Whipple Family Blog

Yesterday my three older sisters, my mom, my two sister in laws and my little neice went shopping for my sister's wedding dress. Yes, I was doing a little pouting since I was the only one who couldn't make it. I guess that's what you get when you live clear across the country. Anyway, she found one and I hear it is beautiful. I am so pleased for her. My cute sister Dawn is one of the best people I know. She is continually trying to do what is right and I seriously don't know anyone who does a better job at it. But, at the same time, she enjoys life and has an awesome sense of humor! She definitely inspires me to be a better person. Dawn has watched each one of her five siblings get married, and have families and it has been her greatest desire. I am so happy for her and can't wait for her wedding in August. I also can't wait to be back with my cute siblings, and siblings in-laws. Love you guys!   My sisters: Erin (19 months older than me), Angie (5 years older t...

Now that I am back home, there isn't as much time to blog. Oh, it seems like just the other day that I thought having just one child was hard (not that I still don't think it is) now I am just amazed at all I am able to do when I just have one with me. Well, we had a pretty relaxed Easter day with just our family this year. We played a few games, took an Easter stroll, had a fun Easter egg hunt around the house, watched The Lamb of God video, and had a great ham and potato dinner. It was my mom's birthday too, so we had a fun chat with her on the phone. Happy Birthday mom!! This year I didn't get Easter dresses, but my friend Mendy gave me a ton of hand-me-downs so my girls feel like it is Christmas, as far as dresses goes. I am so grateful since I am finding it harder and harder to find modest, cute dresses. The girls spent all of one afternoon trying dresses on and modeling them to me. My favorite was when Teralyn came running into the kitchen to Brian and I and in a ...

So, I finally got pictures in of our trip if you are interested. They are distributed throughout the posts... (:

On to the last day of vacation... In the morning we packed all up and Bri left for his class. I let Raegan sleep for a while and then Reagan and I headed onto San Diego zoo. I debated whether or not to go because, well, it's not so fun when you are by yourself with just a baby who could care less about the animals. But, I had to check it out so I decided to do it. Well, I'm glad we went. It was such fun to see, and such a cool zoo! With my ticket, we were able to ride on the bus tour that takes you all around the zoo from the bus. Basically, it takes out the walking. Raegan loved this part of it. She just stuck her head out the window and enjoyed the breeze. I liked it too, it gave me an idea of what I wanted to walk around and see. So, after the bus tour we walked around for a few hours. It felt a little weird to be with just a baby who could care less, but it was such a fun zoo, that I had a great time anyway. We, (or I guess I should say I) especially liked the polar bear (w...

La Jolla was awesome! It was one of my favorite places that I have seen out here. Raeg and I got there around 12:00 noon and even the drive alone would have been worth it. It was actually only about fifteen minutes from our hotel. La Jolla is a suburb off of San Diego right off the coast line. To get to there, you drive through a beautiful canyon (of course not the huge mountain canyons they have in Utah, but pretty good for Marylanders at least), and then you go into the city of La Jolla which is gorgeous and very clean. Well, we headed on down to the coast and found a great parking spot right in front of the coast line. Little did I know how great it was until we got out and right in front of us was the Children's Pool Beach which was covered with seals and sea lions!! The Children's Pool Beach is a little area right off the ocean that has a man made stone wall built in a half circle. It was originally made so children could come down and play in the ocean, but they could be ...

Yesterday was my shopping day. Raeg and I headed down to Fashion Valley Mall in downtown. The mall looks and feels exactly like a regular mall, except it is outside and maybe a little bigger. Sometimes I even forgot we were outside until I would see a palm tree here and there or one time we ran into a swarm of bees (Ahh!). We had a great time. I especially liked the huge Old Navy store (the biggest one I have ever been to) and I spent a little more money than I probably should have, but we sure enjoyed it. Even Raegan enjoyed it. For a little while at least. She was happily sitting in her stroller babbling to everyone who walked by. So many people stopped to talk to us. She made quite a few friends at the mall. One lady even tried speaking Spanish to us. Luckily, I remembered a little bit from high school. I recognized caliente (hot) when she touched Raegan's bare feet. I was in line buying her new socks (we keep loosing her socks due to her kicking them off). She was saying that h...

