Pictures

This post is all about pictures. We had another set of fun family photos by our favorite photographer at the end on January. Click on the words family photos and it will take you to Sara's blog where she posted some previews of that shoot for us. Does she have talent or what. Our kids make it easy with their inherited good looks of course :o)! Yes, the family is in all matching outfits. I love that kind of thing. I have to do it now before the kids catch on and it's not cool. Special thanks to Sara for letting me link to her blog. Otherwise there would be no telling when anyone would see pictures of the kids. Yes, Micah is sporting some fashionably long hair. Soon after these photos I got brave and cut his hair. He was sleeping, Brent was holding him and I snipped away. He occasionally would fuss and turn his head so then I would snip on the other side. Turned out quite nice. Wish I had pictures to post of the good job I did. They're not handy and I don't want to wait to post this until they are so keep posted for the next post!

On valentines day Brent set up a daddy daughter dance at our church. We enlisted the services of our favorite photographer once again. This link will take you to the same blog, this time with pictures of the dance. Each couple got a complimentary photo and then Sara took some time to get some candid shots. Every time Rachel saw the camera she had to pose. Brent even arranged for a visit from Cinderella. It was the perfect evening for our little princess. Though I need to talk to that Cinderella. Rachel came home talking about visiting Cinderella at her "home". I see a Disney trip in the future.

Crazy OK Weather!

First of all, only by God's true saving Grace, we are all fine and so is our house. --->Some of our neighbors weren't as lucky. Yesterday (2/10/09) OK had its first tornado of the year. Where did it happen to go? Through our neighborhood, again. Our house is just fine. A friend of mine who has lived in OK her entire life says we should move. She's never had a close call.

Brent has a few fence posts to dig and replace and he found 1 shingle that half of it was missing. It happened around 2:30 or 3pm. Yesterday was the first time Rachel went home with a friend after school. The storm appeared to be heading right toward the friends house. Brent was out but stopped at home to let the dogs inside. Then he headed off to get Rachel. As he was driving, there was a major downpour of hail and the tornado sirens started going off. He was looking all around as he was driving (the best he could through the hail as it slammed the windshield and side of the van) and he saw what appeared to be a "wall cloud". Usually "wall cloud" + hail + sirens = tornado. He never saw any rotation in the clouds or felt in immediate danger so he kept driving and made it to our friends house where Rachel was. Little did we know that the storm was headed right to our neighborhood. For those that may not recall last year Edmond had a tornado that took down the power lines in the front of our neighborhood. While there, they watched the news radar and saw there was another wave coming right toward them. This time golfball sized hail slammed the house but they never saw or heard a tornado. When it looked like they'd have about 15 minutes of clearing before the next wave they hustled into the van and started home. On the way home they got close to the neighborhood and started seeing very large tree limbs scattered all about and even some big trees uprooted. Brent thought "at least the power lines are still standing this time (they replaced the old wooden poles with the newer metal poles). As he drove into the neighborhood he started noticing the amount of shingles missing from many houses. Then he noticed random garage doors blown in. As he turned down our block there were several houses with roof damage but nothing really to 'gasp' about...until he turned the corner at the end of our block. He was on the phone with me as he was driving and there was sudden silence. I asked what was wrong and he could barely talk as he tried to explain to me there was a house right in front of him with a firetruck in the front of it that was 1/2 gone! As he pulled closer he saw the other houses on the opposite side of the street with major structural damage and the firefighters going door -to - door making sure there were no immediate rescues needed. Houses all around have windows blown out, fences missing entirely and pieces of wood that pierced the roofs. A trampoline was in the front yard of one and a solid wood play structure was in a tree in the front yard of another. All this just 1 block north of our house...and we only have a couple fence posts to replace. Also with God's Grace, not only were there no deaths, there were no injuries! Amazing! Brent went out this morning and took pictures of the damage. I have attached a video of the worst house. Times like these are good reminders of what is important in life. Hopefully the next post wont be quite as exciting. All praise of thanksgiving goes out to God for His protective Hand over us!

