Moving Day

We are moving today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And no there are not enough exclamation points in the world to show how excited we are. Today we go to the bank to close and then we get the keys to our first house. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should hear us all the way to California screaming and giggling around noon today when we finally get the keys. Ill post pictures in a few days after we get the internet back up.

Happy halloween from Arizona

Veterans Day

For Veteran's Day we went to a parade in down town Murrieta. It was nice seeing so many people honoring our veterans. The community set up 1200 flags to represent soldiers who received the medal of honor. It was a nice day.

Happy Birthday Scott!!

Love and miss you little bro!

Halloween

This is me and Brooke at our wards trunk-or-treat. We decorated the trunk and won a prize!

The kids and I went trick-or-treating with the gang in Crystals neighborhood. It was fun having all the kids together. The girls are usually out with their friends but this year we stayed together which was nice. I was a 50's girl, Travis was a Greaser, Morgan was a mime and Brooke was Super Girl.

Happy Birthday Becca!!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful Sister and Mother! Thank you for all you do for our family, living and past. Hope you have an awesome day! Love you!

Tysen is Turning 2!

Starwars and Rockstars...

This year Jacob had it in his head that he wanted the whole family to go as a Star Wars group. I told him that I couldn't because I'm not a geek so we comprimised and the boys went Starwars and Lizzy and I went as Rock Stars (much cooler). Jake was Han Solo, Ryan, a Storm Trooper and I made Trevor's costume in like, 30 min so he was a generic Jedi. Ryan still wont take his costume off! :) Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me...

This year for Halloween I was a wench, Derek was buccaneer, and Jackson was a skeleton. We had a great time Trick or Treating in the Carlson's neighborhood. Thanks Crystal and Dan for hosting another great Halloween shindig!

going to california

im finally coming to california, im coming on the 9th which is a monday. i cant wait to see you all next week! Ill be coming home after Thanksgiving, mom will be coming for Thanksgiving and i will drive home with her. And thanks shelley for helping me with those plane tickets.

Archiving Our Family History

I want to thank everyone who helped fund the archival materials for some of the family artifacts and documents I have here. I am still working on copying them all out for the family. There are three boxes, one with the James Kennicutt Whitman family bible, one with Grandma Mary (Waddoups) Whitman's scrapbook (which is in a very delicate condition) and a third box with various family artifacts from the Hutchens Family, passed down from Great Grandma Ardis (Hutchens) (Waddoups) Ruffell. Again, I can't thank everyone enough for the donations and especially a great thank you to Aunt Edith for taking such good care of many of these items for years!

being bored

This is what happens when me and my freinds are bored,... mom made me put this on the blog.

-and please dont try this at home.

Halloween 2009

We had a drizzly Halloween night, but we still had fun, and I think the girls got more candy because there were fewer kids out. Tyler says he's too big to go trick-or-treating, but not too big to beg candy off his sisters! Here's a pix of us at the ward Halloween party. I am in Civil War kit, Sama helped make her own costume, Hannah's so cute in the pink wig, Tyler is a "Guitar Hero" (get it?? okay, it was funnier very late at night) and Brent thought that the scariest costume he could find was to be a Redskins fan. Hope everyone had fun!

Fall Family Pictures

We had a neighbor take these pictures last week. (She owed us a favor) We're pretty happy about how they turned out.

We have a new closing date for our house. November 23rd. Yay! We will be there for Thanksgiving which we will probably postpone till Christmas. The house is almost finished. They just have to do some of the small details like towel hangers and put in the carpets on the 9th. We are so excited and feel so blessed at how everything has worked out. Hope everyone is doing well.

Jack o lantern time

Just practicing for a contest tommorrow.

Sunny in her sleep

Sunny has some interesting sleeping habits

Chargers Game

Travis and I went to the Chargers game last night.
Fighters flying over the stadium.
The giant American Flag.

This is L.T. running into the stadium.

Bryce

Bryce Dennen Whitman
8lbs 15oz. 21 inches long. born at 4:55 p.m. 16 October 2009

Not too much longer

Lizzy went in to be induced last night at 7:30p.m. because we have a big baby. She is in labor now and it should be quite a few more hours before delivery.

Woodworking

I made this bed from raw lumber. -A coworker of mine makes furniture on the side and taught me a few things. Its made of poplar and walnut.

Happy birthday Dave!!

Lest we forget what he is capable of

Happy Birthday Ashley!!!


You are beautiful and wonderful. I miss you. Wish I could be there with you to celebrate.

2nd Place

Johnnie entered in a rock climbing competition last weekend and took 2nd place. He was pretty bummed because he knows that he could of taken 1st. It's okay honey you'll get it next time.

The Mamma Test...

This is one of those stupid e-mail forwards that I never read but I thought it was so dang funny (and short enough) that I had to post it for all those Prego Mammas in the fam...

THE MAMA TEST
I was out walking with my 4-year-old daughter. She picked up something off of the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that. 'Why?' my daughter asked.'Because it's been on the ground; you don't know where it's been, it's dirty, and probably has germs,' I replied. At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, 'Mama, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart.' I was thinking quickly. 'All moms know this stuff. It's on the Mama Test. You have to know it, or they don'tlet you be a Mama.' We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information. 'Oh.....I get it!' she beamed, 'So if you don't pass the test you have to be the dad.''Exactly,' I replied with a big smile on my face.

