how could my life be better?

a friend of mine has a friend who has the most entertaining and fabulous blog. i don't know this girl, but i love to check in on her blog regularly to get a good laugh or to get the wheels in my head turning. she just recently urged her readers to "live a better life" and she is right. here are some changes that i have decided i NEED to make so that i can live life to the fullest:

1) have a little more patience with my husband and my children... crumbs on the carpet are not that important

2) when i have an idea about something i want to learn or do, do it... don't wait until years down the line when i finally think, "i wish i had taken those guitar lessons when i had the chance."

3) think of others more often... more notes, more phone calls, more sacrifices of time and money to give to others in need

4) save more and spend less... instant gratification does not make me truly happy

5) start being happy with me... it's okay to want to eat healthy and exercise, but i have worked hard to get where i am and i shouldn't obsess about the fact that i'm not a size 2 and just enjoy the fact that i look great

horsey ride

ben was still getting over the flu a couple of weeks ago when this happened. poor guy... joel and kadin wanted to do it over and over again. ben just couldn't resist, though. how could he really? i mean, look at those faces. :)

nothin' like a good mullet

doug, our official family barber, gave my boys haircuts a few weeks back. joel's hair was sooo long and we decided to see how he would look with a mullet... just to see. let me just say, wow. our little joel could pull off a pretty sweet mullet, that is to say, if mullets really were sweet.

here's a picture of the boys with their faux-hawks a couple of days before we cut their hair.

i just realized that i never took a picture of the boys right after they had their haircuts, but here's a shot of them with their cousins, carter and mason, this last week at our shafer family reunion. the picture is a few weeks after their haircuts, but you get the idea... i'd also like to ask if anyone has ever seen a cuter quartet of little boys in their whole life? i say no!

a serious addiction...

68%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

i saw this on a blog of a friend of mine. i think we all should stop and take inventory of our blogging addictions. hopefully your addiction isn't as scary as mine. :)

tagged...

i got tagged by my sister-in-law, jackie, to tell you all a little more about myself. here it is...

places I've worked
1-fidelity title - provo, utah
2-various custodial jobs on BYU campus (all at the crack of dawn or in the middle of the night)
3-park's sportsman- orem, utah
4-newbold cleaner's - sacramento, ca (totally a sweatshop)

movies I can watch over and over
1-lord of the rings (the extended versions - love them all!)
2-ground hogs day
3-pride and prejudice (both of them are just fabulous)
4-gladiator

places I've lived
1-sacramento, ca
2-provo, ut
3-provo, ut
4-and provo, ut

favorite tv shows
1-so you think you can dance?
2-american idol
3-everybody loves raymond
4-alias

places I've been
1-greece
2-germany
3-italy
4-mexico

favorite foods
1-BYU creamery cookies n cream ice cream (they have big huge cookies chunks!)
2-chili's chicken enchilada soup
3-spinach salad with feta cheese, pine nuts and good season's italian dressing (thanks janaya :)
4-grilled steak

majors I've considered
1-nursing
2-math
3-dance (i graduated in music/dance/theater, but i thought about doing JUST dance)
4-biology

places I'd rather be
1-santa cruz, ca on the beach with my fam
2-new york city
3-hawaii
4-silver lake, wa at my in-laws house

friends i would like to tag (meaning: it's your turn to fill in the blanks)
if you're reading this, you've been tagged! come on people, let's see it! :)

puke and pooh

i know, you're probably thinking, "do i want to read a post with this title?" ...my whole family is sick with the stomach flu today. well, except for me. it hasn't been too bad so far, at least not compared to past experiences with my boys and the flu. joel has just had "the runs" and kadin has only thrown up once. they are being such good boys. they haven't complained at all and they haven't asked for even a bite food, which makes not being able to give them food easier. kadin actually asked to take a nap earlier today. here he is laying on the couch watching "dumbo," meanwhile joel is taking a long nap.

ben, on the other hand, isn't doing too well. he's had "the runs" since yesterday and has been throwing up all day. his body hurts so bad, that he hasn't been able to get much rest. for the last two months, ben has been going back to school, after a full day's work, to work on finishing his thesis at 11pm at night and staying until 4am. he then wakes up at 8am the next morning to head back to school and do it again. he usually does this a few times a week. i think his body is just too tired. poor guy. i appreciate so much his willingness to work so hard for our family so he can finish school and get a job, but i think i'm going to have to nix his late night thesis sessions or he's going to kill himself... or something. what a good husband. here's hoping this post finds you and your family a little more healthy than mine. :)

i'm a brownie... what are you?

You Are a Brownie

Decadent and intense, you aren't for the weakhearted. Those who can deal with your strong flavor find out how sweet you really are.

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

happy america day!

what's the best way to celebrate the 4th of july? eating lots of food and lighting things on fire, of course! well, for joel the fire part wasn't so fun. he freaked out when we tried to give him a sparkler. he was considerably calmer once the sparkler was gone, but he still wasn't happy until he was safely back inside. so sad.

here's the firetruck firework that joel picked out. it was pretty tragic for him to watch us light it on fire. on top of that, it was really loud and annoying. very terrifying for a 2 year old, i'm sure.

we had a BBQ with morgan, doug and jackie, and our friends, sarah and dave aller, and sarah's brother, jake. we ate lots of yummy food...




played the drums...






played with the busy ball popper - a favorite with the adults as well as the kids...




...and enjoyed lots of fireworks. thank goodness for america and the wonderful blessing of freedom that we enjoy here. hope your 4th was awesome.

a run for freedom

on the morning of july 4, ben and i ran the provo freedom run 10k. it was incredibly fun and i'm excited to say that ben has caught the race fever. he usually doesn't enjoy running, but he loved running the race so much that he proclaimed to me after we finished, "i want to run another one, ...like tomorrow!" yes! ...yet another loved one has succumbed to keeping me company in my running endeavors.  the only problem...  ben is like a million times faster than me.  on the saturday before the race, we ran 6 miles together and he was practically running circles around me.  yeah, it really bugged me.  here i am, a year and half of running regularly and two marathons later and i couldn't keep up with ben who had seriously been running for ...a week.  dang those boys.  that's okay, though.  i'm convinced that running with ben can only be good for me and will help push me faster than i would be able to push myself.  plus, it will be a fun thing to do together.  ben really wants to run a marathon this fall and hey... i'm always game for a marathon.  hopefully we'll find out where we are moving soon so we can pick a marathon to do.  

i really wanted to get under 54 minutes for the 10k and i did it!  just barely...

whitney's time:  53 minutes 56.6 seconds

ben's time:  53 minutes 56.2 seconds

i was really pleased that i had met my goal.  and thanks, ben, for pushing me and especially for sticking with me even though we were going way slower than you were capable of.

carter and cookies

at the beginning of june, joel, kadin and i took a little jaunt on a plane over to washington to visit kadi, ben's sister, and her husband, joel, and their two boys, carter and mason. unfortunately, ben had to stay home to work like mad on his thesis. we had such a great time. joel and carter are best buds. all week long before we left for our trip, he kept reminding me that we were going to go on an airplane to carter's house. when kadi picked us up at the sea-tac airport, joel literally screamed with glee when he saw carter and then carter screamed back. it was hilarious. we also went to stay with ben's parents, who just live about an hour and a half away from kadi and joel. here's grandpa mike pulling kadin around in the wagon.
joel loves grandma shawn and he ESPECIALLY loves for her to make him cookies! so, of course, grandma shawn had to make a couple batches of cookies.


here's joel rolling the peanut butter cookie dough ball in the sugar.



...and here he is after putting it on the cookie sheet. my child is such a gourmet!