Carving our Pumpkin

We carved a pumpkin yesterday. It was the first time for us to carve a pumpkin since we have been married. We usually buy pumpkins and I cook them and we eat them. It was hard for me to see a perfectly good pumpkin "go to waste" but I just told myself we were building Halloween memories.

Rebecah soon got bored, but Kimball enjoyed it. He'll like it even better when he can be using the knife!

Making a plan of what the jack-o-lantern should look like.



Is anyone in there?! Rebecah scraping out the inside.



Kimball scooping out the inside.



The finished product.



We put a candle in him last night and let him glow on the counter. Kimball enjoyed seeing him all lit up.

First Primary Program!

Kimball participated in his first Primary Sacrament Meeting Program this year. He was asked to memorize Moroni 10:4-5 and he did a great job. We spent about a month helping him memorize it and then polishing it so he didn't have any mistakes. He had it mostly memorized after the first week.

The Primary had 3 practices prior to the Sacrament Meeting and he always said his part in a nice loud voice for the practices.

The day of the Program I made Kimball a special breakfast. He requested cinnamon rolls, but he said I could try a streusel pumpkin sweet roll recipe that I wanted to try. The rolls weren't outstanding, but Kimball said he liked them.

When Kimball's turn came he walked up to the podium and climbed up on the step stool. I could see the nervousness in his face. He turned to the Primary worker that was helping at the microphone and tapped his forehead as if to say: "I know my part, it's right here, I just need a minute to remember it because a lot of people are staring at me!" In a quite little voice Kimball proceeded to recite his entire scripture. His head got lower and lower as he recited hoping that the people would go away if he didn't see them or look at him.

We were so proud of him and many people in our congregation complimented Kimball on having such a long scripture memorized perfectly.

To reward Kimball for a job well done we went to Burger King tonight as a family for ice cream. Kimball and Rebecah and been filling a cup with cheerios so we could go to Burger King, but we thought Kimball needed something extra special for doing such a great job so we went out for ice cream.

Here we are at Burger King. Kimball had a strawberry sundae.



Moroni 10:4-5:
"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; And if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things."

I've Had a Birthday...

Yesterday was my birthday and I turned 32. Joseph had to work, unfortunately, he doesn't get Columbus Day off like all of my brothers-in-law seemed to get off...Oh well, he was home shortly before 4:30 so it was earlier than it could have been.

I had a nice day. Kimball woke up and told me I needed to get ready for my birthday. I asked him what he meant and he said I needed to blow up balloons and put up crepe paper the way I do for everyone else. I told him that if he wanted balloons he and Daddy would have to do it. Kimball immediately ran to tell Daddy he needed to blow up balloons. It was sweet that he wanted me to have decorations on my birthday. Anytime Kimball remembered it was my birthday he would sing to me. Rebecah got in to it as well and started saying "happy" when she saw my cake or candles or balloons.

A few months ago my double stroller broke so I told Joseph that more than anything I wanted a stationary bike so I could continue to exercise. I told Joseph that a good double stroller would cost as much if not more than a bike, and Kimball really is getting too heavy to push in the stroller! I got my bike and we all love it. Joseph set it up on Saturday and every member of the family had to take a ride. Anytime Rebecah sees someone on the bike she needs a "turn" too. She loves to sit up there and feel big.

Rebecah "exercising" before attending a wedding Saturday.



She can just reach and hold herself on.



I had my usual...chocolate truffle cake for dessert. It was the concentrated dose of chocolate I needed and had been craving for a few weeks!



My sister sent me some flowers. She knew I needed them yesterday. Joseph usually doesn't give me flowers because he knows I'm too practical to justify spending the money on flowers. Heather also knows that I'm too practical so she did great sending me impractical beautiful flowers! I really like them and I might have to tell Joseph not to always let me be practical because flowers are nice. The flowers were a nice birthday surprise!



My roses.



Thanks to all who sent cards and gifts to help me feel special. It was a good day.

