Sunday, July 29, 2007

What I Learned from our Summer Vacation!

What I learned from our Summer Vacation...1. Parker is Very Territorial when it comes to His things! Especially when it comes to playing in a plastic playhouse and sharing a piece of chocolate cake.

2. Who would have ever thought that Taylor would scream and cry her way on a boat ride through the San Diego bay, but not on her first ride on Space Mountain? 3. Don't panic unless you are absolutely sure your 3-year old son is not with the other half of your group touring the USS Midway! That boat is a darn labrynth!
4. Men don't complain about the heat and sun as much when they are looking at airplanes!
5. You can never freeze enough bottles of water, the night before, to carry you through an entire day at Disneyland!

6. Remember to keep Man Vs. Wild on Tivo when Joe comes to visit...because just one episode is not enough...more like 8-10 will do.
7. As Bear Grylls says, "always keep an eye out for fresh water..." All you need to keep any boy (0r man) happy is water, food, and fire. At least we found 2 out of 3!
8. How I wish I was small enough to curl up in a stroller and fall asleep.


10. Disneyland is way better when you go with parents who will wait out the majority of a 2 1/2 hour line for the newest ride!
11. If you don't want to get burned...wear sunscreen!
12. Your mom can't help but scream when riding Space Mountain, even when your 5-year old daughter is sitting in front of her and riding it for the first time.
13. You will never get sick of listening to "A way back into Love," and "Pop goes my Heart" from Music and Lyrics over and over again. Thanks Michael, the kids are hooked!
14. Sitting in front of the castle to save seats for the fireworks show for 2 1/2 hours is not fun with 3 busy kids, but very worth it! I will never get sick of that show!


15. How to get out of paying 18% gratuity to a lousy waitress!


16. My 3 kids slept great together in the same room regardless of what my expectations were.


17. What it means when a man "goes to see a man about a horse"...thanks Joe!


18. Don't get a pregnant and emotional sister involved in an argument with your brother! Need I say more?


19. How sensitive, kind, thoughtful, and loving Michael is...he really gives great appologies!


20. Accidental boob grazes (yeah, right!) will be noticed no matter how hard you try to cover it up!




Tuesday, July 17, 2007

BLAKES FIRST STEPS

Click here to watch Blake walking! We are still trying to figure out how to upload the video straight to the blog, but for now this will do. Happy watching!

(From Devo)
Kimberly went to bed, two hours ago! I am just having too much fun with this new video ability. Please take a look at my latest video creation, "TAYLOR'S THE BOMB" dance video. The video was shot in our trip to Tennesse. The song comes from a cute CD we picked up when Taylor was five months old. We had just moved to San Diego, and went exploring shopping centers. In a Target, we found this little treasure of a song. CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Adventures of a 1 year old!

Adventure #1: Go to the Beach
  • Click here: I love to roll around in the sand until I am covered with sand from head to foot!
  • I eat sand, rocks, twigs, and other food that has been dropped in the sand.
  • Crawl as fast as I can towards the waters edge and dare my mom to catch me before I dive in!
  • I Enjoy destroying any sand castles, holes, or human mermaids created in the sand because it makes the ones who created them scream and it fills me with delight!
Adventure #2: Playing in the Bathroom
  • Make a mad-dash for the bathroom any time the door is left open...
  • Once inside, unravel as much toilet paper as possible and flick my hands inside the the toilet bowl water, while quickly glancing over my shoulder to see if anyone has noticed where I am, and then stick my fingers in my mouth to give it a quick taste.
  • Pull out anything and everything out of the bathroom cupboards and drawers at least twice a day. Dumping out the q-tips is the best because it takes the longest for my mom to pick up.
Adventure #3: Coloring
  • If people didn't want me to play with markers and crayons they wouldn't leave them out. Good thing my brother and sister like to give them to me to chew on and draw on the floor with.
Adventure #4: Eating
  • Now that I've discovered "Real" food, it doesn't make sense to let my mom feed me baby food anymore. Besides, it tastes so much better when I feed myself and squish it in-between my fingers and smudge it all over my face!
Adventure #5: The Pool
  • My mom keeps buying me all different sorts of floaters to keep me contained and from drowning in the pool. But, I know I can Swim. Yes, why shouldn't I know how to swim? I watch my brother and sister do it all the time--it doesn't look very hard! All you do is dive in, right?
Adventure #6: Toys
  • I know they want me to play with "baby" toys, but I know what the good toys are! Mini Legos and Polly Pockets are much more fun. I just don't know why my brother and sister scream when they see me coming their direction and want to take them away.
  • I finally find a toy that I love and, all of a sudden, my brother and sister decide they love it too and want to play with it! So not Fair!
  • For this reason, my toy is the wipes container. I could spend hours pulling wipes out and watching my mom put them back in.
Adventure #7: Cleaning
  • What's the big deal? I like putting the Clorox and windex bottles and sponge in my mouth. I'm just trying to help!
Adventure #8: Climbing
  • You give me anything to climb on and I can do it!
  • The stairs, my rocking chair, the couch, anything!
  • I've also mastered standing on them too, he he he!
Adventure #9: Learning to Walk
  • My mom lets me practice as long as I am on soft surfaces, but now I can stand in the middle of the room anywhere and balance for a long time.
  • Watch out! I will be running around chasing Luke before you know it!
Adventure #10: Diaper Changing
  • I just don't understand why this can't be done on-the-go, especially a poopy one?
  • I really hate it when my mom makes my dad pin me down to change me.
stay tuned for more adventures soon...

