Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year. Kimball was really excited to dress up this year. We were going to be the Berenstain Bear family, but I couldn't find clothes for us so I was off the hook on dressing up. Since we weren't the bear Kimball said he wanted to be Tin Man. I borrowed a Tin Man costume from a friend so that was pretty easy. Rebecah dressed as a lion so she could be the Cowardly Lion and keep with the Wizard of Oz theme.

Tin Man Kimball


Cowardly Lion


Ready to Pounce


Together


Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Annette


Wednesday evening we went to our Church social. There were Halloween games to play followed by a trunk or treat. Rebecah hadn't slept much that day so she zonked out pretty quickly once the action started. Kimball had a blast playing the games and getting candy and little action figures. The funny thing about little kids...they don't know the good candy from the "junk" candy. Kimball has happily picked out the Smarties, candy sticks or other yucky candy to eat first.

Cita sleeping through the party.


On Thursday the library had a special Halloween Storytime so Kimball dressed up again and Joseph took him and Rebecah to story time. Kimball enjoyed listening to the Halloween stories, singing songs and doing little crafts.

Our City Council decided to have trick or treating on Saturday instead of Sunday. I decided that I didn't want to have to answer the door so we left our light off and watched The Wizard of Oz to celebrate. Kimball sat through the entire movie and loved it.

I'm so glad Kimball doesn't really understand the whole trick or treating door to door thing because I'm dreading the year we actually have to take him around.

Sun Rays

Kimball loves hearing about the First Vision when Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus. He has even watched The Restoration DVD and enjoyed it. A few weeks ago we were walking by some woods and he told me he wanted to go into the woods, when I inquired why, he said he wanted to go pray and see what church he should join.

Today we were walking by another stand of trees and the sun was shining through the branches and we could see the bright sun and its rays. Kimball asked if Heavenly Father and Jesus were in the trees since it was so bright. I told him probably not. I thought it was sweet that he instantly thought we were being visited by our loving Heavenly Father and our Elder Brother because he saw the light shining through the trees, just like the experience Joseph Smith had in the grove.

10/10/10

Sunday was my birthday and it was fun having a "10" birthday. Quite a few people told me it was a cool date. I guess if I had been more aware of the date I would have planned a party theme around 10/10/10, but I just didn't.

I had a great birthday. It was Fast Sunday, but since Rebecah is still nursing I wasn't fasting so I started the day with White Chocolate Cranberry scones for breakfast. They were so yummy. I did feel a little bad making them since Joseph couldn't eat them, but there were plenty left and he did eat one at dinner.
We, of course, attended church and then in the afternoon we spent the time together as a family. We had a sweet sister from church stop by and bring a chocolate cake and some flowers.



Thanks to everyone who sent cards. They all arrived on time and it was fun having so many cards to open. Joseph and Kimball bought me some nice things. They went shopping together twice and then spent one evening before dinner wrapping the presents and decorating the paper. Rebecah had fun with all of the birthday wrappings and when we weren't looking she was trying to eat the wrapping paper. One time I caught her with styrofoam that I had to then fish out of her mouth.


In this picture you can see Rebecah going for the mouth.

For my birthday dessert I had a chocolate truffle cake and it was divine! It was the 4th year I have had it and words don't describe how yummy it is. Kimball preferred the cake the woman in our ward brought over so more of the truffle cake for me.



Kimball was very excited about my birthday. He talked about it all week. We would go through our agenda for the day and he always finished by saying "And Sunday is your birthday!" He started singing happy birthday to me on Friday and sang to me multiple times on Sunday. We even took a little video of him singing to me.

The best part about my birthday was having Joseph home so much and having so much family time. We even spent the two hours after the kids were in bed talking and staying up later than we usually do.

Rebecah = Cita

Okay, I'm going to clear the air...we have a nickname for Rebecah and it came in a round about sort of way. When she was a few months old we started calling her "Rebecahcita" which in Spanish would be a term of endearment meaning "little Rebecah". After calling her Rebecahcita for a while we shortened her name to just "Cita". I know all of those Spanish speakers out there are thinking "cita" means appointment in Spanish and it does, but it's also Rebecah's nickname. I have found that we rarely call her Rebecah anymore unless I'm around others who don't know we call her Cita. So if I refer to her as Cita in our blog you'll know why. I'm not a fan of shortened forms of names so calling her Becca or Becky are out. It would be similar to calling Joseph "Joe" and I cringe to even type it. So Cita it is.

Anyway, Cita turned 9 months old yesterday. She is a wonderful fun girl. She loves to play and make people laugh or laugh herself. She is very much a Mama's girl and that is difficult at times when she doesn't want anyone but me! She has 3 teeth with more coming soon. She is close to crawling and the day she does crawl will be bittersweet. I'll be glad she reached that milestone but sad that she'll be on the loose.

At the doctor's office today she weighed in 16 lbs 11 oz so she is on the small side.

Here are a few pictures:

She loves to sit on Joseph's shoulders and bounce around.

She and I wanted to be twins a few days ago.

Here is her ladylike pose from Sunday.

CARS Family

It comes as no surprise that Kimball loves the characters from the CARS movie. He knows all of the major characters and talks about them. Yesterday we bought him a new comforter for his bed and he chose a CARS comforter. I gave him a choice between that and Toy Story. This morning Kimball decided to match our family up with some of the characters from the movie. Here is Kimball's casting job:
Lightning McQueen = Joseph

Doc Hudson = Annette

Mack = Kimball

Mater = Rebecah


When I asked Kimball if I could be Sally so I could have a crush on Lightning McQueen he flat out told me no! He has called us by our assigned names all day. He will correct me when I refer to Rebecah by her name or nickname and tell me she's Mater.

Our little Scout

Kimball is always saying he wants to be a boy scout so he can accompany Joseph on his Boy Scout adventures. Last night we had another camping adventure but this time we moved the tent outside. Joseph said it was a little chilly but they survived the entire night outside!

Here they are this morning by their tent.


Joseph completed the Boy Scout adventure by taking Kimball with him to help with an Eagle Scout project. The project is to make a hiking trail. I'm not sure how much help the two will be but they are together. When Joseph asked Kimball what he wanted to wear Kimball said "Patches and a brown shirt." He knows a Boy Scout has a patch! Joseph sewed an old patch on one of Kimball's sweatshirts and he was thrilled.

Kimball also said that he needed to take food on his hiking trip and Joseph asked him what kind of food he wanted to take. Kimball said "Galletas" which means cookies in Spanish. Again we humored him and let him take a few cookies and a bottle of water in a backpack.

Here is Scout Kimball ready to blaze a trail.


Here is Kimball with his patch.


And here is Kimball's backpack with the water and galletas inside. We let him wear the smallest backpack we could find but the straps still drag on the ground at his feet. The shoulder straps barely stay on his shoulders; it's a good thing it has a chest strap to hold it on him. I love it!

Wonderful Weather

Fall has finally come to Arkansas and we have been enjoying the wonderful weather this week. My morning walks are so much more enjoyable when I don't come home soaked in sweat! We have played outside, gone to the park and had a fun time.

Here are a few pictures of Joseph and Rebecah enjoying the grass during Joseph's lunch break.





I took Rebecah out on a blanket and somehow she managed to get one of the prickly gum balls from the sweet gum trees and I caught her with one in her mouth! It grossed me out and and I promptly moved her to the deck away from the plant particles.