Michael Whiting Family

Fun in August

2010-08-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

Got up pretty early this morning (4:00) and couldn't go back to sleep. I guess napping most of Sunday afternoon & then going to bed early make for a rested body. Just wanted to give you a short update on our family. We haven't been keeping very good track, I'm afraid, but I'll update you on what I can remember. The kids had swimming lessons this month, and both did very well. They seem to be liking the water a lot more than they used to. They learned to float on their backs and open their eyes under the water. Each day when I'd come home, they had all sorts of stories to tell me about what they learned that day. Angela and I both think that knowing how to swim is one of those life lessons that our kids need to know.

We attended Todd's wedding and enjoyed seeing some of our relatives that we don't see quite as often. Uncle Ralph & Aunt Jeanie were kind enough to give us a tour of their house where the wedding was held. It's a very nice house. That day was a pretty warm day, and I think most of us got sunburned.

The following Sunday, we headed up to Uncle Marks house for a cousins barbecue. It was fun to see most of the cousins, aunts, & uncles again. The highlight for the kids was riding Uncle Marks horses. They wanted to get on them again and again. I was expressing my regrets to Angela on the way up to the party that our kids won't grow up around some of the animals that we did while playing at Grandpa's house. We just wanted to give a big THANK YOU! to Uncle Mark & Aunt Cheryl for letting our kids ride their horses. It was the highlight of their week.

Grandma & Grandpa Preece were visiting from California a week ago, and Mom & Dad had a barbecue last Saturday (a week from this previous Saturday) so that we could all get together & visit. It was fun seeing them and catching up a little. The kids especially had fun wearing them out.

Leland keeps getting bigger and bigger. A while ago he and Ammon were running around the back yard and ran into each other head first. LEW got a pretty good bump on his forehead, so we gave him a bag of frozen peas to hold against his head. It was pretty cute. He's really started talking, and even I can understand most of what he says now. He's just enjoying being a little boy.

Manessa is also growing up. For those who may not know, she's been doing some modeling and acting. She even has an agent. She has a paying photoshoot today at Thanksgiving Point and every Saturday morning, Angela takes her to an acting class. They both seem to be enjoying themselves. We're going to open a savings account for her earnings until we figure out how we're going to invest it for her. We hope that it'll help pay for her college or something like that.

Ammon started first grade this past Wednesday. Tuesday evening we went shopping for school lunch food. Sometimes I think we spoil our kids a little because I don't remember getting the kind of lunch he's getting - ham sandwich, doritoes, capri sun, and treat (pudding cup, ding dongs, etc...). I sure hope that he appreciates it. We had back to school night on Thursday and our family went to meet his teacher and get an idea of what was expected. I've watched Ammon go back to school as well as a couple of the people that I work with, and am very glad I'm done. I've still be struggling to catch up on some of the projects I put off while I was going - broken door knobs, lawn & yard, dishes, laundry, fixing little things around the house, and the list goes on.

Angela has been doing fairly well. She pretty tired and in pain most of the time, but seems to handle it ok. She continues to love doing beads and has been helping a neighbor with a dress of some sort. She's been doing Zumba every night except for Wednesday, Friday, and the weekends, but starts Wednesdays and Fridays this week. I usually get home and then and hour or so later she heads off to teach Zumba. She seems to like it.

I've just been working and working on my side software project that I'm hoping to start marketing next year. I've started working on the mobile portion of the application (iphone & ipad) and it's been pretty educational. It's hard working with a tiny screen like the iphone, there isn't a lot of real estate. One thing that I was pretty excited about this weekend was work just gave me a brand new macbook pro, not even opened yet. I spent a large portion of my Friday night & Saturday morning swapping all of my stuff from my old laptop to the new one. I'm pretty excited.

Anyway, that's a short update.

Hope this finds everyone well!

