30 week update!

Big news for baby's brain this week: It's starting to wrinkle and fold and looks like something that grew in the back of your fridge. This is due to the rapid growth of your little genius's brain cells. Other highlights this week:

Fingernails and toenails are finally finished—causing his or her parents great fear and anguish the first time they try to cut those little daggers (it gets easier, we promise)! Plus, the bone marrow is completely in charge of red-blood-cell production now. Trust us, this is a good thing.

Baby is starting to shed his lanugo—the downy hair that was covering his skin. Now that he's chubbier and better able to regulate his body temp, he doesn't need to sport a fur coat 24/7.

"I spy an umbilical cord and the inside of my mom's uterus!" When your baby is awake, his eyes are now wide open and he's whittling away the hours looking around, checking out his rather dark, limited environs.

Your baby hasn't gained much weight or height this week, as most of his energy's been channeled to the brain. He weighs about 3 pounds and is approximately 15.5 inches long, about the size of London, not the city, Britney Spears' Yorkie terrier. Of course your baby is less hairy and way cuter!

Knight went home tonight...

It's been a very bittersweet day for me today, I've been crying on and off because I knew this would be my last day with my boy. Some of those tears were happy and some of them were sad, but it was all worth it because Knightacus now has a family to call his very own. Here are a couple pictures from today, please excuse my appearance I had a rough day! Haha.

Knight now has a Mom, Dad, 16 year old skin sister Allie, and Uncle to spoil him rotten, I have no doubt he will be the center of attention. Allie is learning disabled and considered special needs, but she's very smart and bright, so I knew Knight would take to her right away. He followed her around the whole time we were there and was fascinated with all the stuffed animals she had in her room. Allie has been begging her parents for a dog for a long time and Knight was a big surprise for her tonight. When Allie found out that he wasn't just there to visit and was actually her dog she lit up and was so excited she couldn't even speak! I know she's going to love on Knight just like I had hoped, they already went out and bought him new toys, a new bed, and a collar and leash that say "Bad to the Bone". Ha!

When we left Knight was very nervous and scared, he knew what was going on and wanted to come with us. We had to put him in his crate so that he wouldn't completely freak out, it was so hard to leave him that way. :( Knight was with us for almost 6 months and I knew he would have a hard time with the initial separation, I just didn't know it would be so hard for me to leave him with someone else. I cried all the way home just like I thought I would, but now that I'm over the initial shock I know Knight is exactly where he should be. I've been praying for his forever family for a very long time, and they're everything I thought they would be, I'm so happy for Knight.

I'll post his happy home picture in a couple days, I want to give him some time to adjust and settle in before we make it official, but I know he's home. :)

Deacon's animal sounds!

Baby Bennett's 29 week update.

"Having a baby prematurely is frightening, no doubt. But here's a reason to relax: Due to the impressive advancements of medical technology, if your baby is born this week, she'd have a 9 out of 10 chance of survival, which is seriously great news. Other awesome developments:

Baby's brain can now control her breathing and body temperature. She can also cough, and her sucking abilities have been perfected. Look out, boobs!

Your Mini's skin is looking less wrinkled as she packs on the pounds. She's starting to look more like a Pampers model and less like a Depends model. She's now beefing up on the energizing and insulating white fat she'll be born with (unfortunately, white fat is not energizing and insulating for adults!).

And speaking of energy, your little Energizer Bunny is on fire these days. You're sure to feel your share of kicks, punches and elbows, especially when you're lying down. You might want to start keeping a kick chart to monitor your baby's movements, and also to later show your 13-year-old child what you endured for him or her. Ask your doctor how to count kicks and how often you should do it.

This week your baby is a little over 15 inches long—about the length of a loaf of bread—and weighs about 3 pounds, as much as a Macbook Air laptop."


Things are still so far so good with this pregnancy, now that I'm past the 16 week long battle with morning sickness it's been smooth sailing. The only major thing I'm dealing with now is a rash that I can't seem to get to go away. Two weeks ago I had my gestational diabetes glucose test and the next morning I woke up with a rash all over my entire body, it was horrible! Now the rash is gone but the incessant itching still lingers and nothing seems to help. Benadryl doesn't really do a whole lot and Cortisone cream only helps temporarily so I don't even bother. I told Scott the other day I feel like a drug addict constantly picking and scratching at myself, it's ridiculous! It's gotten a little bit better and my doctor said it's probably just an allergy to something, so I just have to deal with it for now.

