Fun when family comes

So we got to spend this last weekend with Ruth and Dana and little Magnus.  Thanks for coming to visit us.  The weather was actually pretty good, so we spent lots of Saturday outdoors enjoying a little sunshine.  I think Whitney and Magnus got along pretty well.  Here are a couple of pictures of them playing together.

I thought it was so cute when Whitney and Magnus got out a couple of pots and some spatulas and started hitting the pot together.  Whitney appears to be multi-tasking and has her book in her other hand so she can read and cook at the same time.  Quite impressive.

Magnus seemed to like Whitney's food toys - especially this microwave that lights up and spins and beeps.  I think the two of them were placing all kinds of foods and utensils into the little microwave and just watching them spin around and around.

Magnus wasn't too sure about his mom holding another baby, but he seemed to decide that baby Rachel was okay.

We went to the park on Saturday.  It was a little chilly still, but the weather wasn't as bitterly cold or rainy as it had been for the past little while.  So we just had to take advantage of the opportunity to get outside.

There is nothing quite like the big red wagon.  Last time we were here in September, Whitney didn't seem to care much for the slide, but this time she loved it.  She would race back over to the stairs as soon as she would get to the bottom so she could "slide again".

There were lots of ducks and geese in the river.  Whitney was pretty fascinated by them; she wasn't too happy that the geese seemed scared of her and would run away before she got too close.  I was happy about that though because I didn't want any goose taking a nip at my daughter.

Whitney conquers the goat - or was it the other way around?

The Bloomsday Run every year is one of the most well attended in the nation.  Thousands of men, women, and children are involved every year.  So there are lots of statues of people running.  Whitney decided she must touch the foot of each one of them. 

Now I have been to this park in Spokane a couple of times and have never noticed the waterfall.  I must be really oblivious to my surroundings sometimes.  Dana wanted to go and see it up close and it was a really cool waterfall.  I love watching the water crash into the bottom and create huge splashes and see the mists of the water appear like smoke over the water (at least smoke is how I explained it to Whitney).

Rachel and Magnus were a little tired, so they didn't join us in walking down to see the waterfall up close.  But here is most of our family standing in front of the waterfall.

We took advantage of having them here to take some family pictures.  Here we are all dressed up for church.  We even got three out of four smiling, so I think that is pretty good.

Thank you Ruth and Dana and Magnus for coming.  It is always lots of fun hanging out together.  Maybe we can come and visit you guys next time in a couple of months.

Rainy days

I think we are all going a little stir crazy in our apartment but it has been raining and even lightly snowing in Cheney this past week.  So we have been trying to think of fun inside things.  Here are some of the happenings.

Whitney has been getting rides on Will's back.  She absolutely loves being on there.  She doesn't hold on to anything though so Will has to crawl around really slowly so she won't tip off. 

At least, we can still occupy Whitney for quite awhile with a bowl full of water and some soap bubbles.  We did this last Sunday because Whitney had really dirty hands and this was a fun way to wash them.

Where oh where did Willie go, oh where oh where can he be?  Whitney loves having Will sing Book of Mormon stories with the shirt over his head and no arms.  What could be more fun than that?

We spent a lot of Thursday making cookies as a surprise for Will when he came home from work.  They were peanut butter blossoms which smelled amazing when they were cooking.  Will noticed right when he walked in, even though they had been out of the oven for several hours.  Whitney was a great helper; she loves dumping and stirring.  Maybe she will be a little future chef.

When all else fails and you are bored of your apartment, put on dad's socks and suddenly the world is a little brighter.  Whitney kept jumping all over the place with Will's socks on.  They only slid down a couple of times.

Sometimes, this is how we all feel - upside down with our tongues sticking out.  I took this picture with the camera upside down; I didn't know Whitney was going to stick out her tongue at the last moment.  But I think it is funny.
Anyway, I hope some people somewhere are having better weather.  We keep hoping for some.  At least, we have lots of fun toys in our apartment until the weather cooperates.

Twenty Pounds

So this is a boring post with no pictures but I (Courtney) have been working on losing weight this year and I hit the twenty pound mark.  I am really happy about that.  So I now weigh less than I did before getting pregnant with Rachel.  I feel healthier and happier.  It feels good to be able to chase after Whitney more without getting tired.  Now I just want to lose another ten or fifteen pounds and I can be a little less rigid on my diet and exercise.  I feel like I have kind of hit a standstill though.  My weight has stayed about the same for a little while.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what can be done to jumpstart the weight loss again?  Any suggestions would be helpful.

Back to Pasco for Birthday Fun

We technically went down to Pasco because Will had a job interview in Oregon on Friday.  So we left Thursday after work and we were able to spend some time with my family.  We decided to celebrate Whitney's second birthday a couple of days early so we could all be together.  It was fun.  Here are some pictures of the cupcake making for the celebration.

Whitney really likes stirring the batter.  We have to watch her pretty closely to be sure she doesn't get the spoon all the way out of the bowl because we don't want batter to drip everywhere and Whitney wanted to taste test it.  But she actually did a pretty good job at helping get the cupcakes ready.

After Will's job interview the cupcakes had cooled enough that we were able to do some decorating.

Here Whitney frosts her cupcake.  I think she only sort of accidentally would get frosting on her fingers or on her shirt sleeve so she could lick it off.  I was the mean mom who wouldn't let her lick it straight from the knife.

Here the rest of the family gets involved in cupcake decorating.  My mom bought some cool candy decorations.  I think Whitney's favorite were the mnms and the gummy bears, but that was because she just wanted to eat them.

Here we are all singing to Whitney.  We just used a big number two candle and stuck it to one of the cupcakes that we didn't decorate.  Whitney loves the happy 'day day' song and I think she liked having us all sing to her.  But she didn't have quite enough breath to blow out the candle.  She tried though and then needed a little help from mom.

Whitney informed us at the store that she wanted popsicles to go with her cupcakes.  So she got a red popsicle and loved it.  We took off her shirt to avoid too big of a mess.

Then came the best part of birthdays - opening your presents!

Whitney loved ripping off the wrapping paper.  Apparently, my mom and I both had snowman wrapping paper because we both used that for our presents.  Whitney was very lucky and received lots of great things: a little toy microwave, some books, puzzles, markers, a plastic bat and ball, and some cool sewn animals from Conner.  Thanks for all the presents.

So happy second birthday Whitney.  Now we have the terrible, I mean the terrific, twos to look forward to. 

And a close up of the birthday girl for your enjoyment.