Update

2010-05-13T20:59:00.001-07:00

I know we haven't posted in a while. Just wanted to assure you all we are not dead, just lazy. I did just update my Jewelry blog so you can look at that if you want to see what I have been up to...http://justasnicejewelry.blogspot.com/

Boutique in Draper

2009-12-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

Finish your Christmas shopping.

Tomorrow!

December 5, 2009

2-7 pm

11503 South 700 East Draper

Over 35 Vendors!

Or you can always just call me and place your custom order for

Just as Nice Jewelery!

Ask about my friends and family discounts!

My selection has never been bigger!

HALLOWEEN!

2009-11-01T07:06:00.001-08:00

Hey All, Hope you all had a happy halloween!

Ammon & LEW both dressed up as LINK from the nintendo game Zelda.

Mommy & Manessa dressed up as witches!

Manessa was really excited about coloring her hair pink

Ammon and LEW at my office, we had an office trick or treat party where everyone brought their kids and went trick or treating from desk to desk.

Mommy & Manessa sitting on part of my desk together.

I dressed up as a biker for the ward party

A few pictures from grandma & grandpa whiting’s house before we went trick or treating.

Pumpkin Carving 2009

2009-11-01T06:55:00.001-08:00

Here are a few pictures of the kids carving pumpkins (click on them to get a bigger view):

Manessa with her pumpkin, she kept pushing the seeds & stuff out of the pumpkins mouth, making it “barf”

Ammon with his pumpkin

Angela said that she was trying to look like the pumpkin

A few shots of Manessa making her pumpkin “barf”

Hunting Season 2009

2009-11-01T06:38:00.001-08:00

Although I don’t hunt (I start crying whenever I shoot something) I decided to take the kids camping with all of my uncles, cousins, dad, brothers the night before the hunt. Here are a few pictures of family & the beautiful mountains. I’ve also decided that I may need to buy an old truck next year, the mini van had a hard time making it up the mountain.

Angela's Hobby

2009-10-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that I LOVE crafty things. Well I have started to try and support my habit. I have done a few boutiques and the turnout has not been enough to justify the registration fees so I am going all online. I have a blog that I have started to post some pictures on. Please look and see if you are interested. I am still trying to get things organized and I do give friends and family much lower prices then Joe Public. Please check me out, and if you like what you see tell your friends!

http://justasnicejewelry.blogspot.com/

2009-08-20T09:11:00.001-07:00

Manessa pulling a funny face

This was after a long day at swimming lessons. LEW was ready to go home!

LEW is learning the basics.

LEW and I were just messing around. Thought it might be fun to get a picture of him in a full nelson.

Angela took the kids to an expo of some sort where there were a lot of fun things for kids to do. Her and 'Nessa decided to ride this plastic horse.

We went to the apple store at the gateway mall to get a peek at my possible graduation present. They had this open area with jets of water that sprayed out and there were a lot of kids playing. Luckily, our kids had their swimming suits on (it seems like Manessa's never comes off) and we decided to let them play. We didn't get a picture, but Ammon was staring into one of the jets and got a mouthful that he wasn't expecting. We laughed pretty hard, but had to console him. He was upset.

Here I am playing with LEW in the water.

Ammon just playing it cool.

LEW loves corn on the cob. We don't even cut it off for him anymore, he just goes at it.

mmon and Manessa helping wash the bike before our cousins ride. LEW was on the grass playing with the hose, he got pretty wet.

We had a ward campout last week. The kids had just gotten some "play" sleeping bags that they were excited to try out. We've made sure that each of us has a good warm bag, but they wanted to use their new ones. Here are Angela, Ammon, & Manessa in the tent as we get ready for bed.

We bundled LEW up really well and put him in the porta-crib with some blankets. He ended up getting cold anyway & sharing Angela's Mammoth bag. (That's what you get when you have the biggest bag :) ).

Here I am almost out. Camping is tiring!

Ammon and Manessa enjoying the ride home from camping. A DVD player in the car is the best thing ever on long trips!

