Vancouver Trip #2

All of us went to Dana's mom's house for New Years. She was very nice and invited everyone; she even keeps some toys for her grandchildren so there were lots of toys for Matthew and Anna and Whitney. It was a fun celebration. We ended up sitting on the kid table so we could help Whitney in her highchair, so I hope we weren't too loud for the grown-up table. No one warned me that when you have babies you lose your grown-up status and go back with the kids. Oh well, Matthew, Anna, and Whitney were pretty entertaining. Here are some pictures from that party.



Whitney sat on top of Uncle Dana's shoulders and Anna was on top of Will's for a little baby war. Anna liked being on high and I don't think Whitney really understood the greatness of being on someone's shoulders. But it won't be long before she wants piggy back rides all the time.



This is Whitney with her Uncle Scott; she just barely met him on this trip because they have lived in Japan for the last couple of years. Now Whitney has met all of her aunts and uncles and cousins and everyone. She really liked that turtle toy; something about the string was super fun and she was mad at me when I took it away from her so she could share the toy with her cousin. I tried giving her another toy but that didn't work at all, so much for all those child development experts that claim distraction is the key.



Here everyone is just hanging out playing on the ground. The children played with toys and the adults played games and talked while we waited for New Year. Whitney even made it to her first New Year, but just barely. We kind of forced her to stay awake for the last fifteen minutes of 2010. We even gave her just a small sip of Martinellis to celebrate; she didn't seem to like it too much. And she was completely passed out by like 12:04.



We wanted to make sure to get some family pictures since we had almost everyone in Vancouver. Our camera died after this one picture, so we didn't have a chance to take another one. But it turned out pretty well, as long as you don't care that Whitney's isn't looking.



Here is one more picture as we come out of Sacrament Meeting right before we came home.



It was so great being together with family. I wish that we could see everyone more often and that we lived closer together. I hope everyone did have really awesome holidays and a good start to the year 2011.

Happy New Year to everyone. We are excited about the year 2011, even if we keep forgetting to write the correct date on our checks and everything. I hope that everyone had a great celebration and was able to stay all the way up until midnight.

We were lucky and were able to make it to Vancouver for the New Year. Will has family living there and almost everyone decided to come visit. So it was really fun seeing them. Some of Will's siblings hadn't met Whitney, so it was a nice get-together for a couple of days. Thank you Ruth and Dana for letting us sleep in your apartment.

This is Whitney looking in a mirror at the OMSI center. Her cousin Anna is standing in the background. The OMSI is this really cool science museum in Portland that is huge. And it is really kid friendly. Whitney loved it and so did Will and I. This post is going to be based on just our trip to the museum because we took a ton of pictures and had to break it up. So I hope you want to look at some pictures.



Whitney didn't like wearing the goggles, which were a requirement in the special chemistry lab. So she just stayed outside. But now we can say that we have seen her in goggles, really bright goggles.



This is a rock from the moon. How cool is that? I was able to see one when I was younger when my family traveled to the Smithsonian Center in Washington D.C. But now Will and Whitney were able to see one. I think that would be so cool to just be able to feel it and see if it feels different than our rocks on earth.



There were lots of things for kids to touch. We let Whitney touch these "volcanoes", but we couldn't get a very good picture because of the funny light. Oh well.



There was one section strictly for children six and under and in that section was a small spot only for infants. We let Whitney play in the little ball pit that was being shared by a couple other babies. I never knew how much Whitney likes balls; she didn't want to leave.



And I got to ride a segway. I have always wanted to ride one since seeing them on some movie. You control the segway with your feet and it was awesome. It was a cool way to get around. Unfortunately, I asked the guy and he said that they cost roughly 5000 dollars and we don't have that kind of spare change lying around. But it was still fun.



One of my favorite exhibits was the earthquake house. I have never been in an earthquake before and this was a simulation of a 7 earthquake. Whitney didn't seem to care about the shaking at all, she was just jumping around and having a good time.



...and take off. Whitney went into a spaceship. You were technically suppose to sit in it upside down, but that seemed a little too cruel for our little baby.



This is a little hard to tell, but Will and Whitney are giving the weather forecast. They were actually standing in front of a green screen and pointing to the wall, but isn't that what real forecasters do anyway? It was cute watching them predict rain and snow and all that.



Whitney was exhausted after a long day at the museum. I think everyone was pretty ready to call it quits. It was a really fun place and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes science.
We have more pictures from our trip. But I have to go home and make dinner. Maybe one day we will have the internet at our home and we won't have to go to the library to update our blog. We will try to post some more family pictures in a couple of days.

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