Darn it.

Well........I did it. I took my first load of "baby stuff" to the DI.......*silence*

(insert crickets chirping here)

I didn't like it. Not one bit. As I pulled away and I saw her baby swing(which she hated) and the bumbo chair(which she hated) and a bunch of other things(of no consequence whatsoever) I felt like bawling. After Allie, I saved EVERYTHING. I knew more babies were coming-hopefully. After Easton, I saved a lot because the third baby was an..."option"- hopefully. So I have never really had to do the walk and dump of my baby memories at the local good will. BUMMER. I didn't like it. Not one bit. So on the way home (after getting a Dr. Pepper for me and a Cherry Sprite for Allie, because caffeine will cure almost any heartache) I began to think that I just took my first step to being completely done with having babies. Darn it. I love babies. I love my nine-month old even more. I love my kids! Darn it. So in my mind I began to count up the reasons why its good to be done having babies.


1. I don't really want to be that sick ever again in my life. The first few months with Olivia was pure hell. Seriously. I couldn't eat. I couldn't poop. I couldn't stop throwing up. Not attractive...not one bit.


2. I don't want to drive anything bigger. The Tahoe (while I love it more than any vehicle I've ever had) is HUGE for me! I'm 5'2.....and its a long way up there! The other night Paul said, "I want to get a new Suburban." I stared at him in horror and said, "Your joking. Paul, we are lucky that I haven't done bodily harm to some innocent shopper at Wal-Mart. I just honk and hope everyone moves out of the way because I sure as heck can't see them behind me." He said he would buy one with a back-up camera. I said, "No thanks." But then again, if he buys a suburban thats just more room for another baby......hmmmmm.


3.I really believe my body can't do it again. Back to the height issue. 5'2" (5'7 with the right shoes) is not very much room to cram another human being into. I've had every ancillary organ taken out after having my kids, I blew out my belly-button, my thyroid took a crap with Olivia....I just think my body is like Paul's commute car......its had ENOUGH!

(The fact that I just compared my body to Paul's car should be enough to send me running, screaming and demanding that my tubes be tied instantly, but then I look over at my fat,deliriously happy baby eating fruit puffs in the high chair and I think.......MAYBE??) *sigh* Besides that....I still have my appendix. Who needs their appendix anyway? hmmm.


4. EXPENSIVE. Its not cheap to have babies and in my case its not cheap to feed them. (Remember that I compare breastfeeding to date rape. Not pleasant. At all.) So because the ta-tas are decorative only.....I buy formula. At about $100 a month. Add diapers and wipes and clothing and well....you get the idea. Pricey.


5.I would have another girl and lets face it: That's just a lot of hair. A lot of hair to do. A lot of hair EVERYWHERE. I do love their clothes though. hmmm.

I'm still sad. She did hate that swing though. She hated the bumbo. Flipped right out of it everytime I put her in it. It was a hazard. I HAD to get rid of it. Right????
Darn it.

*chirp-chirp*

I took down my Christmas....because we are going to Island Park snowmobiling. I'm excited for that, but my house looks like it needs Prozac. Its sad too. Stark. Barren. Welcome to January people.....the one month of the year when I think I shoud start an anti-depressant, but luckily February comes and I'm over it. I like getting flowers. :)

Speaking of getting.....Christmas was fabulous! There was much "getting" and "giving" Spoils all around....its almost ridiculous. I will post pictures later. I will tell you this: Paul is now going to be doing a lot of skiing at Powder Mountain, thanks to me. :) We are putting Easton in snowboarding lessons and he is so excited. I asked Allie if she would come skiing with me(In our family, the boys snowboard and the girls ski I guess?)and she said, "Um.....never." Okaaaay. I guess I should help her conquer her fear of elevators before I try and throw her on a ski-lift.

My two favorite gifts haven't left my feet....

or my hands.....

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!! :)

Dear Santa,

Dear Santa,

This year we would like a Wii. Allie would also like a real-life microphone and the princess and the frog doll and CD. Easton would like a Nerf gun. Our baby sister would like the Elmo Live doll. That is all.

We will leave you cookies and milk and lots of carrots for your reindeer.