HA! didn't think that we had a campsite named after us, did ya! Only in mapleton canyon.

As we were unpacking, LEW was getting the hang of this driving thing.

Since we had all of our camping gear off the top of the water barrels, I decided that we should probably do our yearly rotation. Ammon and Manessa were more than happy to climb on them while the water was chugging out.

Richard & Becky Ruff Visit!

2009-06-15T20:09:00.001-07:00

Although I know a lot of people that look at this blog are family and probably don’t know Richard & Becky Ruff, Richard has been my best friend since 3rd grade. We really enjoyed seeing them and hope they got home OK. I thought I’d post a couple of pictures from the get-together.

A Day At The Pool

2009-06-07T15:39:00.001-07:00

Hey All,

We thought you might like to see a couple of pictures of our family at the pool. After spending a long day with mommy and daddy looking at power tools, plants, and sheds, we decided to give the kids a break and take them to the pool.

View Full Album

2009-06-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

And a couple more!

2009-06-02T05:12:00.000-07:00

Some more photos

2009-06-02T05:11:00.000-07:00

I was sorting through all of our pictures, trying to get rid of duplicates, etc... and I realized we've got some pretty cute kids. So, I thought I'd post a few cute photos. I can only upload 4 at a time, so I'm going to make a couple of posts.

We are not dead.

2009-05-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

I know some of you may be wondering if we are dead. (That is if you even noticed we have been MIA in the blogging world.) We are alive and at times well. Just haven't been up to updating things. A lot of exciting things have happened the last month or so. I went to Wicked with my mom, niece, and two sisters. It was AWESOME! Mike took the kids on 2 fathers and sons camp outs, and Mike and I both had birthdays. I know those are all awesome things and each one should have had its own blog entry. Well sorry, but I guess I will just have to take partial credit for mentioning it now. Hopefully one of these days we will be back to full scale blogging with pictures and all, but for now take what you can get. ;o)

LEW Loves Lemon Meringue

2009-03-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

We just finished eating dinner and were enjoying some lemon meringue pie that Angela made and she asked me to feed the rest of hers to LEW. I decided to have a little fun & just put the plate in front of him. Here are a couple of the shots we took. It's kind of hard to see the pie, but it's everywhere!

Grandma's 89th Birthday Party

2009-03-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of the pictures from Grandma DeLange's 89th Birthday Party. The kids and I went down on March 28th (her birthday that happened to be a Saturday.) She was very tired and kept falling asleep on us. But she looked GREAT. (Very skinny, but fairly coherent.) I haven't let my kids see her too much lately because there have been times when she is just not herself and I don't want them to remember her in a bad way. I love my grandma so much! I was so blessed to be able to grow up right down the street from her. More then half of my childhood memories are of her or her house. It makes me so sad to see her so frail. One day she will get to go Home to Grandpa. I love you Grandma!

All about LEW

2009-03-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

I didn't manage to post on Leland's birthday...(I guess that shows what kind of mom I am.) But here are a few of the fun little things he has been getting into lately. He likes to dress himself and he found a bra laying around and decided to give it a try. He did bet both straps over shoulders. I was rather surprised to come around the counter from making dinner to find that. Then another day I had been telling a friend goodby and sending her away with her kids. When She left I though...where is LEW? So I figured I would go see if he was upstairs playing in one of the bedrooms. Well I start up the stairs to find this....

He was about four steps from the top and I guess he decided that he had just had enough. Another time I hadn't heard from him in a while I went upstairs to find this...
He was stuck in our bottom drawer just playing. Then he dropped his bottle and couldn't reach it and couldn't figure out how to get out. Then he got a little frustrated, but he was having a ball until he realized he was stuck. We couldn't find our camera on his birthday, but I do have a bunch of pictures that we got from Scott and Cindy's camera, I just couldn't get mike to transfer them to this computer for me. So I guess if you want to see those you will have to wait a year or so and then come and see them in the scrap book.

