28 NOT 29

Dear Dale,

I know I keep aging you a year (or 2) and I am sorry. I just have fun teasing you that you will be 30 WAY earlier than me. and by "WAY" i mean ONLY 3 and a half years so i will get what's coming to me. don't worry i can take it. And because I keep aging you we BOTH keep forgetting how old you are actually turning.....

But today is your birthday and I know we cant do much due to the fact that we are in the hospital (or barely home) holding our precious CHUNKY little boy and I know that this is just what you wanted for your birthday so i know you are nowhere disappointed but I just wanted to make sure I wrote you a little public love letter of sorts. Since you know how good i am at showing my affection publicly... HA!

You are the most amazing husband and father. The girls are so lucky to have you in their lives and I am just as lucky that I get to watch you with them. They adore you and you,  very willingly return the adoration. I see how in love with them you are and nothing makes me happier.

I am so glad that we now have Rudger and I get to watch you raise a son. He has the most amazing example of a father that anyone could have. He is the luckiest little boy on earth. I hope he grows up to be JUST like you. (Seriously the girls have enough of me in them that a little clone of you running around the house would be SO very welcome. And I am sure you would like someone who could help shoulder the responsibilities of the dirty dishes ;))

I hope that I am able to make your birthday special and let you know how much i love you and how glad i am that you were born 28 (not 29) years ago.

Love,
Your wife!
(you know the one!)

He Is Here!!!!!

Rudger Dale Whipple

December, 17 2011

all 9 lbs of him!

(good thing he came a week early!)

My rolly polly boy!

We are all SO smitten.

Cant get enough of his cheeks and lips and FULL head of black hair...

Or his blonde streak!!

SO IN LOVE!

Lately

Lately I have not been great at this blogging thing.

Lets be honest I haven't been great at much lately.

Besides growing a human. 

I am doing AWESOME at that. 

But being awesome at that makes me way less awesome with other things.

WAY less awesome....

So I just decided that Since I haven't posted about anything, really, that we have been up to the past couple months (which hasn't been much) I would just post a ton of pictures. I am not great at capturing moments but I do have some that I have been wanting to share. 

So here we go.

My awesome sister Jamie took some pictures of us on the land behind our uncles farm in Utah.

I LOVE THEM.

It was short and sweet. Which was perfect because we were all exhausted from the road trips we had taken to get there. Jamie was way more exhausted so we made it quick!

MY FAVORITE!!

We had fun, while we were staying at my uncles house, going back and forth from one of his chicken coops to the other having so much fun experiencing something totally different than they were used to.

We were able to take the girls to my Grandpa Dents house and visit. Riley had a lot of fun teasing him. He loved it just as much!

We attempted a 4 generation picture...

And more loving on Great Grandpa Dent.

I caught a candid of my brother, who LOVES to hide from the camera unless he has to and if he cant then you will most likely not get him to smile. Especially this naturally, and especially not in a white shirt and tie! Haha If he finds this out he will kill me! I am risking my life.

We were able to visit the Logan Temple.

The temple my parents were married in.

This temple is gorgeous!

We were only able to walk the grounds but now I am dying to go in.

 Then we came home and Riley started kindergarten. 

Then Mak had her second Birthday.

Lots of presents and fun with grandparents.

Oh and Cake.

And playing mommy with her new baby doll.

And cake...

Then in September my sister- in- law Lana Came home from her mission In Chile! We have had fun Catching up and Shopping!

No pictures.. Cause I stink at it But we have had fun!

Now its October! I cant believe it. I am so glad the end of the year is getting closer and going by so fast! I Just want to have my little boy and hold him and watch him grow up with his sisters! Also I so just want to not be pregnant anymore. haha

What Baby?

I can't believe its been two years.

I can't believe that we have had enough time to go from this...

To this...

Makenna is so grown up. She has gone from babbling constantly to talking constantly. She knows words   and phrases that surprise me every day.

My favorite is 

" Wiwey is at shool... I guess. Daddy is at wowk... I guess"

She says these as she shrugs her shoulders and looks up at me with those big dark eyes!
I say big "dark" eyes because i still haven't decided what color her eyes are. Sometimes she looks at me and they are unmistakeably brown. Other times they are a deep dark olive green!

She has the most beautiful golden curly locks! I have no idea where they come from but they sure are gorgeous!

She is happy 95% of the time and is throwing huge tantrums the other 5%.

She is the biggest cuddle queen ever and loves to give loves.

She is the child of one million facial expressions, which I can never seem to capture on camera...

She has the sneakiest eyes. She thinks she can get away with anything. 

(I am on to you child!)

Her favorite song to sing is "I Love to See the Temple" She asks for "Da teempoo song" every night before she goes to bed and she sings right along with me to every word. There is nothing sweeter! I promise!!

She loves going for walks in the stroller to pick up Riley from the bus stop, its her favorite time of day!

Every time she sneezes she says, "Kenna's ok! I'm ok!" and every time someone sneezes she has to ask and make sure they are ok!

Her favorite things in the world are her "mimi" (blanket) and her thumb. I dont know how anyone of us would survive if she didnt have either!

Sweetness aside she is one tough cookie! Nothing phases her. Even when she takes a hard fall to concrete and her teeth split her lip...

