spring time...

springtime
means

being woke up by an excited sophie who wants to share the view of a beautiful sunrise with her momma


being cute in the sunshine

horseback lessons on saturday afternoons...

hours spent outside...

sipping on sonic slushies

learning how to jump rope

adorable sidewalk people

with 6 fingered hands that resemble the sun

finding private places to do your business

while enjoying the fresh air....

helping daddy mow the lawn

and sleepy children who happily tuck their new rainboots into bed.

i love springtime!

Best present award goes to....

my sweet sweet ella!

Here is a letter that my dear ella wrote for me on my birthday.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

1.  I am so glad that you are my mommy.

2.  You are the best mommy I ever had

3.  You are the best.

4.  You do like Gap don't you.

5.  Mommy you are so pretty that I can't get over you.

6.  Mommy I am so glad that God picked you to be my  

      mommy.

7.  I love you mommy so much.

8.  Mommy you are 35 you are an old curmudgeon.

9.  You are so pretty every day.

To:  Mommy Irene Whitacre

By:  Ella Irene Ping Whitacre

PS. I love you!

i still tear up when I read this letter.

As well as chuckle.

i heard her ask daddy how to spell "curmudgeon" not knowing she was writing a letter to me...i always call daddy an old curmudgeon so apparently i am one now as well. :)

i seriously have never met a child with such a compassionate heart. 

She is just so sweet and loving. 

i still remember talking with a wonderful woman that remembered ella from her time she spent volunteering in ella's orhanage.  she had named her "grace" and even wrote to me telling me  "she is the sweetest little baby with a smile that will melt your heart"

just amazing that ella exuded her sweetness and love even as a baby!

Still in awe that God picked me to mother this little sweet pea!  



my birthday

another birthday.

instead of dreading getting another year older i have decided to embrace it.

of course i am having a little harder time embracing the new wrinkles.

that part i am not so happy about.

but i am happy that God has given me another year, 365 more days to love my hubby and babies.

i'll take it.

i woke up to dunkin donuts and an iced coffee...and the littles running into my room to wish me a happy birthday.  love that!

we decided to go to eddie's for my birthday dinner.  it's about 1 1/2 hours away but i just love it there.  i grew up going to eddie's.  and even more amazing is my mom and dad started going there when they were dating.  very cool.

right by eddie's is a stage used for different performances they put on in the summer.  since eddie's is right on the lake it's quite the hot spot in the summer for fun things to do.  so i let the littles run around on stage after dinner.  i actually remember doing this when i was little. it was so neat.

since levi is very hard to photograph these days i usually just leave him right out of the shot...

but in true levi fashion he decides to crash the shoot.  :)

and how glad i am that he did...look how cute!

momma's littles.  love them.

a little blurry but adorable nonetheless!

these two were playing some sort of spanking game.

who knows. :)

i had an amazing birthday doing exactly what i wanted to do.  spending time with my sweet little family.  tomorrow i will post about my most favorite gift i received (and it wasn't the iphone that daddy gave me...it was much much better!)

spring break 2012

once again we headed up to maine to spend our spring break with daddy as he traveled for work. 

it was quite cold this year but we made the most of it...

as we always do.

who doesn't love a little get away with your hubby and littles?

showing off their cute new lil MJ bags from the easter bunny

this is levi's camera smile...oh levi.

love this pic of the girls...it's a reminder that abbie is just one of the girls now-

no longer the baby. 

sniff sniff.

of course we spent plenty of time in the pool.

and of course we had to go visit the lighthouse. 

poor ella was so cold.  i guess that's what happens when you have very little body fat to keep you warm...i certainly wouldn't know. ;)

a very nice lady gave us some old bread to feed the seagulls...not sure why i never thought of that but the girls had so much fun!

i love these two.  i do not love how much they fight but i do love the bond they have.

momma and her lil guy

love when i catch moments like this

sophie took this shot...great job soph!

while daddy, ella, and levi were warming up in the car sophie, abbie and i just sat on the rocks and enjoyed the view.  i really could of stayed there for hours.  it was so beautiful.



another one of sophies. :)

the next day we headed to the beach to just run around...it was a tad chilly.

levi loved the sand.

abbie was so proud of her "A" that she wrote in the sand. 

how cute.

oh ella and her peace signs.

levi started to get brave and walk towards the ocean but then quickly had to be

rescued from a puddle

by his brave daddy.

from there we headed to the candy shop.  momma loves this place as much as the littles do!

abbie changed her mind like 164, 237, 836 times.  she even switched after this "final choice" picture was taken.  she ended up opting for the easter colored candy corn (which was 50% off-good choice abbie!)

and of course we enjoyed some delicious maine lobster...we found out sophie and ella loves lobster.  not sure if thats a good thing. 

back at the hotel i found this lil guy hiding being naughty...

by trying to sneak one of his sissie's...

gummy sharks. 

we had such a great time.  i really do just love getting away with my sweet lil family and not having to worry about anything but spending time with them.  i am so blessed.