Celebrating Easter

We had a really nice Easter weekend. We always take two days to celebrate Easter. On Saturday we do the candy and egg hunt activities and on Sunday we do the Sacred activities to remember the true meaning of Easter...Jesus Christ. Throughout the week we read the Easter story from the Bible reading the events that took place during Christ's last week.

Our Saturday celebration started off by giving the kids an area rug with a town on it. Kimball loves the new rug because he can zoom his cars on it. We thought about saving it for his birthday but decided to make it a joint gift so in a few months Rebecah can put her Little People characters and farm animals on it too.

After resting time we had an egg hunt inside. We have had almost 2 weeks of solid rain and thunderstorms so it is very soggy outside. The egg hunt wasn't as exciting inside, but Kimball got in to it. Rebecah found 1 egg and after than just worked on eating the candy out of her egg.

The pictures aren't great, but it is getting harder to capture good pictures, especially of Rebecah because she wants to see them before we can even take them.








Sunday morning we had Bunny Buns for breakfast. It was a sweet roll recipe from The Friend magazine. Kimball really liked them and told me that we need to have them every Easter.

We had a nice dinner which included ham, stuffing, pineapple and asparagus. For dessert I felt I took the easy way out by having brownie sundaes but it was a special treat because we rarely have ice cream.

The highlight of my Easter was watching The Testaments as a family. We watched the movie between dinner and dessert. For a good portion of the movie Kimball kept asking for ice cream but we reminded him that we needed to finish the movie first. At the end of the movie when Jesus visits the Nephites Kimball sat there very focused on the movie. I could just tell he was feeling the spirit and it was neat to see my 3 year old experience something that is sometimes hard to understand and comprehendat his age. After the movie ended Kimball asked if we could watch it again. We will again soon.

Hives Part II

Here is a little update on Kimball's hives for those who are interested. Kimball didn't seem too itchy on Monday and his hives seemed to be lessening and then I gave Kimball his usual lunch which included an peanut butter sandwich. By dinnertime he was complaining of itching again and the hives started to spread again. Kimball was so miserable that he couldn't sleep Monday night so that meant Joseph and I didn't sleep much either. By Tuesday morning Kimball's entire body was covered in hives...head to littlest toe! I didn't take any pictures of his face because I felt so bad for him. Anyway, Tuesday morning Joseph decided it was time for a cortisone shot so that is what we did. Kimball tried so hard to be brave but cried and we told him that even though he cried he was still brave. Let's face it...shots hurt.

Within an hour he was so much better and everytime I would look at Kimball I would exclaim: "Kimball, you look so good!" He probably got tired of me saying it.

We are now going peanut free for a few weeks to see if Kimball has suddenly developed a peanut allergy. We are being really careful and we are even avoiding foods fried in peanut oil, etc. That is a hard concept for Kimball to grasp because he knows chicken fingers don't have peanuts in them. We will slowly reintroduce peanut products in a few weeks and see what happens.

We appreciate all who sent emails or called to help us out.

Covered in Hives

Last night at dinner Kimball started complaining about being itchy. We at first just thought it was a little itch that would go away once scratched. When the itching started taking over so Kimball couldn't even focus to eat we noticed he had little bumps all over. Within minutes the bumps started growing together in big welts and by bedtime he was coverd in hives.

I have never dealt with hives before but after consulting with my mom, I gave him a bath of cornstarch and baking soda. It really seemed to help for an hour, but after an hour the itching slowly returned. We have also given him children's benadryl and Joseph and a friend from church gave him a priesthood blessing. Thankfully, Kimball slept well last night. He doesn't seem to be nearly so itchy this morning.

Kimball's torso 6:00 pm (it's not a good picture.)


Kimball's torso 8:00 pm



Kimball's torso this morning


Kimball's back this morning.


I think his torso looks a little better this morning than it did last night although the hives have spread down his arms and legs this morning.