We are happy to announce...

...that we are naming the baby Nathan Henry!

We are having a BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I am so excited, I yelled a big fat YES when the technician said "it's a boy".

Fundraiser

Dakota's soccer team is selling these 1st aid kits. They are $10 each and would be great for the 72 hour kits. If anyone would like any please let me know. Thanks!

David in the Daily Iowan

A reporter for the Daily Iowan took a picture of him hacking durning his lunch break and put a cool pic of him in the newspaper. Here is the link: http://www.dailyiowan.com/2009/09/22/Photo/index.html

Kolob

This is a recent painting that Dad has done. It is a painting of Kolob. Wish I could see it in person.

Families Are Forever

This weekend we were so lucky to spend with the Anderson family in Dallas for some very special events. First, Briana was baptized... and then, later that day, Briana and Jake were sealed to Dave and Liz for time and all eternity in the temple.


We were having so much fun we decided to stay an extra day to spend more time with the family and visit a few touristy sites around Dallas. It was such a great trip and will probably be our last little vacation before we have the baby.

Palm Springs Art Gallery

Aunt Edith sure is enjoying her view these days. She has gotten quite a collection of art displayed on her wall for her viewing enjoyment. She would like to thank all those who have contributed so far. She also wants you to know that she has 3 more walls that can be used up. So send your masterpieces to the Palm Springs Art Gallery.

Happy Birthday Briana!!

Oh no! I goofed and forgot to add Briana's birthday to the list this month! Huge apoligies to the birthday girl!

We can't wait to see the Andersons in the morning - we are so excited for Briana's baptism and the Anderson's sealing!

If I ever forget anyone else, PLEEEEASE let me know... I promise it's not on purpose :)

All Natural!!

Yup...no more spending a ton of money on bleach jobs anymore. I'm going back to my roots...get it...roots! Ha ha!

I posted a video of Jane walking on our blog www.daveandheatherg.blogspot.comIt just takes forever to upload.

Steve's birthday

Ok, so we had a little surprise shindig for Steven. I guess Derek got so used to sharing birthday's with Steven, he forgot his birthday isn't for another 3 days. Watch and see.

Happy Birthday Stevo!

My talk

Mom requested I post my talk so here it is.

Repentance

What can I say about repentance that hasn’t already been said? What I want to say today is how I know repentance has helped me. I want to share my testimony about repentance. I know heavenly father loves each and everyone of us and that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins so we can repent.
I once realized while looking at the picture of Jesus knocking at the door with no handle, that this picture had deeper meaning to me then before. Of course I understood that the reason there was no handle on the door was because it was up to me to let him in. The Lord can not infringe upon our free agency. What I also realized was that I never wanted to let my savior in because I was too embarrassed about the mess my house was in. I thought that in order to invite Christ into my home I would need to fix things up before he could come in. That was the irony of my life; in that picture. I did not know who my savior was. Jesus is a carpenter. He is a healer. I finally was able to truly repent when I let the carpenter and healer in who was knocking on my door. He came to help put my house in order because I could not do it alone. He came to heal my imperfections. I am still shocked at the amount of work God has in store for me. It seems the nice cottage I was expecting is turning out to be a mansion. Christ performs miracles.
Repentance is by definition in the BD, and I want to pay strict attention to its meaning because I think the BD has a wealth of knowledge. It reads:
The Greek word of which this is the translation denotes a change of mind, i.e., a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. Since we are born into conditions of mortality, repentance comes to mean a turning of the heart and will to God, and a renunciation of sin to which we are naturally inclined. Without this there can be no progress in the things of the soul’s salvation, for all accountable persons are stained by sin, and must be cleansed in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Repentance is not optional for salvation; it is a commandment of God.

Repentance has many steps to it. I will breakdown these steps into three parts we must complete in order to receive the full effect of repentance. The first part has to do with understanding repentance it self, and God’s design behind repentance. I say design because god created repentance for a reason. It all started with the fall of man. “aAdam bfell that men might be; and men care, that they might have djoy.” (2 Nephi 2:25) With the fall came sin; with sin came sorrow. With sarrow came repentance. And with repentance came joy. To understand repentance the fall needs to be understood. How can someone have joy if they are in a lost and fallen state? That person must repent. It is truly a blessing to know our own lost and fallen state. Knowing this helps us to be humble. King Benjamin said it best when he addressed his people from the temple toward the end of his days. He had this to say about our own nothingness before God; in Mosiah 4: 5,11
For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your anothingness, and your worthless and fallen state—as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have atasted of his love, and have received a bremission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own cnothingness, and his dgoodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures,

If we do not recognize our unworthy, worthless state then we are only in danger of Pride. President Ezra Taft Benson was the one who taught us to beware of pride and has defined it perfectly. He said;
“Pride is a very misunderstood sin. . . .“Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.
“The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means ‘hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.’ It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us. “Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of ‘my will and not thine be done.’ . . . “Our will in competition to God’s will allows desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled (see Alma 38:12; 3 Nephi 12:30).
“The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives (see Helaman 12:6). They put their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities versus God’s priesthood power, their accomplishments against His mighty works.” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1989, 3–4; or Ensign, May 1989, 4).

