Elisabeth-Jane Whipple..."Jane"

Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this post I will give you some much requested updates. So the child's name is "Jane" not to be confused with Jayne. She was born at 6:15 pm on the 23 of Dec. 6lbs 11 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. We slaughtered the fatted calf that night in celebration for the new arrival to our home. If you have any other further inquiries please place a comment in the appropriate location and they will be responded in the order in which they were received. All comments will be reviewed by a supervisory board prior to a formal response. This will promote total equity and political correctness to the peoples. We reserve the right to refuse any questions. Rotten tomatoes will be thrown at such rejected questions. There are no stupid questions... however, if a question is deemed stupid public humiliation will be arranged.

Emma and I shoveled the walks while mom and baby decided to stay warm inside. Hopefully we will have a future post about a igloo-snowcave-fort thingy. We have quite the pile of snow in our front yard and it would be a shame not to put it to good use. Also stay tuned for a manly update on the '59 Chevy Apache project truck. Alot of time and useless energy has been put into that ol beauty. I would like to post some a pictoral representation of her progress and beauty.


This is a photo of Jane grasping reality. It looks as though maybe she will be doing karaoke in no time. Her act will feature track 5 ("Stay'n Alive") on disc 1 of the BeeGees Greatest album along with a select few beat box/rap routines. We practiced today. In the picture below she is simply doing her warm up routine. Her microphone is still on order so she is using my pinkie as a substitute.

This is a picture of Jane the night we came home from the hospital. It was right before we watched the shaken baby video. I made the nurse cringe when I gave her the quick and dirty summary of the video... She couldn't get the pre-WWI VHS player to work so I said "do we really have to watch the movie? I already know what it is about. Pretty much it talks about how peoples kids were normal until they shook them real hard...It shows before and after pictures and footage..." I then told her that we won't shake our baby! Again don't call the social worker we are good parents.

Baby...Baby...Baby

This is one HAPPY MOM.

Yesterday at 6:15pm we had our little baby girl. The photos speak for themselves...

Her face is still swollen and a little bruised... please don't call the social worker!

The Big Day!

Ok, today is officially the day! You may ask "Why are you up at 3:30 in the morning when you don't have to be there till like 7 a.m.?" Only a crazy pregnant woman could tell you. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep and after lying in bed forever I thought I might as well fold the last of the wash and get it put away, have a bowl of cereal cause my stomach hurts, and look at blogs while I relax. I wish I could sleep because I know it would probably be really helpful, but oh well. If the hospital has wi-fi then I'll have Derek post some pictures today! Yahoo! I can't believe that I finally get to hold my little baby today!!!! I'm still really concerned about Emma, but Derek assures me that she will be well taken care of (I'm sure she'll get lots of attention still and unfortunately we did spoil her for Christmas). I think she knows what spoiled means because just once Derek said something about her being spoiled and she gave him a pretty good glare (she's no dummy). Before this gets any more quirky I will sign off.

Not Quite Yet

Nope, we don't have a new baby yet but I think I'm almost as ready as I can be. I have decluttered and organized until Derek hardly knows where anything is and I have everything we need. We bought a ton of easy frozen meals, I stocked up on diapers and what not.
What cracks me up is that we have had only one name that we really like (Elisabeth Jayne) and suddenly we have a bunch more names that we like. That was what happened with Emma. Emma was going to be Elisabeth Grace until we were at the hospital and suddenly couldn't decide on a name. I guess we'll see what this little one looks like before we name her. Last night was really the first night that I felt really really uncomfortable as I tried to fall asleep. With Emma I felt that every night for at least the last month, so I am feeling very blessed. Yep, not much is happening besides baby thoughts constantly. I did have a realization last night that my constant one on one time with Emma is almost up. So I decided to try to wake up when Derek wakes up (6 or so) so that I could get my cleaning and junk done before Em got up. Then I could be a better mom and focus on her more. Yeah, I was exhausted by 10:30 but we made it. It took a lot of tears and what not, but she did take a little nap and I got a rest too. I have to thank Derek for saving me so much by letting me get in lots of naps while he bonds with Emma. He is such a good dad. They have a lot of fun together. This last weekend they went out on the town while I slept. We found one of my old watches and Derek took Emma to the jewelers to get it sized for her and to put in a new battery. Emma was fascinated with it all and told me all about their day. She loves that Derek. The other day she made me laugh when she told me that "he's my favorite little guy!" Where does she get this? Alright, I've gabbed long enough and I probably better get to bed because 6 is going to come real quick.