Merry Christmas Santa!
Love,

Allie & Easton

BELLYBUTTON

Ever heard of a umbilical hernia? Well......I have one. How nice for me! Apparently the wall of my stomach after housing three babies is like a well worn leather loafer and beginning to show the wear. A small tear formed behind my bellybutton and now about one inch of intestine is trying to escape. NICE! Not to mention painful. SOOOOO! I get to have surgery. On my bellybutton. :) I think this is my body's way of throwing in the towel on childbearing. Not that it hadn't tried to give me several clues before. After Allie were the blinding migraines that would leave me speechless(literally) and writhing on the floor in pain. After Easton my gallbladder decided to hit the road and now sweet Olivia turned my innie bellybutton into an.....outie. Things that make you go hmmmm..

Today because of my belly pain I layed on my bed with Olivia and watched her drift off to sleep. I stared at her for a long time marveling at the fact that I made her. (Well, not that I made her...but you get the idea.) I love being a mom. I love staying home with them. I like that as I layed there on the bed and watched her breathe, I could hear Easton singing along with Curious George in the family room. I love that Allie comes through the door after school like a mini-hurricane. Loud, excited and always demanding a snack.

Someone last week in Allie's class educated her on the story of "Blood Mary." In turn, we spent the next few nights explaining to Allie AND Easton that she isn't real and doesn't in fact live in our mirror. *sigh*

Tonight Easton prayed for me to get feeling better, for Allie to not eat all the snacks(?) and that Paul won't get fired. haha...

Olivia is for real crawling now. No more army crawl. Sometimes when she sees Paul she says, "DA!" We got excited thinking she was saying Dad....until she looked at the table and said, "DA!"

Paul's grandma had a 95th birthday party. Allie sang to her. Olivia stared at her and Easton ate his weight in food.

Good times....:)

Christmas Card Pictures...

Having two girls seven years apart doesn't allow me to dress them alike-EVER! So when I saw these dresses(that EVERYONE has) I had to buy them for the annual Christmas card picture. On the day that we took these pictures, it was probably 40 below zero and there MAY have been some tears but when I got home and downloaded them onto my computer??.......the tears were mine. Maybe it was the lighting in the picture? Or the fact that they all look so much alike? Or just maybe that they are my whole world. Whatever it was, they are some of my very favorite pictures of my favorite little people. Merry Christmas~from the White 5. :)

Why don't I live in New York?...

There are a MILLION reasons that I would like to live closer to the big apple, but the number one reason right now?....


ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? My all time favorite holiday movie is now on Broadway!?

For about five minutes today I was actually contemplating going there just to see this show. Actually looked at plane tickets! Daydreamed(there's the operative word) about taking my grandma(and anyone else with a strong connection to this film!) with me. Wouldn't it be GRAND? An evening with Irving Berlin's masterpiece? *sigh* I saw pictures of their costumes and the only word that comes to mind is....DIVINE! I love this show. Its one of my traditions to watch it (and force Paul to watch it with me). Why don't they make shows like this anymore? Tap-dancing is a lost art....one which should be incorporated into more shows or for that matter....life! Wouldn't all things be more bearable with people belting out show tunes and tap-dancing?? Yes-I think so. :)

Holly Jolly.....

So here we go. I hardly ever have time to devote to this blog of mine. So many people have quit using their blogs and it makes me sad! I'm determined to keep this up-at least a little bit! There have been times that I go back through older posts and I am so glad that I have documented little pieces of our lives! So with determination I forge ahead... :)

~VEGAS BABY!!~

Paul decided to "mom-nap" me and take me to Vegas for a few days. It was so nice to get away just the two of us and this time we made sure to book a few shows because honestly, what else do you do in Vegas if you aren't a gambler? (I refuse to throw money into a machine when I could go buy a pair of shoes or an entire outfit.) We went to Cirque du Soleil's Mystere, which was FANTABULOUS! Yes, that good! My mouth didn't close the entire show. I would tell anyone and everyone to go see it while in Vegas. Then we went to Phantom of the Opera. People thought I dragged Paul to this, but truth be known he actually likes going to the theatre. I guess I kind of lucked out that way because I LOVE going to shows. I'll tell you what though, Vegas has really decided to sell "SEX" everywhere they can. I don't seem to remember it being that bad but man has it gotten crazy! I can tell I am getting older because at one point as I watched a girl dance on a pole inside the lobby of our hotel(no joke) I kept saying things like, "What do you think her parents think?" "What made her decide to do that?" "Doesn't she know what these gross men are thinking of her?" "Thats it-I'm taking her home." Paul was like, "She probably makes more money than I do and she isn't a stray cat! You can't take her home." hahaha.....The best part was just being able to have hours and hours of discussion without "the little people" interupting or listening to us. It was fun. :)

This was at Mystere.
We stuffed our faces the entire trip! I think this was at the Cheesecake Factory. Me and Paul LOVE eating out. When people ask me what we like to do together I always say that we like to eat out. People laugh...but I'm serious! Its a hobby and we are GOOD at it. :)

Bellagio? Can't remember....

