Another Move

We had a wonderful Christmas down in Las Vegas visiting Adam's family. The kids did much better than I anticipated, and Hallie LOVED opening her presents. She didn't quite understand the whole Santa thing, but she knew that she was supposed to wait until Christmas to open all of her presents. The toys Santa brought her were a success, she loves them! Santa also treated Adam well with a new iPod touch and Whitney got lots of new clothes :) We got back into town on Saturday and have been packing and cleaning ever since. It feels like all we do is move anymore... and we still have a couple more moves to go (back to Utah in April, then to Vegas in August... we hope). We'll be moving up to Rexburg in the next few days, which we're excited for (minus the wind and snow). Adam has a great internship lined up with my uncle's accounting firm in Idaho Falls, which should give Adam a decent feel for what it's like to run a tax practice. Hallie's excited to play with Tate every day and Ashton is excited to have his own room. We are going to be quite spoiled with our living quarters seeing as it's at least twice the size of our apartment, has a playroom for Hallie, we will be getting meals 3 times a week, and it's all free99 (as Adam calls it)! Anyway, back to cleaning for now.

Mario Cake!

So I'm on a posting palooza this week... but I HAD to show ya'll my latest and greatest creation for my dear husband's birthday (yes, Hannah Montana is bringing out my inner southerner). The pictures uploaded in the exact reverse order that I meant for them to upload in, but I'm feeling a little too lazy to fix that :)

1. 

New Car!

So Adam and I just made our first car purchase in our married lives. We will be heading up to Rexburg this winter and wanted something that would drive better than Ola (a CAR named OLA, get it? Car-olla... hehe) [Disclaimer: Contrary to some popular belief, the Toyota's true name is Yota...as in To Yota or NOT To Yota...others have called it "The Maggot" -Adam]. We'll also be done with school for good in August and will be needing a second car anyway. Since our family is growing, we thought it wise to get a bigger car so we could keep it longer. After much research, we settled on the Honda Pilot. She's a beauty. Thanks to Adam for finding us such a great car for an amazing price!

The Holiday Hussle

So this past week has been insane. Adam has had so much to do with school, and I've been at home with the kids trying to pack, get into doctors before we're off our awesome insurance, make a sweet birthday cake for Adam and finish up Christmas presents for parents and other family members. I feel rather frazzled, and I'm really not cut out for the part of motherhood that involves lack of sleep. Normally, I would just sigh and hope that the next week would be better (after a bout of tears). However, it really bothered me this week because as I've been doing all of these things for Christmas, I haven't felt much of the usual Christmas Spirit. Today at church I realized that I haven't enjoyed the holiday season much this year... it just feels like I'm always running on empty, scurrying to get things done. This coming week isn't looking much more promising, but I'm hoping the week of Christmas will be glorious and make up for all my recent "scrooge-ness". As for now, I will try to be more like Tiny Tim and count my blessings, even when they're the ones that demand all of my care and attention :)

Cookie Cutters

Around the Christmas season Whit likes to bust out the cookie cutters. Well, I've come to the realization that this sort of behavior extends beyond baked yum-yums. Apparently she uses a cookie cutter in other aspects of her life.

Below are pictures of our two little cookies, can you guess of whom each picture is?

Make your guesses on pictures 1-7, Hallie or Ashton?

Adam got 74663D

Welcome to the Adam Morris edition of "TAGGED"...electronically known as "74663d"

8 TV shows I love to watch:
1. Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball
1a. NBA Playoffs
2. Cosby Show
3. Ace of Cakes
4. Everybody loves Raymond
5. BYU Football (when they're not under-performing)
6. This is a lot of TV
7. My computer
7a. Mickey Mouse ClubHouse
8. I love my Lappy

8 favorite restaurants:
1. Lucilles
2. P.F. Changs
3. Buffalo Wild Wings
4. Tucanos
5. King's Fish House
6. Outback Steakhouse
7. Cheesecake Factory
8. Chilis

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. I breathed
2. Went to lunch with my Dad to Ottavio's
3. Went to Den meeting with 3 little hellions, they're parents should be proud =)
4. Went to the park with Hallie and my Dad
5. Played Settlers:Cities and Knights online at 1AM with Ashton
6. Went to bed before 10pm!!!!!
7. Talked with my wife for quite some time
8. Watched segments of Fishies, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Monsers with Hallie