December Happenings

It's hard to believe that the holy days are over and Micah is now one. Over the past week he has cut 2 new teeth on top for a grand total of 6. Big sister Rachel didn't have any teeth till after her first birthday. Just an example of how we are all individually created. He is 19-20 pounds and in between 9 and 12 month clothes. This again is so different than Rachel. She has always been 1 size in clothes ahead of her age. We can't wait for him to hit the magic 22 pounds so that we can turn him around in the bigger car seat. He still doesn't travel well. We are hoping that getting him in the big car seat and allowing him to face forward will make it all better. If he would only sit still for a few minutes or eat more than 5 bites that would help with the weight gain. He is always playing, running, climbing or generally going.

For Christmas this year we went to a local tree farm and cut down our own tree. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and you guessed it, windy. Micah slept for most of it in the sling. We took a picture in front of our pick. Brent cut it down with a little hand saw. It was a great family day.

We were blessed with many visitors the week of Christmas. The Adams family stopped by on Saturday on their way to Denver from Houston. Rachel and Kyle played into the night even though both weren't feeling very well. My dad (Papa) and Brent's parents came to visit for Christmas. Papa came earlier in the week and got to see Rachel perform her first solo at the Christmas Eve service at church. The video has been posted out on You Tube. (Some of our other videos are there also, just search for jbwhite19). Grandma and Grandpa White arrived on Christmas day and stayed through the weekend. The Hanks family stopped on their way back to Louisiana on Friday. Rachel and Mary were so alike in mannerisms it was eerie. We truly enjoyed visiting with everyone and the kids loved having play mates.

We had a small birthday party for Micah on Saturday. Grandma White kept with tradition and made Micah's first birthday cake. Carrot cake with whipped cream frosting. We gave him his own little cake to dig into. He ate a little of the whipped cream but was not interested in the cake. He sure did down Dad's special home made almond ice cream. Maybe next year we'll get him an ice cream cake. He was not interested in opening any presents for his birthday, or Christmas for that matter. I am sure it wont be an issue next year.

Halloween 08

We had a great Halloween. In the morning Rachel decided to wear her pumpkin pj's and princess slippers. The kids paraded around the play ground for the parents and then sat for class pictures. Many creative costumes. We were tickled to see the banana was certified organic.

Then that evening at 5 we dressed up again and went to down town Edmond. This time we got Rachel to wear the princess costume we'd bought her. Micah was a frog. So we had the theme of the frog and the princess. We had a great time trick or treating around the shops. Good thing we got there right at the start because it got crowded quick. They had jumping castles, face painting games and crafts. They even had a fire truck the kids trick or treated through then got the candy from the fire dog.

After downtown Edmond, we picked up a pumpkin shaped pizza and headed home. I put the pizza in the oven and chased Micah around while Brent and Rachel sat on the front porch handing out candy. They were able to eat out there while I went through Rachel's candy. I was able to sort out the bad stuff and put it in our hand out bowl. Rachel thought that was great. Don't know how many more years I'll be able to pull that off. When we ran out of candy, they came in, we turned out the lights and went to bed. We all really enjoyed Halloween this year.

Newest Poses

We have found a photographer we just love. She is so creative and takes the best pictures. She has her own blog and has posted our preview shots. Click on the title and it should take you to the site. Then scroll down to take a look at the wonderful pics of our kids. I can't wait to see the rest of the photos. It is so hard to pick because we love them all.

Also, we have posted many family videos on youtube. Go to youtube and search on jbwhite19. We just posted a new video from this past weekend. We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends and had a great time. Maybe we'll figure out how to post them all here in the future. I don't know if the blog can handle files of that size. For now they are on youtube for your viewing pleasure.

The Start

Well here is our attempt at blogging. We thought it would be a good way to share with family and friends happenings in the Oklahoma White house. :o)

We will try to update this regularly. Knowing us we'll be lucky to get it done once a month. Ideally I'd like to post once a week. We'll see how it goes. Hope all of you enjoy!

This video is of Micah first walking when he was 8 months old. I am posting to see how the video works. He is now 9 1/2 months old and practically running. He has also figured out how to move backward to keep from falling.