One of our many "self-portraits" We took a million like this.

The infamous sign...

Another one.....
We were watching the fountains and Paul snapped this. It ended up being my favorite picture of the trip.

At Phantom. You don't even want to know how many people we had to ask to get this one decent picture! People are camera-stupid I've decided. Its frustrating to me. Anyway....will you just please see this show if you are in Vegas? So fun and I'm STILL singing the songs.

We stayed at Planet Hollywood and each room is "themed" We got the Miami Vice room and Paul just thought it was hilarious that Don Johnson was above the tub. So weird.

Didn't work this time....hahaha!

The big "5"

Easton turned 5 on November 22. He got to have his first big boy birthday party-Transformer style! We went to Beehive Pizza and they all had a ball. I kept looking at him all day thinking, "Where has it gone?" Where did my tiny 6lb 10 oz,wrapped in a blue star blanket, baby go!? I have issues with how fast my kids are growing up. I fight it every step of the way and I'm pretty sure that one day I will need therapy to deal with it. Easton acts so old anymore! Today I asked him what he wants for Christmas and he said,"Um...my own golf clubs. And a digital camera." WHAT?! You aren't 50! Your five! What about a remote control car? Army guys? Another transformer? Nope. Golf clubs it is. I asked him if he wants a retirement fund or some Benefiber to go with those golf clubs. Geez! He will be moving out on me before I know it. :( Happy birthday Bubba!

The Transformer Pinanta! Easton carried this thing all around the house days before the party. He loved it. We let every kid take a whack at it and finally Paul had to break it. haha!
Opening of the presents. Such cute little boys.

He thought he was famous....

Each one of them got to make their own individual pizza and then watch it go through the oven.

Optimus Prime
The gang...

What else?.....

I put up my Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving and didn't regret it for one minute! It takes me days and days to get it all up so I figure it all needs to be up for at LEAST 5 weeks to make it worth it. I even put up a second tree in my downstairs family room. We are kind of Christmas obsessed around here. My kids are getting old enough to be so much fun at this time of year. Lots and lots of traditions are getting started and they are really getting into the "magic" of the season and I enjoy creating a place for these memories! By the way, have you tried these?......

Oh they are to DIE for!! Any willpower that I have immediately dissolves around these babies! Go get some-they are only around at Christmas time. Here are some of my "holiday favorites" that just make Christmas what it is!! (Its long...)

Carpenters Christmas album. Sounds like my childhood!

Christmas Trimmings Salt City candle. Makes my house smell SO yummy. My second favorite is Pepperberry Wreath. I won't divulge how much I spend on yummy smelling candles at this time of year!

Chocolate covered orange sticks

My fire-place!

Judy Garland's version of "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" Makes me cry every single solitary time I hear it. (Its on my playlist...go down and listen to it.)

Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in White Christmas. Also reminds me of my grandparents and my childhood.

Homemade sugar cookies.

Rocking my baby to sleep by the Christmas tree. :)

Five stockings hanging in a row.

Reading Polar Express.

Singing along with John Denver and the Muppets at the top of our lungs in the car.

SNOW!!

Christmas jammies.

Talking about the birth of our Savior.

Hot Cocoa machine.

Finding that perfect gift to give!

My red&green Christmas lights. Makes my house look like a gingerbread house.

Singing Christmas songs in church.

Willard Bay lights.

Yearly Christmas ornaments for my kids.

Making Gingerbread houses.

Sending Christmas cards.

The arrival of our Christmas Elf.

Advent calendars.

Getting together with family.

There are hundreds more.....but I'm tired and ready for bed! Hope you all have a merry, merry Christmas!!

A Confession..

Usually I'm pretty dang good with money, but every once in awhile I get *ahem* a little spendy. That being said, I had one of these "spendy" moments(ok~more like 4 hours) last week while decorating the kids bedrooms. I won't say how much damage I did but I will just say that their rooms are going to be RIDICULOUSLY cute! I got caught up in the moment~ok? I couldn't stop! I was having pottery-barn inspired visions! (It was beautiful....)

The fact of the matter is that there are a few stores that are like crack/cocaine to me and I should just stay away at all costs!

