Needed: More Dad Time

Okay, so I have decided that sometimes Kimball is just with me TOO much. At times he just needs more man time. It isn't that Joseph neglects him by any means, but Joseph goes to work every day and that means Kimball is with me more than anyone else.

Kimball was being awfully quiet this morning and I decided that was dangergous so I went to check on him. I found this:



He had helped himself to my eyeliner and mascara. He has seen me put my makeup on tons of times so he knew the general idea behind makeup. After a brief moment of dismay I had to laugh and tell myself it's washable mascara. I just hope my boy isn't the only boy that has ever gotten in to makeup!

The BIG 3-0

My birthday was Saturday and I’m no longer a twenty-something. I’m excited to be 30. We originally planned to leave Kimball with friends so Joseph and I could go to Hot Springs, AR together. Our friends had an out-of-town family event come up so we had to postpone our plans. We hope to go to Hot Springs in a few weeks.

Anyway, our day ended up being low-key, but it was a nice birthday. Joseph made me French toast for breakfast. I don’t think I had to cook or do any dishes the entire day, diapers, too, for that matter!

Kimball seemed more excited about my birthday than his own, which was in August, probably because he knew how exciting birthdays are now. We told him that we would have cake and presents after he woke up from his nap. Joseph got him up from his nap and the first thing Kimball asked for was cake—another instance where his memory rarely fails him. If we tell him something will happen after his nap it is the first thing he always asks about. He got a little upset when the cards and presents ran out. He asked for more.

Here is a picture of Kimball helping to put the candles on the cake.



Here is a picture of Kimball and me with the lit cake. I have a big sweet tooth and rarely is chocolate too rich for me so I thoroughly enjoyed my chocolate truffle cake. I even risked eating a piece of it Sunday before going in for my glucose screening Monday. I couldn't decide which picture of Kimball I liked better so I included both.





In the evening we went to a Harvest Party that a doctor from the hospital hosted. It was a family event so we didn’t have to worry about any drinking. The doctor has a barn on his property and had games planned for the kids and dinner for all. Kimball had a blast and didn’t want to leave. Here is a picture of Kimball already to leave for the party.

Where's Mom's present?

Kimball has a great memory. He can put his toys down and if we ask him where they are he can go find them right away. If he takes something of ours the same is true; he can show us where he puts it.
On Friday, Joseph got finished with work a little early so he came by the house to get Kimball and they went birthday shopping for me. They found the present they wanted to get me and they took turns holding it. Joseph received a phone call from Dr. Allison so he was slightly distracted for a few minutes. After he got off the phone the presents was gone. Joseph said he and Kimball retraced their steps over and over looking for the present. Joseph kept asking Kimball "Where's Mom's present?" Joseph reported that he finally went back to the aisle where he was pretty sure he last had the present and got down on Kimball's level and asked one more time...probably in a pleading voice..."Where's Mom's present?" Joseph said Kimball walked right up to a spot on the shelf and pulled the present out from behind something else. Joseph had looked up and down the shelves, but hadn't thought to look behind things. Thankfully, Kimball remembered where the present was!
We enjoyed a good laugh about it at home.

St. Louis Vacation

We returned this past Saturday from a vacation to St. Louis. It was nice to get away.

We started the trip with a stop in Conway, AR where Joseph participated in a 52 mile bike tour. Kimball and I were able to see Joseph off before we went shopping. I didn’t find the maternity clothes I was looking for, but we were able to fill the time while Joseph was riding. Joseph’s route was quite hilly, but he managed to finish in under 3 ½ hours which was his goal.

We spent most of our week with Annette’s mom and two sisters. We had fun playing games. (Heather and I lost terribly in dominoes. In the last two rounds we acquired over 120 points. It was fun!)

We took Kimball to Suson Park and he had a great time. He enjoyed the playground, but he really enjoyed the 3 barns with all of the animals. We saw sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, pigs, horses, cows, peacocks and a tractor. The tractor was a big hit with Kimball.

Here are a few pictures from the park:











On Wednesday we went to the Zoo. The weather all week was nice and cool, but especially nice the day we went to the zoo. We all enjoyed seeing the animals, especially the giraffes and elephants. We skipped the insect and snake houses, but other than that we were able to see just about everything.

Here are a few zoo pictures:








We did make it to Joseph’s parent’s house and had a nice visit with them. Jonathan and Mandy were there Wednesday evening and we enjoyed seeing them, too. Kimball really warmed up to them and has even asked to go back to Grandma’s house to see Jonathan and Mandy. During our visit Jonathan took our family picture and some Kimball pictures, but you don’t get to see those yet!

A few other highlights were attending the temple together, Joseph going on a few more bike rides, and a second attempt at maternity clothes shopping which ended in success.

It is good to be home, but Kimball keeps asking to “go back Granny’s house”. He loves his extended family.

Lunch at the Counter

I took this picture last week of Kimball sitting at our counter eating lunch. He is such a big boy! He does great sitting on the stool and eats lunch at the counter every day. I love having a counter for him to sit at when I work in the kitchen. He loves to watch me do my “kitchen work” and in our old house always wanted to sit on the counter. Now I tell him he can just sit on a stool at the counter and that keeps him happy.

I choose the flies

Ever since we moved to our new house it seems we always have a few extra guests each night that end up in our room. We always find one or two flies that persecute us. A small annoyance, but manageable.

This morning I found an ant infestation in our mailbox. It looked like the ants were moving all of their soon to hatch babies into our box. It was rather disgusting. I wished Joseph were home to deal with the problem. While I was taking care of the ants I discovered a rather large spider. (Since it was on MY driveway it was too close for comfort. I have had some rather unpleasant experiences with spiders over the past 4 years…usually me in the bathroom with spiders. I now have a fear of large spiders.) After taking care of the ants I tackled the spider. Since he was big it took some effort to kill him…he was too big for me to just step on comfortably. I finally broke out the Raid and after two squirts he died.

A friend of mine thought it was probably a small wolf spider…harmless but huge. Here is a picture of it. I threw a pen in the picture to help with the picture scale. It was a cap less Papermate pen.





So, I will happily face a few flies each night in exchange for a mailbox free from ants and no large spiders.

Homeowners!

Joseph and I bought a house today! We are really excited to be homeowners. It has been a whirlwind adventure the past two weeks, but at least it is all over. We saw our house for the first time two weeks ago today and we both really liked it from the beginning. We kept this under our hat for the most part incase something didn’t work out. The Lord has been very generous in extending to us many tender mercies. Our loan went through very quickly, the inspector admitted that he rarely does next day inspections but had an opening for us, and we were able to find renters to fulfill our current lease.



We bought a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. It also has an office so that will be nice. The office would be a 4th bedroom if it had a closet, but it doesn’t. The house is in a good neighborhood and is only a few blocks from the elementary school. The middle school is probably a ½ mile away. Joseph’s work is a mile and church is just over a mile.

I guess the only negative is that we are moving again while I’m pregnant. We moved about 6 weeks before Kimball was born two years ago. Being extra tired and sore aren’t the most enjoyable, but it is only for a few days. I told Joseph I didn’t want any more moves when I’m pregnant! I will also miss the pecan tree we had, but that is small peanuts, or should I say pecans, to owning our own home.