The heat in Texas is miserable when you're not pregnant, but I'm going to have to ask that someone hit me over the head with something large and heavy if I EVER think about being pregnant in the summer ever again. It's an average of 100 degrees every day and it's HORRIBLE. We try to go to the pool and stay cool as much as possible, but I never want to do this again during this kind of heat. I feel like I'm constantly drinking water, yet I never feel hydrated. It's really important to keep plenty of fluids in my body so I don't go into early labor, so I'm always carrying around a huge cup filled with water. You know what lots of water means though, I make LOTS of trips to the bathroom too! Haha.

If these are the only things I have to complain about, I'm very lucky. At least we are both healthy, I can't ask for anything more! I have another appointment in two weeks and at that point I'll be able to set the date for my c-section. I can't wait to finally have a prospective date for the arrival of this little one!

Our fun day at the lake!

Scott's Uncle Shane has a boat and we took Deacon out this weekend for a day of fun. He loved driving the boat, swimming, riding on the tube, and watching his Dad surf. Uncle Todd even came with us! Here are some pictures from our day. :)

The Hensley's have gone patriotic!

Deacon and I found some cute little flags in the dollar section at Target this morning and decided to have a 4th of July photo shoot! As you can see, he's very proud of his flag. :) From top to bottom we have Deacon, Willow, Spruce, goofy Spruce (because it's just not a Hensley family photo shoot without at least one silly Spruce face!), Bonsai, and Knight.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy 4th of July! Please double check and make sure all of your fur babies have their collars and tags on in case they are scared by the fireworks and other festivities. :) Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Love,
Scott, Maggie, Deacon and baby Bennett Hensley


P.S. This is a message from the Deac-man himself! :)

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28 weeks, Knight's montage, and the inspection!

Say hello to my 28 week belly! There is no doubt about it, I'm most definitely pregnant. Haha. I've finally started to gain a good amount of weight even though it's nothing compared to what I gained with Deacon, and I'm going to the doctor bi-weekly now instead of once a month. Even though I hate this term, baby Bennett has reached the age of viability and we're on the home stretch now! In a couple of weeks I'll get to set his c-section date and then it all starts to get very real. I haven't done anything but buy fabric for his nursery, so when we move into the new house it will be a mad dash to get everything done. Our crib was recalled AGAIN and last night we just decided to trash it and start completely over, it's not worth risking either of our boy's lives to save money on a new one. So I guess it's a good thing that I hadn't started on the bedding yet, I would have had to re-do all of it probably! Deacon is now sleeping on the crib mattress on the floor, the first night went ok but I'm hoping the transition will start smoothing out a little bit.

Here is baby Bennett's 28 week update! :)
As the Big Day nears, your baby is getting ready to go towards the light at the end of the tunnel (the tunnel being the birth canal, the light being the one the doctor is shining directly into it so she can see what the heck she's doing). Other highlights this week:
Your baby's eyes are partially open now and can blink. Truly superior babies can actually wink. (OK, there is no way to prove that, but it's fun to imagine, no?) Your baby can also now become a shiny, happy person as she has begun having rapid eye movement (Get it? REM? Shiny, happy person?? We'll be here all week.) Her eyes have color now, too. It may not be the color she ultimately ends up with, especially if they're light gray or blue. The eyes typically don't settle on a final hue until nine months after baby is born. So when your mother-in-law says that the baby has her eyes, you can politely inform her that they'll most likely change soon. Sorry. Your babe is downright chubby compared to a few weeks ago. She is about 15 inches long, about the length of an amusement park cinnamon-sugar-coated churro (yum!), and weighs 2 to 3 pounds.


Check out the post below to see Knight's montage! I have exactly one month to get my boy adopted before we have to have him moved to another foster home. Knight doesn't deal with tons of stress and change very well, so moving and having a new baby in a matter of weeks won't be good for him and in turn won't be good for our family. I will have had him for 6 months at that point and it absolutely breaks my heart to think about giving him to anyone other than his forever family. I know him better than anyone and no matter how much I complain about what a stinker he is, I will miss Knight to pieces when he leaves. I haven't been able to watch the montage all the way through yet without crying, my sick naked boy has come such a long way and looks so good compared to when we first got him. I know his perfect home is out there looking for him and anxiously waiting his arrival, I just hope that they find him before I have to let him go.

Here is a picture of our new house! :) If you'd like to see more, just copy and paste this link in your browser and it should take you to trulia where you can view more pictures. http://www.trulia.com/property/3000048257-1146-Prospect-Dr-Flower-Mound-TX-75028 . There have been a couple more updates added since the pictures were taken, and of course I plan on going in and putting my own spin on every inch of the place, but don't worry I'll take pictures as I go! Tonight we have our inspection and I'm very nervous, so far everything has gone incredibly smoothly (almost too smooth) so I'm just waiting for something to be wrong. Any positive thoughts, vibes, or prayers you have to spare today would be greatly appreciated! :)

Knight's Montage at OneTrueMedia.com

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The last few weeks...

