White Family

Summer 2011

2011-09-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

WOWEE!! It has been soo long! You all know what life is like--living out of a suitcase for 2 months, traveling all over with kids, FINALLY coming home: recovering, work, med school, my schooling, work again, 2 KIDS... Yes, we finally got back into the swing of things but its been hard to find blogging time...

Now that some of my summer pics are done I'm getting closer to caught up. I won't be all the way done until all my Spain pictures are finished, but thats A LONG WAYS AWAY still...:( I have to have Jake around to sit with me for 3 hours or so to remind me where we went...:)

In the meantime, enjoy the more recent pictures. After we left for Spain the kids stayed in Boise for 2 weeks at G&G Whites house the for another 2 weeks at G&G Packhams house. They had a good time, but we missed each other and it was soo fun to see them again for the 4th of July! We had to wake the kids up early to hug and kiss them because we couldn't handle it anymore! :)

We loved our time seeing old friends in Bear Lake, then we headed to my parents house in Burley for a week and a half. After that we went to Jakes house in Boise for another week and a half. During that time we had a great time with the kids and extended families and Jake got in a lot of his summer homework shadowing Family Practioners and Internal Medicine Docs. Always working that boy...:)

Hope you all had a grand summer! :)

FAMILY time!

2011-05-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

WE LOVE OUR FAMILY SO MUCH! We're soo blessed for each other, our kids, our extended family and the opportunity to be an eternal family!

First Camping trip of the Summer!

2011-05-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

Jake and Med School

2011-05-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

SUMMER!

2011-05-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

Group Fun!

2011-05-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

April visit to IDAHO! :)

2011-05-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

So we headed to Idaho with the Whites who had just visited for Easter! It was so nice having family to ride down with and divide and conquer with the kids! (2 roudy kids by yourself in a car for 5+ hours gets difficult REALLY fast in my car, with my kids!:) We stayed a short time in Boise and then headed down to Burley to get to work on Mom and Dad Packham's new house.

Yes, many pictures from Burley, but they got a NEW HOUSE so I just had a lot to post! After Burley the kids and I headed to Boise for a few days to spend some time at the Whites! We had a great time there too and LOVE ALL OUR FAMILY!!

The EVERYDAY...

2011-05-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

PNWU's 5K and Health Fair!

2011-05-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

Easter Weekend 2011

2011-05-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

For Easter this year we did a lot of fun things! We went to a PNWU Easter Event and made friends with the Easter Bunny and had a fun Easter Egg hunt! Grandma and Grandpa White, Carley and her friend Rory came up to visit us for the weekend and we had a great time with them too! Just before we left with them on Sunday to head back to Boise we had a little backyard Easter Egg hunt with the Jensens and the Heals too! Charlie was really emotional because he couldn't eat his candy all at one time and Hannah loved eating her candy all the way home with her spoiling Grandma and Grandpa! :) Thanks for visiting and YAY for a fun Easter! :)

Also that Easter Weekend we all went up to Leavenworth, WA to see what all the hype was about. It was a quaint little town and we had a fun time seeing the sights as tourists, picnicing and taste testing all the taffy! (We accidentaly fed Hannah one of the REALLY hot ones...poor girl! :(

One Jake's classmates is our neighbor and her family owns the Enzian Inn in Leavenworth. She recommended that we go and see the bunnies that they have every Easter. The kids loved the bunnies and we loved the awesome hotel! Fun day! :)

Hope you all had an AWESOME Easter! :) It was great to have had family up. That always means lots of good food and company! Me and the kids went home with them and stayed in Idaho for 1.5 weeks while Jake took tests and started studying for finals! We really missed him and he missed us, but I got a lot of work done on my parents new house in Burley, the kids got a lot of grandparent time at both houses, and Jake got a lot of studying done! We're sure happy to be home though! :)

Photo Memories this Semester...

2011-03-28T22:07:00.000-07:00

2nd Semester 2011

2011-01-27T13:37:00.000-08:00

Well here are a few more pictures to go along with the update posted a few days back. This one above is all potty training at age 2.5 with Hannah's various panties, briefs, decorations and rewards for being good. Not pictured--all the CANDY! :)

Yep, this girl is always busy doing something--naughty or nice. TV time is about the only few minutes I can get her to sit still and give her mom a break! :) I just HAD to get a picture of that Desitin mess! Boy was I mad, but it was too funny all at the same time! Love my little girl!

Jake is quite the chef--probably because I'm not! I just can't seem to motivate my self to cook very much, but it will have to happen soon because its the best way to keep the kids fed, right? They don't starve, thats for sure, but I'm coming to realize that getting their random food together last minute is probably even more work than an actual meal I could make in the same about of time that would feed them for days!

Yes, I'm slowly figuring these things out, slowly.... Until then I'll just keep enjoying the food Jake makes, on Sunday. I keep forgetting that thats the only day he has time to cook! Maybe I should just hire on a chef with all my loads of extra cash! :)

Yep, its true--I have two CUTE little kids! :) What would I do without them?! Thanks for being part of my life babies! :)

Ok, so the following are pictures from Jake's Medical School Formal that was held this last weekend. I was nervous about it for a long time, but it didn't end up being too bad. Interesting, but not too bad. :)

Yep, we were about the only ones with our shoulders covered--thats for sure. That was one of my first real-life situations of being "in the world, but not of the world." (I don't get out much...:) Yeah, I felt really out of place dress wise, but I'm glad I found a twin who looked the same! :)

Don't even get me started.... I do love those girls-even though they made me dance! The girls on the top right are our neighbors just up a building from us. The girl on the bottom left is Jake's VP. They're super fun and I love having good friends in Jake's class!

