FIVE YEARS!

Forgive me for my neglect in not posting on this momentous occasion earlier. Nate and I recently celebrated our five year anniversary, woot woot! I can't believe its been that long, time FLIES! Allow me to brag about our marriage for a minute, won't you?

1. Nate and I work extremely well together. We never have disagreements for very long, we're talking 10 minutes max. For reals.
2. Nate and I never fight. Disagreements, sure (see above), but fights? Nope.
3. People always say how the first few years of marriage are "hard." Negatory. We have always found marriage to be simple. Put the other person's happiness first and don't whine about dumb stuff, not too tough.
4. We've got big plans for our future. Who knows if they'll come to pass, but we're planning an awesome life!
5. We support each others parenting choices. Ok, in front of the girls (aka Rachael) we support, and we discuss later. Our kids need to know we're on the same team and if mom says no, dad says no, and vice versa.
6. Nate is accepting that our home doesn't look perfect when he gets home, and that sometimes dinner isn't ready. And I accept that his work hours are freaking ridiculous!
7. We both believe firmly that I need to be home for our children. We've both had confirmation that if I'm home with our children and not working in a career, we will always have enough. (As long as we're living within our means.)
8. We are both frugal, not cheap. (Disclaimer: Now that we actually have an income, though its not much, its more than what it was in the past. Nothing. So if I want to buy some new kitchen towels, guess what, I'm gonna get some.)
9. We both know the other is not perfect, but we're not constantly trying to change the other person. (Example: When Nate is drinking something delicious, pop, juice, what have you, he is L.O.U.D. I've accepted it, and don't try to get him to stop. Tease him about it? You bet.)
10. We love each other and our little family more than anything!

For our anniversary this year, we did a babysitting swap with some friends, so Nate and I went car shopping and test drove a few cars. (I was hoping we'd get one, but no such luck... yet.) Then we went out to dinner. It may sound lame, and maybe it was for a five year celebration. Once my mom is done working for the year, we're planning on having a little camping get away once I'm done nursing the babe. (We also tossed around the idea of going on a cheap cruise since we live so close to the ports, but we're saving up for a Thailand trip, possibly later this year, woot woot!) Love you, Naterbug! I'm looking forward to Eternity with you!

(P.S. I tried to upload a section of our wedding video for your viewing pleasure, but it wouldn't work. Lame-o.)

EARTHQUAKE!!

I have just experienced my first earthquake! Literally, it was less that five minutes ago, but I've decided to document this occasion. It was pretty small, only lasted maybe five seconds, but my legs felt like jell-o after, I was so scared. At first I thought our downstairs neighbors just slammed their door really hard, but then it kept shaking. YIPES! I went to check on Rachael in the living room (Whit slept right through it.). She looked at me and said, "WOAH!... My turn!" Then proceeded to jump up and down, shaking the apartment a fair amount for such a small person. According to earthquake.usgs.gov, the earthquake was a 3.9 magnitude. One thing I was PETRIFIED of when we moved here to California was the earthquakes. Luckily this was my first, I'm sure it won't be my last, but I'm feeling the need to get more emergency preparedness stuff. We don't have the space for three months of food storage (excuses, excuses, I know...), but I'm going to work on getting us four little 72 hour kits. For reals. The thing I hate about earthquakes is their unpredictability. You never know when one is gonna hit.

bye-bye

Nate taught Whitney how to wave "bye-bye" while I was at my Relief Society meeting tonight. I didn't catch the best video of it, but let me tell you, it is one of the most adorable things I've ever seen. I am one proud mamma.

Epiphany

Today I had an epiphany. So there I was, standing at the sink doing the dishes, listening to Rachael say, "Mom, mom, mom! Hum ear!" (come here) in the living room. I had just wrapped her in a blanket like a burrito and thought she'd be content to just lay there for a few minutes, seeing as how she really loves tight, dark, enclosed spaces. (For real. Under a laundry basket covered with a blanket is her favorite.) My immediate thought was, "Can't you just let me get something done for five seconds?"
And then I started thinking down the road about, say, 11 years, when Rachael is almost 15. She'll be well into her teen years (and gorgeous, I might add...) and probably won't want me anywhere near her. But I'll want so badly for her to say, "Mom, come here, let me talk to you."
Isn't that crazy how life turns around? One second I just want my kids to leave me alone for a bit, but in a few years time they'll want ME to leave THEM alone!
How frustrating it is to be a parent!
(P.S. I definitely stopped doing the dishes, went and wrapped my little girl even tighter, jostled her around, and made up crazy monster songs. She giggled and laughed, and I loved it.)

Easter 2012

We had a great, low key Easter this year. The Easter Bunny came after church. Literally. We got out of the car and saw a bunny rabbit hopping across the grass. Nate and Rachael ran to see the Easter Bunny, then we went upstairs and saw the treat trail he left to direct Rachael to her basket. Awesome! The girls looked adorable in their Easter dresses. LOVE! For dinner that night, we went to our friends, the Gochnour's, along with the Henkels (Crazy, they were in our ward in Rexburg but they're long time friends with the Gochnours. Small world!), and the Martins. It was different to be without family, but we couldn't have asked for a better day.

Rachael was NOT loving getting her picture taken that day (she just wanted to stuff her face with candy...), but luckily I snapped THIS gorgeous shot of her laying on her Easter basket grass. My sassy little beauty.

Confusing Concepts

I've been trying SO hard to get Rachael to differentiate between a horse and a sea horse. She knows the difference, just won't say it. Every horse she sees is a "sea horse." I've also been trying to get her to enunciate the word HORSE. Here is a conversation we had while we were coloring today. I thought it was pretty funny.

Prince John?

Whitney only sucks her thumb when she's tired, but she always holds her ear when she sucks. I find it quite adorable, and I am always reminded of Prince John from Robin Hood.

Swim Day!

The pool is FINALLY warm enough to swim in! We had a blast, and it was the first time Whitney has been since she could actually sit up and support her head effectively. The last time we went swimming, Whitney was still young enough to take a nap in her bouncer while Rachael and I swam. Here's to a long summer spent at the pool!

Frame it!

Nine Months

My little Princess Whitney is nine months old! (Well, last month...) I can't believe how fast time is flying by! I sure love this little Miss and her Sassy McSassy personality. She's constantly jabbering, constantly wants me to be holding her (who loves the separation anxiety stage?), is closer than you can believe to walking, and has started mass amounts of finger foods and sippy cups. Love you, Whitterbug!

(I snapped these pictures at my Aunt Mel's house, not professional [clearly] but I've fallen off the professional pictures bandwagon. I'll hop back on for the one year. At least have a friend take some with her nice camera.)

Plane Ride

We recently found some SWEET plane tickets to go visit St. George, and since Rachael didn't have school for three weeks we jumped on them. Rachael got her own seat, and Whit sat with me. I was thinking about when Rachael went on her first plane ride how I took like 3,000 pictures. Whitney's first ride? Not so much. It is a LOT of work traveling with two kids. Luckily I couldn't have asked for the girls to be any better. The ride was short and Whitney was a little wiggle bug, but we made it through. (Note: Jet Blue is AMAZING. Extra leg room and a TV screen for each seat PLUS a free checked bag for each customer? Yes please!) On the way home, Rachael sat by the window and was excited to see the planes and all the sights of the runway, then when we started taking off she started shaking, saying, "I scared, I scared." We shut that window right up and enjoyed the rest of our flight.