"I don't want Santa....where's the presents?"

Well this was our third year visiting Santa. We woke up Saturday morning and I told Whitney I had a surprise for her. Santa just happened to be hanging out at a Texaco station up in Alpine, 45 minutes away. I decided it was worth the trip . So about half way there, I told her who we were going to see and she was so excited. She waited in anticipation as we stood in line in between the fountain drinks and the frito-lay/twinkie rack. She was seriously so pumped to see him as she watched other little girls talk to Santa- she kept jumping up and down and saying cheese as everyone got their picture taken with Santa. When it came to her turn and all the attention was on her.... WOW , I have never seen her so terrified of anything or anyone in my life. This was pretty disturbing to me. After leaving the gas station- a little disgraced- she says, "I don't want Santa...where's the presents?" I need to explain the concept of getting more bees with honey to her. I don't think Santa was too impressed with Whitney's display- I just hope he keeps her off his naughty list!

First Encounter with St. Nick 2005

Second Encounter 2006- getting worse

Ode to The Whit...

I am already feeling guilty about all the attention I am NOT going to be able to give Whitney when baby #2 comes along, so I put together this little slide show to make myself feel better. I feel sort of bad for this little guy, how do you follow an act like Miss Whit? Is it possible that we could have TWO beautiful babies? We'll soon find out in 15 days!

First Snowman of the Season

This was our first attempt at a snowman for this year. It may not look that great, but you should have seen last years. We had the perfect kind of snow yesterday morning- not to dry, not too wet. I was a little more in to this creation than Whitney- she wanted to just eat the carrots. She eventually got really excited about him and was so happy that she had her own snowman. She checks on him through the window periodically. Unfortunately, it got a little warmer today and he will have to have some work done on his nose.
Next time, I think I will put more accessories on him. I want to make a really big one at some point this winter but we just haven't had the snow for it yet. Anyway, happy winter to everyone!

Christmas at our house...

Well here is a picture of our tree. I didn't put all of the ornaments on it this year, mainly because I don't know when I will get to putting them all away. Whitney had a fun time decorating it, and there were no ornament casualties this year. Her ornaments are all clustered in one spot on the bottom of the tree. So cute. She's really having a fun time playing with the various nativities we have around and loves pointing out the baby Jesus. I've started talking to her about Santa Clause and she pretty much talks about him non stop. "Where is Santa?" "What's Santa doing?" "You don't have to be afraid of Santa Clause?" "We can play with Santa later" "Maybe Santa will give you a candy cane" etc. It's so fun having her grow up and really start getting excited about Christmas.


This last random picture is just one that I thought was so great. Josh picked Whitney up from nursery on Sunday and Whitney was wearing these glasses- most of the other kids had taken theirs off. She absolutely loved them. My favorite part about this picture is that she feels totally comfortable wearing them. She could wear them all day.

p.s. I have a new poll for people to vote on. This one is for real. Tyler is Josh's middle name and Alan is my Dad's name. I can't believe I only have 21 days left till our baby comes!

Interesting Outfit Choices...

Okay so, Whitney usually goes through at least three outfit changes a day. This is partially because she gets her shirt dirty and doesn't want to wear it anymore, or because she see's another outfit that she'd rather wear. There are more funny outfits, I just don't have them on camera. These were two of the pretty good ones. This is one of my favorites, overalls with a belt. She wore this one in public, it was a big hit. I think we wore this one all day! She wrapped my belt around her like 3 times to get it to fit.This is a 0-3month old dress. We were going through her old clothes, trying to find some unisex clothes for the new baby (didn't find any except white onesies) and she wanted to put on pretty much every sleeper and dress she saw. Finally, to show her that these clothes REALLY didn't fit, I put this dress on her. She thought it looked so cute on. And it did. Whitney really is turning in to such a girly girl- which is good and bad, but mostly good. My favorite thing about these pictures is that she looks so serious about what she is wearing. Ohhhhh, what would I do without my little Whit!

Thanksgiving 2007

This year we were in Dallas for Thanksgiving. It was a really fun trip as usual. Whitney had fun playing with all of her cousins and even meeting a new one- Matthew. This isn't the best pictures shown below, but it does include all of the Smith grandkids.
We tried to get Whitney used to little babies, and I think she did quite well. She still doesn't really like me holding babies yet, but that will come- I hope.
Whitney really likes to be helpful when it comes to babies, so I'm hoping that will carry on when her brother gets here in a month.
We had a good time visiting with everyone on this trip. Thanks to the Smith's for making it such a great Thanksgiving vacation.

