Me and my two cuties

I just realized I have very few (like, MAYBE 2) pictures of me with my kids. It's always me with one or the other or usually, just the kids. So after a few attempts, we got a good one.

The FANTASTIC news!

We got a JOB!!! Wahooooo! Adam was offered a job this last Monday at Swarts and Swarts in Las Vegas. We were so excited! The economy in Las Vegas is NOT good (it's really not good much of anywhere, is it though?) and we had been turned down by a few other places that Adam had extremely good connections to. I was a little nervous, to say the least. But now, we can breathe a sigh of relief and soon, we can move on to the fun stuff... house hunting!! The good part about a bad economy is that houses are dang cheap and the government will even pay you to buy a house, fantastic! Las Vegas boasts one of the cheapest places in the nation to buy a home right now... about the price of a VCR (see Cleveland video, below) :) I'm WAY excited to move into a house, where I can let my creativity EXPLODE!! In due time, at least. Anyway, just wanted to let ya'll know the good news and to buoy up your sagging economic spirits. Viva Las Vegas!

Silly Girl

So, today we were at the Seven Peaks getting our swim on, just enjoying our time. Our little Hallie was bouncing around the kiddie pool minding her own business, when out of the blue she came up and gave Whit a hug and a kiss. She hopped up and down and made her way over to me and gave me a little smooch and a hug as well. I asked her to give Ashton a hug and a kiss to, she took one look at his boogery little face and proceed to jump around the pool...that's our cute little Hallie-bean.

So, we kept playing for a while, when Hallie went back up to Whit and gave her another kiss. A few seconds later, she came back up to with to give her yet ANOTHER smooch, hah, Whit was excited with her mouth wide open as Hallie went in for the kill. Whit was about to pucker up, when instead a cute little kiss from her daughter, Hallie attacked spit a mouthful of water into Whitney's mouth! muwahahaha...the little schemester (she IS related to her Grandpa Morris after all) was successful in her plot to squirt her mama! What's better, and lest you think this was a mere coincidence (for surely such a cute little one could not be capable A few minutes later she tried to dupe her daddy with the same bag of tricks: first, with the cute little smoochie, and then, seconds later, with the feign-smooch-face-full-of-squirt maneuver.

And that's our cute, dainty little Hallie girl, who is still isn't heavy enough for gravity to push her down the water slides (haha, she has to scoot her way down). That's OK Hal, one of these days you'll be heavy enough to slide on down the slide without having to schooch down the entire way...unless you figure out how to trick gravity into pushing you down first. =]

-Daddio

New and Improved Cake Blog

So I've been reconstructing my cake blog to make it more instructional instead of just a place to put the pictures of my cakes once they're done. Let me know how you like it! If there are enough of you that want me to keep the blog this way, I'd be glad to keep it this way and let you know the how-to's of my adventures in cake decorating. However, if I don't hear from any of you, there's really not much point in me going to the extra work. Your comments are much appreciated!

whitneyscakes.blogspot.com

P.S. I still have have a couple more posts to put up and I need to update my side bars, but you'll still get the feel.

A Moment to Mourn

Firstly, let me take a minute to mourn the loss of the Cleveland Cavaliers....

