Papa and his little Gem

My parents have been great!


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Making progress

We haven't moved in yet but we've had 4 rooms and a hallway painted and we're making progress on the kitchen cabinets... Maybe next week we can move in!

Dora loves her new room and new bed. She lives the colors and keeps telling me "pink and green mommy".




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Finally a House

Next stop? A home. We are living with my parents while we get the cabinets redone and some rooms painted. But we have appliances in now and we're making some progress unpacking.

Here's a photo of the "red house" as the kids call it.



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Emmy is happy to be in Texas

We made it! We close on the house at 11 am tomorrow. Other than Eli's broken leg, all is well.



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Name them one by one...

I have been feeling sorry for myself and frustrated a lot. A few people who aren't afraid of me (turns out I can be scary!? What??) Anyhow, they have cautiously pointed out that I have a lot to be thankful for. It made me realize what a whiner I've been. I wanted to take a second on this, the eve of our truck loading (while I am letting Emmy cry for a minute--she cries whether I hold her or rock her or walk with her, or spin her like Emma did, or anything else, so I am taking a quick break!) to count some of my MANY MANY blessings.

1. Whitney

2. Whitney

3. Whitney. Is that enough? Probably not, but other people may not appreciate hearing how blessed I am to have him in my life.

4. My Heavenly Father and my knowledge of him and his son Jesus Christ. Yes, I know this should have come first, but right now I feel like Whit's doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Is that sacrilegious?

5. Eli. He is SO cute and sweet. He is such a helper too!

6. Dora. What a little doll. I love that kid. She helps more every day--even tries to change her own diaper. Especially when she's poopy. Can we say, "READY to potty train!?"

7. Emerald. I really really do love her. I just get frustrated when she screams a lot! But she smiles a lot too and she's sleeping better slowly but surely. And she is really really snuggly.

8. My husband has TWO jobs. At a time when some people are having trouble finding employment, it has been so easy for him. See #1, 2 and 3. We are all so grateful for your hard work for the family, Whitney!

9. I have work too-and it's been a blessing to work at home at my own pace.

10. We sold our house here--in a difficult market and time.

11. I have amazing parents. This probably should have been up much higher. How many parents that you know will literally drop everything to do anything you need--and ACTUALLY do it regularly to bail you out? Mine both will and do and then they do it again and never complain. Recently I was whining about Eli always needing me to do everything for him. "It never ends," I lamented to my mom. Then I asked, "When will he stop asking me for stuff?" My poor mom just laughed and I thought of all the stuff I am always asking for. NEVER, if you're a good parent. I certainly have a good model.

12. We found a great house out in Texas and it seems like we will actually be able to buy it after all!

13. We get to move right next to family.

14. My hubby is a doc, which is super helpful to have around.

15. My friends out here are awesome at pitching in, most notably Carey Miller and Lindsey Soren--thanks!

16. The weather is going to be great for our loading day!

17. My sister is coming to help with my move--again! She helped when we moved out to PA too.

18. My kids are all healthy.

19. I am healthy!

20. Our cars both work and... so do their air conditioners!!

21. My husband gets up at night to help with the baby. He also does laundry. And packs. And loads. And watches the kids. And cooks. Oh, did I already mention I'm grateful for him? I guess I forgot.

22. My dad and husband drive the big trucks. So I don't have to.

I should probably keep going but I had to pick up little Emmy long ago and it's much harder to type while holding her so this has gotten painstakingly slow!

I AM SO BLESSED! And I do know that, even when things don't work out like I had planned.

HAPPY MOVING DAY!

Eli's First Party (of Two!)

Since we are moving to Texas we decided to do a party for Eli here a little early before we leave. We had it on the 5th, Tuesday. We had some fun friends come over and set up the bouncy house. It was pretty low key. :-)

I am including these two photos first to show that even with weather of 75 degrees my kids run around and get all hot and red faced. I think they're going to croak in Texas!

Eli thinks he can run so fast you can't see him. Here he is running, both feet off the ground. He is pretty fast--good thing I have a fast shutter speed or we never would have caught him on camera. Haha.

The kids loved the bouncy house, as always.