Getting Into Things!

2009-02-03T14:56:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know I work from home making phone calls. This makes it so I am able to be at home with my children. It also, however, makes it so they spend some time in the day unsupervised. Here are a few of the things I have come to see over the last week or so....
This may look like just a pretty dress to some of you. Well you would be only partly right. This is Manessa's hand made blessing dress. My mom makes them for the grand-babies. They are made to be long and flowing, and I have joked that she is tiny enough that it would probably still fit her. Well now I know that it does! IT is still a little long in fact. Luckily it wasn't harmed at all, and she was quite upset when I made her take it off.
Next we have Leland, (or LEW as we call him around here) enjoying some Doritos. He can now reach things at the end of the table and pull them down. Ammon and Manessa just couldn't pass up such a golden oppertunity. He can't stand on his own, but lucky for him there is always a chair near the table. He has also pulled down full bowls of milk and cereal, (but I wasn't in much of a mood to get a picture of that one).
How can you resist that face!?!? I just can't tell you how many times a day I think of how grateful I am that he is such a good happy baby. The next three are not so much things that they did while unsupervised, but they are pretty cute none the less.
I was making dinner and looked up to see this one. Manessa poored her fruit and yogurt out of it's cup into one of his bowls and proceded to feed him the whole thing. It was pretty cute. She actually managed to feed him the whole thing without making any more of a mess then I would have. (He isn't one to let good food go to waste.)
This is the old case of a computer that Mike finnished pulling the spare parts out of. Leland thinks that it is the best place ever to hang out. It has been there for a few days and I find him on it all of the time. As soon as I took the picture though, Manessa decided that she had better try and be cute to so that I would take a picture of her as well. She sure loves her brother, and attention!

Sick is Sucky!

2009-01-19T15:26:00.001-08:00

Ok, this is going to be just a bunch of whining and complaining, so if you aren't up for that just stop reading now. We have been sick at out house for the past few days and I am about to the breaking point. Leland has had a runny nose for a long time, but over the past few days has gotten a fever and just started acting like he feels crappy. Saturday afternoon Manessa got a fever and became miserable and I got sick to my stomach and now have a fever and head cold. Ammon has been fine so far and Daddy (Mike has been okay, just a few tummy troubles.) My problem is this. I feel bad for my poor little babies and how miserable they are, but at the same time I feel like crap and so my patience is not very high. Manessa and Leland are both wanting to be held all of the time, but they don't want the other one touching them. So here I am covered in boogers, my house is thrashed, and everyone just keeps crying and complaining. I know that this is just part of the whole Motherhood Package, but I just needed to vent here a little. Maybe get a few moments of pitty. Ammon took this picture of me on the couch the other night when both of the little ones fell asleep on top of me.

New and Improved LEW Skywalker

2009-01-09T14:33:00.001-08:00

Presenting the New and Improved LEW Skywalker. Mike is pretty clever.

New Phone Number

2009-01-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

I know Mike I am not dumb enough to publish it on here. But if any of you people didn't get the e-mail with it in let us know. We changed from the city's carrier to a much less expensive VOIP provider. Soon the old one will no longer work, so if you can't reach us then e-mail us or post that you need it and we'll get it to you.

Hope you are all well. We love you. (Unless you are a creepy stranger.)

LEW Skywalker!

2009-01-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

Here is our little Leland, or as we call him LEW (Leland Eugene Whiting). He has been particularly fond of the light saber lately . I just couldn't resist showing you our little Jedi in training.

Oh December!

2008-12-29T19:01:00.001-08:00

Well, December has been so darn overwhelming that I have been doing my best to just make it through alive. As some of you know, both Ammon and Manessa had birthdays. One just two days before Christmas, and the other just two days after. I also took a turn to host Thanksgiving this year, which I have not blogged about either. So instead of trying to play total catch up I am just going to start now and run with it. The cute kids in the tub was just a cute picture that I wanted to throw in. Then I will go ahead and give the birthday and some Christmas deatails here as well.I let Manessa help me put stickers on the party invitations, and she was having a littel too much fun. I am still finding stickers in random places.

