General Conference

We really enjoyed General Conference this weekend, especially Kimball. He has really taken an interest in the General Authories and will frequently pour over the General Authority chart we have given him. He readily recognizes many of the men and women who lead our church. He got very excited when he saw people he recognized speaking or giving the prayers.

Alas, if only he would give as much concentration and excitement to potty training. : )

5th Anniversary

We celebrated our 5th anniversary this past weekend. Our actual anniversary was Friday and Joseph took the day off. We used his day off to buy our van so that day wasn't the most exciting way to spend our anniversary as we drove to various dealerships and then drove home separately.
On Saturday we made eggrolls together which has become a tradition. We always make eggrolls right around our anniversary because we first made them together right after we got married.
On Sunday we ate our anniversary dessert...a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, recipe compliments of Kristin, Annette's sister. The cheesecake was so good and we have decided that this cheesecake will become a new anniversary tradition.

The Cheesecake

Joseph and his cheesecake. Sorry, Rebecah, none for you.

Kimball opted for a sucker instead of cheesecake but wanted a picture of his dessert as well.

Annette's New Baby

Annette got a new baby last week:

I bought my first car almost 8 years ago and it was 7 years old when I bought it. It was time for a new car because with over 200,000 miles on our Camry we needed something newer, quieter and with fewer miles.

After quite a bit of research and tips from Scott, Annette's brother-in-law we made a trip to Fort Smith, and found a new car.

We bought a 2006 Toyota Sienna. It has low miles and looks really good. The color wasn't our first pick, but it is growing on us. It is fun to have a new van to drive and we hope to fill it with children in the years to come.

We are keeping our old car for driving around town without the kids. It will mainly be Joseph's car now. Joseph is glad to be able to drive to work and church instead of biking.

The Things We Say

As we all know, little children pick up on the things we say and then start repeating them. It has dawned on us recently that we must say:"Sure", "That would be fine.", "Maybe" and "Thank you." quite often. It is not unusual to hear the above expressions multiple times a day coming from Kimball's mouth. It is so funny to hear him using our expressions. We are just glad that the expressions we use are children friendly!

St. Patrick's Day

This year was the first year that we have really celebrated St. Patrick's Day. We are trying to teach Kimball that holidays are fun even if they are smaller holidays. We looked at some festive pictures on the computer and printed Kimball a St. Patrick's Day coloring page. He enjoyed coloring it.
On Wednesday we found something green to wear and then we got to work in the kitchen. Kimball and I made green pistachio salad and a coconut cake. We made the frosting green. For dinner we also ate broccoli and green waffles.
Here is a picture of Joseph, Rebecah, and Kimball in their green at the dinner table.

Picture of Annette with the green coconut cake.

Our green food.

Thursday when Kimball woke up he asked if it was still St. Patrick's Day. He enjoyed our special day. I just hope he doesn't associate Wednesdays with St. Patrick's day from now on.

I painted our kitchen last Saturday and finished it up on Monday just in time for the holiday. It is a pale green. You can't really see the color well in the pictures, but it is slightly lighter than the cake. It was a big job and I'm glad it's finished. I'm even happier that our kitchen no longer has the wallboard showing!

Coconut

Growing up I always thought that I hated coconut. Now that I am older I have discovered that I really like the flavor of coconut and what I don't like is the texture of coconut. I don't like finding bits of flaked coconut in my mouth after I have eaten it...it grosses me out.
Over the past few years I have started putting small amounts of coconut in a few things that I make...granola being one of them. I enjoy the flavor and at least in granola the texture doesn't bother me.
Kristin, my sister, told me about a coconut cake she was making and it sounded surprisingly tempting, so I had her send me the recipe. I made the recipe for St. Patrick's day and I really liked it. Cream of coconut is SO good. The only flakes of coconut were in the coconut pudding mix that I used for part of the frosting and they didn't bother me.
A picture of the cake is in our St. Patrick's Day post.

The Second Month

Rebecah turned 2 months old on Sunday. She is doing great. She weighed 9 lbs. 12 oz. at the doctor on Monday. She is smiling and talking to us most days and she continues to sleep great at night. We moved her into Kimball's room about 2 weeks ago and I am sleeping so much better. It is amazing how quiet baby noises are until I'm trying to fall asleep and they keep me up. Now Kimball can listen to them...he actually sleeps just fine with Rebecah in his room.

Here is a picture of Rebecah and then one of Kimball and Rebecah. Kimball is a good big brother and tries to be helpful. Kimball always wants in on the action where Rebecah is concerned.