8 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Christmas at home with my entire family
2. Ashton's blessing on Sunday
3. Playing Basketball
4. Preparing taxes full-time this winter
5. Not having to do homework at 2AM
6. When Ashton can smile and starts to laugh
7. Even better, when Ashton starts to interact with us (especially Hallie)
8. Seeing a picture of my face when I get my birthday present next month [clueless] S^)

8 things on my wish list:
1. A motorcyle (a nice Honda Shadow or maybe a couple rides on a bullet bike)
2. A sweet Mario Cake for my birthday
3. Making millions of dollars with my fleet of Oompah Loompahs
4. A decked out, $1,000,000 computer rig...all I want is to play on it for a couple hours, no need to purchase
5. Passing the CPA Exam on my first Attempt
6. An old-school Smash Bro.'s session with Thomas, Jake, and another worthy oppoenent [le sigh]
7. More time
8. A Googleplex of children of happy, healthy children

I hereby Taggeth Thomas, Jake, & Roy...if you so choose to accept this quest.

Tagged

I've been tagged by Kari! I've been tagged before, but this is my first time actually following through. So here goes nothin':

8 TV shows I love to watch
1. Cosby
2. The Cavs dominating any team in the NBA
3. Ace of Cakes
4. Food Network Challenge
5. Good Eats
6. Oprah
7. Everybody Loves Raymond
8. Hannah Montana (as of late)

8 favorite restaurants
1. Cheesecake Factory
2. P.F. Changs
3. Buffalo Wild Wings
4. Outback Steakhouse
5. Chilis
6. Olive Garden
7. Cafe Rio
8. Baja Fresh

8 things that happened yesterday
1. Got up at 2 to feed Ashton
2. Got up at 5 to feed Ashton
3. Got up at 8 to feed Ashton
4. Actually got up for the day
5. Fed Ashton at 10
6. Fed Ashton at 1
7. Cried because I feel like a cow being milked all day
8. Went to bed and actually got 4 1/2 straight hours of sleep thanks to a fantastic husband who... got up to feed Ashton!

8 things I'm looking forward to
1. Not feeding Ashton so much
2. Ashton's blessing on Sunday
3. Thanksgiving in Rexburg!
4. The holidays... although I have already started celebrating :)
5. Grandpa Morris heating up the pool over Christmas so Hallie and I can go swimming
6. Moving up to Rexburg next semester
7. Ashton sleeping through the night
8. Seeing Adam's look on his face when he gets his birthday present next month

8 things on my wish list
1. That Ashton will start sleeping through the night... NOW
2. Skinny jeans
3. Getting back in shape so i can fit into those skinny jeans :)
4. A haircut
5. Graduating and getting a real job
6. Moving close to my family
7. A cute house
8. No more kids (if Adam would ever fall for it!)

People I'm tagging... hmmm, I'll go with... Shiloh, Breanne and ADAM :D

Artsy what?

Confession time...
I took every art class offered back in high school. I loved all of them. I loved my teacher and a couple of my best buds were in all the classes with me (yay Julz and Ahdom!). Then I went to college. I knew I had some natural talent, but I didn't feel like I had enough to go into an art major. Julie and Ahdom were both voted artist of the year (and rightfully so, they are quite amazing) and I think I just felt like I could never be as good as they were and I didn't want to feel inferior in every college class I walked into. I was also "encouraged" (ha) to find something that might be a little more promising financially, in case I ever needed to support myself. So I forgot about art. I went on with my life and majored in Exercise Science (which I really do love). Then about a year ago my grandpa and grandma Linda asked if I had done any artwork recently. I told them I had not done anything in quite a while, that life just got too crazy, but I would like to pick it up again someday. From that day forward, I missed it. I wanted to do something, but I wasn't sure what. My dear husband bought me some really nice paintbrushes for mother's day, but I was scared to use them... I didn't know if I was ready to jump into painting after a 5 year break from it! So I've started at the most basic level... drawing. I did this picture for my brother in law for Christmas. I know it's nothing crazy outrageous, but I was happy with it for how long I've been out of practice.



