Life

Holy cow was Christmas really two months ago? Life is crazy in the Whitesel home! Our Christmas was way fun. Taj was the most excited this year. He was so mad that Santa didn't come the day after we put up our tree. It was nice to be home this Christmas and not have anything flood this year. Kids just make everything more fun!!! Life is really, really crazy around here. I feel like I have four jobs. I teach three hours a day at the high school, which doesn't sound so bad but I am not the most organized person in the world so it feels like longer. I love the teaching part but I hate the correcting, and planning and my second job I count is my paperwork!!! Working in Special Ed has a lot of paper work!!! My third job would be my calling. I just got put in as Young Womens President. I think I am destined to be in Young Womens forever. I love the girls, they are so much fun. Again, I am not an organized person. And of course my most important and favorite job is being a mom. I love it, even though it kicks my butt. Kai is getting so big so fast. I feel like I am missing it. He is now eight months old. I have never had a baby with as much attitude as he has. It all started from the beginning. If he is not happy, everyone knows it. When he was a newborn, our teenage neighbor commented to Lance that our baby cried a lot. He grew out of that some what, but if he is not happy you will know. With the attitude come fun though. He loves his mom the most. His eyes light up when he is happy. He is scooting everywhere. Before his scooting he would roll everywhere. He loves paper and power cords. He has seven teeth and is working on the eighth, yes I am still nursing. He LOVES water. He would live in the bath if we would let him. We took him swimming last week and he loved it! The third is kicking my butt, but I would never wish for anything different. I don't know what we did without him! Taj is my crazy one. He has had energy from the beginning and it has never left him. He had this thing where he would hit older girls all the time. He would go up to girls in public and smack them in the legs and at times on the butt. It was a little funny at first but then it became very frustraiting. I asked him why he did it and the conversation went like this: Me, "Taj, you need to stop hitting girls." Taj, "But Mom I need to get my life back." Me, "What?" Taj, "I need to get my life back." Me,"How do you get your life back?" Taj, "I have to save the world." Well a couple of weeks later, after a lot of time outs and various punishments we had not gotten anywhere, so we have another conversation. Me, "Taj how do you get your life back because this has got to stop!!!" Taj, "I have to save the world." Me, "How do you save the world?" Taj, " I have to become a super hero." Me, "What does this have to do with hitting girls?" Taj, "I have to fight all the girls." Me, "Why?" Taj, "Because they are too cute!" Yes my four year old son thinks that girls are too cute! If you watch him, the cuter the girl the more he hits her. There is a girl in my class, a cute little blonde cheerleader, that he would attack everytime he saw her. Out of the blue one day he told us that when he got bigger he was going to marry her. Where do kids come up with this stuff? Taj still loves baseball, he likes to play the WII, he loves his older cousins Jace and Jaxon(they are his ninjas and are going to help him fight the girls). He loves attention and he makes everyone laugh. He is a big mama's boy and his dad is his buddy. He is crazy and yet the biggest sweet heart. Elli is at a fun but challanging age. She is learning how to read and it is tough. She is working hard and getting so much better. She also has a lot of attitude, yes sweet little Elli has attitude. On her good days, however, she can be such a good helper and she loves her little brothers, Taj most of the time, Kai too much sometimes. She is such a fun beautiful girl. I can't believe she is almost 7!!! She loves school, dance, basketball, volleyball and running. She will hop on our tredmill and run a mile like it is nothing. She loves to go to volleyball practice with her dad. These pictures are from when her dance group danced at the half time of a JV basketball game. Her cousin Hallie is in her dance group and Gracie is in the one above them. She is so Awesome!!! I am glad it snowed again so we could build our snowman. Now it can warm up.

Halloween 2010

This is our Halloween marathon. It was Red Ribbon week the week of Halloween so Elli had to dress up almost everyday. One of the picture is her as a nerd. She is such a cute nerd. She couldn't decide what to be for Halloween, then my Mom found an old skeleton costume that my older brother wore and Elli loved it. Taj told me months ago he wanted to be a vampire. People kept calling him Dracula and he would get mad. He was not Dracula he was a vampire. Kai just got the costume we had that fit. So first we had nerd day, then the school parade and carnaval on Friday.