We will really miss Natalie! I didn't get a photo of my friend Lindsey, darn it. I'll have to get one of her in the next week...

See, I was there.

We had pizza for lunch and then cake.

Eli loved his cake with a dog with a frisbee.

He got lots of fun presents, like darts, a dart gun, a pop gun, a harmonica, a remote control car (really cool) and lots of pool stuff. He also got some fun activity stuff (we made mud pies with one yesterday.)

Dora and Eli got matching golf sets.

Here's that neat car. He has loved his new toys and the kids can't wait for his next party in Texas!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WHITNEY!

My darling husband is turning thirty four. I can hardly believe we have been married for coming up on five years. Despite the trials (my brother's passing, soon-to-be three moves and three beautiful but trying kids!) I have never felt so blessed. Whitney, that's because of you! You are my greatest blessing. Look at this guy--how could he not be a blessing!

For your birthday I thought I'd list 100 things I love about my wonderful husband:

1. First and foremost your love for the gospel. It inspires me. Your willingness to help, to give, to bless others is inspiring.

2. Your love for your kids is truly amazing. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful father for my children!

3. Your love for me--I am so glad that even after 6 years of knowing you, you still show me you love me every day.

4. Your adorably unique way of seeing the world. How can I explain this? Let me just say, you came up with "Mosting."

5. Your sense of humor. This will be a no-brainer for anyone who reads your blog. You brighten my life.

6. Your hard work--you work so hard to support our family and I am so grateful for your willingness to slog through whatever gets thrown at you to "bring home the bacon."

7. Your easy going nature (which I take advantage of sometimes). You let me pick so many many things.

8. How you take care of everyone around you. I first saw it with your mom, but you take care of your mom, your sisters, your brothers, your friends. Everyone's life is better for having you in it.

9. Your generosity. This one may go hand in hand with number eight, but it's different. You are always willing to give and not just to family and friends. You are the only person I know with a stack of McDonald's gift cards and a few cans of chili in your car for homeless people.

10. Your strength--here I am talking about sheer, brute, HULK-type strength. I'll never forget when we first moved to Hershey and I saw you rip a double sink sized counter right off the cabinets in the bathroom. It was glued down but that didn't stop you. Muscles bulging--my hero. :-)

11. Your smile is beautiful, and infectious.

12. Your silliness. You once pointed out that my brother Jesse, in addition to being smart, could also be silly. You were saying it as a compliment, since those things seldom go hand in hand. Well, they do with you too. I love your silly streak.

13. I love how excited you get when your car goes zoom.

14. That little boy excitement--I LOVE IT and you're the only person I know who has it. You dance when our kids are born--a little dance of joy. You get a silly grin on your face when you get a new gun. I could go on and on. I love your excitement for life.

15. You have thoughtfulness that puts others to shame. I remember when we were first dating and you made me a scrubs pillow/pillowcase to hug when you were gone, you made me a stamp chest and then whittled me a little kangaroo to put my rings in... Stephen (a friend from work) said, "Man, tell that guy to tone it down. He's making the rest of us look terrible." He was right. You put the other guys I'd met to shame. You still do.

16. Your guilt. How can I love your guilt, you ask? Because you feel all this guilt just for sleeping. How could that be a positive? You want to help me out, you want to spend time with your kids and family so much that you feel guilty for SLEEPING and not being with us. That is a manifestation of your love for us and I am so grateful for it. Now, get over it and sleep already. Haha.

17. Your frugality. You are willing to toss your frugality on the pile for me, which I appreciate, but when left to your own devices, you economize. I love that. You were so frugal when I met you. It impressed me then and it still does.

18. Your beautiful eye. Are they blue? Yellow? Green? I love trying to figure it out!

19. Your teeth. Glad your parents got you braces. Money well spent!

20. You have great legs...

21. I am so impressed by your running. 7 miles at the drop of a hat--holy cow.

22. You help me so much with the kids. I really appreciate it.

23. You also help around the house--laundry, dishes, etc.

24. I love your cooking. Chicken parmesan, enchiladas, grilled pizza, to name a few.

25. I love how you always clean up after dinner, no matter who cooked. :-)

26. You support my crazy baby clothes-buying habits.

27. You always walked my dog, even though you didn't even like dogs.

28. You look really hot with a shaved head. :-) Good thing your mom rotated you like a rotisserie chicken!

29. I loved those wrinkles around your eyes when we met. Now, many thousand smiles later, I love them even more.

30. Your humility--I should have put this up higher on the list. When we met it was the very first thing that attracted me to you. You could have been preening like a peacock about being so smart, and so good looking but instead you were very humble, crediting your accomplishments all to hard work. I love you for that.

