I know I haven't written in forever but we do have a reason. And I'm not pregnat so it's not that in case you were wondering. Unless you are family or are a neighbor, you haven't heard that our car blew a head gasket about 7 weeks ago. If you know much about head gaskets, you know that they are a very expensive fix. So, I called for a quote and it cost more to fix our van than we paid for it so we thought, what's the worst that could happen? We could trash the car. So we have been trying to fix the car for that past 7 weeks. You have to open up the engine to get to the head gaskets which is a LOT of labor. I am super proud of Adam for getting so much done and for all the help from our neighbors for letting us borrow tools and for your man power. We are now at the stage of putting the van back together. I hope it starts.
So we have been borrowing my sister's car while she was in Africa (thanks KIM!) but now she's back and is getting her car back tomorrow. Hence, every spare minute is spent with me watching the kiddos and Adam working on the car. Something like that anyway.
In addition to the car, Jane is getting busy lately. She can go from laying down to sitting and sitting to standing in about 10 seconds flat. She has also been in a cradle until last night because we've been looking for a cool bed for Jacob. (Luke has a car bed and so Jacob need a cool bed too.) The neighbors knew of a car bed that was about to be sent to DI. Another big thanks. Jacob loves his new bed. And now that Jane has a crib, I no longer have to worry about her plummeting head first into the ground.
We have also had a mouse problem again. When did mice get so smart. And what is so neat about our house? I keep a pretty clean house considering the three tornados that live here. So I've been setting traps, sticky traps, and finally poison. The peanut butter was eaten off the traps, they wouldn't touch the sticky traps, and so I resorted to poison. I don't like the thought of dead mice in my walls (or somewhere more visible of course) but it was my last resort. I found green droppings on my counter today (gross again!) which I have scoured but that at least means the poison was eaten.
So with my busy kids, in my spare time, I'm cleaning up the house and trying to keep it free of crumbs so I don't feed the mice. While the kids are awake, we go on lots of walks and as Luke would say "Go big park" which is his favorite activity. We also got our bikes up and running (meaning mine and our bike trailer) but since a bike trailer only fits 2 and we don't have a bike child carrier yet, Luke has been riding along. It's slow but fun. He loves it anyway. Yesterday we went on the longest, most terrible bike ride ever (for me at least) that ended in my stuffing luke's bike into the bike trailer, putting luke on my bike seat and holding onto my shirt while I pulled everyone up the hill. And then we got home and were out of popsicles. So we had ice water. They didn't seem to mind. I think it was becuase I was the one doing the pulling. They got a free ride.
Yesterday we also got a chance to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication, inside the temple. It was a great experience. Probably once in a lifetime. It's going to be our new temple. We've been busy working the past couple months at the open house when our ward had assignments. I had no idea it was so difficult to stand in one place for 4 hours. But I wouldn't trade it. It was great to be there.
So there's the Whittle family update. Jacob is busy getting out top ramen for lunch so I'd better go before he decides to make it himself which he would most certainly do.
Here's a picture of the dresses Kim brought back for Jane and I from Ghana. Aren't we shnazzy. Oh yeah, and I permed my hair. I like it although it's a little different.
Jane's first ponytail.
We got up in the middle of the night for the Perseid meteor shower a few weeks ago. I was worried the kids would be super cranky but we popped some popcorn and took some juice and they loved it. Luke found lots of shooting (or falling) stars and Jacob kept pointing to the cars moving out in the distance as shooting stars. We had a blast thanks to a spontaneous hubby. I'd never be up for something like that if it weren't for him.
Made this cute thing for my front door. I think it's cute. Oh, and painted my front door. That only took me a few weeks. Boy is it hard to open a paint can around toddlers.
Twice in the past few weeks, Jacob has woken up like this. And Luke too. We think they might have bonked their heads and coincidentally gotten all swollen up around the same time. Either way, Jacob took on the name of Quasi (like Quasimoto) for a few days.
My mom finished this quilt (with lots of help, thank you!) for our bed and we just love it. I picked out the fabric while Adam was on his mission and of course, had no idea who my hubby would be. It's finally finished and we just love it. Now we're going to paint the wall to match. Working on that.
This is the first time Jane stood up on her own. I left her in the bathroom for a couple minutes and came back to find her like this. She cracks me up.
Oh yeah, and I turned 26 on July 26. That only happens once in a lifetime so here's a pic. Adam surprised me and took me to 7 Peaks while Heather and Jonathan (Adams's sis and hubby) watched the kids all night. We went out to dinner and stayed in a hotel and went to the temple in the morning. Love this guy.
And here in the act of trick or treating. We worked really hard with the kids to teach them how to say trick or treat but Luke was too shy and Jacob didn't talk very loud. However, Jacob would say, very loudly I might add, that he wanted two candies, not just one and try and grab the bowl. And if he only got one, come away crying. I think he must like candy. I wonder where he gets it.
