Whitney's first christmas

It was Whitney’s first Christmas and it seems like she was mostly just amazed by all the attention she got while at my parents’ house in Pasco. Whitney was pretty fascinated by everything there; there were a lot of things to get into and bite. (Those are her favorite pastime activities).

She liked the Christmas tree with all of its lights. Any decorations that were on the lower branches were in trouble, but nothing was broken; we were happy about that.

There also was this little Santa decoration just sitting on the floor way too tempting to not go over and attack. I wonder if Whitney thought it was a real person, but she did like being by it and grabbing at its head.

On Christmas morning we let Whitney go near the presents first to see what she would do. She loved the wrapping and all the pretty colors. I think the wrapping was what she really enjoyed the most because it makes this cool crinkly noise. It was fun watching her grab presents and hit them and try to open them with lots of our help.

We have a couple of family traditions for things we eat for Christmas. We always have turkey, of course. My family is not big on ham. And we always have Danish pastry for Christmas breakfast. The pastry is so full of sugary goodness and chocolate chips. It is delicious. I should probably learn how to make it myself so I can enjoy it more often. Unfortunately, it is probably one of the most fattening things to eat, but calories don’t count on Christmas, right?

Every child in my family growing up has a Christmas stocking that my grandma Hein makes. This year Whitney was given a stocking. It is really cute. She even fit inside the stocking. I had to get a picture of her inside it because I know she won’t fit next year. Whitney was not too keen on staying inside her stocking for very long, but I managed to get one okay picture.

These are some of the presents Whitney received. She seemed to really like the bouncing, lighting, noisy ball. It was one of her favorites. She also liked a little simple doll that I got for her at a Mothers Trading kind of place for a buck. There were fun cars for her to play with and lots of toys that she is going to appreciate more in a couple of months when she is a bit more active. I was grateful for all the diapers we received. That means we won’t have to buy any for awhile.

We all had a really great Christmas. Here is Whitney and some of my siblings checking out their new gifts. I am most especially grateful for our new vacuum. Our last one is broken and with Whitney crawling everywhere, we really need clean floors.

This isn’t the best picture because of the light coming from the window, but this is all of us standing in front of the Christmas tree. Whitney is even holding her new doll. I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas; we sure did. And Happy New Year to all.

Christmas 2010

This past weekend we went to the Mall to get a picture of Whitney sitting on Santa's lap. The line was horribly long and then Whitney just sat and stared at Santa. She would not look at the photographer nor was she remotely interested in listening to mommy telling her to look up, but we did get a cute one of her and Santa all interested in each other. Maybe we can try to scan it into the computer sometime so we can put it on the blog. But here is us waiting in line

They had a really cute set up at the mall to make it look like Santa's Workshop. We dressed Whitney up all cute for the picture.

I was warned ahead of time to not put your kids in red when sitting on Santa's lap because then it blends into Santa's outfit. So we thought the dress woudl be perfect. we took advantage while at the mall to buy a cute Baby's First Christmas ornament. My aut gave us a first Christmas ornament when Will and I were married and we wanted one for Whitney. I plan on getting one for each future child as well because I like them.

Whitney sometimes has photogenic moments and we have to take whatever we can get because she usually has kind of a deer in the headlights look. But this time she decided to give us a big grin.

I have been telling her about Christmas, not that she understands what I am talking about, but I'm sure that she will be excited to unwrap presents in a couple of days. we will be sure to take lots of pictures. I hope everyone has a great Christmas.

Of Birthday's and Babies

Here is what I received from Courtney for my Birthday. a very nice card, Peanut MnM's and some warm slippers.

Whitney had a good time at the birthday too. I received a few other presents from all my mommies and daddies and siblings, thanks every one.

Courtney also woke up early and baked me a delicious coffee cake for breakfast. 10 extra points for Courtney.

the slippers are extremely fasionable!!

and now for your viewing pleasure, more pictures of the baby

Caught red handed !!

and now your punishment is...

