Kimball Family

Maddy's Baptism

2012-02-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

Maddy got baptized on Saturday. I can't believe that she is already eight years old.
Here are some things about Maddy. She loves school and always works really hard there. She really likes to read and reads very well. She is a good big sister and Mason and Jack always want to play with her. Maddy will help with William. She will hold him or play with him if I need to finish something. Maddy likes animals and Penny likes her the best. She is a good artist and spends lots of time drawing and coloring. We are all really proud of her decision to be baptized.
Hey, I'm actually in a picture. Ugh. Oh well, now you can see that I was actually there.

Maddy wanted a cupcake cake. I think if I had made the very bottom a different color it would have worked better. It still tasted good and that's what really matters anyway. Happy Birthday Maddy!

Blue Steel

2012-02-05T09:34:00.001-08:00

This is William's Blue Steel. He's pretty good at it. He said he was going for a surprised yet slobbery look. He can also only roll over to the right.

If you havn't seen Zoolander or are embarrassed to admit that you have, none of this will make any sense.... you can just look at the cute pictures and not worry about anything else.

He is currently working on a new look. It also involves slobber.

Birthday Banner

2012-02-05T09:15:00.001-08:00

I finally finished this birthday banner after starting it 2 years ago. It's made of fabric so you can keep it and use it for a long time. I can't believe that I actually finished something.

Jack's Birthday

2012-02-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

Jack turned three a few weeks ago. He wanted a Batman cake, so that's what he got...sort of. He also wanted a little Batman car that Santa forgot to bring at Christmas. Jack requested McDonalds for lunch and I even remembered to do a treasure hunt to find his presents. Sometimes I have forgotten this part but they all seem to really like it, so from now on I'll remember. I think I'll just write a few things about Jack. He has finally started talking. We kind of thought there was something wrong but all of a sudden he can say pretty much anything he wants. Maybe he just didn't really care before? He loves super heroes....all of them. He loves to play with legos and with Mason. When Maddy and Mason want to play something alone it makes him very sad. He really likes Will but I think Jack makes Will nervous. Jack doesn't walk places, he only runs. Jack does some pretty funny dances. You should ask to see them sometime. He loves to play the computer and can get online and find the games he wants to play all by himself. I still have to ask Sam sometimes how to do things on the computer. Hey, the only things I used the computer for as a kid was playing Tetris and Oregon trail. Everyone likes Jack because he's a pretty charming little guy. Happy Birthday Jack!

Just some pictures

2012-01-17T13:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas

2012-01-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

We had a nice Christmas at home this year. It was kind of sad to not be around our families, but I think the kids still had a good time. We didn't open presents until after church and nobody seemed to mind.

Bath time and smiling

2011-10-19T10:14:00.001-07:00

William Spencer

2011-10-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

I guess since he is already 6 weeks old I should get around to putting this on here. William Spencer Kimball decided to finally show up on August 30 at 7:41 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 3 oz. I say finally because I went in to be induced at 5 am on the 29th. Like Wesley in the Princess Bride "spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder", apparently I have spent the last few years building up an immunity to pitocin. Who gets high levels of pitocin for an entire day and has nothing happen? Oh ya, that's me. The doctor even talked about sending me home and trying again some other day. And you would think that after being there for 2 days there would have been time for an epidural...... but you would be wrong. So now I can say that I did it without any drugs, even though it wasn't really by choice. It was worth it though. It was worth it all four times. And I would do it again..... weeeelllll...... I actually don't really want to do this again. Four kids is pretty good. But look how cute he is with his little round face. He is a pretty good baby who enjoys sleeping, eating and listening to sounds like the hair dryer and vacuum. He has started smiling which is really fun. The other kids love it when he smiles. Jack has done pretty well with being replaced...... demoted..... you know what I mean. He really likes William but I think he is mad at me. Sometimes he call me "mom bum bum" to show his displeasure at the whole situation. This is kind of insulting but mostly funny. All of these pictures are terrible. I'm going to blame my camera.

Darth Vadar

2011-04-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

Long and Boring Winter (with a few bright spots)

2011-04-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

I guess I havn't put anything on the blog in a while. Nothing all that interesting has been going on. It just feels like a very long and very blah winter. It is finally getting a little warmer here but it rains all of the time. We might as well live on the Oregon coast. We did have a nice Easter. Sam's parents were able to come for a few days. It was good to see them. We colored eggs and looked for eggs. Our dog Penny turned one this week. Maybe this means she will finally stop chewing on stuff.... like the neighbors fence and the side of our house and people's good shoes. Maddy still really likes being in first grade and Mason has really liked going to preschool this year. Jack really likes Batman. Sam went fishing with someone in the ward a few months ago. He caught a really big fish and he may or may not have seen a mountain lion. Don't worry mom, you can just pretend he didn't. I guess a few interesting things have happened after all. Oh, and then there is another baby boy coming September 6 (or maybe before..... Heavenly Father if you see my blog, just this once can I have a baby before the due date. I don't think this is too much to ask, just this once. I don't mean premature, just a few days...... please? maybe? not likely?)

DMV Rant

2011-04-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else strongly dislike going to the DMV? I used to not mind until I tried to get a license here. This rant will not be as fiery as it might have been a few months ago. I guess I've gotten over it some, but here we go anyways....... In January my Ohio license expired so I needed to get one here in Oregon. I gathered up all of the stuff I thought they would want to see, like proof of address, old license, money. I go over there and fill out their form but I didn't have my birth certificate, which they need to see. I go home and come back on a different day. The next time I go in I think I'm all prepared. I show them all of my stuff, but this time my proof of address isn't good enough. They have some crazy rules about what you can use to prove you live somewhere. They said I could get my car registration and use that. I go get it from the car but oh, we can't use that because your name is second on the list. And by the way your birth certificate is a copy and we just can't accept that either. I kind of wanted to jump over the counter and give the guy a little punch in the face. But it was a really high counter and I would have had to climb on a chair...... normally I don't feel like punching people in the face. Maybe it's crazy hormones? I don't want to join the CIA, I just want to drive my car. Anyways, I went home and had my mom send me my original birth certificate. I go back for the third time with all my stuff. When I walk in the lady tells me to take a number, which was funny because there was not even one other person in the room. It was like on Meet the Parents when the stewardess tells Ben Stiller he has to wait until she calls his row to get on the plane even though he is the only one in the terminal. The lady takes my number and I give her all the paperwork. She proceeds to look over every inch of my birth certificate with one of those little fancy glasses that jewelers use to decide if a diamond is real. After about 5 minutes she decides it is real after all. Everything is finally up to their standards and I get my license. Good grief. I have gotten driver's license in 3 states and it was never this much trouble. So either the state of Oregon feels it's very important to be super thorough before they let people drive, or this lady takes her job very seriously or maybe since this is a small town they are not very busy and are just bored. The end.