We had a joint birthday party for the kids on the 27th, (Manessa's actual birthday.) I made Manessa a Barbie cake and I was going to do a really cute cake for Ammon with a dump truck that my sister-in-law told me about but he insisted that he wanted a snake. So I returned the $23 truck and lined up a bunch of green cup cakes. It was way cheeper, but probably not as cute as it could have been. There were 16 kids here between the ages of 3 and 6, I'll tell you what, that was one of the dumbest things I have ever done. But the kids made out like bandits. Santa was a little out done by the birthday possee. Ammon got a small skatebord for Christmas, and this full size one for his birthday. Leland really likes both of them too.

Ammon also got a pair of roller blades, and a light up lazer gun that was from Grandma and Grandpa Whiting. (you can see the little skatebord in this one too.) He has even tried riding the skatebords with the roller blades on. We had to explain to him that it probably wasn't a very safe idea.
Manessa got a princess scooter that she has been riding all over the house. She has also grown attatched to the mask that was from the pin the tail on the donkey game. It was amazing the flood of relief that I felt after the party was over. I guess I just don't deal with stress very well. I am sorry that we went so long without any postings or updates. But now I gave you a big one, so there you go! ;o)

Crazy 8 Tag

2008-11-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, here is another tag. But I am too lazy to do anything original. Though I did throw in a cute picture.

8 Favorite TV shows in no particular order:
1-Burn Notice
2-House
3-America's Next Top Model
4-Starter Wife
5-In Plain Site
6-My Name is Earl
7-Reba
8-South Park

8 Things I did yesterday:
1-Vacuum Trix
2-Make Phone Calls (Work)
3-Taught Leland to say Ammon.
4-Bought Soda for Thanksgiving Dinner.
5-Call The DMV about registration getting hacked by my kids.
6-Listen to Wicked
7-Read Wicked
8-Refill my med's.

Favorite restaurants:
1-Cafe Rio
2-Los Hermanos
3-IHOP
4-Spaghetti Factory
5-Mimi's
6-Blue Bird (Logan)
7-Sukuru
8-Asian Buffet

8 Things on my Wish List
1-FirePlace Mantle
2-Carpets Cleaned (Professionally)
3-Tummy Tuck/Booby Lift
4-A full day IN my home with NO kids.
5-See "Wicked"
6-A weekend away with Mike
7-King Size (Nice) Mattress
8-Happiness Without Chemicals

8 Things that I love about the Fall
1-The colors of the leaves
2-The chill in the air
3-Halloween
4-Thanksgiving
5-Drinking hot chocolate
6-Wearing sweaters
7-Thinking about Christmas
8-Watching the rain

8 People I Tag
1-Megan DeLange
2-Rachel Whiting
3-Priscilla Morgan
4-JoyLynn Gonzallas
5-Nina Renner
6-Shyanne Hathaway
7-Jenn Harbison
8-Celeste Bailey (Get a Blog Chica!)

HIgh-School Tag

2008-11-21T18:08:00.000-08:00

SENIOR YEAR

1. Did you date someone from your school?
One guy from end of Sophomore to beginning of Senior year, then a bunch of casual dates.

2. What kind of car did you drive?
A blue 1979 Chevy Chevette AKA The Shove It AKA Smurfette.

3. Did you pass your driver's license test on the first try?
Yep

4. Were you a party animal?
I hung out a lot but never "partied"

5. Were you considered a flirt?
Yes! Especially senior year.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Not just Choir, All-State Choir!

