Jesse, Tricia, Brian, Aaron, Anna--Nov. '08

This month was pretty hum drum. We Halloween as our big event. We had our trunk or treat at church and the kids made a huge haul there. There was wall to wall people. Anna carried her own pumpkin bag until she realized that Jesse wasn't going to let her eat candy and then she pushed it off on him to carry. Costumes: Brian was Optimus Prime-the Transformer Autobot leader, Aaron was the Incredible Hulk and Anna was a very cute pink M&M. All three were specially made by mom. Brian designed his own costume and it was pretty good. Aaron's was complete with HUGE muscles including washboard abs. It was so funny because he's so small inside of it. Anna's was pretty snug, I didn't make it big enough to go over her winter coat like I should have.
Anna is finally beginning to stand up. She hates doing it, we think it's because it scares her. I caught her CAUTIOUSLY standing up and then just as cautiously sitting back down. Today she stood up by herself in her crib. She is so funny and quirky. She loves to get us up in the middle of the night and when one of us bleary eyed go in to see what her deal is, she greets us with a cheery "who is it?" Gee, who could it be?
Brian and Aaron had their primary program two weeks ago. They each had small speaking parts. Brian did his pretty well. He told a New testament story. Aaron had one sentence and before he said it he had to hang something up on a large flannel board. One his way back, he was to stop at the podium and do his thing. He grabbed the mike on the way back and without even stopping muttered his line unintelligibly to everyone. We love Primary Programs. There is no dignity left in life.
I have been busy canning apple pie filling. So far, I have made 21 quarts and have 5 more to go. We can't wait to get the kitchen back. Jesse has been busy at work. Lots of big projects for him there. The cold weather has come and has us both feeling claustrophobic already. Can't wait till January!!
We love all of you and really enjoy reading all of the blogs.

See Dano's November post in the September posts

Dave and Garrett-November

David and Garrett are driving to Las Vegas on Friday, November 7th to go see Madonna on Saturday, November 8th.
More to come......

The Sorensens--November

Hi everyone! I just got done sending you all harrassment emails about the blog..so I thought it was time to add in our stuff. Here's what we've been up to the past month:
Spencer: As most of you know, Spencer's previous company decided to merge with another, and in the merge, the new company that took over Spencer's department's funding, decided to 'misplace' large amounts of money, and therefore put an indefinite freeze on paying his department. So......he's spent the last 3 weeks or so spending some quality time with his beloved family, being put to work by his sweet and skinny (wink wink) wife, and advertising his various website services. He's picked up a few jobs, and is actually earning his keep (and ours), but the search contines. He's also decided that being layed off concurrently with his business partner twice in one year is reason enough for the two of them to get serious and start their own company. They've been meeting with potential clients and figuring out all the ins and outs of that sort of stuff that I'm totally clueless about. He should be writing about this, but since he's relinquished the computer to me for a short (short!) time, I am not about to ask him back in here to do it. I always like having him around and all, but this whole sharing the office and phone business is really getting old. Plus having him around more is making my eating habits go down the toilet, so that does NOT make the old girl a happy one. He also just got released as Cub Scout Chairman, and got put in as Ward Mission leader.
Shaunell: I am just doing the regular mom stuff and not too much is different. I feel like the Whitneys have had a more stressful time this last little while, so I've been thinking of you all quite a bit, and worrying and praying. We got to go up and see Grandma at the beginning of Oct., and I'm grateful we got the chance. I have so many good memories of time spent at Grandma's house; Jess and I making fudge at this time of year, spending the night and having Grandma make us yummy breakfast in the morning; going camping with Grandma and Grandpa by myself, and all the holidays and events we got to share. I'm grateful to have lived so close to her and Grandpa both, and that they were a big part of our lives. Who else is gonna call me glamour puss? :) All in all, I am just really grateful for all of my family. The more stressful life gets, the more grateful I am to know why we are all here, and what life is really all about. Family is most important, and I try my best every day to teach my kids what I feel about life, Heavenly Father, and family. It's a struggle, and I feel like I fail most days, but that's what I am doing, and strive to do every day.
Cetera: My sweet Cetera continues to test her mother's mettle and patience and intelligence each day. What would I be without her? She loves school, and is learning so much. Today she was telling me about vowels and syllables....because she honestly thinks we don't know (ha ha). She is picking up reading quickly and her little eyes get so big when she realizes what she's doing. It cracks me up. She is still in dance, and practicing for her Christmas recital. She asks every day, "is it December yet?"-because she is so excited to perform in front of a 'real audience'. The other day she came home from school, and they'd had a big "drug free" week all week long, and that day they'd had a big pep assembly type show. She walked in the door and said, "Mom, did you know that Drugs are a trap? And they will snap you down just like a mouse's head in a trap!"
Aislyn: Good old weeze......remains my happy and non-grumpy child (except when hungry). She has learned how to use scissors and thinks they are the bomb, and so, she asks me at least 4 times a day if she can 'cut'. She also wants to use my lipstick and eat my gum all day long. Halloween and the advent thereof have been winners with her, because of the large influx of candy into our house. She is a candy fiend! It's replaced "Juice" in the number one spot for main source of calories. NOT good. My favorite thing lately is when I ask if she needs or wants something she replies, "NO mom, I am JUST fine."
SO that's us as of late. Love and miss you all. Check our blog for latest pics. Hugs.

