MAY THiRTEENTH – so much significance

today is a BiG day!

and i’ll give you THREE REASONS why:

1. i have the greatest mother in the world. er, universe. er, just don’t try to compete – ok?!

this is her. yvonne. reading her scrips waiting for one of our many trains in italy.

…ok, i have much better pictures, yes. but i thought this one had a nice “vibe” to it. ha!

so why don’t we go back a bit?? my parents on their wedding day!… classic…

four kids later along came her favorite (moi!)…yes, i’m like a little elf…

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you can always find my mom in the yard with her flowers and plants. i often shadowed her…

(pic with the first bloomed tigerlily!!! a native to the northern mexican mountain where my mom grew up):

always supportive…so happy on my temple endowment day back in 2008!…

mom wrote me a handwritten letter every week, without fail, the whole 18 months i was gone on my mission. that mail was the best.

mom and her parents (grandma! – another amazing woman to be mentioned on this day!)…

random. dressed up as cinderelly….super cute, i know…

mom and i tend to go out to eat….and eat a lot when we do…

…which is why we were in heaven when we went to Italy together in january…

(all sorts of flattering pictures, i know!)

enough with photos… my mom is incredible. as i get older, i have the opposite of worry when i see more of her in me. she’s been an example my whole life of hard work, sacrifice, faith, service, and integrity…also distilling in me a love for the arts, music, gardening, cooking, cleaning, and giving. she’s demonstrated to me that the gospel is a way of life and that we should live putting others first.

i can’t even begin really to know what to say when it comes to my mom…

so let’s settle with, Happy Mother’s Day! – te amo un montonsote!

REASON #2 for May 13th

2. i returned home from my mission TWO YEARS AGO today!

holy moly!

yes, that dates me…

though my 18 months spent in the service of the Lord are ones i will never take back and will remember forever. puerto rico and barbados…always in my heart.

i miss them…

…two years ago on Mother’s Day this happened. the best last Sunday any missionary could ask for.

ohmygoodness i’m getting emotional thinking about these people…i must call them…

moving on…

REASON #3 for May 13th…

3.

i’m not one to keep track of dates…but this time i will make note that the 13th marks “one month” of being “officially together”

cheesey?? …you’re just jealous.

a little crazy that after only 6 1/2 weeks of dating, i’m incredibly head-over-heels for this face…

WOAH there, huge zoomed in shot of a face!!!

bahahahahaha

only appropriate though. super cute, right?!

oh…that’s james, btw. get used to hearing about him.

and we’re a pretty big deal.

the talk of the town one might say…

yes…we cook together too.

the only problem…

i have to wait FOUR  M O R E   W  E   E   K   S   until i see him again. siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh…

more on this later.

love, whit

merry and bright

my sister, Dacy, and her familia drove down from Virginia the day after Christmas.

there was some gift opening…(zia loves her papa tutt)…

quinlan loving her OWN new camera…

ry LOVES his kindle fire…

this little man is SUCH a bundle of love!!…

..my family makes cute kids. no big deal.

and of course…the usual crazy Papa Tutt tickle attacks of never-ending squeals…

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and…being the favorite aunt… (yes, true statement)… i gave “makeovers” to the girls. something i’ll probably be begged to do every day until they leave.

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3 year old Zia, all glammed up:

…trying to “pucker up”…(don’t you just love her glasses?!)

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max…happy to be a boy…

and Quinlan…in her mom’s old cheerleading uniform…

Zia reminded us of Madonna being a “Material Girl”…

love these kids.

(nevermind my overly-happy baby face)

love, whit

enthused.

mom puts together this Christmas newsletter every year to send out to family and friends. actually…she does it in poem form. rhymes and all. and for quite a while around the house in the month of December, we get to hear about how she needs to get it done and how she needs help in finding a good picture to put with it. generally, no ones pays any mind to it until it becomes overly annoying. ha! so last night…we finally succumbed to getting together and making it happen. this is how enthused we were…

happy holidays. from the Tutt’s! ….ha.

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speaking of enthused. today is one of those days…where i ended up having to take a trip to the store during my lunch break to pick up the following…

…all my feel-better comfort food cravings. gushers. flaming hot cheetos. dark chocolate. and odwalla. a sick and unhealthy combo, i know. but the day called for it. so judge me! Odwalla was on SALE though…total perk. i bought three.

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found this in my coat pocket today too…

remember enthusiasm. indeed.

love, whit

Troy Lyman Forsyth – our halloween baby!

both of my best friends growing up are having babies…and coincidentally both of their due dates are the first week in november! one is out in SLC, Utah and i’ve been so excited that i’ll be out there this coming week and hopefully not miss the event!

but that meant i would miss out on lisa’s little man when he came. they live here in GA.