The next day we went Trunk or Treating with cousins. It was raining so we ended up in the church. The kids had fun. Anything is fun with cousins. Then we came home and decided to go to a couple of families in our Ward. Kai did not know what we were doing to him. Poor Baby!



By Halloween day the kids were disappointed that we didn't have anything planned but church. I did light the pumpkins and take one picture. It was a lot of fun but I was ready for it to be over.

I saved the best for last. Lance is the only man at his office. The women at his work wanted Lance to be Prince Charming and they would be different princesses. Lance had a better idea.

Sisterwives. They all got very into it. DI was very popular. I loved it.

Here are some cute pictures of my kids.

Kai Dirk Whitesel

He is here and he is amazing!!! Here are some pictures of our cute little boy.

Before

After 7 lb 6 oz 20 inches


He is very loved!!!

We Are Alive!!!

So, I hope everyone hasn't given up on us, we are still alive.  I blame being pregnant.  I was sick all fall and then life got a little crazy.  Lance started coaching a club volleyball team and I helped him as much as I could.  It was a lot of fun.  I miss coaching.  I did find out that it is hard to coach with kids.  We went to some tournaments up North and then Lance went to one in Cedar.  The girls improved a lot and Taj loves the volleyball girls.  He was always mad when they wouldn't come play at our house.  Anyways, here is what went on this winter and spring.In December we went to Cedar City to say good-bye to Lance's little brother Kevin.  He is now serving a mission, we miss him but he is doing good.  Well, while we were there our pipe to our outside fausett froze and started spraying water inside and out.  Our neighbors saw it and called my parents and they came to our house to find about 6 inches of water in our basement wall to wall.  It was horible and very frustrating.  We however were very lucky.  Not a lot got ruined.  We had to replace some wall and all of the carpet.  It was good in the fact that it made me dejunk a lot.  Lance teased me because I had to throw out  so much.  My AWESOME dad told us not to hire a contractor and he fixed all of our sheet rock.  I am so thankful for my handy father.  We are almost all put together now, it is finally getting warm enough to paint baseboards outside and some other things that was hard to do with all the snow outside.

This is what Emery County looked like all winter.  It was very depressing.  It snowed in December and then tempeture never went above 30 for months so it never melted.  New snow would come and cover the old snow but it would never melt.  We had mountains of snow all over our roads.  We only went out a couple of times to play because it was so cold.  I was so excited for March when the temperture finally went above freezing and the snow started to melt.  I never thought it would but the snow all melted!!!My baby turned 4!!!  I can't believe my baby is 4.  He is so much fun!!!  He makes us laugh so much.  He says the funniest things.  He always tells us "What are you talking about?"  He also has some sayings that shouldn't be funny but it is hard not to laugh, we just wait until he is not looking.  He is going to preschool two days a week and loves it.  He still loves baseball and he loves hanging out with his dad and drinking Mountain Dew.  He tells Lance that he is the best and I am the best punkhead.  I told him that he better snuggle with his dad then and he told me that best punk heads get to snuggle with him.  He is only my baby for one more month, CRAZY!!!
Lance got a new bike with his volleyball and for some reason parked it upside down in our front room. Well Taj was playing with it and started turning the pedal adn getting the wheel turning and then stuck his finger in it. Well, of course it was on a Saturday afternoon so we had to go to the emergency room. He ended up getting five stitches in his index finger and breaking it. They had to sedate him to get the stitches in. I wish they could have to \take them out too. He has to keep his finger wrapped until the end of this week, that's if he lets us take it off. It has been very dramatic but I think we will survive. We are lucky, it could have been a lot worse.