Pride is enmity. I don’t know about you but for me that sunk in to me. That was the talk that got into my thick skull. The fact that if I did not repent I was going against god and denying Christ of his atoning sacrifice was heart wrenching. Let us admit our worthlessness with out god and trust in the atonement and let him into our homes to start the real cleansing process no matter the cost. We need to find that humility through faith and trusting in Him.
The second part is the action steps of repenting. Now once we understand, it is time to put faith to work and do something about it. With repentance our heart is broken. Now let us ponder for a moment a broken heart. Has anyone here had there heart broken? Is it an experience you would like to have happen often? I know for myself it is quite exhausting. I have cried so much that the days to follow I was literally drained physically and spiritually. But under the proper care and comfort from the Holy Ghost this is a strengthening experience. The Lord will graft in branches and nourish and trim our olive branches all day long as long as we let him. And this he will do in order to have us become strong and produce good fruit. He taught us this in Ether 12:27:
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their aweakness. I bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my cgrace is sufficient for all men that dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make eweak things become strong unto them.

How can we let God in our lives to do what he does best? We fearlessly and honestly look at ourselves and what lengths we are willing to go to in order to change and to live a more Christ like life. We must examine all our tendencies toward fear, pride, resentment, anger, self-will, and self-pity. We all have character defects that caused us to decide to do wrong. These must be examined and ultimately removed.
After doing a self examination it is time for the only power that can remove our sins to do so; the Priesthood. Confession must be made to your Heavenly Father and or the proper priesthood authorities, and then we are forgiven. Pray to your father and ask forgiveness and see if he will not send his Holy Spirit to comfort you and guide you. In the case of more grievous sins there is a special calling a bishop has to communicate the Lords will to a child of God who is willing to confess their sins and forsake them. I know that our bishop, Bishop Russon is inspired leader of our ward and loves each of us and will do the Lords will in order to help each of us have peace in our hearts no matter how hard it is.
At the same time it is important to have God remove our weaknesses. It is time God made weaknesses into strengths. God has asked us to prove him and see if he will answer prayers. To see if he will do what he has promised. So we must ask him with sincerity and conviction to change, to have him remove the weaknesses and he will do it.
Whenever it is possible restitution must be made. In 3Nephi 12:23, 24 Christ continues to preach to the people of the Americas after his death on the cross:
Therefore, aif ye shall come unto me, or shall desire to come unto me, and rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee— Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be areconciled to thy brother, and then come unto me with full bpurpose of heart, and I will receive you.

Seeking forgiveness and making restitution is one of the most challenging things we can do. Don’t do it alone please. Ask for the Lords help. Seek counsel from priesthood leaders in how to go about seeking restitution. I can’t stress this enough. It is important to do it right. The reward is incomparable. There is a satisfaction in making things right that can only be understood by those who have experienced it themselves.

The third step is enduring to the end. I know that when we pray and ask Heavenly Father to forgive us he does it. He does it right away. It is up to us to work in keeping spiritually fit, learn from our past and grow from it. Each time we do we draw closer to Heavenly father. Our testimonies grow of the atonement.
In order to endure to the end and maintain spiritually fit we must first be accountable each day for our actions. It was taught to me when I was a young missionary to report each day to my Heavenly Father my events for the day. This is a good idea. Talk to God and let him know what is going on. Sometimes I felt I wasn’t getting through. Well if you feel the same way then do as a stake president once told me. Just leave a message. God will return your call every time. Examine weaknesses and watch for pride.
Praying to your Heavenly father to seek his will and to ask for spiritual experiences will keep us on the right path. Sometimes I have found it hard to ask for spiritual experiences because I always associate that with missionary work. Sometimes I honestly dread talking about the gospel to a stranger. Well I have since learned to trust God. There is a prayer called the serenity prayer that I like to keep in mind. It says: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. - Trust in God.
Lastly I want to talk about giving back. Part of repentance is to give service or spread the good news. Whenever possible give service. Attend the temple in the spirit of service. This will soften the heart and bring inner peace to the soul. There will be less time to mess up when service is being done. The spirit will accompany you as you share the good news of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Coming to church and participating in the sacrament is the most important practice we can do as individuals for ourselves. It is an ordinance to renew our covenants. It is a time to repent and reconcile with God. It is a sacred time. What I hope everyone understands is that when Members come together to sacrament meeting seeking forgiveness and in a repentant attitude the spirit is the strongest. The Lord loves to see groups of souls gather together in the spirit of repentance. Repentance needs to be apart of life. We came to this earth to be tested to see if when we sin we will go to God or not. We are also tested to see if we endure to the end. If you think about it really isn’t that hard. We just have to endure to the end of each day really, just do it today. And tomorrow do it again.
In the name of Jesus Christ amen.

2 YEARS CLEAN AND SOBER!!!

Well it has officially been 2 years clean and sober for me. Life has been so good to me. I am giving my first talk in a long time in sacrament meeting on Sunday and guess what I am speaking on. Yep, repentence. Thanks for everybody's support through the years. I give thanks to God and Isa of course.

Humphrey Bogart

Dave might be embarassed for me braging about him but I just have to. He has been doing digital painting and he is getting better and better. I loved how this one turned out. He was going for a stylized look. Every week at work they post a photo for you to do a digital painting of. I just love how his skin looks.