Christmas 2010.... better late than never

2011-04-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it's almost May and I'm putting up the Christmas pictures. We got to go to Virginia for Christmas this year to visit my family. Everyone one was there and we had a really good time. The kids had fun playing with cousins and grandma and grandpa, opening presents and eating lots of food. It even snowed while we were there...... which would have been pretty cool if we hadn't just come from a place with non stop snow and if it hadn't snowed 12 inches all at once. It never snows there, never. Just so you know, all the pictures are pretty terrible. My camera doesn't like to take nice inside pictures and on some of them apparently I can't figure out how to open the lense cover all the way.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

Halloween Cake

2010-10-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

This was our FHE Halloween treat this year. The kids had fun putting the faces on the ghosts and it tasted really good...... which is the most important part.

Random Stuff

2010-10-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

Here are the first day of school pictures...... now that it's almost November. Maddy is in first grade and Mason goes to preschool twice a week. They both really love school. There is also a picture of Mason and Penny. She looks like she's smiling. And then Jack doing his "picture" smile.

Seriously, so rude!

2010-09-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Walmart to get our food for the week. I only had to take Jack because the others were both at school. Jack decided to make sure it wasn't really easier just taking one kid to the store instead of three by crying a lot and saying, "MOOOOMMMYYYY, MOOOMMYYY," over and over again for 20 minutes. Nice. This actually has nothing to do with what happened in the parking lot but I just thought I'd mention it. While we were putting the food in the car a moving van pulled up the row behind us and an adult couple got out. As they were walking into the store they looked over at us and the guy said, "Hey, some La Grandites. Hi Opie!" in a kind of stupid sounding hick voice. And then he and his lady friend laughed together at how clever they were and went in the store to buy some more smokes. So I said, "Hey, you guys look pretty white trash. You'd fit in just fine here." Okay..... so I didn't say it out loud.... and I didn't come up with it until five minutes after they were gone..... and no offense to the good people of La Grande, most of whom are not white trash. The more I type the words white trash the more offensive it seems. I'm going to stop now. Anyways..... take that moving van people. Don't make fun of my little red haired boy!

Utah Trip, Camping and Throw Up

2010-08-20T20:57:00.000-07:00

We went to Utah last month for a family reunion and I'm just getting around to putting the pictures up now. I took a break from blogging..... we both needed some space. The kids had so much fun camping and playing with their cousins. They loved the sandbox, zip line and border line dangerous swing. The swing is actually really fun but I'd be lying if I said no one got hurt. Jack was sick the first two days we were there. He threw up in a Jack in the Box we stopped at for dinner on our drive down. I know what you're thinking...... but he threw up before he ate. We cleaned it up the best we could and quickly left. After two days and two nights of camping we (Sam and I) had had enough and went to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Kimball for a few days. It was fun to see everyone and hopefully we can make it down to Utah every summer.

Penny

2010-08-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

I think we might be a little crazy but we got a dog. She's a really nice little puppy and the kids are in love with her. She still doesn't like walking on a leash but hopefully she'll figure it out. They are not very good but here are some pictures. Apparently she likes to hold still for pictures as much as the kids do.

Mud

2010-06-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

Anybody want to buy two extremely muddy children?

2010-05-01T11:08:00.001-07:00

Fishing

2010-05-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

Last weekend our home teacher invited us to go fishing up at Morgan Lake. We got two small fishing rods and decided to give it a try. I really didn't think they would catch anything but not five minutes after Mason threw his line out he caught a fish.......and then the same thing happened for Maddy. Definitely beginners luck. I think the pictures of Mason are funny: First he was very excited about fishing and was having a great time. Next, after catching an actual fish he didn't want that thing to touch him at all. And then finally he decides fish are okay and proudly holds his slimy fish. Maddy caught the biggest fish. I didn't get a picture though because Jack and I spent most of the time sitting in the car. One year olds and big muddy lakes don't really go together well. The kids really seemed to like fishing so we will probably do it again sometime. And yes, we did eat the fish when we got home. Definitely way better than any fish I've ever bought at the store.

Spokane

2010-05-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

We went up to Spokane a few weeks ago. There was a really fun park kind of downtown by the river. We rode the merry-go-round, slide down a giant wagon, and Jack chased some geese.

Happy Easter

2010-04-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

We didn't get any good pictures this year. The kids had fun finding eggs in the back yard and it was nice listening to Conference........I guess that's about it. I'm just not in a blogging mood lately.

Mason's Newest Obsession

2010-03-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

First it was vacuums. Then it was pirates. Now it is Star Wars. He loves it. He can talk about it all day long. This whole thing started because we have a Lego Star Wars video game that they got to play. The game came with a little book with pictures of the characters. Mason carried that around all the time and talked about the people in it all of the time. One day I told him that Darth Vadar was Luke's father. He just stared at me like it was the craziest thing he had ever heard. Now I feel kind of bad because I ruined the surprise. We had movie night a few weeks ago and watched Star Wars. He and Maddy sat through the whole thing. I couldn't believe it....... I remember being bored by parts of those movies when I was little but they just loved it. Here is a picture of Mason with his light saber that Grandma Nickerson got for him when she came to visit. It is still very popular with everyone. If you want to talk to Mason about this you need to know a few things. When Mason says: gobbles- he means goggles
Jedi wipes- Jedi knights
garbage can robot- R2D2
furry guy- Chewie
There are a few other things he says that are really funny but I can't think of them right now. May the force be with you.

