Rainy days

I think we are all going a little stir crazy in our apartment but it has been raining and even lightly snowing in Cheney this past week.  So we have been trying to think of fun inside things.  Here are some of the happenings.

Whitney has been getting rides on Will's back.  She absolutely loves being on there.  She doesn't hold on to anything though so Will has to crawl around really slowly so she won't tip off. 

At least, we can still occupy Whitney for quite awhile with a bowl full of water and some soap bubbles.  We did this last Sunday because Whitney had really dirty hands and this was a fun way to wash them.

Where oh where did Willie go, oh where oh where can he be?  Whitney loves having Will sing Book of Mormon stories with the shirt over his head and no arms.  What could be more fun than that?

We spent a lot of Thursday making cookies as a surprise for Will when he came home from work.  They were peanut butter blossoms which smelled amazing when they were cooking.  Will noticed right when he walked in, even though they had been out of the oven for several hours.  Whitney was a great helper; she loves dumping and stirring.  Maybe she will be a little future chef.

When all else fails and you are bored of your apartment, put on dad's socks and suddenly the world is a little brighter.  Whitney kept jumping all over the place with Will's socks on.  They only slid down a couple of times.

Sometimes, this is how we all feel - upside down with our tongues sticking out.  I took this picture with the camera upside down; I didn't know Whitney was going to stick out her tongue at the last moment.  But I think it is funny.
Anyway, I hope some people somewhere are having better weather.  We keep hoping for some.  At least, we have lots of fun toys in our apartment until the weather cooperates.

Twenty Pounds

So this is a boring post with no pictures but I (Courtney) have been working on losing weight this year and I hit the twenty pound mark.  I am really happy about that.  So I now weigh less than I did before getting pregnant with Rachel.  I feel healthier and happier.  It feels good to be able to chase after Whitney more without getting tired.  Now I just want to lose another ten or fifteen pounds and I can be a little less rigid on my diet and exercise.  I feel like I have kind of hit a standstill though.  My weight has stayed about the same for a little while.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what can be done to jumpstart the weight loss again?  Any suggestions would be helpful.

Back to Pasco for Birthday Fun

We technically went down to Pasco because Will had a job interview in Oregon on Friday.  So we left Thursday after work and we were able to spend some time with my family.  We decided to celebrate Whitney's second birthday a couple of days early so we could all be together.  It was fun.  Here are some pictures of the cupcake making for the celebration.

Whitney really likes stirring the batter.  We have to watch her pretty closely to be sure she doesn't get the spoon all the way out of the bowl because we don't want batter to drip everywhere and Whitney wanted to taste test it.  But she actually did a pretty good job at helping get the cupcakes ready.

After Will's job interview the cupcakes had cooled enough that we were able to do some decorating.

Here Whitney frosts her cupcake.  I think she only sort of accidentally would get frosting on her fingers or on her shirt sleeve so she could lick it off.  I was the mean mom who wouldn't let her lick it straight from the knife.

Here the rest of the family gets involved in cupcake decorating.  My mom bought some cool candy decorations.  I think Whitney's favorite were the mnms and the gummy bears, but that was because she just wanted to eat them.

Here we are all singing to Whitney.  We just used a big number two candle and stuck it to one of the cupcakes that we didn't decorate.  Whitney loves the happy 'day day' song and I think she liked having us all sing to her.  But she didn't have quite enough breath to blow out the candle.  She tried though and then needed a little help from mom.

Whitney informed us at the store that she wanted popsicles to go with her cupcakes.  So she got a red popsicle and loved it.  We took off her shirt to avoid too big of a mess.

Then came the best part of birthdays - opening your presents!

Whitney loved ripping off the wrapping paper.  Apparently, my mom and I both had snowman wrapping paper because we both used that for our presents.  Whitney was very lucky and received lots of great things: a little toy microwave, some books, puzzles, markers, a plastic bat and ball, and some cool sewn animals from Conner.  Thanks for all the presents.

So happy second birthday Whitney.  Now we have the terrible, I mean the terrific, twos to look forward to. 

And a close up of the birthday girl for your enjoyment.

It has been busy week for us in Cheney, there was babysitting and... yeah, that's pretty much most of what we had going on this week, but here are a few pictures from our adventures.

We pulled out the swing to see if Rachel would like it, but it was a no go again, but Whitney found a use for it, to swing her little baby doll in it

If you turn you head and squint, it almost looks like she is smiling in this picture, Rachel does make some happy faces, but they come and go pretty quick, so it is hard to photograph them

Here is Rachel all tuckered out after church, hunched over in her Bumbo chair

Here is little Whitney "fixing" the rocking chair with our keys, she sticks the keys into the screw holes on the back of the chair, and is quite pleased when she can get the jammed in well enough so that they don't fall out

Here is Rachel getting some quality time on the floor, but not on her tummy at the time being

Whitney is trying on the hat that her aunt Erin made for her, she got the hat on the right part of her body, which she can usually get about 70% of the time, so we don't worry to much about things like the hat being on forward or any of that stuff

One of Whitney's good nursery friends came over to be babysat, the two of them had a good old time running amok around the house and being silly together

50% mommy, 50% daddy, 100% cute

The women of the house

 Rachel is trying to see if the world looks better if you hold your head to the side

Almost sitting up

2 cute girls

Whitney enjoys just looking at baby Rachel.  She likes to touch her hair and point to her eyes and she loves pulling the socks off Rachel's hands (that is one we are trying to prevent).  I am glad that Whitney enjoys having a baby in the house.  When she gets a little older, I am sure Whitney will be a little mother.

I have a couple short videos of Whitney talking on my phone that Whitney really loves to watch.  Apparently, Whitney decided that Rachel needed to "watch" the videos as well so she gave Rachel a turn on the phone.  The phone ended up closer to Rachel's mouth than her eyes so I doubt she saw anything, but it is the thought that counts.

Not even two months old and already a techno-geru.  Rachel didn't seem to mind having the phone placed back on her tummy every time it fell off.

One of Will's coworkers gave him this game for Whitney since her daughter was too old for it.  It is a lot like Ker-plunk which Whitney learned to play over Christmas at my parents' house.  But little bees fall down instead of marbles.

We had this pot out on the counter drying and Whitney decided that it should go on her head.  It was really funny.  Whitney thought it was funny too since she kept smiling and laughing.

Why do babies always sleep with their arms up?  I don't see how that could be comfortable but Whitney did it too when she was really little.  Maybe I am just out of touch when it comes to comfortable ways of sleeping.

We had a great Valentines Day here in Cheney.  Whitney got some cards and a bag of candy from Uncle Scott, Aunt Emily, and Matthew and Anna and Grant.  Here she holds up her goodies.  Thank you guys so much.  Whitney had to taste each candy in the bag immediately to see which one she liked the best.  They were all good.

Will made me a huge Valentines Day card.  He left it on the kitchen table for me to find after he left for work.  He also bought a remembrance book so I can fill it in with things about baby Rachel.  I got him a musical card that played the Casablanca song we danced to at our wedding and a lego Wii video game that he has been wanting.  In fact, he is playing it right now at this very moment.  So he must like it.  So it was a good day.