Sunday, December 14, 2008

Thanksgiving pics

Suzann took these pics of the nieces and nephews while the kids played at the park on Thanksgiving Day. Isn't she amazingly talented?!


Our nephew, Andrew



Our niece Hollyann and nephew Ian


Niece and nephew, Moira and Ian
And here are the ones of Hope that Suzann took. I'm sorry there are so many, I couldn't pick just one!














Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas

Ugh. Sorry I haven't posted in like a month. This time of year always lends itself to lots and lots of business, which as you all know, is not very conducive to blog-posting.

We have been well around here. Just busy. Our church Christmas musical was tonight, so everything we've been doing lately has been kind of leading up to this. It went well. We did "Cardboard Testimonials" as part of the musical. Have any of y'all seen this on YouTube? I will try to post the video of ours. It will make you bawl your eyes out. It was so awesome to see how God has worked so powerfully in the lives of the people in our church and so amazing to be a part of something so powerful. There was not a dry eye in the house.

For Thanksgiving we went to Collin and Janelle's (Stephen's bro and sis-in-law). We got to see Stephen's parents, his brothers, and their wives and kids. It was so great to be together. We had lots of good food and fellowship. Hope LOVED being with her family. She is sooooo social. When we got home and it was just us again, she kind of wandered around the house like, "What do I do now?" We were able to do Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas with everyone since we won't be seeing any of Stephen's family for Christmas. We had lots of fun and Hope was so good the whole trip! Thanks again for hosting us Collin and Janelle!

We went to see Santa the other night. Hope SCREAMED her head off. She was so scared! I wish I could post the pic, but our scanner is broken and we don't have a CD of it. It was so funny, but so sad at the same time! Maybe next year will be better!

I finished up my classes for the semester and am enjoying the short time off before I start again in January. I got A's in both my classes, praise the Lord! I am really enjoying the material, so the studying is fun.

Now all the big stuff is over and we can just relax. My mom is coming for Christmas Eve. I love this time of year, when everything is done. Shopping is done, presents are wrapped, musical is over. Now we can just sit back. I am looking forward to going to the Christmas Eve service and just hanging out around the house with my husband, mom and baby. Christmas morning we will drive to SA and have Christmas with my dad and celebrate Stephen's dad's b-day and then we will be back up here for New Year's.


We are so blessed to have such great friends, family and church. Thank you Lord! I will post pics in the next blog!








Thursday, November 6, 2008

Harvest Fest and Hope at 16 months...


Hope is 16 months-she'll be 17 months on the 18th. We just can't believe how time is flying! Hope is of course walking now and running all over the place. She won't stop long enough to even get a decent picture as you'll see below. Hope is doing all sorts of new things. She knows so many signs including: more, all done, milk, eat, wait, please and thank you. She made up her own sign for night-night. It's so cute. She tucks her fist up under her chin and says, "nigh-nigh," like she's cuddling her blanky. We are working on other signs now, such as, water, yes, no and we will soon start working on some signs for "potty." I just figured, she picked up so well on the ones we've taught her, why stop here? I am a huge proponent of baby signing b/c it acutally teaches them to communicate with you instead of screaming, which is what Hope did for the first 6 months of her life. It also engages their brain in a totally different way and teaches them to make connections they would not have made otherwise. It's also been really neat b/c she will sign a word and say it at the same time, so it's not like it's hindering her verbal communication at all, and really it seems to be only helping it.

Hope knows lots of animals and animal sounds. If she sees an animal that she doesn't know, she will just make up a sound for it. It's so cute. She loves dogs the most, though, and whenever she sees one, she yells, "PUPPY!! WOOF WOOF!" She also loves cats and constantly follows Hobbes around the house "meowing," trying to get him to play with his string. He takes it all in stride of course, and is much more patient with her than he would be with Stephen or myself. She absolutely LOVES any animal of any kind really. She is always singing "Old MacDonald," not the whole song, of course, but the E-I-E-I-O part and shouts the animal sounds, and is usually on key with us! *blink blink* Crazy!

Hope also knows almost all of her body parts and loves to point them out on herself and on us. She is also loving books of any kind right now. All day long our day looks like this: Hope brings me a book and climbs up on the couch for me to read it to her. (Or if I'm sitting on the floor she will climb in my lap.) When we are finished reading, she climbs down and goes and gets another book, yelling, "BOOK!" the whole time, climbs back up and insists that I read the next one. She's obsessed. It's funny because she is also weirdly fascinated with her daddy's music books and is constantly wanting me to read them to her. I have to explain that she would not be interested in those and that she should bring me one of HER books. She does not like this and usually throws a fit. So I oblige and turn pages for her until she gets bored and sees that I really do know what I am talking about and goes and gets one of her own books. We do this SEVERAL times a day. It's quite hilarious, actually.

Hope is also into her Baby Einstein DVD's. She really loves them. We watch about one per day, so it's not too much-just enough to keep her interested. She's also starting to do puzzles. We have one with shapes and she can actually match the shape and fit the pieces in. It's amazing! She HATES to color or do any organized craft of any kind. I fear she is taking after her mother in this aspect. But I'm not going to force her. We have plenty of time for all that "artsy fartsy" stuff. She can eat with a fork and spoon now, although she's still pretty messy. We're slowly getting better in this area.

I guess that's it. Sorry that was so long, but I hadn't written an update on Hope in awhile, so I thought y'all might like to know what's going on. Below are some Harvest Fest pics, and, as usual, they are not great. Hope dressed as a ladybug. Hope y'all enjoy!















This little boy was a cow. They were fascinated with each other!



And back at home throwing a fit b/c she had to come home (don't even ask why the pic is green, I have NO clue!)




Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Pumpkin Patch



I know you have all written me off as a horrible blogger, but in my defense, it's kind of hard to post pictures without a camera. And my camera phone sucks. It takes really blurry pictures, so that's my excuse. ;) Stephen's getting me a new digital camera for x-mas. Maybe I can convince him to get it for me a little early. Please honey, please???? The people want pictures!!
A couple of weekends ago we went to the Pumpkin Patch with our SS class. It was a lot of fun, albeit really warm. There is something wrong when you're going to the Pumpkin Patch and it is still 85 degrees outside. One of my good friends was gracious enough to take some pictures of our family.


Ready for her day!



What is THIS stuff?!

Looking at the pumpkins...


Petting the puppy...


Driving the tractor...


Mommy and Daddy tried to get a good pic with the pumpkins, but she was just too busy...


Family pic with the pumpkins...


She stole a baby's toy...;)


Daddy on the zip-line...(He waited 30 minutes for 10 whole seconds of bliss)

They had a tractor pulling a bunch of barrels painted like cows, making a train. Hope LOVED it. She was the only baby in there. The rest of the kids were older and we were all SO surprised that she stayed in there the whole time with no help at all!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Thoughts about the weather...

I know you are probably thinking that this will be a massively boring post, but I just had to get my thoughts out.

I made a really neat discovery this week while reading my textbooks. Essentially what I learned is that the sun sends energy to earth in the form of heat (duh). That's something you already knew, I realize. Some parts of the earth get more heat than others. For example, if you live along the equator, obviously you are going to receive more heating than if you live in, say, Fargo. So, because the earth receives more heating in some places then in others, it is constantly "trying" to redistribute the heat in order to equalize the climate around the globe. This unequal heating of the earth is, in effect, what makes our weather because the earth is forever endeavoring to make the cold parts warm and the warm parts cold. It's almost like the earth is "alive" and thinking. This is just amazing to me. How could you NOT believe in an all-knowing, all-powerful God after seeing and knowing the evidence of such intracacies as solar radiation, heat budget, the water cycle, etc? Everything has been so carefully and so meticulously set in place. In my humble opinion it takes more faith to believe this all happened by chance.

God has really opened my eyes lately to just how huge and powerful and amazing He really is. Creation is such awesome evidence of this. It's crazy to think that He actually thought up all this stuff. Below are some verses about weather. That weather processes are this simple to God when they are SO complicated to us is totally beyond my reasoning.

Psalm 147: 15-18"He sends His command to the earth; His word runs swiftly. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand His icy blast? He sends His word and melts them; He stirs up His breezes and the waters flow."

Psalm 147:8"He covers the sky with clouds; He supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills."

Job 37:15-16"Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes His lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?"

Psalm 107:29"He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed."

Nahum 1:3"...His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet."

Job 5:10"He bestows rain on the earth; He sends water upon the countryside."

Zechariah 10:1"Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men..."

Jeremiah 10:13"When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses."

Psalm 19:1"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands."

More to come...

Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Wilhite's Go To D.C.-Part 4

PART 4...

FRIDAY, SEPT. 19-ANNAPOLIS AND THE NAVAL ACADEMY
Friday,, Barrett and Suzann (and Hannah!) took us to Annapolis and the Naval Academy. It was a beautiful, quaint little city with lots of cool history. The Naval Academy was having parents' weekend, so we got to see a fly-over and we got to see the cadets marching into lunch. It was really neat and a beautiful campus!

Walking down the streets of Annapolis. Lots of cute little shops lined the streets. You could spend forever here just perusing the shops. The Chesapeake Bay was down at the end of the street and you could see the boats in the harbor. Such a serene and tranquil view.
Eating crab at a local restaurant. Yummy!
The Chapel at the Naval AcademyThe view of the Bay. It was so cool-in the low 70's with a nice breeze blowing. Perfect weather!
In front of the oldest State House still in use. It was closed for renovation but we still got to take a picture.
Well, that was it! Yesterday, Saturday the 20th, we got up at 6:00 am to catch our 9:00 flight out of Baltimore. From there we headed to Philly for our 3 hour trip back to DFW. Hope was SOOO tired and it was NOT a fun flight. She screamed at least a few times. Luckily there were other kids on that flight too, so we all just screamed together! Our friends Seth and Becca who lived in Plano picked us up (thanks guys!) and we got home at about 3:00 yesterday. We are SO tired! It's amazing how much all that takes out of you! I went to bed at 9:00 last night, I was so tired. Hope took a nap yesterday when we got home, then slept for 12 hours last night and then took a 4 hour nap when we got home from church today! She is just tuckered out! It was so worth it though, and we made lots of good memories!!! Now to start planning our next vacation... ;)

The Wilhite's Go To D.C.-Part 3

Part 3...

TUESDAY, SEPT. 16-MT. VERNON



Hope and I in front of George Washington's house.


View of the Potomac from his house. So beautiful!
George Washington's tomb



WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 17-CAPITOL TOUR AND PENTAGON TOUR

Hope and I in the rotunda of the Capitol Building
Hope in the very center of the Capitol Building (where the star is)
View of the Capitol from the outsideHope and I outside of the Pentagon

The Memorial to the 9/11 victims of the Pentagon. It was so sad.




Another Memorial to the 9/11 Pentagon victims in the distance and the Air Force Memorial in the background.

9/11 Memorial closer up-They have one for each of the 184 victims. 3 were children.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 18-WHITE HOUSE TOUR AND BASEBALL GAME


Stephen and I got to take a tour of the White House. Here it is from the front.



Stephen and I in front of the White House



The White House from on top of a hill. The Washington Monument behind it.


The Jefferson Monument


Inside the Jefferson Monument


Stephen at the Washington Nationals vs. Mets game. Barrett got tickets and they got to have some "brotherly" time.


The Watergate Building

The National Cathedral at night

Part 4 coming soon...