ANYWAY.... I showed Paul the loot, because even though I may have a slight addiction, I am by no means a hoarder,liar or sneaky person. (Well that and lets face it: He would have seen my paper trail in the checking account. I HAD to tell him!)

Here is the worst part. Wanna know what he said? NOTHING! What he did was even worse! He worked all Saturday on his "side" money making projects.(Someone has to foot the bill for my inspiration spending.) UGH! I swear I could FEEL every sound his power tools made and the same thought came to me over and over all day........

"I'm an ass. A spendy ass."

(excuse the a-word. but that is the only word that came to mind about myself at the time.)

I {heart} Paul. He deserves a shout-out. He deserves a shout-out just for living with me.This morning I elbowed him in the ribs just because he was on my "side" of the bed. {????}

I'm like that sometimes. And thankfully, most of the time, he likes me anyway. :)

*I have since hidden the debit card from myself. I just hope I don't tell myself where it is the next time I have a "vision".*

BIG pictures! :)

So I finally learned how to make my pictures BIG. No one would tell me (I hate that) but I figured it out myself. I couldn't however make it fit on this blog, so I created a blog for my "fun" photos. Pictures of the kids Halloween costumes are on now!!:

nicolewhitephotos.blogspot.com


Check my photo blog often as I will be posting "life through my lens." :)

I believe in fairies.

Every day I drive Allie to school and every day she gets a little teary and says, "How many hours until I am home again?" and so I tell her how many. Wednesday's are good days because she gets home early. Allie likes Wednesday's. She also likes Friday's because she gets to stay home on Saturday and Sunday. When I drop her off in the mornings she hops out of the car and says, "I love you! Promise I won't throw up?" haha... and THEN she walks up to the door of the school and stands there and waves and I'm talking a BIG wave. Hand extended way over her head and waving as fast as she can and I roll down the window and stick my hand out and wave back at her until we can no longer see one another. (I'm sure we are quite the scene!). When she gets home from school, me and Easton are usually waiting for her on the back steps and when we come into her view, she sprints towards us yelling, "Mama!" Today I went into her class to help her teacher. Allie was so excited to have me in there and as I left she walked me to the door and hid her head in my side and started to cry. When I asked what was wrong she told me that she just misses me at school. *sigh*

Here is the thing: Allie does well in school. She loves her teacher, has lots of friends, loves learning....she just happens to love me more than all of those things and you know what? I'm good with that! :) I know it won't be like this forever.

Tonight we went to Ogden, just the two of us to get some last minute Halloween costume stuff and on the way home she said, "Mom, do you know what I believe in? I believe in Heavenly Father, Jesus, Santa, ghosts and Fairies." I told her I believe in those things too.

The point is-I wish I could freeze how she feels right now forever! Please don't let that change! PLEASE! I hope she always loves me as much as she does right now. I hope she always feels like waving at me(even if I am in sweat pants, glasses and the Big-O tire shirt they throw out at the parade) until she can no longer see me and I really hope that she always, always believes in Heavenly Father, Jesus and fairies. ;)

Happy Fall!

Don't you just love this time of year? I love when it gets just cool enough to wear a jacket and sweaters. I also love decorating my house for fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving and for some reason when it gets cooler I find myself enjoying cooking again-which is a bonus! There is nothing like making your house smell like yummy, warm food on a chilly night! I was hoping to get better at my blog when school started but it just hasn't happened. Here is SOME of what has been going on at our house....
Memorial Day we took the kids up to Bear Lake to play for the day. We stopped in Logan for lunch and then headed over there. It was a such a fun day...

One of my favorite pictures of Allie & Easton ever. Love it and love them!

I think the three of them sat like this for hours digging in the sand.

The first day of school pictures. Allie thought she was pretty hot stuff in her "rocker" shoes and Easton only wanted to show off his back-pack! haha...They are both loving school so much this year and both of them have the greatest teachers. I have a carpool for Easton's pre-school and there is nothing funnier than the listening to the conversation of three 4-year-olds. I only have to drive once a week and it just gives me that much more time to get some things done....and well play with Olivia! :)

PROJECT: Basement. RESULT?: FINISHED!!!

