Happy 3rd Birthday!

What does every 3-year-old girl want for her birthday?  Oh, yeah.  A big ol' castle cake and a raging party.  Well, that's at least what THIS three-year-old wanted:

I know it's cliche to say:  but I can't believe she's 3.  Was it exactly 3 years ago that I was in 27 hours of labor, up through the whole night and finally got to meet my little 7 1/2 pound baby girl?  

Yes.  Who knew she'd go from a baby keeping us up all night... 

to a little girl...

still...

keeping us up through the night.  (Thanks to a two-bedroom apartment, and our current sleeping situation.)  No worries, Whit.  We love you.  

Someday you'll get to sleep on a real bed, instead of on a toddler-sized mattress in the corner of our room.  

 Well, what can you say about this little Dolly?  She's a bit more Sassy than Sweet.  She loves to make us laugh ALL. THE. TIME.  Whether it's pulling a funny face, putting on funny dress up clothes or saying something hysterical, she's quite the comedian.  (Pretty sure she gets it from me.)

What a girly-girl.  Loves pink, loves dresses, loves makeup, jewelry, doing hair, singing songs, dancing, watching musical shows, being a princess and playing Mommy.  She gets sort of rough and dangerous when she's pouncing on her brother or swinging a bat.  She does love to play soccer and can wrestle down just about anybody in the neighborhood.  

I know as a past school teacher, I should be drilling her in her letters, numbers and shapes.. but she's much more interested in knowing all the lyrics to High School Musical 1, 2 & 3.  I don't know if there's another 3-year-old that knows what a crumb-coat is and is proficient in searching Youtube videos.  My little lady is a 15-year-old stuck in a toddler body.  

Social?  You better believe it.  CONSTANTLY crying, begging, bargaining, pleading and asking to play with friends.  Can't leave the windows open, she just might hear someone walking down the sidewalk and want to go join in the fun.  Like most kids her age, she loves being outside, reading books, helping Mommy in the kitchen, making messes, doing things BY HERSELF, climbing, jumping, RUNNING, dancing, twirling, teasing, joking, watching shows, doing crafts, and being my constant side-kick.

 I love this age because of all the funny things that are constantly spilling out of her mouth.  She pretty much has the cutest munchkin voice ever.  Just a few weeks ago, Shawna and David came to visit.  She gave Shawna the full tour of our house including where to turn on lights, what bed she should sleep in and where to go to the bathroom.  This girl is a WARDEN.  Don't mess.

Here is Whitney making her "silly face."  I'm so glad I caught it on camera.  This is really it!  She rolls back her hands and her head while she's making it.  Makes us laugh EVERY TIME.

Whitney has some wonderful sweetness about her too.  She is the first to say, "I love you!", gives passionate (a little inappropriate at times) kisses, is there to offer her sympathy if you're hurt, will give you a princess bandaid to make it all better, holds your hand at the doctor's office when YOU'RE being checked,  (Literally-- she does.)  I love her gentle happy-girl mood.  This is usually first thing in the morning or right after she's had a 3-hour-nap.  (Luckily, she still takes naps on most days!)  Whitney is very sensitive and cries for "Mommmmmy!" whenever she's upset.  Sometimes, however, she will cry for "Daaaadddy or MaaaacKaaaaay" if I'm the one disciplining.

She loves her puppy, Snip, Piglet and any other random stuffed animal.  I can tell she's slowly growing out of these attachments, which makes me feel like she's growing up too quickly

Here's the girls at her paaaaartaaaay.  They are pooped and watching a really awesome Princess Barbie movie:

Whitney is my side-kick.  We spend all day together.  I am learning to be more patient and fun... she's learning to be more patient and obedient.  Somedays are a bit more challenging than others.  It's usually dependent on my attitude.  (Shocking, I know.)
I love it when she asks, "Why Mommy?" Or "Why Daddy?"  She's learning.  It's very fun.

Here's me and my girl in the cake-baking process.  We had fun.  She couldn't wait for the frosting:

Here's the masterpiece. (sort of)  Don't look too closely--- it's not nearly as awesome as the picture on the box.  Whitney and I researched castle cakes on YouTube for many days during MacKay's morning nap. She saw this cake in purple- not pink.  When we were shopping at Walmart as a family for birthday supplies, she spotted the Wilton Castle Cake kit and yelled, "That's my purple cake!"  

She found it.  How do you say NO to that?  So,  hours of tedious frosting and decorating the night before her b-day, (four hours to be exact), and waaaa-laaaaa.... 

The PINK castle cake.  As I crawled into bed at midnight on August 19, I whispered to Bart.. 

"What if she's disappointed?  Didn't she say she wanted a PURPLE castle cake?  Why did I do it PINK?"

We had to re-design our fridge so it would fit. 

 The morning of her birthday, she woke me up by saying, "Mom!  It's my birthday!  Is my cake done?"  

I took her downstairs and video taped her reaction as she opened the fridge to see her castle.  

She was speechless.  

Worth every gram of sugar and fat it took to decorate that cake.

