sneezes "stuff" rather often due to a lifetime sinus problem.

Christina enjoys putting our photos into creative memories albums. I enjoy anything that flies including RC planes, but I'm dreaming big of a day when I can build a personal sized plane in the garage.

We're setting up this blog so we can share pictures and events with friends and family and capture lifes ups and downs as it goes by. So welcome to our family blog!