Sunday, July 4, 2010

Let freedom ring and not the sound of your neighbor letting off fireworks. It was nice having a peaceful Independence Day. I am so thankful for all the men and women who serve our country and make it free. God Bless America. Uncle Darin came to visit us on Friday. Hailey has loved the extra attention. We had a barbeque over at our neighbor Dave and Stacey's house. They have a daughter who is 4 months younger than Hailey named Addi. We are so thankful for awesome neighbors. Stacey has given me all her contacts here in Racho. One of whom is the girls pediatrician that is the best and that we've seen about 8 times since we moved here. Hailey really likes having someone her own age to play with and asks for Addi every day. Dave grilled some great food and made the coolest cake I have ever seen. It tasted as good as it looked. They are a great family and we had a great time laughing and getting to know them better. We also got to hang out with their good friends Liz and Jeff and their son Kevin. They are a lot of fun too.
Hailey and Uncle Darin
Doesn't it look like it should be in a magazine?
Tessa Standing.
Hailey and Addi sat at this table for a while. Addi would feed Hailey mac and cheese and watermelon. They also shared a bottle. So funny!
Tessa helping pack. What a smile!
Getting ready for the sunny weather.
Tessa telling Auntie Jorden how excited she is about Trenton.
All the cousins celebrating Trenton's birth.
I am not quite sure where to pick up on this blog. This Spring has proved to be one of the most challenging times of my whole life. As hard as everything was God took care of us every step of the way. It was truly awesome to see him work. He is so good. The craziness began when Anthon took a job with Smith and Nephew to move us down to sunny Southern California. We immediatly put our house on the market. Within two weeks we had a buyer. Praise the Lord! In this market that seemed almost impossible. We had to take care of a few issues with the inspection but other than that it was a smooth process. Thank you Dad, Mom, Uncle Frank and Haden for all your hard work in the nasty weather fixing everything. That was such a blessing! You are amazing. Anthon left shortly after Easter to drive down to So Cal in his new car with nothing but some clothes and a TV in the back. For a month he lived in a hotel during the week and with our dear friends Rusty and Melissa and their three children on the weekends. Thank you for taking such good care of him Melissa. She even managed to make dinner every night too. Their kids called Anthon 'Uncle Anthon' by the end. So sweet.
Back in Washington I was looking for a house to rent online and Anthon would go look at them at night after work. We finally found a home in the town of Rancho Cucamonga. It is about 45min east of Pasadena. My mom stayed with me while Anthon was gone at night. What a huge blessing. Thank you. It was nice to have someone to talk to and laugh with. During the day I would try to pack and take care of the girls. They don't cooperate as well when you need to get some things done. So my family came to the rescue again. Dad thanks for playing with the girls for hours while I worked. Thank you Charlotte and Karla and Mom for helping clean the house. I have never seen someone pack as good as Charlotte. She had obviously done it a few times. Wow!
While all of this was going on Jorden was about to give birth to baby number two! I wanted to be there when the baby was born so badly and was hoping she wasn't going to be late. She had wonderful timing by having Trenton James Whittington about a week or so early. Anthon's mom Becki had come for the weekend to help me pack and help out. So I was able to leave the girls in the middle of the night. Jorden did so great in her labor with Trenton. Thank you for letting me be a part of his birth. It is a true miracle and something I will cherish for the rest of my life. I was so overjoyed with happiness but also so sad that I would not get to watch him grow as I knew my time was getting shorter. Jorden and I couldn't talk about the fact that I was leaving until the night before because we knew we would both be a mess. I know that you know this but I love you so much sister. Thank you for all the wonderful memories while raising our first babies together. You have been there for me through the good and bad while raising H and T. You have given me wise words and words of encouragement. You always seem to have the right things to tell me when I need to hear them. I do not know what I would have done during that time with out you. I love you sister. You are my best friend. We all were missing daddy at this point.
Uncle Frank, Dad, Haden, Luke and Nate all helped me pack up the huge 26' rental truck and Anthon flew home to turn around and drive back down with his dad to move our stuff into the house. Our home was empty and that is when it hit me how sad it all was. The only thing that kept my mind off it was that Hailey, Tessa and I were so sick. We stayed out at the farm for a couple of days before mom and I flew to Rancho to check out this home we found online. When we arrived we found that after the rental truck was all unpacked charlie fell and broke his leg. He now has a year to recover from that. Hailey says Opa...leg...boo boo. Thank you Opa for all your hard work helping Anthon drive down and unpack. We feel aweful about your leg.
That is the condensed verson and I am sure that I left many things out. Again, I cannot thank all of my family for helping me out during a really difficult time. You were really there for me when I needed it. I am so blessed. Erin Gallion and Jesse Westring helped me out with the girls and made me dinner. Thank you a million.
The boys carring rock after they crawled under the house to drain the excess water from underneath.

Mom doing her thing in the driveway.
Brooklyn driving and Hailey checking out uncle Anthon's new car. Love you cousin. Miss you so much.
Pushing the jogger at the Spring Fair with Auntie Jorden days before Trentini (as Hailey would call him) is born.

Friday, April 2, 2010


Tub time. Everybody gets their hair shampooed. So much fun.

Sleeping beauty.

Having a bottle before bed watching baby video together. It's fun to see how much they enjoy each others company.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Hailey is learning to eat with a spoon. She loves pasta with butter and parmesan cheese. I think it is something that doesn't hurt her mouth while she is teething. Cooper thinks it tastes pretty good too.