'Twas the night before Christmas

... and right before I was able to take a picture of the kids in their matching jammies that Grandma made them, Olivia got kneed in the head, and would not be happy for any of the pictures.

Temple Lights

The Sunday before Christmas we went down to the Washington DC LDS Temple grounds to see the lights. It was freezing cold, and every other person in the Tri-State area was there as well, but it was nice to take the kids down. We didn't make it down last year because of all of the snow that we got in December, so we enjoyed being able to go this year.

Our Christmas Picture

How difficult is it to get a 5 year old, 3 year old and 6 month old all looking and smiling at the camera at the same time? Not difficult at all- it's actually impossible.

Merry Christmas anyway!

Halloween

So, Halloween in December... why not?
This year we went with a family theme for our Halloween costumes- we were all from the show Phineas and Ferb. For our trunk or treat, I made up the Trick or Treat Candy-Inator. If I had thought of doing this at some point before the afternoon before the activity, I could have made a really cool -inator, but well, this is what I could come up with last minute. When you stuck your hand in the door, there was a bowl that had a motion sensor hand that came down on you. Jesse was Dr Doofenshmirtz, I was Candace, Olivia was Perry the Platypus, Nate was Phineas, and Graham was Ferb.

Platypus costume courtesy of Grandma White.

She also made the silly tall pants for Graham.

Nate woke up the next morning and put on those inside-out pjs, blue shorts and wanted to know when we were going to spray his hair orange.

So Happy Halloween!

Dear Santa,

Nate came home from school with this letter that he had written to Santa:

Dear Santa
I love to sit on your lap.
love Nathaniel

If I were Santa and that's all he wrote to me in his letter, I'd bring him lots of toys just for being so sweet.

November update

November was a pretty slow month for us. Nate and Graham and Olivia just kind of played all month Jesse had a birthday, and that was just about the only thing that happened. He got an electric guitar.

Nate and Graham colored on their faces.

Nate got to take home Brown Bear from his classroom over Thanksgiving break. He took it to Grandma's house one day.

He also brought Brown Bear to Thanksgiving with the Markhams. We ate at Seth and Heather's house this year, and the dinner was delicious. Nate had a ton of fun playing with cousin Meckenzie.

And that was it. A pretty boring November for us! Guess I didn't miss much in not blogging about things as they happened.

December update

OK, so December started out with a super cute baby. Then we moved right on to Graham's birthday! The big Number 3!!!

It was a multi-day celebration. We had a party with a few friends on Friday.

Then on Saturday morning he got to open his presents from us.

That afternoon we had a party with the Markhams. It was a joint birthday party since Uncle Seth's birthday was on Sunday. But Graham got the one desire of his heart- "The Dragon Movie" It's a favorite! On Sunday we had a birthday party with the Whites, and that pretty much ended his birthday weekend.

The following Saturday we went out with Grandad and Aunt Cammi to cut down some Christmas trees. We did this last year, and it will probably be an annual tradition. It wasn't snowing like it was last year, but it had snowed the day before, and there was still some snow on the ground and trees.

They have these signs all over the lots, saying watch out for holes. I was the only one to fall into a hole, and bang up my knee, and fall face first, and Olivia first, into a pine tree. It was OK though, just a bruised knee, and everyone was OK.

It was cold though, and Olivia had to be pretty bundled up!We eventually got a tree stand big enough for our tree- the trunk was too wide for the one that we had, and we got it up and decorated.

And finally, last week we took the Kids to the mall, waited in line for an hour, and got our picture taken with Santa. In the past Nate and or Graham have been terrified of Santa, this year, both of them ran up to him, and were so excited to see him. What did they want you ask? Graham asked for "Lightning" (As in Lightning McQueen- as if we don't already have enough) And Santa knew all of the characters from Cars. Nate asked for a cute puppy dog, (yes, my children are terrified of dogs) and a Batman toy.

And that pretty much brings up up to date on December.

6 Months

This little girl is 6 months old! I can hardly believe it's been that long! She's still a tiny little thing, so people often are surprised that the is 6 months old, but she's cute as can be. Everyone loves her, she wins over people wherever she goes. She is mostly a happy baby, and when she is not happy, most of the time she can be made happy just by picking her up. She doesn't really do much, she can't sit up, she just lunges as soon as you sit her up, she doesn't roll over, she has rolled from her front to back once, but that is it. In her defense, she doesn't spend much time on the floor, I'm usually afraid she will get run over by a crazy boy. But she does have one trick- she has started to shake her head, and now if you shake your head at her, she'll shake her head back at you. It's super cute. She loves her brother so much! And they love her just as much, they always want to be with her. In fact, Nate has a plan for getting rid of Graham, and keeping Olivia.

