"Let's get down to the Nitty Gritty"

Whidden blog~ written by the mother
about the children
the dad
and a lot of ramblings about life here in Utah.

A few things we love
Traveling
Camping
Fishing and Eating Nachos

3.23.2009

Whidden version 2009

It has taken me a while to post this picture. I have more it takes a while to get them on here. We had a grea time taking these and thanks to my friend and neighbor Jeni for doing a great job and being so kind and patient.
Yeah its official Whidden version 2009 here for your viewing pleasure:)

3.03.2009

Look who is 5, look who is walking, and the gospel according to Alivia..

Happy Birthday Cooper, 5 years old!!

5 Wonderful things about a 5 year old.

5. He is so sweet, he is a tender little boy, sensitive to people and their feelings.(usually)
4. He loves his siblings, he stands up for who ever is in trouble. If Bauer is being naughty, he will say " mom you need to smile at him".
3. He is a very picky eater, one day he will be freaking out because there in hamburger in some kind of casserole and the next day we will have taco salads with hamburger and it is his favorite meal.
2. When he does something like spills a drink he will say I am so sorry mom, I am so so sorry mommy, don't be mad, I am so sorry. (how can you be mad at that)

1. We love him so much and so glad he is in our family our little man hanging on the coat tails of his sister today and the day he was born! Love you Coop!

This is Alivia's game she has done before and today I finally got to the camera and was able to catch it on video. This is her game called
"scriptures". She gets a set of scriptures and tells her version of what they say. The reason I ask her to tell me what people shouldn't do, the other day when she was playing this "game" she said cigarettes and tattoos (uh-hem Gina:) ha ha
Kessler is walking I couldn't get his video on here, but you might see him cruising around.

2.22.2009

Sweet Livi~

Ben and Kessler have been sick the last couple days and today Ben was really sick in bed with a stomach bug, and the kids knew he was really sick because he did not get out of bed all day. Liv brought this to Ben later today (we both had no idea) she was so proud. I couldn't help but get teary I thought that was so sweet.

That is one thing that is really important to me, and have tried to teach my children, to be aware of other people and their feelings and if you know something is wrong try and do something nice for them and it is so precious to see it happen with out talking to them or reminding them to do it...the envelope was very beautiful as well with a big TO DAD, LOVE Alivia (by the way that is Ben lying down on a bed and Alivia standing by the bed)

2.10.2009

Bahama Mama!!


Yes mon' we are back from the Bahamas and it was fun. Chilly, windy but fun. The picture above is at Grand Bahama island, Lucaya was the town we took a tax too, our taxi drivers name was "Bullfrog". He had this huge head of dreadlocks tucked into his hat. He was very funny told us all about the city and showed us some of the parts that have never recovered from the hurricane in 2005.

I love these little foot prints in the sand, the kids loved the beach.

The picture above and below of some houses right on the ocean on the island of Nassau. A VERY expensive place to live about 10 million dollars for a home. (they said Oprah had two there:)


This picture is looking North, this is going out of the port of Miami.

Just one of the crazy yachts in Nassau. They were pristine, so clean and beautiful, this is just right outside of the resort Atlantis, on paradise island.

That is a picture of Atlantis resort from afar, their property is about 11 miles long
This picture is looking toward Atlantis, Bauer could not help himself anytime a bird landed he HAD to chase it, even though we kept trying to get him to play, the birds were way too tempting.


Grand Bahama Island, behind the Sheraton resort (that was an awesome hotel)

Finally the birds left Bauer alone.


So, so windy on this side of the island. The waves were so rough.

This side of the island, even though it was so rough, it was so beautiful. There were these pretty little keys of land out there in the distance.

Brrrrrrr.....you wouldn't think in the Bahamas



We got LOTS of comments about all the kids. The nicest comment was someone gave us was at a restaurant (the 94th Aero Squadron, I will tell you about that later) they commented on how well behaved the kids were and how much they appreciated us keeping them under control:)
The funniest was Ben was holding some bags and Kessler while I was trying to get the kids on the Ferry and the Ferry drivers were teasing Ben, saying " you've been busy daddy" "real busy daddy" it was so funny. In there Caribbean accents made it even more comical.
The coolest restaurant I have ever been too was the 94th Aero Squadron it was right off the runway at the Miami airport they had these huge windows that faced the runways, so you could sit and watch these huge airplanes take off and land. They also had headsets you could listen to the air traffic controllers speak to the pilots on the runway. It was neat.
The Norwegian Sky, was a beautiful ship.

The kids had a blast at the kids zone, everyday was a different theme. This day there were doing a animal theme. They actually were tigers before this in the same day. We went and got them took them to dinner and they wanted to go back, this time they were bears.
The kids zone was totally worth it. It comes with the cruise package, and they have the funnest activities for the kids. They loved it.







Cooper tormenting his sister, by throwing sand at her.

This picture cracked me up, as I looked back at it, it reminded me of some kind of sport illustrated swimsuit edition picture. That is not what I was intending:)

The finished product, we ran into this lady on the beach, she was selling jewelry, but would do braids as well, I could NOT believe that she could braid the very itty bitty sides of Livi's hair. As I was watching her I noticed she most likely had some kind of arthritis. Her little fingers were bent awkward. But she could braid her hair so fast. That hair do lasted the whole trip.


She had this bags full of hundreds of beads, Alivia chose pink, black and silver.



This was so cool, this guy on the beach that we shared a cab ride with found a star fish on the rocks and picked it up and brought it over to us to show us. It was awesome!! he did put it back. It was one of the neatest things I had seen.

Kessler loves listening to music, I have to get him on video soon, he will sit there and sit there and just listen. He will sway from side to side like he is dancing.

(our picture sequence is backwards, the way I downloaded them) this was us cruising out of the port. It was interesting the front of the ship where we were looking out of, it pulls to the end of the port and then it spins a full 360 degrees to go out of the port.

Windy Miami

It was so fun to watch the kids, realize that we were on a boat, and watch them get more excited as it got going faster.

He is such a busy, busy boy. Thanks heavens for Grandma, who loved to walk him around.

Looking at the front of the ship

Cruising out to the carribean.

Carnival cruising past us

Mustering, Bauer was not a happy that he had to put the life vest on.

Checking out the ship (below)