Update on Whipples

I completely neglected to take pictures of Thanksgiving, but don't worry. I got pictures of Emma painting Derek's toenails. She is so skilled. I'm impressed that Derek let her do it (and that I am able to blog it too). Look at the joy in Emma's happy little demeanor as she bonds with her dad.

And she is so focused. Very beautiful!

Emma wanted to listen to her music so Derek gave her the iPod. That entertained her for quite a while.

Okay, so Thanksgiving was great. We went down to Provo for a quick trip. Everyone was home except Trav and Ceci. It was great and I even got two sweet naps in! Thank you Derek. We rushed home so that we could see MaryAnn and Chris and were surprised that Amanda came home for Thanksgiving. What a good surprise.
Things are going well here at the Whipple house. I am nesting like there's no tomorrow. I am interested to hear any of your crazy nesting stories. Poor Derek has gotten dragged into it as well, but I like to think he is enjoying it. He only has a week or so left of school and so this weekend he helped a ton to get a lot of clutter out of the house. Don't ask why I feel that my house must be perfectly decluttered and spotless in order to be ready for my baby. I just feel so much better in a clean happy house. I feel like I can conquer the world (or have a baby) if it's clean. We also got our tree up which I love. I love this season! As I put up the wreath yesterday I reminded Derek that it will probably be up till April if things go as usual. Anyway, we got a real tree this year which is fun. I don't remember the last time I had a real tree for Christmas. Emma hasn't unwrapped any of the presents yet either which is amazing. Oh, and if our baby isn't here by December 23rd we're getting induced that morning! Wahoo, that way I know my doctor will be there to deliver her and we can be home for Christmas. That's all for now.

Pirate Night and Bubble Blowing

One of our friend's told us that the Shelley Library was having a Pirate Night (and they were giving away free books which is a bonus). So Derek, Emma, and I went. It was way fun...Emma made this cute pirate hat and had her picture taken with a pirate. They gave us a pop up book and another cute picture book.

Nothing says pirate like a red gatorade mustache!

We've had some nice weather so Emma has been able to ride bikes outside and blow bubbles. She always wants to blow bubbles every time she finds the bubble container.

Life is good. The count down is on. 5 weeks! till baby time. I feel pretty energetic all things considered. I have exercised more this pregnancy so maybe that has something to do with it.

So Emma and I went Christmas shopping for Derek on Monday. I totally forgot she can talk...let me explain. That night Emma was having a hard time getting to sleep. Derek was snuggling with her on the couch while I tried to fall asleep in bed. Emma was talking away and then I heard her say "Dad, we got you a game today." Then Derek said "Oh, yeah. What game?" At least Emma didn't know what the name of the game was, and it was a good thing I didn't get the other things I almost got. Then he might know it all. Anyway, we had a good laugh about it. Derek is down to three more weeks of class!

