Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

So here we are... Christmas is already over and our "Christmas Letter" is finally done.  I wish Christmas could go on for a few days in stead of being over after just 1!  We really were spoiled this year, THANK YOU to all who helped to do so! We feel so loved!  The girls have had a total blast with all their toys!  

Well, for 2009 our life changed quite a bit!  Our first excitement of the year was our sweet little addition to our family when Lindsey Belle was born on Dec. 28th!  I can't even believe she is already 1!!  Time has flown by! She quickly became a family favorite around here and still is!  Kate and Emily love her so much and are SO good with her.  They always have been so sweet to her and Emily is LOVING being a big sister now!  Here is a little video clip of Emily holding Lindsey for the first time:  (after You watch this - just push the Back button to get back to our blog)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqToZWM8vts



That was so classic, it's a good thing that I had a good grip on her when Emily decided she was done! :) 
Here is one of our favorites of Lindsey falling asleep in her Johnny Jumper!  So funny!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SooOaGPSGo0



And here is one I took just the other day of her taking her first Steps..... & Kates funny comment too! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu2A7rnZuXo

Wow, now you probably feel like you've just watched her grow up before your eyes! She is so fun, and her babbling is beginning to sound like words!  she says "Meow" (with a scrunched up face) and "uh-oh" along with all her cute "Ma ma", "da da", "Em", "In" & "Na Na" sounds!   Funny thing about little Lindsey Belle is that she  ALWAYS hums when she eats!  And it's not quite either!  Weather we are at home or in public it doesn't matter, she has to tell us how much she's enjoying her food!  But it's pretty cute! 

(Lindsey loves pushing the new baby doll stroller and loves getting rides in it even more!)

Emily, is almost 4 and she is such a little sweet heart with a grouchy side too! (who doesn't have a grouchy side though I guess, right!?)
Emily says the funniest things all the time and she is so loving and friendly to others.  She LOVES little "baby Belle"  as she calls Lindsey and it's so cute to see them together! Emily has been in pre-school this year and has LOVED every minute of it.  She is always so happy to follow in Kate's footsteps!  She wants to do everything Kate does! Something funny Emily said the other day was when she was put into time out, she said: "you better not make me cry or pout! 'cause Santa Clause is coming to town!" lol!  She is always making us laugh, 3 year olds say the funniest things!
Here is a link to a video of her singing a Christmas poem from pre-school! This is what our answering machine message is too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19RGIMHTQFk


Kate is in Kindergarten and she's 6 now. She is just getting so OLD! She loves being in school - but hates homework - already! She learns pretty quickly - she is proud of the fact that she knows how to count by 5's, 10's, ADD her 1's, 2's and 10's.   She is such a creative little girl, always drawing and making up books, stories and songs!  She loves to sing and will most likely join some kind of children's choir in the next year if I can find a free one. Here is a link to her singing her new favorite Christmas song that she learned in school:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32pDx6QqeVE

(Posing for a picture in their new stylish Jeans from Anita)

For Kate's 6th B-day she had a joint party with her friend Maddi and it was a Luau!  It was complete with hula lessons (from Anita - who served her mission in Hawaii), the Limbo, a tiki hut with sno-cones and a hot tub splash at the end! It was lots of fun!   In August Kate also Lost her first tooth and it was pretty exciting... until she realized there was blood involved!  :)

Ryan and I have been well, we have had an eventful year, with his YM's calling and me as Primary Pres. along with all our small and large endeavors life just whizzes past too fast!  We unfortunately had to close our Landscaping business after 8 years in August which was so hard and very sad. But when the decision was made we knew somehow it was the right thing.  Really there was no other option though!  (After over 100,000 in unpaid jobs that he did.) Although, times for us have been tight lately,  we do feel the blessings that our Heavenly Father is giving us and we know he has not forgotten about us.  He is there and we are trying to keep the faith and move forward.  Life is good, we have our beautiful family and the gospel of Jesus Christ!  What more can we ask for!  We appreciate all of your love, support and prayers for our family - keep them coming!

We pray you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!  Here's to 2010 being wonderful for us all!!

Merry Christmas
From the Whittaker Family
 

"In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance. Let us open our eyes and see the heavy hearts, let us feel the silent prayers of others around us, and let us be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to answer those prayers" 

Trying to catch up....

We had a great November and a lot of fun for Thanksgiving!  The week before thanksgiving my Brother Dave came into town from Reno and so we decided to do an early Thanksgiving get together with  my side, so we invited everyone even remotely related to us (as we always do :) and had about 35 people at our house,  hence the lovely picture with a disco ball and lots of black plastic hanging on the walls (we had it decorated still from our halloween party) It was great to see each other!

Anita got tickets to see Disney Princesses on Ice so the kids went and saw that, and she took Dave's Oldest Rachel too!  First she took them to get their hair done up like a princess!  So fun!

Anita's the best! 

Here is a picture of Lindsey and Melody, Grandma Eves made these cute snugly snow suits for them and they were sure cute and cozy!  "I can't put my arms down!"  lol!

Princess Emily & Kate!

 

 Then Anita got some tickets to go see the Nutcracker at the capitol theater, unfortunatly it was the same night as Danielle's Choir concert she she couldn't come with us!  I ended up inviting our friends Kristine and Joanne to come.  It was so much fun and the perfect Christmas activity to do with your Daughter!  Emily was sad not to go but she wouldn't have sat through it!  Thanks Anita! 

 

 At the very beginning of Dec. we took a trip down town to take some things that we made at our primary activity to the Homeless shelter, YWCA & the Christmas box house.  Afterward we decided to take a trip to the SLCity Library, it's huge and a lot of fun!  We hadn't been before, they have a few fun rooms to read books in and a "great glass elevator"

 

 Their favorite reading room was the Ice burg room! Cute! We love Books!!!

 

 

Here we are in the Elevator... Kate was not playing around on the ground she was Freaking out about us all falling to our death!  She was so funny!  As you can tell... Emily had no problems with the Elevator!

 

 Another fun event was getting together with some of my High School friends!  We've all stayed good friends, but just don't get to see each other as often as we'd like to.  Cassie (next to me) lives in Idaho and she came into town just for a fun get together!  We went out to the Olive Garden it was great to see them and be able to catch up!

 

 Anita and I at "New Moon" with Edward! 

:)

We won tickets from Yogurt Vibes! Yes! (Our Hubbies came too, but they were way too cool to take pictures with Edward!) They were being Manly and saving our places in line!