Growing up

Sometimes I wonder at how fast my girls grow.  We got Whitney and Rachel both weighed recently.  Whitney is now just over 26 pounds and Rachel is almost 10 1/2 pounds.  Shouldn't they still be my really little babies?  That being said, I absolutely love watching them grow and learn and change.  Here are some things we have been doing here in Cheney.

 
While I was washing dishes and Will was with Rachel in the living room, Whitney discovered the awesomeness of spilling baking soda all over the kitchen floor.  I don't know how I didn't notice because she was literally sitting six inches from me when I finally looked down at the mess, but I was kind of singing to myself and in my own little world washing dishes.  Anyway, the picture doesn't do justice to the amount of baking soda that was on the ground.  It was really funny.

Whitney loves playing games.  She often wants to play one right after another.  So she and I will go through five or six games while Will is at work everyday.  She really likes battleship because she gets to put the little pieces into the board area.  It's good fine motor skills.

A train went by while we were in Spokane.  Whitney wanted to watch it since we were so up close and personal.  I think she was impressed by how big and loud it was.  Rachel stayed in the car where it was a little quieter and warmer.

Rachel is also growing up.  Here she has some tummy time. Rachel doesn't mind tummy time as much as Whitney did.  Rachel will be content for five or ten minutes just sucking on the socks on her hands.  Then she finally gets grumpy and starts kicking her legs and pulling up her head.  Now she just needs lots and lots more practice and before we know it, she will be crawling everywhere.

A faceplant into the couch.  Occasionally, I sit Rachel up against the couch corner so I can run to do something else.  It didn't take long for Rachel to completely faceplant into the couch.  She didn't seem to mind tipping over and being facedown on the couch, so we got a picture before Will kindly picked her back up.  I'm surprised she didn't start crying or anything.

We finally got a picture of Rachel smiling on camera.  She has been smiling a lot more these past two weeks.  Usually it is when she is looking directly in our faces and we are talking to her.  It was just so cute.  I love having a little baby who wants to be held and talked to.  She is so much fun.
   I have two great girls.  What an absolute joy they are.  They are growing up so quickly I have to remember to enjoy every moment.

Winter Wonderland

In the last 48 hours we have gotton a lot of snow - somewhere between six and eight inches.

The top picture shows what it looks like outside our window.  (Try and find our car out there) Whitney seems to really enjoy looking outside and saying 'snow'.  She thinks snow is great fun! 

One of the main things I dislike about the snow is the extra time it takes to get ready.  I have to plan an extra 10 or fifteen minutes into getting out the door.  Trying to put little kid gloves and boots and hats and coats on requires a college degree, or something like that.  When I worked at the daycare, we would spend more time dressing the kids for the snow than we actually did playing in the snow.  But just dressing Whitney and Rachel isn't too bad.  And Whitney tries to be helpful by finding her gloves or attempting to put on her own coat.

Will has been having fun going outside with Whitney.  Rachel and I stay inside so Rachel won't get too cold.  Whitney  tried eating the snow and told me later that it was yummy and not cold.  After playing outside, Whitney and Will came inside for some delicious hot chocolate.  Thank you Scott and Emily for buying the yummy hot chocolates for us for Christmas.

Here Whitney stands by the snowman that she and Will made.  I made a very small contribution by finding the carrot for the nose, but most of the credit goes to Will.  He is a good snowman maker. 

So winter has finally hit Cheney.  I thought we might get lucky and not get much snow this year, but that's okay.  Whitney really loves the snow.

Hanging in Cheney

It has been bitterly cold this last week, so we have been spending a lot of time in our apartment.  When Whitney gets too stir-crazy, one of us will take her out of the house after Will comes home so Rachel will not have to leave the warm apartment.  I want the warm weather to come back so we can play outside again and it is only the middle of January.  Oh well.  Here are some inside things we have been doing.