Well, thanks for checking out the pictures and hope you all have a fabulous day!

Updates for Posterity...

2011-01-25T23:17:00.000-08:00

WHITE FAMILY Updates

So, I've been meaning to make a little journal entry about life for the family lately.... Its 10:30 and Hannah's been up chatting in her bed for the last hour, so I thought I would invite her down for a little Dora while I play around on the computer. Maybe we'll get to see Dad at 11, but probably not. Its test week and so he probably won't be home after midnight again. Anyway, on to the updates!

-Hannah started potty training on January 15th and has done EXCELLENT ever since! Yes, she still has a few accidents, but I don't think it will be too long till she's all done! :) Jake was mostly responsible for the success of potty trianing--finally getting us to do it. I do pride myself in holding off until she was 2 1/2 though, because I don't think she would be as ready to do it if we had started much earlier. :)

She is also talking a bunch and its so nice being able to communicate relatively easily with at least one of my kids! She loves her Dora panties and her Diego briefs (yes, thats right, briefs...she watches Diego just as much as Dora, so it only seemed fair! Besides, they stay up so much better! :) Her favorite things do include watching her little movies Dora, Deigo, Barney and Blue's Clues to name a few. She's great at counting, almost to ten, and she almost has the whole ABC song down! She also really loves helping Charlie when he's sad, but also loves botherin him too--explain that to me!

They got a new small "jump-o-line" from the Clayvilles that they love to go up in their room and jump on! Its awesome! We all can't wait until it gets just a little warmer outside when we start spending more time outdoors! Until then we really take advantage of the park on sligthtly warmer days, will be spending more time at Kids Castle (a huge play place probably 10x plus the size of any McDonalds play place! A mom's dream come true, especially on 2 for one Wednesdays for $2.50! :)

-Charlie is pretty good at identifying all the parts of his face and loves to point them all out. He even sticks his little tongue out when we tell him too! His favorite word is "ball" and phrase is "wass tha" while pointing and he says them all the time! He is walking around like champ and I'm having to get used to not having to carry a kid around. Its a weird feeling having been carrying a baby around for 2+ years. I need to enjoy it while it lasts I guess... He's turning into a pretty independant sucker lately, which I'm happy about in a lot of ways. He sure is getting an attitude on top of that too though, and I'm not such a big fan of that. Another favorite word I forgot to mention was "NO!" He's such a cute little stinker! :)

Even though he has his moments, we're actually proud to say that since most of Charlies teeth are finally in, he is starting turn into a pretty happy boy! Teething has been pretty rough for him and he almost seems like a new boy, being so independant, less whiny and just overall, more happy! Hes so much fun and you can't just help but squeeze him whenever you get the chance!

(from Western Day at the school! Love the handle-bar mustache! :)

-Daddy is busy BUSY at school! He has one test block every month and it comes right at the end of the month. So the first few weeks are always a little more lax, but then around the end everyone really kicks in gear for the tests soon to come. They always have 8-10 tests that last Friday. Jake has told me that it feels like taking the ACT every month--YIKES! He works so hard and test weeks we NEVER see him!

He likes to spend his break time researching our trip to Spain coming in June! We just got our plane tickets last week so now its official! The plan is now that we're leaving the kids with family for a month while Jake and I head to Spain. After two weeks Jakes family is going to come up and meet us for awhile and it will be fun hitting the beach, touring the sights and just taking it easy. I've been having a hard time not feeling guilty about leaving the kids with others and missing them so much too! I've had to come to realize that this is time for Jake and I to recover from being apart so much and its a MUCH NEEDED break for Jake to get away from his med school life and enjoy himself. Should be fun--our apartment is only 2K from the beach! I have a feeling we'll be there alot! And in my free time while Jake is doing his Red Cross service stuff I can hopefully finish up my Interior Design school stuff!!

Jake still continues to be an AWESOME Daddy and I'm so happy these kids have such a loving, fun dad! He's also really good about taking care of me and my needs even when he's got so many other things going on! Love you Jake!

He has also been working on these slippers for a long time. They were made with an IKEA sheepskin rug and leather scraps from Micheals. Oh Jake and his projects--so cute! :)
-I am busy finding things to fill up my time while Jake's at school. Turns out that it hasn't been that hard! Me and the other wifes up here can't help but have a ton of events planned to help pass the time. We have recipe exchanges/food sampling get togethers, play groups, park dates, babysitting tradeoff for free time, etc... Its been great having so many friends here to spend time with! We've loved the community, our friends, and everything up here and know PNWU was the perfect choice for our family!

