I have to say that since the past 10 years while I lived down to So Cal I have not been able sit in my front yard and do fireworks. But times have changed my friend! It was so great! We had a great night and the best part of all... MY PARENTS ARE HERE! Which is gigantic! This is their first real fly to a destination vacation! I am so excited! H
Oh, how I wish I lived in the sixties! I can sing me some classic rock! It just puts me in that happy place! This night was inspired by a gift Sohaila got for her birthday...
Any guesses?
We did tie-dye shirts! I am telling you, those birthday gifts really spark my creative juices!
Our activity for the night was painting our own signs with the classic 60's phrases on them.
Sohaila: Flower Power, Seanna: Groovy, Losiah: Peace and us well...
I made meatloaf for the first and last time. I just do not like a big loaf of meat. It's just nasty! But in honor of the night I made it with mash potatoes and those nasty mixed veggies.
Sohaila about died when she saw what she had to eat.
We ate our homemade TV dinner in front of the box watching the Brady Bunch and finishing it off with some "Special Brownies" with out the "special". :) Got to add a little adult humor here and there!
Speechless on Day 2!
What can I say.
Heather's Turning 30 In Style from Carlos Whittaker on Vimeo.
He is a hopeless romantic!
This is what happens when you have a girl who loves straight hair, but has naturally curly hair and she needs to go out in the rain. She took her shirt and covered her hair so it would stay dry when she went out in the rain. Oh she is so great! I love girls. I also feel her pain. There is nothing like having water sprayed on your hair after you spent so much time getting it straight. What's your hair drama, to frizzy? To straight? No style? Wrong color? H
We all know know that it's my big b-day coming up. I must say last year at this time my birthday plans looked a lot different. Life just took a turn and so did those plans. All that to say, I asked Carlos for 30 days of love this year. I am a little more needy this year! Usually we can claim the week of your birthday as the YOU-GET-WHATEVER-YOU-WANT-WEEK, but this years its the month. Sounds logical right? It does to me!
This was my sweet love for July 1st...
"Heather, I know what you are thinking. If this plate is the sign of the things to come, you are screwed, but it is actually going to serve a purpose. You see, God is working in my hear right now. And is is stirring a revolution in me. I think I am going to serve the people of the South on big dish of authenticity one plate at a time. And who better to serve first than you. So here you go. I love you and am serving you my heart. Carlos."
And people think gifts are all about spending money. Nope I feel loved with a plate!
If you know your love language what is it? If you have no idea what I am talking about... find out.
Carlos watched the kids when I went to a Beth Moore Conference this weekend. Losiah woke up on Saturday with blood all over his face and like any good blogging family we captured it on film. Later that night we were looking at the pictures and I just had this feeling that I needed to see what actually went down while I was gone.
H- "Please tell me that you cleaned him up"
C- "Yeah I did" ( I just knew he was telling the truth, however I still needed to keep prying.)
H- "What does that mean. How long was he with blood on his face"
C- "Well he did stay that way for a little bit. I wiped it off when I changed his diaper"
Sounds good right?
H- "And when did you change his diaper"
C- (a long pause... You could see him contemplating his answer) "Oh, 2ish"
H- "WHAT! Not only are you saying he had blood all over his face all day but you did not change his diaper till 2!"
There is nothing like true confessions of a dad. H
That's right your eyes are not playing tricks on you. This little dress was one cent at Old Navy. Really? I want to know how they tax a penny. I know there are some bargain shoppers out there, but no one is gonna take this cake!
How sweet is my girl? Carlos made me cry because he brought up the fact that I am tuning 30 in 15 days. Look at my baby and the comfort she brought me. Oh how I love her. H
In the past year, we have lived with others for a total of 11 of the 12 months. I am beginning to forget what life would be like without a ton of people around. Here is one fabulous thing about living with others. The kids are down and we decide to go out, and we can!
It's moments like these that keep our marriage alive! I love him. H
Oh how I love Mondays. As Seanna would call them... Jammie days! We don't get dressed and it's just a day to put the house back together after the weekend. This Mama-maid, tries not to clean on the weekends so when Monday rolls around there is plenty to do. Look at what a little cleaning finds. These are the treasures I found in my couch, I did not even take the time to move the couch and see what lurks below! How does some of this stuff get there? I can understand the change, and the remote, but a pumpkin carver, 5 spoons, and best of all... a railroad tie? How in the world? I laughed at myself and thought, this could be so fun... lets all confess our little hiding spots. You know the ones that are clean on the outside, but when you look under or open it you could have your own garage sale with the random things you find.
