Happy baby, sad day

It's always a sad day to get shots. Abby had her 4 month appointment today (where does the time go?) and things are looking good. Her weight is 13 lbs. 9 oz. and her lenth is 24 inches -- both squarely in the 50th percentile. She reacts so differently to shots than Megan did -- Megan was upset of course but would calm down as soon as I began to nurse her. Abby continues to scream and yell even after the hurt is gone and had to interrupt her nursing several times to yell at me in a very accusatory tone! She likes to yell and scream. She's definitely found her voice and likes to blow spit bubbles and raspberries as well. I was making a big deal over that until Megan started doing it -- not so cute on a 2 1/2 year old!

Today when Megan got out of her bath I was trying to get her to lay down to put her diaper on and she was arranging things just so of course and when I kept asking her to lay down she said "hold on hold on". Miss Sassy Pants!

We leave on Saturday believe it or not -- I still have so much to do but everytime both girls are down, all I want to do is relax myself! I wish Chopper were here.

Surprise!!!

It's been one week without internet and I feel like I live in the dark ages!! Nearly every day something would come up that I would think -- oh I'll check that out online, or, what's the weather like, and WHOOPS! no computer. Until today! My friend (and wonderful lady who is now the Primary President instead of me) Nicole gave me their laptop to use until I leave!! How sweet is that? It will make life so much easier since Megan has been impossible these past few days . . . I can't say I blame her. She misses Chopper and the only way she can express that is through total meltdowns. Sometimes I want to have meltdowns too!! We're actually doing pretty well though -- staying busy seems to be the key. Chopper sent her a mammoth stuffed animal in the mail -- it's from Ice Age and the first thing she asked after pulling it out of the box was where Sid and Scrat and the acorn were! But she loves that thing. I'm slowly getting packed up, only 2 more weeks until we go to my parents and then on to Dallas eventually.

Oh and Chopper bought a house. Everyone looks at me incedulously that I let Chopper buy a house without even seeing it. I completely trust his judgement on structural stuff -- he's done enough building and carpentry to know what's good and what's not -- as for style? Well I think we're similar in that but I guess I'll find out when I get there! Great news though -- it's on a cul-de-sac! I love that the girls will have a low-traffic location to ride bikes and play. It also has a fenced backyard and 4 bedrooms -- plenty of room to grow our family in but not too much to clean! I'm slowly getting over the sense of being overwhelmed and starting to get excited about decorating. Chopper says the house is done in nice neutral colors already that we can keep but I'm starting to scheme about how to do Megan's room. I've been thinking about that one since before she was born!! Oh and now that I have a computer, I'll be able to research out ideas -- yippee!!

Still no pictures since Chopper does have the camera though -- that will have to wait until we are at my parents and I can confiscate their camera!!

Family Time

I know that we've had a lot of Chopper the past few months, but since we won't have him AT ALL for the next few, we've been trying to do things as a family, not just hang out as a family. Yesterday we went and saw Ice Age in the theater -- part of the summer cheap programming. That was Megan's first experience in a theater and she did ok. She is a very cautious girl and it took about 15 minutes to get her to come into the theater. But once she realized it was her favorite movie in the world and there was popcorn involved, she did really well and I think she enjoyed it. Abby mostly slept.

Today we went to the children's museum in Richmond. I should complain that we don't have one here in Fredericksburg except that they have one in Dallas that we will definitely take advantage of! I love these things. I won't go into detail about the whole thing but it was really worth it and we had a great time.



There were two exhibits (is that what they're called?) that were particularly neat though. The first was an apple tree where you placed the apples (red balls) in a bucket that fed them to a twisty thing and then they went into various tubes and came out at holes in the apple tree. So you picked your apples! It was really cute.
The second was some kind of shadow thing with large screens and objects on them. When your shadow landed on the screen, the objects responded -- for example, the one was butterflies and they would land on your shadow, another was balls and you could push them around with your shadow. It was really neat.


So I guess this is goodbye for a while. Chopper is taking the computer and the camera with him so I won't have anything until we get to my parents. Then there will be some fun trips and my brothers wedding before we head to Dallas ourselves. Talk to you later!

Happy Independence Day!