Ice skating, swimming and things

2010-03-07T19:30:00.001-08:00

Last weekend Sam had to go to an optometry conference out in Bend and we all decided to tag along. He had classes in the morning and then the rest of the afternoon off. The conference was at a nice resort kind of place and we got to stay really cheap. We went ice skating one afternoon......well Maddy, Mason and Sam went skating........ okay mostly Maddy and Sam went skating. Mason was done after about 10 minutes. Maddy did really well. She fell down a lot but she kept on trying. There were some heated swimming pools so we got to swim also. It was nice as long as you were in the water. Once you got out though, it was reeeeaaaallllyyyy cold. Even Jack had fun with the swimming. Bend seems like a nice place and hopefully we can go back sometime in the summer and do a little river rafting........ very safe river rafting of course.

At the Park

2010-02-22T22:01:00.001-08:00

Here is a cute picture of Jack walking at the park. I have to make up for the last post.

Jack Proofing the House

2010-02-22T21:31:00.000-08:00

We have to turn over all the chairs because Jack can climb up on them. I caught him on the kitchen table yesterday splashing in some old milk that was left there.
I had to duct tape the fire place because Jack figured out how to open it. He will get in there and play in the ashes and then rub them all over his face.
If I want to take a shower I have to barricade the door. Jack can now open the toilet lids and will swish around in them any chance he gets.
Jack was mad that I blocked the bathroom so he got under the bed and ripped up the wrapping paper. He's kind of like a naughty cat.
This kid makes me tired. Don't get me wrong...... I love him so much but....... he makes me tired. He gets into everything and he is relentless. If you stop him from doing something he will just keep going back, over and over and over. Or he will move on to something else he isn't supposed to do and do that over and over. I think he has some kind of sixth sense when it comes to his favorite things: he knows if one of the other kids left the bathroom door open and will immediately sneak off. I'll say, "Where's Jack?" and sure enough he's in the bathroom having a great time in the toilet. Gross. Or if someone gets out of their chair at the table for one second, guess who's right there climbing up? He definitely is persistent and knows what he wants and I guess those are actually good things.

Happy Birthday Maddy!

2010-02-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

This is a little late but Maddy turned 6! She is getting so big. She said the prayer in primary all by herself yesterday and she loves going to school. She is a really good big sister. Sorry the pictures are so bad. I can't quite figure out the camera. It's not Jack's birthday but he was really happy to be eating ice cream.

Curse of the Pink Birthday Cake

2010-02-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

This is the second time that Maddy wanted a pink birthday cake and it's the second time that the layers all sunk in the middle. Weird. I've never had this happen with any other cakes. They are even different kinds of cake and made in different states with different ovens........ so I don't know what to blame it on. I guess we can blame it on the curse of the pink birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Jack!

2010-01-24T20:26:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that Jacky boy is already one. The time went by so fast. He is a really good boy and we all love having him around. It's fun to see his little personality. He is definitely the most getting into everything baby that we've had. He's not naughty, just really curious. That's what I have to say to myself a lot. He really liked his first taste of ice cream. He is crying in one of the pictures because he got snapped in the eye by his birthday hat.....see, it was worth it because he looks so cute. Happy Birthday Jack!

One of those days

2010-01-12T15:40:00.000-08:00

Yup, it was one of those days. Jack dumped flour out on the floor and Mason was throwing flour up in the air yelling, "It's snowing! Wheeeeee!!!" I'm glad it was flour though. It could have been worse, like oil or sugar.

Year in Review

2009-12-31T22:38:00.000-08:00

2009 was a good year for our family. A lot has gone on since 2008. Here is the year in review with a few pictures..... only 5 because that's all blogger will let me do.
January: Jack was born on January 21. That month we had fun with a new baby, pneumonia, a flooded basement and a little baby jaundice. Luckily everything ended up just fine.
February: Maddy turned 5. It was cold and snowy.
March: It was cold and snowy. Does anything exciting every happen in March?
April: We helped get the house ready so that Jake and Alicia could sell it. We spent a lot of time cleaning. We also perfected the art of cleaning an entire house in 20 minutes, just in time for a last minute showing. It made us never want to sell a house....but was definitely good practice.
May: We got to go to Virginia for a few weeks to visit my family. My youngest brother got home from his mission and we got to be there for that. We spent lots of time at the beach and in grandma and grandpa's backyard.
June: Sam graduated from optometry school. Yeah!!! We packed up all of our stuff and moved to Oregon. Sam took over an optometry practice in town.
July: We had fun finding all of the parks in our new home and unpacked boxes.
August: Played outside. It was hot. Mason turned 3 and discovered his love of pirates
September: Maddy started kindergarten. She loves going to school so much and she has a really nice teacher. Jack learned to crawl.
October: The kids dressed up for Halloween. Maddy was a witch. Mason was a pirate and Jack was a piece of pizza.
November: We went to Utah for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to be there with Sam's family. Maddy and Mason couldn't get enough of playing with cousins.
December: Christmas in Oregon. A little bit of snow. Jack started walking.

We feel like we have been really blessed this year. A lot has happened since last January. We know that we are in the right place, where Heavenly Father wants us to be. We are thankful for our families and for the gospel. We hope that 2010 can be a great year for everyone! Now for those new years resolutions....... guess what mine is? It rhymes with whose gate. Happy New Year!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-31T22:26:00.000-08:00

Maddy and Mason were really excited about Christmas this year. They left a donut out for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer on Christmas Eve. It was one of the first things they checked in the morning. Luckily "Santa" and the "reindeer" remembered to eat some before they went to bed. The older kids both got up at 5:30 am....... that's pretty early. We had to wake up Jack because for some reason he had decided to actually sleep. They loved all of their presents. Jack has had fun walking around with his walker and Mason loves his pirate ship. Maddy got a Littlest Pet Shop House and a Barbie Veterinarian. She's had a lot of fun playing with all of those things. Thank you to everyone for sending such nice gifts. We hope that everyone had a merry Christmas!

Our Totally Awesome Gingerbread Houses

2009-12-23T16:37:00.000-08:00

We made some real gingerbread houses today. I have never done this before so I didn't know if it would really work. I can't believe that they are actually standing up,,,,,, it's a Christmas miracle. Maddy and Mason loved the decorating part but not so much with the cookie making part. Maddy rolled and cut the dough for about 15 minutes and then she was done. Jack got a hold of one of the gingerbread men and chewed on it for a while. Well, I guess he gummed it since he still doesn't have any teeth. This might have to become a Christmas tradition since it turned out so well and it was fun for everyone. Apparently Mason is not able to make a normal face in pictures anymore.