Mom and Dad --Sept. '08

Visit to Gary and Gretchen in San Diego in March. Happy Birthday to Sylvia--her 29th. Senor Whitney with Senor Iguana in Cabo in Feb. this year. It was a great vacation with all of the Whitney family on the cruise ship Elation at the end of February 2008.

Jesse, Tricia, Brian, Aaron, Anna--Sept. '08

This summer was busy for us! The boys had summer school. Aaron loved it, his class was to get him used to kindergarten. Brian had summer school twice, the second session was a reading enhancement that jumped up his reading level 3 levels! We were so happy for him. Aaron also learned to ride a bike. We tried to teach him earlier in the spring, but it didn't work. In May, we took off the training wheels and he jumped on and took off. We bought a season pass the the local zoo and found out it gets us into other zoos around the state, so we did that on various day trips. Madison had the best zoo and Milwaukee had the hardest to find zoo.
This school year brought a lot of changes, Brian is in 2nd grade. His teacher is a lot of fun and he really likes her. The first day of school he told me "I looked around the classroom and think-what am I doing in 2nd grade? Only smart people are in 2nd grade!" Aaron likes school, but misses mom. He asked mom why school has to take so long everyday. He loves walking home like a big boy. They are growing up fast! We think that we have some future scientists/inventors on our hands. Last week, they came up with a surefire hornet trap and excitedly demonstrated it for me. Aaron stood ready with a rock the size of his fist and he planned to throw it at a hornet and Brian waited until the unfortunate hornet would fall to the ground and he planned to run it over with a wind up car from a McDonald's Happy Meal. Mom asked them what Plan B would be on the off chance that it didn't work and Brian said "Oh, I have my bubble gun and I will catch the hornet in the bubbles." Tricia and Jesse laughed so hard. They crack us up.
Anna is 1 already. We don't know where the past year has gone. She is cute and fun and very girly. She has a baby doll and a bunny and one of them goes with us everywhere we go, and she hugs them often. She doesn't crawl, she does the "scoot and slap". She sits and scoots forward and pulls with her hands. She gets around really fast and is into everything. We don't expect walking soon, typically kids on Tricia's side walk around 18 months. Her famous catchphrase is "What is it?" or "Who is it?". She adores the boys and was so lonely the first 2 weeks of school, she just moped around the house and followed Tricia hugging her ankles all day long. It's fun to have some Mother/daughter time with her. Anna is fun to play with.
Jesse is hoping to start teaching college this winter. He would like to get his PhD (that stands for Piled High and Deep in case you have ever wondered) and the best way to do that is to teach night school on the side. His favorite time of the week is the weekend when he can take the family to the library and the park. The boys like to be "chased". They run pell mell through the park and Jesse lopes like Shaggy from Scooby Do after them around the park. It's fun to watch.
Tricia has been busy sewing and upholstering. So far to date she has recovered 2 couches, 4 arm chairs, 2 rocking chairs and 2 footstools. Not to mention clothes and odds and ends for the baby. It's been fun learning new sewing techniques and her sewing has improved greatly. She had fun this summer doing science experiments with the boys. Did anyone else know that 20 Mule Team Borax makes a HUGE crystal in just 3 hours and Epsom Salts make hardly any crystal in 3 days? We also filtered dirty water with clean socks.
Also, if you will look in the October issue of the Ensign starting on page 25 and continuing on page 26, you will see a short submission regarding community service by Tricia Whitney. I sent it in last year and forgot about it. It's pretty cool to see one's own name in print in a magazine. I am stilll knitting hats and making blankets for the NICU, by the way, and have done approximately 200 hats and about 75 blankets to date. Please forgive me for bragging, I guess it's my "15 minutes of fame". :-) Ensign article