... look! a cute baby


-- baby pictures end here --

we also got a cool advent calendar from mamma keeler, thanks so much

and last but not least is the little gingerbread (graham cracker) house that could. Courtney wante to be sure that every one knew that this house was made while several young moms watched all their babies, while all the husbands played halo for the evening. so it is not exactly the Bel Air of ginger bread houses, but cozy and delicious none the less (when was the last time you said that about a house) plus Whitney and courtney look pretty great too.



buh bye

winter arrives

Well, we have a winter wonderland over here in Cheney. And, don’t get me wrong, I love the snow in general. I think it is so pretty hanging to tree branches. But I don’t like the cold and I don’t like how it makes everything icy and slippery and dangerous. I was warned that this was going to be another bad winter like we had two years ago and the forecasters have been right so far.

This is Whitney outside in her snowsuit. I just wanted to see what she thought of the snow, but apparently she doesn’t like it because she wouldn’t even touch it. So we were only out there long enough for the picture and we came back inside our warm apartment.

This is Whitney’s other pink snowsuit. I don’t know how we were so lucky to have two, we must have great friends. Whitney is giving her cute “I am about to get in trouble” smile.

Will is much better at taking self shots than I am. Here the two of them are both smiling and looking at the camera. How does he get such a great picture? The world may never know.

Whitney has moved onto bigger and better things that paper chewing … cardboard. She loves boxes and I always wonder when she is going to get her first cardboard paper cut because those things hurt. Hopefully, she doesn’t cut her tongue. Silly baby.

In case you were getting bored of baby shots, that is a Families are Forever sign that I made next to a picture of the Columbia River temple where Will and I were sealed. I am very proud of my artsiness. I don’t do well with any kinds of art projects, but I really wanted to make this in enrichment. We had to use carbon paper to write the letters and then we painted the inside. It took me the whole time to do this one project, but I am proud of it.

We were lucky and actually had two Thanksgivings this year. Will had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving, so we told my mom that we would come back to Pasco after that and she promised to wait and have the big dinner on Saturday. When our home teachers heard that we would be around without big plans for Thursday, he invited us to come have turkey with them. Whitney is bigger than the turkey, but only barely. Sorry the picture isn’t the greatest, but Whitney was being stubborn. And you should just ignore the arm to the side.

Will was holding Whitney so just her head could be seen above the staircase in my parents’ house. So I had to get a picture of the “floating” head. That is all for us. Hope everyone had great Thanksgivings.

Winter is Coming

So winter is coming here in Cheney. We got a little snow two nights ago that has stuck to the ground. It is now starting to melt where the sun hits. We might get some more tomorrow, so I guess it is time to bring out the big coats and boots.



Here is Whitney with a big smile. She has been smiling more for the camera now. I think it is because she knows she can crawl and grab the camera when she wants to. And she does that sometimes.

We went back to Pasco for a couple of days because Courtney's friend was getting married and I was in charge of the bridal shower. Unfortunately, our camera went on the blitz and the battery didn't hold its charge so I didn't get any pictures of the bride and groom. Here is one with my two younger siblings, Kaitlin and Conner.



I wish we had gotten more pictures in Pasco because going to the temple and to the reception was really fun. And the wedding dress was pretty, but oh well. Whitney has learned a new trick. She can now pull herself up to the standing position onto objects. This means that the puzzle I was working on is now going back into the box unfinished because Whitney broke it. But oh well. Soon she will be walking and we are really going to be in trouble.



That is all the pictures we have this time. Will is enjoying his new job. He is helping people sign up for Medicaid, so he gets to use the phone at work a lot. I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We will post new pictures after that.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This was Whitney's first halloween and I think it was a good one. We were given two costumes by Courtney's aunt and we had a hard time between the two on which one Whitney should wear.



The first one was a cow and it was really cute. Especially if we could get Whitney to hold the cow stuffed animal.



The second was a pumpkin and that is the one we chose. Oddly enough, when I took Whitney trick or treating at Eastern campus, another girl in my ward had her daughter dressed as a pumpkin. So we went around the different campus buildings together and we were the pumpkin patch. All the older people giving out candy to the kids thought we were great.

Whitney was really interested in the pumpkins. She loved to hit them and she loved to lick them - a little bit gross.