The Cookie Trolley

Hey Everyone, We had a fun day last week and wanted to share it with you. My friend owns a trolley business in Temecula and let me use her trolley for an hour. I invited several families from our ward to ride the 'Cookie Trolley.' Everyone met at our house with cookies and we packaged them up on plates. When the trolley arrived everyone jumped on despite the fact that it said "Trolley Wine Tours" on the side. So a bunch of Mormons went and delivered cookies to other Mormons advertising wine tours. It was pretty funny. Betheny was kind enough to write a little song for us to sing when we went to each house. It goes like this:
We have a little jingle,
that we would like to sing.
We've come here on our trolley,
and cookies we did bring.
The cookie trolley comes,
to those we love you see.
We hope that you feel special
Although we sing off key.
At first some people thought the song was corny but by the end of the night they wouldn't stop singing it. It was pretty funny when Ashley accidently delivered cookies to the wrong house. We sang to them anyways and they were so happy about it too. Our Bishop suggested that we visit some elderly and less active homes which we did and it turned out to be a special night for all. Many of them grabbed their shoes and jumped on the trolley with us. One elderly sister sat next to me and told me it was one of the best nights of her life. Our family had a great time!

More Genealogy

Hi everyone,
I have started a genealogy blog about our Whitman ancestors. Hopefully this will be a place where you can find out more about our family and perhaps others who are working on the same lines will find it as well. Please visit at http://thehopechestgenealogy.blogspot.com/. If you have someone you'd like me to post about then just let me know. I get calls from lots of you asking for stories and information, and this is a good way to answer your questions, too. Thanks!

New House!

Dave and I are buying our first house! We got in on a great incentive program to buy new construction homes. The city pays for 30% of the homes value at closing with a soft second loan. Within 5 years the loan is forgiven and every year before that it is pro rated. There were approved builders with a list of floor plans to choose from. We chose a condo that is part of a four plex. It is three levels with 1835 sq ft with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. Just today I was able to go and pick out my flooring, paint colors, countertops and lighting fixtures. It should be finished by December 31st (hopefuly before November 30th to get the first time home buyer stimulus). This is what it will look like when its finished.Here is our view from our front window. Beautiful wild flowers and corn fields. This is what it looked like last week. Today when I drove by it had the second story framework up with some drywall. The roof should be on by the end of next week.

Baby # 2

Well ..... Here we go again!

I am 13 weeks

and due February 17th.

And we are sooo Excited!!!

Guess I'm the third pregnant lady.....They always come in 3's in our family.

MY NEW POT RACK!!

The Concrete Floors!!! This is the truest to color that I'm gonna get with my camera...The Beams that Jacob put in the basement...The amazing faux granite table that Jacob made for me! My amazing husband made me the best gift EVER for our upcoming anniversary on the 25th of this month. He made me a beautiful, modern POT RACK!!!! It looks SO amazing in my kitchen. The wood and the black metal match the kitchen perfectly. He even put lights in it to make it just over the top! I am so glad that he got that welder earlier this year! And he did all of this in less than 3 days! I'm telling you, when he gets started on a project, there is no stopping him. Now all I need is a new set of pretty pots! :) Here are some pics of it along with all the other amazing projects that Jacob has done to make our house a home.

Guess What?!

We're pregnant! The baby is due in March, I am only 4 weeks and I know that it is still early but I am just too excited to keep this information to myself.

Love,
Johnnie, Veronica, Dakota and Logan

Read Me

Post what you think it reads.

Celebrating the 4th in Utah!

So they day started off early at the Provo Parade. It was packed on this hot day. We cooled off with some sparkling yogurt which means it was carbonated. I know that sounds weird but it was pretty good. After the parade we went to Vivian park and enjoyed some great chicken sandwiches thanks to Betheny. We then went rafting down the Provo river on a 15 passenger raft named Homer. Good thing Jacob was steering or we have been stuck under the bridge like the others. Scott and Cece had a great Barbeque at their home and invited all including Norma's family, Tomseths, Whitmans and Carters. Thanks Mom for planning such an awesome day for all!

Happy 4th of July everyone. We missed you all. Heres a little of what was happening here in Iowa. The kids and I went to see the parade in the rain. Surprizingly it was still super packed. The floats would throw out candy for the kids in the street and most of it ended up in the gutter. That didnt stop Tommy from getting it. I just took it and put it in a separate bag to throw away when we got home. So much wasted candy. Jane didnt mind the rain at all. Tommys favorite part was the fire engine.

We watched the fireworks from our apartment parking lot. It was a great view without the crowds. We watched them with my friend Gabby and her kids. Ale is Tommy's best friend. They were running and jumping and screaming "OOHHHH thats my FAVORITE" after every firework. It was so funny. Jane just sat in a trance till it was over. It is so hard to get Dave to be serious for any pictrue, but thats why I love him. Hope you all had a great time too.

Happy 4th of July

Here are some pictures of yesterdays activites. We hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July!

Jacob hit the BIG 3-0!!!!

Yup, Jacob is finally 30! He said that he actually really felt this birthday. He had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that he is no longer in his 20's. :) I got him a GPS system, made him a cake and threw him a suprise B-Day party with a ton of our closest friends. The party was a TON of fun. We had a Luau theme. I made pulled pork sandwiches, roasted potatoes, corn on the cob, watermellon, pineapple, ect. Of course, no Luau is complete without a proper "Roast"...comedy central style, that is! A bunch of our friends prepared "Roast" speeches to give to the old geezer. We were dying laughing.