Some things that fill up my time include watching kids 24/7 as a single mother... Surprising how much time that takes up! :) I try to cook every now and then, get groceries, fulfill church duties and sleep here and there. I've been doing a lot of stuff with my Etsy shop lately that has been a fun pasttime. I love being in control of when I want to be busy and not so I can prioritize my life a little bit. Its been fun earning money doing things that I really enjoy!

My first Bearded Beanie order getting ready to mail! :)

Life is soo good and we're so lucky for all the blessings we enjoy! I am grateful every day for the gospel in my life and the promise of an eternal family if we live righteously! I can't imagine a greater blessing!

Love you all and thanks for checking in on our family! (If you made it this far I know you really care! :)

Christmas Time!!

2011-01-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

I got a new job about a month before Christmas, which accounts for my blogging inactivity for the last little while. To make up for it, I took some time to get some pictures together for your viewing pleasure. :) I hope to find more from before Christmas, but until then... these first two are pictures from last year before we jumped into the Christmas Holiday...

I was getting soo sick of Hannah's hair looking all scraggly and long, so I took a few chops at it while she was taking a bath and it came out looking pretty good! I love it shorter--we'll see when I let it grow out again. I'm actually really surprised at myself for not just wanting to do her hair everyday... I guess while I'm still trying to get used to two little kids running around, I've decided that stressing out about kids hair just wasn't a good idea. Good thing she's pretty cute as it is! :)

Charlie's such a little sweetie that I just have to take pictures of everything--even food rolling around in his mouth! :)

Yep, it was a pretty lame year for Christmas decor, but I have a feeling it will continue to be so until I have a house with storage, and, oh ya, AN INCOME to buy decorations in the first place! :) Ok, well I guess I did get that endtable for Christmas... But I get something for Christmas even on a med student budget, right?

Yeah, and speaking of an income--we were lucky enough to have enough of one to afford a new computer once ours popped out on us. Good thing electronics are getting a little cheaper!

Packham Family CHRISTMAS 2010

We had two weeks off for Christmas vacation, so we headed to Burley, ID for a few days to visit my parents. We had a great time, ate great food, played many fun games, and just enjoyed the time together.

Then we headed to Twin Falls to spend Christmas between my sisters Amy and Karen's apartments who just conveniently happen to live kitty-corner in the same apt. complex! It was alittle crowded, but perfect for our family's situation. Thanks for being such great hosts Welch's and Farnsworths! Everyone helped babysit my kids and made it such a welcome break for us! WE LOVE YOU GUYS and had such a great time!

Grandma Packham got the kids cute little pjs to open on Christmas Eve!! Super cute and so handy for all these DARN COLD nights back in Washington!

We got some SUPER EXCELLENT gifts this year, including that video camera which my parents got so we could record everything in our lives to always have later! SO nice! The kids got wonderful, educational gifts and all in all got spoiled rotten! We all did!

For some reason I didn't get a picture of it, but I will later. Katie made my parents a big fancy picture of the Logan temple and she made us one of the Idaho Falls temple! They're AMAZING! Thanks to everyone for a fun FUN Christmas. It was soo great to see everyone and spend some quality time with you!

White Family CHRISTMAS 2010

After visiting with my family for a week, we headed to Boise on Sunday to spend time with Jake's family for the next week. For some reason I didn't get any pictures of this either, but on our way down to Burley we broke trip in Boise to be there when Drew opened his mission call. THANKS SO MUCH FOR WAITING Drew! It was awesome to be there! He was called to:

DES MOINES, IA!!

We're soo excited for him! Heidi was called to AZ and has had so much success and such a good time that we're grateful for that they can stay in the states! CONGRATS DREW! We'll miss you but know that you'll be an AWESOME missionary! :) LOVE YA!

For Christmas Mom White gave the boys both straight razors. We had Drew for Christmas and so we topped the gift off with fancy Italian soap, a badger brush and a cup to mix up the soap in. The boys had a great time shaving together over the break.

I was pretty happy about it too because Jake had joined in the Testicular Cancer Awareness month at the school and had grown a nice, health beard. :) A lot of the kids decided to keep their beards until the actual end of the winter season, but I was happy to have an excuse to get rid of Jake's sooner. :)

Again, we were all spoiled this Christmas. The kids got a lot of cute clothes, VERY fun toys, house stuff, and even a FANCY North Face Jacket that Jake and I have wanted for me for a long time! LOVE it and and everything else! Thanks Whites! :)

I forgot to post this in one of the end pictures about Christmas Favorites. Hannah was CRAZY about snow and if she couldn't go play in it, she was always asking us to go round up some for her. She especially liked little snow balls in a bowl so she could enjoy it for a long time! So cute!

She has also been a little confused about the exact name of snow this year. I was telling her we could go and build a snowman when it first started snowing, but now she just calls snow "snowman". At first I was thinking she was really excited about buildling a snowman with me. Then I found out she just wanted to play in the snow. :)

Everyone had a great time playing in the snow. There was a ton of new snow all day, everyday, so it was a little more difficult and they didn't get to go down to Herrick Res and sled down the great runs... But they made the best of it and had a good time 4-Wheeling and being dragged in the man-made sleds of plastic water barrels cut in half. How creative! :)

This Charlie's FAVORITE thing right now. He's been asking this question for months now and I don't think he'll get tired of it any time soon. I love that cute little pointing finger! How precious! :)

Thanks for all your love to my little kiddos Grandma Glendi! These kids love you! :)

THANKS for coming up and visiting Katie! We had a great time having you and always appreciate your help and energetic attitude! WE LOVE YOU and are so grateful that you love being part of our family and make the effort to visit as often as you do!

