hApPy BiRtHdaY EmiLY!!!!!

So I realized while searching for silly Emily pictures, I noticed I'm also inadvertently posting silly Kate pictures! (sorry, Kate!) 

I love Emily! I love her because she is creative, a great cook, an awesome mom, stylish, beautiful, funny, and makes everything more fun. Add a little Emily to the mix, and she always makes it better! 

Why do YOU love Emily????

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BROOKE! Brooke is AWESOME, fun, super funny, beautiful, and my favorite older sister! 

Whoo-oo! We're at DISNEYLAND!!

can you see the Biore strips?? Em, you are WAY toooo cool to be in on it....

Why do YOU love Brooke??

Alex in full football gear. Today he told me he wants to be a professional football or basketball player :) He starts T-ball soon, so I'm sure we can add pro baseball player to the list too.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love having girls who let me me doll them up - they loved having ribbon in their hair today!

Some funny Valentine's Day stuff:



 

Christmas at the Whittle's

It was nice to stay home for Christmas this year. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Thank you everyone for your kind gifts, everything was a hit this year. I don't take great Christmas morning pictures, I'm still getting the sleep out of my eyes :) I shouldn't complain though, they slept in til 6:45. It's been worse. A tradition from Troy's childhood is all the kids sleep in the same room Christmas Eve. So we did that, and I think they all like it even though some of them pretend not too.

 

Another attempt.....

 

 

Okay, I am going to blog again! I've been having technical difficulties with a broken computer, replaced finally, then a broken screen due to fighting children, zero computer while being repaired, after being 'repaired' for 6 weeks we were informed it wasn't worth it for them (fortunately the warranty covered the accident) to repair the screen so they replaced it, then my phone (where I take most of my pics these days) died and I finally got a new one right before Christmas, and now I am finally uploading them to the computer and onto the blog :) A few times I 'almost' blogged when I got some pictures uploaded from my camera and spent 1/2 hr putting a post together and somehow it didn't post and disappeared. Anyway, I'm here to try again. Here's just a few pictures from before Christmas. I'll do the holidays soon. I might have time this weekend as it's actually been snowing today and we may have a snow day tomorrow! Yippee!! (Before I was working a snow day did not mean excitement for me:)

Troy made breakfast for dinner tonight and they are having a picnic while they watch Transformers, so I figured it's quiet upstairs-and why not blog?!

 

Troy was excited when I got my picture taken for the staff wall at the high school. He and I are both on the far left. So weird to see it still!

 

              Troy got to go to a Monday Night football game with a buddy. He was really excited, although a little torn as to who to root for since both his favorite teams were playing.

Here's a lovely blurry picture of Audrey's winter concert. She did a good job! The 4th graders each get their own recorder and learned some really pretty songs. I decided a recorder only sounds nice when played as a group. Played around the house all by itself it's torturous. I felt bad when I realized everytime she played it she was told to stop or go in her room and shut the door. Yeah, we probably crushed her recorder dreams.

Not being home during the day has been a hard adjustment, and the house definently has suffered. I told Troy one Friday after work that he would be the best husband ever if he took all the kids somewhere for a few hours so I could be home to clean without anyone there to mess it up right after. He obliged and took them for a bite to eat and I can't remember where else he went, but they were gone for 4 hours, it was sooooo nice! His friend and his son came along too, so he had company.

Great Women Born in January!!!!

                                           Great Grandma's 90th Birthday Dinner at Olive Garden.
                                          Last Saturday we had a small Open House for her.
                                           She thought it was wonderful.  About 15 friends came.

                                                 Happy Birthday to Abigail today!!! She's 5

                                               I love this picture of Kate and her Kids!

                                               Lizzie LOVES cats!!  This is Grandma Gubler's