Sew Crazy!

Okay, so I got back from SLC and with me I brought a bunch of fabric for various sewing projects. I have become quite crafty since moving up to Star Valley. I thought I would show you a few of the projects I have completed this weekend. My sewing machine has been going non stop pretty much. I just want to get all my projects done so I don't have to keep bringing it in and out of the box. ANYWAY, here they are....
This is the Tu-tu Whitney has been wanting. I would have had her model it for you, but it is a Christmas present. It goes with the matching wand and tiara Santa will bring her.


On my list of 100 things to do before I die, # 73 is to make Christmas stockings- I know, I'm pretty ambitious. My mom made all of us one growing up, so I wanted to do the same thing. It was a lot harder than I had anticipated, but it worked out. Ideally, they would have been a little wider, but oh well. Santa will just have to fill them up with various writing tools or possibly just candies. You can't really tell, but they have our first initial on them. The last one is still a mystery.


This last project was one I really like because it is for our new baby. You can't really tell, but there are tiny blue stripes on the brown side. It's a baby blanket and I can't wait to wrap little Zachary or Tyler or Whatever in it. I know, we really need to figure out a name. Feel free to submit any suggestions, just know that made up names are a no no and single syllable names are also a no no. Seriously, I am asking anyone who reads this to submit 5 names to me. Anyway, these are some of the things I have been up to.

Happy 60th!

Okay, so my Mom and Dad celebrated their 6oth b-day's a week ago. We had such a fun time celebrating with them (except for the part when they made us all say something. Public speaking is my all time least favorite thing to do- ughhh I hate it.) They let us throw this party for them, although they really are not too thrilled about being 60. What good sports!

Anyway, my sister Melissa and her hubby, Ryan, made this cake, I know it's nuts. It looks so profesh!
Josh had to take a trip to South Carolina this last week so I was able to stay in Salt Lake and spend a lot of time with my family. We had a pretty awesome birthday party for Jacob and went bowling. No smiles from Whitney, she's a pretty serious bowler.

Afterwards we went to their house and had dinner, cake and ice cream and opened gifts. Whitney was pretty content to just play in the excer-saucer-if that's what their called. I always wanted to get something like that for Whitney when she was a baby. She gets in them all the time now when she gets the chance.
Anyway, that was our week. It was so fun to spend time with everyone. I wish I had taken more pictures of the things we did. Whitney has been bored out of her mind since we got back. She had so much fun with her cousins. They adore her and she adores them. Oh how I miss the big city!

OK, I've been tagged...

The rules:
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.


1. I typically don't do something unless it is written down on a list or in my planner. I thrive off of checking things off my lists. I get great satisfaction from drawing a line through little tasks that I have done. I think I may rely too heavily on lists at times, but it helps me be organized and have peace of mind so I guess it's okay. I probably have about 10 lists floating around my house addressing anything from 2008 goals to my grocery list. And because of these lists and my obsession with being prepared and organized, all my Christmas shopping is done. I know, it's disturbing.

2. If I could, I would live off cereal. When Josh went to Denver for 5 weeks when we first got married, I think the first thing I did was go to the store and buy about 5 boxes of Peanut Butter Crunch to live off of. Ya gotta love the way they coat your mouth with a sugary film. Now, I think I would choose something like Cracklin' Oat Bran or Wheat Chex. I'm a big fan of hearty cereals.

3. My pet peeve's include my dirty windows that I can't seem to get clean, when people throw the word "literally" around without knowing what it means (ex: "I literally died when I saw what happened"- you clearly did not),when people add -er to certain words (ex: calling Florida "Florid-er" or Georgia "Georg-er" - I think English people do this most.) and lastly, Andre Kirelenkos hair- do I really need to explain this?4. Having to use the potty AT LEAST once an hour is now a habit for me. This baby is doing jumping jacks on my bladder I think. Get ready for another spazzy child from the Smith's!5.My Favorite Show is THE OFFICE. This is the only show I watch regularly- well I secretly watch The Biggest Loser, but you don't know that. I'll admit it, I mainly watch because of the Pam and Jim relationship. I think we all can relate to their relationship in some way- can't we? How can you not just love them? I just found out that there are a ton of Jim and Pam collage type videos on You Tube... Sweetness! Not a great picture, but it will have to do.

