A trip to the Zoo

Also towards the end of summer was our trip to the Zoo. I don't remember much more than just having a ton of fun together as a family.

I love how in this picture you can tell that Grace was much more interested in the ketchup than the hot dog.The highlight for the kids I would say was the feeding zoo. We have always had a special place in our hearts for goats, so I can see why we loved this part. I think they could have done it all day...

If you look closely in this picture you will see a red water bottle in with the racoons. Yes, it was ours at the beginning of the day, but as soon as it slipped from Davey's grip it became property of the racoons and they were fighting over it! Majorly fighting, like we were worried we started civil war among racoons it got so vicious. Anyway, I don't know why they put racoons in a zoo when you could see one so easily anywhere trash is present... In the end I was glad we gave the poor caged animals something to liven up their day.

Blogging is good for me because as I do it I remember more details that I certainly wouldn't have remembered otherwise. But now that I am thinking about this day I remember loving a display of some sort of tiny monkeys that just had babies and you could see them snugly holding on to their momma's back. It was the cutest thing ever! I remember David, Joey and Grace putting their arms around each other and chanting something odd they came up with as they walked around while Derrick and I were resting on a bench in the shade with Abby.

Playing catch-up

I hate it when I take such a long break from blogging. But here is my attempt to catch up...

The end of summer came and left before I had time to say goodbye! A few highlights from the last month were Joey's birthday party one month late. He had a great time with a few friends and Bay Beach. And then we topped it off with a bonfire and pinata at Gramma's house. It was lots of fun!


The other pictures I had from summer were these from a random Sunday when David got the bee in his bonnet to make cupcakes. We were making them from scratch and right after we got started Abby needed to nurse, so I told the kids to take a break and we would come back to it. Well, David sees no need for me in the kitchen while he is making cupcakes, and as luck would have it he did a great job! I couldn't believe he even made it through the part where we were out of milk so he had to actually make milk from our food storage powdered milk. I said from the other room, "Why don't you just wait for me and I'll make the milk and then you can measure it?" He said, "well, if I just pour a little in and then some water and taste it I can do it myself" And sure enough, he did it, tasted it and said, "this doesn't taste like milk, so I'll pour a little more in" which he did and then he was finally satisfied with the taste of the milk so he poured his cup in. I said, "did you measure it before you poured the milk in?" He said, "no" so I went out there thinking he had just ruined all the batter and so I poured water into the cup he used until he told me how much had been in the cup. I measured the water to see how much milk he had poured in and sure enough, it was almost exactly the amount he needed. I couldn't believe the luck of this kid, but sometimes I think it is just shere determination that drives him... anyway, they were wonderful in the end especially when we decided to use our fresh raspberries from Grampa's garden in the frosting. Nice work Davey!  He actually ate these, unlike the pumpkin pie he was dying for me to make from the pumpkins we got from Grampa's garden.... that is another story...

Honey Lime Enchiladas

Maybe it is because I make dinner so often for my family, or maybe it is because I love to cook, but whatever the reason, I LOVE NEW YUMMY RECIPES!! My friend shared this one with me and I made it last night. Gracie has since eaten them for breakfast and lunch, she liked them so much! I wish I would have taken a picture, but honestly, that would have taken longer to post and I may not have done it at all... anyway here it is:

Honey Lime Enchiladas

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup lime juice
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 lbs. chicken cooked and shreeded
2 (10 oz.) cans green enchilada sauce
1 cup half and half
Colby Jack cheese
Tortillas

mix the first 4 ingredients together and then add chicken. Let stand 30 minutes to let flavors soak into chicken. Mix enchilada sauce with half and half. Put 3/4 cup enchilada sauce mixture on the bottom of 9x13. Fill tortillas with chicken mixture and some cheese and put in pan. Top enchiladas with remaining enchilada sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Biolo Family Reunion 2011

Wendi got to plan our Biolo family reunion this summer and she planned a good one! We were in Iron Mountain, Michigan at a cabin for the week which made for some really fun memories being all together. We also had a trip up to Mackinac Island which is one of my favorite places in the whole world! Since there were so many pictures I made a few collages and since it is too late I will have to write more later... These are mostly from our "minute to win it" night that Wendi planned. It was hilarious! We had oreos on our faces and marshmellows on our noses... we were toilet papering the yard and doing fun stuff with noodles.These pictures are all from Mackinac island. We all rented bikes and went around the 8 mile island stopping at all the pretty sites including stops to jump in the lake to cool off a bit. Can you see why I love this place? No motors, just bikes, feet and hoofs! The water was so blue and beautiful! It almost looked like Jamaica water minus all the salt (and sand).

Schmidt sighting

Some of our very best friends from Oklahoma, Daniel and Trilby, came through town early in July and we were SO excited to see them!! We took them to Lambeau to eat dinner Wisconsin style and then had frozen custard after. Grace warmed up to Daniel pretty quickly considering we only had less than 2 days :)
Abigail got to meet Abi for the first time. Abi and Hannah have the exact same birthday and have been best friends for as long as Hannah can remember.
All the kids loved seeing each other... next we took them to Bay Beach to ride the Zippin Pippin. Daniel got a great video of Hannah and Abi on the ride so I will have to try and get that on here somehow...
We just love these guys and hope they will come back to visit every summer!

Joey is 8!!!