BUT! yesterday couldn’t have been more perfect timing…little troy decided to join us on Halloween! and it just so happens that i got off work early at 3:30 and was able to head to the hospital in Fayetteville right away!

lisa is just a natural mommy!

auntie amber came by for a visit! (college roommate bestie)

and turns out we all knew emily…one of the “cone head” nurses! (even the hospital had fun on Halloween)

after a few hours they switched mommy and daddy to a more comfortable room

getting help from the nurse….(i love seeing babies all bundled into a ball of joy!)

pete is SUCH a good daddy already…

the nurse would come to check troy’s temperature and re-swaddle him

(he has big feet and long fingers like his momma! haha)

i LOVE his head full of hair…and blonde! lisa was blonde when she was little.

(they used the vacuum to get him out…so his head is extra long for now)

i played Aunt Whitney for a while…

(the lil guy does not like being moved much!)

i am his official babysitter. i decided.

love, whit

atlanta segway tour

so, as i mentioned before, my parents’ birthdays are this week.

as a present, something different and fun to do – we went on a SEGWAY TOUR of ATLANTA! it was – SO fun!

the rents:

let’s back up a bit…from the beginning…

mom, getting a feel for what we’re about to do before the segway safety/warm-up…

helmets and the safety video were mandatory…

then a little one-at-a-time practice on the segway. our group was my parents and i, a very cordial young bloke from the UK (it was his first time ever to the states – loved his accent), and a french canadian from montreal.

i didn’t get many pictures of the tour – it’s hard to manage a sensitive segway and a DSLR. but we did take a stop and walk around a bit at the capitol. mom really wanted a pic with good ol’ jimmy – the only US president from GA. the statue is life size of him, too…

our group:

mom took this one,

the shot i was taking in that picture:

a couple more from dad’s camera…

when we passed the Ritz Carlton, we made it at the same time as the pro football team from Philly. the Eagles – coming for the game against the Falcons. there were tv cameras and crowds – i managed to get my balance enough to snap a couple…too bad it’s just the back of some of the players…

the last “break” stop was at The Varsity. atlanta’s famous chili-dogs…

i wish i was able to get more pictures, but my coordination on the segway wasn’t the best…i didn’t want to bring my camera into it. i thought mom would have problems on the machines….turns out i was the one with “incidents”…yes, there was blood…

each segway had a name, mine was “Jack”…just when i got the hang of how to ride him, the day was over…

it was definitely a well-spent 3 hours…and the rents loved the adventure…

afterwards we had some straight-up southern cookin’ downtown at Mary Mac’s. check out my fried fish platter…

…i’ll be eating on it for DAYS. after i ate my fried green tomatoes, cabbage, and broccoli souffle…i had no room for much more.

a few more photos…some more of my favs from my claire marie “photo shoot”…

 

ok, that’s enough pictures for one day.

love, whit

facebook: no, please!

first things first…

my sister, Dacy, had her baby last night around 10pm…#4 child for their family – little Miles August. 8lbs 8oz.

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thought for the day:

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rad photo of the day:

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rant of the day:

Facebook. I opened my account in 2004…back when you had to have a college/university email to do so. I wasn’t quite sure what it was or how to fully enjoy its benefits – but the word had spread that it was the newest hip online social network for college kids to interact and find out what was going on in the area.

NOW – clearly, it’s THE social network. THE social interaction. For everyone. Everywhere. That’s great, right? I guess; however, I am currently not a fan. For the first time since 2004, I’ve deactivated my account.

 It’s quite liberating actually!

 I get disgusted with myself thinking of the hours wasted “stalking” people. That’s what we’re doing basically, you know. And it’s creepy when I realize that somehow, i’ve ended up on a page of a person I don’t even know, looking at their photos (we’ve all done it before, so I know I’m not alone. but still). It’s like twitter (something I am not a part of) – Why is there such a need to let everybody know what you’re doing and thinking every hour in the day? Or why do we need to KNOW what everybody is doing and thinking every hour of the day? People should spend more time living their own life instead of investing so much into what everyone else is up to. It only makes us more susceptible to comparison.

Also, it’s silly how “nothing’s official until it’s Facebook official”. There have been numerous occasions when talking to people, that they’ve responded with “WHAT? I didn’t know that! How come it’s not on your facebook?!”  – It’s as though Facebook is everything, reality, our world – our identity. We can become involved in people’s lives without actually being involved at all because Facebook has no secrets. It’s gossip central. Especially with that blasted news feed. People know it, too, and use that as an advantage and disadvantage to others. Yeah, they have all the special “privacy settings” now where you can block even your “friends” from seeing specific things you post – but if it gets to that, what’s the point then?

I mean, what did people do before Facebook?  They lived their lives, minded their own business, and did other things with their time like have REAL social interaction with friends and family. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve loved it as a means to communicate and share news. It’s cheaper than an international phone call. And yeah, it is neat to see what everybody is up to now and then. I will be back on it I’m sure, one day. But for now, I’m over it.

Besides, I still have a blog – which is more for my own personal rants and raves – but means I still have a small online connection to people who know about it. and that’s enough for me.

love, whit