New Guy

Rebecah recently claimed a new guy. (Just a reminder...a lovey in our house is called a "guy"...it started with Kimball. Rebecah's should probably be called girls, but she calls them guys too.) She saw I bear I had put on her dresser for decoration and she insisted on having it one day and it has been hers ever since. I don't want her to have too many guys the way Kimball does so I have tried to remove one of the other guys and so far so good...she isn't feeling the separation too acutely. She takes her guy everywhere I will let her. She also wants "bear" to get attention just like she gets. We have to acknowledge him after naps, on the phone, etc.

Here is "Bear"




Cita with her bear.



You can really tell she loves him!

General CARference

This weekend our church had its semi-annual General Conference. After the two conference session on Saturday, I overheard Kimball playing "General Conference" with his little Daddy cars. (Daddy cars are cars Joseph gave to Kimball and are about an inch long.) I heard Kimball have the Daddy cars saying prayers and sharing testimonies and singing in the choir. I thought it was cute so I told it to Joseph. The next morning Joseph asked Kimball if he would like Joseph to make him a little Conference Center out of legos. Kimball was instantly excited.

Here are some pictures of the Carference. We took some great movies of Kimball sharing things he learned in conference but I'm only posting pictures. Joseph did change the set up a little in the lego center to allow more room for the choir cars and speaking cars. All extra legos were put into 3 semi-circles around the set up to act as the audience although it isn't pictured.

First set up. I like how Joseph even included a plant behind the podium.



Second Set up. The green truck is "speaking", the first row = speakers and the second row = choir.



Washing the car before General Conference on Saturday. I love how Rebecah stuck her head in the bucket...she couldn't reach otherwise. She gave up her cloth quickly and just used her hand.

His/Her Weekend

Joseph took Kimball on a camp out this past weekend. That meant Rebecah and I were left home alone. I think that is the first time she and I have been home together just the two of us for more than just a few hours. Joseph has taken Kimball on errands with him or they'll be hard working men outside, but not for hours like it was over the weekend.

Rebecah and I didn't do anything earth shattering. We went on a few walks, she took a bath, we read stories, but we had fun together. I could tell she missed Kimball though. She would go look for him in his room at times.

Here is a cute picture of her from last week.



Kimball and Joseph had a great time on the Boy Scout camp out. Kimball was all energy and had no problem keeping up with the Scouts. He over heard the Scout Master give the date of the next camp out and is already talking about going. He did come home very tired and very covered in tiny, tiny ticks. I didn't think ticks could get so small. He was a good sport while we picked him over...I probably took 30 ticks out of his scalp alone and that was after Joseph had bathed him and gotten a lot off already.



Sleeping Kimball



Talking to me on the phone.





On a hike.



I started a new project last week. I'm converting the journals for Kimball and Rebecah into blogs. They will be private blogs that only Joseph, the kids and I will have access to, but this will enable me to print them into books every few years. Their journals are full of pictures too so hopefully they will have a fairly complete personal history of their growing up years. I got the idea from my sister, Heather, who prints her blog each year.

I finished a few quilts this week as well. One was a Christmas quilt that I started last year that I finally got around to finishing.

Highlights

I must admit I got a little burnt out after blogging about our trip. Too much of a good thing. Here are a few highlights from our last two weeks.

I have been given new church assignments and no longer work with the Young Women. I am now the Visiting Teaching coordinator. I'm excited to be in Relief Society again.

Our dishwasher stopped working last week so Joseph installed a new one this week. It's nice to have a dishwasher again. I could survive without one, but it IS nice to have one. While we were dishwasherless, Kimball did tell me that he would do the dishes everyday until Jesus comes again. I thought it was sweet.

The weather has been nice so one day we had a picnic outside and the kids played on our swing set.









We bought a dining table. We bought it from someone we know so it isn't new, but it is nice to have a formal dining table. It came with 6 chairs and two table leaves.



The kids love eating lunch at the counter together.



Making silly faces.