March update

I unfortunately don't have a lot of photos to download. I have had my camera up on the shelf and haven't used it much even though we have had some adventures.
First was Coopers Birthday his REAL birthday. We treated him to a hockey game, at one point he said "I didn't ask for this, I just wanted a Darth Maul mask and light saber." Had I only known?
We took a quick trip on Delta down to PHX and stayed at a Marriott, my first choice in hotels always, but they are usually to pricey and so we end up somewhere else. But the price was right.
We ended up buying me and Alivia nose bleed seats for the Hockey game, Alivia did not want to go in true girl fashion she said "Mom why can't we go get our nails done or something?" That's my girl!!
Ben and Cooper had AMAZING seats, 4th row on the Canucks attack side, you should have seen Ben's face and how much it lite up when he saw where they were sitting. I didn't bring my camera, but we got lots of cell phone pics and video that I will upload later.

We came home Wednesday had cake for Coopers birthday.  Thursday morning, Ben and I dropped the kids off at school and dropped Kessler off at Grandma's we flew to LA to see the Conan O'Brien show. It was more waiting than anything! we showed up at 1:30 like they said, checked in and then they said be back at 3:00.....great you can't really go anywhere in LA in an hour and half and do anything fun, so we just hung out. 3:00 rolled around and they lined us up and had us walk over to the Warner Brothers Studios, that was probably the coolest part is seeing the studios. Then they had a wait in a roller coaster line gated area for another 45 minutes and then walked us over to his studio and waited another 30 minutes for the show to start. All said and done it was a fun experience but will most likely never do it again. Sorry Coco! after the show we jetted for the LAX airport and flew to Las Vegas for the night, the hotels were cheaper 27$ to be exact and the flights were easier.

 I have decided I don't like flying stand by with Ben, I could sit in the airport for hours. I don't want to but I could, he gets stressed and grouchy! The one thing about me, is I cannot be late I get so stressed out and grouchy! we were trying to get to the airport to catch a 7pm flight to Vegas, if we missed it we would have to wait for the 9pm. We were going through security with 15 minutes until the flight left. LUCKILY we cruised through security and our gate was the first one. They barely let us on. SO CRAZY!!

 Poor Cooper, he doesn't totally understand his birthday, I even wrote it down for him with a diagram trying to explain it. Well we gave him a hat that said today is my real Birthday. So everyone kept wishing him a happy birthday and asking him if he was two. The final straw the Pilot on the airplane saw him walk in and saw it was his birthday and invited him into the flight deck. Cooper came back and sat down in a huff, I said what's wrong. He said I AM NOT TWO!! I cracked up. Poor kid!

 We got a piano, the piano I learned on as a kid. My sister has been the keeper of this and hasn't necessarily taken very good care of it. So we begged to have it moved to our house. I have been brushing up on some of the hymns and my mom recently found most of the books I learned on even the dates I passed the songs off. Like February 6, 1986!! Crazy!

 A after church ritual Spaghetti and Kessler always gets stripped down, you can see why.

Things coming up for the Whidden's
We have to speak in church........crap!
Kindergarten Donut Date
Andrea's girls weekend in Idaho Falls, with the Time out for women! SO excited!
Kesslers Birthday! 4 years old!!
My new calling Relief Society Enrichment leader, helping put on the Relief Society birthday party!

6/52

For some reason I feel like I need to change some things up, there is a few things in my life I would like to switch up. I love to rearrange furniture in my house and I feel like I need some things rearranged in my head and heart.

For one I have been trying to get pregnant for some time, I don't talk about it much because if I do I might start to cry, not because I am sad, but more because I am confused. I did make a semi-permanent decision that we are not going to go down that road anymore. I have been trying to rearrange my thoughts in my head and heart when see beautiful babies and look at my little family and wished there were more little ones around.

We all know that I am not the skinniest girl in town, but again something I don't talk about much. But it is something that is always on my mind and something I always want to change. I finally got some things figured out with my pcos and thyroid and feel good about the decisions that were made from me and my doctor.

Ben and I were talking the other day and he went to lunch with his boss, and his boss is trying to shed a few pounds. He was using an app on his Ipad to keep track of his calories. Ben said I am so glad I don't have to do it because I know I wouldn't. It made me giggle, because I know he wouldn't either. I think it might have been a breakthrough for Ben to see the other side of that struggle for people who worry about stuff like that.

I know I need to rearrange some thoughts with this struggle in my life and just do a little better everyday.

The last one I want to confess is my anxiety over things. I sometimes am so afraid of the bad things that can happen I almost won't do them. Well some I won't. I refuse to go to the canyon in the spring time and be anywhere near a river. I get so crazy in thought of what could happen. Also I don't really have any desire to go to the National parks where there might be cliffs or ledges. This recently happen with Kessler and his tonsillectomy. I actually postponed it once and then he got sick the second time and they wouldn't do it, and that just fed into my craziness. The third surgery scheduled we went through with it. What I learned though is that I need to have more faith in my Heavenly Father and faith in other people.

Everything turned out great for this little guy. He had a hard time keeping up his oxygen levels right after but they said they expected that especially with the size of his tonsils that would be coming out. The other funny thing is, his voice is so much higher. The pitch is quite different. Ben and I crack up laughing every time he says something to the both of us.