New Camera

2009-11-13T19:04:00.000-08:00

We went and got a new camera. So far I think it's a little more fancy than our old one. It has 14 MP instead of 5 with the other one. I think it makes the pictures look better......... or maybe they would look better if I was a better photographer. I think it is impossible to get all three kids looking at the camera and smiling at the same time while holding the camera and trying to push the right button.

Lame Camera

2009-10-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today is Halloween and our camera decided it would be an excellent day to quit working........ so I didn't get any pictures of the kids in their costumes or at the hay maze and pumpkin patch we went to this afternoon. I'm sad because they all looked really cute and I'm sad because now we have no more camera. Our camera was lame on several levels. First of all it would only hold about 12 pictures at a time. What kind of digital camera will only let you take that many? It would also eat up batteries like nobody's business. So boooo, hiss SAMSUNG Digimax D53. Thanks for ruining Halloween. Okay, so it didn't ruin Halloween. It just kind of annoyed it.

Pumpkin Time

2009-10-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

We carved our pumpkins for FHE this week. Everyone had fun getting messy and Jack had fun putting his pumpkin in his mouth. Mason said he wanted his pumpkin to have a sad face and Maddy wanted a scary face. I made some Halloween things for dinner but I didn't take any pictures because it wasn't much to look at. We did have our usual chocolate pumpkin cake and it was yummy! The kids are very excited to go trick-or-treating and luckily the weather cooperated.

Halloween Preview

2009-10-26T22:20:00.001-07:00

Halloween Tree

2009-10-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

We found this tumbleweed thing blowing around at the park so we decided to bring it home and decorate it. Why you might ask? I don't really know......... it just looked like a Halloween tree.

Children's Museum

2009-10-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we drove down to Boise so that we could go to the temple. I needed somewhere to take the kids while everyone else went so we found a children's museum. There were a lot of fun things to look at but everyone's favorite was the little grocery store. I think we were in there for almost an hour. Look at the tiny shopping carts!

Just Wait Until I Start Crawling

2009-09-18T23:48:00.000-07:00

Jack really loves to be in his walker/rolling chair. He is actually kind of a little terror in it. He runs around sticking his fingers in the electrical outlets, pulling books off the shelf and chewing on the dust jackets, and runs into the back of your ankles when you're not looking. The other day I was washing some dishes in the sink and I turned around to get the towel on the oven door but it was gone. I couldn't find it anywhere and then Jack rolls by waving the towel and laughing. The other kids left some pretzels on the table and Jack got a hold of them and threw them all over the floor.....except for the handful that he was eating. He also enjoys spilling crayons and play dough on the floor whenever he gets the chance. All of this makes me a little worried for when he is really crawling. I'm not going to be able to keep him out of everything. I couldn't catch him on video doing anything naughty...........he wants you to think I'm making all of this up, that he really just rolls around looking cute and being all innocent. He's not really naughty, just very curious and very cute.

Picnic at the Park

2009-09-18T23:37:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of really nice parks here. We went to our favorite one a few weeks ago. We brought some lunch and the kids got to play. Maddy really likes the merry-go-round. I got on for a minute but then decided that I was too old for spinning rides. I'm not sure how kids can stay on there for so long without making themselves sick. Jack spent most of the time chewing on the frog's hand and Mason mostly likes to dig in the dirt. It's not a successful day at the park for Mason unless he leaves dirtier than when he came.

Kindergarten

2009-09-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

Maddy started school this month and she really loves it. When I picked her up from school the first few days she was mad and was being kind of mean to everyone. I asked her why she was being so grumpy and she said it was because she wanted to stay at school. I thought I would be one of those moms who cries when their baby goes to school...........but I guess I'm not. This is kind of surprising since I'm usually pretty good at crying. I think it's mostly because kindergarten here is only 2 1/2 hours everyday so she still spends most of the time at home. There will probably be some crying involved next year when she starts going all day. Here is Maddy on her first day and a picture of her waiting for the bus. I didn't take a picture of her actually getting on the bus because I didn't want to seem too dorky......... not that there's anything wrong with that. Taking pictures I mean.......nothing wrong with being dorky either, I should know. Maddy waved at us after she got on the bus and I wondered how long it will be before she doesn't want me anywhere near the bus stop. I hope that day is still far away.

The Water Park

2009-09-18T23:10:00.001-07:00

Last month we drove up to Pendleton so we could go to the swimming pool there. It was a really nice pool and the kids loved it. Mason is still asking when we can go to the water park again. I think Jack even had a good time in the water.

Happy Birthday Mason!

2009-08-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

Mason turned 3 about 2 weeks ago. When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he would say, "A pirate cake..... a spiderman cake....... spongebob cake......... can I have a snack?" I decided to go with the pirate cake and found some good ideas on the internet. But as you can see, it was kind of huge disaster. It was more pirate island than pirate ship. Luckily Mason still liked it and it still tasted like cake. I think Mason liked his presents.........or he at least liked them for the 10 minutes he got to play with them before Maddy took over. Here are three things we like about Mason:
1. He says at least one really funny thing everyday.
2. He loves to play and have fun with Maddy and Jack.
3. He loves swords, bugs, mud, digging in said mud, wrestling, and eating.
Happy Birthday Mason! We love you!

County Fair

2009-08-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

This week we went to the county fair. I took the kids in the morning and then we went back later that evening. I think they really liked all of the animals. Here's a picture of Mason and a llama that apparently did rather well at the fair. He must be so proud. Maddy and Mason got to have one of those snow cone things and they finally both decided on root beer flavored. This is what Jack did at the fair. Must not have been exciting enough for him......or maybe he's just really tired from not sleeping at night? Here is the view from where we watched part of the rodeo. These ladies were riding their horses around shooting at balloons. It didn't really seem safe to be standing right there watching but no one else seemed worried.

