cool new find

my boys, like most children, are fascinated by ANYTHING that moves... cars, trains, planes... they have all sorts of toys of these kinds and they love to watch shows about them: the movie "cars," "thomas the tank engine," etc, but there hasn't really been anything about airplanes they could watch. several months ago, my good friend, janaya, introduced me to this sweet website that all your little ones will just LOVE...

"andy's airplanes."

it features a new, animated DVD series for kids, all about a cute, friendly little guy named andy, who flies around the world learning about history and, of course, airplanes. you can get the first episode, "andy meets the blue angels," here. my boys get so excited about airplanes and can spot an airplane in the sky no matter how tiny, (isn't it amazing how they can do that?) so they totally dig this show. joel runs around the house flying his airplanes saying, "i want to be a blue angel someday! they're AWESOME!" this, by the way, is a direct quote from the first episode. and since kadin does everything that joel does, kadin does it, too. sigh.... so cute. andy's airplanes also has a fan club your kids can join. you can check the fan club out here. so, if you're looking for something new, fun and educational for your kids to watch, or if you need a cool gift for your nephew or your kid's next birthday party, i would totally recommend this. joel and kadin just adore this show, and anything that teaches good values, gets my kids excited about life and gives me 5 seconds to fold the laundry is an A+ in my book.

the new pad

here's some pictures of our new apartment in sunny, beautiful california.

the kitchen:



the dining area:


the living room:


the boys' room:

the play room:

"o christmas tree..."

take a gander at this beauty.... (i mean the tree, not ben)



this is the first year of our marriage that we went all out and got a "for real" tree. i went to target and bought 2 packs of 350 lights thinking that would be plenty and that i'd have a leftover strand.... think again whitney. i had to run back to target and get ANOTHER box. all said and done, we ended up with over 900 lights on our tree. okay, so maybe i went a little overboard, but i think our tree is pretty much totally awesome ...don't tell me if you don't agree.

isn't christmas wonderful? sigh... i hope you are all loving life and this wonderful holiday season.

and we're back...

we're finally getting settled from the craziness that we have called life for the last 3 months. i LOVE living in california, ben LOVES his new job and the boys LOVE their toys that they haven't seen for awhile, so we are happy all around. we got our internet up this week, so hopefully i'll be able to post a little more regularly and keep up with everyone else's blogs, too. okay, so here are some pictures of our lives for the last 3 months... pretty much, a LOT of pictures.

the mcneil's house

a shout out to our uncle dane, aunt marianne and their kids for putting up with us in their home for almost 2 WHOLE MONTHS! crazy, i know. but they are angels. here's some shots while we were staying with them.





this is from one of our play dates at summer crosby adam's house. her little girl's name is brooklyn. isn't she darling?!

jilly pooh's birthday

wow, my beautiful sister, jillian, is 20. i'm getting old.

joel's third birthday

could this kid be any cuter?

cnady, candy, candy

here we are at the halloween festivities for our new ward. so, i'm sure this isn't a novelty, but my kids LOVE candy.





oh, and i HAD to throw this one in. here's kadin a couple days later enjoying his halloween candy after a spaghetti dinner at uncle jed and aunt laurel's house. a shout out to jed and laurel mcneil for letting us crash at their house for a couple weeks while we looked for our own place!

at the new place

and last, here's some pictures of us at our new apartment. i'll post some more pictures of our place after we get it painted and looking cute.

also, i'd like to give a big shout out to my grandma lenie and my parents. my grandma kindly donated her leather couch to our empty home. there's nothing like free furniture, especially when it's actually nice. my parents brought the couch down to us last weekend and spent their time here helping us put our apartment together. my dad and ben spent saturday building shelves in our outside storage closet. all i can say is my dad is awesome. he just buys some wood and whips something up and it's amazing. hats off to my genius dad! my mom and i spent the day shopping for odds and ends like curtains, rugs, throw pillows, chairs, etc. hats off to my genius mom for her good taste and decorating expertise! love you guys!

"california here i come, right back where i started from..."

i apologize for my nonexistence among my blogging friends lately. my life had been crazy and my computer is in the same room where joel takes naps, so..... the day has finally arrived... we are leaving provo tomorrow morning and moving to california. i'm so ecstatic, i can hardly contain myself. at the same time, i'm surprisingly sad. i've spent many of my years in utah counting down the time when i would get to leave and now i don't want to... well, i'm all too ready to move on and have a real job, but there are so many wonderful things in utah that i'm just crushed to part with. my dear sister morgan, her silly husband, nate, and their darling son, asher... my beautiful sisters, ashley and jillian... my hilarious and fun brother and sister-in-law, doug and jackie... all our wonderful, close friends that we have grown to love over the years... the beautiful mountains... the hills that i've taken my morning run on so many times... BYU... our wonderful ward that we've been in for almost 5 years... all of our extended family that lives here, especially the mcneils, who have been so loving and generous... and on and on and on... what a wonderful place to live! but on to california and the next chapter in our lives. give us a call next time anybody is in the bay area! signing off in utah... catch ya on the flip side.