Our little Joe Bear turned 8!! Hard to believe how the time flies... it seems like just yesterday he was playing "uperman" with his sister "nani". I love this boy. In 8 years, Joe is becoming a very loving, nurturing big brother. He absolutely loves his baby sister. He is also a good worker! When it is time to work, he doesn't complain, and actually likes to do it. He is also developing a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He decided that he wanted to be baptized when he turned 8 years old and did not take it lightly!With Gramma and Grampa WhitingBrandon and Ayca made it up for his big day! He was super happy because so much of his family could be there since our reunion started the next day. All of his cousins were there to see him baptized. With Gramma and Grampa Biolo

We are so proud of Joe. Happy Birthday Buddy!

Backtrack to June

July is always a pretty eventful month in Whitingworld with lots of birthdays and summertime. This year was especially so because Joey turned 8 and got baptized and then the next day our Biolo family reunion started in Upper Michigan. So before I get into July, here is what we kept busy with in June... baseball, softball and t-ball. Unfortunately I never did get any pics of David's games.
Grandparents were so faithful coming to every game through all the cold, hot and rainy weather. :)

Blue Moon Baby Eyes...

Abigail had her first taste of ice cream late last month when we were having blue moon after family home evening and I went outside with the kids and she commandeered the cone into her mouth and didn't let go!! Hannah took these shots and when I looked at them I realized how her baby blue eyes matched very nicely!
Come up for AIR!!!


Since the ice cream incident she has also tasted peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and beans, however the sweet potatoes was the most successful (next to ice cream). She is so sweet!

Bay Beach

Such a cute age... I just love this baby! She is so amazed by her world and she loves discovering what her little hands can do. The toy saucers are such a perfect thing for this age. She loves to be up and she needs to have things to touch and look at. Her little abdominal muscles are almost ready to support her in a sitting position as you can see by what happens when I put her in the bouncer. I can't believe she is already almost 5 months!
We had our first outing to Bay Beach the other day. It was tons of fun as you can see. Hannah was NOT going to ride the Zippin Pippin which is the newest roller coaster there, but after watching her (little) brother and her dad do it and then hearing how much they liked it, she finally relented. Her conditions were that she had to be right next to me. Easy enough, I love roller coasters. After the first big drop Hannah was crying and clutching me saying get me off of this thing, I don't want to do it any more. After the second drop, same thing, crying etc. After the third one she calms down and slowly I hear, "I think I'm having fun..." and at the end of the ride she said, "okay, I want to do it one more time and that's it" And now, she is dying to go back for more. Cute Hannah. It is a very fun ride for only 1 dollar a ride in true Bay Beach form. Nice! Grace's first choice was the boats and she loved all the little rides. David was bitterly disappointed about not being tall enough to ride the roller coaster, but more and more I see how truly independent and confident this little kid can be. I was going on the ferris wheel with Hannah and Joey and he decides he wants to ride the Scrambler, which is something you usually go on with at least one other person, and it spins quite a bit so it is definitely not a little kid ride but he made up his mind and went, got in line all by himself, waited by himself, got on the ride and buckled in by himself and then rode all by himself. The whole while I was watching him do this from above on my ride. Just such a distinct personality trait neither of my other kids at that age would have EVER done that. Anyway, Joey was so happy he was tall enough for the roller coaster and to ride the bumper cars all by himself. Last year he was too scared to ride the ferris wheel and this year he went without a second thought. My little ones are all growing up! We are just all excited that Bay Beach is not a one time thing this year, but we can go whenever we want! Woohoo!
p.s. do you like my collages???These videos show Abigail sucking her lower lip which she does quite often and then filling her diaper.... then the second is her laughing so cute.

Spring '11 Kid's UPDATE

I'll start with Hannah...
HANNAH got her hair cut! It is so cute... I have been wanting her to cut it like this for so long, and she finally agreed after she saw how cute Gracie's hair cut was. I think it is darling on both of them (not to mention A LOT easier to take care of). On the other hand,JOE is growing his hair out on top and it sure can get wild if he has been playing outside. He has recently started playing baseball with his first game being in a couple of weeks.DAVID is reading!! He loves his new found freedom and feels like one of the big kids now that he can sit and read a book all to himself. T-ball has started for David and he loves hitting the ball!
GRACE was loving Easter this year. She couldn't wait for her Easter basket to get hidden and she was actually really good at finding eggs this year. She was also good at eating what was inside...

ABIGAIL is rolling over now, so there are a few videos of her rolling and talking. She is three and a half months old and just as cute as she can be! She is loving her fist lately. I just love her. I just love all my kids. I don't think I could be any more grateful for all of them. I am such a lucky mommy. I feel so blessed.What a doll!

Abigail's baby blessing and Happy Easter!

Abi was blessed 2 weeks ago and I actually was able to get a family photo that I like! It is getting increasingly harder to get a good picture of my family... so this will work. I was going to send this out to everyone as an Easter card since I didn't get around to a Christmas card, but with Easter in two days looks like the Easter card won't be happening either. I am hopeful for next Christmas...

This is a video of Gracie while we were at Gramma and Grampa Whiting's house this past Sunday. It is too cute!! The past month there has been lots of wrestling, basketball, playing in snow and kissing baby Abi. The best news is that our house in Oklahoma is finally closed. Horray! That is a huge load off our minds and burden off our budget. Joey is liking wrestling, but as I suspected he told me that next year he would only do wrestling if there wasn't something better for him to do. Since he will be in 3rd grade he will get to do the travelling basketball team like Hannah is doing so he will definitely be doing that instead. Here are a few pictures of him wrestling.
Abi has now started smiling for real... this picture is not a real smile, but I have yet to capture the real smile on camera. It is very cute though.