7. Were you a nerd?
I was on the Math Team, you tell me?

8. Were you on any varsity teams?
Drill Team, Drama, Debate,

9. Did you ever get suspended/expelled?
No, but I went to the principals office for "pantsing" a girl.

10. Can you still sing the fight song?
Sadly, Yes.

11. Who were your favorite teachers?
Scott O Bagley (He taught Drama, Debate, and English. He also gave Seniors a lot of extra privileges.)

12. Where did you sit for lunch?
With the cool kids, duh! Okay, I don't really remember WHERE I sat at lunch time, it kind of varied. But after eating until class started again most of the seniors would hang out on the steps outside "Senior Hall"

13. What is your school's full name?
PIUTE HIGH SCHOOL

14. What is your school's mascot and colors?
Thunderbird Columbia Blue (not to be confused with any other blue), Red, and White

15. Did you go to Homecoming and if so, with whom?
Homecoming was not really a big thing. There was a dance, and I always went, but it was not a date type thing.

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
Yes, but only if it were with the same people.

17. What do you remember most about graduation?
Changing into a comfy brown army shirt after I got out of the gown.

18. Where did you go Senior Skip Day?
We had a full Sluff Week, and we went to California and hit all of the sites. I actually almost got sent home, it is quite a story, if you haven't heard it you are missing out.

19. Have you gained some weight since then?
Lots, but I have also gained curves.

20. Who was your prom date?
The big prom was Junior year, I went with Eric Allen Sophomore and Junior Year. Then Senior year I went stag with a big group of friends.

21. Are you planning on going to your 10-year reunion?
If they actually have one. It should be this next summer.

22. Did you have a job in high school?
I worked for my Daddy at Grass Valley Merc.

Halloween!

2008-11-02T07:59:00.000-08:00

For Halloween this year we kept with the tradition of trick-or-treating in Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood. Grandma Whiting made Manessa the most adorable witch costume and Ammon and Leland were a hit with their DI specials. Mommy even got into the spirit and dressed up a bit. Not sure if you would say that I am in costume, or just let my real self out this time.
Here is Manessa with Grandpa Whiting. She has him wrapped around her little magic wand.
This is Uncle Tyler with Leland the cutest little chili pepper north of the border. I was too lazy to figure out how to rotate the picture, so you will have to rotate your eyes to get the full effect.
The kids got way more candy then they should ever eat and have been on a crazy sugar high since the Wart Trunk-or-Treat last Wednesday. Hopefully it will all be gone and then out of their little systems within a week or two.

2008-10-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

You are straightforward, tenacious, and beautiful, but unfortunately aware of it. You are

attention loving, and people easily flock to you, but deep down you are mistrustful of

people in general. You can be judgmental and thoughtless, but you love deeply and are

extremely protective of those that you hold dear.

I really hoped to be Alice, but I guess you just never know who you really are.

Fun Project

2008-10-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

I just had to brag a little. I am so excited to print these up. I have cute little 4x4 frames to put them in and I am going to hang them from the iron rod that Cindy gave me for my birthday a few years ago. I have been waiting for something worthy to hang from it and now I have it. YAY!

Recipies

2008-10-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

Edible Peanut Butter Play Dough

1 cup peanut butter (creamy)
1 cup light corn syrup
1 1/4 cup powdered milk
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Mix it up and play! (If you want to store it in the fridge it will turn hard, but if you microwave it on low for a bit it will soften right up and work fine.) It is yummy enough that if you chocolate cover it then it makes an awesome candy. Just do that part before you let the kids play with it.

Ging-O-Lanterns?