Then we had a special preformance from one of Jacob's closest friends, Rich. I asked him to sing "Brett, you've got it going on" from Fight of the Concohrds (You Tube it!!)...you know, to make him feel better about turning 30. :) Except, of course he changed the name from Brett to Jacob. It was hillarious! He's from Australia so his accent made it even better! (Flight of the Concohrds are from New Zeland) Rich even went the extra mile and sang a second 'Flight of the Conchords' song about how "Jacob and I met". The song was called "The most beautiful girl". SO funny! (Warning: Flight of the Concohrds are a little on the crude side, so I wouldn't let your children watch it and if you have aversions to crude yourself, I wouldn't You-Tube it :)

Then we had an "Explination of the Cake" and all dug into it. (Explination can be found on http://www.whitmansugarmammas.blogspot.com/) I had even made a poster listing random facts, headlines and cost of living from WAY back in 1979 and posted it on the fence. :) Jacob loves random trivia. :)

After that, we all headed down to the basement to watch the hillarious video that my friend, Phil helped me put together. It was basically a "Dateline Special Report" of Jacob's life...with some fiction added in. :) (Thanks for letting me steal all your ideas, Crys!)

What a fun night. Happy Birthday honey! I love you more than anything!

Mary & Mary

When little Mary sent us her baptism invitation with her picture in it, I placed it on a shelf next to Grandma Mary Whitman's picture. Brooke saw the two pictures together and said, "Look, its Mary and Mary." So, of course I had to make something with both pictures and this was the result. I'm sure Grandma Mary is very happy that little Mary made the choice to be baptized.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL YOU GREAT DAD'S

Stinkin' Skunk!

At 5am on Friday morning, I let the two dogs out because one of them was whining. I thought I would be a nice guy and let out even though I was really tired. I opened the door without knowing there was a skunk out there. Big Mistake! It is hard to put into words the frantic mayhem that ensued. In the darkness I saw skunk and dogs darting this way and that. It sprayed both dogs and the porch and doghouse. After the 5am clean up mess that followed, I found that myself and our entire house reeked of wretched skunk spray. It is so much more vile and potent than I thought it would be. We still smell skunky and we can't seem to wash it off despite all the newly discovered remedies on the internet. Needless to say, we now hate skunks.

Samantha's Graduation from Elementary School

Can you believe that Samantha is going into middle school next year? We can't. Sami is very excited though, and because her school hosted a Hollywood-themed party after the graduation, Sami had to be dressed to the nines! She HAD to be dressed in sleek slacks and a trendy, but sophisticated, vest. It took us two hours to do her hair, but it sure was worth the look! Here she is with some friends and teachers. The kids partied until late, and Sami was wired when she got home. Enjoy the summer while it's here!

Hannah's 9th Birthday Luau

birthdays calls

To everyone who called,
Aunt Edith wants to thank you for calling her on her birthday. Hope everyone is well and have a wonderfull year.
Aunt Edith

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR AUNT EDITH!

E ndearing Spirit

D ivine Singing Voice
I nspirational

T ender Heart

H ilarious

Aunt Edith, thank you for being such a wonderful person. We have all learned so much from you and we are all better people because of you. We are so happy that God blessed us with you.

We love you Aunt Edith!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It's a .......

Today we went to the doctor for our 20th week sonogram. After work, I brought home some BLUE bonnets for Lizzy. It's a good thing they were in season, otherwise I would have had trouble finding the appropriate color.

Battle of the Logos

So Im trying to come up with some logos for my cake business here. I cant decide which one I like best, so Im going to ask the Whitman clan for help. Which do you like. Do you have any suggestions? Id love to hear them. Panambi means butterfly in some language that my friend speaks. Shes from Guatamala.

we had a small accident at home. it was the sadest thing i ever say. we just moved the girls upstairs and i usually secure the dressers to the wall but failed to do so in this last move. little sunny opened the drawer to the night stand with the 45lb tv on it and the tv came tumbling on top of her. she was hit directly in the bridge of her nose. her sisters were frightened. isa and i were both sure her nose was brkoen because of the position it was in. Isa ran her to the hospital meanwhile the girls and i were praying fervently for sunny's recovery since she was starting to slip into unconciousness. soon isa called to let me know they were doing a cat scan and that sunny was feeling better. i could hear her singing to the nurses at the hospital in the background. She was of course getting all kinds of attention. turns out that the catscan showed a perfectly healthy baby. we know that our prayers were answered right then. sunny came home and we all greeted her with hugs and kisses. she was running around laughing and playing. later when we knelt for family prayer i asked sunny if she saw herself in the mirror yet, she hadn't. we all waited in silence as she ran to the next room to look in the mirror. we expected a sob or crying. as we waited silently we finally heard her say "what the Heck!!!" and then she came in laughing. we love sunny.

Mary's Baptism

I know it is a bit late but whatever. Mary was baptized and it was an exciting day. She was baptized by her grandpa Noel. Her second grade teacher Mr. Martin also came. Mary is so much fun and is a great big sister. We are so happy for her and we know she has a testimony.