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Happy 4th of July!

How to have a great 4th of July:

  • Try to keep tradition by buying your children really cute 4th of July outfits, and find yourself forgetting about the tradition 2 days before, rush to Old Navy, pick out really cute matching polo shirts and find that your older daughter and son are devastated that you are not buying them shirts with the American Flag on it--so you put the really cute outfits back and buy the $4 American Flag shirts!
  • On the way home from purchasing these shirts, your, 2001, piece of junk American car, which you just got back from the mechanic, and you never should have bought, service engine light comes on and you have to take it back to the mechanic to have serviced, AGAIN!
  • Go to the beach the day before the 4th of July, come home really exhausted. Pick up a babysitter, and go wait in line for 1 hour to see an awesome summer blockbuster, Transformers and love it!
  • On the 4th of July, go to the beach early to find that every one else had the same idea, but arrived even earlier! Stay for 2-3 hours, come home, go to lunch, nap, and then go to Sea World for the fireworks. Believe that the 4th of July wouldn't be the 4th of July without fireworks and make all of your family exhausted and extremely tired just so you can enjoy seeing the fireworks. Once at SeaWorld, you will find yourself realizing what chaos you got yourself into, but never admit it. Go to the new Shamu Rocks show and want to wait in the Stadium to see the Fireworks, but, later, be convinced by your husband to watch them on the grass where the kids can run around. Once the fireworks begin, your view will be completely obsructed by trees. You will glare at your husband and he will offer to move you to another spot, but you feel bad and stay and watch the display through the trees. Once it is over, you will make a mad dash for the car. Get in the car, change the kids clothes while trying to leave the parking lot, sit in the parking lot for almost an hour, drive home, kids fall asleep, and feel completely satisifed with your 4th of July experience!
  • The day after, you will wake up, completely exhausted, find you have no food in the house, go grocery shopping at 7:30am, come home, open the car door, bags with glass jars fall out and break, you clean it up, un pack groceries, and then get the kids ready for the pool. It is your day, after all, to host pool day at your house. Although, you are so tired you will do this because you are a good mom. After 3 hours of fun at the pool with friends, you will come home, try to rest, but realize you can't because your son has soccer practice in a couple hours. You will wake your baby up from his nap, put him and the other two kids in the car, everyone will be so tired and fall asleep on your drive there. You will debate whether or not to go to Soccer since everyone is asleep, but you know your son will be disappointed if he misses out. You will wake everyone up again. Stand in the heat and watch your son have fun, listen to your daughter complain about being bored, and watch your baby crawl around in the dirt. At one point, your older son will run from the field and tell you he needs to go potty. You will attempt having him use the porta potty. You will try holding him up so he can pee in the urinal. He will not be able to go because he is too distracted by the excrement in the potty, so you will trek all the way across the other side of the field to the indoor potty's. He will go and return to his game and have fun.
  • At the end of your day, you will be completely exhausted, but unable to withstand your slight addiction to blogging and Soaps. You will do both and feel fulfilled by your day!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Since When Do You Need the Beach for a Bonfire?

Today has been quite the eventful day! It started out with 3 hours of swimming at the pool with MANY friends from the ward. I would have taken pictures, but there were a lot of kids and a lot of chaos! Then, later on in the day, I took Luke to his first day of Soccer...which he totally loved!