2008-10-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, so we were watching Super Why this morning, and it had the story of the Gingerread Man. I was feeling like doing a fun thing with the kids so I decided what the heck! I whipped out the Mrs. Fields Cookie book and found a recipe for Gingerbread Men. Then I started thinking...Isn't gingerbread men a Christmas thing? So I decided to make gingerbread pumpkins to go along with the men. I had a couple of friend come hang out while I made them and they brought there kids too. I didn't wan a bunch of kids getting into the dough so I made some edible peanut butter pay dough for them. They had a blast using the cookie cutters and eating the dough and it made my job much easier as well. Well the baking took longer then I expected so by the time they were ready to be decorated my friends had gone home so it was just me and the kids. They helped me do the first two while I was still trying to get the frosting to the right consistency, then they were distracted by eating. A lot of them got eaten before I even started to make the frosting. I got a picture of the ones that the kids helped with, but they had already started to eat them before I could get the camera. It was a lot of fun and I just had to show everyone that we still had family home evening. Even if it was during the day and Daddy was at school.

Lipstick!

2008-10-10T08:42:00.001-07:00

I keep some lipstick in my purse that happens to be the all day, won't rub off, won't wash off, on you for life type of stuff. Well Manessa is very into makeup like most little girls are. I am pretty sure you guys get the point. I just hope that it has worn off before church on Sunday.

Lame Post

2008-10-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well, september was a rather crappy month so I just didn't post much. Now we are in to October and I am feeling optimistic. However, I am trying to find the USB thing to put a picture on here and Manessa is naked and crying that she hates panties. So who knows. Mike is as busy as ever with School and work. He is taking more credits this semester and it is really wearing him out. Ammon is loving preschool and playing with friends. Manessa is potty trained, but a very emotional two year old. Leland is the best baby ever. He just smiles and plays with himself or anyone who will give him attention. I must say that I definitely got lucky to have his sweet little spirit come to my home. I am just trying to survive daily life without messing up my children too badly. Sorry that this is a rather whiney post, but I figured if I didn't post soon everyone might think that we were all dead.

Joker...Crazy? Or just likes KoolAide?

2008-09-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

So...After Manessa went to town on her red punch, I noticed a striking resemblance to a certain Batman villain. This raised the question in my mind, maybe the joker isn't totally psycho. Perhaps he just really likes KoolAide! Ok, I know that I am just being lame, but I couldn't resist showing off my little villain.

Family Pics

2008-09-05T19:51:00.001-07:00

Manessa is going to be a supermodel! She had a blast posing for the camera. Daddy had better watch out.

Leland is just my little Handsome! I don't know how I got lucky enough to get such a happy baby. There are so many pictures of the kids that turned out well I am going to have a hard time choosing what ones to develop. None of my kids learned their photo taking skills from their Daddy. (Anyone who knows him from his teen years will understand what I mean.)

Leland in Koosharem

2008-09-02T18:52:00.001-07:00

Over the Labor Day weekend I went down to Koosharem for my Great-Aunt Lenea's funeral. Mike was feeling extra generous and volunteered to keep the two older kids at home so that I could have a more pleasant experience down there. The funeral was very spiritual and uplifting. That is not to say that I didn't cry my eyes out though. Grandma DeLange, who has been in the care center for a long time, has just been brought home to be on hospice care. She seems to be so much happier now that she is back in her own home. I am very grateful that she was there so that we were able to see her and spend some time with her while she was awake. Leland loved to see her, but he wouldn't hold still enough for her to hold him. The picture above shows Lincoln (Laura's baby) on her lap, and Leland standing above her in Vanya's arms. I just can't express how grateful I am to have had the chance to spend some time with her while she was alert enough to remember who I was and know what we were saying. I will sure miss her when she is gone, but I know that she deserves to go HOME and see Grandpa.

Here is a close up of Leland and Lincoln comparing foot sizes. Leland is two and a half months older then Lincoln but is quite a bit smaller. We had similar pictures of Manessa and Tia.

PreSchool and Two-Wheelers

2008-08-26T12:25:00.001-07:00

Ammon is definitely growing up on us. He went to his first day of Preschool today. When I picked him up and asked him how it went he said "Um, it was terrific!." He was so proud in his little backpack.

