Merry Christmas 2011

 Christmas 2011

As each year goes by, we just love to look back on our blessings.  It sure makes us grateful.  We didn’t do anything this year really out of the ordinary.  We went camping a few times which we just love.  We also went to California a couple times to see our families.  However we did do a lot of yard work once again.  It seems spring and summer are our busiest seasons.  We designed and put in our own sprinkler system while Adrienne was 8 months pregnant.  That was really hard, and not just because she was pregnant.  But, it has been so worth it.  Grass, flowers, and fruit trees are looking good.

Luke (5) finished off preschool and started Kindergarten in the fall.  He really likes it.  His favorite thing is probably counting.  He loves to count.  Forwards, backwards, . . .  He’s really taken off this year.  He’s also learning to read and doing really well.  He loves Legos and Star Wars toys.  He definitely makes Adam and Adrienne smile.

Jacob (4) is just the sweetest little guy.  Actually, he and Luke are almost the same size.  It’s difficult for others to tell which one of them is older.  Jacob is in preschool this year and loves it.  He and Luke go to the same school so it’s very nice for Adrienne.  He also started speech school so everyone can understand him better.  Jacob is a very good helper around the house.  He loves to take care of our new baby and watch out for others.  We love his sweetness.

Jane (3) is pretty spunky.  Lately she loves mermaids and Barbies.  And she loves watching ballerina movies on the computer.  She warms up to strangers more quickly than the boys and is a very good helper.  We love to listen to her talk because she has the sweetest little voice and we love to hear her opinion.  She is a joy to have around.

Dalton is our newest little guy.  He was born on July 7^th and weighed 7lbs, 7oz.  He was born 4 minutes after arriving at the hospital and it’s been a whirlwind ever since.  He’s a very good baby and loves to smile at everyone.  He is also very ticklish and that’s a sure way to get him to laugh.   But Adrienne’s favorite thing about him is probably his hair.  It is so soft and fluffy.  He fits just perfectly into our family.  He can make everyone smile.

Adam and Adrienne have lots of fun together with and without the kiddos.  Adam is a great cook so when he gets home from work, we usually cook up something scrumptious which we love and the kids don’t.  Then our nights consist of church meetings or school meetings or just some good old games and books at home.  Those are nice nights.  Adrienne has been playing her oboe in the Magna Orchestra for the past year too which is a fun outing.  And we love to be with our friends, new and old.  So if you’re ever in the area, feel free to give us a call.

We are so grateful for this Christmas season and the opportunity to count our blessings and recognize our Savior’s hand in our lives.  We wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Love,

Adam, Adrienne, Luke, Jacob, Jane, and Dalton Whittle

Happy Birthday Baby Jane

And here is our 'Baby Jane' on her 3rd birthday.
Wearing a dress her Grandma made for her.

And here is her mermaid cake.  This is how we do
character cakes in this house.  So much easier!

Jane is a joy to be around.  She is very funny and passionate about things. She can bug her brothers like no other.  She still takes naps almost every afternoon.  She has beautiful hair (i'm biased i think) and loves to wear bows.  She loves things that sparkle and princesses.  Her favorite food is noodles.

We love you Baby Jane.  Although we might need to stop calling you that one day soon.

Getting ready for Christmas

Whoever says that 'once you have 3 kids, 4 is no big deal' was kidding.

I feel like my whole life revolves around keeping all chillins safe, healthy, fed, and clothed.  Oh, and then there's me and my cute hubby too.  We have to be fed and clothed too.  And then there's the basic house keep up too. Is it too much to ask for a spill free breakfast.  I do not like to clean up rice krispies.  Those things get everywhere!

And yet, this is exactly where I want to be.  I like the constant busyness.  It was a bit tough a few years ago when I stopped working and started staying home full-time.  The shock of no deadlines and not much intelligent conversation takes some getting used to.  It took me a year or two to actually enjoy being home.  But now I can't imagine anything else.  I'm not sure how working moms do it.  How do you keep up on everything.  I am so grateful that Adam has a good job so he can be the sole provider and I can stay home.  It's true.  Sometimes I worry my mechanical engineering degree is slipping away but for the time being, there's no other option.  I won't sacrifice time with my cute little family for anything else.

Wow, this is a bit deeper than i usually go.

