Happy Birthday Kate!!

Happy Birthday Kate
we love you!!

We love you Kate. And we are so glad you are part of this family!!
Here are some fun pictures with our fun Kate!!

our cute little cottage...

Kate always has the 'hippest' dance moves...

There are many great qualities about Kate that we love. She is very patient, and kind. And she is very funny, and always wants to have a good time. We love you Kate
Happy Happy Birthday!!

Why do YOU love Kate?!

Christmas and other winter pictures

Here are some pictures from Christmas and some other recent happenings...sorry, they're in reverse order.

Night skiing/boarding at Brighton...used my new gloves!



Clark's Christmas present. We went to the Jazz vs. Caveliers game. Jazz won at the buzzer with a 3 pointer!


Ashley! The Thomas clan was down in Orem, so I got to see Ashley and meet her baby Olivia!


sledding with Clark and his fam...this is his nephew Liam. Used my new gloves!


My new gloves! Thanks Dad! Clark and I went snowshoeing to Donut Falls after Christmas.


Cute Alex!


Brooke in her happy place


At the temple




Trav smiling!!!


Grammy showing Em and Brett her Christmas Decorations.

projects & harvests

I painted this! I saw some wall decals I really liked, but thought they were expensive, so I tried my hand at painting one. I like it! I freehanded the tree and all the leaves, and printed off the birds off the internet, then traced them and cut them to make stencils. My stenciling wasn't exactly flawless, though, and I had to go over them with my paintbrush to smooth out the edges. Abby likes looking at it, too!

I did the trunk the whole way down, with the idea that when there's not a crib there, it will still look good behind a toddler bed or regular sized bed.

Winter harvest time! This entire salad- lettuce, peas, and carrots- is from my garden!


These carrots aren't attached, but they were twisted around each other when I pulled them up. We called them "sister carrots". (See that plate of carrots? All from my garden!)

a birthday & a lost tooth

I have come to grips with the fact that I am just not a cake decorator. This may be the ugliest birthday cake of all time. If not, it's got to be in the top three. "Unappetizing" would definately be a euphensim here. But Lizzie and all her friends loved it!

Caitlin was happy to help Lizzie in any way possible! Lizzie was very nice and let Caitlin take the ribbon off her presents. She loved opening her presents!

She also loves her tea set from Grandma!

Rod took Lizzie to the store and bought her flowers when he came home from work tonight. She wore her pink boots in honor of the event!

She had two parties- her many friends came over yesterday and we did the "friend" party then. Today, being her real birthday, we had our family party. We celebrated with homemade mac-n-cheese, peas, honeydew, and hot dogs! A true 4-year-old feast! Then we go around the table and say what we love about Lizzie. Then we watch the "Lizzie show"- a slideshow I made for each girl after they turned 1 of their first year of life. Then presents, then cake! But having two parties- it's more like cake remnant. Lizzie didn't seem to mind.

It was a little tough for Caitlin watching Lizzie get all the attention over the past two days. But losing (and swallowing!) her tooth was very exciting for her! She loved waking up to find 3 quarters and some fairy dust where her note "Dear tooth fairy, I swallowed my tooth. Love, Caitlin" had been!

Whittle Holidays

We had a fun December, with Christmas at home, then heading to mom and dads for a week. I think I've survived 're-entry' and we're back into our little routine! Here's some pics from last month:

Since Troy is the ward mission leader, the missionaries often come over. Last week they reverted to little boyswhen the whole family engaged in warfare- Missionaries vs. The Whittles. The boys accumulated many weapons this Christmas, so there was plenty to go around. I'm still finding the darts in very strange places.

Dad made some targets for the boys to use the wrist-rocket and the slingshot Cam got.

Christmas Eve hot chocolate and Mr. Kruegers Christmas. Homemade hot chocolate is awesome by the way!

All the snow has melted, we've had a very mild January so far. The kids have only had a couple of days to play in the snow. I'm okay with that, I HATE dealing with boots, missing gloves, 'where's my coat?' Aaaarrrgggggg.

This is Audrey's Princess Palace. It was so easy and fun to make! She loves spending time in there (mission accomplished) and likes to dance and sing like Hannah Montana. It's fun to spy on her.

Ready for battle

Mom looking at their Disneyland album. It was a hit!

Audrey is pleased! She loves the dress mom made (actually converted Em's flowegirl dress from my wedding) and wears it all the time.

Zoogie is so tolerant

The gingerbread from a kit mom, Alex and Audrey put together. We took it home with us, I tried to 'forget' about bringing it, but right before we were leaving I heard, "Don't forget the gingerbread house!" Darn. They wanted to eat it on the way home. I told them it probably wouldn't taste very good. After about 2 miles into the trip I turned around in the van and saw in upside down on the van of the floor. My greatest fear was realized. Hope everyone had a happy new year, we missed your family Carrie!

a few more of the beach...