Denied

2009-08-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

We have to get our own health insurance now.... one of the joys of being your own boss I suppose. Anyways, the company finally got back to us after a month and said that everyone was accepted for the insurance except me. They can't accept me because of my height to weight ratio......which is basically just a nice way of saying you are too fat. I guess they have some chart of heights and weights and if you are over at all you are automatically rejected. So yup, I'm feeling pretty darn good about myself. I was only 4 lbs. over their limit and they don't care about that or that I just had a baby or that I'm really trying hard to lose weight or that I really like cookies. I cried after I opened the letter..... and then I ate some ice cream. Just kidding, I said I was never going to eat again. I was already feeling bad about myself and that just didn't help. Sam kept telling me that it wasn't that big of a deal but nobody just told him that he was too fat to have health insurance. So I'm going to lose weight and I'm putting it on the blog so that maybe it will help me to stay motivated to know that the 5 people who actually look at the blog know about my plans.....and I'm pretty sure that was a horrible run on sentence. I've lost 5 lbs so far. Just 20 more to go. I'll just tell ODS that I'm going to give my fat money to some other insurance company. Don't worry mom, I really won't stop eating. I like food and I hate throwing up so that pretty much eliminates an eating disorder. Normally I don't put things like this on the blog but it's kind of making me feel better to complain about it.

Random Pictures

2009-07-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Just two random pictures that I forgot about. The only picture I took on the Fourth of July........it's our red, white and blue cake and Jack in his rolling chair chewing on a spatula.

We are here!

2009-07-12T21:29:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to Oregon! That is one long drive......and we have Spongebob Squarepants and candy to thank for us making it to Utah in 2 days. We stopped there for a few days to see some of our family and then we came the rest of the way. We kind of just showed up with no place to live except for the Super 8 Motel. We looked for 2 days and nothing was really working out. We ended up finding a really nice place to live. It was a huge blessing and was just one more confirmation from Heavenly Father that this is where we are supposed to be. Here is a picture of the view from our backyard. Pretty nice, huh. We went to a park down the street last week and a deer just comes walking out of the trees like it was no big deal. It's pretty cool to see a deer but I sure hope I never see a cougar or a bear come strolling out of the woods while we're at the park. So far we really like it here. Everyone has been so nice and we seem to be in a really good ward. Sam starts seeing patients on Monday so hopefully everything will go well and hopefully he can be really busy soon so we can make some money. The student loans have already started looming.......scary!!!

Jacky Boy

2009-07-12T21:19:00.001-07:00

This is what Mason calls Jack and I have to admit that the rest of us have started calling him that sometimes. I thought I'd write a few things about Jack because he kind of gets left out of things since he doesn't do much yet. He is huge........ I think he weighs almost 20 lbs. and is wearing some 12 month size clothes. He likes to be carried around a lot of the time. I like to carry him and all but hauling around an extra 20 pounds all day makes my arms tired. He is very happy and loves to laugh and smile and thinks that Maddy and Mason are hilarious. We have one of those little chairs with the wheels and Jack just figured out how to move it by himself. He can now entertain himself for about 15 minutes at a time zooming around the kitchen and then it's back to mom holding him. We all really love him and are glad he came to our family.......and some day I really hope that he will sleep :)

Great Wolf Lodge

2009-07-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

We wanted to do something fun for graduation and that fun thing we really wanted to do was take the kids to Disney World.....but since we have no money that just wasn't going to work out. We decided to go to the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio instead and Maddy and Mason loved it. We drove down and spent the night. They have some neat rooms there. The one we stayed in had a cave and inside the cave were bunk beds for the kids. You can see Mason's happy little face. He loved getting to sleep in the bunk bed. The water park was indoors so it was perfect for people who are as whitey white as we are. Maddy and Mason both almost drowned because of their life jackets but other than that we had a really great time. These pictures turned out pretty terrible but I think you can kind of tell what's going on. Maddy, Mason and Sam went down the big water slide about 10 times. I think Mason was almost scared to death the first time but for some reason he kept getting back on.....only to get really scared again.

Happy Graduation!

2009-07-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

Sam graduated!!! Everything that day was really nice. The kids lasted about 20 minutes into the graduation and then we had to crawl over 10 people to get out while 2 out of the 3 were crying loudly.........so needless to say I didn't really get any good pictures but I did manage to get this one with one hand while I was trying to get everybody out before we bothered too many people. It's a good thing Kimball is towards the beginning of the alphabet. There was a dinner that we went to afterwards and it was also really nice. Again the kids lasted about 20 minutes and then things got a little wild. We really did bother some people this time but it wasn't for lack of trying to keep them quiet. Anyways, we are proud of Sam and all of his hard work. We know that he will make a great eye doctor.

Goodbye Ohio, hello Oregon

2009-05-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

So we finally know what we are doing with ourselves after 7 years of school. We are moving to a smallish town in north eastern Oregon where they could really use a good eye doctor. We felt like we have been looking and trying to decide what to do for a while and nothing seemed to be right. Then all of a sudden everything kind of fell into place and we really feel like this is what Heavenly Father wants our family to do. We are sad to leave Ohio but excited to start this next part.

Trip to Virginia

2009-05-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

We got to go spend about 3 weeks visiting my mom and dad in Virginia. My brother was getting home from his mission so it was good to be able to see him. It was fun to do something else for a little while.......well, I guess I didn't really do anything different but it was fun to just have a change of scenery. We had fun going to the park, playing at the beach, and eating too many treats. It was really good to see my family and hopefully we didn't destroy the house too badly. Thanks mom and dad! These are just a few pictures that we took there that I think are cute. My mom had a picture done of all the grandkids and the boys had matching clothes. Here is Mason in his little suit.......so cute! He was being a stinker though and wouldn't hold still and smile. I like this picture of Maddy but of course Mason still wasn't holding still. He's not so big on holding still.

Trip to Virginia

2009-05-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Tate and Jack are only about 3 weeks apart. Here they are taking turns chewing on a towel. Hopefully when everyone is done with school we can all live sort of close by so that they can be friends. Some of these are pictures from the kite festival that were supposed to go in the post below but I didn't feel like waiting for 10 years while the pictures uploaded at the same time.

Trip to Virginia

2009-05-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

I think we went to the beach about 4 times. The water was freezing but the kids didn't seem to mind. One of our trips to the beach was to see the Kite Festival in Virginia Beach........we were reminded of why we normally don't go to Virginia Beach. Mason loves to dig so he was basically in heaven digging in the world's biggest sandbox. It was fun to see everyone and Maddy and Mason had a good time playing with Grant.