So we'll keep her, for a bit longer at least. Sometimes I hate putting her to bed, just because it would mean that I'd have to put her down, and she's just the sweetest thing ever.

10%

So I kind of stopped with the Weight Loss Wednesday posts, but in all fairness, I stopped with all posts, so yeah. BUT- I have kept with things, and with the exception of one week I have been down every single week. This week though, I hit my 10% goal! So I got a nifty little weight watchers key chain, and a standing ovation. (OK, not really about the standing ovation, but with the exception of my two friends who were sitting behind me, everyone was very happy for me.)
One day I may even start blogging again. We'll see. :)

2 years ago

2 years ago today, I got a call from my mom in the early to mid afternoon saying that my dad was not doing so well. My reply was that I would try to come over. (Can you believe that, what a bone-headed thing to say!) What happened after I said I would "try" to come over was that within 5 minutes I was out the door on my way to my mom's house. The blessing in that was that I didn't bring anything that I would need for an overnight stay, because my brain had turned off. So when I realized that I would be spending the night at my mom's house, I called Jesse and he brought me a little bag, and because of that, my boys got to see their Grandpa one last time. The tender mercy here was that while the boys were here was one of the only times that day that my dad was lucid. Of course, later on that night he slipped into a coma and passed away.
So here it is 2 years later, and at some point I got to the point where I could think about him without crying every time. At some point I figured a few things out about faith, and where mine was. At some point my life started to heal. But the fact is, I still miss him. It still tares me up that my kids won't know him. Nate still talks about him. Just yesterday he said something about not doing something until Grandpa comes back and lives with Grandma again. Graham was just a year when he died, so he will have no memories of him. And any memory of him that Nate has is of when he was sick. I wish that they could know him for the fun loving goofy guy that he was. I hope that one day they can understand what it means to grow up in this stake being the grandson of President White. Right now all of my children have a special connection with him, Nate's middle name is after him, we buried him on Graham's birthday, and Olivia was born on his birthday.
I hope that I can live up to the standard that my father has set for our family. I am incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful family. To have so many siblings who I love so much. To be a part of a group of people who genuinely love to be together, and not have any outcasts. As much as I miss my dad, is how much I'm glad that I still have my mom here. She is a rock to me, and someone I can always look to. All that I know about being a good person, a good mother, a good wife I learned from her.

Weight Loss Wednesday

This week I was down 1.4 lbs for a grand total of 12.4 lbs. I have realized that at the beginning of this whole thing I was really good about not cheating, but lately I have gotten really lazy about it, and that is my whole problem- staying power. So I need to rally and keep going strong. I guess I do have more good days than bad days, but I need to do better about having a lot more good days than bad days. I'll blame it on the holidays, but really, the holidays last too long to have that excuse. Oh well, I'll keep on running to help out, and in all honesty, Thanksgiving is not all that difficult of a time for me, it's when the Christmas treats start to come that I'll have trouble. :)

Weight loss (Thursday)

This week I actually weighed in on Monday, and I was down another 3.8 lbs for a grand total of 11 lbs. That means that I hit my first 5%! I was quite proud of myself. However, the rest of this week the scale and I have not really been friends. It's going to be all that I can do to come out even this next week I have a feeling. I was not all that diligent about things the past week or so, and now I'm paying for it. But today I got back on track, and this week is shaping up to be a good exercise week too, so hopefully that will help to even things out. I'd like to be down 10% by Christmas. I hope I can do it. It's about 7 more pounds. We'll see.

Worried

Today I got worried.
I got worried that this little boy thought that he was going to be allowed to turn 3 in just 2 weeks. I got worried, because if he thought that he was going to be allowed to turn 3, then eventually he might want to turn 4, and if he turns 4, then eventually he will think that he ought to turn 5 and go to school, and if he goes to Kindergarten, then he probably will want to go to college and leave me forever one day.

And then I got even more worried. I worried that now that this one is 5 months old, she thinks that in another month she'll have to be 6 months old. And if she can be 6 months old, she'll probably one day want to be a whole year old. And after that, well, you know what happens after that, one day she gets married and leaves me forever.

And I'm worried about it because this one already has started it. I mean, he already turned 5 months, and then went on to being 6 months. He already turned 3, and then went on to go to Kindergarten. And now he's a giant. He's a million years old, and one day, you guessed it, he's going to leave me forever. And I'm not going to like it. Not one bit. Already, I can't hold him anymore, and he had the nerve to stop acting overjoyed every time I walked into the room. He can feed himself, clothe himself, put his shoes on, make toast. Everything a boy needs to survive. He hardly needs me anymore other than to tell him that the cinnamon won't stick to the toast unless you butter it first. But now I've told him that, so what else am I good for?

Oh kids, would you just stop growing and be my little babies forever?

Please?