I don't think Adam and I missed a single game that was on TV this year, we were die hard fans. Now, for all of you boo-hooing over how we just jumped on the bandwagon for LeBron, this is NOT true. I've loved the Cavs since I was 14 and my dad got me front row tickets to the game vs. the Wizards. They were 32-50 that year. MISERABLE. But I've always loved basketball, and I was living in Ohio, so I was a Cavs fan. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I had heard of this human phenom about 20 minutes down the road named LeBron James. There was word that his games were becoming so popular, they were going to move all the high school games to the local University stadium. When I was a junior, this LeBron fellow showed up at one of our own school basketball games (we didn't play St. V... which is what it was called by the locals... because it was a private school). And finally, my senior year (and LeBron's too), the whole city of Akron was abuzz over what team LeBron would play for in the NBA and how his mom took out a loan before they even had any money to buy him a yellow Hummer for his 18th birthday. If you lived in the Akron area, you felt like you knew him, even if you only may have seen him once with his 3 horsemen at the local Outback Steakhouse (more commonly known now as the 4 horsemen, LeBron included). I only married Adam because he promised to become a Cavs fan... ok, jj. But as soon as I introduced him to the wonderful world of the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was hooked. For the past 10 years, I have watched the Cavs go from nothing to amazing. Two years ago when they beat the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, I think I cried I was so happy. Last year when Boston BARELY beat the Cavs (7 game series), I cried because I was so sad. And this year, this year I wept. This was supposed to be THE YEAR. Cleveland was the team to beat. I guess Cleveland is cursed. If you watched my video on Cleveland... it is in fact true that their main export is crippling depression :) I will always be a Cavs fan in my heart. Even if LeBron decides to move on to another team, I will still love the Cleveland Cavaliers (I might cheer for LeBron's team occasionally too... hey, he's my home town hero!). So until October... I'll be waiting with a hopeful heart.

hahaha, SO TRUE

I found this on my friend Darbie's blog. I laughed and laughed until it hurt. I remember going up to Cleveland with friends in high school every so often and thinking... there is something seriously wrong with this place. Thanks, LeBron, for giving Cleveland something to live for.

A little Morris family update (enjoy):

In addition to my latest post...

I just realized that you can't see the links to the houses we're looking at!! So for the "dream home" and the "runner up" links, you'll have to enter a username and ID. If you want to look at the houses, type in Username: Anonymous1 and Password: Anonymous1. That should get you in to the houses. Let me know if it doesn't work!

Looking for a House

We've been looking around the Las Vegas Valley for a house to buy!!! It's very exciting, and very tiresome at the same time. I'm pretty picky, I have to admit. If I'm going to be staying in this place for the next 5-10 years and spending all sorts of money, I better like it! I really prefer hardwood flooring with as little carpet as possible (just the bedrooms, ideally). I don't want to have to worry as much about spills, cleanings, etc. and I just like the look. I HATE the style of Las Vegas homes, the majority of them all have a very southwestern facade. No thanks. In a perfect world, I would be moving to a community where homes looked like these.
We found a beautiful home in Sun City Anthem (go figure, it's one of the nicest areas in the whole valley, yet this house is listed at just $160,000). Then we looked to see how far of a commute it would be for Adam. Too far. I was disappointed, but there's only like 5 million homes for sale in Las Vegas, so I kept looking. Last night, Adam showed me a house I liked even better!! It really doesn't top this thing. Nearly 1700 square feet, hardwood floors, fun cabinets, beautiful appliances, I LOVE the island in the kitchen, it's my dream home (at least, from the few pictures I've seen), and best of all, it's listed at $119,900!!! Holy cow! That's so affordable it's ridiculous. Then I went to go see what area it was in (holding my breath that it wasn't in the NE area) and how far of a commute it would be for Adam. Turns out, it's just 20 minutes away from his work, which really isn't bad! However, it's in Lone Mountain, the very NW edge of the Valley... not ideal. I looked up the school ratings and they were fine, I talked to a realtor (who we're not working with, so no strings attached) and he said it's an area we would enjoy. I've looked through probably about 1,000 (no kidding) homes in our price range and haven't found anything quite as good (or as inexpensive). So what do we do?? It's kind of out there... though the land around it has been developed with retail and restaurants, but we're definitely nowhere close to any of the main attractions. Perhaps it's a good thing?? I don't really know that I want my kids being raised in the hussle and bussle of the busy city... but it might be nice to be a little more inland for eventual resale.
Any thoughts?

