And we're moving.......(drum roll please)

NO WHERE!!!!!

We couldn't be more excited. Dave signed a contract today that keeps us in Pittsburgh another two years!! We are so happy to be able to stay in such a cool city. We love where we live, we love our house (although I wouldn't want to live in it forever), we love our ward, we especially love our friends and this city. (And the Aldi's that just opened up down the street!) I'm so excited that I don't have to try and move with a newborn and we can stay close to our families. Here's to Pittsburgh and another great two years of the Steel City!

99 Days, NYC & Good-byes

I'll start with the sad news first. We said good-bye to Lucy... forever. It was a tough decision but with another baby coming and the upcoming prospect of renting somewhere with two dogs, it was for the best. It all happened so quickly- an add on craigslist and two days later she was gone. The good news is her new family is awesome! The father wants to train Lucy to be a hunting dog. The teenage son wants her to sleep in his bed at night and the mother is really loving towards her. I couldn't be happier for her. Its a much better life than being shut in a kitchen or small backyard all day. Here's one last picture of Dave and his best friend minutes before she left us for good.



About 30 minutes after we said good-bye to Lucy it was off to The City. Dave and I were able to take a trip with no dogs and no kids (thanks to our parents) and hit the big apple for a couple days. Our real reason for going was we got tickets to The Daily Show but to make a long story short, we ended up going to The Colbert Report. Both are two of our favorite shows so we were happy with the end result. It was all thanks to two really nice New Yorkers who gave us their tickets!! Here's a link to the show we were a part of. The camera flashes past us for a microsecond so don't bother looking. As much as we love The Colbert Report when we came home and watched The Daily Show we missed, we were a little sad. Its probably the best Daily Show I've EVER seen. (Esp if you hate Glen Beck! Here's that link:)



Two days later it was time to pick up Ms. Oakley who had a blast staying with Grandma. We spent a week up in New York visiting both our families. Here's Oakley at a Bouncy House in Ithaca, she loved it!!



And 10 days later we were home. A long and eventful trip. I couldn't believe I only had 99 days left of pregnancy when we got back. This pregnancy is really flying by. Here's a picture of me at 26 weeks. Just think...I STILL HAVE THREE MONTHS LEFT!! Even though it may fly by there's no doubt in my mind that I'll be HUGE by the end.

Sassy Store Special

I have one bag left to sell and I'm selling it for a deal! $35 for this bag and wipes case, e-mail me if you're interested. Or you can buy it off my site here.

A Rare Moment

Sunday night Oakley went down without a peep at 7:30pm only to wake up at 11pm in the happiest mood. She was delighted to go back and forth between mom and dad, giving us kisses. Needless to say I'm looking forward to our next midnight rendezvous:)

Momma's Girl

Blogging has taken a back seat to napping and projects. Being pregnant with a toddler is no easy task, in any case here's a few things we've been up to.

Oakley's personality is really starting to show through these days. She is very demanding!! Anything she wants really bad is a "baba". That can range from her blanket to halloween candy. She is saying a lot though. She can say and sign "please" when asked. She always says and signs "more" when it comes to snacks and asks us to turn on her "moo-me" (movie) when we get in the car. (Yes, I have our DVD player going constantly in the car- I gave in. Car rides were just a scream fest before we came to this compromise.) Other words she's saying: bracelet (the girl loves jewelry), car, dogs, thank you, pumpkin, blanket, sippy, cracker, snack, fish, ball- just to name a few. She's at the point where she's saying something new everyday. Oh and shoes, she loves shoes. Last night she pulled out her boots and insisted on wearing them over her PJ's while I was sorting clothes before bedtime. She LOVES shoes, just like her mommy:) She definitely says "mommy" ALL the time. Right now Oakley is a serious momma's girl. Tonight, when Dave and I were putting her down to bed she practically jumped into my arms from his and then continued to push him away while we were trying to say a family prayer and sing a song. Poor Dave!! Its too bad she doesn't understand that daddy is a lot more fun than me, but I'm sure she'll figure it out soon enough. She is much more affectionate now than she ever has been but that's not saying much. She will occasionally give kisses, only if she's in a really good mood. She will come and give me hugs and cuddle me, which is cute and much appreciated after all her toddler tantrums.




