Father's Day

Joseph said he had a good Father's Day and that we made him feel very special. When I was making our monthly menu at the end of May I asked Joseph what he wanted for his Father's day breakfast, he said breakfast burritos. I then asked him what he wanted for dinner, he said breakfast burritos. I said "Breakfast burritos for breakfast and dinner?" He didn't think it was a problem so breakfast burritos for breakfast and dinner it was. I didn't want them for two meals in one day so I only ate them at dinner although dinner was quite tasty.

I made eclairs for our dessert and they turned out well, too. Joseph was making shifty eye pictures but he only let me post these two pictures. Kimball always has shifty eyes in pictures so Joseph was imitating Kimball.




Kimball and I went up when the Primary children sang in church. I sat behind Kimball singing in his ear so he in turn would sing. Maybe by the time the children sing next he won't be so nervous.

For Father's Day we gave Joseph a scrub brush for washing the car and van. He had commented that he would like one. The hose attaches to the end of it so water squirts out at the bristles. He has already put it to use when he washed the car on Tuesday.


We are glad Joseph is the husband and father in our family.

Hair

Rebecah's hair is now long enough that it really needs to be put in a ponytail every day. She doesn't like to have her hair done at all. It is always a struggle to get her to sit still long enough to put an elastic around her hair. I tried just putting a clip in her hair but she kept pulling it out.

Her hair is now long enough for a full head ponytail and here were the results. She pulled it out the first time so this is take two. We shall see how long it looks nice before she has a head full of fly ways.

Kimball did his own hair today so he wanted a picture too.


I just love Cita's cheesy grins.

Mini-Reunion

We had a mini-Coffey reunion this past week at The Moors resort at Kentucky Lake. The weather was down right hot and since I'm not a swimmer or a water person it meant a lot of sweating...I mean sitting...watching the kids play in the pool.

The kids really seemed to enjoy playing with their cousins. Grandma Coffey had brought a fun Hotwheels track and gave each of the grandkids a new car. Funny story about Kimball's car. I put it in my pocket the morning we left to come home so it wouldn't get lost. I gave it to Kimball once we were on the road. When we got home we couldn't find it. We searched and searched the van but no car. I finally found his car in a box of vanilla wafers.


Playing with the cool track.

One morning we went miniature golfing. Kimball enjoyed hitting his ball and rolling it when his golf club wasn't "working". Rebecah enjoyed carrying her ball around.





I love Rebecah in this picture hunched over trying to drink from a water bottle!


There was a lot of pool time and Kimball really enjoyed the water. Rebecah took a little while to get comfortable with the water and even longer to get in her floatie. She loves to take a bath, but I guess the pool was just too big. Both kids enjoyed playing with Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, Kristi and Nathan in the pool.

These first 3 pool pictures were taken from our iPod so they aren't the best quality, but they were still cute.






Since we were at a lake there was a nice beach area where we went in the afternoons. The beach was cooler than the pool so I didn't mind sitting there so much. Kimball is all boy and preferred playing in the sand instead of going in the water. I don't think he got in the lake water either time we went to the beach.


I love this shot of the kids both crouched down looking up at Joseph.

We also went hiking one morning at the Land Between the Lakes. It was nice to see a little of that scenery. On our hike we saw a small black snake...about 6 inches. We also saw 3 different lizards and a lot of mosquitoes. I have a greater appreciation for the term swarm! Thanks to bug spray we managed to come away from our hike with only 1 bite each...how's that for equality.


Group hiking shot.


Picture with Grandma and Grandpa.


Kimball and a lizard. You can see the lizard sitting on the top of the post to the left of Kimball.

I did brave the lake on two occasions. I let Joseph take me on a ride on a jet ski. My ride was 5 minutes and in my opinion...over-rated. I can only equate it to going for a motorcycle ride only on the water. Every time we turned I felt like I would fall off and when one doesn't know how to swim, that can be scary even with a life jacket on. Joseph and I also went kayaking one evening and it was fun to see a little of the lake that way. I tried to pretend that I wasn't nervous since the water was too murky to see the bottom. Kayaking was actually one of the activities I enjoyed most about our trip.

Each evening Kimball and his cousin, Karston (2 1/2), would wrestle each other in the living room. It was good for Kimball to have someone who has his same stamina for roughness. It was fun to see Kimball be the one who needed to take a break.

Next time we hope to be able to see more of our family because they were greatly missed.

