Goodbye 2009....

Wow, I am so late getting everything posted, but I will make a valiant effort to catch up! New Year's Eve Day started out a little iffy, but the night was GREAT!

Tori got a Barbie guitar with your gift certificates, so she played it pretty much all day. She asked for a pink guitar every time anyone asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Unfortunately Mom and Dad were already done with shopping by this point, so she was left to her own resources. One her dream was fulfilled she insisted on "Rock Star hair" to go with her performance.


Her groupies loved it!

After a rocking afternoon we went to a party--it was a little crazy, but SO fun! We got to play "grown up" games without too many interruptions, and the kids had a blast too! We had a slightly early count down for the little ones so that they could start to wind down. It was a fun night and a great memory! Thanks all for making it happen!

Christmas!!

As is the Whitmill tradition, our first Christmas Eve activity was the annual devotional. This year we participated with several other families in our stake. It is the best way to start the holiday! We get to start the festivities by remembering our Savior, and the reason for all the celebrations! This year we decided to take some family pictures before we went to the devotional. Hey--with 11 grandbabies, you take what you can get. I actually think that they turned out pretty well!


Then....there were the ones of our little family...we were not so fortunate...

Just so we didn't feel too bad about our family pics...Liz did a little performance throughout the large group pictures. Here is a sampling of her work.

Next we went to Nana and Papa's house. We ate our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, and opened presents--starting with new pj's!

Then of course we had Christmas morning at our house. We had a GREAT Christmas with so many things to be thankful for!

Christmas Preparations

With all the happenings at the end of November/beginning of December, we got a bit of a late start to our holiday preparations. Fortunately we still got to most of our traditions, like:

1-Decorating the tree

2-Baking cookies--we made some cookies with our family, and others with some cousins

3-Getting new clothes and dressing up! They looked so adorable in their new Sunday clothes!

Christmas Program!

Lizzie and I had our first preschool program. We visited a retirement center and sang some Christmas songs for the residents. The residents really enjoyed it, and the kids were REALLY stinking cute! We'll have to do that again next year!

Catching up

I am trying to catch up. A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, and I have been stressed, to say the least. We were in SLC for Thanksgiving, which was great. We loved spending time with Tom's family.
While we were there a friend passed away from a brain tumor. It wasn't a shock, but it was still really hard on me. She left behind three very sweet little girls. She was 34 years old.
Upon arriving home late Monday night, we threw the kids in bed and I checked the voice mail. Never a good thing when the bishop wants to meet with you the day you get home. Well, less than 24 hours after arriving home, and about 36 hours before I was to play a good size role in a funeral, I was called to be the ward primary president. YIKES! Slightly overwhelming. (Oh, and PS, you need to call everyone and have primary fully staffed within the next week so that you can do the teacher orientation/training meeting one week after being set apart.)
Well, after rearranging preschool and receiving babysitting/preschool help from several wonderful people I attended the funeral for Jennifer. It was a little harder than I expected, but thanks to all the help we made it through.
Last Sunday I was sustained, and also came down with strep throat. ROCK ON! Well, today we had our first teacher training meeting. Short, and to the point, and most importantly OVER. Next week brings one Christmas Program/field trip, two preschool Christmas parties, one kindergarten "Winter Party" and a partridge in a pear tree.

My girl

My girl is HILARIOUS! Liz cracks us up all the time! She says the funniest things. Here is a small sampling:

1-While waiting for our plane at the airport, I told Liz that if she looked close at the window she could see the pilot. She immediately crumbled to pieces. "I don't want to get on the airplane! I don't want to ride with the pirate."
"No baby, not pirate, pi-L-ot, with a L sound." The next several minutes were spent trying to coax her onto the plane. Finally we make it down the jetway and she sees the flight attendant and the pilot
"See Liz, there's the pilot."
"Oh, I want to go on the airplane."

2-On Thanksgiving she decided to tell everyone that there are some things that we are not allowed to say at our house. "We don't say stupid, and we don't say 'you're ruinining my life'". Thanks to Barbie for the quotable....

3-So we were explaining to Tori what it means to give someone your heart. Liz said "I game Mommy my heart, and my heart is fabulous!"