31. Your height. I love that you're so tall and I can stand completely under your chin (unless I'm in heels.) It makes me feel small and cute.

32. You always tell me I'm beautiful, even when I'm 190 pounds and pregnant, or after I have the baby and I'm 40 pounds over weight.

33. You insist on moving anything even slightly heavy--one of the many ways you take care of me.

34. I love that you wanted me to find someone to clean the house for me. Thank you for pampering me.

35. And similarly, that you wanted me to get help after having this baby. You spoil me.

36. You bought me a kindle before I even knew I wanted one--and you never complain about the multitudinous books I buy, despite the mounting expense!

37. You always take care of whatever stresses me out--taking the baby to doctor appointments and giving her baths until she's a little older--to spare me the stress of hearing her cry.

38. You always surprise me with little things to show your support--like the Christmas you bought me all those baby carebears for Dora's room (before she was born).

39. You never complain about girl movies. (Well maybe a little but you're a good sport.)

40. You are totally incompetent at facebook, which I love about you.

41. You are always helping people out with medical advice.

42. I LOVE that you're a doctor. It's HOT and also just impressive.

43. You support me working.

44. You support me writing. Remember when you sent me to Panera Bread every single day off you had so I could write my second book? Yeah.

45. You watch the baby so I can do situps or work on my scrapbooking.

46. You helped me make cards for a while too--even buying me a "Whidget" stamp.

47. I guess this is sort of like 42, but I love having a doctor around with tiny kids. Any question I have, all the little things they bonk and knock and smash--I have you here to ask all my questions and be a hypochondriac,

48. I love when you can fix the kids up--like when we were in Bandon and Dora got that eye infection and you just took care of it--so much easier than finding an urgent care...

49. I love your dedication to reading your scriptures.

50. I love your love for the prophet and your respect for the local authorities.

51. I love the love you have for your mom, your dad, and your family. It was what first helped me realize what a good hubby you would be.

52. Even though you think our kids are spoiled (what?! haha) you spoil them anyway--getting them treats, buying them a dozen toys for their birthday. I love seeing how much you love them in spite of your hangups about material things.

53. I love your blog. So funny and sweet.

54. I love how you take the kids on little trips and adventures. Very cute.

55. I love your freckles. SO CUTE. :-)

56. I think it's cute how easily you burn. I know this is an odd thing to remember fondly but when on our honeymoon I sort of sloppily just put some sunblock on your back (because who really needs it anyway, right? I never burn...) and then you had white hand prints on there that didn't burn and everything else was red... Sad!

57. I love how you like to swim at night.

58. I love your obsession with guns. And cars. And camping. I love how you get all worked up about things.

59. Your excitement about things like a cross country drive is really cute.

60. Your kindness to MY family is wonderful and a blessing. You're always thinking of things you want to do or buy for my dad or brother.

61. I love that you supported my sister living with us for a year.

62. I am so grateful you're letting us move down right by my family.

63. I love that you let me basically make all the decisions about things like a house, etc.

64. I love how you always have candy bars. And gatorade.

65. I love your desire to have a year supply of food. And then some.

66. You supported me in going up to Dallas like every weekend when we were in Temple. I really appreciate that and always will because that helped you get to know Jesse while that was possible. And it helped me mend some fences.

67. I love how you always drive because I hate it.

68. I love that you plan all our trips and handle all the legwork.

69. I am always impressed by your directional capabilities. I even love our detours, like that one we took up on the East Coast while you were at Harvard for that rotation...