Happy Birthday Jackson

Jackson turned 1 on Thursday. We made it through one year. Hooray! He is growing and developing by leaps and bounds. In fact he finally made it on to the growth chart. He has always come in so low that he didn't fit into the curve, but not any more. He is now 18lbs. 10 oz(5%) and 28 1/4 inches long (10%) Yay little man! You are growing up. He is also babbling tons and pulling himself up to stand. He can walk on his own, but not to far (Derek measured. His record is 10 feet.)

Here he was one year ago.

Check him out now! Here is how he spent his special day.
First a little skinny dipping in the pool. "sigh" You don't want to know where his hand is.

Drying off with Mommy. I can't tell if I look more tired now or a year ago when he was born.

But what would a birthday be with good eats? Here he is getting ready to chow down on smoked ribs, corn and baked beans. Yum! Thanks G-pa Harry for the feast.

Jackson even had a guest come over. Its cousin Tysen. Ty loves corn on the cob. He gnawed on that thing for a good 15 minutes.

And of course we had cake. Sorry wonderful cakemakers in the family. We were plain out of fondant so we had to make do with cherry fruitroll up. But we did personalize a J and T cupcake. The boys liked licking the icing of their own personal letters and eating it up.

Now Tyty really knows how to put away cake!

And of course the day would not be complete without some destruction and mayhem. Jackson has been pulling himself up in his crib. Of course he would eventually find the wall hanging behind his bed. I just had no idea he would be strong enough to rip the blanket down and play with the curtain rod end piece. He does look pretty proud of himself though.

Top Inventor (again)

Doug is constantly amazing me with his geniusness. Last week we went to his 3rd annual Patent Awards Dinner with Luminex. Dinner was awesome. Yes, that fancy steak dinner is the main reason I get so excited about attending these events and am more than willing to sit through the guest speaker who I can never keep up with (we can't all be science geniuses like the Doug)...

To my surprise, after dinner, Doug was named the Top Inventor for 2008 for all of Luminex! As if this wasn't enough, this was actually the second time. As many of you might remember, he also won in 2006!!

I had Doug write a little bit about the invention that he won for this year (I almost feel like I'm quoting a celebrity - Ha):

"I invented a new method that allows DNA to be snapped closed so

that it will pop open ONLY when viruses are present in the patient sample – allowing for detection of the specific diseases.
This invention brings us closer to the goal of providing tests to doctors that can indicate (within an hour) what disease their patients have.

It seems silly at times to claim these ideas as our own when they are only given to us to benefit mankind. I can personally attest the influence from the source of all knowledge above." -Doug

A little late

This is the cake that Johnnie did for Logan's b-day. I am only 3 weeks late posting this but now Johnnie wont bug me anymore =)

Panambi Cakes

My friend and I are starting a little cake business together here in Iowa. Check out our blog at www.panambicakes.blogspot.com

Sign up to be a follower.

the bounty

This year we rolled up our sleeves and fired up the rototiller. We finally got our garden rolling, picket fence and all. We had a bit of a rocky start but now we are reaping the rewards. Here is our first harvest of lettuce & spinach. It was so good. Our zucchini & tomatoes are almost ready to pick and it shouldn't be long for the the carrots, peas & beans. I plan on canning a lot of the vegetables to add to our food storage. The girls love to go in and help me weed and pick the veggies. I never thought I would be able to say that. Who knows maybe it will even get them to change their mind about eating them.

Special Delivery From MARS!!

LIMITED TIME OFFER!

A Custom made, space age, modern, out door shower.

These beauties are in high demand and going fast.

Put your order in now.

Call toll free 1-800-Big-John

The reviews are in!

Our First customer in Palm Springs, Edith McDaniel, rated it FIVE STARS!

She was quoted saying "It is Very modern and looks like it came straight from outer space."

You don't know what true freedom feels like until you've tested this baby out!

First 10 customers get a free screen for those who are on the modest side.

Water Heater not included

Just Don't Get on her Bad Side!

The other day I asked Ashley if she wouldn't mind baby sitting Tysen for us while we went on a date.

I guess she was really sick and fed up with people asking her to babysit because all of a sudden she got real shaky, her eyes began to twitch, drool started seeping from her mouth her hair (weirdly) started to float up and she THREW her hands up in a TERRIBLE RAGE!

Then BAM!

She turned into FIRE GIRL...spitting fire at us! Then she looked at me with her blood red eyes and simply said "ask me to babysit oooone more time...just ask me".

We did not ask her again.
Just a heads up...Ashley does not want to babysit right now!

Fiddler on the Roof Jr

Tyler played the Fiddler for his middle school production of Fiddler on the Roof, Jr., and did a spectacular job. I didn't even recognize him. The CD will be out later. Here are some shots from those nights.

What??

Tommy the artist

Tommy has been making major leaps in his drawing ability. I cant believe how quickly he started drawing people. Did I start this early Mom? The top drawing is basically what he was doing last week. Now all of a sudden something just clicked and he started drawing "things". The second drawing is one he did of Daddy (see the long legs, body and head), a skeloton ( ribs and legs), and the last one is Jane (body and two little legs) The even have feet. He just amazes me with his detail.

Nothing is impossible...

if you just ask the Whitman Clan!!
My niece is a finalist in a contest for a food storage shelf. She is in the lead but the others are gaining on her. The contest closes on Saturday the 16th. You can vote once a day per computer. You do not have to sign up for anything. Just click the link below and vote for Heather R.

http://www.shelfreliance.com/blog/

Thanks so much. I am proud to be associated with such a wonderful family.