6. My biggest accomplishment lately has been being able to kill spiders on a fairly regular basis. I kill probably 3 a day on average. I used to be terrified of them and I would have to use my "spider catcher" that I made (a plastic cup with the words "spider catcher" on the side) But now, I just use a tissue, and not a lot of tissue. I use a punch and slide technique. It leaves a little mark on the wall or floor, but that is easily cleaned up. Whitney see's a spider and says "Mommy kill"- kinda odd, but at least she's not afraid of them. I can kill spiders as big as a nickel right now, just so you know.

Okay, that's it! Now I choose to tag the following people: Emily Horton, Miranda Jones, Chelsey Jones, Kristen Jones, Lacey Blodgett, and Iliana Gardner.

Our Little Lady..Bug

Okay, so our lady bug looks kind of like a martian lady bug in my opinion. She was still a big hit at the trunk or treat though. She finally got up the courage to put her costume on last night and then didn't want to take it off. We just borrowed it from a friend, so I hope she won't be to heartbroken to give it back.

Here, she is showing us her "scary"face. Pretty scary.

This morning, she is wanting to do "Halloween" again. "Want to go to Halloween", she says. This is going to be a long day. We've already had the "You can't eat candy before 8:00 am" and"You are NOT supposed to swallow gum" conversations. I have since thrown all the gum candy away. Wow, Halloween is fun. I think some of this candy will have to be conveniently "lost".

New Hometeachers

So we got some new hometeachers this last Sunday. They were nice enough to pose for a picture after church.



The one kind of looks like a rebel without a tie and all. He's a nice guy though. Both of them play sports and have asked me to join their city league basketball team. We call ourselves "Legion." Pretty cool name, eh?

Only good can come of this change. Rumor is that they bring all their new families a fruit basket. Sweet!

Beignet's of Fury

Another random cooking post...


Okay, so I've been craving these little treasures for a while now. I know they may not look that appetizing but they are quite delicious. This was my first attempt at making them. In my family, we had Beignet's for Christmas Eve every year. And, since it felt like Christmas Eve today (4 inches of snow on our driveway this morning!) I thought I'd get into the winter spirit of things and make some comfort food. They are French Donuts and they normally are square, but my dough was a little sticky (I needed more flour)and it ended up just being a mishapped ball of dough that I dropped into my oil. It tastes the same no matter what shape they are in.

You normally put powdered sugar on them, but we also put chocolate syrup and caramel on some. I even liked just the plain ones. One of these days, I want to do a Navajo Taco type topping on them. Anyway, if you want to try them, you can order the mix at www.cafedumonde.com or you can come to our house and I will make you some- I promise they won't look like little sea creatures though.

My Sweet Baby Girl

Well, it has been awhile since I did just a good old fashioned post of The Whit. We were at a friends house today and took some fun pictures. She was pretty tired during it all, but we got through it- and even got a few good shots. I am still learning how to use our camera, so some of the shots are blurry. I had the camera on the "children" setting, but somehow there were still some blurry ones. Oh well, you get the idea.

My Sweetheart.

I know, I know, she's beautiful.

Trouble....

A few slightly unconventional thoughts on Bigfoot.

Here's another post for Caitlin.




A couple of things come to mind as I look at this picture. First, is it just me, or does Bigfoot look like he belongs on the sex offender registry? Although this sighting was in Jackson, I suppose enforcing his requirement to register would be something of a problem. He'd be required to register in the county in which he was a resident, but where is that really? A few sightings here and there would never be enough to establish residency. Caitlin seems to have some sort of bond with him (not in that way), maybe she could provide some insight. I think I'm going to call for some congressional hearings on this issue. Those idiots have hearings on every other non-issue, so why not this one?

Second, have you ever wondered whether Bigfoot has nipples? Apparently, this can no longer even be questioned. Either the store we were in was really cold, or Bigfoot is a freak in more ways than one (click on the picture for an "enlarged to show texture view," you won't regret it until you're trying to sleep tonight). If his chest hair was a little bit longer I imagine he would be required to have a concealed carry permit for those bad boys. Lucky for him, they are in plain sight, so he avoids another potential buearocratic pitfall.

I am a guitar hero

This is a little video of me on my first attempt at playing Guitar Hero 3. Maybe with a little practice, I can at least become respectable at it.



Eat it, Caitlin!

Ok, maybe that wasn't me...that looks ridiculously hard.

