She did it!

Miss Whitney Grace is officially crawling as of yesterday afternoon!

Without further ado, I present Princess Whitney in action.

She toyed with the idea for a few weeks, going forward just with one knee and stopping, like we see here...

here....


and here....


She has now mastered it and is really fast!

Here she is showing off her crawling skills at her play date with baby Lacey...

And this picture is just too cute not to share...

This one too.... They actually play really well together! Not too much eye poking! :)

I was pretty sure that she was able to do more crawling than she had been when she pulled herself to standing at her toy box!


She just needed some motivation to really get going..... So I had an idea. Trista was just about the same at this age, just barley crawling for weeks, and then took off full speed one day after a little encouragement. T.J. and I had some pink foil wrapped Hershey Kisses from Valentines day that we got Trista to chase all over the living room. I remembered this, and went and got a piece of candy in a shiny silver and green wrapper for Whitney. It worked like a charm and she went racing towards it at full speed as if she had been doing it all along. I guess both of my girls like shiny things!

She also cut her fourth little tooth yesterday!

Now she has two on the bottom and two on the top.

The night before she cut her first tooth back in June she was doing a lot of this....

and this with her tongue.....


We thought she had "found her tongue," thought it was so funny and took pictures. I should have known that she had a little tooth coming in that day!

She was just so happy and smiling like this....

and this......


and this.....


that I couldn't tell that she was teething!

Although this chewing the next day...

should have been a hint!

Aunt Cami saw the little white spec, at the end of Trista's birthday party!

Here are photos of that first little tooth that came in on big sisters birthday!


A closer look.

Whitney has been such a sweet happy blessing of a baby and I am so grateful for her. I can't believe that this first year has been going by so fast!

Labor Day - Charla and Ricky

T.J.'s sister Charla and her husband Ricky came to visit over Labor Day weekend. They drove down from Utah to Dewey for Desiree's wedding, and since we couldn't make it, they drove two more hours down to the Valley to see us. We were so happy to have them! Charla and Ricky hadn't gotten to meet Whitney yet, and it was so fun to see them and have them stay with us. She is expecting their first in January and has such a cute little baby bump! I love this picture of the two of them from their wedding two years ago. Doesn't she look so pretty!

On Monday afternoon we drove into Tempe, unsuccessfully looking for a specialty market that was open, so they could pick up a few things to take home for Ricky's mom. We finally ended up at Chipotle after a few failed attempts and seven phone calls to find out that all of the stores were closed for the holiday. I will have to pick up some things up for them before we head to Utah next. T.J. loved introducing a newcomer to Chipotle. We hope that one opens up in St. George soon! It was fun spending time with both of them. They are such a good auntie and uncle to our girls. They will make good parents. We love you!

Carseats and Seatbelts

On Saturday afternoon T.J. and I were out running errands with the girls and were in an accident. We were sitting stopped at a red light and we were rear ended at 40 mph. We were in T.J.'s Chevy 2500hd 4x4 4 door truck (thank goodness). The car that hit us is the same model as mine, a Mitsubishi Montero, and it was totaled. The Montero's air bags went off, the frame shifted into the car, and the engine was ripped apart. It used to look like this.

Our truck did sustain some damage, but nothing like the Montero. Our bumper is turned in and we can't open the tailgate and one of the side panels needs to be repaired. The trailer hitch actually bent, so that will be replaced too. The police and paramedics were all so nice and took really good care of us, especially both of the girls. It was quite a scene, there were so many of them that came. Whitney seems to be fine, but she cried so hard when we were hit. Trista has soft tissue damage in her neck, and T.J. and I both have whiplash. I got bruised across my shoulder from the seat belt, my arm was tingling and part of my hand was numb. My hand tingles and aches still, especially when I write. My head was swimming and I couldn't talk very fast (so of course they kept asking me questions). The top of my head, and my neck and shoulders hurt, and T.J. is about the same. Trista said that her neck hurt when the paramedics asked if she was okay. I was so proud of her. She answered all of their questions, and didn't get scared when there was so many people touching her.

We have been to the doctor and chiropractor a few times, and purchased new car seats for both of the girls. As I was online looking at car seat reviews for the new ones we were purchasing, I read some frightening stories from other moms that have been in really bad accidents. I have never had to crawl in to an overturned car and unbuckle my baby from their car seat that is upside down up in the air, and I am truly grateful.

When the accident happened, we were on our way to pick up our dry cleaning, about to leave town for T.J.'s cousin Desiree's wedding in Dewey. I felt so bad that we couldn't make it, we had all been looking forward to it. Trista was really sad. T.J.'s Aunt Diane and Uncle Grant are two of my favorite people, and I was disappointed that we wouldn't be there. I called Diane when we got home to let her know what happened, and that we wouldn't be able to make it. She was so sweet and called me baby. Within a few minutes after talking to Diane, we were getting phone calls from the rest of T.J's family making sure that we were alright. We felt so loved. The only phone call I had made was to Diane, and within 20 minutes T.J.'s mom called from Utah to check on us, two of his sisters, and Grandma and Grandpa called too. T.J.'s cousin Jeff that lives down the street from us had strict instructions from Grandma to check on us when he got home from the wedding. He was great, and taught my Sunday School class for me at church the next day. My best friend LaNae even brought over dinner and dessert for us, so sweet. Her oldest daughter Kaylee is one of Trista's favorite people, so she was so exited that they came over. Thank you to everyone that called us, helped us, and have thought of us. We are so grateful for our friends and family, and for the blessing of safety that we received that day.

I am also grateful for this truck, for car seats and for seat belts, and the way they protected us.