"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

3.25.2013

Meow, meow....

Her favorite spot to lay, under the computer desk.

3.24.2013

Happy Birthday Kessler!

Happy Birthday to this cute 5 year old.
He loves preschool,
He loves to hang out with his mom, he especially loves to lay in my bed in the morning and watch cartoons.
He loves Daniel and the Tiger's den
He is a great eater, he loves almost anything especially spaghetti.
He loves to fly on airplanes.
We love him so much and can't imagine life with out him!!





Besides Kessler's birthday today, we celebrated Easter (kind of) we had some Easter goodies this morning and a yummy Easter dinner tonight.....and birthday cupcakes for dessert.











 Such cute boys, all decked out in Easter clothes!!








3.22.2013

Weekend plans

Weekend plans are as follows,
Friday night trip to Missoula.
Saturday temple session.
Visit from uncle Jon
And a big birthday for Kessler on Sunday!


Pics...Kessler trying on his new swim suit.
The bags are packed, almost ready to go, last minute items of course.
Spring table cloth is out with snow in the back ground!!
Kessler the special helper in class today and an unbirthday celebration!

3.21.2013

Help Wanted: tooth fairy position now available


 The tooth fairy is not very good around our house she forgets all the time to deliver the goods. We have a tooth hangin by a thread, and she might need to set her alarm, because she has not been a good employee in the past.

3.20.2013

Cooper turns 9 and events that happen in a month

Cooper turns 9,  he is an amazing, great kid.
He gives me the most to think about as a mother and I appreciate the things that I learn from him. He is doing well in school, he is doing better with his anxiety and is such a tender hearted kid.

We went skating for Cooper's birthday party with cousins and it was fun. He loves pizza and cake so a perfect night for him. He got some hex-bugs and some of his favorite treats.

Alivia is doing good, is a pro at wearing her head gear and is loving her musical that she has been practicing for. She had an all day practice the other day, from 9am to 5:30 pm. I was worried that she wouldn't like it but she came home in a great mood and was super excited to go back on Monday afternoon for another 3 hour practice.

Bauer is loving the warm weather, he really wants to play soccer, which he has never really expressed interest before and now it is too late to sign up. So I will have to keep him busy swimming and other activities that he likes.


Kessler is loving preschool and getting to be a pretty good little reader, very, very basic words but it is fun to see him so excited about what he is learning and remembers. He has a birthday coming up on Sunday, that will be a great day....5 years old. SO crazy!!

Ben is doing good, got his annual review score (raise and bonus based off of this number) from Target and did a great job and all his hard work is paying off. He is liking the new store more and more. He has even been exercising a bit more, ha I exercise almost everyday and it is A SLOW process, but that is ok as long as I am moving forward and not backward.

We are getting ready for spring break, we are getting packed. I always pack early. There is so much to do, it would overwhelm me if I had to do it in a few days. So excited for some fun in the sun. It has been WAY too long, but life and other bills happen;)

I have officially decided i am not putting cell phone pics on my blog anymore, it is such a pain to get them on here, you wouldn't think so but it is. I have tons of pics to load but my computer doesn't show the thumbnail and makes it more hassle than it is worth also they are so blurry. I don't want to look back and think I wish I had more clear pics of my family growing up....so back to the DSLR. Hopefully more pics to come.....I love seeing pics on people blogs and following their cute kids and family updates.

We are so blessed in these parts.....kids are doing great, my parents and Ben's parents are doing good and are thankful for everything they do for us.
Almost time for some spring planting and some yard work, it will be nice to spend some warm days outside!











Cooper was Wayne Gretzky for the wax museum. It was fun to learn more about him.

2.26.2013

February Update

I sit here beating my self up because I have the desire to blog WAY more than I do, I feel the days flying past and I have no memory of what is happening and how I am feeling. I sit here with my DVR'ed show's in the back ground the kids talking while in bed (which they have been warned, but seemed to have forgotten my scary threats).....

The kids are growing up so fast and I want to hit the pause button so many times. I know I need to keep enjoying the days flying past, be in the moment more, today has been a very impatient day and I am glad I get to start over tomorrow.

In the mean time a little update on happening around here.

Ben- no particular order:) sleeping, eating (2 meals a day, upping his game) working, hockey watcher, pick up volleyball player, daddy, hubby, employment specialist.....
Andrea- wife, mom, chef, housekeeper, YW leader, vacation planner, part time employee for one more month.


