A Case of the Crazies!

Aye, Aye, Aye! My three munchkins keep me not only busy, but cracking up! Here is a recap from the past few months of the funnies around here:

For some reason their Mr. Potato Head pieces brought so much enjoyment this particular evening...

Jared gets so excited around 6:00 every night, his internal clock is telling him Daddy will be home soon. Here he is waiting for the sound of the garage door to open...his cue that Dad is home!

And, here is Jared's reaction when he realizes Dad is home. You've got to watch his face right after I say, "Jared, Daddy's home".
It's priceless!
(he must not have heard the gargae door this night, over the roar of his Hotwheel car)

Ahh, don't they look like such loving brothers?

Tricked ya! Jared going for the kill! (sorry for the indecent shot of Iron man undies...we obviously need to work on modesty around here!)

I think God has an amazing sense of humor...he gave me my crazy kids! And I'm sure he's getting the biggest kick out of seeing all the nutty things they come up with!

Wake Me, I'm Dreaming

Ben had to make a trip to the bay area on Friday last week, and as he realized the Oregon football team was playing at Stanford on Saturday, his plans changed a bit. Instead of flying he drove, and instead of going alone, he took ME! Sarah and Seth came down to take care of the kiddos so Ben and I could have an amazing trip together.

He had a 3 hour meeting in the morning on Friday so I hung out in down town San Francisco, ate sour dough bread and rode the trolly! It was great fun, but what was not great fun was the huge amount of traffic. And the cranky horn happy drivers. And the crazy people who in masses crossed the street diagonally through crazy busy intersections. Crazy.


I also saw the tallest mall ever. I looked up and saw 6 floors above me (they didn't all show up in my picture), and 2 more below me. There may have been more above me, but I didn't want to stare, and look like a complete and total dorky tourist. As it was, I took a picture in the most inconspicuous way possible! :)


That afternoon we drove down to Menlo Park (Palo Alto area) and I knew Ben's meeting there would be pretty short, so I just drove around the area to kill a bit of time. The homes were amazing. No, I don't think you understand. Seriously amazing. There was one for sale, so naturally I picked up a flyer to see what kinds of prices these home were going for. First off, let me say that this particular home was the ugliest I had seen compared to it's neighbors. But still, it was 4,000 sq feet, pool, pool house, the works! According to the flyer the "home was a perfect candidate for remodel. But it was perfectly livable until the remodel could take place." Are you kidding me?! Now might be a good time to mention it's 4.3 million dollar asking price. That's alotta money for a fixer uper! Holy Moly! We're not in Medford anymore, Toto!

The lesson I was taught as a kid, never to judge a book by it's cover was brought to life when we pulled into our hotel. We thought it would be fun to try a local boutique style hotel we found on line, but were honestly terrified when we pulled up to the hotel that night. Our fears thankfully subsided once we stepped foot into the hotel, we felt like we had found a diamond in the rough. It was beautiful, and our room was amazing...we didn't want to leave, but our tummies forced us out as the hunger pains wouldn't stop plaguing us.

I am a carbohydrate buff, so I don't feel out of line saying that the most delicious bread on the planet is at a local Italian restaurant in Mountain View, where we had dinner that night. Crusty on the outside, light, but chewy on the inside...what dreams are made of, really.


And just in case you don't believe me when I say I'm in love with bread, here's a picture of my new found favorite bread. Not a single picture from the trip of Ben, but the bread made it onto my blog. Priorities.

Even though we lost the game on Saturday, it was still fun to watch our Ducks play. Oregon fans had a huge showing, I'm thinking about half the stadium was filled with green and yellow! And, it was uber cool to watch the team warm up on the field right in front of our seats, but not as much fun to watch our defense sleep through the game. Grrrrr....


I thought this was plain awesome! In the middle of this picture (you may have to click on the pic to see it better) is Chip Kelly, the Oregon coach. He spend the entire warm up period intently watching Stanford. He wasn't ashamed of it, either. He was a stone throw away while the Stanford coaches were talking to their team. Talk about intimidating...


Oh, and can I just say I don't care much for Berkley! Or the mysterious Sweet Tomatoes that must have disappeared, or their lousy Italian Eateries, or their...

You get the idea. Not a Berkley fan.

But. I am a fan of weekends away with my man. A big fan!

All Treats, Please!