Liz

Happy Mothers Day

To: Mom, Rebecca, Melissa, Shelley, Betheny, Crystal, Cece, Lizzy, Isa, Veronica, and Emily.

Happy Mothers Day to all of the beautiful Mothers in my life.

Love, Heather

The Many Sides of Jackson

Yesterday, I had a photo shoot with sweet little Jackson. We took belated Easter pictures, Captain of the Love Boat pictures and Cowboy birthday pictures. It was hard to take a bad picture of Jackson because even when he was crying the picture turned out cute. Jackson did so well considering he had three outfits to change into. We had lots of fun with this little cutie!

Captain of the Love Boat

Easter

Cowboy Birthday

(almost one!)

Before the photo shoot I had to use Tysen as my model so I could test my lighting. The only way he would stay is if I let him dig into the forbidden purse! He knows that this is a NO NO.

First he carefully looked inside and grabbed my wallet. He kept looking at me, waiting for me to take it away...when I didn't he became OVERCOME with JOY that he could play with my wallet. He opened my wallet and decided to pick pocket my money! Oh well, at least I got the lighting right.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO MY DAUGHTERS

What a blessed mother I am to have a postarity of great moms for daughters. I am so proud of all of you. In your own individual ways, you love your children, teach and give your time and heart. Thank you Rebecca, Cecilia, Melissa, Shelley, Lizzy, Isa, Veronica, Betheny, Emily, Heather, and Crystal. I look at each one of you in turn and my heart swells with love and gratitude for who you are and what you do. Thank you for being great moms. I can only begin to know how much the Lord loves you for fulfilling your greatest calling by caring for his precious children. WOW is for MOM

UPDATES!

Hey Mom,
There are lots of updates on my personal blog. I know you like to see them on this blog but they are from a while ago and I'm playing catch up. It's just way too much to put on here too. There's everything from Fall pics to Christmas, to the ballet with Lizzy, Lizzy's B-day party, Ry's b-day, Easter and more. Just click on this link, mom: http://www.tomseth.blogspot.com/. Love you!

This year for Mother's day I told the kids that I wanted to have a nice portrait of me and them. They were so cooperative and dressed up for me. Crystal was nice enough to do the girls hair and makeup and Travis even let her do his hair. I think the children look so good. My photographer friend Randy took the shot for us and did a great job. This is one of those photos that I will keep forever. After taking pictures of Shelley and her 3 girls for mothers day I just had to have one myself.

I remember when my children were small and cute and now they are tall and gorgeous...almost as tall as me. I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's day (May 10th-coming up!)

Love, Melissa

Five Years

Dave and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this weekend. It was so nice to go out with out the kids (thanks Mom). I cant believe it has been 5 years. It seems like it should be longer. Sometimes it feels like we were always together and hard to believe that there was a time when we werent. Its been a great 5 years and Im excited to see what the next 5 years bring us. I love you Dave.

Beach Trip

Just another perfect beach day in California =)

Johnnie climbing rocks at Corona Del Mar

Photography by Audrey

Laura loves the Madagascar movies...She is such a doll!

first ultrasound

Thursday we had our first ultrasound, which was amazing. Right away we were able to see the baby stretching out and moving all around. I wasn't expecting to see the baby so clearly at this point, so it was quite a surprise. It really helped make it even more real for me and the Doug.

In this first picture you can see how the baby was waving his hand during a lot of the ultrasound, just saying hi.

We have our second ultrasound scheduled for June 3 so we can hopefully find out the sex at that time. I am getting so anxious to find out if we will be having a boy or a girl. Doug thinks that based on these pictures, it's definitely a boy... but the doctor wasn't able to tell yet. So far in my family there are 8 granddaughters, so some are kind of pulling for a boy for #9er, :)

Let us know what YOU think:

WIll Doug and Lizzy's baby be a boy or a girl?

Boy

Girl

ugg boots

Mary Kay

Im putting in an order if anyone wants anything 50% off plus shipping. I want to get the order in by Saturday if I can.

easter in arizona

we had some fun this easter although it was a little lonley with out the stabile egg hunt. we did our own egg hunt with a dozen eggs that the girls decorated then Zoee and Daddy got sick from eating and stayed home from work and school today. we also decorated an easter egg cake and went to see the cool easter pagent at the mesa temple.

QUINN'S GRADUATION

Quinn will be graduating May 28th at the McKay Center at UVU, at 10:00 am. He is also registered for summer classes at UVU.

It's about time!

We've got our first newborn on the way! Lizzy is 12 weeks along and her due date is October 20th.
We are excited and can hardly wait to welcome our firstborn into the world.

SUPER HERO EASTER EGGS !!!

Ok, Its not enough to do super hero ginger bread during Christmas...so I had to do Super hero Easter eggs!

Coming to a Easter party near you!

The Many Faces of David

Im posting this as proof that my husband is no longer walking around Iowa City looking like an umpalumpa. Just when I thought he was finally going to be done with his mustache, he proved me wrong, again, and again.Then finally the real David emerged. Now he looks very handsome. I didnt realize how much weight he had lost in the weight loss competition till he got rid of the "stach".