She had her party at 11:30.  She ordered homemade Mac N Cheese for lunch.  (Yes, Andrea, that recipe is yours.)  She also had watermelon.  We played 3 games:

1.  Hot Potato

2.  Freeze Dance

3.  Simon Says

Like the Great Oz says: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."  The great Cake Maker says:

"Pay no attention to the sippy cups and mess in my kitchen."  It's all part of creating a masterpiece.  

After most of the kids left, Whitney went into the kitchen and got a giant piece of the cake.  She began licking it like a popsicle.  So very Whitney.  

This girl loves being "nudies."  Where did we go for dinner?  Wendy's of course!  It's her favorite. 

Oh, Whitney... you make life so sweet.  

Happy 3rd Birthday!  

I'm so lucky to be your Mom.  

Goodbye Cousins!

This was our last day in Utah.  We got to see all the cousins at once.  What a treat!!!  We had a fun time and look forward to our return in November.  That's right!  We're moving back to Utah as Bart will be working at 2 different offices in Utah.  We look forward to that adventure (even though I am having a hard time saying goodbye to Ohio!).

It does make it a little easier when I hear my little Whitney say things to me like this:

Whit: "I'm so excited to move to Utah!"
Me:  "You are?! Why?" (Shocked that she said this totally un-prompted as she's playing at the park.)
Whit:  "So I can play with Zac and Treven and Peyton and Sammy..." (Those are her cousins.. she loves them.)

Here's Whit & Sammy in their matching outfits.  We had to bribe them with the potential ice-cream treat if they were good for these pics:

Trying so hard to earn their ice cream:

All the cousins, minus Zac:

Yes, Bubba was in bed- and I took him out of his crib for this picture.  SO NOT like me.  But the things I'll do for a good pic:

Notice who has the ice cream treats?

Side note:  It makes it a little easier to say goodbye to Ohio when I felt the humidity when we came back.  Two words:  HOT & STICKY!!!!  Not going to miss that.

Honey

 Guess who got to meet Honey for the first time?  Yes, our little MacKay.  And he loved her!

Honey came for a short visit to Utah.  (With Aunt Barb too!)  We all met over at Steph & Colby's house.  They are awesome hosts!  Thanks, guys!!!



Here is MacKay and his great-grandmother, Honey.  She's a wonderful grandmother and so many of my childhood memories include her.  She is a very special lady- and we love her!

Here's Honey in the middle of all these boys:

PHG

A trip to Utah wouldn't be complete without meeting up with the PHG crew.  (Eliza, Anne, Christine & Amanda... we missed you!)  It's fun to catch up and get in some good laughs.  Megs introduced me to a most delicious salad at Cheesecake Factory.  (I love that food!)  

Let me just de-brief you on these girlies.  I love them.  I don't know if there's another group of girls that keeps in contact as well or as frequently as we do.  I feel so blessed to have had them during such an important part of my life.  My life has been forever impacted by these girls.  Most of us met Freshman year at BYU and stuck together for our college years.  I could write an entire book (yes, chapter book) on the funny experiences and good times that were had at David John, Lexington 33 & the Pillar House.  Maybe someday I will.  For now- you're left with some fuzzy pictures.  

Temple Visit

Before I get on to the Temple Visit, here's our crew at Cafe Rio for the millionth time during the trip.  It never got old.  (That's for you, Colby.. it still hasn't lost it's luster!)

Also, one of Whit's favorite nightly activities was to walk or drive to Aaron/Sharee's house.  Here she is with Kasen & Treven just enjoying fudge pops.  

And I forgot this picture in my last post of our BYU visit:

One muggy afternoon, we went with Steph & Sammy, Laura & her boys to the SLC temple.  I love Temple Square.  It's really perfect and I am so grateful I was able to be married to my sweetheart in this very temple.  It's hard to imagine, but it's even more beautiful inside.  

Here's the three amigos:  Sammy, Whit & Kamaron

Here's MacKay's first trip to the SLC temple.  Touching the doors:

Our Eternal family:

Steph with Mac & Sammy:

Now that's sweet:

While we were in UT, we decided to go down to Provo and Orem to visit Shawna & David, AND see the BYU!!  We got Whitney all pumped up and excited to see BYU.  Steph & Sammy came along to get their fill of zoobies too.  

The drive down was beautiful- minus all the billboards advertising plastic surgery and breast implants.  Come on, people.  Really?  

When we finally got to BYU, and saw the Y up on the mountain Whitney was very excited and kept saying, "B.Y.U. COUGARS!!!"  

Then we parked and went into the Wilk.  Yes, I was still looking for familiar faces.  No- I didn't see any.  It was at this point that Whitney was disappointed.  Where is the BYU?  Oh, sweetie.  I forgot to mention that it's just a bunch of buildings.  

We went to the bookstore and bought her a cute pink BYU shirt anyway.  She loved it.  

Here's the pics:

Steph & Sammy shopping for her future gear:

Whitney pointing to the Y!:

Our fam in the Wilk:

Then we went to Shawna & David's house for the night.  Here we are at a park in Orem.  Little Mac loves it... but he rarely complains.

At Shawna's house:

Shawna, Bart & David killing all the bugs in the mulch.  That's Whitney in the far left hand background making friends in her friendly BYU shirt.