It was a traditional 4th for us this year: barbecue, fireworks, and family. The hot dogs were good and burnt (well, Chopper did burn a few just for me) and we spent some good time with his family. The fireworks, that's another story. I think it went better than last year anyway. Chopper made sure to get quiet ones but they still do the crackly thing. The first few were ok, but on the first crackly firework, Megan got scared and ran away. She spent the rest of the time watching fireworks in the house. Needless to say, we did not stay up late to see the display in Spotsylvania County! I think it will be a few years until we can go to a real fireworks display again. Of course Abby couldn't care less.

I'm trying to remember to take pictures of the girls with their grandparents before we leave. I'm still not doing so good, but I did get a nice one of Abby and Grandpa Whittacre. And Abby and me. And Abby and Chopper. Abby smiles at the drop of the hat so it's easy to get cute pictures!



Megan on the other hand seems to get grumpier the more I try to get her to smile. But she loves to look at pictures of herself. I took several of her with her cousins Eve and Sophie before the fireworks began and I finally gave up because she just looked mad. So instead, I have to get her to show me things and then I'll get something halfway decent. No parades for us this year, but Megan looks like she's ready for one and she did wave her flag pretty much all day (except at church of course!).



I love celebrating the 4th of July! Oh and I forgot we made chocolate chip cookies today and Megan got to lick a beater! I think this is her favorite thing -- making cookies. And she pretty much has to taste every part of it. I actually really enjoy making things in the kitchen with her. Whenever we crack eggs she yells "cracking cracking, I'm out!" -- a line (with her own twist on it) from the book Ollie by Olivier Dunrea -- I love his books. She's gotten really good at dumping ingredients in the bowl without spilling and loves to stir. She's a really careful child so it's a lot of fun to cook with her!

That's a Big Fish!

This will probably be Chopper's last fishing trip for a while since he leaves pretty soon. So fortunately for him, it was a successful one! 9 fish total and this one was the biggest.


It is a beautiful day out -- I think a fish fry is in order! Oh wait, he didn't bring it home. I have an aversion to cleaning fish! I guess I regular picnic will have to do!

Baby Burrito?

When I ask Megan to say or sing something, she gets softer -- so I apologize if it's hard to hear. She was walking around singing the baby burrito song and I thought it was cute. I'm trying to keep up with pictures and videos of both girls and this to me is a keeper!

The song actually started with Megan when she was small. I sang to her when I got her out of the bathtub because she screamed about having to get out and she has a bright blue hooded towel. The tune is Baby Beluga but the words are: Baby burrito in a bright blue towel, you look so nice and you smell so sweet. Your hair has been rubbed and your toes have been scrubbed, you're just a little baby headed off to bed. Baby burrito, baby burrito, have you had a bath? Are you nice and clean and so sweet smelling? (And then repeat the first part).

Poor Jeff

My brother swung by for a quick visit on his way home to Michigan. He gets so excited to see Megan and Abby and unfortunately he gets this:

I think in his defense, Abby has been a little out of sorts tonight so I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with him. I did have to laugh though. I handed her over and she stared at me and just got sadder and sadder until I took her back. She never cried though -- my sweet girl just knows her mommy I guess!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Abby's 3 month birthday. That's all I have to say except that I can't believe she is 3 months old already! Where does the time go?

Weekend Update

So, it's official! Chopper starts work on the 19th of July in Dallas! He'll be going down a few days prior in order to start house hunting -- I can't believe we are actually looking into buying a house! The market is soooo much better than Fredericksburg and we will actually be able to afford it! I am really excited, and really scared. House ownership is a big deal! Plus, I have to put a lot of faith in Chop that he'll pick one I like since I won't be going down beforehand. Fortunately, we have similar tastes -- we'll see what happens!

The girls are being typical kids. I've been experimenting with a variety of different crafts and one of them involved seed pearls. This is what I get for doing it when Megan was awake and of course she wanted to play too . . .

Abby is a strong little girl! Actually, I think this is normal for her age but you have to remember that Megan was either lazy or weak or both really. . . anyway she never did these things and so it amazes me with Abby: she stands, or rather she puts pressure on her legs and straightens them out and lately she's trying to sit up. She's been doing this when she's in her car seat I think because she hates the thing but today she was doing it on the couch. There is a good bit of air between her and the pillow and I am NOT holding her up. It's funny too because she really looks like she's doing a crunch. I think the girl has stronger abs than I do . . .

Happy Father's Day!

I love my dad dearly and am so grateful to have him as my father but I think it's even better to watch my husband be a great father to our girls. I know that they won't remember a lot of the things that he does with them now, but I remember them and I think they are lucky, lucky girls!