Elli finished her dancing. She was soooo cute! She takes dance with her cousin Hallie. She is getting so big!
Elli turned 6!!! I tried to talk her into staying 5 and in kindergarten, but she didn't want to. She is getting so grown up. She loves school and learning. It is fun to watch her learn to read. She started planning her party in the fall. She had a swim party with the girls in her class. They had so much fun!!! I made those cute cupcakes myself, I am so proud. She had fun being the center of attention, she isn't use to it. She is still shy, but when she gets to know you she will talk your ear off.

Hopefully it won't take as long to post again. I will try to get pictures of the baby up next month after he comes out.

Summer Fun!!!

I can't believe that summer is over. We had such a fun summer. I think working made me appreciate staying home more. Here are some highlights from our summer. I wish I would have taken my camera around more often. Here is what I did take pictures of.

We spent the 4th of July in Emery County. We went to the parade in Huntington then the park afterwards. It was way fun and HOT!!! We went to fireworks that night with James and his fam. Taj loved the fireworks, he commented on each one.

In July I had Rural Schools in Cedar City so we went and spent the week. The kids had a blast. Grandma Debbie, Jay and Uncle Kevin entertained them 24/7. They didn't even miss me while I was gone. They went to the park and pool almost everyday. We went to the Green Show and Renaissance Fair too. Lance came down after work on Thursday and we stayed through Sunday. Lance and I even got to go to St. George and see Brooke and Dan's new house.

Grandma Debbie, Jay and Uncle Kevin came to Orangeville for the 24th of July. Orangeville had a bike parade for the kids. Taj decorated his bike but wouldn't ride because he didn't have his knee pads on. Our Ward organized a little celebration at the park. The kids loved it!!! They even got to chase a pig. We did fireworks that night then did them at Grandma and Grandpa's house with cousins on Sunday.

The Emery County Fair is my favorite summer event in EC. The parade was a blast. The kids threw snaps on the sidewalk while waiting. The band picture is of my AWESOME nephew Jace. He is the one in the back corner playing the drums. He is so good. I am so proud to be his aunt!!! We had so much fun this summer and we didn't even go very far from Emery County. We hung out as a family all summer. I don't have any pictures of the Winn Family Reunion. My mom took all the pictures but we had a lot of fun. I was in charge that is why I didn't have time to take pictures, the theme was Japanese Game Shows. Sorry so much info at once but enjoy the pictures.

T-Ball

We just got done with T-Ball. Elli loved it. I was the coach because someone told me that if I coached, Taj could play. Well our team was big and so I didn't let him play at first but by the end I decided to let him. He did just as well as all the other kids, except for running the bases. He was a little shy so Lance had to run with him. Elli thought it was pretty cool that her mom was the coach. It was really interesting trying to teach a bunch of 5 year olds how to play baseball. The first practice every boy but one was crying, the girls were fine. Also, the boys were the worst at the games, they were always laying on the ground. Their dads were hilarious, they expected more of their sons. It turned out to be a good experience, I don't know if I will coach again, time will tell.

Bikes, Dancing, Birthday and Camping

April and May have been kind of CRAZY!!!

Elli learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. It was such a proud moment. She was very determined and she finally got it.

Elli and her cousin Hallie had their end of year dance program. It was so cute. They were so excited, if you can't tell. Grandma Debbie and Uncle Kevin came from Cedar to watch. It was a fun weekend.

Elli is now 5!!! It was a fun birthday. It started when Grandma Debbie was here, a week before. Then she had a birthday party with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Winn's house. Her cousin Hallie slept over and they played the whole next day. Our friend Jaylyne was down visiting her grandpa so she came over to enjoy the fun. It was an exhausting day, but everyone had fun.

Last weekend we went camping and fishing with some of our friends, KC and Jermey. It was a lot of fun. I was a little nervous since they do not have little kids, and ours are crazy. It turned out really good. We spent most of the weekend on a bass boat, which is not very big. We got to know each other very well. It was also very entertaining since Taj just decided to quote the bad words from Sandlot, we spent the whole weekend correcting Taj's language. KC and Jermey thought we were hilarious. It was KC's birthday, also, so we found a Hostess Cupcake and put a stick in it and lit it on fire. It was a fun weekend.