P.S. Another runner up (but a little further to work)

To Alec

P.S. If you want to see more pictures, clicky:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ajmorris13/HarryPotterCake

Happy Mother's Day and My Children's Amazing Abilities

First off, I want to say happy mother's day to all mothers out there!! You deserve a day to just enjoy yourself. Being a mom is DANG hard sometimes. I remember when Hallie was little and so fussy all of the time, I really thought I would have to be institutionalized. I've never been through something so hard as raising that child those first 6 months. Then came Ashton, he's so much better than Hallie was, but it's still 2 kids. In mother math, that's

2 kids ages 2 and under = HARD

Not only are they constantly demanding, they're even demanding when they're asleep because you spend all of that time cleaning up all the messes they made when they were awake. They spit up on everything, a neglected diaper will make itself known QUITE quickly, they find your bath salts and dump them all over the living room, and the list goes on. So here's to you, Mom, for putting up with all of it and remaining completely and totally so in love with your children you can hardly stand it.

That said... I was noticing this morning that many of my friend's/family's children have amazing capabilities. Our friends Jake and Kat's daughter isn't even 2 and is already potty trained. My sister's friend has a little boy Hallie's age that can recognize every letter in the alphabet. My sister's little boy has amazing aim and can shoot (with his all-powerful finger gun) anything moving with impecable precision. I was feeling a little distraught that perhaps I wasn't being proactive enough in my children's development, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how talented my children really are.

Hallie

1. Hallie has the ability to desroy all things in her path unlike any other child I have ever seen. She can open ANY type of makeup and apply it directly in every spot of the house that it should not be. She has mastered the chair and it's ability to help her get to things out of reach, and she is even willing to climb to get to her desired weapon of destruction.

2. She can count to ten. Not in order or with every numeral present, but she always arrives at ten eventually.

3. She can make out. This, albeit amazing, is a little concerning. Occasionally, Hallie will walk up to one of us, take our face in her hands, and kiss like she was never going to kiss again. Watch out, boys!

4. Hallie is a natural born fish. Last summer, she had no problems with jumping into the pool without supervision or floatation device. She is truly a woman without fear.

5. She still sucks on a binki! Amazing, I know. I'm pretty sure our friend Jake will have to work on her mouth someday.

Ashton

1. Ashton holds the fabulous talent of puking. He manages to spit up on everything within view at least 10 times a day. This not only makes for extra laundry but for a lovely stench that demands prompt attention.

2. He also has managed to become extremely fat. At 7 months, he weighs roughly 22 pounds, a weight Hallie managed at one year. He seems to be quite content with his size, however, as you'll see in #3.

3. Ashton is probably one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. He's got a smile for everyone in the world and has no problems with being held by anyone. He can bring a smile to anyone's face, no matter what kind of day they've had.

So even though Hallie isn't reading and Ashton isn't even sitting up yet, my children are still quite talented in their own way. Don't be jealous, but maybe someday you'll have kids as talented as ours.

P.S. Thanks, Adam, for making my Mother's Day so wonderful!

I love you!!!!!

The MOTHER of all posts

This post is going to be an eternity long, just to warn all those who prefer short snipits of information. This post will be more like a novel, so brace yourselves. To start, we moved... again. This time, we went from this...



To this... (or what felt like this)



I miss the family, but I DO NOT miss the weather. Provo is beautiful, I'll take it any day, even in the winter.

Not even 72 hours from when we moved into our new apartment were we on the road again. This time to sunny Las Vegas for job interviews and to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Adam interviewed/visited with 4 different firms and liked just about all of them.







(These were Adam's top picks, now we'll just play the waiting game!)

Hallie and Ashton had a lot of fun, too. The Morris' bought a new camera for their trip to Africa this summer, and it's AMAZING. Zach was running around taking pictures of Hallie and Ashton. Here's some of the goodness...

Pretty fun stuff. Last Thursday was my birthday. Adam took me to dinner at one of my most favorite restaurants!



After some delicious food, we went to a park and just enjoyed being together, alone (this is a RARE treat as we have kids and homework to tend to). Then we went back to the house for presents and cake. Julie got me some beautiful jewelry (which I've worn just about every day since) and my parents got me some adorable shoes, an awesome purse, a WAY cute watch and some fake potted calla lilies for my kitchen! Then came Adam's gift. I really had NO idea what he was getting me, so I was pretty dang excited when I opened up this...



