spring & the police.

the kids had a busy day today.

first off...

policeman at aiden's school.

officer baird--poor guy wasn't feeling good, either.

emily had her spring program.

my favorite flamingo, sawyer. 

porter & dina.

speaking. onstage. in public.

huge step.

so proud of her.  she has her daddy's genes, obviously.

the program was garden themed.

these boys were the weeds. 

the yellowy-orange glasses in front belonged to my friend.

he's just like his dad.

little short sawyer, on her tippy toes to speak.  so cute!

as the bunny says,
"that's all folks!"

at home.

the almost 5 year old.

i love the many faces of aiden.
especially the yawn and allergy cough.

today was one of my favorite days: lens rental day!

i picked out a 35mm 1.4 this time. 
oh, my.
love this lens.

emily has a program tomorrow, and while i should have rented an 85mm instead, i'm glad i got this lens.

it. is. fun.

and sharp.

excuse the face paint and wild hair.  she's a bunny in her program and they had dress rehearsal today.  as for the hair, well, i can't control what she does at school, so this is usually how it looks when i pick her up.
ha ha.

emily took a pic for me, too.
one for justin to enjoy.



PW cookbook giveaway

you all know who 'THE PIONEER WOMAN' is, right?

(if not, shame on you!)

well, she was in my city last week,

 holding a book signing for her new cookbook. 

i was unable to go since i'm on kid duty 24/7,

but my awesome friend, jen, was able to take

some books for me and have them signed. 

that girl is my hero for lugging those books around

in her canvas tote for hours.

[thanks for the photo permission, jen! i took all the covers off my books for the signing, so i'm pretty sure PW is pictured with one of my books! wahoo. :) ]

if you've been around my blog during the holidays,

you know that i make a massive amount of pioneer woman cinnamon rolls.

my book automatically opens to the cinnamon roll page now, though i don't even need to use the cookbook

when i make them anymore.

when i heard that PW was coming to town,

i went out and bought enough books to cover a tank

of gas in her vehicle(or so i joke).

i knew when i purchased them,

that i wanted to giveaway a signed copy.

that being said,

this giveaway is not to boost my number of followers

or promote my blog in any way.

if i promote anything, it's eating yummy food!! :)

honestly, i really just like to give.

so, if you're a big PW fan & dying to try some

'knock you naked brownies'

(jen highly recommends making those!),

then this is your chance.

just add your name to the comments section  

and i'll add you into the drawing.

[ends saturday, april 21st]

if you're friends with a regular reader and they

sent you this way for the drawing,

be sure to mention their name when you sign

in for the drawing.

good luck!

*****drawing is now closed!*****

easter 2012

easter 2012

aiden's easter party at school.

easter at my parents.

very weird to not have justin with us!

with all the food my mom made,

you would have thought she was planning

for him to be in attendance, too!

we no longer enjoy smiling for the camera.

i made those punks work for their eggs. :)

happy easter from the whyte house!

ah, spring in kansas.

i have to say, only living in kansas & oklahoma all of my life, i've never seen a funnel....other than on the news.

the kids wanted to go to village inn for breakfast..well, dinner..and as we were waiting for our food to come out, this showed up.  a minute after i took this photo, this one went back up and a second came down to the right of this one.  cold air funnels, not dangerous, but looked scary enough to scare the 6 yr old.  oh, was she panicked.  thankfully, our food came out when the second one popped out & we were able to box it & go home.

i think it's safe to say that she won't ever want to watch the movie 'twister' when she gets older!

the great outdoors.

after a week of rain,

there is just nothing better than

playing in the sun!

ree is coming to town.

this woman...

is coming to hold a book signing in my city...

[photos via 'the pioneer woman']

and while i adore 'the pioneer woman' & her cookbook
(though i don't adore the extra pounds i've put on eating her food), i really don't want to be in the mob of crazy stay-at-home mom's who are hurrying to get a photo with her, have their book(s) signed, all so they can rush home to finish their mom duties before school the next morning(ree's coming on a school night--ugh).  so thankful for friends who stalk ree much more than i do & are willing to get a book signed for me.  :)  i won't name name's, but i think jennifer whitcomb deserves something special for this venture. :)
can't wait to hear all of her squealing.