70. I love your propensity to get little snacks whenever we stop, even at Target.

71. I love your love of travel. Like seeing the Danube, for instance--we'll enjoy that one day.

72. I appreciate your patience with me when I am slow or get caught up in something.

73. I love how you deal with my crazy. From baby fits to spastic hormonal outbreaks, you take it all in stride.

74. I love how you want to be wherever I want to go--even if it's Disneyworld or Paris, which might not be your ideal vacations.

75. I love going with you and the kids to our condo out in Florida. Such fun memories! And many more to come.

76. I love cooking with you.

77. I look forward to doing P90X with you--you motivate me in so many ways, it will be nice to work out together.

78. I love that you did Body Pump AND Body Flow with me. SUCH a great guy. And secure!

79. I love you will wear what I want you to--like a full size Ken Doll!

80. I love how you trust me to handle things, but aren't critical when I foul up.

81. I love how you spin your wedding ring with boyish charm, but if you press me, I'll never admit it again.

82. I love how capable you are--from remodeling a house to putting up new blinds or working on a car. If I need it done, you can do it. You just do it.

83. I love what a good father figure you are for Eli. He couldn't have a better role model.

84. I love that you will say sorry if you did something wrong.

85. I really really love that you'll say sorry to me even when you didn't.

86. I love your adorable backside. You won't want me to put that in here, but I figure no one else is reading it by now, so my secret is safe. It's why I love those jeans I made you buy. Yummy. :P

87. I love that you just pop some excedrin and get up even when you're tired if I need help or if I am sleep deprived.

88. I love how you let people yank your schedule around and mistreat you because you want to be a team player--and you never complain. Don't worry--I do it for you.

89. I really appreciate how hard you worked to get where you are--and I am so glad you're the example for our kids to follow.

90. I love that you support me in things you don't even want me to do-like pumping-if I say it's what I want. And even when it makes your life much harder.

91. I love that you never criticize me for buying anything. Not many husbands can say that. (Mostly that might be because I am so close to perfect that my purchases are all good ones.. haha.)

92. I love when you curl up around me. It makes me feel loved.

93. I love that you're not afraid of PDA.

94. I love that you tell me you love me all the time, in front of other people and your family, too.

95. I LOVE that you never ever flirt with anyone else and only have eyes for me.

96. I love that you don't even admit to liking any movie stars. It makes me feel loved. :-)

97. I love that you bring me treats--even when I'm on a diet, shame on you.

98. I love that you always want the best for us and work hard to make it happen.

99. I love how you hug me. And you always make sure you hug and kiss me before you go to work.

100. Mostly I just love spending every single minute I can with you. I drink it in. Your time off is my best time.

I love you Whitney Taft Baker... every single whit of you. :-)

xoxoxoxo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Bridget

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July... Here's a shot of little Emmy from the day before.

I tried photos in the front first (I'm no photographer, but the sun was way too bright... Also, I totally forgot I bought this outfit in 3T because I had one for this year already. But I'd already put it on her and Dora has big ideas of what she should be wearing, so she's in it for most of these photos. Hence the off the shoulder straps... Oh well!)

They love each other so much now. It makes me so happy...

Look how cute Emmy is getting!!

Here are a few shots of Emmy. She slept through the kids' photo shoot but we got a few right before bedtime.

Look! She smiles now when you smile at her. SO CUTE that she responds now. It makes me really happy. ALMOST makes up for the colic.

This is a grin, believe it or not!

Happy Fourth of July!

How many miles?

We recently made a trip out to Boise area to visit Whit's brother Haven and his family. On the way out, Eli (who is three years old) asked, "Mom, how many miles is it to Uncle Haven's house?"

Now, for those of you not familiar with a three year old mentality, he doesn't really understand what a mile is. If you are an adult, you have walked many miles, and probably driven many more. You understand basic concepts such as a mile can take you 20 minutes to walk if you're moving slow or uphill, as little as 4 minutes to run if you are in GREAT shape, and less than a minute to drive if you're on a highway.

Adults also have a basic concept of numbers, having seen a few years themselves, and understanding that years are composed of several months, hundreds of days, thousands of hours, hundreds of thousands of minutes and probably millions of seconds. Eli, at three, doesn't really know how to count past twenty. He recently identified my age as "ten and ten and ten" (I am thirty) and then suggested that the cemetery we passed on Memorial Day had about ten and ten and ten flags. It had closer to two or three hundred flags. So, to a three year old, there isn't much difference between 30 and 300.

