Come and Gone

There is always so much build up before the holidays and they seem so far away for so long and then BAM! they're just a memory. We had a wonderful Christmas. Since there were some gifts that we didn't want to pack with us to Utah, we had our own little Christmas a few mornings early. I surprised Bill with all of his diplomas matted and framed and he surprised me with a new camera. It's a dream!

I've had a blast experimenting and playing around with all it's neat features

Bill had to work for a few hours on Christmas Eve, but we were packed and ready to hit the road by one. Sam was a good boy and watched his little movie while I got everything together. He did great on the drive to Logan.

As always, we acted out the Nativity story with Bill's parents and his sister Angie and her family

Christmas morning was very peaceful and quiet. Sam was the only grandchild in the house and he had a ball tearing the paper off all of the gifts. He got lots of fun new toys and books.

Later that evening, we drove down to Layton for an Ellison family Christmas dinner and then on to my parents house for the night. We had a great time seeing some of our friends in Salt Lake over the next few days.

Sam's best buddy, Drew Gardiner

Dinner with our friends from NYU, the Wilson's

Sam LOVED playing with his cousins, Noah and Sloane

Bill had to drive home Sunday morning, but Sam and I stayed a few extra days, most of which were spent being sick. Sam had a couple of bad nights and I was worried about our flight home, but after being delayed about an hour, we finally made it back to Idaho. We were so happy to see Bill!

Now onto 2010!

Photo Shoot

My sister, Ann, and I finally took our boys to get their pictures taken...

Not a fan of Santa

We thought it would be fun to take Sam to see Santa Claus...

He felt differently.

Home:

[noun] 1. The place in which one's domestic affections are centered. 2. Any place of residence or refuge.

Welcome!

Entry

Office

Family Room (Poor Sam doesn't have a stocking yet. I'm working on it!)

Dining Area

Kitchen

Mud Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Laundry Room

Loft

Guest Room

Spare Oom (as Bill calls it)

Sam's Room

Party!

So that all my sisters and their families could join us, we waited until tonight to have cake and ice cream for Sam's birthday. Inspired by my friend Kris, who makes amazing cakes, I whipped this up:

If you're noticing a lion theme in our family, you're very observant. Sam is quite fond of a little stuffed lion that he sleeps with and one of his favorite pieces of a puzzle he has, is the lion. And, of course, he was a lion for Halloween too!

My BIL, Travis (next to Bill) celebrated his birthday on the 27th and my sister, Ann (far right) will celebrate hers on the 4th. Happy birthday Travis and Annie! We were so happy to have everyone there to party with Sam!

Sam was a little suspicious of his cake at first, but I think he liked it!

Video clip soon to come

One

I can't believe I have a one-year-old! If the rest of my life flies by as fast as this last year has (as I'm frequently told that it does), I'll be a senior citizen before I know it! Sam had a great birthday.

The three of us went to dinner at Smoky Mountain Pizza and Pasta

And then Sam got to take a bath with his new tubby toys

While Sam was napping this morning, I read through my journal entries the few days before and after his birth. It was such an amazing time that I can still remember very vividly. I've never felt so humble and vulnerable as when I got to hold my sweet little baby for the first time. It was the most precious moment of my life. I loved seeing Bill just melt as he held his new little son.

Life for us has sure changed since then! We are so happy to have Sam in our family and love him so much! Happy birthday Sammy!

Count Your Many Blessings

Name them one by one...

My two boys

My Family

The restored gospel of Jesus Christ

Freedom

Happy Thanksgiving!

Outnumbered

Yesterday afternoon, Sam and I went to my nephews' elementary school for a walk. The children can earn popsicle sticks for each lap they do. The adults they bring earn double and they get those too.

Seth, Jonah, Ann, Cael, Whit, Karen, Sam & Luke

After the walk, Ann had an appointment to go to, so Sam and I got to play with Whit and Cael for a couple more hours. We did great until the very end when they all had a meltdown at the same time. It was quite the scene. It is so fun to see all of them interacting with each other now. They are going to great buddies!

I LOVE living so close to my sisters and their families so we can do these kinds of things!

We're getting unpacked and organized little by little. I'm finding that now that we have all of this space, I don't know where to put everything. The possibilities are endless! When we're finally settled, I'll post pictures.

One last look...

Except for installing the spindles in the banister, some knobs on the cabinets, the blinds and touching up some nicks and scratches, the house is pretty much done! It seems crazy that they can build a house so fast, but then it has also seemed to take forever! If all goes as planned, we'll be unpacking on the 14th. Once we're settled in, we'd love visitors! Boise may not have quite the draw that Manhattan did, but come on!

Roar!

I've always thought it was kind of weird when people take their babies trick-or-treating when, clearly, the child will not be the one eating the candy. We did find a cute little costume, however, and took Sam over to visit our neighbors and then to my sisters house.

Here's our little lion on the prowl.

(Please forgive my loud voice!)

Almost there!

We are getting so close! We should be ready to move in, on schedule, in a couple of weeks. It's going to seem like an early Christmas morning when we get all of our belongings that have been in storage for 15 months now. It will be fun to remember just what we actually do own!

Since we're finally going to be in a permanent place now, we decided to change our blog to private. I'll be sending out an invitation to be able to view it with a username and password (it's really not too annoying to sign in), but if I don't have your email address or you don't get an invitation, email me at whitaker.karen@yahoo.com and I'll send you one!

Special Trip

I feel like we have been on the road every weekend for the past couple of months! This time was an especially exciting trip. Bill left work a few hours early on Friday and we drove to Salt Lake and stayed at my parents house. Dan, Zibbey, Noah and Sloane are there for a few more weeks while they do some remodeling to their new house, so it was so fun to spend time with them. Those kids are so darn cute!

Saturday morning, Bill and I left Sam with my parents and drove to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in Daybreak, Utah. I had not been out there yet and was excited to see yet another beautiful temple in the Salt Lake Valley. It is gorgeous!

The first special occasion was to see Bill's sister, Carrie and her husband Troy sealed to each other and their youngest daughter, Isabelle. It was a beautiful ceremony and made me so grateful for my knowledge of eternal families.

Afterward, we picked up Sam and went to Carrie and Troy's house for a little lunch and visiting and then to see the blessing of our newest Whitaker nephew. Bill's other sister, Melinda and her family came down from Rexburg and blessed Seth Whitaker Ollerton who was born on August 28th. He is such a sweet little baby with tons of black hair!

Sam was having a ball while his cousin, Leah, bounced him on the trampoline. We had dinner with my family that night and then drove back home Sunday morning. We knew we were back in Idaho when we were stopped at a traffic light behind this:

We're proud to be Idahoans!