Future Artist?

2009-04-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

You can stick things in Jack's little fists and he will hold onto them for a few minutes. Somebody gave him a paintbrush and looks pretty happy about it. Grandpa Kimball would be proud :).

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Mason!

2009-04-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

Mason has been growing out of most of his pajamas lately so I found these on sale at Wal Mart. He was especially excited about the cape. He said now that he has a cape he can fly around the room. It looks like he was only able to make it to the top of the couch. It's probably a good idea that 2 year olds can't fly..........their mess making potential would probably double.

Maddy's Dance Class

2009-04-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

Maddy has been able to take a dance class from someone in our ward. She loves to go every week and seems to have a lot of fun. The class learned a little dance and the parents got to come and watch. Everybody did a great job!

Mason or Jack?

2009-03-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems to think that Jack looks a lot like Mason. I think they are about the same age in these pictures. Can you tell who is who?

Pictures

2009-02-15T18:19:00.001-08:00

Baby Jack

2009-02-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

So now that Jack is 3 weeks old I'm finally getting around to doing this. He was born January 21 at 6:45 am. He was 8 lbs. 2 oz and 20.5 inches long. We all think he's pretty cute and so far he's been a really good baby. I'll try to put some more pictures up soon.

Maddy's Puzzle

2009-01-18T12:05:00.000-08:00

Maddy got a puzzle to do over Christmas and it had 100 pieces. It took a lot of work and Sam helping her but she was able to do most of the puzzle herself. She really seems to like puzzles. This picture is right before we crumbled it back up and put it away. I thinks that's why I don't really like puzzles that much. You work on them for a long time and then when you finally finish you break it up and put it back in the box. All that work for nothing :).

Pictures of the Snow

2009-01-18T12:01:00.001-08:00

For some reason I couldn't get the pictures onto the post just before this one.......so here they are now.

Snow...........it's fun the first time

2009-01-17T18:19:00.000-08:00

We finally had a pretty good snow storm and the kids really wanted to go out and play. It was pretty cold so we didn't get to stay out long but they seemed to have a good time. I cleared the snow off the drive way while they played...............now I can add that to my list of things that do not cause you to go into labor. Don't mind Mason's girly snow pants. Maybe if we end up moving somewhere with snow we will have to invest in some more manly ones. He only seemed bothered when Maddy pointed out that they had flowers on them.......which she felt the need to do more than once.

It wouldn't be Christmas without throw up

2008-12-27T17:20:00.000-08:00

So I don't think it can be Christmas without someone getting sick. This year it was poor Mason. He woke up the day after Christmas throwing up and just feeling pretty bad. He spent the day on the couch with his tool set, Curious George and the throw up bucket. He is doing much better today so I think it was just one of those 24 hour flu things. Hopefully the rest of us can avoid it. I think I've already done my fair share of throwing up this year.

Merry Christmas Part 2

2008-12-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

I couldn't fit all the pictures into that first post so here are the rest.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-27T16:13:00.000-08:00

We had a good Christmas. It was our first time not going anywhere. It was kind of sad to not be with family but it was still nice to just do things here. Maddy and Mason got lots of fun things from a lot of nice people. Here are some pictures of them opening their presents. Mason looks mad at Curious George but he actually really liked it. Maddy picked that out for him all by herself. We made donuts for breakfast on Christmas morning. They were shaped liked stars but you really can't tell.

Going Un-private?

2008-12-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

So................it's kind of a pain to make the blog private. I keep having to invite people over and over again or else things expire and blah, blah, blah. I guess I'm just not in the mood right now to figure it out all the way so I'm undoing it for now. So all you weirdos out there, if you're going to look at the blog just don't leave a comment and then I won't know and ignorance is bliss, right? In a few months when I feel more like myself I will be switching it back to private, so if you would still like to look at it now you have lots of time to give me your email address so I can put it on the list.

Getting Ready for Christmas

2008-12-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

We put some lights out on the bushes this year just for fun. Maddy and Mason helped decorate the tree. I like how all the decorations are on the very bottom. We have a bigger tree then last year so we will have to make some more ornaments to fill it up because it still looks pretty empty.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-12-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year. Grandma and Grandpa Nickerson and Erin, Ryan, and Grant all got to come for a quick visit. It was fun to see everyone and there was way too much good food to eat. I got to go see Twilight with my mom and sister and Maddy and Mason got to spend some time playing with their cousin........and with grandma and grandpa of course. Grant, Mason say's he is sorry for sticking you in the mouth with his sword/crowbar. He gets a little carried away sometimes :). We know it was a long drive for them but we are really glad they came! We definitely have so many things to be thankful for.

Maddy's Dance Class

2008-12-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

Maddy has started going to her first dance class. Someone in the ward who used to dance decided to start a little class and Maddy just loves it. I stayed and watched on the first day and her little face was so happy the whole time. I'm glad Maddy has something that she likes that is just for her to go do. She didn't get to go to preschool this year and I was feeling a little guilty that she didn't have something to do.............but now my guilt is relieved just a tiny bit.

Mason's Big Boy Bed

2008-12-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

Mason has been sleeping in a real bed for a few months now. He actually seems to really like it. We were not sure how well it would go since he is not the worlds best sleeper. He still won't get out of bed by himself in the morning. He just cries until someone comes and gets him........ but I guess at least this way he's not running around the house by himself at 5:45 in the morning........yes, that's when Mason gets up.

Family Home Evening Halloween

2008-11-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

I guess I should have put this post before the actual Halloween one, but oh well. On the Monday before Halloween I usually try to make something Halloweeny for dinner and then we carve the pumpkins for FHE. This year we had a mummy sandwich and chocolate pumpkin cake. The kids really loved digging the insides out of the pumpkins. Mason took forever with his pumpkin and cried when we finally made him be finished. Sam is pretty good at coming up with good pumpkin faces. Mine is the generic one with triangle eyes and nose. Maddy designed the face for her pumpkin all by herself. Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Halloween was a day early this year in our neighborhood. For some reason the city decided that trick-or-treating for kids in Hilliard was going to be on the 30th instead of on real Halloween........but Maddy and Mason didn't mind one bit. Maddy decided she wanted to be a cat and Mason wanted to be a firefighter. We went out to get candy with some friends and I think they all had fun and got way too much candy. So far they havn't noticed that most of their chocolate candy is missing from their bags...... I guess moms and dads should get some treats on Halloween also :).

