Celebrate!

We've had a lot to celebrate the past few weeks.  First we celebrated Penelope's 2nd birthday.  We went to Chuck E. Cheese with a birthday coupon I got in my email.  They send a coupon for 20 tokens on your kids birthdays and half birthdays.  We just split the tokens between both girls and they both get to play some games and pick out some prizes.  Usually all we can get with their tickets is a couple packs of Smarties and some stickers.  But they think it's a blast and we sit at a little booth and eat our Smarties and watch Chuck E. Cheese put on a show :) Afterwards we went home for some cake and presents.  

I can't believe she is already two.  She is so much fun to have around!  She is also so sensitive and so cuddly.  She definitely loves her mama.  She loves babies and I'm so excited to see her become a big sister.  I know she will love her little baby sister!  She talks a lot, she loves to color, she loves to dress up and is almost always wearing accessories.  She LOVES music and dancing and singing.  She and Eleanor are becoming really great friends and I love it.  We love Penelope so much and we're so glad she is in our family!

 Here are some pictures from her doctor's appointment.  Eleanor loved "helping" the doctor and reassuring Penelope everything was ok. 

Penelope also loves books.  These girls could sit and read books all day.  

Here are some pictures from our most recent visit to Barnes and Noble.

  

Both girls really like doing puzzles, too.  Here they are at the library doing some puzzles.

               

Next we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary.  And of course I don't have any pictures of us on our anniversary.  Andrew had orientation at school so I stayed home and ate freezie pops and watched some TV :)  But the next day we celebrated with a family fun day.  Our wedding day is the day we were sealed to our kids, so what better way to celebrate then with our two sweet girls! We went to the library, then went to IKEA, ate lunch at their little cafe (I know, pretty fancy, right!) and then the best part of all, we found a snoball stand!! Not just any snow-cone place, but an authentic New Orleans style snoball stand!  It was awesome, and the girls were big fans!  Since our first visit we've tried to limit our visits to just once a week! 

   




Since I have no pictures of me and Andrew together on this post I figure a walk down memory lane of our wedding day might be fitting :)  After we were first married I would look through our wedding pictures and my favorites were the ones that I thought I looked pretty in - haha so young and superficial :) But now when I look at them, my favorites are the ones that evoke memories and feelings and thoughts of eternity.  Here are just a few I grabbed off of facebook that are my newest favorites (they aren't the originals, so they obviously aren't the best quality, but you get the idea)

I love this one because I remember sitting up in that little cove and laughing with Andrew.  From the first time I met Andrew I've always been really comfortable around him and able to be myself.  And what comes along with being myself is saying what I'm really thinking and Andrew usually finds those things pretty humorous.

I love this one because my nails look really pretty.  Haha, just kidding.  This one reminds me of how much I like holding Andrew's hand.  I am not a PDA person at all.  And holding hands often makes me feel claustrophobic.  But whenever I hold Andrew's hand I feel secure and loved and just calm, like nothing in the world could go wrong.  Like I said before, I just feel really comfortable around him and I have no insecurities when I'm with him.

I love this one because of the reminder WHERE we were married.  The temple, the house of the Lord.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  This is the right place to be married and because we made this choice we can be together forever and have our children sealed to us.  I'm so grateful for temples!  And so grateful that that is the place where I was married to Andrew!

Speaking of Andrew, next we celebrated his last first day of school EVER!  Wooohoo!  So he's done with law school, but this is his last semester of business school!  He just has two classes so he's only gone two nights a week.  I think I can handle that knowing this is our last semester.  I don't have a picture of this particular day, but here's another flashback to his first day of graduate school.

First day of Law School - August 2008

Next we celebrated me being "full term".  Here I am at 37 weeks.  At the doctor's office I've been measuring a week behind most of the pregnancy but at my 37 week appointment I had gained 3 pounds in one week (which was a lot since I usually only gain 1/2 - 1 pound a week) and now I'm measuring a week ahead.  Little sis must have had some kind of growth spurt!  I'm anxious to see how big she'll be and if she'll pass up Eleanor and Penelope's 9 pounds 4 ounces.  I'm now 38 1/2 weeks pregnant (but who's counting).  My brother Freddie comes in town on Saturday for about a week to help with the girls while I'm having this baby.  So hopefully she'll make her appearance while he is here.  Fingers crossed!