Total lack-a-tude lately, but here is Halloween!

Makenna was our little Jesse from Toy Story this year. She wanted to be Jesse last year, but the stars didn't align for her until this year. What a cute little cowgirl we have! And Ben dressed up as the most amazing duck fan Dad ever this year! ;)

What better for Luke, than a Motocross rider. Fits his personality perfectly!


Look no more, Jared is the perfect little Roo!


We had loads of fun at the ward Trunk or Treat, then headed down our street to trick or treat. Luke got to trick or treat at his preschool teachers home, they live across the street. Then home, a sugar fest, and tuck tuck to bed. On went the t.v. to watch a steller showing from the Ducks as they clean up house on USC! Fun game, fun night with all treats for us!

Loss of Innocence

Bed time tuck in tonight went as follows:

Makenna-crumpling up a note to the tooth fairy, "Well, that was pointless, she hasn't come in 3 nights!" (I know, I know, I'm a lousy mother, who is so stinking exhausted at night, I have simply forgotten my tooth fairy duties)

Me: "Well, why don't you give her another try tonight?"

Makenna: "Because I KNOW that you are the tooth fairy..."

Me: stammering, "when did you find that out?"

Makenna: with a smirk. "Just now...you just told me!"

The rest of the conversation was me trying to back track and convince my 8 year old that I am most certainly NOT the tooth fairy. Makenna giggled and held out her hand, and said, "Now, give me my money!" Very sweetly, of course!

Smile!

Time in the car: 32 hours.
Days gone from family: 4.
Number of tears shed from laughter: 72.
Whitmer Girl bonding: Priceless.


I just got back from a truly amazing weekend. The girls in Ben's family got together and made a road trip to Utah for General Conference. I have not laughed so hard, talked so much, or had that much fun in so long! I had a lapse in judgment and relied on Sarah to take all the pictures, even though my camera was just hanging out in my suitcase. I'm sure I'll only end up seeing a few of the many pictures we took because...well, how do I say this nicely? Some of us weren't feeling very photogenic.

We ended up with red blotchy faces one night trying to get a group shot because we were crying so hard. They were tears of laughter, but we could not compose ourselves long enough to snap just one decent picture. I won't say who had "angry eyes" and had to finally go put on sunglasses. Ahhhemmsarah.

We got to spend quit a bit of time with Josh and see some old as well as new friends at Brick Oven. It was awesome to get to know one of Ben's cousins, Colby, and seeing Tracey and Lanette was awesome!

Being in Provo really reminded me of the good 'ol days of being a poor starving college student. It was great to remember how poor I was, but how much fun I had at that stage in life. What a great reminder that it's not money that brings happiness. So much joy comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how blessed I feel to be able to go to Utah with "the girls" to enjoy Conference together.

What a great trip! Oh...I almost forgot! I discovered where steak comes from. Life lessons, here folks.

Day at the Spa

I just got back from a relaxing day at the Spa. The Spa-de-Kenna, that is. Makenna decided I need a makeover, and gave me a facial (makeup), back and leg massage, which was surprisingly AMAZING, and a manicure. Wow, who knew that an 8 year old could rock out a spa day in such an awesome way.

Here were the main takeaways I heard:
As each layer of eyeshadow went on, and there were seriously like 4 "Oh yeah...that looks great!"

As the blush was applied, "Mmmhmmm, you have a nice glow to you now"

And don't forget massive amounts of lip gloss. The colors that were chosen for me? Blue, purple, and green. The pretty pink lay there calling out to me, but was unfortunately ignored. Maybe next time, precious pink.



Thanks Makenna for being a rock star to your Mom! OH- I also got 8 stupendous hours to myself today. Thanks Ben for the "vacation day". You are the best.

Tricked Ya!

I was at Costco today to grab a few things, and bribed Luke with the tempting possibility of pizza if he was good. He made it, and enjoyed the fruits of his labor. As we were cleaning up our pizza mess a sweet older lady comes up to me and *gasp* tells me that my boys (Luke and Jared) are so well behaved and that they must have an amazing mother. I inwardly giggled, thinking that I sure fooled her! But politely said, "Well, thank you!"

If this same elderly woman spends much time at Costco, next time we go I'm sure she'll see our true colors complete with spilled water, thrown pizza, tears, and tantrums. But today...today I am an amazing mother.