Circleville Pumpkin Show

2008-10-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to the big Pumpkin Show in Circleville. We saw a lot of pumpkins and a lot of carnival type people. We got some pumpkin ice cream that was really good and the kids got to go on a few of the rides. Mason liked the truck ride but had a worried look on his face for most of the ferris wheel. It was fun and definitely a lot bigger than I was expecting.

Going Private

2008-10-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

I decided to make our blog private because some weirdo I don't know is leaving comments. I just feel a little weird knowing that people I don't know are looking at pictures of my kids. So if you would still like to see the blog just let me know and I'll put your name on the list.

Circle S Farms.......Yeah, Pumpkins!

2008-10-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

We got to go to Circle S Farms last week and the kids had a lot of fun going on the hayride and picking out some pumpkins. We got 4 pumpkins this year. In the past we've only ever gotten one pumpkin so we are feeling pretty fancy right about now. There was a maze at the farm called the scare crow cave. It was just bails of hay stacked up and then covered over the top. Maddy and Mason both went in but then quickly came out because there were chickens in the maze..........guess they wern't expecting that. We are going to go to the Pumpkin Show in Circleville later this week, so if you're lucky you'll get to see a picture of the kids looking at the world's biggest pumpkin pie.

Halloween Projects

2008-10-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

Maddy loves to do projects. We've been making some Halloween projects this month and she is very proud at how some of them have turned out. The only problem with doing projects is that they have fun and then want to do more and then I have to keep coming up with things for them to do............. which is okay as long as I'm not feeling project lazy. Mason painted his spider all by himself and Maddy worked for a very long time painting the haunted house all by herself.

Fall Means Pumpkin Bread

2008-10-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

As soon as the weather starts getting a little cooler I always want to make things with pumpkin in it. We especially like pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies. I'm only allowed to make the pumpkin cookies once a year because they are my favorite and I can't stop eating them. Pumpkin bread is allowed more than once because I put whole wheat flour in it so I can tell myself that it's "healthy"........ okay, so we still put chocolate chips in it but I just don't think about that part. That's the only way Maddy will eat it. Maddy and Mason both like to help in the kitchen, especially the stirring part. Here is the recipe for the pumpkin bread. We kind of combined two recipes together to make our own and it turned out pretty well.
2 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/3 c. oil
4 eggs
3 1/3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
2/3 c. water
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
1 small pkg. instant pudding mix (vanilla or we used white chocolate and it was pretty good)
Chocolate chips
Mix everything together and pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes. Yummy!

Nice Day for the Park

2008-09-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

The weather has been really nice lately so we've been going to the park a lot. This is Mason's favorite hat. He actually has two of them and he keeps one in the car for when we drive places and one in the house for when we go to the park. If we forget to put it on him he will talk about the hat all the way to the park and then some when we get there. One of Maddy's favorite things to do is ride her bike. She is getting to be really fast on it and Mason and I have a hard time keeping up in the wagon.

Baby #3

2008-09-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

So we decided that it wasn't enough for 2009 to be graduating from Optometry school, finding a job, moving and helping to sell a house..........lets have another baby just to make things interesting :). Baby #3 should be arriving around January 18 and the doctor said it will be another little boy. Sam asked Mason if he was excited to have a little brother and Mason said, "No, only Mason. Only boy, Mason." Mason doesn't waste time sugar coating things.

Raisin Bread

2008-09-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

I made this bread while we were in Utah and I had to take a picture of it because it turned out so pretty. I'm not a very good bread maker so usually it turns out all lumpy and deformed looking. Now there is proof that at least once I made a good looking loaf of bread.........and it tasted pretty good too, if I do say so myself.

Left over summer pictures

2008-09-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

So we are finally back from our summer in Utah..........and I"m finally getting around to putting some more stuff on our blog. These are just some pictures from this summer. We bought a really cheap kite and the kids had fun flying it. I think it was the best kite I've ever tried to fly.......or maybe windy Ohio is just a really good place to fly a kite. Even Mason could keep it up in the air. And then there are a few pictures of Maddy and Mason swimming at Grandma and Grandpa Kimball'ls house.

Happy Father's Day.........just a few days late

2008-06-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to tell my dad happy fathers day. My dad would always say that he could write things better than he could maybe say them. I have kept all of the letters that my dad has given me and sometimes I even go back and read them again. Thank you for always writing what I needed to hear...... or needed to read. Thank you for being one of the greatest examples of giving service that I have known. You are always willing to help someone, even when it might not be the most convenient time for you. Thank you for being a good grandpa. Maddy and Mason were so excited to see you and mom when you came to visit last month. Thanks for being my dad. I love you!

I always knew that I wanted to marry someone who was like my dad in a lot of ways......and I think I did. Sam never looks at this so I can write whatever I want. Thank you for being a such a great dad. Maddy and Mason run to the door to see you when you come home from school and they are always a little disappointed when you won't be home until late. Thank you for also being a good example of serving others. You are always ready to help someone move or whatever they might need. I'm really proud of how well you have done in school. You've worked really hard and I know you are going to be a great eye doctor. I love you!

Our blog is on a bit of a summer vacation. I forgot to bring our cord to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer with us this summer..............so that was really smart. Anyways, there might not be much on here for awhile.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T18:37:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to tell my mom happy mother's day. Thank you for being a good mom. You were always there when I'd come home from school and when I had a bad day. Even when I went away to college I knew that I could call home and you would be there. Thank you for being patient with all of us when we were not being the best kids. I know it wasn't always easy for you when dad had to be away with the navy. I wish that I had done more to be helpful, but I guess when you are a kid you don't think about those things as much as you should. Thank you for being the kind of mom that I hope that I can be. Thank you for being a good grandma. I know that all of your grandkids love you and grandpa very much and are always so excited for any chance to see you. I love you! This is a picture of my mom and dad........I think it was one of their engagement pictures. Now everyone can see where Maddy gets her red hair from.

