Milestones

Claire tried rice cereal for the first time today. I have totally forgotten how LONG it takes to feed a baby rice cereal! What a mess too! She did love it though and ate almost the whole bowl full. She is almost 6 months old. Where has the time gone?
Carter lost his first tooth at my mom's house after trick or treating on the 30th. It had been really loose for about a week and I could not get it out! James is a wuss and can't stand to see loose teeth, so my brother Kevin finished the job. Carter was really brave and let him try to get it out like 5 times! The one next to it is very loose now so he has the billy bob hillybilly look on his bottom teeth. He can't wait for it to come out so he can get another quarter from the tooth fairy. Isn't the tooth fairy generous to give him a whole quarter? He doesn't understand the concept of how much things are worth, so he was so excited about it. I hope he doesn't compare notes with the other kids in the neighborhood. haha I have a kid losing teeth, how did the time fly by so fast?

Snow and Halloween

I knew there was a reason we should take down the trampoline! Look at all this snow we got! The boys were soo excited to get out and play in it. I was surprised how long they stayed out there.
Carter loves throwing snowballs in Preston's face. After awhile Preston finally gets one or two back at Carter. The woes of being the younger sibling...I feel Preston's pain.
In true Utah fashion, the snow melted by the next day, and it was time for Preston's preschool Halloween party. He was so excited to dress up as Black Iron Man. Here he is with his "girlfriend" Saige. She was disappointed that he wasn't a prince since she was dressing up as a princess. She even taught him how to kiss a princess on the hand. These two are hilarious together.
Now for the REAL trick or treating with James. Of course it was raining but they went out when the clouds lifted for a while and luckily stayed dry. Carter was bumblebee the transformer, James as a gangsta, and Preston as Black Iron Man.
Notice the amazing barbed wire tattoo I drew freehand on James' arm. That along with the money necklace and under armour hat...priceless.

Isn't she the cutest little pink kitty cat you have ever seen?

I think the tail is the best part!

After trick or treating, we went over to my mom's house for her yummy chicken soup and time to show the cousins our costumes. I can't believe we are in November already! Bring on the Christmas music!

Winter is right around the corner,,,

It is getting cold outside. I woke up to snow outside this morning! Halloween is coming in a few days, so I knew I needed to go and get some pumpkins to carve for family night. These are a few pics I took a few days ago just randomly. Preston is in LOVE with his skeleton jammies. They glow in the dark too, pretty cool.

Claire loves to be in her bumbo when I am making dinner or doing dishes.

We had so much fun carving pumpkins. The boys got a little more picky this year with their requests, so James had to get on the computer to get some templates to carve from. This picture makes me laugh because Carter is holding Claire's face so she will look at the camera. My older sister Melanie would do the same thing to me, except I was about 6 or 7.
Cutest picture ever!!

I had to get a picture of her adorable little socks/ballet slippers. Girly accessories are the best!

Remember this face Claire is making...

Hard at work

After the pumpkins were carved, we decided we needed to get the trampoline down. We had 60 mph winds last night that made part of it come unhinged and I figured that was our tip to get it down before more snow and weather ruin it.

These were used as walking sticks, guns, and almost hit Preston in the head a few times.

With the tramp down, it was dark enough to light up the pumpkins. Carter is sitting next to his bat pumpkin, Preston is by his skull pumpkin, and remember the face that Claire was making?

We decided to recreate it in pumpkin form! :) Happy Halloween! Next post will be our fun costumes!

Feeling Domestic

This is just a small sample of all the jars I have canned these past few weeks. First I did some salsa with my sisters. This was a first for me, but was pretty easy and the salsa is delicious!! I shared it at bunco night with my girlfriends and they all loved it too, so we planned a night for me to teach them how to make it. It was so much fun canning with friends, and we got 82 pint jars canned in one night! Pretty awesome. I haven't canned peaches in about 5 years and was missing them as my topper for pancakes and waffles, so my mom and I decided to can some together. She also had a neighbor give her a recipe for apple pie filling which we had both received as a Christmas gift before and loved. We canned ALL DAY (about 9 hours) and got so much done. It was so fun to spend some alone time with my mom just talking about life and laughing. We also turned on the Beatles and danced and sang around the kitchen. I loved it! All in all I now have 34 pint jars of salsa, 19 quarts of peaches, and 16 quarts of apple pie filling. I feel so accomplished and loved lining the jars on my food storage shelf. I go down and stare at them sometimes! ha ha
A post wouldn't be complete without a few cute pictures of my kids! Claire loves her daddy so much. It melts my heart.
Carter loves to play with his little sister. He still loves to kiss her all the time and talk in a baby voice to her. It is hilarious to hear him talk just like I do to her. You don't think they pay attention to you, until they copy word for word everything you say! Yikes!

