Rainy Days

These past several days in Cheney have been quite rainy.  And it looks like it is going to be raining on and off for the next week, so we have been doing inside things.  Whitney is catching a bit of a cold, so I don't want to take her outside in the yucky weather.  But Whitney misses being outside and running around.

I don't know what the sad face is about.  Whitney was just fine.  And don't be mislead by the appearance of sunshine streaming through the window.  We have a big window in our living room and Whitney has learned how to climb from the heating vent to the window sill.  Sometimes she just seems to disappear and then we know she must be hiding behind the curtain.  We are trying to discourage the practice, for obvious safety reasons, but Whitney loves climbing.

My mom gave us a squash from their garden when they came to visit us for my birthday.  I have never eaten squash and wasn't sure what to do with it.

So I looked in one of our handy cookbooks and I found a beef and vegetable stew that looked promising.  Here Whitney gets a chance to do a little stirring; she always wants to be 'up' when we are cooking so she can look into the pots.  Will and I have both gotten use to holding her and cooking at the same time.  Whitney wasn't allowed to stir for very long though because she kept trying to take the wooden spoon out of the big pot which was just making a mess.

The stew turned out more like a thick soup, but it tasted pretty good.  So now I can add that to my list of things I can cook.  Am I the only one who has a standby of like 12 recipes that just get used over and over again?
Will gave me a teddy bear when we were newly married that has been sitting on my dresser drawers with some of my other special goodies I have collected over the years.  Whitney noticed this bear and has been wanting to play with it.  She calls it 'roar' because she knows that is what bears say.

I am still working on trying to get Whitney to smile for the camera.  It isn't like she is unhappy or anything, she just stares at the camera with a blank face.  But at least she is holding still, which doesn't happen all the time.  Often, our pictures look blurry or have half a head because Whitney is running towards or away from me.

It is a little hard to tell, but Whitney's shirt says "My smiles keep me out of trouble".  I think it is cute and probably a little too true.  When Whitney smiles, I just love her to pieces and remember how great it is to have a beautiful daughter - even though she sometimes tells me she is a boy and not a girl.

I hope this video works.  We are all doing well in Cheney.  We are hoping for the rain to end soon though so we can start taking walks outside again, but at least rain is better than snow.  Bye!