Vandenberg, We Have a Problem...

Well, for those that haven’t heard, we have had some not so fabulous news at the Whiting house today. No one is hurt, sick, or injured. We still enjoy many blessings—the gospel, a wonderful family, and many more material possessions than we need. But, Jack has experienced quite a devastating event—
He had his launch early this morning—1:55 A.M. to be exact. He said the experience was exhilarating. He did his countdown, checked the data, and said the fateful word, “Go!” SUCCESS! His part of the mission went exactly as planned, and he realized that despite what he thought, his heart wasn’t REALLY going to jump out of his chest after all. Things were looking great…stage zero complete….stage one complete….stage two…..not so complete. Unfortunately there was a failure during this stage and the rocket was not able to get the satellite into orbit. In fact, this 270 million dollar piece of equipment is floating somewhere near Antartica as we speak (or as I write and you read).
I found out this morning when my mom called and said she had heard something about it on the radio. After it had been confirmed, we cried together. Then I called my friend Stephanie and cried some more. Then my sis in law Kari came over and I cried some more. (Side note--SO excited that they are moving into our ward.:)) I finally started to feel better when I talked to Jack—I first wanted to make sure his part went okay, which it did. No, this is not a tragedy of epic proportions—no one has been hurt or died. But, it is a tragedy for all these amazing men and women who worked on it for over 10 years. But, that is the name of the game with science and technology—ordinary people attempting to do extraordinary things—there are bound to be errors. The amazing thing is they keep trying. I mean, for goodness sakes, I get frustrated when our drip hose for the garden doesn’t work or my blender shorts out! I just want to say I really admire ANY person who is willing to work so hard on something and know that perhaps, it may literally fall to the ground and be destroyed. And I think it is amazing that right now those same people are sitting around trying to fix that problem. That is the kind of thing that makes our country great--the wonderful hardworking, innovative people who "just keep swimming." (Thanks Dori.) Well, despite this bit of a downer post, I hope you have a great day and go accomplish something hard in honor of the Taurus rocket launch!

My Husband the Environmentalist

Well, although we in general do not support the Global Warming agenda, we aren't opposed to studying the subject to see if it is really happening--especially when those studies help pay our mortgage. Jack's latest work adventure involves the Taurus rocket and launching a sattelite into space to monitor the carbon levels in the atmosphere to let us know what's up with all that stuff out there. This rocket will be launched Tuesday, and he is off with his crew and some fancy guys from NASA to get it up in space.
As if all that isn't cool enough--wait until you here THIS: He is the guy who, during the last sixteen seconds of the countdown before the launch, essentially says, "Go!" or "No go!" depending on data that he reads AT THAT MOMENT. Can we say PRESSURE? Can we say WAY COOLER THAN APOLLO 13?? (Actually, I am sure that we can say both of those things.) What I am actually really wondering is, if he is so important, why don't we make more money? Anyway, if you want to check out more, go here. And here is a message to my husband because, even though he is sitting in the same room with me, I feel compelled to write him a message so all of you can read it too:
Honey, you ROCK (et science)!

P.S. Can you tell I was feeling a bit goofy slash sarcastic? Maybe I should stop reading seriouslysoblessed!

She's A-Growin!

This little gal is getting SO BIG SO FAST! Yes, it has been said by other moms, but it is TRUE. I mean, first of all--look at that hair!










This is something Ella has taken to doing lately--she sees someone reading a book on the couch, so she goes over to the books, grabs one for herself, and insists on being put on the couch as well. Then she proceeds to beam at everyone and let them know how cool she is while she babbles away reading outloud. (by the way, she didn't have a black eye--I was just trying to fix the red-eye in that picture.)













She also loves to help out and tidy things up. (Of course, much of the tidying up is done because of her shenanagins) Another favorite thing she likes to do is take rags around the house with her--or any cloth.


Yes--she even does the dishes! Or at least her version of it. She really will sort of help for a while. She likes to take the silverware out one at a time to put away--she will hand it to me. Then I say, "Thank you!" and she says, "tan you" back. After a while though she isn't as keen on handing them back--about when she realizes they are almost all gone!