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great! We got to meet our newest niece, and spend some time with a nephew we almost never see. Here are a few of the highlights:

The kids really shocked us and did surprisingly well on both flights! Thank heavens for laptop computers to watch movies on!
Graham and Owen had a fabulous time together! We need to get these two together more often! They will be trouble when they get older, but for now they were just REALLY cute and fun!

The girls loved the hot tub. Mom is a chicken and because of O's breathing problems after the last hot tub exposure (which was probably completely irrelevant, but...) I wouldn't let him get in.

It was fun to see the lights at temple square again. It has been a long time. Although, it was thoroughly disappointing to hear that Grandpa Peterson had been replaced as the narrator of the Christmas story. What were they thinking?

The goodbyes are always the worst! The girls cried, and so did Grammy, but Liz could NOT pull it together for one last picture.

Thanks for all the fun!

Auntie Susie

MY KIDS LOVE AUNT SUSIE! Perhaps it is because she spoils them rotten, but perhaps it is just because she loves them so much. She came to visit at the end of October and the kids could not have been more excited to have her!

I didn't take enough pictures, but she did tons of stuff with them, and Tori actually SOBBED all the way home from the airport. Good thing Thanksgiving is soon, or she never would have stopped crying. We love you Susie! PLEASE move here?!?

Snow

I don't love snow. I don't even like snow. I tolerate snow ok if it is not on the street. My kids on the other hand LOVE snow. They couldn't wait to dive in when we got the big storm. I didn't have appropriate snow gear, so they couldn't stay out too long, but they looked pretty cute! (Don't worry, there will be plenty more snow, and they are now properly equipped.)

Yup, I made that hat! I'm pretty proud of myself!

Nope, didn't make that one, but its cute!

I can't put my arms down!

Halloween FUN!

Halloween started out this year at a friend's Halloween party where we were a 1970's prom king and queen.

Since the weather was so terrible on Wednesday and Thursday, the ward Halloween party was cancelled on Friday morning. A friend hosted her own at her home (what a saint!) so we went to that one. Then Aunt Susie arrived and we carved pumpkins, and spent Halloween trick or treating at the mall, trunk or treating at the church, and even catching a "Haunted House" down the street...they did an incredible job decorating their house by the way. Wish I had pictures of that! Here is what they looked like that day.

The kids' costumes were a little more exciting than ours. They were the characters from the Wizard of Oz. The cousins offered quite an array...

All the cousins--the Cowardly Lion, Glinda, Dorothy, Pirate, Skeleton Rocker, Pirate, Mobster, and the Ninja and the Mobster attacking from behind.

WICKED!

Saturday was a very busy day. I was at home for about 45 minutes total between 9AM and 11 PM. YIKES! After going to Super Saturday, and doing crafts for me and three friends, I raced home and got my beauty ready for our date (thanks for your help Manda, I would have been toast!!).

This was before we left home...the excitement was almost too much for her!

We left plenty early since Mommy doesn't know down town Denver very well anymore. We hit major traffic, but arrived nearly 30 minutes before the show started. Tori was SO excited! I did a little bit of explaining before and during the show.

I stink at self portraits.

Overall she LOVED it! She will say that her favorite part was "when Elphie grew big." For anyone who has seen the show, what she means is during the song Defying Gravity when Elphaba rises up over the stage. She was very concerned about the witch hunt, and when Elphaba and Glinda said their goodbyes. Apparently there are some things that are still a little too real for her to completely let go as pretend.

She thought that the mirrors in the bathroom were awesome. Perfect for a princess to check herself.

Smarty Party

(I totally stole that title from Mandi...) We had our preschool parties on Thursday because all of next week will be fall break. Lizzie and her class here super hyper, and kind of out of control. The afternoon was significantly calmer...almost too calm. I let Tori go to the afternoon party since her auntie was in charge (and because they aren't allowed to have Halloween parties in school anymore). They had fun. Here are some pics.

Glinda, "Naughty but cute Pirate", Vampire, GI Joe, and Superman

My Princesses met the "Big Princesses"

Aunt Manda found out that the princesses were going to be right here in Aurora! Of course we had to take advantage of the opportunity. My girls put on their favorite princess dresses and off we went. They were SO excited! The girls that were the princesses were really cute with them, and played it up well. Well, if you can't make it to Disneyland, I guess the costume shop will work.