Happy, Happy Birthday Xander-Man

Is it really possible for Xander to be 5? Could it really have been 5 years ago that we brought that little guy into this world? It has been an amazing 5 years! Knowing all along that he was our last I have taken lots of time to hold him, follow him around, do things I didn't have time to do with the others when they were little. Yep. Today Xander is 5 and he is a joy! And I will enjoy him today and everyday!

The Birthday dude made it real clear that on your birthday you get breakfast in bed. He ordered Lucky Charms. A great start to a great day!!

Dang! I have a lot to catch you up on.

It has been nearly 6 week since I last updated this blog or my personal one. Lots of fun things have happened in our house since April 5th. Where should I start?


Somewhere around the 17th of April Xander and I witnessed a most extraordinary event. We went to see The Wizard of Oz...performed live on stage...at the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. It was so awesome!! We absolutely loved it! Xander loves the Wizard of Oz and I thought this would be a cool way for him to learn about disabilities and limitations and pressing on through them. It was super fun! And they were great!


I have been doing a cooperative preschool with Xander the last couple of years. 6 kids rotate in the homes of each of the students where in the mom of each student teaches. Good times and very entertaining! Our last field trip was a trip to a ceramics shop where Xander painted a very cool green horse. Gotta love the free thinking. He is definitely not inhibited my colors of realism.


This is a frame of a very funny video that would not up load. I will work on it, but let me tell you about it. My first born, a very handsome young gent, turned 14 on the day this video was taken. We went to dinner with our friends the Smiths (Jill, Stan, Sam and Paul) at the Texas Roadhouse. Jill graciously mentioned is was Benson's birthday before she realized what would happen to him. Just as we were preparing to pay the bill an head to the movie "Iron Man" they rolled out a saddle, had him climb on and proceeded to petition the other restaurant patrons to join us in wishing him a Texas Birthday with a big YEE HAA! It was good fun!

I can hardly believe it has been 14 years that we have had this guy. He was one amazing kid! We are looking forward to spending the first half of our summer watching him play baseball for the McNeil High School Incoming Freshman Baseball team.


On the evening of Benson's Birthday we first attended Natalie's Spring Spectacular dance performance. There is a video of that too that won't up load (check back). Here is her costume. They danced to Billy Joel's "Still Rock and Roll to Me" (which brought back a flood of memories of me, my brother Josh, and friend Kyle Cousins, playing rock band as kids in the back yard with white bucket drums and tennis racket guitars. Our other favorite song to perform was "We are the Champions" by Queen). She is a great dancer and it was super fun to watch her!



On May 15th we celebrated her 12th Birthday. What the heck???? How is this possible? We had a super fun birthday party on Friday night with 15 of her closest friends. She wanted to invited 30, but we had to reign her in. We had pizza, made movies, sang, ate candy and popcorn to watch said movies, jumped on the trampoline, and so on. We had a blast!

I don't remember where we had been but Xander fell asleep in the car. I brought him in and he sat down at the bottom of the stairs, to take off his shoes as usual, I thought. When I came back he had gone back to sleep right there.

Here is Xander with his diploma, graduating from BusyBeePreschool.

Here are all his BusyBee friends:Matthew, Ethan, Xman, Audrey, Marion and Lauren.

And all the BusyBee teachers and my friends:(back row): Debra, Jackie, Kristen; (front row):Audrey, Stacey and me.

This week we will celebrate Xander's 5th birthday...5!! In the fall Benson will start High School and Xander will start Kindergarten. What the heck??? Are you kidding me? I am not old enough for this!!

Xander was a race car driver

Xander wanted to go to Phoenix's house to drive his corvette the other day. We laughed for 45 minutes. Great times! Thanks for sharing your car Phoenix!

I have some catching up to do!

Spring break was the week of March 10th this year, and lucky for us Josh took 3 days off that week so we could do some fun family stuff. One of the things we did was go to the Waco Zoo with our friends the Steeds and the Cummings. It was great because each of the kids had a buddy their own age and the folks even had some friends too. It was a great trip. The zoo is only a little over an hour away from our house and the perfect size. Xander thought it was too long. We were about 45 mins. up the road when Xander asked, "Are we at the zoo yet?" which was apparently a rhetorical question because he answered himself with the exuberant exclamation, "No we're not!" He definitely has not had enough trips in the car of any great distance.

Here are Xander and Jackson enjoying the giraffes!

Madison and Megan are always happy to pose for the camera.

I got to go with Madi on the 4th grade field trip to the Alamo. This is my third time to attend this field trip since I went with both Benson and Natalie when they were in the 4th grade and had the Amazing Ms. Adams for a teacher. We loaded up on the buses at 7 a.m. and headed to San Antonio. The longest part of the bus ride is getting through Austin's morning commuter traffic. We started our day at the Institute of Texas Cultures. It is a really great place that highlights all the different cultures that came and settled in Texas. Super fun place! We ate lunch there and then headed to the IMAX theater where we watched the movie "The Alamo" on that huge screen. Great show! We finished off at the Alamo itself looking at the fort, artifacts, historical documents and memorials. We hopped on the bus just before 4 and arrived back at the school around 6:30p.m. What a day! What a blast! We love those "being there experiences".

Madi and her buddy Carson. They have been in the same class several times since Kindergarten.