Good Times

Well, Derek and I drove down to Kaysville on Thursday. Then Derek caught an early flight from SLC to Chicago on Friday morning. His dad bought a car back east and Derek is driving back with him (depending on if they are going to drive till midnight he may or may not be back till tomorrow). Emma and I had a nice fun weekend. Megan and Auden met us in Kaysville and we drove down to Provo. We had fun being home with the family and went shopping and to Tucanos with Amy. I got Emma a couple presents (I really want to get this Christmas shopping thing done in the next couple of weeks). Saturday night the old high school gang came over to my parents for a barbeque (thanks to Mary for being the grill master and arranging everything, calling people, etc.) It was so fun to see everybody. Emma and Emily (Will and Rachel's little girl who is about the same age) got to play for the first time. I can't believe we didn't get together before this. They had a lot of fun jumping on the couch and playing with toys. Willie and Becky came over afterwards to visit and I hadn't seen them for a while either. It was just a good trip. I was worried that Emma wouldn't sleep at all because she has a hard time when we aren't home. But she generally got a nap in the car and I even was able to transfer her to the bed so I could get a little snooze. We also discoverd that she will fall asleep to "Robin Hood" so that was also awesome. We'll be back in Provo for Thanksgiving and then who knows when we'll be back (whenever I get used to having two kids I suppose). I'll have to have Derek post all about his little adventure when he gets back.
Oh, Emma was cracking my family up. More than once they commented that "Who needs tv when we have Emma?!" She just says some funny things you'd expect a grown up to say. She did my hair and Grandma Bohon's hair. Occasionally she would say "can you hold this brush for me" or "hold this hair for a minute." Then she'd ask if someone could get her a pony tail. I'd love to see Grandma's hair in a good ol side pony tail! Too bad I didn't get pictures from the trip. But just know that it was good times for all.
Oh, I've got less than 7 weeks to go and I think it's going to fly. Next weekend is Stake Conference (and I have some practicing to do on the old violin if you know what I mean), then comes Thanksgiving, and we're already to December which equals baby time. People, any advice on things I should do to ensure that I will be as sane as possible after the munckin comes? I'm thinking that of course I want to get my shopping done real quick, make a bunch of meals to freeze, but what are things you've found to be helpful? Thanks.

Halloween, Washing the Car, etc.

I got my haircut yesterday and Derek got his cut recently too. Emma has been wanting to get hers cut and we wanted to cut it. She has pretty thin hair and we just thought a "bob" would look cute at least until it gets a little thicker. Go Derek. He did a great job cutting her hair.

Emma loved it, especially because we gave her some candy while we cut.

Here is how the hair cut turned out. Pretty cute I think. Emma is snuggling in with her favorite blanket and a Curious George book. Emma continues to make us laugh with all the funny things she says. It is really weird to hear her say things that I say. Apparently I say adorable and cute a lot. We'll be getting clothes out and Emma holds them up while saying "How cute mom. How adorable." Did I mention that she narrates me while I go to the bathroom (and most anything). It's all good until we're in a public restroom and I hear "are you pooing mom, is that tinkle, etc" (you can imagine the fun). But then the other week she narrated the person nest to us too. "Mom, is he closing the door, is she going potty?" Bless her little heart. Today Emma was sitting on our bed while Derek woke up and she said "Mom, this is my special dad, Derek." She loves him so much. We talk a lot about special things that we need to be careful with. Oh, Jen and Nate were here tonight and Emma was playing with Jen. They came up the stairs and Emma said something like "Aunt Jen is a good helper." How fun to hear the things we tell her each day come out of her mouth.

I know you all have been waiting for this picture (ha ha, j/k). It's pregnant me. Yep, I'm 32 weeks now and feeling pretty large. But I am also feeling pretty good too. I love fall this year. I'm usually not a big fan but baby is keeping me nice and warm. I think this time my legs and feet shouldn't swell up so big I have to get new shoes so that will be nice (knock on wood). But this time I have that fun siatic (spelling?) nerve thing where basically I have some interesting pains going down my legs from my bottom. It sometimes feels like I broke my tail bone or something. But still it isn't that terrible and not that big of a deal. I have been a little anxious about how I'm going to do as a mother of 2 considering Emma keeps me quite busy now. But I have found comfort knowing that if I am living right, praying, and studying my scriptures, the Lord will bless our efforts and magnify our abilities. Emma is getting excited about the baby too. The other day she said "I miss baby Jane" (we currently like that name for the baby). I asked Emma what Jane would look like and she said "a princess." It was so cute. She'll be a good big sister. We're just a little worried about them sharing the same room if you know what I mean. If you know Emma you can only imagine the fun she could have with a "baby doll" while no one is looking.