What is it, you ask? This, my friends, is an airbrush for cake decorating!!!!! Ahh, I'm SOOOOO excited to use it!! I just ordered some special airbrush food colorings and I'm itching to give it a go. It also came with a humungously awesome air compressor, so I feel pretty cool.

We drove back home on Monday and we've just been trying to get situated ever since. Hallie is doing marvelously with her potty training (we had to postpone her training due to an accident on one of my mom's kitchen chairs) and she has officially moved on to a big girl bed. We figured since this apartment came with the beds, we might as well use them. Tonight is her first night in it, and she didn't even try to get out! However, it may take some time to get her from rolling all over the place...




Anyway, that's been our last month in a very compact nutshell. Until next time, Ciao!

The Refiner's Fire

I have a few things to post about (our trip to Vegas, my birthday, our move back to Provo, job interviewing, etc.) but I found out just yesterday that my little cousin has a tumor just below his brain. So instead of writing about me, I thought I would write something for him... and for another friend who just recently dealt with cancer. (I had some issues with the formatting of the first 2 stanzas, sorry about that!)

A new mother holds her son with eternal love in her eyes,

She holds him close, and while she pleads with the Lord, the mother cries.

What will the future hold for her babe, she can only wonder,

As she feels her perfect world has been completely torn asunder.


Four months before mother was to bring home her first child,

the doctor said there was cancer in her neck, not knowing whether it was fierce or mild.

The piercing words of chemo and radiation stung in her heart,

Feelings of fear , anger and despair began to start.

The mother prays fiercely that the cancer will somehow be lifted from her body,

As she feels that her baby is forced to grow in a body broken and shoddy.

Days after baby is born, the chemo treats mother so harsh,

But she knows it is the only way to give her body a new start.

The pain is unbearable, the fatigue never ends,

But daily she feels the love of her family and friends.

The mother, so faithful and true,

Asks how could this happen, what more can I go through?

The refiner's fire seems too hot to bear,

But deep down she knows that the Lord will sustain her in every moment of despair.

A boy, no more than eleven,

full of life and love for all, who knows his Father in Heaven,

Suddenly struck with nausea and headaches,

Is told he has a tumor by his brain, there is no mistake.

The family, so faithful and true,

Asks how could this happen, what more can we go through?

The Lord's ways are not always our own,

But we will one day look back to see how we've grown.

If we can hold on tight to the iron rod,

We will not be forsaken by our creator, our God.

When tragedy comes to your life, will you hold fast or waver?

Remember then, all things are possible through Christ, our Savior.

One PHAT dude...

Father Morris reporting in. Just wanted to give y'all an update. Tax season is over, I came out unscathed. However, there have been some strange side effects that have plagued my family. As some of you may know, our daughter Hallie was a dainty little string bean of a child. Last time we had her in, she was 93rd percentile for height and 30-something for weight.

Well, with Ashton, we've been witnessing something quite the opposite. Fairly quickly, Whitney and I knew that we had a little porker on our hands, but we had no idea he was such a tubby dude. I weighed him today and he's definitely 21+ lbs of sheer MANLINESS (yeah that's right, can you say 95th percentile? Not too shabby for a dude that's run of the mill for height. I've been looking into local chapters of martial arts, AKA Sumo...unfortunately, Rexburg is fresh out of Sumo dojos. Provo?

So for now, we'll keep feeding his face...hey, he's happy as a clam. He's getting little snapper teeth, 2 in front on the bottom and 2 more on the way (the meat-ripper teeth...I told you he was MANLY).

As for that, we're packing/cleaning again, 4th time in 12 months, yeah! Fortunately this time we're not packing a truck or a storage unit, just a couple cars...but then again, now that I think about it, we have to unpack a storage unit and consequently cars, and then unpack it into an apartment...

On another note, the week school starts we'll be heading to Las Vegas to see if I can find employment. We have DEFINITELY been blessed already in this department. With the Las Vegas economy in shambles, we were quite worried about finding a decent job. But with the help of both of my F(f)athers, we have a few excellent leads/opportunities that hopefully will turn out for the best.

