By the Way--

 

Did you know what’s only TWO days away????

 

This little witch looks like she’ll miss out on it.:(

But that doesn’t mean you have to—so get geared up folks!

Carve your pumpkins—eat your apples--

It will be here soon……

HALLOWEEN!!!! 

Does everyone have their costumes ready?  We do.  Want to guess what we’re gonna be???  I’ll give you a hint—We’re off to see….the people… the wonderful  people who will give us candy……

Yeah for FALL FUN!

(By the way—there’s another post below—when I rain, I pour I guess.:))

Around our House…

toddlers get into a little light reading together,   

 

 

cousins find a cozy spot to play,

Dads hold a sleeping baby while helping Mom can peaches on Saturday afternoons,

children find ways to entertain themselves,                                

     

aunts drop by just to read a story,

 

babies take baths,

kids make cookies,  

 

and then happily at the end of our days, we all go to bed!

My Attempts To Be Like Nie Nie

 

Don’t we all just love and adore Nie?  (If you don’t know what I am talking about, google Nie Nie—it will be worth your time.)  And I will be the first to admit that she has influenced me—I hope for good.  Reading her blog has never once made me feel guilty, but it always inspires me to be better—to CREATE things in my home and family.  So I decided to try my version of her little dinner celebration with crowns.  In honor of this little man……

(Yup, he’s SMILING now!)

 

And we had a special theme:

Be Thou an Example—which happens to be the YM and YW theme for the year (1Timothy 4:12)

I thought it was very appropriate to celebrate four older siblings!

 

My sweet mom helped with some of the decor and all of the food—we go over to her house for FHE about once a month anyway and she always feeds us dinner. 

  

The princesses and prince were all crowned and told what great examples they are and will be.

  

Then we ate.

Thanks for dinner Mom!

And everyone took a turn sharing what they felt it meant to be an example of whatever virtue was decorating their place setting—except Ella, she just ate. 

And Conner looked on in wonder.  And had no idea that we all were so excited to be examples for him.

And then we went to the dollar theater to see Night at the Museum 2—again.  Because we love that movie that much.

 

It was a really nice FHE.  Thanks Nie Nie.    

New Way to Post!

My smarty pants husband just figured out this new way to post on our blog so I’m trying it out.  I can make posts much faster because I don’t have to upload pictures—and it shows me the post as I am making it.  If you want to know how to do it, um….talk to Jack.  I just know that I can do it and it’s pretty cool!  So, here’s a few recent random pics of events lately from in and around our house for good measure.

 

Here’s Conner pondering scripture in his leisure hours—we’re so proud.

Logan recently chose to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The tradition in our family after baptism is for that child to go with Mom and Dad to the temple and do a little photo shoot at that special place.  Then I put some pictures of that child’s baptism and the temple pics up in his room to help remind him of the next covenants he will make some day.  He loves all the extra attention and visiting there with us.  And he’s a cutie to boot!

 

These are some friends and Sunny at Logan’s party a few days after his birthday.  Slip and slides, water guns and balloons, a tramp with water and little pool kept them all pretty well entertained—and mostly outside—heh heh heh.  (That’s a sneaky laugh in case it didn’t come off right in print by the way.)  It was a fun day!

Here’s our little beauty at the Whiting family reunion this year.  Note to self—no white onesies in the future.

My first decorative cake was fun and easy to make for our princess Sunny and her bowling birthday party friends.  I would definitely recommend a bowling party to anyone who wants an easy, fun and affordable way to give the kiddos a good time.:)

 

And here’s a few more of our wonderful new baby boy.  He’s doing well and is very healthy, and he’s letting us sleep quite a bit at night.  However, during the day the little guy has been having some tummy troubles with gassiness.  We have tried several formulas, but I was able to go to a GI doctor today and get another formula that will hopefully help him more.  So far so good—he has had a lot less gas and taken really great naps.  Hopefully it continues to work well for this sweet little baby.

Brothers

This last pic is of Conner modeling Angie’s new invention.  She had to invent something for her class and she made this with the help of her very talented Aunt Kari.  It is a baby bob and is to help babies stay safely in place while they sleep or relax—it also has a pillow and little pockets to hold things like binkies.  Pretty cute huh?  Should we get a patent?