We had a Happy V-Day around here, the kids got a few small things from the ones who love them most. 

This above picture of Ben and I cracks me up, I think we were watching the Republican debate, hence our exited looks. I wanted to post this for Valentines. True Love right there! :)

5/52

 Ben on the many of his "status-ing" calls in preparation for his interview in California. This is the week.

 My slight obsession with the GOP race.

 What Kessler does when I am not paying attention to him.

 Alivia's school had a wax museum this is the dress rehearsal (the night before).

 That wig was so un-manageable.

 Here she is at the school, she was taking her part very serious. She had to come up with a few poses. She could not speak and had to stand still for quite a while.

 This is her cousin, she was Florence Nightingale.

 Cooper had his 100th day of school celebration and wanted to dress up  like an old man. We weren't very creative only his dad's shirt and tie, with some fake glasses.

Below this kid was AWESOME, i don't know if you can tell but his parents shaved his head and put some powder in his hair. I loved his glasses and the whole bit. He was so great.

Such nice weather here. Spring like!

4/52

 The sickness around here is pretty much gone except for me, stupid head cold.
Kessler following in his brothers example, Pirate Kess for the day.

The best part was his snow boots, that you can't see.

We are going to try and surprise Cooper for his birthday this year. Most of you know he was born on February 29 and so he gets a real birthday this year. We have a few things in mind, it will only be a day trip so we are thinking San Diego for the day maybe a trip to their zoo, or we also thought maybe about Disneyland just for him? Ben liked the idea of flying with him to Phoenix on the 28th go to the Coyotes and Canucks game. What a sacrifice on Ben's part:) I need some other ideas?  ( I think me and Cooper should go to Disneyland for the day!)

3/52

Kessler went from this to this (below)

This week has been the week of the stomach bug for everyone except me. It was a 24-36 hour bug, it would come on fast and furious and almost leave about the same.

 Alivia has been working on a book report, she read about Pocahontas and has really liked studying and putting her report together. She is also working on her times tables and has passed off her, 1's, 2's and 3's.

 Me and a few ladies in my neighborhood and going up to Idaho Falls March 16-17 for a Girls weekend.  It is held by Deseret Book and called TOFW I am super excited for the line up and I think it will be an amazingly-fun weekend with some great friends. Plus we are staying at a beautiful hotel right across from the falls and the Temple.

I have been working quite a few hours and been having fun at the same time, I love my job and thank my lucky stars everyday. I was in the right place at the right time and been so blessed. 

I always get a little itch to start planning a vacation in January-February sometime and have been looking on the internet at night after the kids go to bed for amazing deals. I have for sure found some, and have hovered my finger above the submit button to confirm the reservation but never did. Well thankfully I decided to organize some paperwork the other day and remembered we have a reservation in May in Miami for 7 days. The last few years we have bought these vacations from timeshares who take a small amount (30.00$) a month for us and so when you go it is paid for. So glad I didn't end up signing us up for two vacations, we couldn't afford that.

I posted this pic on here and thought it was weird not to introduce you to my good friend Melvin, he has been a flight attendant a little longer than myself and he is married to Natalie a former SkyWest flight attendant. He is such a great dad, and such a nice hubby to his wife, she fell and hit her head about 2 years ago and she was walking out to the employee parking lot. She suffered from a head injury. She can do small household functions, but cannot work and struggles still today. He just sent his son on a mission to Africa! I keep telling him, if he needs travel companions to go pick him I volunteered Ben and I to keep him company!

Ben is still in stress mode, he has meetings this week and then traveling to Ontario, California in two weeks. He is still practicing his "interviewing" skills. I personally think he just needs to work on his conversation skills He can practice on our neighbors, I think they would like to hear him speak more than two words. They might actually think something is wrong:)

GO MITT!

2/52

Second week of January with still no snow......(sad face). We had a small little family party for Alivia's birthday. 9 years old! wow! she got lots of presents, mostly clothes and a gift card to Target to buy what ever she wants. 

This week has also been very busy for me, I had my annual training and passed...whew! employed for another year. I had to prepare an aircraft cabin for and emergency landing in water, evacuate the aircraft as if we landed in the water, using the AED on a pregnant passenger, practiced CPR on an infant, did a mock of a slow decompression of an aircraft cabin. And some joint training with the pilots, that always provides lots of entertainment!

Ben also had a very stressful week and I don't see it slowing down for him at all. He did go to Denver on Tuesday for a day of interviews. He also had a full day of interviews, personality tests, IQ tests, and scenarios on Friday. So he has a few more grey hairs to blend in with the rest.

 Kessler will be getting his tonsils out this next week and not soon enough, you should hear him speak. His tonsils are so huge right now and he snored so loud last night...poor kid!

Cooper is in love with the movie Rango right now.

Alivia is having a friend "late night" or "later nighter" tonight for her Birthday! (it is the same thing as a sleep over without the sleep over part). She is having two friends and a cousin come over and they are going to make headbands for their hair. Should be fun!

 Bauer had a pretty uneventful week, he is the pretty predictable one around here!