Who knows? Maybe I'll go out on a limb and do COLORED pencil next time :)

Tricks or Treats

We had a fantastic Halloween! We started off the week by carving pumpkins. Adam and I like to go a little crazy and opt for designs a little out of the ordinary...




Adam's beloved John Wayne only lasted about a day... but he was still pretty cool! Tigger lasted through Halloween, but then started to shrivel and die.

Hallie made an adorable Minnie this year, compliments of her grandmother. She LOVED trick or treating, and Adam even got her to say trick or treat at a few of the houses before she started looking for the suckers in every bowl. Ashton was a champ, he guzzled a bottle and stayed nice and warm in his blanket in his momma's arms as we all walked from house to house.





Adam and I have decided that we're officially a family... and officially old. Not only do we have 2 car seats in the car, a house and a car that looks like it's constantly being bombarded by children, but we also have a child that is old enough to appreciate Halloween. Pretty soon our teeth are going to start falling out.

Finally, no post would be complete without a picture of Ashton, so here he is :)

What a handsome little guy!

Answered Prayers

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous before Ashton came along that life would become impossible. Hallie was a pretty hard baby and demanded LOTS of attention. I thought Hallie might beat up on little Ashton and try to pick him up (only to drop him) when I wasn't looking. I was planning for the worst and hoping for the best. Thus far, Ashton has been a gem compared to Hallie at this age. He's awake for almost 3 hours each morning and night, sometimes a little bit in the afternoon, and he just sleeps the rest of the time, unless he's hungry :) He's a fantastic nurser and Hallie is so nice to him. She shares Minnie, her blankie, her binkis and even her bottles with him. Our only troubles come when she wants to give him fives, sometimes she misses his hand and lands on his face, but he's been a good sport about it.
We've really appreciated the meals from our ward, Adam's mom for coming out last week, and I'm really excited for my mom to come in today! I've never been a passionate dinner-maker, and I think having my second baby has completely extinguished any small flame of desire to cook anything anymore. I've been watching the food network every day to hopefully rekindle some desire to make dinner for my family again, and I'm just grateful for the service of others so that we're not eating frozen pizza every night! We're hoping things continue to go as smoothly as they have our first 2 weeks... so far, so good!

More Ashton

More recent Ashton pictures! Sorry we haven't posted much info lately... I'll put something up soon.

World's cutest baby!

 

Ashton James Morris

Well well well...a bunch of contractions and a few hours later, and Ashton (Lebron) James Morris was born into the world. I'd save this entry for Whitney, b/c she is a little more eloquent than I, but she's all shacked up in the birthing suite (it's actually REALLY nice) at Orem Community Hospital, and wireless isn't working for some reason. So, you're stuck with me =)

I'll jump to the details, Whitney started contracting regularly around 9 o'clock while I was playing some basketball down the road. She called me home a little over an hour later and we rushed to the hospital after Jessica & Brad so graciously came over to spend the night with Hallie. We arrived, and some what disappointingly, we found out that Whitney hadn't dilated any more since our last visit (she was a 4+ then). So, we had to wait an hour while she continued to contract so they could check her again. 60 minutes and several prayers, from ourselves and many of you (thanks!), later, she was dilated to almost a 6!

So, they made her official and relocated us to one of the nice rooms. Luckily the anesthetist was already there, so Whit didn't have to wait too much longer for the epidural (for which we were both grateful). A couple hours and a few naps later and she was ready to push! It was easy-cheesy from there. Whitney only had to push for about ten minutes! 3-4 sets of pushes and the little guy was born. He had quite a bit to say in the whole matter. We were a bit worried about his lung development because he's almost 4 weeks premature, but he let us know that his lungs are juuuust fine.

Ashton was born at 4:15 AM of Oct. 15. Coincidentally enough, he measured identically to Hallie (perhaps except his head). He is 6lb 7Oz & 19in long, and he has the cutest full head of blond hair...the CUTEST!

Well, enough of my jabber, here are a few snapshots of the little guy, enjoy!




Awwww, look at the little guy...he's a little upset because mom told him he was 'cute'...not a very manly thing to say to your son.



You can't really tell from the picture, but he was going to town on his fingers!



