Whitney turns 1

Little Whitney Turned 1 this last week, and the Anderson Family came up from Pasco to celebrate with us. We invited Ruth and Dana, but they told us they didn't like our ugly faces (or maybe it was because they were busy and did not want to drive 6 hours with a very pregnant mom-to-be). but we had a good time. We blew up balloons for Whitney to play with, and they were a hit.  We put up a cool happy birthday sign, and then waited for the party goers.  The Anderson's, and Whitney Opened presents and had fun playing with the wrapping paper, and even liked some of the presents that she got.  After that we went out to a Chinese Buffet that is here in Cheney for lunch, and all had a nice meal, Whitney even liked some of the chinese food (Chow Mein noodles and pieces of Jello) Thanks to all the grandmas, grandpas and great-grandmas and great-grandpas  for all the wonderful gifts that were given, thank you all so much.
And without further ado, here are the pictures

Whitney with 1 candle

Let them eat cake ... after I get mine, of course

Ice cream

Messy Face, and a messy tray

Balloons

the Sign of the Times

Unwrapping presents is the best, presents are OK...

a little more unwrapping

Whitney wanted to make sure that she4 got her 2 cents in, so here they are:

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Walking Girl

Whitney has started walking and we are very proud of her.  It took a lot of work to try to get her to take her first steps, but now she does it on her own.  Each day, Whitney gets a little better and takes more and more steps.  This video shows her walking for some scissors; don't worry, we were very careful to not let her poke herself or anything like that.  The most steps I have seen Whitney take at one time was ten, so she is getting there and we are really proud of her accomplishments.  Soon we won't ever get any breaks.

Here is Whitney with her new red pants, eating a toy.  When do children grow out of that phase?  She has to have a toy when I try to take pictures, or she will come to the camera instead of sitting still.

Here Whitney is clapping for herself in the kitchen. Lately, Whitney really likes to clap and will do it at random times, like during prayers and whatnot. She must have two parents who play a lot of pat-a-cake with her.

This is a funny picture because Whitney is "reading" the newspaper. We get a funny free newspaper every Wednesday that just has ads in it. Whitney loves to hold it and rip it and eat it, that's when the paper gets thrown in the trash.

Here Whitney has something to say to Will, but he isn't paying attention because he was on the phone, so she had to start yelling at him. It was kind of funny.

Last weekend we went into Spokane because my younger brother Conner had a competition with Destination Imagination. I had never heard of it before, but it was kind of neat. And it is always fun to see my mom and Conner.

Whitney waited very nicely for Conner's skit and competition to start. She was very good and quiet during the whole thing.

Here is Conner's skit; they had to do everything themselves and I was impressed by it. Then we all went out to lunch afterwards. So it was a really fun day. The weather is finally starting to warm up again; I hope the sunniness stays. Bye!

Whitney's Favorite Things

Today will be a blog of some of Whitney's favorite things in the whole wide world.

Whitney loves to yell and she is quite good at it. Here Whitney and Will both yell for the camera. I don't know what to do to get her to stop because whenever we say "no" she just smiles and does it louder and longer. Oh well.

Whitney also loves to play the 'uh-oh' game. All you parents know what I am talking about. Whitney will drop something on the ground and then Will says uh-oh and retrieves it for her. In this case, she dropped a book over and over. But she also likes to do her sippy cup or anything else. I am not so nice and won't get the object for her over and over, so she mostly plays the game with Will.

Whitney loves metal. I guess it is just cold on her gums; I think she is teething again. This time she is chewing on Will's keys. They are her favorite chew toy and she likes them much better than those boring lame teething rings that we use to try to get her to like. But those were just a joke to Whitney.

Whitney also adores reading; she must take after me because I go through a lot of library books. She has become a really good page turner and doesn't rip the books anymore. Instead she points to different objects on the page and I name them. It's quite fun. Whitney is sitting next to her gold bear (decorated with a cute pink shirt, courtesy of Will's creativity)that she likes to squeeze.

