Cute Little White Boys

Really, I'm not prejudice! I finally got a picture of Mac and his "older" cousin (by 10 days) Tyson. Both boys came earlier than planned (Mac by 2 weeks, Tyson by 4). They are so cute and little, but starting to fill out. Tyson is Jeff's brother Nathan's little guy. Mia's best buddy is their 3 year old, Andrew. When Mia gets together with Andrew, the 2 are little stinkers together. We are a little worried what these two sweet little babies will turn into in a few years!!!



My cousins brought me this cute little onsie yesterday. With Christmas next week, and the way Mac has been growing, I figured I better get it on him ASAP!
Thanks Ashley & Val!

My Little Sweeties

Baby Macky is now 3 weeks old and weighs 7 lbs. 9 oz. Recovery has been much better/quicker because Maclaren came early and I was able to do a VBAC (instead of the scheduled C-section that I was planning on). Adjusting has also been much easier with baby number 2, since we have a little experience! He really is a great baby and Mia is just crazy about him. She has been a great big sister and is our little helper (bringing me diapers, wipes or paci's). Jeff has also been amazing and takes one of the middle-of-the-night-feeds so I can try to get as much sleep as I can. We seem to have found the balance quickly this time around and we are loving our 2 kids!!! We are getting really excited for Christmas...since Mia can get into Santa/presents/etc. this year.

Here are just a few pictures that I have taken over the last little bit.

A little earlier than expected...

Maclaren Jeffery White
November 21, 2008
3:55 AM
6 lbs. 9 oz.
20.5 inches


Doing what he does best (for now)- SLEEP!


Proud, Big Sister, Mia, loves "her" Baby Macky!


He looks a little beat up here, but still so cute.




I'll post more later...we just wanted to show off how adorable he is!

Trick or Treat

For Halloween we went to our ward "Trunk or Treat" with Jeff's brother, his wife and their "Hulk". Mia had a great time getting candy from everyone and cruising around with her dad and Andrew. Jessica and I sat at the car and passed out candy- we are both due in December and are in that "uncomfortable" stage.

Jeff and I wore some costumes that we already had...my shirt worked very hard around my belly. I wondered if it was going to (unintentionally) tear some more!

Mia hasn't been a fan of dressing up until she saw how much her cousin loves to put on his costume. She also isn't too much of a girly girl, but after Halloween she kept asking for more sparkles in her hair. I can see her slowly becoming more of one.

We thought she was a cute little Snow White and now she loves anything with Snow White (or any other princess) on it.

I'm 2

Mia is turning into one cute/sassy/little toddler! She laughs at the silliest stuff, and you never know what she will think is funny- or not...I think she gets her humor from her dad. She is a great talker and is very into mimicking whatever you say. Mia will always act shy at first, but then breaks the ice by showing you what a good "jumper" she is (see last photo). She loves to sing "ABC's", "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Teddy Bear", "I'm a little teapot", "The Wheels on the Bus", "Pop goes the Weasel" and is so smart! She would probably be potty trained by now if her mom wasn't so lazy.

Mia is so independent and a big sweetheart, she loves to come up and pat my big belly and say, "baby brother". We don't know if she quite gets what she is in for, but she does love babies. Everytime we see a little baby she says, "Oh, so tiny and cute!" She also got a baby doll for her birthday that she loves to push around in a little stroller and give a "bath" to.

Mia also loves shoes! This started a while ago, but she is obsessed with bringing me my shoes so we can go for a walk or bringing other people their shoes (sometimes it seems like she is trying to hurry them out of the house) but she is just trying to help. It has been amazing to watch her turn into her own little person. We get such a kick out of the things she does. It is amazing to see the world through the eyes of a 2 year old.