Dinner at the Smith's

Okay, I know what you're thinking ," What the devil has she cooked up this time" Well, this is Honey glazed Turkey. I guess you could say that I chose to "blacken" it. Josh came home for lunch and held my hand through the process of rinsing and covering the turkey with a bunch of seasoning, (which smelled and looked like dirt to me). I had to put my hand in the cavity of this creature, you know- and touch bone. Luckily, Josh lit the grill for me so I wouldn't burn my face off trying to light it. Then, we put some mesquite chips in the grill and things were going fine for the first hour. I added a head full of honey from the little honey bear jar and then 1 1/2 hours later, after my nap, I checked this beast of a bird and it was charred. The recipe said that the honey would turn a dark brown, but this was ridiculous! I wonder how long that timer was going off for before I got up from my nap. No, I'm sure I heard it the first time. Anyway, after bringing it inside, and peeling off the black honey glaze. I tried this poor turkey and it was actually quite good. It didn't taste like honey, but it was still quite good. Anyway, Josh, if you're reading this blog post at work, maybe you should bring some pizza home for dinner...


P.S. This is another picture that is indicative of "Dinner at the Smith's " when Mom has a meeting and is not home to enforce the "bib wearing" rule, or "hair out of the face while eating spaghetti" rule.

Outing in Jackson

This morning, Josh invited us up to Jackson while he was working up there. Naturally, I accepted the invite to go. I have been wanting to go to Jackson all summer. Whitney was excited to go too, although, she thought we were going to see her cousin Jackson. Even while we were there, she kept asking to see Jackson, but no amount of explaining was going to get it through to her that her cousin did not live there and that this Jackson was a town. Needless to say, she was a little let down by the trip. Anyway, we dropped Josh off at the courthouse and went first to the creepy animal mount shop. It's a fun shop, although, Whitney wasn't that impressed.I should have got a picture of the Big Foot they have there. Sorry these pictures aren't that great, I had my camera on the wrong setting. Then, after that, Whitney was getting hungry, yelling "restaurant,restaurant" continuously. I had the hardest time finding an eating establishment that was kid friendly. You'd be suprised how many Bars are open at 10 in the morning here. Finally, we reached a little deli and bought a cookie the size of her head, which she refused to share. We then went to the park there in the middle of town where I just watched Whitney eat her cookie...apparently sharing is only appropriate when it's ME sharing with HER- not the other way around. Josh was done in less than an hour so we did a little more shopping in JH and had some New York Subs. It was the best sandwich in America, in my opinion. (the Chicken Turkey Club from Arby's is also amazing- I know you don't believe me- just try it). I know this doesn't sound like it was very fun, but for a stay at home mom in the stix, this was the highlight of my week- besides the time Whitney actually sat on the toilet for more than 5 seconds without whining. Potty training is SO MUCH FUN!!! Okay that's enough of my ramblings. Oh wait, one more thing you don't care about. This is a picture of me at 23 weeks. "Why do I care", you ask? You Don't. This is more of a journal item for me:)Yes, I a have busted out the maternity jeans. Gotta love the stretchy pants.

Flaming Gorge

This past weekend we went to Flaming Gorge with My Mom and Dad, Chris and Kristen (and kids), and Andrew and Chelsey. I don't have any good shots on the beach or on the boat- long story- but if I did, there would be lots of pictures of Whitney laying down in the water and possibly one of us on the tubes with Ellie and Abby. Flaming Gorge is a water skiiers dream as far as glassiness goes. It is cold, but the weather is so hot, you want to get in. If I weren't prego, I'd probably still be sore, even now, a week later, from water skiing. Oh the things we do to bring these little ones into the world! Okay, enough of that, here's what I have:

Here's Mikey and Danny looking like they are up to something.

Ellie just keepin' it real mainly.


Here's what our campsite looked like. We had fun cooking and, of course, eating yummy food. We had dutch oven enchiladas and dutch oven peach cobbler. Mom certainly knows her way around the camp kitchen.




Whitney playing in the dirt with Anabelle












Whitney just taking a break from playing in the dirt. It's amazing that she hardly ever gets sick. She LOVES to be messy- and I let her. You have to pick your battles I guess.



Well it was a great vacation and our last for this summer (so sad). Thanks to Mom and Dad for arranging such a fun trip!

New Camera

Well, we finally decided to update our camera. We're still trying to figure out how to really use it, but I thought I'd post a few pictures from the other day and see how they look.



And here's a sweet 70s silhouette profile which would be right at home between Kip and Napoleon's portraits:



Here's a little fruit fly type insect:




Here's Whitney striking her David/Ammon pose staring down a foe in the distance with her weapon of choice in hand:








Whitney smelling flowers:



Maybe they should call it the birds and the flies: