What did you do last Friday night????

Well, we had a birthday spa party for our 10 year old Angie! Happy birthday sweetie--we are so proud of the lovely lady you are becoming. What a fun night we had.
I never got a chance to actually count, but I think we had close to 20 kids there. (More continued to trickle in throughout the night--I think word had gotten out around the neighborhood that I was offereing free babysitting or something--j/k--the more the merrier!) At first they all just had some food and played in the backyard, then we got into three groups and began our "spa treatments". It of course was somewhat chaotic, but I like to think it was organized chaos. Whatever it was, they all seemed to have a great time.

Jennie helped make beautiful toes--and even the few boys that were there enjoyed the bubbly--water that is!
Lisa helped out with letting all the partiers make their own frame and then we took a goofy pic of them with their facial mask on and put in it the frame to take home.
Giggly girls and pampering--what more could you want!

Happy birthday dear Angie...... Even Logan enjoyed our natural mask--it was good enough to eat--and some did! Oatmeal, yogurt and honey.
After their facial scrubs, they got take turns giving each other a massage in the round--just be careful not to drip on the person's back in front of you!
There is NO WAY I could have done it without this lovely team of helpers--thank you so much fellow moms, super babysitter Dominique, and Jennie. Also thanks Jack for being a super Dad and helping out behind the scenes with the pictures--and taking this picture! You guys kept your hands very busy! Dominique brought us her hand waxing thingy where you put your hand in melted wax and then peel it off for soft and supple fingers--too fun!

Here's just a few more pics around the house this week--most include that little gal that is charming us all more day by day. (By the way, I had planned to give Ella her first pedicure at the party, but yeah it just didn't happen--however, we still plan on doing it soon!)

Uh...yeah..she's a cutie...

This is an old picture of me at 2 months with my older brother Danny...
Here's Logan and Ella at 6 weeks..so similar huh? I just thought it was pretty neat!
Sunny is the croqueting queen! She has made matching headbands for EVERYONE in our family--if you would like an order, please contact her at least ten minutes in advance.

Aurrrgh matey!

Here's a pic for an update on Ella's back and neck muscles--looking sharp lady! Woo hoo! Congrats on making it through this lengthy post! Have a super day!

The Evolution of a Smile

Gearing up for it...

Almost there...
Oh Yeah!

Way too many pictures...

But if you had this adorable new baby in your house, as well as three cute kiddos, you probably would be posting way too many pictures as well..right? Well, we do have those blessed things, and so here they are. This one is last week when I brought Ella home from dropping off Logan from school. I started to get her out of her car seat and she just kept smiling away at me. Such a cutie pie!

These are from a wonderfully tastey family dinner at Trevor and Jennies--I can attest to the deliciousness (is that a word?) of her tamale casserole that she has on her recipe blog--yummers! We had a great time being together.

And Ella decided to sport her cute "Princess Atire" that night with a cute princess shirt bought by Natalie and a beautiful princess quilt made by Aunt Kari. Thanks guys!

Here's Sunny and Logan getting ready for family home evening--Sunny was in charge of the treat and made cupcakes ALL BY HERSELF (with the help of her lovely assistant Logan). Thank goodness for box mixes to teach self reliance--and give mom a break!

Caspian got quite a hairdo this week from Jack--he decided to shave the little man almost bald! Poor guy--he needs one of those little doggie sweaters now and he seems to have lost all sense of manhood that he ever had--not that poodles have much to begin with!
Jack gave a presentation at a local highschool on rocket science--what a celebrity huh? We had to get a pic of the rocket he brought with him--the kids thought it was pretty fun!


Here's a few more of our little beauty--she is quite a workout queen with tummy time as you can see.

But she also knows how to pamper herself..
And how to get you to absolutely love her with just a little grin! Too fun!

Christmas and a few other pics

We had a great Christmas this year, and spent it all at home. Usually we travel down to Eagar on Christmas day, but we decided to stay at home because of our new little package and also because my sister came to stay with us. It was really nice to spend time together and get to stay in our cute new PJs for most of the day!