Okay, so I did this a little backwards. Here is our little "Curious George" (or Georgia as Emma called herself) who was definitely tuckered out by the end of Halloween. We had a lot of fun. My parents came up as well as Megan, Danial, and baby Auden. They went trunk-or-treating with us. Derek and I also took Emma to Snake River Landing for some trick or treating (not that she needed more candy). We just wanted to check it out. Derek was "the man in the yellow hat" and it was fun to see kids get excited to see them. Some radio station and other random people stopped them to take their picture. Emma was very excited to be "Curious Georgia." Afterewards we went to Grandma and Grandpa Whipples to say hi.

Emma and Antje. Antje loves kitty cats. She would get down on all fours to be a kitty.

Danial, Auden, and Megan. Auden was a little bear.

Auden and dad.

These are our good friends Talmage, Emma Nicole, Antony, and Jonathon. Emma loves these guys.

Curious George and the man in the yellow hat. Did I mention that Emma LOVES Curious George. We usually aren't in to buying pre-made costumes but Emma tried that one on and she was beaming. We did make Derek's costume (dyed the pants and shirt and painted the hat).

We had some really nice weather last week so we washed the car. Do you like Emma's "remember the 80's" outfit (tight leggings with high top converse shoes)? Emma is excited about anything with water.

I forgot to tell the kid taking the photo that he could zoom in a little but here is our little family. I just thought Derek and Emma looked cute and I wanted a picture since we don't have many of all of us together.

Derek and I hit a really awesome sale at Old Navy. We basically got her whole wardrobe for next summer for under $50. Sweet! Here is Emma sporting her new pajamas. She really is into "footed PJ's" so I don't know that she'll actually wear these very easily once the novelty has worn off. We shall see.

Emma loves to clean with me. She is especially fond of vacuuming and has just recently really gotten it down. She can hold the handle at just the right angle so she actually picks stuff up and is rather helpful. It entertains her for a long time too. Do you like the sour patch kid stuck in her teeth? Good old potty treats, we'll get to that in a minute.

We call that the Aunt Megan troll grin. Meg always pulled that face as a kid.

Focus focus focus; hard at work.

Yep, we are finally really potty training. Emma has been wanting to forever. She is doing really well. For example, even on the first day she had NO accidents. She's had a few now but is doing quite well. Diaper-less days for Emma are ahead.

Derek and I laughed when we went in Emma's room the other night. She had a hard time falling asleep. I'm not sure why, but she dragged her blanket and pillow onto the ground and then surrounded herself with some toys. Good times.

Emma got some chalk from Grandma Whipple. It's been so cold that we haven't wanted to stay outside to try them out. We finally did last week. Emma loves to do art.

Hmmm, which color do I want?

Notice the sippy in the background. That is the last remaining sippy. Yep, we've lost all of the other's. When that one is gone they will be gone for good. Emma is quite a rational child, so when I say, sorry there's no sippy, or there's no clean sippy, she accepts it and moves on. I should probably just put the sippy in storage and be done with it because I'm getting really tired of washing it.

Derek and Emma last Sunday. They like to coordinate so notice that the tie matches Emma's dress. I generally don't get in on the matching thing. That might be a little much. But they're sure cute.