If anyone has any ideas on how long hives last or any advice send me an email. My mom and I did a little research last night from the internet, but I still feel clueless about helping my son. We have no idea what could have triggered the onset because he didn't eat anything new or play outside in an area other than our yard.

Like Father, Like Son

Joseph has been complaining of a sore back for the past few months and this week decided to sleep on the floor for a few nights to see if his pain eased. I guess a new bed might be in our future!

Anyway, a few nights ago Kimball fell and bit his lip badly. There is a fair amount of blood and tears. It has been swollen and rather ugly for a few days. That night when Kimball went to bed he said his lip was still hurting so he needed to sleep on the floor until it felt better. I let him sleep on the floor and thought it was cute that he equated sleeping on the floor as the remedy for all pain.

Does the Journey Seem Long?

Over the weekend we went to Memphis to attend the temple there. Usually it is a 3 1/2 hour drive and we leave when Joseph finishes work. He gets finished early afternoon on Friday. Anyway, our trip ended up taking over 7 1/2 hours because a West bound semi truck crossed the median hitting an East bound semi truck. The crash caused the East bound truck to catch on fire and the driver was killed. (We didn't know about this until we arrived at our hotel at 9:30 pm.) This shut down the freeway for hours and all traffic was diverted onto a 2 lane road to bypass the accident.

Thank goodness for our portable DVD player. That kept Kimball entertained the entire trip and Rebecah was a trooper too, especially since she could see her Mama but couldn't be held. We had food with us because we always bring our dinner to the hotel instead of going out. We also had Kimball's little potty chair. Twice he was able to just hope down from his seat while we were stopped so we didn't have any accidents of the other kind.

On the way home we came upon an accident as we were leaving Memphis. Joseph decided one long trip was enough for one weekend and he was able to find an alternate route out of Memphis that didn't take us too far out of our way and was faster than sitting waiting for the accident to be cleared.

We passed Friday's accident site and it was amazing to us that even after 24 hours traffic was still backed up about 3 miles going East. The traffic was slow but moving.

I'm Peaking, I see you!

I don't like glass front doors. I hate the thought that someone can come up to my house and see inside. I love having windows, but when it gets dark I close the blinds. One of the things I don't like about our house is our front door because the top half is a pretty decorative glass. I'm getting used to it and thankfully we don't have too many night time visitors unannounced. I do make Joseph get the door if we do have an unexpected visitor after dark.

I came home a few nights ago to a peeping Tom at my door. He startled me at first but after my initial surprise I enjoyed the visitor. We had a little frog sitting on our door and it looked like he was trying to peak in at us. I was glad he was still sleeping on our door the next morning so I could show him to Kimball.

Toy Story...1, 2, and 3

I had never seen the movie Toy Story, yes, just the original one until New Year's Eve 2010. When the movie first came out about 15 yeas ago I remember not liking the animation. It was one of the first, maybe the first, Pixar movie and I just didn't like how it looked. Because I didn't care for the animation, I never saw the movie until 3 months ago when we gave it to Kimball for Christmas. It is such a cute movie and I really liked it. I also realized that a lot of lines from the movie were very familiar from people quoting it and I never knew what movie they were quoting.

A few weeks ago we rented Toy Story 2 and it was okay, but I'm not a huge Joan Cussack fan so Jessie wore me down after awhile. All in all it was a cute movie and the second time I watched it I liked it better.

As of last Friday, I have seen all 3 Toy Story movies within a 3 month period. The third movie was as cute as the first one and I really liked it. It was sad at the end though watching Andy give away all of this special toys. I have a special bear who went with me to college and I know right where he is sitting this minute. I'll probably always hang on to him just because he makes me happy.

I think the best part about all of the movies is the way Andy played with his toys because I think it was a realistic portrayal of how kids play...at least that is how Kimball plays. It is so fun to listen to Kimball play and talk with his toys, especially if he doesn't think we are listening.

I say: "Hurray for Toy Story 1, 2, and 3" If you haven't seen them I recommend them.