This trampoline time was pretty fun and both the kids had a blast, but poor Pa Pa White ended up with a nice bloody lip at the end. Hannah jumped right on his face and kneed him pretty good... Thanks for your sacrifice Grandpa and for loving the kids like you do! :)

I love that these kids have such a great time with their grandparents on both sides! Thanks to all of you for your efforts to stay close to our family and be a part of our kids lives! WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Glendi made this little Santa and thought it would be fun to measure the kids to it every year. She has gotten pretty quilty crafty these last few years and has made some fun things! What little cuties I have! :)

These guys took a trip to Bogus on Saturday and had a GREAT time night skiing/snowboarding and stayed right until closing at 10 pm. I'm so glad Jake had his outdoor time over the break so he could be ready to start school with no regrets or needs to be outdoors for awhile. That will make school and studying a lot easier for him. This is supposed to be one of the hardest semesters at PNWU, so he'll need it! Glad you had fun you guys!

Yes, along with snow balls, candy canes and BLOCKS were definatly favorites. Everyone monrning Hannah would wake up in Boise, the first word out of her tired mouth was "blocks?" SO cute, and SO messy! Its always good for her to get her practice cleaing up though, right? She loves to sing the song they sing in Nursery: "Clean up, Clean up, everyone, everywhere. Clean up, Clean up, everybody do his share." Of course, she only gets the first few "clean ups" sung, but its still cute that she knows some of it! :)

She was also pretty good at colors and counting while we were with the families. They were impressed with how much they knew! ?Charlie is also getting pretty good at identifying body parts, e.i. nose, eyes, head, ears, teeth, tongue, etc... So cute! That always makes me feel a little better about being a good mom. Sometimes you wonder if you're teaching them as much as you should. (I'm not trying to brag, because they could definatly know more--I'm just happy they're learning well!) I have some pretty smart little kids and am grateful for them and how they've changed my life! What woud we do without eternal families?

Yep, Glendi always has her house looking FANTASTIC during Christmas time, and all year for that matter. We can see those Christmas lights the minute we turn onto their street and its always makes Christmas more fun and festive!:)

Thanks for an AMAZING CHRISTMAS Packhams and Whites!! We love you guys and are so grateful to be as close as we are! We are SO GRATEFUL for wonderful family! Thanks for all you do!

Hope all you readers had a Merry Christmas too! Love you all! :)

White Coat Weekend, continued...

2010-10-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a few extra pictures that I never got posted last time... These are from the White Coat Ceremony weekend when all the family and friends were up. Thanks again for coming guys! We love all of you and appreciate your efforts! :

The everyday...

2010-10-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from the everyday around my house. I hope you can read all the writing on these pages--it saves me from a lot of typing repitition... :) If you can't, click on the picture and it should load bigger on your screen.

Hope all is well for everyone!

Sorry for the blurry picture! I could get another one but I wanted to get these blogs posted more! :)

Family Pictures Fall 2010

2010-10-13T15:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some family pictures we had taken by a friend at the Aboretum in Yakima. Its a beautiful, awesome place full of all sort of trees and other plants, and the perfect place for family pictures! Enjoy! :)

Jake's WHITE COAT CEREMONY and some FUN NEWS!

2010-09-20T23:14:00.000-07:00

The annual White Coat ceremony was held at a theatre in Yakima and it was really fun and super packed! We had a lot of family come up to attend. Jake's Grandparents White, Glendi, Carley, my parents Joel and Marie and Jake's undergrad study buddy Daniel Egbert. Our good friends the Clayvilles from Richland were also able to come up for the day. (So nice to have good friends close!) Everyone made huge sacrifices to drive and be here for this event and it means so much that you all came!

PNWU's White Coat ceremony is held the beginning of each school year for the new medical school class. They had some great speakers, then the class lined up to get their coats put on them as an official shove-off into medical school. We had a great time, minus Charlie's random break downs. Thanks Dad for playing mommie and letting me watch Jake's ceremony! And thanks Mom for taking all the pictures since I forgot my camera. And thanks to everyone else there for your babysitting help at the ceremony and over the weekend! We are so blessed to have such great families!

Here are some pictures from the ceremony...

I am SOO proud of Jake! He has really worked hard so far and has done so well! He loves school! We especially like the fact that PNWU has started off with smaller class sizes--it makes it a lot easier to get to know your class mates. But even with a class of 75, its still hard to get to know everyone. So, when the class elections were brought up, he thought running for something might help get his name out there so it would be easier to make friends. He decided it would be a lot less embarassing to lose for President than it would for Treasurer, per say, so he choose to go all the way.

Well, elections were pushed back because no one ran for Secretary or Treasurer, but FINALLY last week he gave his speech on Wednesday and found out on Thursday that he'd been elected Class President! He ran agaisnt 2 other students; they had to be voted in by over 50% the first time or they would have to hold a second voting against the two highest canidates. Jake was voted in the first round!!