Of course, no day would be complete without a bonfire in the backyard! We made smores for camp night at YW's a couple of weeks ago and Devon has had bonfire fever ever since! He decided that tonight was the night. He had dreams of making a larger fire, but was worried the neighbors would call the fire department...so he made it smaller. After this first picture, he decided the flame needed to be bigger for the camera and added more tinder to the flame!
Oh, baby! Look at that fire-roasted marshmallow! Does that look good or what? Hopefully Luke didn't learn any fire-making tips from this bonfire session! Luke and Fire do not sound like a good mix!
This was Taylor and Luke's first time eating smores and they LOVED IT! Taylor kept saying, "Mom, they are soooooo great!"

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Directions to where I am...

Be born October 31, 1977 (Halloween) in Salt Lake City, Utah. You will be the first of three children to be born into your family. You will anxiously wait for other siblings to arrive and be thrilled to finally have a baby sister that you can smother with love. You will enjoy mothering, teasing, and playing with her. After a few more years, a baby brother will arrive. On the day of his birth, you will be greeted by neighbors at your home, after school, to be taken back to their house for the night. You will miss and worry about your mom and dad all night and cry yourself to sleep in your care-bear sleeping bag. When you wake up in the morning, you will be told that you have a new baby brother and feel very proud and excited. For a few years, you will share a bedroom with your brother and sister and love it! You will enjoy telling them what to do and playing make-believe games with them.

You will love Elementary school and have many friends. For your kindergarten school picture you will wear a blue and white jumper that looks just like the one in "Annie." Throughout these years, you will sing, sing, sing. You will stand in front of your piano, which has a mirror on it, and watch yourself sing along with Neil Diamond. While doing so, with a brush in hand, you will imagine yourself singing on-stage with him in front of lots and lots of people. You will experiment with scissors and cut your own hair and have to have it all chopped off. You will play in your grandma's basement with cousins, play her organ, love her ice cream and peach jam, and love the Christmas traditions at her house. You will crack your chin open while playing on a teeter totter at your aunt and uncles house and get stitches. While on your way to getting stitches, you will be sad that you don't get to eat your aunts amazing Navajo Tacos. Your other grandma will take you shopping to Nordstrom regularly to buy you new clothes and you will love it! You will be the tallest girl in your class and hate standing on the back row of all your class pictures. When you are in the 5th grade, you will have the cutest boy in your class ask you if you want to go steady. You will say yes, but rarely talk to him. One day, at school, your boyfriend will stop you in the hall to tell you how he feels about you by having you put headphones on and listen to "I'll be Loving you Forever," from your favorite band, New Kids on the Block. Your face will turn bright red, but you will feel soooo cool! You will beg your parents for a dog and finally get one for Christmas. You will want to name her Princess, but, since she is really your Dad's dog, your dad will convince you to name her Dutchess. You will really love this dog! You slip in dog poop, while in your socks, in your front yard, while trying to impress your boyfriend. You will try to get back into your house to change your socks and, while giggling, your sister and her friend will lock you out and not let you in. You will take many trips to St. George, UT to visit cousins and love it! You will forever feel connected and close to these cousins from these trips. You will make up dances to Paula Abdul in your basement with your best friend and teach them to your sister. You will be a Daddy's girl and love to follow your dad around the yard while he does yard work. Your dad will tell you not to let your friends call you "Kim" because "Kimberly" is a much prettier name. You will listen to and sing along with Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine over and over and imagine yourself singing her songs. You will run for Class Historian, in the 6th Grade, and use a New Kid's on the Block theme by saying: "Kim's got the RIGHT STUFF" for your ad campaign and win. Elementary school will end and shortly after the beginning of your 7th grade year, your entire life will change and you will leave all of your good friends and move to the southern California, a.k.a The OC.

Much of your Junior High years will be difficult. You will experience having your clothes, hair, and make-up being made fun of for the first time in your life. You will feel alone, sad, and wish you were still in Utah. You will spot a boy with a BYU sweatshirt on and wonder who he is and think he looks cute. You will try out for the 8th grade cheerleading squad and while practicing your routine, trip over your dog and sprain your ankle. You will not make the squad and feel sad. You will, however, audition for the 8th grade vocal ensemble, make it and feel happy. At the end of the 8th grade, you will try out for the freshman high school cheerleading squad, make it, and finally feel like your life is good again. You will have two boys ask you if you become popular if you will go out with them. Their comment will make you feel sad that you are not popular, but feel hopeful.