Just for kicks and giggles, a few happenings at the Whittle house:
1.  Tuesday jacob put a BB in his ear that we couldn't get out.  a trip to the dr. fixed that.  didn't want to accidentally knock his ear tubes past the eardrum or anything.  He told me that "maybe we can pour water in his other ear and it will come out".  He's a sweet little guy.
2.  Wed found Jane and Jacob having a cereal feast downstairs.  And of course, spilled milk on the carpet.  As cute as it was, that is totally against the rules.  And how I missed any tell tale signs of that going on downstairs are beyond me.
3.  Adam starts a new job.  today.  I'm excited for him.  and us.  Still waiting for word from him on his very first day.  I should take a picture.  I'm sure he would appreciate that.
4.  I played my oboe in the local concert tues and thurs.  we're not super good but it's really fun and we're getting much better.  and we play some really fun songs.
5.  dalton has the same cough jacob had when he was little.  you know that one that stayed for 9 months.  yes, that one.  but, it doesn't seem as bad.  i don't think his oxygen levels are low.
6.  my sciatic nerves did not get better when i had a baby like people said they would.  i was really planning on that.  i guess i might have to do some of my own physical therapy.
7.  I sent out the Christmas card.  It's really cute.  I'll post it on here after I think people have gotten theirs in the mail.
8.  Jane's birthday is tomorrow.  She makes me smile.  Today she asked me to tell her a "little Ariel story".  I do my best.  She smiles and is happy.  And then takes a nap.

Went to see the lights on temple square last night.  Lovely.
Brought hot chocolate and rolls for afterwards.

Halloween

 And Happy Halloween.

Guess who's is who's.

October flew by. Update on us.

I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted.  We are alive and well.  Actually, really well.  

Me: I'm getting the hang of 4 kids.  I do a lot of damage control and try to fit lots of fun things in the cracks.  We like sleepovers, reading books, making treats, taking walks, and playing at the park.  We got a shed from the neighbors who were going to throw it out and we got it over to our house and reassembled.  Thanks!  So I learned how to use a circular saw (which has always kinda scared me) and made shelves and then cleaned out the garage so we can park Roxanne in there.  She a tough old bird who needs tender loving care.

My first pan of rolls

I also recently found out about a charter school going up near our house and we're trying to get our kids in.  This requires large amounts of volunteer hours but we hope it will be worth it.  (http://entheosacademy.org/)  You can ask me about it if you want more info.

And, I've recently gotten into family history.  I always thought the work was at a standstill or done.  It's not.  It's really, really fun.  Check out the new website.  It will help you link everything together.  (http://new.familysearch.org)

Adam:  He is a great dad and a great cook.  When he's not at work, he plays with us.  Or takes care of the kids while I'm out which has been a lot lately.  He makes the best bonfires and carves really cool pumpkins.

Luke:  Luke has really been into numbers and letters and words lately.  This is so so great.  I've been worried about him forever (probably because he's my first and don't want him to be behind) but he was just never interested in academics stuff until about a year ago.  It was still pretty difficult to get him to remember stuff but it's really nice sending him to kindergarten and having him come home knowing new words.  We would work on a word for an hour and still have trouble.  His teacher just has to say "Y-O-U spell you!" and he's got it.  So he's now reading small books.  And he counts everything.  And I mean everything.  And loves to add.  And he's a great brother and helper.  And he has the greatest laugh, just like his dad.

Jacob:  He's just the sweetest little guy.  He's in preschool at the same school as Luke and really likes it.  And he started speech school through the school district which is helping I think.  It's good for him to have someone else give him HW so he knows it's important to learn to talk so he can be understood.  He loves to hold Dalton and eats a lot of cereal every morning.  

Jane:  She super cute and super stubborn.  She keeps up with her brothers just fine and is really into mermaids.  Purple ones.  Everytime we go to the dollar store, she wants a mermaid.  Another one.  It's pretty funny.  She can also get into this broken recorder mood.  If she wants something, she won't stop saying it until you've put her in timeout for awhile.  Like this morning, it was "pink socks".  I say I don't know where they are.  I'll look for them and then she can put them on.  For now, put on these white ones.  Meanwhile, she's saying "I want pink ones" over and over and over.  This happens multiple times a day.

Baby Jane loves a fine pair of shoes.  She's
always looking through mine and
clomping through the house.

She loves to read to Dalton

Dalton:  He's got these super chubby cheeks and is really smiley.  He is tickish and laughs a lot.  He loves it when you scare him.  He's sleeping through the night pretty much.  Sometimes we go in to stick his pacifier back in.  He loves tummy time and usually sleeps on his tummy.  He spits up more than any of my other kids and regularly soaks his burp cloths.

Dalton's 3 month birthday!

Some of the fun things we've been doing:

Dance party with light sticks (courtesy of Kim)

Building things out of those wood kits. (boat, birdhouse, biplane)

Millcreek Canyon hiking during conference weekend.
We love to take our radio up there and hike around inbetween.