What I really find amusing was that Jake's campaign platform was that he was "not the smartest or best looking in the class," so that made him approachable and easy to talk to. (He also threw in some good experiences that would help him be a good president...:) As Class President he will act as the middle man between the students and faculty, so he knew that being approachable and not intimidating would be very important. :) His ultimate goal was accomplished though and he befriened many more students and feels like he knows a good share of his class now. That will make school even more fun for him and I'm proud that he makes sacrifices to get to know other people and make the experience better for everyone. Love you honey and congratulations!!

Yep, its true! We are officially heading to Spain in June and some of July in 2011. Jake served his LDS mission in Spain and has always wanted to go back; we've actually been planning on vacationing there for some time. At medical schools they have classes for learning Spanish medical terminology. Even though Jake already speaks Spanish, we all know that English medical terms don't mean anything to those of us not medically inclined, so it stands to reason that he better get familiar with those terms in Spanish as well.

Jake surprised me one night (after a pleasant conversation about my spending habits..:) that he wanted to spend a good chunk of money. You would think it was a joke, right? No, Jake never jokes about stuff like that--although sometimes I wish he did! He told me he wanted to head to Spain on vacation during his only real medical school break between the first and second year. He thought maybe we could go for 2 weeks to a month and rent out a "peso" in Spain and travel around a bit while leaving the kids with family for a few weeks. Then, not long later he switched his story to "We're going to Spain, we're taking the kids (!!?!?*%#) we'll be gone for 1.5 months, AND we'll both be volunteering a good share while we're there!!"

Ok, now don't get me wrong--I not againsnt volunteering, but it gets a little tricky when you through in the fact that I don't speak the language!! (Yeah, I know--I would stink as a missionary!:) It was all a little overwhelming at first because it went from a fun, kid-free vacation to pretty much moving my family to a new world and shoving me right out into it!! Over time I became more comfortable with the idea and now I'm pretty excited to go! That's all Jake wants to talk about now... I hope he can focus on school for the rest of the school year! :)

I'm actually pretty excited to get back on track with learning Spanish. I have taken plenty of beginning Spanish courses and can remember a lot of basics, but Jake said that once I figure out some conjugating and get thrown into it, I should hopefully catch on pretty quick. I'm pretty happy for the chance to educate the kids a little with Spanish too. Hannah is always referring to her "monos" when she needs them cleaned off. :) I guess Jake and I are going to have to get serious!

Well, thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great day! Hope all is well for everyone!

Labor Day Weekend in IDAHO!

2010-09-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

For Labor Day this year we took a quick trip to Idaho to see the family and AMY'S NEW BABY!!! Jake had three day weekend already and then found out he didn't have anything going on on Friday either, so we took of Thursday night, stayed the night in Boise, then got down to Twin later on Friday. It was so fun to see the family, but the trip also reminded us why we won't be traveling too much for the next few years. I think sometimes we push ourselves too hard... We're excited to find things in the West to keep us busy though, and we've already got plenty of fun things planned!

Those top pictures are of Amy's new 2 1/2 week old baby girl Renetta. She was named after a lady Brett knew on his mission that he really admired. She is a little DOLL and I just couldn't help but hold her all the time! You forget what new little babies are like, even after you've just had two of them! :) It was so awesome to ALL be together for the occasion! Thanks to everyone for their sacrifices to be there with us!

Amy and Brett and Karen and Andrew live in the same complex in Twin Falls AND live kitty-corner from each other, so staying with them is SO nice and convenient! They also have cute little fenced backyards that are perfect for family time while the kids play their hearts out! I can't wait for my own backyard! Thanks to Amy and Brett and the Farnsworths for all their help hosting, feeding and entertaining so many people, and KIDS! Those kids are a chore already! Its so nice to have family around who love their little relatives and give the moms a break!

It happened to be Sariah's B-day that weekend, so we were lucky to be there to help celebrate! She got a tricycle from G&G Packham, a road rug from her parents, and we gave her some alpha/number magnets to play with on the fridge. Those kids sure enjoyed the bike and that rug! Isn't Sariah a little DOLL!! So cute and I'm SO PROUD to be her aunt! She is such a sweetheart and such a great friend to Hannah! Those girls are crazy about each other! :)

More outside pictures! It was so fun to watch them play with everyone and be so entertained! I wish I could be closer so Hannah and Sariah could play together more. Charlie and baby Renetta are just a year apart, so they'll have each other too! We are hoping to be closer in two years, so it will probably happen sooner than I think!

Everytime I tried to get a good picture of these two dad would make some crazy face, so these are what I ended up with instead... :) I'm so happy for dad to have his first little boy- how cute! Two of the most important men in my life! Love you two!