Well that was so easy I just might start blogging a bit more often!

MIRACLES HAPPEN

And we have .....dun du dunnn...FIVE miracles in our family now! Would you like to meet the latest miracle to join us????? I wouldn't be very surprized if you did--
His name is Conner Arick. He was born on August 11 and weighed a whopping 6 lbs. and 14 oz. We were priveledged to take this precious baby home only two days after he came into the world. Why did we wait to share this news you ask? Well, sometimes in the world of adoption you have to wait a little while until things are permanent. Because miracles really DID happen in this instance we felt very strongly that things would work out and the placement would be final. However, we just thought it would be nicer to say, "We have a new baby!" than, "We have a new baby with us and in thirty days we will know for sure if he will always be with us!" so we opted to wait. And now we can officially say (as of today) that Conner will be a member of the Whiting clan. And we feel SO VERY BLESSED.

Man--look at these other beatiful siblings he will get to grow up with--I'll say it again--WE ARE BLESSED. This last month Jack and I have found ourselves saying a lot to each other that we don't know WHY we have been so richly blessed to have five great kiddos, but we know we HAVE been.

In case you are wondering, Ella is definitely enjoying being a big sister....

A LOT.

We feel so full--our van is full, our table is full, our closets are all full, our schedule is full, and our hearts are full. We feel gratitude and love for this new blessing and eternal gratitude to our wonderful birth family.

*Thank you to my beautiful and talented niece Alexandra for taking these fantastic photos!*

Sorry no pictures...

Our lap top crashed and we are getting another one, but that is where I download pictures. Luckily we have Carbonite so we didn't lose our stuff. Thanks Rush Limbaugh! (His show is where I heard about Carbonite.)

Anyway, we had a trial this weekend for our family, and it has really made me realize how blessed I am. I have always heard those lessons in Relief Society about how trials help us grow and honestly I don't think I've ever really felt that very strongly--until this weekend. It has given me a new perspective about my family--how blessed I am to have such great people in my life. I love my children and my husband so very much--they are the world to me! This weekend and the past few days I found myself just looking at them and thinking, "Man, did I luck out or what?" Each child on this earth is truly a miracle! I also love my extended family and friends and I am so grateful for their support and love. So, that's all I wanted to say--don't worry, I will continue in a few weeks to put silly goings ons up here with lovely pictures that I will use to try and impress all of the 5 people that read this blog.:) Anyway, everyone have a great day and hug those around you who mean the most!

These Are a Few of my Favorite Things

I really should be organizing girls' camp food right now, especially since camp is in a few short days, but I have been wanting to do this little post for a while so I thought I would really quick. Then I promise I will be a good girl and get to work!
Anway, I really LOVE when people list books they have read recently that they enjoy, so I decided to as well, is case anyone out there is looking for a good read.
So, here ya go:

1.What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
This book is great for anyone who loves classic English literature, and since I am pretty obsessed with Jane Austen stuff, it was very much for me. It is not a story, but an informative book about all the customs of 19th century England--from fox hunting and whist to dinner parties and presenting at court. I LOVED it because it helped me understand so much of what I have read in books, and I also really like learning about customs and cultures--I also think Daniel Pool did a great job of using literature throughout his book to iluustrate the customs.

2. The Goose Girl, Princess Acadamy, and Austenland, all by Shannon Hale
Shannon Hale is my new favorite author! She is very witty, her heriones are always very fun and smart, and her plots are definite page turners. She also really does a beautiful job of descriptive language in The Goose Girl. I don't want to give anything away with these books--I would just say read them for a fun few days!

3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Okay, actually I just started this book and am valiantly trying to motivate myself to read it. I have read some other Dicken's books, and they are always hard for me to get started on, but once I get going I really enjoy them as well. So, we'll see how I do with this one--it just is one of those that HAS to be good right? And I am a bit embarassed that I haven't read it yet.

Well, hopefully someone benifitted from my lovely review. Like I said, I really like learning about new books so I decided to share as well. If nothing else, everyone should AT LEAST read The Goose Girl--so very fun!