Jewelry

I felt like being creative and made a jewelry holder for my necklaces, ear rings and bracelets. Pretty cool huh? I love how I can just see everything and don't have to hunt for it in a jewelry box. Feels good to be organized. Thanks John S. for drilling the holes for me.

spring

Wow, we actually did it...we took family pictures, well sort of. You'll notice someone is missing. We just couldn't tear John away from the rototiller long enough to jump in the picture. We'll have to come up with a better trap...I mean "plan"for the next time.(so....crystal ~how good are you at photoshop again?)

I like to tell people that the girls are contemplating the beauty of the nature that surrounds them, not quite.... they're actually pulling stickers out of their hands from the weedy flowers.

...and the ugly side of photography!Big thanks to Melissa of course!!

General Conference Road Trip!!!!

Brother and Sister Smith in my branch invited me and my friend, Melissa Hansen, to go to General Conference with them. So we packed our bags and headed off on Friday mornin'.... EARLY friday morning. Haha! Anyways, the Smith's are really good travel buddies and are great people to be around. The plan was to stay with them at their daughter, Crystal's, house in Syracuse. Since Beth and Jacob happened to live....oh... about 5 minutes way from them, they let me stay at their house to sleep and hang out and stuff. So then me and Beth stayed up late watching Twilight and indulging ourselves with Raspberry Chocolate ice cream and such. Then on Saturday, The Smith's + their son, Logan, + their daughter & her husband + Melissa H. + Melissa H.'s neice, Crystal (ya, there were two Crystals) picked me up and we attended the second session on that day. It was so awesome! It was surreal to have even been in the same building as the Prophet!! And then after that amazing experience at Coference, We sent all the boys over to Preisthood meeting and all of us girls walked around temple square and had a blast! AND!!!! I got to meet SHERRI DEW at a book signing!!!! It was pretty much, the best day ever. Then, we left early sunday morning to go back home. on the way we stopped in Las Vegas and walked around a bit to stretch out n' stuff. It was pretty fun.

Carter kids update

Travis is shown here racing a car at pole position. He loved it.

Brooke just got her braces on her bottom row of teeth. She is so happy to finally have braces but doesn't like how they hurt.

Morgan left for Japan on April 1st. This is a picture of her getting ready to load the bus for the airport. So far I've heard that she is having a great time and the cherry blossoms are in bloom.

???

As if it could get worse!

Still looking

There were some complications with the condo and the deal fell through. I was a upset about it but Im over it now. We are still looking and know that Heavenly Father will lead us to the right home when the time is right.

HAPPY BIR-F-DAY BOOGERS!

Here are a few pictures of the festivities that went on at my house for Brooke's Birthday!
I didn't take my camera out until half way through the party but at least I got the head smash into the cake!

It was loads of FUN!

Group Shot!

Brooke blowing out the candles on her Ding Dong cake!

Laura is determined to blow out that trick candle.

Of course, Steven's big hand swoops in at the last second and BOOM...instant cake face!

Poor Brooke! And there were BOYS at the party....how embarrassing!

Best Buds!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKE!

Pictures of Jackons

Here are some recent pictures of Jackson. I posted some more on our blog.

weekend with dad

the other weekend isa flew to california to hang with her friends and i was with the girls all weekend. we had great fun. the stake put on a little carnival and they had a rock climbing wall. the girls got about 6ft up and the fear settled in and they quit but i git a few pics before that.

Austin Hail Storm

I was working late two days ago, when I heard slamming noises on the roof. I looked out the window and saw golf ball and lemon size hail pummeling all the cars in the parking lot including my jeep. The jeep now has very large dents all over it, and alot of the cars had windsheilds with hail that smashed right through them. It lasted about 10 minutes, until the ground was completely covered in white ice and all the branches and leaves from the oak trees that got pelted. It is an experience I will never forget.

Sunny Day

Mom wanted to see more of Tommy.

A warm sunny day is very unusual in the middle of March in Iowa. It was about 70 degrees with a light breeze. The perfect day for the park. We were at the park for about 4 hours. We just didnt want to miss all of the sunshine. We had a great time. Tommy and his new friends dug a hole so deep that they found water (there is a lake in the park). Here are a few pictures of our perfect day. After that we went to the pet store and looked at all the neat animals and dogs up for adoption. For Tommy it was the perfect day.

Today is a good day...

Today is a good day...and it's only 9:45! Here are the reasons why:

1. I made some fantastic berry-oatmeal pancakes (so easy!)

2. Lizzy officially declared her Tomseth liniage by actually saying the words : "I have a better idea" out loud.

3. Trevor actually RAN to the potty all by himself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been taking his diaper off for the past 2 days (since we are finally putting concrete flooring in soon) and he is finally "Getting It". I had also been denying him access to the bathroom since he could open door for two reasons: 1. He destroys it. 2. The initial reason that he started wanting to go to the bathroom was because he would do anything just to be able to get into the bathroom like his brother and sister get to do. Turns out, once I took the child door handle off a couple of days ago, he was glad to run in there. It gave him a sence of independance and was actually much easier to just run in there himself instead of trying to find someone that would open the door for him or waiting for someone to tell him it was time to potty. I guess he doesn't like being told what to do...he totally gets that from me! :)
Anyway...today was a good day.

Jane and the Train

Jane had been staring at the train going round and round and she finally decided to go for it. I think this toy will get her to crawl very soon. This last one is how it ended. Dont worry no babies were injured during the making of this film.