Spencer, Shaunell, Cetera and Aislyn- Sept. '08

This last month has been a busy one for us (most especially for mom). I am adjusting to having a child going to school EVERY day (no longer the 2 or 3 times a week w/preschool), and having to get up ON TIME every day. Cetera is really loving school, the bus, and all the socializing that comes with it. She is so happy when she comes home and walks in the door singing, "Mom! I'm home!" She is experiencing her first school day cold, and sharing it with everyone at home.
She's also figured out how to ride her bike recently--which is funny--because we've been working with her all summer, and she kept telling us, usually after she'd fallen over, "It's ok Mom, I'll do it when I'm five." And 11 days after her birthday, she just got on and off she went.

Aislyn and I have been having some good bonding time while big sis is at school, and it's been a lot of fun spending good one on one time with her. I still think of her as my 'baby', but her growing vocabulary and 'tude' remind me this is not the case any longer. Her new favorite things are: Her tricycle (my bike!), singing "Stop and Stare" (and when we hear the song, she tells me 'no sing mom more!'). She has almost got this potty training bit down (hurray). She's on the verge, people.
Spencer and I have been doing 'projects' at home. We get an idea to do one thing, and of course, that leads to 10 others. Spence has been facing his power tool fears and has been doing molding, chair rails, and window casings. I've been the trusty assistant, holding pieces on the wall while he runs downstairs and cuts, and offering positive feedback to keep the ball rolling (i.e. 'let's get 'er done'). Primary is, as always, overwhelming. Our child count is now up to 186, and that's AFTER our ward split in July. I feel insanity creeping in most Sundays after looking in the Primary room and seeing that, oh, we are missing 5 sets of teachers.....again, with no substitutes on the horizon.
:) Life is good. We miss and love you all. You can view our blog for latest pics. (see left)

Chris, Celeste, Baylee & Dax--Sept. '08

Well, this seems like a lot of pressure to have to write something on here. I usually leave this crap to Celeste, but started reading everyone's "posts" so I thought I would put my best foot, or finger, in this case, forward. Ha. Man, I already feel gay doing this (no offense intended to anyone, wink, wink). O.K.. This summer was really fun. We did a lot of really great things and had some good family time together. Baylee played soccer starting in June and it went through the end of July. I had a really hard time watching it because they don't keep score at her age and Baylee just didn't seem to have the competitive spirit that her dear old dad has such issues with. I just wanted to get out there, push all the little Mexican girls down and kick the ball in the goal for her, but obviously I've got to temper some of those desires or else I will end up in jail. Not currently on my list of things to do.
We also went camping on the 4th of July to Copper Basin which is near Mackay, ID. It's about 2hrs. from Blackfoot and not too far from the biggest mountains in Idaho. I'ts definitely my idea of a good time for sure. Celeste on the other hand is extremely afraid of being eaten alive by wild beasts. She is a very good woman to go camping with us because she barely sleeps at night laying awake to listen for various animals i.e. sasquatch or something else that might take her or her babies away. I bought a pistol last year and I believe it makes her feel a little better about sleeping out in the "wild". We took the kids new 4 wheeler and my dirtbike and had a great time riding around the area and having fun together. Overall, I think we had a wonderful time spending time together.
Baylee just started school a few weeks ago and everything seems to be going well. She is always asking us questions about why some of her friends don't go to church and say prayers and things like that, so we try to be as politically correct with her as possible in explaining how the world works, but we just laugh because it seems like everything just goes right over her head. Dax is getting his potty training down pretty well now. He doesn't have too many mess ups anymore(at least that what I hear). I'm always at work, so I'm glad Celeste is heading that job up. Oh, and as a side note, our mexican neighboor just got arrested for spray painting just about all of Blackfoot it seems. At least it's not cocaine! A little graffiti never hurt anyone. I'm just glad they aren't Indians! Ha. Man, I am such a redneck. See what staying close to home and living in Idaho will do for you.
Hopefully, this gives everyone a little update on what our family is up to. We've enjoyed reading everyone's post's and I will be eternally grateful to Shaunell for coming up with this idea. Go check out our pics on our family blog. That is Celeste's doing, and frankly, this is the first time I have done anything like this(after reading the crap I just wrote you probably understand why I stay away from this sort of thing). I am an idiot, but I love all of you guys and wish we could all get together more often. Uncle Charlie, dad, and myself are all about ready to get hunting here in a few days and I wish it's something that I could do with more of my family. Wish you all a good fall season and I probably won't write anything again anytime soon, so I thought I would get as much out now as I could. Love you all! Bye, bye.