Can you tell what our two pumpkins are? Will carved the pumpkin shaped pumpkin (which was my idea) and then I carved the rocket shaped pumpkin (which was his idea). It was really fun. I love roasting pumpkin seeds and eating them for the next couple of days. With two pumpkins we had plenty to eat. Yum.

Our ward had a big trunk-or-treating activity for the kids because Halloween was on Sunday and the children all wanted candy. I couldn't believe how many kids there were. Will and I almost ran out of candy to give out. Of course, all the walking around and saying trunk-or-treat made Whitney very sleepy.



Her hat only looks like it covers her whole face. I promise that she could still breath just fine. And Will and I shared a pumpkin shaped pizza from Papa Murphys.



So all in all, Halloween was great. It's fun going around with a kid and picking up candy. Whitney even got to eat some of her candy.






I have been giving her little pieces of chocolate and things like that and she has loved it. What small child, or even small adult, doesn't love chocolate and sugar?

A while ago we received an outfit from Scott and Emily, Will's sister and brother-in-law, who live in Japan. The outfit said it was for babies 3 - 6 kg. Now I don't have a clue how many pounds are in a kilogram, so I wasn't sure when I should let Whitney wear the outfit. But we tried it on the other day and it fit okay. If you look really close it says happy hachikun. I don't know what that means. But the outfit is still really cute. So thank you Scott and Emily.



Whitney has been developing a lot over these past couple of weeks. She got her two bottom teeth, hooray.



Now it took me a long time to get a picture with Whitney showing off her teeth, so I know it isn't the best lighting and quality, but you can see her teeth. Does anyone know if teeth take a long time to keep coming up after they have broken through the gums? Whitney's teeth broke the gums over two weeks ago and they still look really small. Shouldn't they be pushing up some more?

Also, Whitney has learned how to crawl, sort of. She is really slow and will only go a little bit before getting upset. But she is getting there and we are really excited about that. Here is a video of her crawling.






It has been really fun to see Whitney grow and develop. I hope that everyone else has had good Halloweens. I am so excited for all the holidays coming up. Take care everyone.

some good news

It seems that all my siblings have some good news to share so I thought I'd share some of my own. After a very brief stint of working at Wal Mart in the far north of Spokane (2-3 walmarts away) I received a social work job at outreach services in Spokane, the office is located in downtown Spokane and will pay considerably better and give more hours that wal mart would. I will be working with individuals to help them deal with medicare and medicaid to help them to pay their medical bills. I am scheduled to start on the 8th of november. so that is my good news moment.

Getting bigger

Hi everyone. We just have some cute, kind of random, pictures of Whitney. People at church say she is getting so big and looking more and more like Courtney. What do you think? Here she is all dressed up for church. I love putting little dresses on her and little things in her hair. I don't know what I will do if we have a boy next and cannot dress him up.



Here she is trying to fill daddy's shoes. Whitney seemed to kind of like being in Will's big shoes. One day she will be big enough to not need us holding her up.



Will has a couple of favorite toys that he has owned since before we were married. One of them is this little block man that can move all around. All young children who have seen it just fall in love with this toy. Apparently, Whitney has as well.



But now she is making a break for it. Whitney can now put herself from sitting up to the crawling position and then she goes flat on her tummy. She moves backwards and in circles, but not forward yet. I have had to get her out of a trap or two when she gets her feet stuck somewhere.



Eating books and sleeves are some of Whitney's favorite past times. There are so many actual toys to chew on and even a teether, but why would we want to chew on them when there is a sleeve readily available? What part of this doesn't make sense?





Here Whitney gets up close and personal with the camera. She was sitting up at the beginning of the photo shoot, but the camera was just too tempting for a little girl.



Now Will and I love to play Yahtzee. It is one of our favorite games. During this video, I am counting to see how many rolls it would take to get a Yahtzee. And it was bad, but Whitney thinks I am just hilarious. Take a look.







After all that playing and laughing, Whitney was just zonked. She rubs her eyes constantly when she is tired.



So that is all for us. I hope that everyone is doing well. Will is now working at Walmart to help pay the bills until he can find a cool social work job. He had two interviews this last week; we should be hearing back from them soon. I really hope he gets one of these jobs. Okay, see you later.