He is also now riding a two wheeler with out the training wheels. We got him a smaller one so that his feet could touch the ground while he figured out how to balance. Then within fifteen minutes he had it down. He rides up and down the sidewalk all day. This is not to say that he soesn't crash sometimes. Infact his little legs are covered in bruises. No blood yet though. (knock on wood)

Been Slackin'

2008-08-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while because I have been too big of a slacker to take pictures. But I decided that I can go ahead and post something with no pic's this time. We took the kids to Seven Peaks the other night for Mike's work party and they loved it. They couldn't go on any of the big slides, so that meant that neither could we, but they had a blast in the kiddie pool. Mike did do one of the big free fall slides, and I did one called Boomerang so I guess we did get a little shot of adrenalin. Manessa loved the wave pool, but Ammon was a little scared of it. We decided that if we were going to have to pay to go there we would definitely wait until the kids got old enough to really enjoy it. As it is they can have just as much fun at a regular swimming pool.

Scott Whiting Family Reunion

2008-07-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

The Scott Whiting Family Reunion was this past week & we thought it might be fun to show some pictures of some of the activities!

We hiked up to Cascade Springs and Tyler carried Manessa most of the way there and back. Ammon was a real trooper, he hiked the entire thing by himself.

Here's Tyler, Mike, & Devin near the waterfall, it was really cold water.

Ammon and Manessa love to play in the water every chance they get (see flood post).

Manessa was just tuckered out with all the fun activities.

Tyler then took us a ways down A.F. Canyon where we did some rock climbing. Here's Angela just starting up the face of a cliff.

Here's a picture of Angela towards the top of the face, it was definitely a ways up.

Ammon had to get in on the action too!

Ammon & Manessa out cold in their sleeping bags.

While we were camping, Manessa tripped & fell right in the bed of hot coals we'd just been doing dutch oven on. Luckily daddy was standing right beside her and was able to quickly pull her out. She still got some pretty bad burns though.

FLOOD!

2008-07-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well,

We woke up a couple of days ago & found that our children had left the hose on all night next to one of our window wells. We had just put down some cow manure a month or two ago, so all the water went through that before coming into our house. Here are a couple of pictures.

This is the level of the water above the bottom of the window.

New Wheels!

2008-07-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

So, after selling our motorcycle about a year ago I have had the itch. Mike missed it but not as much as I did. We decided to go and look at scooters to see if that would satisfy our craving, and give us a fun toy that was easy on the gas. We took one for a test drive and learned that we are just not scooter people. So we went and got ourselves another bike. This one is a 2008 Shadow Aero 750, it is shaft driven instead of chain like the last one was. So that means less maintenance. This picture shows exactly what it looks like. We are pretty excited.

Scissors!

2008-07-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

Well the inevitable finally happened. Manessa got ahold of the scissors and cut her own hair. I know that it is something that almost every family experiences at least once. I must say that I think I handled it pretty well though. There was no yelling or scolding, and definitely no saying that this would make her ugly. I have seen and heard of too many times when girls associate their hair with their self worth and I am trying to keep that from happening to my girl.

2008-07-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

This is what Leland did during all of the firework action!

Fire Works!

2008-07-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

We didn't do anything very exciting for the Fourth. Just our own little firework show in the driveway. Here are some pics of the cuteness that is our kids.

Bath Time!

2008-06-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

My children just love bath time! I have actually had to set a limit of only one bath a day. And nothing makes a bath better then bubbles. This time there were so many bubbles that we almost lost the kids a few times! I have had to start keeping all of the soap out of reach or Ammon will try and add his own bubbles, and go through a whole bottle of whatever he can get his hands on. Not only does that get expensive, it is hard to rinse them off.

trying things out

2008-06-24T10:37:00.001-07:00

I have decided to try this out and see how it works. What I really want on here is pics of my kids and fun things like that. Here goes....

All Aboard!

2008-06-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

I have finally jumped on the blogging bandwagon! Everyone keep your eyes out for new and awesome pictures!