Yes--she is really growing. I hope you enjoy this little video of her at dinner prayer. Please don't think we are bad for putting a video of praying on--Jack wouldn't hold the camera though--he said the only way we could do it is if we just set it down on the table while we pray--like General Conference right? Well, enjoy her, "Amen!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuuVW3jUEL4

Desert Trekkers

SO, how did you spend your New Year's? We had a rather quiet New Year's Eve because we went on our stake pioneer trek on January 1, 2009. What a way to start off the New Year right! We got invited along with the other Bishops and their wives in the stake to be a "Ma" and a "Pa". They also asked other couples to come as well--I think there was something like 13 "families." Ours had ten awesome kids in it--5 boys and 5 girls. It was amazing to see how close we all became in the space of a few short days--such a great experience!

The one picture on top is actually of the kids in our car on the way back--POOPED!

This was the "womens pull" where the men had to let us go alone. We pulled through and were tough!

One night after dinner we had to repack our carts and go off in the dark to a different camp site to help learn obedience. That probably happened sometimes to some pioneers. The neat thing for me was to really think what it would have been like DAY after DAY and how this was really their LIFE. I also loved the look of the trek--seeing all the campsites, all the groups getting ready, all the groups reading scriptures. It was stunning really, and just awesome to feel a part of it.

All of our beautiful daughters--including "Baby Margaret." Each family was given a bean bag baby that had the name of a real baby who had been on the pioneer trek. Then we found out what had happened to our baby. Unfortunately, out little baby Margaret had died on the trail, so we actually had to stop, bury her, and then move on. It was VERY hard, mostly because I thought about that poor mother's experience and what it would have felt like to bury our OWN baby--I cannot imagine the pain--that was a special experience.

Here we are all showered and clean at the beginning of the trail. We were the "Whiting Warriors."

This is a shot of us leaving our real family behind for a few days in the care of wonderful grandparents. They had lots of fun without us...sniff sniff. However, when we got back in the house, Ella looked at us for a good five minutes with suspision in her beautiful blue eyes. Then I think she finally figured out that we had COME BACK and the other people were leaving. YEAH! Then she was supremely happy and just kept hitting us with her cute little hands to make sure we were really there. The other kids were like, "Cool to see you guys! How much longer will Grandma and Grandpa stay?"

White (Ings)

The day after Christmas (right after The Nutcracker) we drove up to Eagar. We had to take a different route because of all the snow, and we still had a bit of a scary time on the road we took. We had planned on going sledding at this community spot, but it was CLOSED! WHAT! They CLOSED the sledding spot because of SNOW. Yeah, okaaaaaay...... Anyway, it turned out to be much more fun to go out on our own and find our little white winter wonderlandish place to sled in. The snow was so pretty and we were all alone.

"Aunt Tiffany" came along with us for some fun. The kids just kept sledding down that hill I tell ya.

Ella definitely enjoyed her first experience with snow--well, technically it wasn't her first time. We actually took her when she was a few months old to Flagstaff, but she slept in her stroller the whole time. She decided to stuff it in her face at first, then she realized that it was pretty cold and stopped doing that--children learn by doing right? Don't you love the snow pants and boots?

Christmas Passed

And I just wanted to post about it real quick before moving on to other events. We never did get the rest of our family nativity to upload, so you'll just have to take my word for it that Angie and Sunny were fabulous Angels and that Dad did a great job as the sheperds. It was a lovely Christmas Eve, complete with eating neighborhood goodies and watching "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and getting new jammies of course!


Here's a few more highlights:
I have to say (hope no on gets offended here)
that this was the BEST present that the kids got--
Sorry, but how can we ever top these awesome
shirts?!?!?!?!?!? I feel a museum trip coming on....
(Yes, Ella is "Thing 4")






They did get some other really cool stuff too--
Obviously Sunny thinks so. :)

Ella loved her Santa present "music table" as you can probably tell from how many times it has appeared in shots to ensure her happiness. I will be humming the tune of "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10" FOREVER--You were right Whitney.

However, as you can see here, at first glance our darling gal was a bit apprehensive of the new toy. Or maybe she was just tired and wondering what on earth is going on around here.

We also wanted to surprize the big kids the day after Christmas, so we took them to the Broadway Palm West version of "The Nutcracker." Since Ella isn't quite ready for live theater yet, we got a sitter for her. They loved the show and had a great time. Then, we were off to Eagar to play with family, and the SNOW!

Here's a last pic of my cutie pie Santa man dividing out the loot. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy New Year--and I also hope you have gotten all the decorations down by now--we finally did--yeah!

So This is Christmas...

Or at least our version of it. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzy7UjwOTR8&feature=email

We actually have some other parts to our family nativity, but we are having some trouble downloading those. Hopefully they will come soon!