Thanksgiving stuff...

It has been awhile! We've just been super busy and so any free time available we are trying to spend time as a family:) We got back from Thanksgiving Break last week and boy was it a blast--but a LOT of driving...we drove to Provo from Davis (9+ hours) and left a 4am thinking Bailey would sleep better in the car. She didn't. Out of the whole trip she slept maybe 1 1/2 hours. We drove to Provo for my little sister's (Camilla's) wedding! It was so beautiful and you couldn't have asked for a better bro-in-law and in-laws--they're awesome people! the wedding was so beautiful and i'm bummed that we didn't hardly take any pics at all. When we get some back from the photographer then I'll post some:)

After a weekend in Provo we drove in the caravan heading to Oregon to spend Thanksgiving with all the fam. This time it was a 12-14 hour car ride but we split it into two days! Thanks to mom and dad for the hotel room and letting us ride over with them. It was much more enjoyable for Bailey to ride with her aunt's and Grandma part of the way (and they had a portable DVD player). However she didn't sleep much in the car at all...

We had Thanksgiving lunch/dinner at the Cunninghams this year, but my family came over as well and so there were 20+ people there! AWESOME!

Bailey helping Uncle Isaac clean for the Thanksgiving guests


mom C and I made an amazing and colorful homemade green bean casserole, along with a bunch of other yummy dishes and a GREAT turkey! I had so much fun cooking with her:)

Me trying to be sexy after baking all day...poor attempt I'm afraid:)

Everyone (both Cunninghams and Whitneys) pitching in to get ready and EAT!


John (Chris' sister Brittany's man) and their adorable baby girl Peytenn (Bailey's only cousin:)

Josh and Carissa (Chris's bro and my sis who are married..weird!) holding Bailey. Camilla and her new husband, Austin are in the background--cute little newlyweds just back from their honeymoon!

Bailey and Papa Whitney reading books. Bailey loves to go on walks with Papa and the dog and is always asking him to go!


Bailey and Grampa C going out to see the chickens:)

Bailey and Grampa C chasing the chickens. Bailey LOVES to go out and visit them and help collect the eggs each day:)



Gotta have the X-mas shopping! Don't they look like a cute couple:) Whenever we go to the mall we have to ride the escalator at least 100 times...

Chris Ventures to Chicago

My sweet hubby Chris just got back from Chicago this week and I wanted to share some of his adventures and accomplishments.

The Wednesday before he left, he won second place in the UC Davis Neuroscience Annual Poster Competition. I was so proud of him--his poster looked awesome and he did a great job presenting. Plus the $500 prize was a definite bonus! lol

That weekend he flew out to Chicago with his poster to attend the annual Society For Neuroscience Meeting along with 40,000 Neuroscientists from around the world. He again had the opportunity to present his poster and some very well regarded and well-known scientists came to see his presentation! Along the way he got to see some sites and eat some Chicago style pizza. :)






While Chris was gone, Bailey and I went to Grampa's Barn here in Davis:) It's only open during October every year and they have baby animals you can pet and even hold, a pony to brush, corn mazes, pumpkin patches and more! We got a pass for the month and have already been a few times.

We played in the pumpkin patch...


We pet the bunnies...(they also had baby kittens, baby ducks and baby chicks to hold--but I didn't get pics:( )



We pet and brushed the pony...



We chased the chickens (what makes this place so unique is that you can actually GO into all the animal pens and be with the animals.)


We climbed the big haystacks and hay mazes...


And we did arts and crafts when we got home! :) And I did catch Bailey with the Elmer's glue trying to glue her bear and blanket together...

First Family Camping Trip

Chris and I LOVE camping and we did it a lot before we had the little one. I'll admit that I was kinda afraid to take her camping last year (probably because it's my first one--I'm sure the second time around I won't be so anal). And so this summer we wanted to try it out and see how she did! Overall it was a great experience and we learned a lot...lol Bailey did awesome on the hikes and playing at the lake and she overall loves being outside. It was the night that we had a harder time with. We went up to Lake Tahoe (it's only about 2 hours away)and camped right by the beachfront--we found a sweet walk-in campsite that was hidden. Bailey had no trouble with wanting to touch the fire pit which kinda surprised me:) She was pretty scared of it actually. But anyways, during the night she slept with us in the sleeping bags that we zip up together and she woke up super early each morning (she never sleeps well with us and does better sleeping by herself!) because she was excited to see us in bed with her! So between sleepless nights and taking naps on the go (hiking, traveling, etc) she was exhausted by the end of the 3 days! It was a fun family experience though and I'm glad we got to go once before it got cold. Next summer promises many more camping trips with her:) Here are some pics:

On the way home we stopped at Apple Hill and spent the day at pumpkin patches,eating apple donuts and cider, riding horses and trains, and enjoying all the orchards! (We did this last fall as well)

Bailey loves riding the ponies

Petting Zoo
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Big pumpkin!

Face Painting--on her arm!