WOW! It's been a long time....

at Cornbelly's Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch

The move to Utah has been an adventure! We moved into a HUGE ward with Jeff's brother and his wife and little boy. We're talking like 4 or 5 nurseries, 2 elders quorums, 1 large RS and sacrament meetings that always take up most of the gym. There are tons of young families and it is humorous to see the whole neighborhood headed to church at the same time. Driving to a stake center just down the street with another church building across the street about a block further down. Being among the masses definitely brings back memories of our BYU ward.
We were anxious to get down here, before my belly did anymore growing, and to just be settled in. Mia and I flew (thanks Jeff and Nathan for doing the driving) into Salt Lake and it felt a little surreal to me, and I finally realized, "I'm living in Utah". We love the house that we found and were pleasantly surprised to find it a few blocks away from Jeff's brother's place. My brother, Big B, was looking for a change of pace from Spokane/N.Idaho and decided to moved in with us. He thought he'd improve his odds of finding a woman. We are excited to have him living with us, especially since Jeff has been flying back to Bellevue 4 days out of the week for the past 2 months.
Jeff is anxious to be home (here) for good. The hotels, flights and eating out are getting old and we miss him like crazy. Home just isn't quite "home" with out him here all of the time. We've never been much for spending any time apart anyway, so this has been pretty tough for us. Mia and I flew up to Seattle to be with him 2 of the weeks, but with the move and everything- living in a hotel was kind of tough on Mia and we have seen some new melt downs as a result. She is a trooper though and is getting back to her old self (with the exception of some new toddler 'tude, but that can be expected).





Although moving to Utah was kind of like moving to another planet, we love all of the family activities it has to offer. We love living so close to Thanksgiving Point, since there is always something going on. Last weekend we went to the Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch for little kids. Mia loved jumping on the huge air "pillows", going down the big slides, seeing the little pigs and goats, and playing on all of the toys. We went with Jeff's brother and Mia's older cousin (who she just adores...we are starting to get the feeling they are gonna be trouble together)!


Mia's 2nd Birthday was 2 weeks ago. She was so fun to watch open her presents and be a part of the fun. Again, we had a family party with lots of cousins, ice cream, cupcakes, etc. She gets so much love and attention from her cousins....she loves to be so adored.

Jeff turned 30 about a month ago. We were excited that his parents were able to be in town to celebrate. We went out to eat at Tucanos at The Gateway Mall (that was one of our favorite places to go to when we were dating). Jeff's brother and wife and my brother, Brian, came too. Brian moved in with us last month, which has been nice, especially when Jeff has been back in Washington. We have really enjoyed living so close to Jeff's siblings and their families as well. It is fun to have get togethers and have our house full of people.

Goodbye Pacific Northwest

It is hard to believe the time has finally come for us to say "goodbye" to Seattle. I'd always thought that once I made it back to Washington I would never leave. We have enjoyed the time we've been able to spend with my sister and her family and we will miss them dearly...Mia will miss her Ferguson cousins and Lauri & Ty-Ty. I will definitely miss the time I've been able to spend with Lauri. Over the last 2 months we've finally started a "Girls' Night Out" every week. Now we don't know why we didn't start sooner!

We have been trying to get in as much as we can on our weekends, since we've known that time is running out. Last weekend we went to Gasworks Park on Lake Union with the Fergs and then spent the evening downtown on the piers and had dinner at "The Crab Pot".




A few weeks ago we took the 2 minute ferry to Jetty Island (in Everett) and had a great time walking and sinking into the squishy beaches- at low tide.

So Happy Together

Jeff and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary on 7/20. I can't believe how long we have been together! Time has gone by so fast and we've had so much fun. I also can't believe I found such a good guy at a young age (and being LDS- everything happens so quickly, too). It seems like yesterday we were neighbors in Chatham Town saying hi to each other in the parking garage or waving at each other through our kitchen windows...

Now here we are with baby number 2 on the way and a past filled with a lot of playing and becoming even closer than we'd ever imagined. Jeff and I work so well together, that it is scary. I can't imagine having a closer friend or better husband. Once we had Mia, I feared that our whole world would revolve around her and the dynamics of our relationship would change. I am relieved to say that- after some adjusting- we've managed to find "the balance". Our alone time together only comfirms what a great team we already are and how that helps us be better parents.