I love these little girls sharing their little table and eating together! I just couldn't get enough pictures of it it seemed like! I also enjoyed Hannah sharing with Charlie--every mom likes seeing that, right? Makes you feel like you've accomplished something! I'm so happy these two have each other to play and learn with. I need to get moving on the learning thing too, because Preschool will here sooner than I know it! They're ready and eager to learn, so why not? (Good thing I got some flash cards at the $1 store the other day! :)

What a little cutie pie! I was so happy to finally catch a picture of her smiling! Like I said before, I just couldn't get enough of this baby and Jake had to keep reminding me that I already had 2 babies to take care of. I didn't really listen to him and kept thinking about having another baby to snuggle with, but the hard truth always manifested itself later when trying to manage my children... Besides, there wouldn't be any more room in my arms while hugging my other two babies all the time! Guess we'll wait till they get a little older. :)

I love these little babies, and I never was like that before. Amy even mentioned how I never really liked babysitting or holding babies when I was younger, and how I've seemed to totally change. And she's so right!! I never enjoyed that stuff, but now I just can't get enough! I'm so glad I've finally come around, or being a mom would be a nightmare, to say the least! I love my calling as a mother and couldn't ask for a more fulfilling job!

Here are some more pictures of my babies...

Here are some pictures of the rental house my parents are staying in until they can find/afford a new house. We would really like to sell our house in BL so they can have the money to get into a house in Burley, but at the same time it would be nice to keep the house in the family, as a cabin of sorts. So we're good either way I guess. The house is small, but it fits them and their storage pretty well. They have a great lawn, patio and neighboring garden that they have full rights to, so thats really fun for them. They LOVE the soil there and their gardens are going to be twice as much fun for them considering they can grow so many more things and pull them out that much easier!

I really admire my parents for their attitudes during this whole process. We lived in Bear Lake for 20 years, and it was no easy task uprooting and starting ALL OVER AGAIN! My mom just started her first job as a 2nd grade teacher, and its pretty trying on her, as most new jobs are. (And she's no young recent graduate either--this change came a little later in life than expected...) And this job has the added stress of a lot of young blood with attitudes and some slow learners that make it much more exciting! I really admire her for keeping her chin up through it all. My dad has the same, yet more intense Extension job as he did in BL, so he's got a lot to deal with too. AND they don't have a real house to settle into either! How do they do it?! So many stressful things on their plate, but they're going to make the best of it no matter what. Thanks for your example you two! I couldn't have asked for better, more hardworking parents!

Yes, 7 hours of travel to Twin Falls and back through will wear out any kid. There were a lot of screams, tears and restlessness, but nothing that a squirt bottle, fruit scacks and a dvd player can't handle...:) They were watching Sesame Street Letters until almost 9pm on the way back when they could have been sleeping at 7! I guess the car being so dark made the movie seem that more exciting! Charlie was even wathcing from the other side, and he never cares about movies! But of course, when a movie gets boring there is always Desitin to pass the time with. Jake even tricked Hannah into eating it before I finally got it away from her! These dads and their mean tricks! :)

We had a great time and really enjoyed our time with the family! We got to go to church with Mom and Dad in Heyburn and meet some people in their ward. We got to have dinner with the missionaries afterwards too! We're always up for a Sunday dinner with my family because food just doesn't get much better, even in a short amout of prep time! We were so happy we got to spend so much time with everyone!

And a little sidenote-- On the way down Jake and I realized that this Labor Day was our 4th anniversary of meeting each other back in Bear Lake 4 years ago!! (I think it was Amy and Brett's too!:) Jake's family was visiting for the holiday and his dad sat by me in church. By the time the meeting ended he had succeeded giving me A LOT of crap, introducing me to the extended family, and had a date lined up for me and Jake and the first devotional in two days!! Mind you, I hadn't even seen Jake yet! :) The Lord definatly had His hand in our WHOLE relationship because it was pretty similiar the rest of our courtship.

We just couldn't be happier! We are so blessed and so grateful for all that we have! And I'm so happy I get to share it all with Jake, FOREVER!! Love you honey and thanks for all you do for me and the kids!

More fun with the Clayvilles!

2010-09-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

So our back patio was always so full of random baby junk that we decided we needed some kind of storage solution. Inspired by our neighbors the Heal's, Jake and Nate constructed a frame and then covered it with a big brown tarp. They worked really hard for a long time, but it was well worth it! It turned out great and it holds everything we need it too, with a little room for more! Thanks for all your work boys!

Also notice that yard furniture we got for $25 dollars each! Its so nice to have chairs to sit in under the shade of our awesome umbrella! My neighbor Chelsee who lives right behind me ALWAYS has shade on her patio and I have a hard time not being jealous! :) We're just glad we found a good deal fast! Now we just have to sand and finish our chairs!

While the Clayville's were visiting we took a little trip to Sarg Hubbard Park only a few minute drive from our house. It's an awesome park which also provides acces to the big greenway path that will be so nice for walking once the weather's a little cooler! We have access to so many cool things here in Yakima!

ANYWAY.... While we were at the park, Jake thought it would be fun to have a little childhood flashback and take the kids rolling down the hill. Nate and Jake had a great time, but Hannah never really did get the hang of it. :) Jake tried to help her out by tuking her arms in her pants so she could roll better but the hill just wasn't steep enough I guess. Either way I was happy to get pictures of Hannah in her straight-jacket! The next time we went to that park, Hannah saw the hill and said "Cmon guys!" trying to get us to come roll down with her.. What a cutie!

