Play time

Mom, these are for you. This is what the girls were doing and looked like the other night when we were on the phone. They got in Cetera's dance leotards and dressed each other up. My favorites: Weeze's trucker hat, and Cetera's posing ability.

The guest bed is their indoor trampoline, in high heels no less.......

My Three "Divas"

It guess it's about time I added a post to our family blog. So tonight, I thought I should do something about that. But first, I have to give Shaunell credit. She has done such a great job at putting this and the Whitney Family blog together. She says she isn't very good at doing computer stuff, but I disagree. She has done an amazing job at putting these blogs together and keeping them updated. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have such a large collection of pictures of our two "Divas" to show everybody, or have a place to keep everybody in touch with what is going on with our family. Shaunell, I love you and thank you for all you do.

The pictures below are ones I took the other night. Every night we give the girls a bath and then have story time. On this specific evening, it turned into a photo shoot.


Here Shaunell is getting the girls snuggled up on the couch for story time.

Whenever the camera comes out the girls start requesting turns to have their pictures taken.

This one I like to call Cetera's WB Moment.. This girl is going to give me gray hairs. I can only imagine how she's going to be when she gets older. Cetera is definitely our "DIVA".

My THREE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS. Can I really ask for anything more?

Days of Aislyn

One of Aislyn's favorite things to play with is a ball. She called me in from the other room to come and play ball with her. She was holding it and said, "Me love my ball", and was giving it a hearty squeeze.

This is after begging to go outside and play in the freezing cold. She lasted all of 20 minutes, and then had to get snugglie with my electric blanket.

I want a Kindle

For those of you that watch Oprah and love to read as much as me, then you can relate to my very serious coveting of an Amazon Kindle. I was so enthralled watching the episode about it, that I was very nearly crying tears of joy. It is a true thing of beauty, and I honestly feel it was created expressly for ME. No more having to put books on hold and wonder if you'll get to read it this year or next, no more searching for the minute piece of paper you wrote that title and author's name on for that book your friend recommended. Pure Genius. So, as I was watching this spot of brilliance on tv, I turned to Cetera (she had come in the room wondering what had gotten her mother so agitated) and said, "Cetera, will you PLEASE buy me a Kindle?", with a big dumb grin on my face. She looked at me very seriously and said, "But mom, I don't have any bucks!" I cracked up and hugged her, and she said, "Mom, maybe you could give me some money and THEN I'll get it for you." She loves her mom. That made my whole day. :)

Paint Your Wagon..

We spent last Saturday painting. Jay came over to help and Grandma and Grandpa took the girls. With all that help, we actually finished in one day! It's amazing how much you can get done when you aren't refereeing, finding toys, or fetching snacks all day. It also helps to have another tall person to reach tall places (that I so cannot), and who has a crazy humor to keep us happy all day long. Thanks Jay!

Dad the Elephant

The girls' favorite mode of transport (in the house) is on Dad's back. So Spence will say....."climb on the elephant", and off they go. Why an 'elephant' you say? Because at bedtime, both girls crawl on him and he'll walk on all fours and deliver them each to their rooms. Aislyn will sit in front, holding tightly to his collar (and choking him in the process), and Cetera sits in the back, trying to keep Aislyn from falling off. I guess he thinks he resembles an elephant when he does it..... What could be cuter?

Happy Halloween

Here's FiFi the poodle and Miss Ladybug pants. The girls went trick or treating in Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood, which doesn't get a lot of trick or treaters evidently, judging by the enormous handfuls of candy that got dumped in their bags. Aislyn's was so full by the end she was trying to hold onto it with both hands. She asked to go home because "me so tired, my candy heavy". Cetera had a halloween parade at school that day, and was indignant (like she usually is) that so many people called her a cute little lamb. She would vehemently reply, "I'm a POODLE, NOT a lamb!" Ah well.....we told her as long as they were handing out candy, who was she to complain?

Can you do this?

Spencer and I have both tried......and nope, not physically possible once your legs are longer than your torso. Oh, yeah, and when you aren't young and flexible anymore. I came in and found Aislyn like this one day while she watching Dora. Is this what the little Latin girl is teaching children?