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to the last couple of weeks. Nothing super exciting, but we've been enjoying summer and all the fun things it's brought our family. I'm not longer working and get to stay home full-time now, it's nice not to have to worry about a schedule anymore. :) Deacon and I got season passes to Hawaiian Falls, it's a water park near our house, so we've been able to get out and play at the pool a couple days a week. It's been nice to spend some alone time with my little man before things start to get crazy in another month or two!

Scott and I started house hunting at the beginning of May and finally found our perfect house. This weekend we went under contract for a house in Flower Mound, TX, we can't wait to move in and get settled! As of right now we won't close until August 16th, but I'm hoping we might be able to get in a week or two before that. August is going to be a very busy month between moving, my baby shower, and getting everything settled in the house before Baby Bennett comes! It makes me tired just thinking about it. I'll get some pictures of the house the next time we go over there, hopefully next week sometime! :)

Memorial Day we took Deacon to the zoo for the very first time, he had a BLAST! He's really into animals right now and enjoyed every minute we were there. It was so cute to see his eyes light up at each exhibit, the monkeys and the bears were his favorites. I can't wait to take him back some day!





Willow's 2nd birthday was June 5th, we went to my friend Kathy's house for a birthday bash for my princess! I made pupcakes and Aunt Kaffy gave Willow some nice presents, we all had lots of fun. Deacon always loves to go to Kathy's and play in her baby pool, and this time she had popsicles ready for him! Check out May(Boxer) and Luna(Weimaraner) helping him with his pop. Haha! :)



Knight had a new scarf photo shoot to update his pictures and hopefully get him some more interest from adopters. So far we haven't had any significant bites on his line, he's not an easy dog to place unfortunately. He's also decided that randomly he doesn't care for Bonsai and we've had some nasty fights, so I'm hopeful that his forever home will come along soon!

Deac-man outside on the porch keeping Daddy company while he grills.

Deacon loves to give his puppies kisses. This day he went round and round the room kissing each one, it was precious. He calls Willow "Wiggle", Spruce is "Pootz", Bonsai is "Bee-bee", and Knight is "Ni-ni". :)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Spruce!

I'm so sorry I've been so bad about updating my blog lately, I was having some serious technical issues with Blogger! For some reason it decided that after over a year my email address was no longer sufficient, and because I tried to enter my password too many times it kicked me off for a while. Now that I've gotten things straightened out I promise I'll be much better about updating regularly like I was before, I'll do a quick update of the last few weeks tomorrow. For today though, here's a quick run-down of what our morning looked like, it's our Spruce's 2nd birthday! :)

We started off Spruce's birthday surprise with a piece of chicken jerky to get things going. It's his favorite treat. :) Then I brought out the big guns, four fully loaded Kongs with all of his favorite things in them!

Kong #1: peanut butter
Kong #2: cheese
Kong #3: duck jerky
Kong #4: chicken and rice

For a good 15-20 minutes Spruce went from Kong to Kong getting every drop out of each one, he was in heaven! Deacon celebrated with us too, the boys had matching party hats and noise makers, but Spruce was way too focused on the Kongs to care what anyone else was doing or whether or not he was wearing a hat. Haha!

One year ago today we adopted our big wiggly goofball that we lovingly know as Spruce. We are truly blessed to have him as a member of our family and can't imagine our life without him or the things he has brought us along the way. It's because of him that we came to LBR, fostered 10 wonderful dogs, and adopted our Bonsai. Spruce is our companion, our protector, Deacon's best friend, and someone we can look to for a laugh any time of day. We love love LOVE our baby boy! I can't believe it's been a year already, he's grown so much and so has our family, soon we will welcome another little boy who I know will adore Spruce just as much as Deacon does. :) It's been so fun to watch Spruce grow and change, he came to us a skinny boy at 46 pounds and at his check-up last week weighed in at a hefty 65 pounds! We've completed Wanda's Puppy2 class and the change has been remarkable, Spruce is much more confident, behaved, and well-rounded than the boy who came to us a year ago. I wouldn't trade a SECOND that I've had with my baby, I tell him every day that I love him to the moon and back and how blessed I am to have him as part of my life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPRUCE! WE LOVE YOU PRECIOUS BOY! :)