We were able to spend the weekend on our own. We went out to eat and cruised the mall before our late night movie. The next day we rented a canoe down at UW campus and paddled across the lake to Washington Park Arboretum. There were lily pads and ducks everywhere- not to mention the lush green landscape that is synonymous with Seattle. It felt like we were on a Disneyland ride through a rain forest. It was very fun and romantic (if you ever get a chance to do it, I highly recommend it). After that we strolled Univeristy Village, we haven't enjoyed shopping like that since we first got married.

A Normal Life Appreciated

Last week our little family had a major health scare that really made us step back and evaluate the important things in our lives. The stresses I had earlier that day were normal (toddler stuff, tired from being pregnant, moving details, etc.). In just seconds all of that was obsolete. We waited 48 hours in agony, over "what if's", "now what's" and "how could this be", for test results to come back. I waited in the Dr.'s office watching other people and felt jealous of (what I assumed was) their normal lives/health. After (what felt like months of waiting) we found out everything was OK and I was a very small statistic that causes a test error.

It took a few hours for everything to settle in and to know that we were all going to be ok. I have never been more grateful for my health and mild little life. I've also never felt more empathy for people that find out life changing news about their health. I guess you get so comfortable in your own skin, that is is very easy to think "that won't happen to me" about a lot of things. I know my details are vague, but I just want to express my gratitude to friends and family and the love and support that they give us. This small trial renewed our faith in our relationship with one another, our family and prayer.

I don't get as easily frustrated by the little things and I hope I keep this feeling for a long time. Thank you for your friendship.

YAY!!

Today, we found out that we are having a
BABY BOY!!
We are sooo excited for Mia to have a little brother! After the appointment she kept saying, "brother". We all could have guessed it was gonna be a boy (since only a small percent of Jeff's family is girls), but since we had a girl first we didn't want to be too confident.
I'll post a pic of the ultrasound later tonight!!

Mia will be 21 months old (tomorrow)

Mia will be turning 21 months old tomorrow, but since we are having our ultrasound then (to find out the sex of the baby) I wanted to be sure to put some recent pictures of her up.

Mia is such a sweet and smart little girl! She knows soooo many words and can speak very clearly. She is very polite and always says, "please", "thank you", "bless you", "you're welcome" and when we ask her if she'd like something, she answers so sweetly, "Sure!" She does have a few words that make her sound like a sailor, but we are working on them ;) She is starting to sing a lot and has part of the ABC song down.

Like her parents, she is a little shy at first. The way she likes to break the ice is with a "high 5" and "knuckles". She used to slap a little (mostly Jeff- hehe) but we taught her to touch faces soft and nice and she calls that "soft face".

Mia can't help but dance if a hip-hop song comes on the radio and she love, love, loves Mickey Mouse (of course she didn't think he was all that great when we were AT Disneyland).

I couldn't choose just one picture, so I had to make a slideshow!

CHECK BACK TOMORROW TO FIND OUT WHAT WE ARE HAVING!!!

Father's Day Weekend

My sister and I took our hubbies to Traxx Racing in Mukilteo. The cars go pretty fast and it gets a little crazy during the race (including some mild road rage)! It was a little spendy for the few minutes it lasted, but something you gotta at least try. We then went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was entertaining (as to be expected) but the ending did not live up to our expectations.

We had a lot of fun with the Fergs! It will be hard to move away from them :(



The next day I made "Pancake Puffs" for breakfast (from the info-mercials)! It is a pretty fun finger food and we made the different versions throughout the week.


After church we went to a great park in Everett that overlooks The Sound. The weather was awesome and Mia loved swinging on the swings and then walking through the little arboretum next door.

She is a sweet little Daddy's Girl!