Living with Weeze

I just have to share some funny things about Aislyn....first, yes, we call her Weeza (or Weeze, sometimes with a "Marie" added on), don't ask why because there's no explanation good enough. She just is. It suits her and it's stuck. Second, I love listening to her talk....maybe it's because she doesn't get a word in edgewise when her big sister is around, maybe it's because she has a lisp and can't say most words correctly, or maybe it's because she has the sweetest little raspy voice when she does talk; either way, I love sitting and chatting with her.
She is an early riser, and every morning around 6:30 a.m. (why oh why!?) we hear her little voice say outside our room,
"Mom! Where are you?" (this sounds more like 'whehahyew?')
I feebly raise my head off my pillow and call out in the darkness, just like every other morning, "I'm in bed, Weeze".
Then she runs in, and I grab her and pull her in bed with me, hoping against hope she'll just go back to sleep. She'll lay there with me for a while.....until she gets bored and starts patting my face with her hand."Mooom, wake up. Wake up mom", she'll say quietly. I, of course, do not wake up, so eventually she'll roll over and start patting/kicking/poking Spencer.
"Dad, Juice, snacks, watch tv. " And it will continue......"Dad, juice, snacks, tv".......until he wakes up and gets her her usual order. Poor Spencer...he does it everyday for Weeza and is so nice about it. I think he takes pity on me, because he knows I have to get Cetera ready for school each morning, and that's a battle he just 'don't wanna mess with'.
My other favorites about Weeze are:
After she gets done coloring something, she says "TaDa!"
When she gets hurt, she'll lean over and rub the hurt spot and say, "Dat hewt my body".
When her hair is all done, she'll swing it and say, "Now me AAAAAAAllll beautiful (boo-eee-ful).
She likes to tell us "socrets", and will often HAVE to tell us one when we are trying to leave her room at sleeping times.
She always wants to do 'headbands" (headstands).....
My most favorite thing though about Weeze is the way she smells. Her hair always smells so good and wonderful, so I have to hug her often and bury my face in it, remembering that all the hard times with kids are worth that moment right then and there.

Cornbelly's--Sept. 27th

Grandma and Grandpa came with us to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. There's a big corn maze and hayrides, slides, and other fun things for the kids. The girls were exhausted before we even got there (we had to pull them from their slumber in the car), but we had a good time all together. Spencer and I went down the big tube slides with the girls and if you get a chance to go down them, go--they are FAST little suckers.
Grandpa and Aislyn in the mouth of the beast. Aislyn was still in a daze so we don't think she knew what was going on. Cetera wouldn't even step inside the growling, breathing, and dark inflated thing. Maybe it was the sound of children screaming from the inside? Some water-pump-make-the-duckies-go thing......... The jumping pillows........I want one of those..........

Makin' Jam with Weeze

Aislyn loves to help me do stuff. She'll follow me around and say, "help you? Me big girl now". And it's much easier (and funner) to involve the busy bee with what I'm doing, rather than finding her in my lipstick, or hanging off a bookshelf. She smashed the strawberries for the jam and was a good little assistant. She only sprayed three things with strawberries, and did a darn good job mushing the berries into a fine pulp. She also pre-sampled them for taste and assured me they were 'nummy'. And I want you all to know.......I really do dress my girls and do their hair.....occasionally. Luckily you can't see me and my matching 'do and dress.

Handy Spencie

I asked Spence to do molding on our half wall for my Mother's day present--and hey--it's still the same year--he's on it! It's all done now and it's Fabo! Now all we gotta do is paint..... (and no, that couch is NOT for sale).

Photo shoot

Cetera got a fake princess camera for her birthday and the girls love to do photo shoots. They take turns telling the 'subject' how to sit and where. Of course they are in their pajamas, since this is what they were doing during Dad's home construction projects. Try not to covet our pictured ottoman.......it's vintage.

She got it! Aug. 30, '08

Cetera came up to Spencer and said, "Dad, I want to ride my 2 wheel bike by myself today." Spencer took off her training wheels and she just got on and started riding. She'd told us all summer --'Mom, I'll do it when I'm five." This was usually her signal that she was done trying for the day. But she was right, who knows..maybe being five gives you special powers. She loves to ride her bike and it's really done wonders for her confidence. It's so fun being a mom and watching my kids grow up!

1st day of kindergarten!

Cetera getting all ready for her first day of school! She was beyond excited--especially to ride the bus. She wanted to ride the bus the first day, even though I told her all her friends' moms were taking them the first day and she'd be by herself. She said, "I don't care if no one else is on the bus, I want to ride it!" And she did, when the bus came, I fully expected her to back down and have me take her, but as it pulled up to the curb, all I could see in her eyes was the bus' reflection and she had this big grin on her face, and couldn't tear her eyes away long enough to give me a hug goodbye. You'd think Santa was driving it. With not even a backwards glance, she trotted off and hopped on the bus and off she went. It was fast and painless for the old first timer (me).