This is Oakley amongst her friends at a Halloween party a few weeks ago. She was a kitty cat. She loves her costume and still asks for it saying "kiie-ka" but she hated wearing the hood so you can't really tell what she is here. Anyway the party was really fun, I was able to live out my dream of having a "pumpkin party" with all the food being something pumpkin. Thanks to Carlee for hosting it at her lovely house and everyone else who helped out. I wish we could make this a Halloween Pittsburgh tradition but we most likely will be moving this summer:(



We had some other excitement around here when a crazy wind storm came through Pittsburgh and uprooted this big tree in our back yard. We were incredibly lucky that it didn't hit our house and just broke a few slats in our fence. After all was cleaned up I was actually really happy that the tree came down. I've hated this tree since we first moved into our house and have toyed with the idea of taking it down. Instead of paying a tree service a few hundred we only had to pay about $35 for the new fence slats and posts.

Here's Oakley eating her lunch the other day. She insisted on wearing her $1 witch hat from Target that she's obsessed with. It became a little problematic for her since every time she sat back in her seat, the hat fell over her eyes. After about 20 minutes of this she finally let me take the hat off and place it within eyesight of her eating her PBJ.



Dave, Oakley, our tripod and I headed out to take some family pictures the other day. Our first attempt was really, really bad. Here's one cute picture of Oakley from that try. Our second attempt was much better but I'll post those pictures another time.

Sunflower fields

Over a month ago, Dave, Oakley and I drove up to New York for my friend's wedding. On our way back home we drove passed this beautiful sunflower field and had to stop. Our pictures don't really do the scene justice, it was breathtaking!






Both my mom and Dave's mom have kindly trusted their mouths over to Dave's skilled hands for some crowns over the past few months. Oakley has loved all the attention from her visitors! Here she is with my mom sitting oh-so-nicely, which is rare for her.


And for those of you who don't already know, we're definitely having a boy:)

are you ready for this?

I'M NOT!!! (Those are my hugely swollen pregnant ankles in case you forgot)


But I'm most definitely ready for another one of these:


Another 29 weeks and it will all be worth it!

That's right, we're expecting another little baby sometime around March 11, 2011. So far this pregnancy has been a mix of nausea, extreme fatigue and the most bland, non-dairy diet you can imagine. I'm 11 weeks along so I'm hoping to move on to the next phase of "cute pregnant but feeling good" soon before I hit the "swollen ankles and belly the size of a beach ball" phase. Either way we are very excited to welcome another little bundle of joy to our family.

The Cape

The first week of July my family got together to celebrate another White family reunion. My three brothers and their families, my family and my dad were all staying in one house. It was a bit chaotic but absolutely a lot of fun. The last time we were all together there were four less members of the family. This time we had 9 adults and 9 kids.

The rest of the White family was spread out between three other houses. We spent dinners together. My dad is the oldest of 7 so we have quite the large family. Two of the 7 siblings weren't there and we definitely missed having the whole family together. Here's a picture of everyone who came minus a couple of sleeping kids.

We took the opportunity to take an immediate family picture. It'll probably be another year and at least another baby before we all get together again!


Here's one of just the three of us. By that time Oakley was really done so this was the best "smile" we had.


It was a very fun trip. We took a couple of trips to the beach, ate some yummy seafood in Provincetown, and enjoyed being together as a family!

I knew it!

Oakley's legs haven't stopped moving since they started kicking me in the womb! And now she has become obsessed with the soccer ball Grandma bought her. She goes around the house announcing "ball" in her little trilly voice while she throws and chases after her little soccer ball. As Adam Sandler would say "She's gonna be a socca playa!"

What's happenin' here

Getting ready for the pool: so I thought Oakley would love the swimming pool b/c she's always laying on her belly during her bath and sticking her face in the water.


Not quite! She's not really the water baby I envisioned but she still has fun playing in her little pool.




Keeping busy: who would think those nice, hot summer days would put me in the mood for sewing. Its probably the 90% humidity that has kept me inside working on this Rag/ABC quilt and a few other things.


Cross it off the Bucket list! I've been dying to see Falling Water ever since we first moved to Pittsburgh. Its unfortunate that we waited until after Oakley was born b/c they don't allow children under 8 on the tour. So we had to switch off entertaining Oakley for 3 hours while we took separte tours.


To finish it off: We're down to the very last renovations on our house. We re-carpeted the front steps and recently refinished our basement. With just a few odds and ends left to do we'll soon be ready to sell!


before


after- kind of hard to see in this picture.

The Second Worst Flight EVER!

Now I know a lot of you have had some pretty bad flight experiences. And I'm not saying mine was any better or worse than yours. I'm just saying its my personal second worst experience- the first being stuck on the plane on the runway for 12 hours with no food in the middle of July with no AC. Take home lesson from that experience: NEVER FLY INTO/OUT OF JFK, EVER!!! Now onto this horrifying experience. First I should probably tell you about my trip!