While Nate, Melinda and Hadley were here we celebrated Charlie's 1st B-day! It was SERIOUSLY low key, but it seems appropriate considering these little kids just don't care that much about them. We'll get more into it once they grow up a little. (I apologize for the mess in my living room, but cut me some slack! We had guests, busy weekend, etc... I'm sure you all know what its like! :)

Charlie got some cute Monkey jammies from his Great G&G White and a huge CAT dumptruck filled with many other fun cars from his G&G Packham! G&G White's gift is still to come, due to my indecision on what they should get... Get whatever you want Glendi! :) We had a fun b-day party and Charlie got to eat a scoop of icecream, which he didn't end up enjoying all the much, so Jake enjoyed it for him... :)

We had a fun dinner of asparagus, steak, green beans and so many other yummy things! The night before we splurged and just got fun food at Walmart and watched the new movie Surragates! It was great fun and we really enjoyed the movie, which is so rare anymore considering you can't find many clean shows to watch! The girls had a bath before bed and were so cute wet together that we just had to take a picture! These two are only a week apart, and it was actually in visiting them at the hospital that changed our minds to have Hannah at St. Lukes instead. We're sure glad we did! That night we tried to stick Hadley in the bunk bed with Hannah and Charlie in the pack-n-play, but she ended up just crawling into Charlie's bed with him, so that ended the experiment quick! That little Hadley is such a monkey and can climp up, down, into, out of virtually anything! She's already taught Hannah some great tricks, but she hasn't been able to figure out the pack-n-play one yet, THANKFULLY! :)

Just in case you don't remember who the Clayvilles are, Nate was one of Jake's best friends in high school and its been so fun to have families and be able to hang out so much together. Nate just got a job as an Economist out in Richland working for WA's equivalent to INL. (Sorry, I don't remember its name...)

They're looking for a new place to live, so once they're settled we'll be seeing them pretty often, considering they only live an hour away. Next stop--SEATTLE so we can introduce them to IKEA!! Couldn't be more excited!!!

I just had to throw in a few more pictures of my little kiddos! I love going to the store and have Hannah help me at the check out stand. I don't even have to ask her anymore--she just does it automatically. Its SO CUTE to watch and I just love my little helper! I'm so happy to have a shopping buddy!! :)

Just more pictures of my babies! Love these kids! Hannah got her nails done and watch to show them off. Charlie loves sucking the life out of jerky! (Look at his incredibly BLUE eyes-I love them!) The kids love to play with the new alphabet & number magnets I made for them, and Hannah knows just what to do to be comfortable watching her "mooies". She also is really good at using her toy stethascope--she just puts the nubs in her ears and checks your heart like she's been doing it for years! So cute!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

For Your Information...

2010-09-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, my blog seems to get OVERWHELMED with a lot of pictures, small writing and hardly any journaling. I really hope this doesn't make it hard to read... I am planning on using these entries as a photo journal of sorts and will print my pictures, journaling etc. into books at the end of each year. I will try to do more talking about things that are going on with us and the like--but just a little FYI to put my busy mind at ease. :)

Getting settled in Washington!

2010-09-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the new toddler bunkbed we constructed for the kids. Its actually pretty handy because Hannah sleeps in the top and is too scared to crawl down at night, so it keeps her nice and contained. :) It will be fun to eventually paint- its just sanded and lightly stained, but that will work for now! Jake's just a little handy man! Me too I guess--look at me working that skill saw! :)

Couldn't be more proud of this guy!! He works so hard at school and is doing really well at everything! He loves learning more about stuff he really enjoys and will be a GREAT doctor some day!

We are always staying busy with our friends up here! The only thing that will make leaving easier in two years is that everyone else will be leaving too--I would hate to leave these friends behind! :)

Grandma White and Aunt Carley came to visit a few weeks ago. One morning they just decided to come up and ended up staying almost a whole day longer than planned. Altogether I think they were here for 3 1/2 days and we loved every minute of it! Its always nice having adults around, especially when they help you babysit 3 kids! :)

I'm so glad I have this little pool--its come in handy so many times already! Its getting to be a little colder now, so I'm sad we'll be putting it away soon. Thankfully our sprinklers run out of control here, so we never have to worry about Hannah missing out on her water time. Now we just have to worry about her clothes staying dry and keeping her healthy and warm! :)

This is one fun thing we have really enjoyed here in Yakima. There is a park really close to us with ducks to feed all year round! The kids love it and its a great walk to keep fit and keep the kids entertained, (and to keep my face really red!)

Yep, eating is a constant here in our house. Charlie just can't get enough and Hannah just loves to be with everyone, so she eats too. It gets a little messy, as is normal with kids this age, but I try to keep it as clean as possible (for both my sanity and Jake's...) I'm so happy the kids aren't allergic to anything and aren't too picky of eaters (although that happens from time to time.) I guess I just need to keep it interesting...

Speaking of which, Jake and I want to be making healthier meals, so now that life has slowed down a little we're looking for healthy meals with leftovers so I can keep all my family fed. Any ideas or recipes to share? It will be nice to have more food around!

Thanks for keeping tabs on us! Hope you're all doing well!

White Family Reunion 2010

2010-09-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our family reunion in July. We had a great time and were happy to get to go. We were actually supposed to be moving up to school that weekend, but due to our apartment flooding and Jake's little bee sting, we had to leave the next Monday, the DAY before school started. :) We had fun though and got everything done just in time!