LOOK AT THE CUTE LITTLE DUDE!



Juuuuuust snoozin' =) ...so far, this is what he likes best.



Check out that blond hair!!!

A little sweet and sour

So we'll start with the sweet... our favorite word Hallie says is "porcupine". See for yourself (the one at the end is a little better).



Also, I'm off bed rest! Wahoooooo!! It's been wonderful... but the "sour" part of the whole deal is that I HURT like crazy. This baby is putting so much pressure on me that it makes it miserable to move much anyway. I'm getting really close to being full term though (37 weeks), so hopefully this baby won't stay in too much longer, we'll keep you posted!

Oh Baby

I went back into the doctor both yesterday and today to get things checked out. I told him about my hospital visit and he wanted to do a different test to find out for sure if I was leaking amniotic fluid-- turns out I'm not, whew! However, I am having a lot of discharge that contains a ton of white blood cells. This translates to an inflammatory response which in turn means that there's some sort of infection going on inside of me. The doctor doesn't feel comfortable with delivering the baby now (and neither do we), but I'm going to be watched closely over the next week or so. I just worry about possible birth defects that can be caused by the infection. Keep us in your prayers, we're just a little anxious.

Update

So today I thought I had a reaaaally slow leak, and especially since I'm so dilated, I figured I'd go in to check it out real quick. I really didn't think it would be any problem, it was so slow and it seems like all sorts of funky goop comes out at this point of pregnancy, but I thought I might be a neglectful mother if I didn't at least find out for sure. So I go in, they ask me about 5,483 questions and then they finally swab me. Well.... the nurse couldn't tell if it was positive or negative. So she calls the doctor to ask him what to do, and he tells her to wait an hour and do it again. So I hang out and then 2 nurses come in to check me the second time. Same results... it was just too hard to tell. So they call the doctor again and just decided to send me home. Before I left, they checked my cervix again and I'm still at a 4, but my sac is bulging out... so basically i could explode any second. So I'm resolving to do better about my bed rest for the next week. I haven't been terrible, but it's just hard with Hallie. I'd really prefer this baby to stay in a little while longer, but it's a pain in the neck to have to stay down all day long. I still need to get this baby something to sleep in too, so it would be nice if he would give us some more time :) Anyway, we'll keep you all updated as things progress. Happy Conference weekend!

Bed Rest

So I went to the doctor's office today for my 34 week ultrasound. The technician was telling me that the baby was sitting surprisingly low and asked if I had been having any contractions. I told her that I've had more with this baby than with Hallie, but that they weren't painful, just uncomfortable. She thought it might be a good idea for me to meet with the doctor just to get his opinion on the matter. I explained to him what had been going on and he asked if I wanted him to check to see if I was dilated at all, but he didn't seem too worried. I told him that I would be interested in knowing, just for fun :) It turns out that I'm nearly 4 cm dilated!! That's almost half a labor! Fortunately, I'm 34 weeks along so I don't have to sit in the hospital for days, but he did put me on bed rest for the next two weeks (too bad my bed isn't as cool as the one in the picture). I'm sure I'll survive just fine, I just don't think Hallie will be too happy. If any of you have any fantastic self-entertaining ideas for children, PLEASE let me know!

It's all about the kids

So my life has transformed in the last month quite dramatically. For the past 18 years (or so) of my life, I have been going to school and getting my education. I got married after a couple of years of college, had a baby a year and a half later, and still went to school, despite the odds :) I finally finished, and now, I'm officially a "homemaker". No school, no work, just a house to clean, cooking to do, Hallie to take care of, and a pregnancy to survive through... amongst other random tasks of homemakery. I really like it a lot, actually. I thought I might lose part of my "identity" once I was done, but I haven't felt any loss thus far. I'm really liking the lower stress levels, in fact. Because I have more time to enjoy Hallie, Adam and I have been able to capture some fantastic moments of her young life. Enjoy! :)




Hallie takes after her mother... some of her favorite foods include peanut butter...

and sour cream. YUM

Hallie's sweet kicks... she's already attempting to whip her little brother into shape.