Alivia- is in love with her head gear, she is also having a hard time with fractions, her feet are growing un-believably fast, 3.5, 5 and now just under a women's 7. She thinks she is the coolest thing ever trying on my shoes seeing how close she is to an 8. She started a little group at school, for kids who want to have a contest for casting spells, I am not sure what I think about that. She has been working hard on her Duty to God award, she also moved into a different group for activity days. She is working on her musical for choir and decided to audition for a solo and got a small part in one of the songs. I am glad she tried she was really nervous.
Cooper- is doing good, he has passed off his times tables all the way up to 7 and he is so proud of himself. We....uh .....he is also doing a book report on Wayne Gretzky and I think it has increased his love for hockey. We have had to adjust some of his medication, he is suffering more and more from anxiety. It overtakes him in many area's. He has his wax museum coming up and is super excited to dress up a hockey player and takes his dads ice skates to school.

Bauer- has been talking and talking and talking about wanting to play football, tonight and dinner he is pretty sure that he is going to be an awesome football player. He is always so happy and funny and sweet and my little B. There is one thing he struggles with holding his pencil properly, he is killing me!! I have tried everything, pencil grips, 4 different kinds.......it is such a hard habit to get him to change. Not sure what to do.

Kessler, is still good at being the youngest.  Loves hanging out with mom, asks me everytime I pick him up at preschool if I will take him to Arctic Circle so he can eat lunch and play on the play ground. Keeps his brothers up at night by talking, giggling, and doing anything but going to sleep. Wakes up happy and just all around fun little guy.

Family life, I finally pulled the trigger and booked a family vacation. Wasn't sure where, when or what we were going to do. After months of research and price watching, decided on our beloved Hawaii. The kids are out of school for spring break and so it will be difficult trying to get across the pacific with Whidden party of 6. I will need to relax, let go and make some unforgettable family memories.














2.07.2013

Kessler poor kid has been so sick, one afternoon started crying over something really silly and then layed his head down in my lap, the next three days were full of fevers, cough, runny nose, lethargy, dizziness, throwing up. Poor kid I felt so bad today is a much better day, we have lots to catch up on busy day.

Ben has had a really crazy week started on a really great high, he got a call from his boss's boss, and they thanked him for all of his hard work and recognized him for doing such a great job with a few different things he has going on. They said this is a new program they are doing to recognize people and granted him 250 shares of Target stock. It vests in three years, but I thought that was pretty dang awesome. Ben was very happy and somewhat relieved he has been very busy with the new store and his Canadian trainees.

Then Tuesday happened I don't know how it started but he was having problems with his freezers and continued to have problems for a few hours. He eventually had to decided to throw away about 120,000 dollars of product, he had a horrible day and came home after a 16+ hour day and had a huge headache and then to top it off he couldn't sleep.

A few days prior to this our dryer died and Ben had no time to even look at it to see if he could fix it. This break down seemed pretty bad so we decided to start looking for a new dryer. Well of course you can get a better "deal" with a washer and dryer combo.(the washer was pretty rough but was still "working")

I researched and looked and researched and looked and finally decided on what would be best for our family and forked out the $moolah$ and we got them yesterday. WOW, that is all I can say!! I had no idea how amazing they would be, I have been catching up on laundry the last 24 hours and find my self sitting in front of the washer just watching it wash:)

Ben finally slept a little better but has a crazy day, he has 75 extra people coming in today and 3 semi trucks coming with frozen, dairy and other refrigerated products. Crazy day.....
 Here are a few pics of happenings lately, above is the bishops store house in Lindon, now with YW  I get to go do fun service projects with them, this one was really interesting and very inspiring.
 A funny app for the smart phones, my cute neighbor text me this photo, Livi thought it was so funny!

 Crazy cat, she loves the kids and wakes them up every morning at 6:30 meowing right by their faces to get them up for school, it annoys the crap out of me, but the kids think it is so funny.
 Usually little Addi, likes to hang out with me but I was at my mom's the other day and Addilyn was not happy and I had to take a pic, she was not having it!
 We had a great day last week swimming we went to the rec center out in Herriman the kids had a blast, it has a cute little kid area an indoor water slide and some high dives!!

 Cooper-ism the kids have been begging me to make them pancakes for dinner and finally as they finished up and the kids started eating Cooper said "Mom I bet our forks are happy to taste pancakes again!" 
He is so funny!
Update on the full time status for flight attendants, it might not be as easy as I thought originally....although my seniority will be able to hold the reduced hours, what is worrying me is that if for some reason they have a lot of flying to cover they can force me to fly more hours because I am considered full time now All the details are still coming out but we will see when I actually have to do it.