Family Picture......sort of

2008-05-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

We tried to take a family picture by ourselves with the timer on the camera. I think it turned out pretty good considering.......until I started getting a little carried away with the editing. I was just trying to get rid of some sun that was on my face and now I have a huge dark spot instead. Everybody else looks good though.

Maddy and the Chocolate Cake Mystery

2008-05-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a mystery on our hands. We made root beer float cake for the family home evening treat. We ate some of it for dessert and then I left the rest on the counter. I had to put Mason to bed so I turned on a cartoon for Maddy to try and keep her busy and out of trouble. When I came back out I found Maddy with her mouth covered in chocolate and she had changed into new pajamas.......I think she was trying to hide the evidence. I asked her is she had eaten the cake and Maddy thought for a while and then said, "No." Who could have possibly eaten that cake?
In the kitchen I found the cake with most of the icing eaten off the top. Hmmmm...... the frosting is Maddy's favorite part.
There were crumbs all over the floor, just like if a four year old had been reaching up on the counter and grabbing cake with her hands.................well, I don't know. I'm stumped. Somebody better call Columbo.

It's Finally Spring

2008-05-10T08:43:00.001-07:00

The weather has been so nice lately. We really miss getting to play outside in the winter so now we are making up for it by going outside everyday. I tried to take some pictures under our tree that had really pretty white flowers but you can't see the flowers at all............so maybe you can just imagine them there.

Happy Easter

2008-03-30T18:57:00.001-07:00

Mason looked really cute in his Easter clothes. We didn't get a good picture of Maddy because she was sick and didn't really get to go to church.
We made sugar cookies and the kids had fun decorating them.........for about 2 minutes and then I got to finish the rest. It's kind of fun for me for about the first 5 or 6 cookies and then it gets kind of old. I guess that's why we only have sugar cookies once or twice a year. Mason was concentrating very hard on getting those sprinkles on his cookie.

Carriage Hill Metro Park

2008-03-30T18:45:00.001-07:00

Everyone was sick again during spring break so we didn't really get to do much. The one thing we did get to do was go up to a really cool park in Dayton. There is a farm that is run like it was in the 1800s and there are a few old houses you can walk through. There are people dressed up in 1800s clothes doing 1800s things. There were a bunch of walking trails and a place to go fishing. I was pretty impressed with the place. It was cold so we didn't get to see as much as we would have liked but I think we will probably try to go again once it gets warmer. If you look closely you can see a cat in most of the pictures. It followed us around the whole time we were there..........I think it was the best part of the whole thing for Maddy and Mason.

Blizzard of 2008 + No snow plows=Cabin Fever

2008-03-11T19:51:00.001-07:00

We survived our first blizzard. I guess there ended up being 20 inches of snow. It was bad enough that church got cancelled and we didn't get to leave the house for almost 3 days. I finally got sick of it and tried to go to the store. The snow plows don't bother to plow the neighborhoods so I got stuck and some nice person had to push the car so I could get home. It's true, I don't know how to drive in the snow. The main roads were totally fine but the side roads are terrible.......that's right, I'm talking to you city of Hilliard. I'm pretty sure it's not a big suprise that it snows in Ohio. So how about spending some of your money and getting a few more plows? Just a thought. It took Sam a reeeaaalllly long time to shovel the driveway. Maddy and Mason had fun playing in the snow again.......hopefully for the last time this winter. It definitely gave the local weather people something to talk about for hours at a time, which I know they enjoy. Good thing they have tornado season to look foreward to.

B is for Baking

2008-03-11T19:40:00.001-07:00

Maddy knows most of the letters in the alphabet so lately we've been working on the sounds they make. We usually pick a theme for the week and then try to do activities and projects that go with the theme. For the letter B the theme was baking and we baked cookies and went to Panera Bread (the closest thing to a bakery I could think of) and the kids got to pick something yummy to eat. We made little baking hats and I think they both just look really cute!

Umm, Mason did it

2008-03-11T19:28:00.001-07:00

Maddy has been a little naughty lately. She has gotten pretty good at writing some of the letters and paper just isn't doing the job anymore. I went to get her out of her car seat a few weeks ago and she had written all over the door. I asked her about it and she said, "Mason did it." Interesting........I didn't know that Mason could write the letter A. If you want to blame Mason you can't be writing letters. Just do a few scribbles.
This is part of the TV. I found a letter A on it the other day. I think " A" must be her favorite
This isn't a very good picture but there is a letter A on the bottom of Maddy's foot. I also found one on the couch. Good thing those markers are washable.

Should I be worried?

2008-03-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

So Mason likes to wear my shoes. I guess it's probably because he sees Maddy doing it all the time and he always wants to do what she's doing. I've tried to suggest that he could wear dad's shoes but he just says no......which by the the way is his new favorite word. Just as long as he's not still doing it when he's 20, right?

It snowed......again

2008-02-21T11:40:00.001-08:00

Maybe you can detect a lack of excitement on my part that it has been snowing again. I guess I'm pretty tired of winter. But we did have fun trying to make a snowman the other day. It wasn't really great snowman snow......it ended up being more of a snow lump or something. I think Mason is crying because his glove fell off and his hand was getting cold.

Time for a Haircut

2008-02-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

Mason's hair has been getting pretty long lately. It was cute though because it got these little blonde curls in the back. But we've had a few people ask us what "her" name was, so we decided it was time for a haircut. It kind of made me sad as I was cutting off all of his hair but I think it turned out pretty well. Here's a before and after picture.

Future Piano Players

2008-02-21T11:26:00.000-08:00

Maddy and Mason both like to sit up at the piano and play. They both have to have a book and be able to turn the pages. I see some future concert pianists in the making :).

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-21T11:23:00.000-08:00

So cute! That's good that they can pretend to get along for at least a few minutes........just kidding. They get along all of the time.....okay most of the time.

Too Much Birthday

2008-02-10T19:11:00.000-08:00

Maddy wanted pink cake so we make strawberry cake with pink cream cheese frosting........so yummy!!!!!! There seems to be quite a few pictures of cake on our blog. What can I say, I like cake.
Maddy spent the last part of her party crying in her room.......total meltdown. I'm not sure what happened. I guess she was just having so much fun she couldn't stand it.