Baby Things

After working my tail off today cleaning the house and getting all of the Christmas decorations put away, we decided it was time to get out all of the baby gear from storage and clean it up. Whitney took an immediate liking to the swing. Hopefully we'll be able to convince her to let us use it for the baby! We had a doctor's appointment yesterday; he said that he didn't think we'd make it to the next appointment. He's thinking probably closer to this weekend...Our bags our packed, the baby things are out, the clothes are washed and folded, the house is clean...Now we just wait! Maybe we'll have the first baby of the year!

Christmas

Playing with Grandpa's Christmas present

Whitney & Grandpa

Stroller

Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Kletey came from Washington to spend Christmas with us. We opened presents at our house first. Whitney loves her doll & stroller set she got. She is such a good little mommy. She also got an adorable girlie trike from Grandma & Grandpa. She's pretty much got backward down, but is working on pedaling forward. After we opened presents at home, we made monkey bread and took it over to Grandma H's for Christmas brunch with the Hendershot family. After brunch we opened presents. The little girls had so much fun opening all of their gifts. All of the girls' favorite was a play kitchen that Grandma H got to keep at her house. We could hardly keep up with all of the "cooking" they were doing. We ended the night with finger foods (great idea Jennifer) and Wii! Merry Christmas!

Holiday Baking

Wrapped Oreo Truffle Plates

Truffles again

Peanut Butter Blossoms

I finally got my holiday baking finished today! Last weekend I made Oreo Truffles for our neighbors. Of course I wrapped the plates with cellophane--EVERYTHING LOOKS BETTER WITH CELLOPHANE (that's my new motto). They are so delicious, I know I've eaten too many. I also made pretzels with Hershey kisses and m&ms, but we ate them all, so no picture...Today I made Peanut Butter Blossoms--I am so thrilled at how they turned out. You know sometimes you make cookies and they look awful and other times with the same recipe, they are beautiful. Today they were on the good side, so I had to take a picture. I also made caramels and rice krispy treats. YUM! I'm sure I won't be happy with my weight gain at my dr's appt. next week, but we're nearing the end anyway. It's the holidays, calories don't count...right?

Dance Recital

I had my first dance recital as the teacher last night. I couldn't have been more pleased with the girls' performance. The bigger girls had a hard time remembering the dance during dress rehearsal, but it got their jitters out because they did wonderfully during the recital. One of the mom's from the little class told me I was doing a great job with the girls and that we didn't have any girls wandering around the stage and they were really doing the dance. That was great! I was a nervous wreck, but it was so fun to see the final product.

Santa

Santa visited our ward party last night. Whitney was definitely not into it. She stood in line with our friend's daughter for a little while, then got out of line, but got back in when she saw there were treats involved. At least she didn't cry!

Little cousins

My mom and my aunt came last weekend for my baby shower. Here is a picture of my aunt's granddaughter Jaylynn and Whitney. They were born on the same day! I don't know what I would do if I really had twins!

Hollywood

Whitney is showing her true girly side. She loved the necklaces, bracelets and rings that Auntie brought her! Don't forget the cell phone!

Surprise Shower

Shoe "tree" that my mom put together. He is set for shoes...for a little while.

Diaper cake my mom's friend Mystie made

Katie, me & Erica (due in April)

My mom is the greatest! She planned a fun surprise baby shower for me while we were visiting. My friend Katie called and had it all set up so I thought we were just going out to dinner with our friends. I was sure surprised when we walked in and the hostess asked if we were there for the baby shower (how did she know:)?) A couple of the ladies my mom works with were there, her good friend, my aunt and a couple of my friends that I've known since forever. We had appetizers at Claim Jumper and then opened presents and then indulged in Raspberry White Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Pie and The Motherlode chocolate cake. So yummy! I felt so special! We can have the baby now because we have several cute, warm fleece outfits! And shoes!

Beach

I just love how cute she looks with her bowed legs.

Orca whale carved out of a log.

Mom & Whit

Freezing family

Whitney and Daddy

We went down to the ocean one afternoon while in Seattle. This is taken in Edmonds near my mom's work. There is a ferry that leaves from here. It was freezing cold, but Whitney was loving running around.

Thanksgiving Trip

Hands in her pockets. ALWAYS.

