Pumpkin Faces

It's that time of year when carving pumpkins is a necessity in every home and we have one 5 year old in particular that has been more than eager to cut out his pumpkin face. Our night was set for FHE, dinner gobbled up, pumpkins set out, carving utensils lined up, and away we went cutting, gutting, and detailing our "Jack-O-Lanterns." J & "The Man" worked hard (2+ hours) carving out their wicked flaming Jack and me (with an occasional interest from the little guy) carving out a smiling skeleton. The proof is in the pudding...happy faces from all, pumpkins perfectly carved, and a Family Night well spent.

Cookie Crazy

Cookie crazy, coo-coo, in over my head with dough. What started out as a pregnancy craving turned into a ridiculous cookie baking project. I had more than enough help with 2 little monsters that added to the "work" of making over 130+ Halloween sugar cookies...who new doubling my mother's recipe would produce me with that much dough rolling, shape stamping, and cookie baking chaos! Although it created a fun family night it also created flour covered, dough 'n cookie eatin', little messes named Crew & Trip. Next time I will remind my "craving" that doubling the sugar cookie recipe is more work than its worth...even though...they are just that good!

Pumpkin Pick'n At the Garden

This weekend Grandma n Grandpa Smith invited the boys out to the garden to get thier pick of pumpkins that they grew for all the grandchildren. Crew found many that were "just perfect," Trip was a little more interested in finding the bugs in the garden rather than finding the pumpkins, and S & J snatched a couple of thier own from the patch to carve for themselves. And just before leaving, Mr. JCrew put in one request to Grandma: to turn one of her pumpkins into a pumpkin pie...just for him! Thanks Grams n Gramps for the pumpkins!!!

Perfect Pumpkin

Rebel #1 went on his 1st Kindergarten field trip to the Willis Farm. Kindergartner's got the opportunity to make their merry way through the pumpkin patch and find themselves that "perfect pumpkin" to take home with them. The Rule: no pickin' pumpkins that you (the kindergartner) could not carry home &/or to the bus themselves. This I already new and prepped our little man on what and how to find his pumpkin in the patch that would be just right for him. So he was off, and I was eagerly awaiting his arrival home with his pick. 11 o'clock came and Crew climbing off the bus...with pumpkin in arms...squeals and giggles of excitement, his great pumpkin pickin' accomplishment was relayed to me, "Mom, I just did it! I found the most perfect pumpkin out there!!!" And it was just "perfect."

When life hands you lemons...

When life hands us lemons, we make lemonade....gallons of it. The Whiting household has been plagued. We are down and out...S is on bed rest & has developed the flu, the "wild things" are snot stricken & sick, and the "glue" that has been holding all of us together has kidney stones. We have been hit with a ton of bricks...this is the vision of our chaos: ALL bundled up in our beds, tissues 'n puke buckets near by, loaded on meds, and waiting for this to pass us by one way or the other. We are just thankful we live near to family and have friends that are sympathetic in our distress. "This too shall pass..." and we will look back and laugh at the week from Hell in the Whiting Household :)

A Bun is in the Oven

A Bun is cookin' in the oven at the Whiting house. This will make "Bun" #3 and boys are excited to have an addition to our already existing chaos. As tradition goes with my pregnancies I tend to get a little sick (that may be an understatement...I get a lot sick), so IF you haven't already suspected we have been carrying around a secret now its out in the open. I had my 1st OB/baby check up visit this week and this is our delima: those of you that have been in on our secret know I have been spotting/bleeding sporadically throughout this pregnancy along with being very very sick. In this Dr. visit we were hoping to get answers to the cause of bleeding and being reassured that everything is okay with the baby. Well...first attempts at finding the heartbeat were negative (which was a little devastating for me) they sent me right away to the ultrasound tech there in the office and she did a vag. procedure to get images and attempt to hear the heartbeat...which was an instant success and good news. Heartbeat was very strong and the baby is growing and developing fine (and we are actually a week further along in the pregnancy than we thought :) ). BUT, there was a concern that the Dr. later discussed with me...where the placenta has decided to attach and the sight of the bleed is right at my cervix...not the best place for it to be...the concerns = IF we begin bleeding continuous the chances of miscarriage are inevitable....IF I continue to carry this baby with the tear remaining were it is this makes out for a very risky c-section delivery, the Dr. will have to "make his move very fast" as he will be cutting through more tissues/and in a more dangerous area than usual (Good news is he has done this surgery before on several women and has been successful his words, "it's not easy but we will be successful.")...AND/OR... what we are praying for (and asking all of you to keep us in your prayers) is that as the baby& placenta continue to grow that the sight of the tear will be pushed upward and to the side making surgery/delivery a much better ( and less scary) experience. I have been placed on complete pelvic bed rest and may remain down for the extent of the pregnancy. We are confident in our Dr. and following his guidance to get this baby here healthy and happy. We would appreciate it if you would remember us in your prayers...and are relying on the Lord to help us(me) keep it together...we got a long 9 months(actually 6 months) ahead of us. We love you guys, Jason, Shanda, & Fam. THANKS.

100 Club

Counting to 100 is a BIG accomplishment...at least in Mrs. Tanner's Kindergarten class. Mr. JCrew has been bragging since the 1st day of school that he can count to 100 and was ready to be in "The Club" (plus pick out his 100 items from the treasure box for his BIG reward). So the day finally arrived when he was given the opportunity to show his stuff...and he did. Crew is now officially a member of Mrs. Tanner's 100 Club. Their couldn't be a kid any prouder...and parents too!!!

Virgil Whiting Reunion

The Whiting Homestead, is a place that is sacred to many and holds memories that can't be sold. Our family was found on Labor Day weekend at the Virgil Whiting Family Reunion. Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, the dirt, rain, & mud were all in attendance (minus me a couple of days - I was a little too sick to rough it...wink wink. ) My "Fellas" loved the homestead, getting acquainted with cousins, the dirt, and becoming real mountain men! They had all kinds of fun, dancing a jig, listening to stories, crawdad fishing, having mud fights, launching water balloons and roughing it up with ALL the boys!!! I am so thankful to be a part of such a rich heritage of family. I know my 'Whiting Boys' can't wait to go again.

Lil' Artist

It must be a right of passage in every 2 year old life to get their crafty little hands on a pair of crayons, markers, makeup, etc. and smear it along walls, legs, arms, furniture, etc. etc. - It fathoms me that our little artist will find these messy 'applicators' when these items are clearly out of sight, out of reach, and locked away!!! We got to break this bad habit of our little Picasso's coloring his legs & arms & the house before I loose all sanity scrubbing away at little scribbles.

Lucky Me

So traditionally I am not one who is fortunate enough to enter into a random drawing and actually win anything. In fact, I tend to be cynical in regards to throwing my money away into a few tickets to be tossed into hundreds that then gets randomly pulled out...and as lessons have been learned...I do not EVER WIN ( I leave the luck up to Big J)!!! That is until I attended the annual Snowflake/Taylor Business Expo-Preparedness Fair and was convinced to donate my $5 into a drawing. Big J already had the stench of victory all over him after a big win on a Kurt Warner Cardinals jersey. So, a little eager for the 'wife' to gamble on a picture of Christ, he urged me to put all my tickets in to attempt to win this beautifully framed piece of art. My tickets were dropped into the jar, regretfully, and the drawing was made....I didn't believe it at first (probably because they were not pronouncing my name correctly) until fingers were all pointing at me. I was elated!!! My 1st REAL big win!!! Luck was on my side...finally!!!