She is very open and not shy at all. She will talk your ear off no matter who you are!

She already has a very nurturing mothering personality and loves to carry dolls around. She makes sure they are wrapped tightly in blankets and she rocks them and pats their back. I can not wait to see how she reacts to her little brother when he gets here!

To top all this off she is IMPATIENT! This child puts me to shame... We are working on it.

Happy birthday Makenna! I love you so much!

Multi-Tasking And Procrastination

So while everyone is already past their fathers day posts and have moved on well past even their 4th of July it this is the first chance I have had to blog about anything in a while.

So While most people just celebrated Fathers day we celebrated a Birthday for a Bug as well!

We had a little party for her on Saturday with some of her friends and she she had a BLAST! I was kind of a mess being pregnant and with morning sickness that wont give it a rest but it was all worth it to see that little girl so dang happy!

She LOVED being the center of attention.

Its kind of her thing ;)

Mak of course needs a little love too!

But most of the attention was focused on Bug.

I didn't get many pictures since I was too busy running around like a crazy person but we had fun!

They played pin the tail on the donkey, fished for their party favors and treats, opened presents and ate some cake!

Then on Sunday morning we had early church so we had to wake up early to give daddy his present form the girls and give Riley her big gift from us!

We didn't capture the excitement as it happened (of course we didn't we stink at those kind of things...) but she was jumping up and down and couldn't have been more happy!

Of course she needed to take it out for a quick ride before we had to start getting ready for church!

She LOVED it!

Dale sporting his gift from the girls! Riley took me in the sports store and picked this shirt out all by herself and was so happy when he put it on and loved it!

She said to me on Saturday night...

Mom am I 5?

Me: you will be tomorrow bug! 

R: But Mom I already had a birthday party and blew out the candles and so now I am 5!

M: Yes I know but that was just a party with your friends. Tomorrow you will see your grandmas and grandpas and they will sing to you again and you will be 5.

R: But mom that means I will be SIX!  If we sing to me again I will be six.

M: No bug you will still be 5!

R: No mom I will be SIX!!

M: K bug whatever...

Hahahaha

She is an amazing little girl. She is so smart and witty and clever. She isn't fooled by any attempt to distract her from anything. She knows what she wants and she wont rest until she figures out how to get what she wants. She has a memory unlike anything I have ever seen before. You know how most parents can say "Maybe later" and by then most kids will have forgotten what they wanted in the first place.

NOT THIS CHILD! 

She remembers EVERYTHING! 

She makes sure every day has its own challenges and excitement. She is something else.

I love this little girl so much.

Cant wait to watch her as she grows. She is a force to be reckoned with.

Unfortunately we didn't get to do much for this man because we were so occupied by trying to make Bugs birthday a memorable one but we did get to go out to dinner and he got a couple gifts.
A week or so early he got an Apple T.V. from me and had plenty of fun experimenting and having fun with that and then on that Sunday morning Riley was able to surprise him with the gift (the PHX Suns shirt) from her and Mak that she picked out all by herself!

This man is an amazing father. I cant believe how good he is sometimes. It cant be possible for a man to be as a good a father as he is to our girlies. He loves them so much and never lets a day go by without smothering the girls with kisses and love. He has so much fun with them. I cant wait to see him interact with our little man that's on his way.

A foggy day in Jerome town

Dale had a birthday on Sunday so we knew we needed to have our own little celebration on Saturday. Dale said the only thing he wanted for his birthday was snow. Since I didn't think that would be quite possible (driving to snow takes just a little bit longer) I asked him if he would settle for cold. He agreed and I started planning! Someone had given me the idea to give him this trip for Christmas but since he asked for snow for his birthday I thought this would be even more perfect!

So off to Jerome we went!

We were so happy that we went on Saturday. The weather was AMAZING! We actually needed layers and the town had was completely covered in layers of fog! It gave it an almost eerie feeling. So amazing. 

 Dale could not have been happier! He said the way the roads were set up and the sidewalks and the little   narrow walkways between houses plus the cold and the fog reminded him exactly of one of the areas on his mission! For him to be able to sort of go back in time and remember all these things made the trip even more perfect!

I didn't get pictures of a lot of the old relics they had all over the town but this was funny! Dale tried to see if it actually still worked. Would have been so cool if it had!

I bet the people in the shops facing that old water fountain laugh at all the people that try to see if it works! ha ha

It was so foggy we could barely see in front of us and while we were walking around the curves of the roads not being able to see more than a few feet in front of us was one of the weirdest and creepiest sensations ever!

Before we read the description about this place Dale and I swore it was an old jail. It was the coolest building! It used to be something before it was burned down. It was the biggest building in Jerome so when they rebuilt it in the 1800's they rebuilt it with brick and for a while it was a reception center. And then a hotel before the structure started to crumble on itself!

Or something like that...

The coolest old doors ever! I told Dale I wanted to blow this picture up and hang it somewhere in our house! 

Dale saw these old houses turned Bed and Breakfasts and Dale and I so badly want to buy a vacant one and start up our own. Within the first 10 minutes of the trip Dale said he wanted to make this place our permanent residence! 

I am so glad Dale enjoyed his birthday surprise so much! We will definitely be going back! 

Dale I hope you had a good birthday! I love you! You are the best!