We finally got our basement finished a couple of weeks ago and it has been so nice!! (Nice doesn't really do the proper job of explaining our joy) When Paul started working on the basement a year and half ago I was like, well it will probably be finished by 2020(note the sarcasm here), but lucky for me somewhere in between Paul believing he is Bob the Builder and spending three weeks at a time in Florida for work, we (meaning he) came to our senses and hired the rest of the work out. I can't believe how different it makes my house feel! When we decided on doing this we each had our own "wish lists" for the basement. Mine was a place/playroom for the kids and all the toys that they have. A room where every single solitary toy could be and I wanted big closets that would house most of this crap! Paul's was a family room with a home theater system. You know, one of those systems that shake the room and walls, and a big flat screen to watch college football on?......its one of those man things that I will never understand. However, while I didn't have much interest in this whole "system" I must say that I have COMPLETELY enjoyed it. Watching movies is a whole other experience now. After it was all installed my kids wanted to watch Polar Express down there. So I started it up and went back upstairs to check on Olivia. After awhile I hear this thundering and booming coming from downstairs and then both of my kids barreling up the stairs. (It was the part where the train pulls in front of the little boys house and it was SO LOUD! Apparently I had left the volume up-oops.) Anyway, Easton was crying and looking backwards to see what was following him and Allie was shouting every piece of "danger" knowledge she has learned in school. "Mom! Stop, Drop, ROLL!!" "Get under the table!" "Call 911!" "We are having an earthshake!!"

I almost peed my pants laughing. I'm laughing out loud right now just thinking about it again.
Here is a picture of Easton playing in the finished toy room. The walls are still bare, I haven't decided what I want to do with it yet. Every toy in my house is now in this room. Can I just say how wonderful that has been?? I really think I'm a nicer mom because all the toys are downstairs! Each one has their own closet in the toy room so they can put everything away when they are done. It has been the best thing we have ever done....EVER!

We put different colored shelving in the toy closets...pink for girl stuff, blue for boys stuff. Heaven I tell ya.....HEAVEN!!! (I'm singing just as I type this!)
Olivia and Easton enjoying the space. The furniture hadn't got there yet. I have lots of decorating to do-it is almost overwhelming deciding what I want to do down there and while I am loving all the extra room I realized the other day that it has created a whole lot more cleaning for me!
Allie's new room. We haven't completely moved her in here yet and I hate these pictures. Why is it so hard to get a good picture of a room? Oh well....

Yesterday I bought our first family pet(s). Here they are...................

HELLO.

Yes, we are now the proud owners of two Eco-system frogs. Actually, Easton is the owner. You get them at Hallmark and supposedly they almost completely take care of themselves. No cleaning the tank and you feed them twice a week and I was promised that they don't smell. So far-no smell at all. The first whiff of anything though and they are headed down the sewer express. For now, their names are Frog and Toad. Ya know....Frog and Toad are friends? Remember that book? Anyway....Allie kind of wants a puppy, but that just isn't happening. So here is a frog. :) No shedding, no poop, barely any food?.....I like it.

And here is Livi-growing up sooooo fast. Almost seven months now! She says hi and waves at us. She is able to roll anywhere she wants and now sleeps all night in her crib. :( I told Paul he could FINALLY put the bassinet away. I almost held a candle light vigil for myself. She hates bows, will barely stand them for five minutes and she also hates clothes on. Happiest in a onesie on my lap. Look at her! She can have whatever she wants.......:)

My beanie babies......

On a sad note, Paul's grandpa died last week. Pretty sad time for all of us-especially for Paul who pretty much lived on their farm growing up and spent countless hours hunting with him. His grandpa probably had the biggest impact on him while growing up and he was able to be with him at his home as he passed away, something that was hard for him to go through, but I know that he wanted to be there. He had such a great life and legacy and now when I drive Allie to school and we turn down White Street she says, "Here is our grandpa's road!" Here are a few pictures....

At the White Family reunion. Memorial Day 2008. Grandpa White with Allie on Christmas Eve 2002. I have spent every Christmas Eve at the Farm since 1993. They have always, always treated me like a member of the family, even before I was "officially" one of them. I loved Paul's grandpa from the minute I met him. He had a fun personality and always laughed at things I would say....even if I shouldn't have said them! ;) He will be missed by everyone.

That same week, Paul's work laid off another 550 jobs and if you add that to what they laid off in March they have laid off over 800 jobs this year. Pretty scary for us and about everyone that lives around here but we are feeling very blessed. Hopefully they will be done with lay-offs for awhile. At times like this though I am glad that at least we both have degrees (Paul has several..lol!). That's it for now! I'm so excited for Halloween and my kids' costumes! Stay tuned....:)