Oh, on another note again, since I've been commuting to Idaho Falls from Rexburg every day, I've had quite a bit of road time. Well, I found this SWEET website called librivox.org (www.librivox.org). Essentially it consists of volunteers who take titles from the Gutenberg Project (royalty-free books/novels) and read them into FREE audiobooks. Some books have one reader, but most have multiple readers. I have LOVED listening books every day. The first book I listened to was The Count of Monte Cristo (thanks Jacob!)...what an AWESOME/FUN/AMAZING/etc story. Unabridged, to be sure. I loved it. I have also listened to Treasure Island (the reader for this one is AWESOME), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (depressingly "wretched"...if I can steal one of the most used words from that book), and currently about to finish the Three Musketeers (another AWESOME story!). Gotta love the classics, at least I do.

That's all for now. Ciao-time!

P.S. Lest you think I was lying about the progress of Ashton's growth, I have included the latest photo:

Hannah Montana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kelsey and I were WAY excited for the new Hannah Montana movie to come out this past weekend. We went to see it on Saturday night, squealed like little girls when it started, and squealed in our heads the rest of the movie. It was SO much fun!! I just love being able to let go of the side of me that has to be the practical, hard working (but loving, of course!) mom every once in a while and just feel like a carefree teenage girl again. For those who don't care much for the Hannah Montana show, don't bother seeing it... but for anyone that likes the show, it was FABULOUS. I'll be so sad if Miley doesn't do more shows on the Disney Channel, I'm hoping she'll still have some popularity over the next 2-3 years so that Hallie can start to like her... she does occasionally ask me if she can watch Hannah Montana already, and she's just 2!

Ok, maybe not...

So I took about a two day hiatus from cake making, but that doesn't mean I wasn't sketching and looking online for ideas. Then my mom tells me that I need to make a dessert for dinner on Easter Sunday with all my mom's kinfolk, so OF COURSE I had to make one! This was actually a pretty simple, straightforward cake. The flower took some doing, but it wasn't all that time consuming. Stay tuned for more pictures of the kids!

P.S. I know the ping-pong table wasn't exactly great staging for the cake, but until things take off, this is how I'm gonna have to roll.

P.P.S. We're moving back to Provo in less than two weeks for those who may be curious!

A break from cake

Here she is! The cake that caused me SO much grief. I had more problems when I delivered the cake, but you'll just have to ask for details if you want them :) I would have recommended larger tiers if i would have known how huge the floral arrangement on top was going to be, but I think she was still happy with the finished look. Even though I love every opportunity to make a new cake and learn new things, I'm glad I can take a break for a while. I need it, BADLY. Visit my cake blog for my other 2 recent cake developments!

P.S. Here's some Morris kid cuteness, just in case you're feeling a lack thereof.

