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.