So, lets compete... Who has more in their couch? Or maybe it's under your bed, maybe the hall closet. Where are your spoons hiding? Let the games begin... All you have to do is post a link back to this post, and enter your link in the "Mr. Linky" form at the bottom of my post. I am fine with the fact that I have areas in my house that are just dirty. H
Well, you all know how Spring is in the air .... ENDED. I hesitate to post our summer series, but you know my blog... the good, the bad and the ugly gets shared so here we go.
Looks like just a junky flower planter right?
Nope, we have more little feather friends.
Look at mama's face. She looks like she is about to attack me. H
I have to tell you all the truth, I get fueled by you guys and on the weekends, well I have to say you are few a far between. Which in returns makes me want to kick back and not blog. Forcing this vicious cycle to continue because if I don't blog... you don't read. See we gots a problem here folks! H
I don't know if she really went about it the right way. Maybe I should explain to her that you can't read when your eyes are closed. H
Carlos has been out of town for a few days, and to make things worse...
he was in Cali.
However, he did come home with... Some Animal Style Love.
The fries did not resurrect as well as I had hoped, but the hamburgers were delicious! Even at 9am! WHAT A MAN I HAVE!
Rachel asked for some cooking lessons and with a twist of my arm and a ski behind her boat I agreed.
We had a great time cooking. We made my famous Thai Chicken, Albondigas Soup, Mexican Green Rice, Ceviche, Roasted Red Pepper Pasta, & garlic bread. The sad part was my man was out of town, and Alyssa is nauseas so it was just us eating it.
Ceviche...
2 pounds imitation Crab
3 tomatoes diced
½ red onion chopped very thin
1/3 of a bunch of cilantro chopped
2 avocados chopped
5-6 limes
Salt and pepper
1 bottle of Tapatio
*Mix all ingredients. Squeeze lime juice over the entire mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over tostadas. Add “ Tapatio” sauce for flavor.
Heather’s Thai peanut sauce
½ cup peanut oil
½ cup peanuts
1 slice fresh ginger ½ inch thick
2 garlic cloves
1 can sweet condensed milk
2 Tbs soy sauce
4 tsp fish sauce
1 Tbs fresh lime juice
½ cup chopped cilantro leaves
Heat the peanut oil to nearly smoking in a sauce pan. Turn off the heat and add the peanuts. The peanuts should cook to a golden brown 2-4 minutes. If you burn them, throw them out and start all over again or your sauce will be bitter. You may have to turn on the heat again, but stir the peanuts if you do.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the peanuts to the blender or food processor. Along with 1 Tbs of the peanut oil and bend them to a rough paste. Add all the remaining ingredients except the cilantro and blend until smooth. If it is too thick add more oil. Stir in cilantro and serve
*** This sauce is amazing. You can serve it as a dipping sauce. It is great on chicken, shrimp, pork, and even tofu steaks. It is also a great base sauce for a Thai pizza too. You can freeze what you don’t use for next time.
H
Do you like my new decorations? The are in my color scheme!
Welcome to the south! H
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go...
At least in the Whittaker house!
We figured, its halfway to Christmas might as well get in the season. Everyone wore their festive colors! The girls in their Christmas dresses.
I busted out the big plastic bins in the garage. We got out lights to decorate the tree, the nativity because no matter when you need to remember the reason for the season, and how can we have a Christmas celebration with out some holiday music.
I made my dads English toffee and cookies for the pretend Santa to come and eat. Because we all now that the real santa is quite busy this time of year. We read Frosty the snowman, had hot chocolate, and ate homemade pizza just like we do every Christmas Eve.
We even had stockings with fun little gifts for everyone, well except mom. Go figure!
And the lovely night ended with us all cozy on the couch watching ELF! So much fun! And free too!
By the way... I am so stinkin' pissed at typepad right now. It has given me nothing but problems. So I am sorry the way this looks and that there is not links this week. HUH! H
Don't let anyone tell you it's not real! H
As the girls are jumping on top of each other Seanna screams "Ouch, Mom she just bit me!"
And then the eldest replied "NO I did not. Her skin just touched my teeth."
1. How did you guys choose your children's names? They're all beautiful!
Posted by: Paloma
2. What is the significance?
Posted by: Beth
Good questions!
I remember the day like it was just last week. Carlos and I were newlyweds and free as the wind. We went to the beach for the afternoon and just talked. Ok hold on... I am having a moment here peeps. Come with me for a second as I reminisce what life was like with no kids. Oh, to be able to just get out of your car and walk on the beach. NO whining because the sand is to hot, no extra bags to carry, just the sound of the waves and my mans voice. Ahhh...