Buttercream FIASCO

Ok, so I've been conversing with fellow cake decorators on forums and such, trying to find the perfect buttercream frosting for a wedding cake I'm doing this weekend. I was hesitant to tell the girl I would do a buttercream cake (since most of my experience is working with fondant), but I was up for the challenge. I started my experimenting by fixing a cake for Carla, who wanted a dummy cake to take to bridal shows and for display in her shop and whatnot. The first 2 batches would NOT smooth out at all. It was a kind of cool texture, but it wasn't what Madison (the girl I'm doing the wedding cake for) wanted, she wants SMOOTH... like silk... like fondant... except not fondant, ha. So then I just decided to cover the "trial" cake with fondant because I knew Carla was waiting for the cake. So I get it all done, lookin'good (after covering the top about 4 times)... I drive down to Rigby, open the back of the pilot, and what do you know... the top edge TORE from the bumpy ride. I wanted to cry. Because I was feeling rather emotional, I didn't even go into the store to tell Carla what had happened because I was afraid of bursting water works. So I went and bought a big ol' tub of Wilton buttercream. Not the tastiest, but no one was going to be eating it, so it was ok. After re-doing the cake about 3 times to get it just right, I was forced to settle for decent, not perfect. I went back down to Rigby, thinking the shop closed at 4... and then finding out it closed at 3:30. RAAAAAARRRR!!!! I was one maaaad mama. So with all this experience, I have asked, begged, pleaded with instructors on a really NICE, smooth buttercream. A dear lady from New Orleans showed me her blog and youtube video and I was so excited to try it out. I ordered her special flavoring and started mixing away. When I was done though, the stuff was soooooooooo grainy, it was like white sand. I figured my shortening was wrong, but I didn't have time to order the right stuff. So Adam went to a cake store in IF and asked the owner what I should do. She pointed me to a different type of shortening I could find in town, so I went to work again. Again, grainy. I'm pretty sure I was in tears at this point. Fortunately, my dear, sweet husband went to work trying to find a new recipe for me to use that didn't call for crazy baker's ingredients. We found one that looked decent, so I started following the recipe. AGAIN, it turned out WAY grainy. I was so mad, I just went to bed and figured I was cursed. The next day, I really watched her video online and followed it as EXACTLY as I possibly could. FINALLY, I got a decent frosting. I'm not saying it's perfect, hers turned out better than mine... I still have some air bubbles and slight graininess (if that's a word), but it still crusts (forms a crust and looses it's stickiness after a few minutes so you can smooth it out) and the slight graininess actually adds a bit of a shimmer to the frosting. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me that everything else goes smoothly this week. I'm definitely taking a break from buttercream after this!!

Cuteness

It's a little fuzzy, but don't they look so much alike??

Bracketology

It's that time of year again!!! Time to fill out your March Madness brackets! I've used CBSsports.com in the past, but this year I went for espn.com. Fill out your brackets, create a group with your families or friends, and let the madness begin!! I made a group with my family... winner gets to hang out with our adorable kids for 5 whole hours, free of charge :) Ok, we're not THAT mean. We're pretty excited for the games, we Webbs (including Adam) are basketball freaks of nature. Have fun!!

Potty Training

I decided on Monday to go out and make the ol' potty purchase. I wasn't really all that sure that Hallie was ready to be potty trained, but I thought it would be good to have around, just so she could start to understand that it was for her, whenever she was ready.
Hallie was so excited about her new potty once I put it together, she would just sit on it while she watched TV (fully clothed). I thought this was a good first step. Then today, I figured I would try letting her run around clothes-less and encourage her to use the potty when she needed to go. I was fully prepared for accidents and many failed attempts. I went about cleaning and later on asked Hallie if she needed to "go". I looked in her little potty and bless my soul, I never knew I could get so excited over urine. She had gone all by herself without any help, or any accidents!! She is now down for her nap (and I'm not expecting the impossible, I did put her in a diaper for her nap) and she's gone to the bathroom 3 times already, no accidents at all.
I know I'm extremely fortunate to have things go so easily, we'll just keep taking things one step at a time. Hopefully, she'll be completely trained before you know it!

P.S. I posted my latest cake for anyone interested.

A little this and that

So I've been running again, and I'm starting to get to the point where I like it. When I first start, I HATE IT, pretty much more than anything else. It's like a self-inflicted trial, and I try to avoid such things like the plague, so it's basically torturous those first few weeks. Then finally, after about a month of consistent running where I'm up to about 5-ish miles, I start to actually like it! This is where I am now... I have to admit, I'm pretty excited for about another month from now when I'll start getting my runner's high. A marathon is on my list of goals before I have another baby (which gives me A LOT of time, since I always tell Adam that I'm waiting until Hallie can babysit to have another one, ha).
Ashton and Hallie are doing quite well, I realize I haven't posted many pictures of Hallie lately, it seems as though Ashton's getting all the love, so I will try to do better about not picking favorites. Our camera has been sapping the life out of all of our batteries though, so pictures may have to wait.
Finally, Adam continues to enjoy his internship and hate the commute. We're (or maybe just I'm) getting a little nervous for our prospects for work after we graduate, as Vegas has seen a major hit in the downfall of the economy and it's getting really hard for recent college graduates to get jobs anywhere. I know that the Lord has helped us out so much in every trial we have faced together so far though, and I know that He will lead us to where we are supposed to go. What a blessing it is to have the gospel! I would be a nervous wreck without the anchor of the Savior in my life. I'm grateful to be able to feel of His love for me and my little family daily. I know He's watching out for us!