We tried to get a nice picture with all three of them but Megan has been too distracted with her new hand-me-down vanity play set. I don't think I'm going to be able to hide this one until Christmas since she was here when our friends brought it over and went to it like moth to flame! Oh well, we got some good pictures with Abby, my smiley baby!

There was this great idea for brownies decorated like BBQ grills in the June/July issue of Family Fun Magazine. If you want to see their version, it's here: http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/grate-gift-for-dad-888883/ Of course I HAD to make them for Chopper since he loves to grill and we're not allowed to in this apartment complex. But I made them with chocolate cupcakes instead of brownies and I did hamburgers (sliced up Tootsie Rolls) and hotdogs instead of kebabs and pork chops. They turned out really cute and really good -- I think Megan has eaten half of them!!

Even though Megan is still a little too young for a lot of things that are in that magazine, it is fabulous and I love getting it. I'm just storing up most of the ideas for later!

A Conversation with Abby

Falling Behind

We've been preoccupied lately with searching for places to live in Dallas. Dallas is a big place! And it's hard to find good information on schools and whether or not places are decent for young families. We'll probably just have to do a lot on the ground there.

So anyway, Chopper went out this past week and metal-detected his parents yard. They live in a Civil War battlefield and he was hoping to find maybe some belt buckles or things like that but he did get in a good haul of bullets. Sorry the pictures are bad, I don't have camera skills . . .
This one he says was never shot due to the condition it's in. These bullets are pretty big and really heavy. I cannot imagine being on the receiving end of one of these!

Abby is talking up a storm! She's also growing like a weed and is nearly as big as a few 8 month old babies in our ward -- of course those babies comes from small people families so that might be part of it but she is getting wonderfully chunky and is so adorable! She has the cutest pouty-lip ever. She doesn't use it often but when she does I just have to smile.


Megan is so imaginative. It's funny though because for the most part she's playing all the games I played but with animals instead of Barbies or dolls. So she puts them to bed and talks to them and they eat food -- all that good stuff. The other day I asked her what they were doing and she said "she's changing her diaper". All of her animals or characters are female by pronoun. She loves to use fabric or napkins and wrap things up and make them cozy or give them "hats". I love just watching her play and hearing the things she comes up with.

A Quilt for Denise . . . oh yeah, and Danny

I can finally post this quilt because Danny and Denise read my blog (once every 6 months) and so I couldn't put pictures up until they got it in the mail. But the whole time I put this together (and the rest of her baby presents) I thought about Denise. Not Danny. Who is actually my brother. Maybe it's because pregnancy and babies are really all about women. Not that men aren't involved but Chopper never got as excited as I did about preparing for a baby. Or maybe it's because Denise is a wonderful sister-in-law and I think I might like her better than my brother (sorry Danny). Ok I lied about that last bit -- I think I love them equally. I think.

Enough said: Ta-da! A la peanut butter sandwiches:

Maybe when the little guy is born they'll send me a picture of him with the quilt to post as well. The animal print is Alexander Henry 2D zoo in pool (that's the color scheme) and the other blue prints are all from Joann Fabrics -- some from the Heidi Grace collections and some just from Joanns! The pattern I cannot take credit for at all -- its from Elizabeth Hartman -- her charm squares baby quilt and you can find it here: http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2010/03/charm-squares-baby-quilt-redux.html
I also copied the way she quilted it with wonky straight lines and I did it on my own machine! So I was very excited and impressed with myself and I don't say that to brag -- it was just awesome to be able to do a machine quilted quilt myself. It only made me want a long-arm machine all the more! It was a quick quilt to make but I just love the results and apparently so do Danny and Denise!

What's New?

What do Virginia, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, and Texas have in common? They will all have been graced by the wonderful presence of the Whittacres!

Yes, you read that right. We are moving to Texas -- Dallas to be a little more precise! Chopper received a tentative job offer to work at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Tentative because he needs to have a background investigation and drug test both come back clean before the formal offer is made. But we're not worried about that.

We are so excited! It's a new adventure and that's wonderful in and of itself but for Chopper to finally be employed again! He's also working on an online degree through American Military University that started this week. When it rains it pours and the blessings are coming down cats and dogs right now!

Abby Adorable

I just love this picture! Look at that face!! And those chubby arms!!!