So we are on the beach just chatting and Carlos bust out with, "when we have our kids and if we have a girl can we name her Sohaila?" "Sure" I replied and it was simple as that.
You see Carlos is not opinionated. He really never asks for anything and when he does I usually do it. :)
Sohaila was a girl he knew in college. Apparently her parents were missionaries when she was born over in middle east and they wanted to give her a native name. And Sohaila it was.
When we chose that name I was so excited, because it was so different. I knew she would never be able to walk into a gift shop and buy a mug with her name on it, but I was ok with that. It was different and I loved it. Sohaila Teresa Whittaker. Oh we also agreed that the middle names were gonna be after our siblings. So Teresa is from one of my sisters.
Fast forward 17 months and our little bean was born. Seanna Jess.
Well once you name one kid Sohaila your next one can't really be Madison, or Kate. So we began the hunt for different names. I liked a few, Laionie was one, but all I could think about was in first grade when kids pick apart your name they would just call her Lay-on-me. So that was a no go. We really did not have a huge list but a friend, James (our roommate who lives with us now) went online and made a list of different names and Seanna was on that list. I loved it, and now is just perfect for her.
Now for Losiah. See if we were gonna have a boy when we were pregnant with Sohaila we were gonna name him Isaiah. We both liked the name, but there were a few reasons why we did not go with that name when it came around for our second child. First reason being the fact that Isaiah is a common name. We were now in the club of "no one can pronounce my childs name or spell it right" And so Isaiah just would not work. Another factor was that I dated a guy named Isaiah and not that it mattered because Carlos did not care about that, but it did add some incentive to not use it.
So, again I remember this conversation like it was yesterday. Carlos and I had gone on a vacation with our best friends Brian and Jacinda. We were out on a date and Carlos, busts out with "lets play with the name Isaiah" HUH? "you know lets see if we can use that name but change it up a little" So we sat there that night and thought of different names that sounded like it but were a little more unique. Then Carlos says "I always wanted my son to be named Carlos" and I said "NO"! But then he said, "what if we took the LOS (which is Carlos' nickname) and combined it with Isaiah and we make LOSIAH. And walla, there you go. Losiah Eddie Whittaker.
Now you must know that we had Losiah picked out for Seanna, before we knew she was a boy or girl. But I think what I love the most is that we named our adopted baby after his daddy. I don't know there is just something special about that.
So tell me what are your kids names?
***Update: Prounications
Sohaila: So-Hay-La
Seanna: Say-anna
Losiah: Los-iah
Who will have the last few drops of spicy sauce?
Dang it...
I lost.
I am gonna try to get one question out a day. Lets see how long this goal will last!
Do you have any ink/tatoos/piercings?
Posted by: cathi
Yes Cathi I do have two tattoos, both are small. The first one is on my foot. We went to Banff Canada with our best friends Eric and Angela. Our goal was to get tattoos together. Carlos and Angela knew what they wanted. Eric and I had no idea. Once Angela got hers I looked at it and thought it was so cool. She convinced me to get the same thing. Heck she lived in Atlanta and there was no way in hell i was ever going to move there so who cares if we were twins. :) Eric ended up getting the same one as Carlos. I know cheesy, but I love it.
And the second Tattoo, I got when I went to LA Erotica. Everyone was getting lingerie for their husbands and so did I. I just don't take mine off. There was a tattoo booth in the convention and so I got my mans initials.
I am wanting to get something big, actually my mom, grandma and myself all are going to go together and get one but I do not know what to get! Ahh so frustrating.
Ok do tell, who has ink out there? Oh and do we have any artist that want to draw me up something? H
This evening we graciously pulled up in our Hyundai next to these wheels. As I was getting Losiah out of the car I hear Sohaila say "Wow this is a nice car! This is beautiful!..."
Allow me to fill you in on a little Whittaker Trivia... We do not care at all about what kind of car we drive. I have no idea where she would have even heard someone compliment a car. Our cars are NEVER clean and we really do not care even if it is held together with duct tape. You should see some of the pieces we have driven! Anyways, back to the Mercedes that my oldest was eying.
She stood next to it. Peeking over the side and vocalizing how much she thought this car was something else! Then I hear her say, "This car has magic"
?HUH? Magic?
She continues to tell Seanna who was her captive audience at the time, that this car has magic. It looks like this (a convertible), but with its magic it can turn itself back into a car like ours. How sweet is that! H
#1 What's your favorite thing to do to relax?