A little bit of Ashtonian

Well well well,

I've finally sat down to throw Ashton love on the blog. He's a pretty cute little dude, and I figured he needed a little representation on the Blogosphere.

So here we go:

First, little Ashton, watching some Bron Bron:



Here's a few videos of the little guy, he's starting to coo, and gurgle, and smile quite a bit. It's pretty fun/fascinating/amazing to watch as these little ones progress. Seeing a young child smile for the first few times is nothing short of priceless...and then when he/she starts to giggle AND laugh, well that's just a little bit of heaven.

Well, unfortunately, the uploading of videos is not going so successfully up here Iceberg, ID...must be the polar winds or something =]

Linkies:

Here is the little guy, just hanging out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xFMmLF9m4Z0GzpUjwLZzvg?feat=directlink

Haha, so we got Hallie this little toy stroller...this is almost priceless, enjoy:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/roMwDj84IWFCy7XfwazG-Q?feat=directlink

And last but not least, a little bit more of the wiggly little dude:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/uoKydOdEJ1DoY3jjSm6a7g?feat=directlink




If this doesn't make you smile, you have little life left in you!



As for me, just doing taxes and listening to the Count of Monte Cristo during my commute (I'm enjoying the tax season thusfar and LOVING Monte Cristo...you can get audiobooks for free at librivox.org). Better yet, I get to spend the majority of my free time with my family, instead of with my books...so even though my time is pretty well used up, it still feels like a vacation.

Quick Update

I've been a little slow on posting lately... life just seems to get crazier all of the time! We still love living here in Rexburg. The winter has been pretty nice to us and it's wonderful to be with family for a little while. Ashton and Hallie are doing awesome. Hallie asks to play with cousin Tate every day and Ashton is happy as long as he is well fed and rested. Adam's only complaint is the 35 minute commute to work every day, but otherwise, he's loving the experience. We just found out that Adam gets to graduate in June instead of August, which we're really grateful for (hopefully he can get the studying he needs to do for his CPA test done sooner)! We also got to make a trip down to Utah to see the Cavs annihilate (or win by 5) the Jazz and get really frustrated with our car inspection... which we will NEVER do at Jiffy Lube EVER again. Finally, I made a baseball field cake for Nathan for his 10th birthday. You can look at those pictures on my cake blog.


Almost 4 months old! And definitely the cutest boy I'VE ever seen :)

Somehow Ashton ended up in Hallie's doll stroller...

Adam and I at the Cavs game.

Ashton snoozin' while I'm getting ready for the day... I used to do this with Hallie, but she NEVER fell asleep. What a good guy.

Hangin' out with Kels, Nate and Tate and Blast-Off in Idaho Falls.

And we're back!

It's been quite some time since I last posted. We moved up to Rexburg at the beginning of the month only to find that we were internet-less. I really thought Adam might die. There was no way that he could fix it either, since was a problem with the company. Three weeks later, we finally have the internet back and Adam is regaining his sanity (fortunately he did have the internet at work, so he didn't completely lose his mind). We love it here so far. My parent's basement has proven to be quite comfortable living quarters and Hallie loves having 10 times the amount of toys she's used to. She also LOVES playing with her cousin, Tate. They have become good little buddies despite their occasional knock-out sessions. Adam is really enjoying his internship and is getting some great experience. Ashton is just content with life, no matter where he is (what a champ). And finally, I am really enjoying being close to family and I even got to make my first wedding cake a couple of weeks ago (and I actually felt like it was a success)! I am hoping for some more business and remain a very busy mother! Here's some recent pictures of our happenings...

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?