Disneyland!

While in CA, we took a little trip to Disneyland!  So fun!

Here are Dalton and my mom watching the parade at the end of the day.

Cousin Addy and Jane donned their minnie mouse ears.  So cute.

At the start of the day.  We're so excited. 

 Buzz light year ride.  Definitely one of our favorites!

 Teacup ride.  I pinpointed one spot and stared at it while Adam spun us as fast as possible.  It worked.  No headache.  We even stayed around for a second try at the teacups because there was no line.

We spent 4 days at my family's home and 4 at Adam's family's home.  We had so much fun.  My kids learned to swim much better.  They also learned how to steer for Wii games.  You never know when that might come in handy.  We talked and played a lot.  It was so super hot in Adam's hometown (surprise, suprise) that our crayons melted in the car and we thought it was frosting.  Wow.  And now we're back in beautiful perfect weather (for now) and trying to recover from vacationing.  The kids are transitioning back to the schedule really great.  We've got a lot of really, really big zucchinis if you want some.  Lots of unpacking, laundry, . . . but everything is really good.  I love being with my kids everyday.  I love to be the one to teach them and play with them and take them to school and make their food.  We have lots of fun together.  Things are good.

Dalton's Blessing

Adam took a week off and we went to CA to bless Dalton (and have a little fun).

Here is my side of the family at my parents house.

 Grandpa Whittle and Dalton

Whittle side of the family. 

Our little family 

It was great to all be together.  And Dalton wore the same outfit that Luke and Jacob wore.  Neat huh.

Kindergarten

Luke's first day of Kindergarten.  Dad surprised him and me with McDonalds just for us in the morning.  Luke and Dad went to get it together and bring it home for us.  Luke loved it.  Adam is great and thoughtful.

 Right before we went in to kindergarten.  Not a good picture.  He did love it although if you ask him, he'll probably say he doesn't.

I love my baby sling.  Car seats are so heavy so I usually use this to carry him around in.  Love it.  Pattern on www.handmade-adelaide.com

Dad painted Jane's fingernails and she's trying to get them to dry.

 Jacob and Dalton hanging out.

I'm so grateful for this boy

Summer camping

Did I mention we love to camp.  We went this weekend and had so much fun.  Except that I didn't take enough water and Adam noticed and thought maybe I'd learn a lesson or something by not telling me.  What a punk.  We had to come home a few hours earlier for lack of some good old H2O.

 Except for the flies.  If you look closely below, there are a lot of flies.  A really pesky kind.  We brought some home with us too and they made it into the house and all they do is fly around your head.  Very annoying.

 Dalton loved camping.

 Doesn't that just look so fun to climb.  And the rock is like sand paper.  I feel like spiderman climbing up it because it's so sticky.  It would be pretty hard to slip.  I don't even worry really about my kids climbing up there.  No much anyway.

 Oh, and Dalton is smiling.  He likes his Dad most.  Adam is making him smile in this picture.  I'm convinced it's because when he looks at me he wonders why I'm making weird faces at him instead of feeding him.

Dalton is 6 weeks old

We love our little guy.  I think I should probably give an actual update.  Things are good.  We're still recovering from having a baby but I give myself 2 months so that gives me a couple more weeks to get some sort of schedule or something under control.  We do a lot of legos and playing outside and stuff lately.  

I feel pretty good.  I'm starting to run a little again which feels nice.  Sort of.  We've been super busy this past month because we made a list of lots of things we wanted to do this summer and we're almost done with the list and it's been super fun.  Lots of fun family times.  And then school starts for Luke in one week and Jacob starts preschool in 2 weeks.  So nice.  Ready for some stability.

Jane and Dalton

Boys night out (minus dalton) at the race car track.  Luke pretended he didn't like it but still talks about it all the time.

Oh, and here's our list.  We've done everything except bowling (which is this week) and visit g and g by the red mountains (moab).

Trying to get Dalton to sleep.  Getting better.

 Luke can build really cool lego things.

Jacob got tubes in his ears 2 days ago and is doing great.  It's supposed to help him hear better so he can learn to speak better.  The dr. says within 3 months we should see some improvement.  Then, you can call him and understand him on the phone.  Won't that be nice :)

Jacob has also begun praying for 2 more girls for our family. I'm not sure how I feel about this.  Actually, he's thanking Heavenly Father that we get to have 2 more girls.  Reasoning: Luke and Jane are getting married and there's no one for him or Dalton to marry.  Thus, we need two more girls.  It's pretty cute/funny/intimidating.