We were supposed to swim and hang around Downata in SE Idaho, but instead everyone decided they wanted to go to Lava and swim instead. It was a crazy with all the change of plans, but still pretty fun. Hannah was a little hesitate at first, but she sure enjoyed it after that!

The high jump--always fun. (Who am I to say that? I couldn't even jump off the highest diving board in 7th grade! :)

Yeah, that was pretty exciting! I didn't really know who she was at all, I just thought it was awesome that she was neighbors with all the famous people she was. I guess its her husband's side we're related too. She even conducted a little Newly Wed Game right before we left that was really fun! All in all we had a good time and were glad we got to see everyone before we left!

Recent Pictures

2010-08-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of fun lately playing around with Hannah's hair! I feel so lucky to have a girl with so much beautiful hair so early on! And she loves having it done too which is so nice! (Of course, it does take a little bribing with either chap stick "chap" or letting her play with her feet in the sink with the water running full blast! :)

This girl is such a cutie! I love these pictures! Popsicle sticks--who would think? But she wouldn't let go of them all night! :)

Yeah, most of our new townhouse is all furniture, decorations, etc... that was purchased from yardsales or given to us by friends. Thats the best way to go on a budget right? (Of course, thats about the only way to go...:( I sure love shopping for a deal though! A lot of the things we buy we refinish ourselves to match the rest of the room we're using it in. (For example, that buffet below looks a lot better now as our black entertainment center!) And I can't believe we got our wonderful piano for free! And the BBQ is just another great gift! We're so lucky!

I'm excited to post pictures when the place is finished up, but that might take awhile still. Hopefully I can get it all done by the 11th when we have a lot of family coming up for Jake's White Coat Ceremony! Can't wait to have everyone here! :)

We spent some time up at the Whites before school started and so we got to spend some time up at the cabin. We traveled back and forth between the Craig's cabin in Garden Valley and ours in Cascade. It was fun having time with the family in Cascade and floating the river and spending time with our practically family/friends the Craigs! Thanks for such a great time everyone!

Yeah, I love any picture of Hannah prancing around in other people's shoes. These high heels were probably my favorite yet! Such a cutie! (I know, that food one is a little scary, but what mom doesn't have a picture like that of their kids after dinner?)

These couches have been through a lot! We even had them up and school for a few years even after their good years, and they've done really well! Since they're still in such great condition but the cover wore out, Glendi reupholstered them and now they're almost good as new! Some day we'll get them all covered up, but until then, these will work just great! Way to go Glendi! We knew you could do it! (Its really no quick and easy task--thats for sure!)

Hannah and Charlie's B-days were pretty uneventful this year. I'll have more pictures to come of Charlie's B-day, but here are some of Hannah's gifts! She loves these toys, and so does Charlie! Its so nice to have gifts that will last for all the rest of the kids too! Thanks you guys! We love you so much!

Yeah, by FAR one of my favorite pages EVER!! I just can't believe how fat his lip got!! He got stung by a bee not long before we were supposed to come up to school. He's been stung before, but this time was SO MUCH WORSE!! Our apartment flooded and we weren't able to go up to school as soon as we'd hoped, but it ended up being a blessing I guess. Jake didn't want to meet any medical school people looking like this! So we went to a family reunion instead to surround ourselves with people who had to love us anyway...:) So glad it went down fast!

While we were at the family reunion, we spent the night at G&G White's house in Malad so as to have a comfortable bed to sleep on and rooms for the kids. The White reunion for Jake's Grandpa's family was at Downata this year and everyone was camping, so we were very grateful to have a place to spend the night! Hannah was pretty worn out as you can tell. We caught her sleeping like this after we put her to bed. We told her not to get off her mattress, so she was sure to play it safe, while still slightly breaking the rules, while falling asleep. We're so crazy about this girl!!

Well, I still have so many more pictures to get up here, so be expecting more soon! We are LOVING our time here in Washington and Jake is doing AWESOME in school already! Hope you're all doing well and thanks again for keeping tabs on us! :)

Yes, an update! Can you believe it!?

2010-08-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, I only have a few seconds to write on this post because Charlie's whining and Hannah just woke up, but I'll try to quickly explain the rest of our summer.... This was when Jake and his dad went on the priest high adventure canoeing 50 miles somewhere. That whole week Glendi and I shopped our hearts out. (Thrift stores, or course!)

This was from a get-together with Jake's dad sister and sister in laws. Thanks for lunch Grandma White--it was AWESOME!

We're so proud of this girl! She has been pushing herself from the moment I knew her! She has worked so hard to get where she is and we're so happy for her! Wish we could have been there Carley!

Yeah, you'll see their haircuts in later pictures--sorry I never got pics of the finished product... They're my favorite little kids, especially with great hair cutes! We love you Stephanie!

These kids always want to be outside and Boise was the perfect place for it! They had so much fun at each Granbdparents house over the summer. We ended up in Boise for 3 weeks before the big move. Thanks so much to our great parents who helped us so much over the summer. We love you guys!

Yes, its been a long while coming, but hopefully soon I can get some new pictures of our recent events here in Yakima. Thanks for looking and keep in touch!