Okay, I have to admit something about the above picture or my conscience will haunt me forever. We actually took this last Friday night! I just hadn't had a chance to get the kids together and do this "fancy shmancy" pic in front of the tree that I always like to do. Since Jack was home and my mom was visiting, it was a good night to try and dress everyone up, keep them happy, and all looking at the camera. Whew! But I think it was worth the effort--they are all just such cuties!

This is a lovely pondering look from our beautiful baby.
On Christmas Eve the kids favored us with a musical rendition of the sheperds going to see the baby Jesus. We had a little "sheperd's dinner" as well with finger foods and some sparkling cider. Maybe that's not exactly what sheperds ate, but we like the stuff!


Love this pic! It's the total, "What are you getting? Is it better than mine?" look. (Except for Logan, who is blissfully unaware.)

Okay, beyond Christmas now, Logan has lost the OTHER tooth! As if one wasn't enough huh? Well, Uncle Jacob seemed to be excited about it anyhow. Question--was he trying to show how great his own teeth are, or maybe what Logan has to look forward to some day????

Oh yes, and Ella absolutely LOVES her bath--She has such a serenity about her--it brings such a special peace to our home. What a blessing children are!

Things are great here at the Whiting house...

(By the way, no one try to tell me this was gas--we know for a fact she was simply dreaming of heaven where she just came from!)

We are enjoying the joys of tiny hands being held...

Here's Ella posing after her bath--what a bathing beauty!

Sunny and her had quite a bonding moment together here.

Dad has also taken advantage of the fact that he has some time off work and that our old table had to be put to some use and has gotten the girls to do puzzles with him.

By the way--he is super dad--he can read and feed at the same time!!

Oh, and in other news, Logan lost his first front tooth. I am not a big fan of kids getting the front teeth back in--the grown up ones. It seems like they never have quite the same "little kid look" after that. So, I told him it's good thing that we have a baby now, or Mommy might have cried to think that all her children are loosing their baby teeth!

Oh, and one more item of business--Ella felt the time had come to dawn her adorable new coat from her birth mom. Well, there's an update for ya--Early Merry Christmas to all!!!!

She is here!

Ella Anne was born on December 12, 2007 @ 11:50 P.M. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 11 oz. and was 21 inches long--She is a healthy gal! We all fell in love with her right away and have continued to adore her as the days have gone on.



When Jack and I were able to bring her home from the hospital, the kids were very excited. They had had Grandma help them make signs to welcome her and put them all over the house. Even Logan made one that showed off his new "big brother" statis. What a wonderful day! Adoption is a true miracle, and we very very blessed and humbled to be a part of it. Life is great!

Before you totally get into Christmas--don't forget about...

Thanksgiving! It was very fun this year at my mom and step dad's house. A bunch of family was able to come and the kids got to see their NC cousins. Good eating and good laughs all day long--some great Apples to Apples memories!

Then, of course Aunt Mel got the kids together to do a show--She is the ultimate director of holiday shows--and luckily all the kids in our family are basically hams!
We also went with my mom and Lyle to a really fun fallish old fashioned place called "Oak Glen." Angie got picked to be the Sheriff's deputy at a gun show. She always gets picked for this stuff--at Sea World she kissed the sea lion and at Disneyland she was the assistant to Jafar or something like that. I think it must be her winning smile--or maybe her quick hand up in the air!
The Monday after Thanksgiving my brother Danny had the hookups and got us all into Disneyland for FREE! Yeah, that was cool! And we had a great day with relatively short lines pretty much the whole day--several with no waiting at all. We are sort of becoming Disneyland junkies though--we have gone four times in the last three and a half years! So, we decided we need to lay off the park for at least a few years--hopefully we can last that long!

Oh yeah! Totally cool to meet MARY POPPINS and BERT!
The Christmas decor was FANTASTIC--but of course it was--hello--this is DISNEYLAND we are talking about! (Did I mention we are Disneyland junkies?)
A dream is a wish your heart makes....when you are so tired from walking around all day that you want to go to sleep.... (See if you can fit that into the melody!) So a fun trip with great people--we are so blessed!