My favorite thing to do to relax everyday is blog or be online. However if you are talking really relaxing... Put me at a house in the mountains! You could add a lake where I can ski and sit and read books. I will move from the dock to the hammock to the sofa, and I will be in relaxing heaven!
#2 Are you naturally a neat person or a messy person?
I am one of those everything-has-its-own-place kind of people, but my shower doors are fogged up because I won't sqweegy them after I shower, and heaven knows when the last time I took a sponge to them. But if you open any cabinet it is organized.
#3 Where do you shop?
Well believe it or not I really don't like to shop. However if I had to pick two stores to shop at the rest of my life it would be Nordstrom's Rack and Forever 21. Cheap expensive stuff and just plain cheap stuff!
Posted by: Amanda
#4 Have you ever put the kibosh on something Carlos wanted to blog about?
Do you think he would listen? Ha! No, I do however wager things... Umm, well lets just say I have my way of getting things how I like them. I know how to get things either put on or off his blog. :)
Posted by: Mud Puppy | May 13, 2008 at 06:18 AM
#5 Can i come hang out with you?
Sure as long as you are not going to harm me or my family.
#7 - What is the best & worst thing about having your husband in a sometimes all consuming ministry?
Ahh, this is not a simple question, The worst is easy... it's having to be more reserved than I think I am by nature. I do not mean having a reserved personality, I mean in what I say or what is going on in our lives. Not everyone can know everything. That is hard for me because I am a open book. It is hard to keep things in. The best part of him being in ministry is just knowing we are doing what God has asked us to do. It's as simple as that. We know God has asked us to do this and there is no better feeling.
Posted by: ruthanne | May 13, 2008 at 06:31 AM
#8 How do you balance personal and private? I would love to blog but my family doesn't think putting our pictures on the internet is safe. What would you say to them to convince them that it's o.k. I keep saying "But Heather does it..." but they aren't buying it.
Obviously I am not very good at having boundaries (see question #5). No, honestly this is hard for many people and here is my jacked up mind frame... I took this psychopathic mind class is college. Long story short, the class talked about different killers and how they targeted their prey. There is no rhyme or reason. Yes you can take precautions, but honestly if my blog is going to Glorify God, get His Name out and help others understand what living a full life is all about, then I am going to keep doing what I am doing and trust God is going to protect us. Now please hear me. I have adjusted as my blog as it has grown. I attempt to not share any specifics, but truth be told people could find us if they wanted to. So I simply do not worry about tomorrow because there is enough to worry about today.
Posted by: Cindi | May 13, 2008 at 12:54 PM
All right your turn again... Lets go with question #2 with a twist... Tell me where you messy spot is. Everyone has one. You know the place all your stuff collects and you just can never get it under control.
I would say our spot is the Car. It is always a disaster!
Ok so today I slept from 11am-5pm
What the heck?
I did go to bed at 1:30am the night before and woke up at 6 to run 9 miles, but really I don't know the last time or if I have ever slept that long in the middle of the day.
It was lovely!
H
All I have heard all day long today was the tune to the Tomahawk Chop. My kids including Losiah have been chanting the tune and swinging their arms. I guess we can say we are officially from Atlanta now.
Seanna did a little barfing action earlier in the day and it came back at the game. Luckily we were able to be by a nice restroom and did not have to cover the toilet bowl of a public stadium.
Does that say mom or what. I am laughing at that picture!
I told you.
And of coarse we learned how to do the wave.
I love things like this... On the way home (we left a little early) the girls asked to listen to the game on the radio. It made me think of my Nannan, who always has her little radio on.
My tank is full! I got to hang out with some of my favorite people today while doing some of my favorite things!
It makes me happy just looking at the pictures! What makes you full? H
Lesson Learned: Never leave the kitchen with a bowl of Grape-nuts and a two year old in the room.
Well I confess, we have a packed week and there was no plans of a family night, however we did through Alyssa a great Beach Night for her birthday. You could totally use these idea's for a family night.
I made pudding and topped it with raw sugar and chocolate sea shells that we made.
For the kids I put their pudding in sand molds. The things that look like butter are shells. The picture really does not do it justice.
The beach is Alyssa's favorite and I wanted to make her feel at home so everyone put on sunscreen so we could all smell like the beach. I made her sit with her feet in sand like at the beach. We also had a bon-fire and smores just like we would at Huntington.
We even got sparklers and sang happy birthday to her! It was a lot of fun!
And like every family night the girls asked... Mommy can we do a beach night again. Those are the words I live to hear.
Now it's your turn. What did you do special with your family this week? Here are the rules...Share it on your blog then link back here!!! This is very simular to the blog carnival that Shannon has explained here. Email me for questions. H
This kid wont stop sweating! If we are outside this is what he looks like.