The blue eyes are here to stay folks. I love them!

4 months

Claire is getting so big! She has started to get such a fun, sweet little personality. She just had her 4 month checkup on Friday so I figured it was time to post some pics and her stats.

She weighs 12 lbs 8 oz-10th percentile...our tiny girl.

She is 24 inches long-25th percentile

43.5 for head circumference-95th percentile...she is definitely an English! haha

She has her hand in her mouth almost always and is a Mommy's girl big time. She can't roll over yet, but seems to somehow scoot herself around in a circle to get whatever she is reaching for on her little play mat.

She has started laughing too, which is fun. I try to tickle her and she laughs in this low man voice like she doesn't want to laugh, but can't help it.

Her hair is about 5 different colors and is starting to fall out on the sides. I hate baby hair. It is so wispy and long in weird places. She still has quite a bit on the top that I can pull into a clip or ponytail, which always makes her look so old! I can't believe 4 months have already gone by. I don't want her to get any bigger!!

In other news...these 2 are really enjoying school. Carter is doing so good in kindergarten. He will only tell me things about school when he feels like it, which is never right after school. I have learned to not even ask him about school when he gets home. It tires him out! Usually at dinnertime he will tell me about his day and how he didn't get any "strikes" or what letter they learned about. It is so weird that he has this whole other world at school that I am not apart of. He is also learning to read, doing homework, learning to write in lowercase letters, and is doing so well. He loves learning and being challenged.
Preston also loves preschool and has made several friends that he comes home and tells me about. His favorite part of the day is his teacher reading stories to them. Carter has to read for 20 minutes each day for his homework, so Preston loves to come in and read books with us.
I am starting a whole new phase of life with this school thing, it is fun!

Baby Chase

Baby Chase is Melanie's 5th and final baby. It was a long time coming with her youngest being
4 1/2. She just didn't feel complete, and it took awhile to convince her husband to get on board! We are so happy Chase is part of our family. He was scheduled to be induced on Sept. 9th. Mel got all hooked up, got her epidural, and I came after she was comfortable at about noon. It was so fun to spend so much time with my mom and sisters and Carl's mom Cathy. We laughed and laughed. My mom got a new ringtone on her phone and would get up and dance to it every time she heard it. We ended up just calling her for fun to see the dance again. She also kept saying, "when she goes, she's gonna go fast!" Yeah, that didn't happen. He decided to take his time and not come until 10 :30 pm!

Chase Wesley Whiting 6 lbs 15 oz 18 inches long
Dad Carl holding him for the first time

Grandma Cathy so thrilled to have another grandchild-I love this picture

Isn't he a cutie? Grammy and Chase

Grandad Tenney

Aunt Shauna

Chase with his favorite aunt

Welcome to the world baby boy! We love you!

Preston goes to preschool

Look at my BIG BOY! He is so excited to start preschool! I am sitting here with Claire and we are all alone in the house. It's a little weird...but a good weird. Preston is at Mrs. Marie's preschool (Beelieve in Learning) that Carter went to last year.

His friend Saige from church will also be in his preschool class and carpools with us. They were cracking me up with the conversations on the ride to school. Kids this age are so hilarious.

Mrs. Marie and Presto

He gave me a kiss and was on his way. I know that he is going to love it and have so much fun. Here's to two hours of quiet, three times a week!

1st day of school

Carter started kindergarten today! We have both been looking forward to this for a long time! Since the bus stop is right in front of my house, since Carter was about 2 he would wave to the bus every day and want to ride it with the other kids. Today was finally the day! Doesn't he look so old? He was dressed and ready by about 9 o' clock and he doesn't go until 12:30. He was so excited.

Preston missed his big brother while he was gone.

Funny faces

Lining up waiting for the bus

Here comes the Shrek bus!

Look at his little worried face. He told me when he got home he was nervous when he was getting on the bus but as soon as he sat down he was fine. So brave. I did have a moment of emotion when he got all dressed and ready. He looked so big and I can't believe my little boy is going to school. It only lasted a minute and then I was just excited for him and all of his new adventures. He loved his first day and has already made some new friends, hopefully it continues.

Last but not least, I saw this BYU snuggie in Walmart and had to get it for James. I have a pink one and he wore it sometimes and it would make me laugh. I decided it was time that he got his own. It is in celebration of BYU going independant. Go cougars!