mustaches and socks

We have just been watching Whitney grow up everyday here in Cheney. But we would like to say congrats to Emily and Scott on their new arrival. I am glad that everyone is healthy and strong. We have a couple pictures of our little girl.

With her new outfits that Whitney got for her birthday came some cute hair scrunchies. We use to be able to put them on Whitney all the time, but now it is a major struggle. I hope she gets use to the idea of wearing them again. Anyway, one day I put on a purple one to match her purple shirt and it stayed on for about 10 minutes. This picture kind of portrays how much Whitney tries to take them off because the scrunchie is all loose and her hair is crazy from Whitney trying to get the tie off. Don’t worry, I didn’t make her keep it on once she got it off.

So we have a new favorite activity of Whitney that we have had to prevent. She likes to throw things into the kitchen garbage. One day I put some extra big socks on her and she took them off pretty quickly. I didn’t really care because it was a warm day, so I let her play with the socks. Eventually, I wanted to put the socks back on and could only find one. I searched our whole apartment for the missing one and finally gave up and put new socks on her. Lo and behold, several hours later when I open the garbage lid to throw in a wrapper, there is the other sock. Luckily, I just took out that garbage that morning, so it wasn’t sitting on something gross. But now we keep the lid kind of locked so Whitney cannot just toss away anything she doesn’t want. I decided to get a picture of Whitney holding the trouble sock.

Will got this little puzzle ball in a package from his mom a couple of weeks ago. The ball comes into pieces and you have to put it together again. Whitney really likes the little pieces; the other day we caught her with the black piece in her mouth in such a way that she looks like she has a moustache. It was cute.

I don’t know what this look is that is on Whitney’s face, I just know that it cannot be good. She has either done something she shouldn’t or is about to do something she shouldn’t.

Whitney practices her kissing skills on her toy monkey or toy baby. She is always giving kisses to everything. The other day we were at a party with some people in our ward and she went up to some other guy and kissed his foot. Fortunately, this other guy has a baby Whitney’s age, so he didn’t mind having his foot kissed. I think he was just surprised.

Whitney has gotten very good at playing fetch. We have her well trained. Now, we can always get Whitney to get us a book or a bear or her baby or whatever. Of course, you would think that means she always listens to us, right? Definitely not. I think she must have selective hearing because she never seems to hear when I tell her ‘no’ when it is something she really wants, like the TV wires or the lamp. But we are still working on it. Hope everyone else is doing well.

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.

rolling over

Here is a few quick videos of Whitney rolling over

Valentines Day

Will and I had a great Valentines Day. It was weird to think that it would be our last holiday as a twosome, but we are looking forward to adding Whitney Anne to our lives. We gave each other a 5 dollar limit for gifts, so we both had to get creative. Will was very sweet and he actually made the puzzle so he could put a secret message on it. Inside my jewelry box was a little gold necklace that is really pretty. And he promised that when my belly got too big to paint my toenails, he would do it himself. I was very proud of the good job he did and told him he needed to change his profession to a pedicurist, but he didn't like the idea very much. I got him the chocolate flower because we use to tell each other that it wasn't fair that girls always got the flowers. But five dollars is not enough to buy real flowers. Oh well, you cannot eat real flowers. And I got him a sudoku variety puzzle book that he really likes. We went out to the buffet on Monday as kind of a half Valentines Day, half quitting work celebration. I was very happy because I could get as much steak and big salads as I wanted. All in all, everything is going well in Cheney. I hope everyone else had good times too.

new new new

Well, we promised to post a picture of the pregnant belly, and Will didn't want to feel left out. So he gets a picture also. Now that the baby room is all ready, all we need is a baby. We cannot really put up much on our walls, being in an apartment, but we really wanted that picture and we got it for Christmas. Someone told me about little stickers you can put onto your walls that peel off real easy, maybe we will look for some cute girl ones at WalMart. We have just about 7 weeks to go, if all stays on schedule. The doctor at Courtney's last appointment said that she looks a little small, so he said that we might need another ultrasound after he checks again in two weeks. Hopefully, everything is well and the baby is just a little small, at least that's what the doctor is thinking. And Courtney wouldn't mind having a slightly smaller baby during delivery, as long as she is still healthy. It would be kind of cool to get an ultrasound this far along; we would really be able to see our baby well.
Christmas was great. We want to thank everyone for the great presents, especially Scott and Emily and Mom and Dad Anderson. We were back in Pasco and were able to spend a lot of time with Courtney's family. We even got in a good snowball fight, which I declare the boys to be the winner and ultimate champion. It was nice to see everyone for a few days.
We hope to keep avoiding the snow this year. So far, Cheney has been very mild with very little snow or ice. Everybody was a little nervous that we would have a repeat of the last two winters, but that hasn't happened yet. Our fingers are crossed for continual warm weather since Courtney has to walk home from work everyday and Will rides the bus to his internship, but we shall see. We hope everyone had good holidays and is starting off the new year well. And we promise lots of postings of the baby coming shortly.

a few pictures

here are a few ultrasound pictures that we have, we don't know the gender yet, but intend to find out soon.

and here are a few more



hope you enjoyed that

Waiting for baby

So we have just entered the second trimester of our pregnancy and decided we felt safe enough to announce the big news on our blog. Courtney just went to her first official doctors appointment and was able to hear the baby's heartbeat; that was very exciting. We have our first ultrasound next week. We have been slowly accumulating baby supplies: a crib, a bouncer, a stroller, a swing. Now we just need about 1000 diapers and we should be set for awhile. Courtney has been feeling up and down, but she hasn't thrown up in over a week and is pretty excited about that. Maybe all the morning sickness and headaches will just magically disappear. We won't know until the end of October whether we are having a boy or girl, but both of us are predicting a boy. But we shall see. Any good pregnancy or baby advice would be appreciated.