This has to be the best breakfast I have ever had!
I went out side got some homegrown tomatoes and basil. Made some egg whites and some fresh mozzarella balls and breakfast was served! What did you have to start the day?
Every night like clockwork the Whittaker Team is outside huntin'. For fireflies that is. I know Ya'll in the south call them Lightnin' bugs, but they are fireflies to me.
Well the little bugs can only entertain you for so long...
How fun is this one. And if you look real close on the one below you can see little yellow lines which is the little bugs flying. So magical!
I sit in tears right now over two losses. The tears are actually over some pictures that I took today that got erased. They were only pictures of an object, but they were the last glance of something that went on a 3 year journey with me. To some, three years are not a big deal. Heck, Sohaila is 6 and it feels just like yesterday. However, during these past years I have walked some major roads in my life, and I am sad to say good-bye to my two friends who I have grown to love.
Have you guessed yet what I am crying over? AND no this is not a joke! I am literally crying!
I said good bye to my tennis shoes.
I said this is not a joke!
The memories begin from day one... My grandma Nani, too
k me to downtown Pasadena to this running store where they matched me like a dating service to create the perfect relationship, and that they did! My shoes took me about 1,500 miles. Which means I should have gotten new ones about 1,000 miles ago. However the match was just to good. We climbed Half Dome twice, went to Korea to bring home Losiah, we climbed Whitney together, and went on Safari in Africa. We have cried together, moved across country in together, and skydived together. They have supported me and my desire to be a runner. They were old, dirty, but in some weird random way part of me.
So today at the store I got a 5% discount if I donated them. At first I had a rush of emotions and memories hit and wanted to say no. Then I realized I had the camera and I could capture them with out needing to keep them. I know I looked silly taking pictures of some tore up shoes, but I did not care. I wanted to have a reminder of my dear friends. The camera got accidentally erased before I could download them. There is no picture for you, except the picture of the memories my heart shares of my little old friends.
Luckily the salesman told me that he saves his laces on his shoes! At least I got these to remember my old dear friends.
Ok for reals...who thinks I am whack?
H
I have not been able to load my site all day. I can see people have left comments so I am assuming some people can see it. Why can't I?
Who can see me? H
I am upstairs, I hear a crash, and sprint to the kitchen to see this...
Mr. I-am-old-enough-to-climb-up-on-the-counter, decided that he was going to get some candy out of the candy jar. Nice! What's next? H
I got this great question from Sarah over at Ordinary Days on this post, and I wanted to see what you guys thought. Sarah, who has three boys wanted to know what thought process I went through in deciding that I was comfortable with Seanna wearing make-up at her young age? Sarah was by no means being judgmental she was just a mom of boys coming to a mom with girls wondering how I came to that decision. She continues to say that she was sure I gave it some thought and was just curious. So here I go with my parenting style and thought process on this...
Sarah, thanks for the question I by no means think you were judging me on this topic and even if you have a different stance on my way of parenting I still do not believe you are judging me. There are many ways to raise kids. I think majority of the parents out there are doing their best to bring thriving, loving and self sufficient kids into this adult world we live in. So my way may not be the best way it's just my way. Sometimes I fail, sometimes my decisions turn out right!
Ok so here is my opinion or thought process on this... First let me say that I never had a thought process. But I can tell you how it came about. You see around 4:30pm everyday I will go upstairs and freshen up because Carlos is almost home and I want to look good for him. Seanna being the little me that she is would always be my shadow. One day she asked me mommy why are you putting on makeup. I responded with " to get pretty for daddy". Then the next day she again was my shadow and this time she asked "mommy can I get pretty for daddy too?" Come on! How can I resist that. She is 4 years old, wants to do everything her mommy is doing and on top of that is understanding the value of looking nice for the man in her life. It just so happens that her man is her daddy.
My girls are dreamers. They are playing make believe all day long. It is one constant play in our house and I do not want to stop that, just because "makeup is for adults" I have no problem with them playing with it. When we go to the mall and walk through Nordstrom's we always walk by the MAC counter and they ask for some blush and lip gloss. They float the rest of the time in the mall. How can I resist that.
Here is the final overall belief of mine...
They have pure motives behind using makeup. If they were wanting to put it on because they wanted to be sexual about it then I would be having a different parenting issue. Right now they are sweet innocent kids who just want to have a little sparkle. They are not trying to be grownups, they simply are all girl!
Thanks for asking Sarah! Ok peeps, what is your rules, beliefs and thoughts? H
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