Motherhood

I always enjoy being Hallie's mom (ok, there are some rough days when I just can't wait for her to go to bed, but they aren't super often)... but some days stand out more than others. Today was one of those days where I just basked in all the glories of motherhood. I woke up to Hallie wanting to crawl into bed by me to drink her milk, which lasted the typical 3 seconds before she wanted down. We had bathtime which is always fun and she was awesome during our grocery shopping trip. Then I came home to put her down for her nap and she just wanted to rock in her chair and have me sing primary songs all day long. After about 10 or 15 minutes, I decided she really did need to go down for her nap, and she was pretty sad that the "wocking" and songs were over, but I promised her more after her nap. She woke up singing songs to herself in her crib, and we played for about an hour before running more errands. After those were through, she wanted to go to "schoo" to visit daddy, so we made the trip over to the Tanner building (we're trying to reinforce this love for school, hopefully it lasts for many years to come). She was delightful the rest of the evening... and I was one happy mom. I know this probably means she'll either be awful tomorrow or something traumatic will happen tonight... like going into labor 8 weeks early without insurance, but as for now, I think I'll just continue to bask in my joy :)

Trip to Zion

I would have to agree with Roy that Idaho is, in fact, Zion. There are parts that are a little more "zioned" than others, with Rexburg topping the charts in my opinion (it does help that all my family lives there now). We were able to visit my parents new home up by the temple this past weekend and just hang out with everyone. The house was gorgeous (but I didn't expect anything less, as this is my mom's dream home) and the company was superb. We had a lot of fun going up to my grandpa's cabin in Island Park and trying to keep Hallie from destroying Tate. Our first stop was at Bear World, where we got to experience a grizzly bear charging our car :) We also got to pet the dear, hold the fluffy chickens, and Adam had the opportunity to abuse an arthritic pig (ok, this information was provided after the encounter). We then went to Island Park and floated down the freezing buffalo river (luckily the three of us were in a canoe), and then we just hung out at my parent's the rest of the weekend. Here are some photos of the events...

Doesn't get a whole lot better than all the sisters petting a goat.

The original Webb girls... I think we're a pretty cute bunch, despite my melon of a stomach.

Breakfast with Hallie and Tate... one of Hallie's better moments with her cousin.

The gorgeous Rexburg temple at sunset. The sunset was actually better a few minutes before this, but the temple wasn't lit, so you couldn't even see it in the pictures. This picture was taken right outside my parent's house. What a view!


We had a great time! It was nice to break up all the moving and just relax for a few days. We're back into the swing of things now... Adam's started class again and I'm doing the best I can to get us all moved in. I really don't believe pregnant women are made to pack and unpack though, I think I've had to bend over about 5,234 times. Oh well, just one more room, one more trip to the storage unit and some wall hangings left and we'll be all done, wohoo!
-Whit

In case you were wondering, here's a little bit of the Hog's Wart encounter (just finished Harry Potter 7 for the second time)... I wish I was a wizard, my patronus would be a spider monkey.
-Adam

P.S. Turn up your volume for the full effect =)

The Move

So the big move takes place tomorrow morning for me.... Wednesday morning (most likely) for Adam. We rented a U-Haul truck to move our stuff and Jessica's, and Adam gets to play truck driver for a day. I think he should buy some sweet trucker shades to really get into the role. Here's the picture of the MESS Adam gets to pack tomorrow while I drive up with Jessica and Hallie. This picture was taken as Adam was looking for an ipod so he could listen to some Harry Potter on the drive up. I thought it might be a lost cause after realizing half of our boxes were mis-labeled from our first move, but alas, we finally found one for him!

Playing Catch Up

So I realize I haven't posted in nearly a month... and it's not because our lives are so boring we have nothing to report, but that we have been so busy I haven't found time to report them. We start with Taylor's (Adam's brother) wedding. They were married in the Las Vegas temple and it was as lovely as ever. Taylor was quite the stud and Stasi looked gorgeous! The reception was a blast as Hallie danced the night away. We had a fabulous time.

Exhibit #2-- The end of my internship and classes! This was quite the stress reliever. I had been working all summer, trying to fill hours for my internship, but to no avail. Finally I asked Adam's cousin to come babysit for a week so that I could just work, even if it meant I had to just sit there, I was going to get my hours in! Fortunately, my supervisor finally stepped on her high horse and found things for me to do and I was able to finish. I was also working on my last 2 online classes and had to overnight my final to get it done in time. What a relief when it was all done though, whew!