Ok, so Kat tagged me, and I don't often do these tags (mainly because I don't get tagged much) but I'm going to cause it looks fun. Here are the rules:

1 player starts with 8 random habits/facts about themselves.
2: People who are tagged need to write a post on their blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3: At the end of the post you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

1. When I was little I had a Snoopy pillowcase that I really loved- the dirtier the better. I remember going into the garage and rubbing it on the ground to get it dirty after my mom had washed it (sick!) I also would put cards or any kind of paper in it and would crinkle it with my hands as I fell asleep. I know, that is really really weird.
2. Apparently I turned the other direction, from dirty to clean, because I am nearly obsessed with having things clean and sanitary. I think this came on substantially more after I had Emma. There's something about having a baby that makes you want to have a clean environment with as little germs as possible.
3. I love love love shoes. I think it must be genetic because all of the girls in my family also love shoes (and at least one of the boys- old room mates you know who that is I think). I have loved shoes since I was tiny; the earliest recollection dating back to age 4 or 5. I can still envision the shoes. Anyway, after I got married reality set in that there are more important things to buy so my shoe fettish has been tamed. But then I had Emma, and I just transferred the love to little girl shoes.
4. When I grow up I want to either be a librarian in the children's section or at an elementary school, or I want to run a pre-school. But seriously, what could be better than reading cute children's book and fostering a love of books in little kids? Emma and I probably go to the library twice a week (probably partially because there isn't a whole lot of places to go in Idaho Falls).
5. I always thought I would have nine children! These days when people ask Derek and I say we will just have one at a time and see where we get.
6. This is going to come as a big shock to many, but I am liberal, for a Mormon from Utah that is. I wouldn't say I'm a Democrat, in fact I am a registered Republican mainly because my parents are/were when I was 18 and registered. Basically I am saying that I am quite open to political ideas. Obviously there are some definite things that I won't even consider because of my religious beliefs but I see a lot of good from both sides of the political spectrum. How was that for politically correct?
7. I'm going to admit that I played with dolls longer than most little girls. I have always loved dolls and kind of collect them, thus my mom still bought me an American Girl doll when I was in high school or college (no I didn't play with it, it's just for looks and sits in our living room book shelf).
8. I could probably eat cereal for evey meal of the day. I love cereal especially Honey Bunches of Oats and Frosted Mini Spoons. I found a good sale last spring at Albertson's and bought 91 boxes of cereal! I think I got too many boxes of Corn Flakes and I don't know if i'll ever be able to eat them again.

Bless your heart if you actually read all of this. I tag (unless you've already done this one I guess): Dana, Melanie, Rachel Sullivan, Rachel Strauss, Carly, Rachelle, Amanda, and Michelle.

Whipple Update

Life is good here. I am getting huger by the day. I'll post a picture soon, really. My friend took one of me (did I mention that I hate pictures of myself, I probably need to get over that). Anyway, I am also starting to notice that my body temperature is definitely not the same as everyone elses. For example, I went to take dinner to Derek at school last week. I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and had the AC going in the car. Derek was wearing a coat. Yeah, I am trying to make sure that I bundle Emma up more than myself. Speaking of which, yeah, it snowed yesterday. Emma was quite thrilled. As we were walking to the car on the way to church I had to pretend I was two and that I hadn't seen snow in a while. Emma just wanted to walk in the snow and touch it and take her time embracing winter. She would look at the window and say "hello winter!"

Saturday was what Emma calls a "daddy day." In the last few months, that often means that mom is exhausted and needs a nap at a time that is not Emma's traditional naptime. I took a nice nap and Derek took Emma to get a cowgirl hat. Derek has a cowboy hat that Emma loves and we thought that she needed her own hat. Emma chose a pink one of course. She loves it; she even wore it with her tutu and danced around the house.

On Saturday we also went to our niece, Eva's, baptism. She is such a sweet girl and we are very excited for her. After the baptism we went to Emily and Quinn's for a luncheon. Emma had a blast with her cousins. Any time Derek's family gets together it is quite exciting (with nine kids who also have a bunch of kids too you can imagine what happens). At one point Kayla carried Emma downstairs from Katie and Eva's room; apparently Emma had gotten stuck in a doll house. She didn't realize that it was for dolls, not her. At another classic moment I saw Emma flying onto the couch screaming (with joy). Never a dull moment. Our families get a hoot out of Emma. She definitely entertains all of us.