Day #3 of San Diego started with our usual morning routine. We wake up, get ready, go eat, Brian walks to class, Raegan goes down for a nap, I read, blog, do email, and then Raegan and I go off to play. Yesterday our adventure was to go to Balboa park in downtown San Diego. Balboa park is the nations largest urban culture park and probably the largest tourist attraction in San Diego. It's a huge area with multiple museums, gardens, playgrounds, and even hiking paths to go on. The San Diego zoo is also just north of the park, so there are many things to do there. Well, Raegan and I basically walked up one side of the park and down the other. We did go into a couple of museums (the Mingei museum and Botanical gardens), but most were quite expensive so we decided to opt-out. We were happy just looking though. Everything was so beautiful and green. The weather was perfect (about 68 degrees) and the sun was shining. The museums were all built with old style architecture and there were w...

So here I am again in my hotel room with my sleeping baby. Perfect time to recap my day yesterday.. Okay, let me just say that I love love love Gus. He is our GPS system. I actually thought it was not a real necessity when we first got him, but I am beginning to see the light. I spent most of my day yesterday going from store to store around San Diego trying to find a new stroller and I wasn't worried at all thanks to the little guy. I finally did find one after going to about seven different places. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but what can you expect in a crunch. I was hoping to get a sit and stand stroller, but I guess I will have to wait until we have another disaster with our double stroller this time.... hmmm... By the time we had found a new stroller (after four hours of shopping), Raegan had about had it so we came back to the hotel to give her another quick nap and then I put in our destinations into Gus. Bri came back from his class an hour later, and we headed ou...

Right now I am in a hotel room in San Diego waiting for my little Raegan to wake up from her nap. Brian had a class his work was paying for in San Diego so I said, "why don't I go with you?". We asked my sweet mother in law if we could fly her out to Maryland to watch our other kids while Brian, Raegan, and I went to have some fun. Well, she said yes and she arrived on Saturday night and Bri, Raegan and I left yesterday afternoon! So, I know this sounds crazy, but we have never left our kids over night except once when we had just Teralyn and Shaylee and left them for just two days. I have left them with Brian once when I went to England, but Bri and I together have never left them for longer than two days!! Mostly it is because we don't have family around close enough. So, we are totally excited to have a "kid free vacation" (except our little Raegan of course) and also we think it will be so good for our kids at home to have some one on one time with their...

So, on Tuesday I was eating my usual oatmeal breakfast and Raegan was eating her usual Cheerios when, out of nowhere, she grabs my bowl and my oatmeal and starts shoveling it in. It surprised me so much that I gave her my bowl for her to eat the rest. She enjoyed it for quite a while, but when it got to the end, she raised it above her head and threw it, shattering the bowl into a million tiny pieces. Later that same day I put Raegan down to crawl around a bit and hurried and checked my email. A minute later I hear her screaming at the top of her lungs. I ran into the kitchen and she had gotten into the cupboard under the sink. She found our dishwasher soap cubes and I guess she thought they looked tasty because she ate one! She had soap all over, coming out of her mouth and all over the floor. I grabbed a cup of water and basically threw it in her mouth to wash it out. She wasn't happy about that one, but what do you do? I spent the rest of my morning with a wet soapy baby and oth...

Shaylee has been begging to get her hair cut for, hmmm... a year or so. We have cut it many times before, but never short, and boy can she grow it back fast. Most of the time I give her the hair cut (I'm a little too cheap to go to the salon) and most of the time I cut off at least three inches. It is amazing how much hair this girl has though! It is so thick and grows so fast. Well, after months of hearing how hot her hair was making her neck, Brian reluctantly gave in (yes, he is the one who had the hardest time letting it go) and decided she could cut it in the summer when it gets hot. Well, that didn't stop the complaints. I don't know if he got tired of hearing it, or if he got tired of combing her hair after baths, but he surprised us all and on her birthday gave her a coupon that said she could get it cut whenever she wants, no waiting until summer. Shay was ecstatic. I told her we could even go to Cartoon Cuts to get it done (I know, I know, don't brake the bank...

When Teralyn was in kindergarten she had a lovely friend in her class who once put her little tooth under her pillow and guess what she got? No, not just money, but fairy dust too! Wow, amazing huh? We were pretty amazed until our little Teralyn then lost her tooth and put it under her pillow that night all excited about the... fairy dust (not the money)! We just prayed that night that our little tooth fairy would leave fairy dust and luckily she did. Apparently, the tooth fairy has become a little senile. Yes, she forgets to come to our house sometimes. I don't remember the tooth fairy missing any teeth of mine, so she must just be getting old. We have had about four missing teeth in the last month between Teralyn and Shaylee and we still have about four loose ones to come very soon. I mean, who can keep up? So, the first night Shay put her tooth under her pillow, the toothfairy didn't come. Yes, major dissapointment! Her explanation was that she was probably hybernating for t...