David and Garrett--September '08

David decided that 5 dogs wasn't enough. So he adopted (FOR FREE) a Chi-Hua-Hua on Friday from a girl he works with. I think he's set on calling him Picachu - like the video game. The other dogs aren't quite sure what to make of him, but get along well so far.

David just returned from an 8 day vacation to Seattle. David was able to tour all of the famous spots like the Space Needle and take a tour of the underground city. Even though he had a cold on the first day there and hacked and coughed his way through the city, he had a great time and stayed with his high school friend, Joe, who also helped show him the town.
Garrett's been busy with work (shock of all shocks) and besides selling national accounts household goods moving and relocation services, he's been busy redesigning the companies websites. "The last website design we did was 12 years ago, and it's so dated, I'm blowing everything up and starting from scratch. It'll be awesome when it's finished! Our company partnered with Vanguard Media out of Salt Lake to do the final work."
Outside of work, Garrett's been on an exercise kick and has shed 15 pounds of fat in the last 2 months. "ONLY" another 30 to go! We recently purchased a Bowflex from my CFO who was allowing it to collect dust in his garage. When his wife complained she couldn't park her car inside, he knew it was time to part company. It fits perfectly in the workout room at the house and is used every day!
In September we got a new roommate in Rheanna. She works with David at Massage Envy. And when she's not working full time there, she's also going to school full time at Glendale Community College at night. She also manages to find time to spend with her friends. So Rheanna is more like a blur around here. She'a a real sweatheart.
That's it from this end of town! Hope you're all doing great!

Danaan--October & November '08

Hello family- I started October off right! My friends and I thought it'd be fun to order the "world's largest bananna split" at the Arizona State Fair. My friends Marjori & Kevyn helped me eat that caramel apple... Man- that was such a bad idea.... =)

I'm also very excited this month because I finally completed payments on my Lasik that I had done a year and a half ago. I finally have free perfect vision!

So I moved AGAIN. This time I moved into a snazzy 2 bedroom apartment on the fourth floor of the building where I work. You can see my apartment in the top left there- it's pretty sweet. I have a beautiful view of McDowell mountain, Squaw peak, & Camelback mountain. (I know that you guys don't know what these are but I'm including pictures!!) The views through a camera just don't it justice so you'll all have to come visit for an extended vacation.

The move came at a good time for me because I didn't want to climb up and down 3 flights of stairs anymore in my town home. My job is going well and I get to look at McDowell Mountain (top pic) every morning (it's beautiful with the red rock and during the day time.) At night I can look over at Camelback mountain (bottom pic) and the big houses up on the side.

Milo seems to love scaring people coming off the elevator & going out to the dog run every day with me.

HA HA! What can I say? I was at a Sex & the City party with some of these lovely ladies and things happened.... There were amazing appetizers, entertainment, and we even had a Mercedes take us out for a night on the town.

Okay- so my friend Marjori invited me to this party called "Festa de Junina" which I don't know what the heck it is....it's basically some sort of harvest celebration (which is supposed to be held in June hence "Junina" but since it's 110 degrees in Phoenix in June we have it in October... lol. There was live music, food, dancing, and a ton of people. I've not seen that many Brazilians in one backyard for years! Isn't the one in yellow a dish! Brazilians are always hot! We're planning a trip back to Brazil next year sometime so wish me luck!

I hope everyone has fun at Halloween this year- I enjoy hearing how you're all doing. I love ya family!