Lego Land

When we had our Johnson reunion a few weeks ago, my mom gave Kimball the legos I played with when I was a girl. I was never very good at creating things, but, thankfully, Kimball and Joseph are.

Kimball has played with the legos every day since we arrived home. He loves them and they are spread out on our floor the entire day. To our knowledge, Rebecah hasn't eaten any...


Joseph always amazes me at the things he can build whether he is building with blocks, legos, or dominoes. He built Kimball a police car that looks like a Hummer, a red Mack semi truck that opened in the back to hold a car...just like on the movie Cars, a yellow digger (bulldozer), and a red dump truck.


Kimball actually used his digger to pick up his legos one night. He spent forever tediously picking up one or two legos with his digger and then dumping it in a bucket or his big dump truck. I was amazed by his patience.

Disclaimer

For those of you who receive cards from us, Kimball is now the official card chooser. So, if you get a card from us and wonder at what we were thinking...know it was Kimball. This month's card choices were extra amusing to me.

Johnson Family Reunion

My family had a reunion this past weekend. It was a lot of fun being with family but we missed the Hawkins family. Kimball did surprisingly well playing with all of the girl cousins, but it would have been even more fun with the boys cousins there.

The Group


Our first day we hung around my mom's house. (We actually all managed to sleep at the house and find plenty of bathroom time. It wasn't as bad as one would think.) Here is a picture of Kimball with some of his cousins playing whiffle ball. Kimball had gotten pegged in the head with the ball and you can see the huge welt on his forehead if you look carefully. Joseph and I both missed the action, but it was reported that Kimball took the hit very stoically.


One day we had a cook out at the park and then the kids played and we looked at the farm animals.





Kimball sitting on a huge tire at the farm section of the park.


We didn't do anything earth shattering, but we took a lot of pictures, played games, ate good food and just enjoyed visiting.

The kids did fairly well on the trip considering the lack of a nap schedule and waking up early most days. The car trips went fairly well too.

Our family took a side trip to Cahokia Mounds while we were there too. Joseph has wanted to see the mounds since he discovered that Cahokia Mounds is a World Heritage Site. It was neat to visit and we were able to stay about an hour before the kids gave out. We would love to go back again sometime when the kids are older.

Joseph and Kimball with the Monk's Mound in the background. This is the tallest of the mounds. We climbed maybe 100 stairs to reach the top. I carried Rebecah even though she desperately wanted to climb the stairs.

View from the top of Monk's Mound. I'm on the stairs with Rebecah.

Annette in front of the stockade.

I love this picture of Kimball. He was watching a Lots and Lots of Trucks movie while we waited for Joseph. He loves this movie and we have checked it out from the library multiple times. He sings along to the movie bobbing his head with a little smile on his face. I wish I could have caught him on video.



Joseph had all of the kids entertained at the top of the stairwell in the hallway reading a Value Tale to them. I don't think Joseph had ever read a Value Tale and didn't realize it would take 30 minutes to read it to them. The picture didn't turn out great, but it was worth recording.


Joseph and Spencer spent a good portion of their free time working on this 3-D castle puzzle. They managed to get it all put together which was surprising to me since I'm not good at puzzles. The best part of the whole puzzle was when I was sitting with Kimball in a different room and he looked at the framed puzzle above us and told me it was the same castle as the one Joseph and Spencer had just put together. I didn't give it much thought I just figured Kimball noticed it was a castle just like the other puzzle...nope...exact same castle. Joseph pointed it out to me and sure enough, it was the same and Kimball realized it. That boy frequently amazes me.

Joseph's Birthday

Joseph had a birthday last week and hit the big 3-0. He isn't excited about being 30...he said he would rather skip to 32. I guess that means he is now older than I am! For his birthday we had his favorite dinner--chicken enchiladas. I thought I was a pretty nice wife by complying with his dessert desires. He wanted a chocolate cherry dump cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream. As many of you know, I'm not a cherry pie filling girl and I don't like mint. I was proud of me for making a dessert that I don't even care for, but it was Joseph's birthday.
I gave Joseph a framed and matted picture of the First Vision. It was his favorite print portraying that sacred event. He did have to work for his presents because we took a page out of Kristin's book and did a scavenger hunt.

Rebecah happily sitting with the birthday boy.


Dessert


Check out the smoke and there weren't even 30 candles!


Opening the present.


The finished product.