Dave and I headed out to Utah to visit some family. We were very excited to see our friends, family and hit up a bunch of restaurants we've missed since leaving. We stayed with Dave's sister Kristin and of course took some fun embarrassing bath photos of Oakley and her cousin, Roman.




And of course we had to stop here, Costa Azul.


Met up with these guys, one of my best friends from High School and his girlfriend.


Oakley NEVER lets you hold her. That's why I had to snap a picture when Dave got her to fall asleep on his chest- how cute!


We had a fun dinner with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and 2nd cousins.


Oakley with her 2nd cousins; William and Annie.


Annie and Oakley had a fun time playing together/stealing sippy's. As you can see Oakley is quite the drama queen. I don't know where she gets it from!?


Dave took off after some family pics.


I spent the next few days down at the farm visiting my grandparents. It was so fun to take Oakley to the farm that I remember going to as a child. I just have to say how impressed I am with my Grandparents who are in their 80's and still keep up their farm, a horse, a calf and a garden bigger than my backyard. I just hope some of that "good pioneer stock" my grandma is always talking about has made its way to my gene pool and that I'm just as active and healthy at that age. Oakley had so much fun with her great-grandparents. She loved all the attention!! Oakley and I then hung out with my college BFF, Mandy and her son, Logan. Then I headed off to the airport...

I was running a little late to the airport but managed to make it through security on time. I had a half our left before my flight took off and decided Oakley and I had time to eat breakfast. Well that turned out to be a mistake. After I was done feeding Oakley I looked at my watch and realized my plane took off 5 minutes ago!! AGHH! The flight attendant was very nice about re-booking me on the next flight out- FOUR hours later!! So Oakley and I spent a long, long, looong day at the SLC airport (which is the lamest airport, btw) and then two hours at the Houston airport. We finally made it to Pittsburgh 6 hours after we were supposed to get there. I think the worst part about the whole ordeal was that it was all my fault!! (oh and that we were both sick, did I mention that?) So there was no one to be mad at but myself! Take home lesson: don't miss your flight while your in the airport!

The Big One!

One year has come and gone and I can hardly believe it. To think that last year I was in the hospital, swollen like a balloon, with my precious little angel by my side. I don't often get mushy but I just want to say this for memory's sake. I really didn't know how I would take to motherhood since you're all aware of my previous dislike/fear of most children (not yours of course!). But every night in the hospital when the nurses wheeled Oakley away to the nursery, I felt like it was Christmas Eve. I couldn't wait to be woken up at 3am to nurse my tiny, sweet baby. I know that sounds a little crazy and the feeling wore off quickly once we were home but I remember the excitement I felt every time I held her. I still go in her room at night just to watch her sleep and sometimes pick up her sleepy little body and just rock her. And then I breathe a big sigh of relief knowing that I won't have to get up until 7:30 the next morning! Alright, onto the party!

Birthday Party Part I: May 7th, 2010

I decided that Oakley wouldn't mind if we combined her party with two boys and invited everyone we knew to a huge BBQ. Despite being more of an undertaking than I anticipated, the other two mommies and I managed to put on a pretty sweet party for 72 adults and kids. I absolutely loved being able to have a big outdoor party with all our Pittsburgh friends. It was also a great opportunity to get together with some of our friends who are moving:( Onto the pictures!

Here's the unsuspecting birthday girl, waiting to head over to her party. There's something to be said about her green blanket, its her favorite thing in the world and she must have it with her everywhere she goes.


Here are the two birthday boys, the party, and me with my new do.



The Cake- it would've been better had I remembered to take a picture before cutting into it.


More pics of the party, the decor, and just two members of the Pittsburgh baby boom.



Isn't her birthday hat adorable?!? My exceptionally talented friend, Carlee made it just for Oakley.


Needless to say she loved the cake. She ate two entire pieces then rubbed the rest in her hair which resulted in us having to leave her party early for a birthday bath.




Thanks to everyone who came to help us celebrate! It meant a lot to me to have so many of our friends there for Oakley's first birthday. We are lucky to live in a place with many great friends who have been there for us through the last three years. Thanks to Rachelle and Jamie for letting me talk you into throwing this big ol' party for our kids! It was a piece of cake!!

Birthday Part II: May 9th 2010

Oakley's real birthday was on Mother's day so we decided to invite some friends over to celebrate both. After Oakley discovered her new love of sugar, she was pretty content to sit on our friend Tiffany's lap while being spoon fed chocolate cake. Quite unusual for a little girl who never sits still!



Oakley didn't care too much about the presents, good thing she had some helpers show her the ropes!