In spite of my understanding that Eli's conceptual ability to process the number of miles to Uncle Haven's house was limited, I still said, "Oh, about 400 or so." Eli said, "Oh, okay."

About five minutes later, Eli asked, "Mom, how many miles now?"

I patiently explained, "Eli, 400 miles will take a long time. The sun came up an hour ago. You know how we usually take naps after lunch? Well, we will drive for the whole morning, then drive through a fast food place and buy lunch. Then we will drive the whole time we would usually take naps. Then we will drive even more--about two more movies worth of driving. When it's almost dark... then we will get there. That's how long it will take."

About two minutes later, Eli asked, "Mom, how many miles is it now?"

About 15 minutes, or six more repetitions of the same question later, my head exploded. Three hours later my patience was way past gone with answering his sweet little voice when he said, "Mom, now how many more miles? Are we almost there now?"

About halfway through the trip something occurred to me. Before I can share my epiphany I should explain something about my life. My family moved out to Oregon a year ago. We thought it was the perfect place for us. Unfortunately, we felt a little isolated and lonely without family here and a few things didn't work out quite as we had envisioned. We had optimistically purchased a beautiful home. My husband was lucky enough to find a great job out in Houston, right by my parents and brother's family. It even paid better. All of that meant that we now needed to sell our house, the one we had just bought and sunk all our money into. Selling a home a year after purchasing it is never a winning proposition, with closing costs on both ends, but selling a home out here had an additional challenge--the market was way down.

Over the past month and a half, I had been diligently praying to my father in heaven every morning, over every meal, and every night. Sometimes when I had a free minute I'd say a prayer intermittently throughout the day. Many components of my prayers changed, but there was one underlying request. Please help us to sell our house now. We are ready to sell our house and move, so please let us find some buyers and be able to sell it for what we paid.

It occurred to me on the long drive that I was much like my three year old son. A perfect example of my similar behavior came in the prayers I was consistently sending up to my Heavenly Father that we sell our house. I wasn't trying to understand how many miles it had been. I was merely asking, over and over, how many miles. And asking him if I could be there now. Not in a few hours, or a few miles, but now.

There are so many things in our lives that we don't understand. Sometimes it's that we lack the capacity. Sometimes we lack the faith or patience. In my case it was probably a bit of both. I lacked the understanding of how God was working in my life and the faith that He would take care of me as he saw fit. I just kept asking over and over and over for the total miles left, but I didn't listen to his response when it was sent. I had repeatedly felt that things would work out--that if I had some faith, we would sell our house. I had even told my husband that I felt sure we would sell it and things would work out. As the days passed, that faith faded, and fear replaced it and my litany began anew. "How many miles left, Lord?"

We have since sold the house, and we sold it at a perfect time--we had a place to live the entire time we needed to be here in Oregon and sold it just in time to move out to our new house. We didn't have double mortgage payments and we didn't even have to write a check to get out of our house in Oregon. The more important thing is that I finally placed my trust in the Lord. I stopped asking how many miles and trusted in Him to get me safely where I needed to go. It is my prayer that I can do better in the future to listen and understand my Heavenly Father's promptings and that I can have the faith to be patient when I can't understand.

Playtime at the Park

I took the big kids to the park yesterday while Nana was still here to watch the baby.

Dora dresses herself now--and we just got her some new purple shoes so she insisted on wearing her purple dress so she could wear her new shoes.

Her eyes are so big and blue!

Eli ha a booster seat now and while Nana was here he scrambled into the back.

We will really miss the 65 degree weather out here with sunshine. It's been GREAT!

The kids loved to run over to the edge and pick me flowers ("rabos"). Here they are on their way over they turned and asked for a photo.

Here is my pile of "Rabos".
They also had fun drawing with sticks in the wood! Weird kids..

They are so cute!!

Also we made these balloons filled with flour (thanks to Natalie's kids who had them) and finally yesterday Dora busted one up in her bed at naptime. She came down looking like this:

I should have taken a photo of her bed. It looked awful! Like a powder bomb went off! I love these kids.