Here Whitney is caught in the act of doing one of her favorite things - pulling on the red TV wire. There are three wires for the TV, but only the white and yellow one go into our television, so the red one hangs a little bit. Whitney is always trying to grab it and we are always stopping her. We tried to tape it up higher, but the tape wasn't strong enough to go against the constant pulling of a small child. So now we have a big toy placed in front of the TV so she cannot reach the wire. That is mostly working.

The last thing Whitney loves is her new blocks from her grandma Keeler in Rhode Island. Thanks for the package. Whitney loves knocking over the blocks that I have carefully stacked into a tower; it's fun. I tried to get her to stack them, but she wasn't interested in that yet. Maybe soon.

Whitney is growing up. We got out the 12-month box from storage and exchanged some of her old clothes for some new ones. They are a little big on her, but I don't think it will take long for her to fit into them.

This is her showing off her new kitty outfit. I cannot believe her birthday is coming so soon. My baby is going to be a toddler. We love her so much. Okay, bye.

Valentines Day

We had a wonderful Valentines day here in Cheney; the weather was really nice and we got to spend some time together. Of course, mother nature decided to snow on us today, so I don't know what we are going to get the rest of this week. But even Whitney got into Valentines and gave out Toy Story cards to her other baby friends who live close to us. Here are some pictures from our Valentines yesterday.



Courtney put these on the bathroom mirror Sunday night after Will went to bed so he would be surprised by them in the morning.



I also gave him some doritos and peanut mnms and a scripture notebook. Will saw one at Bimart that he wanted, so I went back and got it for him. Will also got me some wonderful presents.



I loved the pink tulips that look and smell so pretty. I also really like the message in the bottle; Will must have put some time in it so the paper could look officially old. And I will have to use my coupon book to get some chores done by Will. Isn't he great?

We ordered a heart shape pizza from Papa Murphys. There was a coupon for it in our newspaper. And we watched a movie. It was a fun night.



Whitney keeps amazing us everyday as she learns more things. She really likes to be chased around our apartment and we let her 'escape' from us by going under our arms. It is quite a workout crawling around all day, now I know how she feels. Whitney also made me really happy by taking two steps. She let go of our coffee table and took two consecutive steps toward the television. I hope that means she will be walking soon. I guess we better baby proof better. Here are some pictures of her being cute.



Having a purply day. Don't we all need one of those every once in a while? That headband lasted the whole time I was taking pictures and that was it.



Whitney loves her little yellow bear that Ruth and Dana gave her. She has learned what "give kisses" means, so she will give her animals or me and Will kisses when we ask her to. It is more like just leaning her head forward, but it is close.



Here is Whitney in the bath. Don't worry we had two people in the bathroom so one of us could watch her and the other use the camera. We leave the diaper on her while we place her in the bath for a little while so she can splash around and go crazy. She loves taking baths now, a far cry from screaming the entire time just a couple of months ago.



And here is our whole family, courtesy of the home teachers. It took them a couple of tries, but we got a picture with all of us smiling at the same time. And that it quite an accomplishment with a little baby. So we are happy. Hopefully, the snow will stop and spring will officially start. With love from the Keelers in Cheney.

Some New Tricks

We haven't put any new videos of Whitney on the blog lately, so here are two new tricks that Whitney has learned recently.



She has learned to play peek-a-boo and any object will do. It doesn't matter whether it is her shirt or a blanket or anything. So sometimes she ends up flashing her tummy at us. She thinks it is hilarious, so do Will and I. Her other new trick is that she has learned where her head is.



I did it with her a couple of times and then Whitney would put the ring on her head whenever we asked her to. She doesn't quite reach her head, but she is trying. It works with other toys as well. We have a little baby genius on our hands. Now if she could only learn to use the toilet.

We are doing well here in Cheney. The weather is getting warmer and we are really happy about that.