 
It is hard to tell by this picture, but Whitney tried to push both strollers at the same time.  We have a big umbrella stroller that Whitney can sit in and Whitney got a little stroller for Christmas for her baby.  Here Whitney pushed both strollers and the little one went farther.  Thank you Newton's law or Einstein or whoever, you were correct.

Will made a fort behind our couch.  Whitney wasn't too sure about it at first, but she liked being in there with her dad.  That is, until I got out the camera and Whitney's serious face came out.

We have drawers in our kitchen that Whitney is allowed to pull the things out and play with.  Mostly, she just likes to dump all the hand towels and aprons and whatnot onto the floor.  Here Whitney stands by the drawer after she tried to get everything to fit back in.  Now I know why parents are better packers than kids; my mom could always pack some much more stuff into our suitcases than we could and now I understand why.

We have been playing lots of games since it has been too cold to go outside.  This is Tessera - or the bug game.  Whitney has stages of liking certain games and wanting to play them all the time.  Then a couple days go by and she picks a new game to love and want to play over and over.  For now, she loves the bug game.

Here is Whitney giving baby Rachel a kiss.  Most of the time, Whitney is very soft and loving with Rachel.  She does get jealous sometimes and tries to pull baby Rachel off my lap so she can be with me.  But we are working on being very gentle.  I think Whitney really loves being a big sister.

We all went on an excursion to the library on Saturday.  Whitney loves the library because it has a kid computer with children games on it and she likes looking at all the books.  Here we are all ready to go.  Whitney is wearing the hat that Erin knitted for her for Christmas.  Thanks Erin.

Will and I both picked several books from our childhood and read them to each other.  It was really fun and Whitney liked all the new childrens books to read. 
So we have been having fun in Cheney with our bigger family.  Being a family of four is very different from a family of three but we are all getting the hang of it.  Okay, everyone have a good day.

365 pictures

we have decided to copy some of our siblings and start a picture-a-day blog, we do not promise to post a picture daily, but we will take a picture every day and eventually get them up, we hope that it does not end up as a 300 picture blog.  here is the link to it, we will also put in our links so that it can easily be found from our blog.

Whitney Bobby

It was asked what we should name this blog, and Whitney was the first to speak up, so that is that.

we hope you all enjoy it

New Years

Happy 2012 everybody!  We plan on having a great year here in Cheney.  Now I just need to remember to write 2012 on everything; somehow I always mess that up for the first month or so.  We had a really fun New Years with our family.  Will's parents were able to come into town for the weekend.  We wish they could have stayed longer, but it was fun seeing them.

Rachel and Whitney really love their Grandpa Keeler.  Whitney thought it was great fun having someone else read her a story - instead of boring old mom who always reads bedtime stories. 

We went to Turnbull Wildlife Refuge while they were here.  Unfortunately, in December there are no wildlife around, so we got to look at pretty wildlife habitat.  Will's parents were clever and told Whitney that all the animals were sleeping.  We will have to go back later when Whitney can see some animals.

So it was a really pretty little adventure.  I wish there had been any animals (even a bird to see), but that was not to be.  Oh well.  I don't think Whitney was too disappointed.  We still had a nice time looking around.

For New Years, we had a delicious cheese fondue party.  I have never made fondue, so Will's mom taught me how she makes it and it was tasty.  I will have to get her to write down the recipe for me.

I didn't know dipping crackers and broccoli into a cheese fondue would be so filling, but all of us were too full to do the chocolate fondue that we had planned.  ( Dont worry though because the chocolate was used the next day; we didn't let it go to waste).

We did Rachel's baby blessing on Sunday.  It was kind of last minute, but we wanted Will's parents to be able to attend.  The blessing was really beautiful; I am grateful that Will honors the priesthood so he could give the blessing. 

Here are pictures of our families after the blessing.  We took Rachel out of her dress so it couldn't get dirty. 

So we had a great New Years.  Thanks Will's parents for coming out to see us.  We had lots of fun together.  I hope we can see you guys again soon.