Showing Daddy the apple on her arm

Waiting for the train:)



Daddy was her "stroller" for the afternoon...and most of the trip

World's Worst Mom Award

I'm gonna say it and no one judge me: The last two weeks have been H-E-L-L (yes I just wrote that). You may think that I am being a bit harsh when I say this, but I give myself the "World's Worst Mom" Award for some of what has occurred. So Bailey has been a total grump the last two weeks for a couple reasons: First, she had a staph infection on her little bottom that she got from who knows where. She was on antibiotics 3X a day that she HATED and I had to force it down her throat. She finally got to the point of literally throwing it back up along with food she had eaten that morning of afternoon. Secondly, she is getting at least 5 new teeth (but it's about time...she only has 5 teeth and she's 18 months old!) We've been waiting and waiting for these new teeth and now they have all decided to pop up at once. So as you might imagine, it has made life super easy for mom. :)

That was only the beginning...I took Bailey to play group this past Thursday (these pictures are not actual pictures we took) and she loves the big twisty slides but likes me to go down with her the first time or two until she will go on her own. So naturally I put her on my lap and off we went! Well halfway down her leg gets caught up under me and by the time we got to the bottom her leg was all twisted funny underneath me and she was screaming. After she screamed for 20 minutes and she wouldn't walk on it I drove her to the doc.
They did x-rays and luckily it wasn't broken but she had a bad sprain and so she didn't walk on it for 2 days or so and Iv had to just carry her everywhere. I felt so bad!

And to make the week even worse...she was finally feeling better by Saturday. Her infection was long gone, she was walking on her leg, and a few of her teeth had finally cut through. Chris was at priesthood session of conference and so I took Bailey to the grocery store with me to get a few things. She loves to pretend she's driving and so while I loaded the groceries in the car, I sat her in the driver's seat put my purse in the passenger seat and proceeded to load up the car. Afterwards, she was having so much fun that I was going to just run the cart across the aisle. So I shut the driver door (so she wouldn't try to climb out and go into the road) and jogged over to put the cart away. I literally returned 10 seconds later and there was Bailey holding my keys she had dug out of my purse, still in the driver's seat with the doors all locked!!!! I was FREAKING out, but I tired to remain calm as I tried to coax her through the closed window to push the unlock button on the keys. I also tried to get her to manually pull up on the lock or even to push the lock button on the door! But to no avail! And by this point people are starting to speculate (well come on--who wouldn't!) as I keep trying to remain calm and continue to coax Bailey into unlocking the door. About ten minutes later Bailey starts getting a little scared that I'm not getting in the car and after she tried opening the handle and realized that it wasn't opening the door she starts calling "mama!" "mama! open!" Then I loose it and start bawling and a lady come over and calls 9-1-1 and a few minutes later the fire dept drives into the shopping center with their sirens blaring (did they have to turn on the sirens? come on!) and people are REALLY staring at me now and probably thinking "what a terrible mom to let her toddler lock herself in the car!" Well they break into the car and give Bailey a teddy bear and sticker and she's all happy and I'm covering my face and clambering into the car wearing a sign that says "WORLD'S WORST MOM"

the end.

Fall Pictures

We just got Bailey's 18 month fall pictures back and were very pleased at how they turned out! Many thanks to Julia--the amazing and talented photographer! Bailey was not very cooperative, of course, and made it very difficult to get smiley shots. :) But overall, we were very pleased; and besides, being contemplative and sassy is kinda Bailey's personality--so the pictures really showed that! We were able to get a few family shots amongst Bailey's, but not very many. It's crazy to compare last Fall's pictures with this year's! Time flies and they really do grow up so fast.

We just got back from a family camping trip at Lake Tahoe! I got lots of pictures and will be posting them with details of the trip this next week!

Today was Bailey's first day of nursery! Mommy is very happy to actually attend church meetings:) Hallelujah!

Today we also got Bailey's pictures done and (of course) I don't think she smiled for a single shot...

Back to School:)

It's that time of year again that the leaves start slowly turning, children are walking or riding bikes to school, and instead of being over 100 degrees it's in the lower 90's :) LOL I'm am SO way behind in posting, but these are all some things that have been happening the last couple months--and yes, most of them are of Bailey because she dominates our lives still.

Chris is studying his booty off for qualifying exams this weekend (and of course it's during labor day weekend...so we're not going anywhere fun!) and after he passes (because although he always stresses about failing he always ends up at the high end of the grading scale) he will have a master's degree and be going on to do his PhD research! We're really excited and happy for him. He works so hard and is still a great and fun father to bailey and a wonderful and helpful husband to me:)

I started school last week and have two classes this semester. I will be officially starting the music program next fall and will hopefully be done at the end of that next year if all goes as planned. I also got another piano student!! so although things are busy, I tend to like it that way! :) anyways, i'll let the pics do the talking about Bailey:)

Oh! and i just wanted to say how much i love and will miss my sweet friend Jo Lynn who just moved (although she only moved 15 minutes away...) but she's in another ward now and we probably won't get together as often...but we'll still get together at least! lol

This is a really funny video of Bailey "helping" dad fix the bike. She'll get into his tools and start pretending to work on the bike like dad and whenever chris would grunt or make a frustrated sound then she would do it too!!!


Mommy and Bailey


Mommy going to school and with my most recent acrylic painting (which I hated by the way and gave away to a friend!)


Bailey loves to play the piano...maybe she'll play one day:)


My most recent hairdo experiments:)




Park adventures--she loves all the dogs that are usually at the parks



This one's for Grampa Cunningham--she loves to carry around her State Farm bear:)


Sporting the sunglasses on a fine summer day:)


What toddler doesn't love to "drive" at this age??


Playing with her new hammer/peg set from Shalyce:) Thanks again Shalyce and Karter:) We miss you guys!