Brushing the snow off of Daddy's shoes.

Binky anyone?

Happy traveler in the backseat.

We road tripped to Washington to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Whitney actually did pretty well in the car, considering it was a 14 hour drive. We split the drive up over two days, which was fairly manageable. On the second day on the drive over, we were stopped in the mountains in Montana for a little over two hours. Mike and Whitney got out and played in the snow a little bit. Other than that day, we pretty much had clear roads--what a blessing! We met my family in eastern Washington the weekend before Thanksgiving to watch my brother race his motorcycle. Whitney loved the motorcycles and kept saying "cycle." Amazingly, she fell asleep in the arena before the races were over. Whitney had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. She wouldn't say grandma or grandpa for me before we left, but she said them really well once we were there. She would also call Kletey, and if he wouldn't answer, she would say, "uncle." It was really cute. She also learned to say the names of the dogs. We spent most of our time hanging out. We made a trip down to IKEA and got some sconces for our bedroom. We spent Thanksgiving at my aunt's house. She hadn't even seen Whitney yet, so it was really fun for everyone to meet finally. We're excited for Grandma, Grandpa and Kletey to come for Christmas!

Just like mom?

Mike got this picture of Whitney a couple of weeks ago. Apparently this was all her idea. Mike said he can already picture her trying to "nurse" her babies.

Dancing Queen

Whitney has been into dancing a lot lately. Mike was taking pictures of us today when she broke out into this little dance. We're really not sure where she comes up with her moves, but it cracks us up everytime!

Belly Pictures

Not so cute, but you can kind of see the belly...
Here are some pictures Mike took today of Whitney and me.

Picture Tag

I was tagged by Katie. 4th picture file, 4th picture. I Tag: Anyone who wants a fun tag! It's fun to look back. This picture was taken just before Christmas last year! What a difference a year makes!

Leaves

Mike and Whitney had fun playing in the leaves the other day while I was at a YW meeting. Too cute!

Halloween

Skeletons through the fog

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating

Happy Boo to You!

Halloween is a big deal around our house. Mike's been planning out his haunted room for quite a while. This year he went with a skeleton theme. He had one of the skeletons on a piece of fabric that he could hold up and move toward people. I wish I had set up a video camera to catch some people's reactions. The skeletons were hanging on black fabric with a black light, a strobe light and the fog machine going. He also played scary music. It looked pretty good! I took Whitney trick-or-treating to a couple of our friends' houses. She thought it was pretty neat to get the candy. She was so tired when we got home that I had to bribe her with the candy to even get a picture of her in her costume. She laid on the couch for most of the evening fighting sleep. She wasn't quite sure about all of the knocking on the door. Mike said he thought of a few ideas already for next year!

99 Balloons

I really feel that this is worth sharing. It's a touching video of a family whose son was born with Trisomy 18. He wasn't supposed to make it to birth. The family was featured on the Oprah show this week. They really exemplify the attitude of how we should live our life. The mom said, "I decided I could be sad later." They embraced joy and all of the little moments. I think it's a way we could all live our lives. The story was a strong witness to me that there is a plan for each of us. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who blesses us beyond measure.
99 Balloons

She can't be that old

Whitney had her first day of nursery yesterday. She's been old enough to go for the last few weeks, but we haven't been to our own ward, so yesterday was the day. She was so cute watching the other kids to see what she should do. I was doing okay until I saw her sitting at the table with her hands folded waiting for snacks and then I started crying (surprising I know). She looked like such a big girl. We didn't plan on her staying the whole time, but she was doing great, so we snuck out while she was playing. They were singing Ring Around the Rosey, one of her favorites right now, when Mike went to pick her up. She was totally happy. Another milestone.

Good Morning Winter

Here's the scene we woke up to this morning. YUCK! I guessFall has come and gone. I am so not ready for this weather. Hopefully it will warm up again before this becomes an endless views.

Motorcross

We've been out to the Motorcross (it's really just a bunch of hills for riding, but that's what people call it) here in town a few times with our friends this summer. We bbq and make s'mores and just have fun! The guys do most of the riding while the girls get chatty time; it works pretty well! We went this week for probably the last time since it's supposed to snow here this weekend. The kids had a blast sledding down the hill on cardboard boxes. Whitney had to get in on the action!