Cetera's 5th bday

How did all these kids fit in my house? We let Cetera invite as many as she wanted this year-and they all had a good time playing in the water outside. Here's Cetera zipping down the slide. We only had one casualty that day, so we counted ourselves blessed.

Chillin with my boys

Spencer and I went to Vegas in the beginning of August for my birthday/anniversary, and met up with Dano there. We saw Phantom (this is our only pic-pre-Phantom), to the wax museum, the Bodies exhibit at the Luxor, and vegged alot. It was heavenly (although the 114 degree weather was not).

Tattoos

This is what happens when mom gets too involved in Primary stuff on the computer, and I realize (too late) that it's all too quiet in the other room. I came out to see Cetera writing on her hair with the marker. I guess she ran out of skin to draw on. Aislyn in turn was trying in vain to draw on her knee (her marker was all dried up).

Cetera in the American Fork Parade-July '08

Cetera was in the American Fork Steel Days parade again this year with her dance school. She LOVES being in the parade, even though it's super hot and a long parade. We tried to talk to her out of it this year, but she was adamant, and she had a lot of fun being in it. She's so cute up on the trailer and so tiny, but is all smiles.

Cetera on the trailer

Riding on Dad's shoulders

Aislyn waiting for sis at the parade

Aislyn and Dax

I took this picture while we were watching their big sisters have swimming lessons at Lava Hot Springs. These two are two weeks apart, and are such PUNKINS. We had a good time up in Lava, 4 crazy days of swimming and no sleep--but it's always worth it to hang out with Celeste and the kids (and Chris, when he's there). :)

Aislyn

Aislyn loved her crazy 80's hair today, so we had to take a picture. She's just always happy!

Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer in Salt Lake. See below post.

Cetera-preschool graduation 08

Cetera giving her part in her preschool graduation in May. She was a star!

Opinions?

Should we leave this on Spence? Does it take attention away from his baldy spot? Keep in mind that the 'hawk' is not exactly centered........

At Stephenie Meyer's book signing

Maren, Brandi, Laura and I got to go see Stephenie Meyer when she came to Salt Lake to do a book signing for The Host. It was AWESOME, although she only talked for about 10 minutes. You were sling-shotted through the signing line, and pictures with Stephenie were strictly forbidden, but it was still pretty exciting. It was fun to be so close to her. When she was signing your books, you had about 10 seconds to blurt out something ridiculous to her, so I of course shared this phenomenol tidbit with her, "I love your books". BLAH. Despite that, it was a super fun day with the gals.

Easter '08

Here's the gals in their Easter dresses. It was fast and furious and then out the door to church.

Our Disneyland/Cruise Trip--Feb. 2008

Here's a 'small' sampling of our trip. If you are feeling ambitious, keep going until the previous post--Thanksgiving of last year. :)

Toontown

The girls in Toontown. All the little doors were highly fascinating to them. Check out Miss C and B's sassy stances. Weeze was just happy to have her leash let loose for a moment.

All the cuties

Here's all the kiddies. They were happy to be let loose out of the strollers for a few minutes to play in Wonderland.

Weeza and Dad

Aislyn really liked the rides. Here's her and Dad on the Alice in Wonderland ride.

Asleep

We went on Pirates of the Caribbean and both girls conked out. We rode it again so we could sit and they could sleep. Notice Cetera's bare foot--we spent quite a few minutes looking for her shoe (both still asleep), and luckily found it back by the stroller.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

How else to sum up Mary Poppins (Nanny) and Bert (sweep)?

Cetera in Wonderland

Cetera with Alice. She was the first character we saw, and Cetera was pleased as punch. Alice was pretty cute, with her little accent. Weeze, of course, was scared and wouldn't pose.

My milkshakes are better than yours...

Here's Garrett, living the life of a Vegas dancer! The nightshows were a tad bit lacking.......but thankfully G got up and shook what his momma gave him. You rock!

Bottoms up!

Poor little Aislyn....during this dinner she could hardly keep her eyes open long enough to get a drink. She would tip to one side, then the other, and finally fell asleep on Mom for the rest of the meal.