Exhibit #3-- Cake decorating. I've had this sudden urge to create cakes after watching "Ace of Cakes" on the Food Network. I have read online, gone to the library, and have found other ways of teaching myself how to make these fabulous cakes without having to take an expensive class where only one night was focused on fondant. Here is what I made for my parent's 25th wedding anniversary...

Exhibit #4-- The Olympics... I have LOVED watching the Olympics ever since I was little. I'm definitely a bigger fan of the summer games than the winter games, and I even dreamed of being an Olympic swimmer when I was little. I would take my stop watch to the huge pool in our neighborhood and work on my breaststroke every day and compare my times... oh the dreams we have in our youth :) Needless to say, I have been staying up way too late every night for the past week, but loving every second of it. We are convinced that Hallie will be a swimmer or diver someday with as much as that girl loves to swim and jump into the water.

Exhibit #5-- Graduation. We hauled ourselves up to Provo on Thursday to go to my graduation ceremony. Elder Scott was the speaker and it was just wonderful. My parents and grandparents came down and we went to dinner afterwards. To my surprise, Adam, my parents and in-laws all went in together to buy me a new laptop. I love it! I really didn't think I needed a new laptop, but now that I have it, I'm wondering how I survived with my old 5 year old beast of machinery :) Thanks to everyone that came to support me! I love you all!

Exhibit #6-- Jessica's Wedding. Jessica and Brad were married on Saturday in St. George. It was fabulous! We got to stay at a hotel the night before and Hallie had a blast at the pool. Hallie's dress was sooooooo cute on her, and we even managed to keep it mostly clean even after she ate about 8 strawberries at the reception. This picture doesn't do justice of the event, but we're still waiting on better pictures.

Exhibit #7-- The move. We are now getting ready to move back to Provo, which will take place about mid-next week. I'm really not looking forward to all of the cleaning we will have to do, especially in my very pregnant condition. For the next year, we will be moving once every 4 months, which is really not very favorable, but we gotta figure out where we want to end up after all this school business is over!

That about sums up our lives this past month. We're excited to be back in Provo for the fall semester. Adam is really looking forward to starting school again (weirdo) and I'm looking forward to not starting school again (at least one of us is normal). We're both excited to go to the football games and just enjoy our last year as college students as much as possible!

Choosing a Name

So I definitely wear the pants when it comes to choosing our kids' names. Adam doesn't really take much initiative though, he'll just let me come up with a list of names I like and approve or disapprove my picks. The top candidate thus far is Ashton, although we're still open to options. If anyone has any suggestions, shoot them our way!

Nice times, growing bellies, and happy holidays

So quite a bit has happened in the past few weeks. Adam and I are insanely busy with work, school, Hallie, and being pregnant. I feel like I barely have time to breathe, but luckily the responsibility of being a parent has allowed me to have some fun times swimming and being with family, which offers relief. Lindsey and Tate came out for a week in June to enjoy some warm weather, and the kids had a blast...




























Kelsey came out the week after and saved my life when Adam had to be gone for a whole week. Unfortunately, we were poor picture takers when she was here, so we have no visual documentation of the event :( We had a lot of fun, though!

Our Father's Day and 4th were fabulous as well. I made my first semi-fondant cake for Adam for Father's Day and we saw lots of "boom booms" on the 4th. Hallie did great! She stayed up and played on the golf course during the evening and loved the fireworks show.

















































And finally, the biggest news of all. Hallie, my mother-in-law, and I got to take a nice LONG trip up to Utah this past Wednesday to see my OBGYN (all of the doctors refuse to see me here in Vegas, which is absolutely ridiculous... oh well). I got an ultrasound and what do you know...










we're having a boy! I have to admit, I'm really nervous about the whole prospect of having a boy. I'm afraid he'll turn out to be a bully with a bad attitude, in which case, I'll just throw him in his room with his scriptures and let him come out when it's time for his mission :) Despite my nervousness, I'm really excited. It will be fun to have a little guy around to add some variety to the mix!