Xander attended Kindergarten Kickoff this week. We went to Great Oaks Elementary where the kids have been attending since the fall of '03, right after he was born. He has literally grown up there, especially since I have been doing PTA the last two years. He has roamed the halls of that school in a stroller, as he learned to walk, as he has grown to be old enough to be a student himself. His biggest fans on earth work there in the office. Miss Ruth, one of his favorite ladies, has promised she will not retire until her finishes grade 5. (She still won't be old enough to retire then.) He had a great time taking a tour of the Kinder hall which he could have guided, and meeting new friends. And he was so excited to get his new spirit shirt which is his favorite color!! Hard to believe he is old enough to go through the preparatory steps of attending Kindergarten. Harder to believe we are going through similar steps for Benson to start HIGH SCHOOL! Heaven help us!!

Zilker Park, Austin, Texas

On Saturday we decided to take our friend Larry, visiting from Oregon, to one of the coolest places in Austin...Zilker Park. This place is acres and acres of beauty and all kinds of fun. Here you can see Benson diving into the Barton Springs Pool (water is 68* year round). The guys wanted to ride the long boards around the park and hit the pool. Xander and the girls wanted to throw rocks in the river and frolic on the massive play scape. They also have a very cool little train called the Zilker Zephyr. We didn't ride it this time, since we did last time we were there just a couple of weeks ago.

Xander and Madison loved throwing rocks in the water.

Xander begged me to let him swim in his underwear. And his argument was strong enough to convince me to let him do it.

Natalie slipped on the algae covered rocks and got a wet bum.


Even Xander bombed the hills at the park.

It was an amazing day, cloudless and temp in the high 60's. We had a blast and we vowed to find ourselves there more often.

Has it really been 10 years?

Yep! Ten years ago today I survived a very short labor in order to bring one Madison Jane Hinze into this crazy world! She is something else. We just got home from a fairly lengthy shopping excursion. Tomorrow I will post a picture of her looking all grown up and lovely. I am so blessed to have these kids. Sometimes I think they will drive me crazy. But most days I just love being their mom! Happy Birthday Madi!

Quite the eventful week!

I should have known when Eli Manning broke those 4 or 5 tackles and threw that amazing pass recieved by David Tyree with an unbelievable catch, ball trapped between helmet and hand, to win the super bowl in the last minute, that this would be a week worth remembering.

It started with watching the press conference on Monday where the new First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was announced. I loved watching the Giants of men be exactly that, men. Human in every sense of the word, sometimes grasping for words, not perfectly polished, but undoubtedly called of God. I loved to hear them talk of the importance of education, a world wide church reaching to every culture, all the questions the media had to ask. I love to know that they are human, but with a unique mantle and a keys that no one else has that make them men of God.

That night Josh and I went to watch Benson play his last home basketball game. It was early in the second quarter when the man he was defending jumped and and reared his head which land squarely in the middle of Benson's face. The blood sprang instantly, I could see he was dizzy and off he went to the locker room. He was followed by a coach, who was followed by Dad, who was followed by a trainer for the high school athletics department who was there watching his son play. I sat calmly, not wanting to over react. He came back at half time, ready to go back in the game. The coach and trainer agreed that the nose was most likely broken. He came home and took a generous dose of Motrin.


The next day we called the pediatrician who sent us for x-rays and made us an appointment for later that afternoon. The picture was pretty clear. Even Benson and I could see the break in the pictures the tech handed us. When the pediatrician got the films they called and said, "We can't do anything for you. You'll have to see an ENT." Oh dear! That sounds fun! And so we are headed there on Monday morning to get the scoop.


These photos were taken today, Friday, four days post injury. He didn't get the raccoon eyes we thought he might, but you can see the bruising on the inside of the eye sockets has started into the green/yellow phase.


It is hard to tell in the pictures but his once perfect nose is now a little crooked. We just hope the septim isn't too deviated. So far he has broken his arm twice and now the nose. Just the beginning of a list in a very active young man's athletic history.

Don't have photos for our Tuesday, but the girls and I went to Hannah Montana in 3D with our friends Haley and Cathy Cumming. We had lots of fun! We rushed home to take Natalie to her first official Young Women's activity...New Beginnings. It is weird to think that in May she is officially headed into those youth years. Wow!

Wednesday night Xander and I went to the local high school production of Suessical the Musical.
It is a smattering of many of the Dr. Suess stories all rolled into one. He really enjoyed it, but was exhausted and ready to head home at intermission. He was asleep before we got home.

Thursday evening I lived out a childhood dream, thanks to my little sister Tara and brother-in-law Byron. Since I was about 8 years old I have wanted to see the Harlem Globe Trotters. Tara and I had talked about that dream and so she surprised me with tickets as an early birthday present. It was so fun!! We laughed our butts off! I felt like a 10 year old kid. And my jaw hurt from smiling for two hours straight. It was all I thought it would be! I absolutely loved it! Thanks again guys!

Tomorrow night Josh, Benson and I are going with our friends Jill, Stan and Sam to see U2 in 3D at the IMAX theater. We are big fans! Josh has every cd they have put out I think. Benson has been listening to them since he was in utero. It will be such fun!

I am excited for next week to come so I can be home every evening, but this crazy week has been a great one. We are very blessed! Life is good!