Next we celebrated Labor Day.  Andrew's parents came in town and Andrew did some yard work with his dad and his mom watched the girls so I could run some errands.  Then we went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A and of course it wouldn't be a celebration without more snoballs!

And lastly we celebrated Andrew's work from home week.  He was able to work from home this week because the DNC is in Charlotte and apparently important people are staying at the fancy hotel across from Andrew's office so a bunch of roads are closed and there will be lots of traffic in the area.  Also both of his classes were cancelled this week because his school is downtown near all the festivities.  It's been nice to have him at home.  But he's probably secretly ready to get back to the office :)

It's crazy to think our next celebration will be our new baby! I've finished everything on my to-do/get-ready list, so now we are just counting down the days until we get to meet her!

June and July

August will be over before you know it, so I better document what we were up to in June and July.  I don't always have my camera nearby, but I usually have my phone, so most of my documentation is in the form of camera phone pictures :)  Luckily I have those, because it's fun to look back at them and remember little things that I might have forgotten.

Andrew's boss volunteers with Boys and Girls Club so Andrew offered to help with a fundraiser they were having.  We went along and had a fun time! They had a bunch of health and wellness booths set up.  The girls loved the balance beam.

 It was at an outdoor shopping center with a little splash fountain so the girls were loving that...

we also got to ride on a little train there, too...

Here's a little video montage of some of the fun we had there...

Andrew's dad and sister came in town and we went exploring "Uptown" Charlotte (which actually feels more like a  downtown) and we went bowling...

Andrew also got to go golfing with his dad.  He's been so excited to use his new clubs.  In law school they used a research program called Westlaw and if you used it a lot and went to info sessions and stuff like that you got points.  Andrew saved up all his points all 4 years for some golf clubs from their reward catalog so he's pretty proud of them :)

Eleanor let me curl her hair.  By the way, these pajamas are her favorite "outfit".  I think clothes with characters on them are kind of tacky so I only buy pajamas with them.  But Eleanor thinks these pajamas are the coolest thing in her closet.  They were like $3 at walmart around Christmas time and are a super cheap fleece material.  And even now that it's summer she still loves to wear them all the time!  Kind of reminds me of my little sister Amy.  She used to obsess over one or two certain "outfits" :)

Pretty girl!


 

The girls love checking on our tomato plants and Eleanor especially loves to water them. 

Penelope loves playing Strawberry Shortcake games on the computer and watching their music videos.  In fact, she loves  EVERYTHING strawberry shortcake!

Start of 3rd trimester (28 weeks)-end of June, I think 

I came downstairs one morning to find the girls "bowling" and wearing funny outfits (or in Penelope's case, no outfit at all except a hat)

Penelope loves playing dress up and filling up bags and purses with random stuff...

            

Wearing some stick-on earrings her friend sent her in the mail.  She was thrilled, she loves earrings! Isn't she so pretty?

Here's a video of the girls playing dress up and dancing around...

Practicing "gymnastics" at a playplace 

mmmmm Krispy Kremes! 

Eleanor set herself up in this plastic bin and pretended to be Snow White.  She wanted me to give her a kiss to wake her up.  Pretty good use of props, it definitely looked like that glass case Snow White was in when she was sleeping, don't you think? :)

Eleanor is super proud of her "sandcastle" that she built

These girls are obsessed with checking to see if their tongues have changed color after eating freezie pops.  Even after eating regular food they run to the bathroom and look in the mirror to see if it's changed color



  

    

It wouldn't be summer without Sonic happy hour! 

Did I mention the girls love Strawberry Shortcake??

Taking a break from swimming in the backyard to have some lunch

And definitely can't forget about our many trips to Target.....
 

Eleanor insisted on posing on the big red ball

I let the girls pick out school stuff and then we put it all back.  Hopefully when the times comes to really go to school, they will be this excited!

 

Loving the pool...


     

 

32 Weeks

Getting dressed up like cows for a free meal at Chick-Fil-A

After about 2 months of working on her reward chart for doing chores, Eleanor earned a new bike.  We took her to Walmart and she picked out a Pinkalicious one! It even has a spot for a doll or stuffed animal to ride in the back, which is right up her alley.

And to close, one last video of the girls rocking out in the car.  We love us some Kelly Clarkson :)




So there you have it, two months of Whitman Family fun in a nutshell.  Are you sick of seeing pictures of my girls yet? I'll make it a goal to blog at least one more time before we have a new baby.  That gives me almost six weeks, I think I can manage that :)