It's 10 at night and Derek is still at school, bless his heart. He is working hard as usual, yet still somehow able to clean the bathroom for me occasionally and hang out with Emma too. So Derek likes concrete things like math, thus he is going to be an accountant. I am more into literature and history and such. So I love the times when Derek tries to explain some accounting concept to me so that he can bounce ideas off of me for a paper or whatever. I try really hard to understand, but generally I have no idea what he is saying. It all seems so complicated and abstract to me. Anyway, I think it is so cute when he explains mathematical things to me. He must think I'm smarter than I am, which makes me feel good. Well, at this point I am rambling so I guess it's time to end this post. Till next time.

Samantha's 2nd Birthday

Sammy had a princess birthday party. It was so cute! The girls decorated little crowns and ate pizza and cupcakes on princess plates. I got just a couple pictures of the girls coloring. Emma had a little encounter with a metal chair as you can see on her nose. I've been putting vitamin E on it but I think it will probably scar unfortunately.

The birthday girl.

Victor, Idaho

Emma at the park.

At the beginning of September we got a call from Ian and Tania. They were in Hawaii on business and had left the kids with Tania's sister. She was 9 months pregnant and went into labor so they were in a little predicament. Emma and I went up to Victor (near Jackson, Wyoming) to watch the kids. We had fun going to Alayna's soccer game, parks, the library, and just being with the cousins.

I had to snap a few pictures of the beautiful scenery. I wouldn't mind living there in the summer, but it is way too cold in the winter for me.

Emma loves going to parks. She has always loved the slides.

Summer Fun

In August we took a little trip down to Utah. We went to Provo for the day so that we could see my family briefly and so that Derek could take a test for his BYU independent study class. Then we went back up to Kaysville to Meg and JJ's. We had a great time just relaxing. We were also introduced to "Rock Band." Let's just say that we haven't ever really been in to gaming systems, but we totally want a Wii now. All of us had a lot of fun, and it was so nice to see Derek relaxed and just jamming (he'd been so stressed about his test). Emma got a kick out of the instruments too.
Rexburg Fountain Park

Emma and I went with our good friends Dayna, Sydney, Payton, Lexi, and Tori, to Rexburg for some fun in the sun. They have this awesome little free water park. I took Emma once last summer but she definitely had more fun this year since she can walk (run actually) and everything. We brought a little picnic and the kids played all afternoon.

Sydney Sue enjoying the fountains.

Emma, possibly contemplating the idea of throwing her pretzels on the ground?

Tori, Emma, Lexi, and Syd eating a little lunch.

It was so fun to watch Payton enjoy the water.

Lexi was relaxing and keeping warm.

Tori was so helpful and cute with Emma. She took her on the slides. Emma is pretty adventurous but I don't know if she would have done it without Tori.

And she's off!

Playing in the river at Freeman Park

Eliza had a great idea; let's take the girls to Freeman park to play in the very slow moving stream. Emma and Samantha had a ball. I put Emma in a swimsuit but I didn't think she'd really get in. We walked along the edge but then she got frustrated with my closeness. She let go of my hand and slipped right into the river. Emma's response was classic; she was spluttering and got out. But then she was right ready to get back in.

I don't know if you can really tell from this picture, but Emma is always sticking out her jaw (and her lower lip too). Emma-Elaine was named after my Grandma Elaine Walker and apparently she used to get teased for making the stick out lip face just as Emma does. We think it's cute and funny anyway. I'll have to get a better picture of it.

Oh.

Do you remember being little? Every little thing was exciting and fun to play with, like a log for example.

A cute Emma smile.

Eliza and I were pregnant together, and Emma and Sammy are only 6 weeks apart. They had no choice but to love each other and be the best of friends. They like to hold hands and walk around and it is soooo cute. Of course, other times they are not so fond of each other. Sammy is often saying "Be nice Emma!" It's pretty funny. But I love how each time we leave they are suddenly happy and love each other as they say bye. Just the other day the called each other on the phone and had a nice conversation. It is just so funny that they can do that now.