High School begins and you feel confident and cute. You are starting to have many friends and love being a cheer leader! You will also join the Choir and love it! You will turn 14 and start attending Saturday Night Church Dances. This is where you will meet Boyfriend #2. This boy will call you many times on the phone, which you will love, and he will ride his bike, during the hot, hot summer, 20 miles or so to your house to see you. He will kiss you in your back yard and then your dad will put his bike in the trunk of his car and drive him home. You will break up with this boy. When you are 16 you will fall in love with Boyfriend #3. He is a goof who you have fun with and think you might marry someday. You will break up with him. You will meet the boy from Jr. High, with the BYU sweatshirt, named Devon, in History Class, your Junior year, and invite him to go to Swing Class with you. He will become your final boyfriend, best friend and sweet heart. You will do everything together. He will even go with you to mail packages to Boyfriend #3 who is on a mission. You will have three car accidents (2 your Junior year and 1 your Senior year). Your third accident will cause you to have anxiety about driving the rest of your life. You will audition for Vocal Ensemble, make it, and love it, love it, love it! You will sing a solo in Prism and love it! Your confidence will grow and grow. Your sweet heart will ask you to Junior Prom by sprinkling candy kisses all over your floor. You will go to Senior Prom together too. During these years, your parents will lecture you on dating other people and be worried about you dating only one person. You will think very hard about their lectures and consider dating other people, but not want to lose the one best friend you'd had since Elementary School. So, you will continue to date him and fall in love with him. You will graduate from High School together and wonder what the future holds for you as you leave to attend Ricks College and he makes plans to go on a mission.

Your parents will drop you off at Ricks and you will walk around campus crying all day long. You will miss your family immensely! Devon will come visit you and you will feel happy. Devon will leave for his mission. You will worry about him, but enjoy the new friends and opportunities. You will do silly things, stay up late, study hard, and giggle and laugh with roommates lots and lots. You will meet a girl that will become a best friend for life! Devon will get very sick on his mission and come home. You will debate about what to do, but finish out your time at Ricks and graduate. Devon will visit a lot and you will visit him a lot.

You will come home and pick up where you left off, attend Cal State Fullerton, and love being home. Your parents will still wonder if you should be dating the same boy and tell you that maybe you should still date other people, but you don't want to. Boyfriend #3 will come home from his mission and you will realize that he is a loser and wonder why you ever thought you might marry him. You will be a part of the Miss Placentia Pageant. You will work at this very hard and not win, but feel very good about what you did. You will go on a week long trip to Washington, D.C. with your family and, on the day you get home, get engaged! You will feel very excited, but hesitant to share the news with your parents. Your parents will be happy for you and 6 months later you will marry your best friend and man of your dreams in front of numerous family and friends who love you. It will be one of the happiest days of your life!

Six months, after marriage, your husband will decide to change careers and you will put your house up for rent and move into your brother and sister-in-laws basement in Utah for 4 months. You will fall in love with their adorable twins and learn a lot of life lessons. You will remain in Utah for 3 years. During this time you will experience the joy of pregnancy and welcome into your life a beautiful daughter. Although she keeps you up at night, and you are sleep deprived, you will fall deeply in love with her. You will enjoy every aspect of being her mom and singing sweet songs to her. 4 months after her birth, you will move to San Diego. You will love it there and make lots of friends. One day, while driving in the car, you will have a strong impression to have another baby. You will share this experience with your husband and become pregnant (probably that night) with baby #2. It will be a boy. He will be the most happy, smiley baby who also sleeps well and is a joy to have. Him and his sister will become best friends. You will buy a house in San Diego and wonder how you afford it. You will watch your daughter and son become best friends and treasure every kiss, hug, laugh, and moment. You will fly to Denver, Colorado to audition for American Idol with your sister. It will be one of the greatest experiences of your life and you will love every minute of it! You will welcome a third son into the family who will add so much more joy than you ever thought you could imagine. You will be so grateful for these wonderful gifts from your Heavenly Father. You will have days that seem impossible and days that you never want to end. Soon after your third son is born, your parents will move to Tennessee, your sister will move to Utah, and your brother will return home from his Mission and go to BYU. Your heart will ache and you will feel sad that they are so far away. But they will visit often and you will remain close. You will become closer to your own family because of this and remind yourself of all that you have to be grateful for. Life will go on. You will continue to clean your house, do laundry, go to the pool, the beach, the park, talk on the phone to friends and family, go to church, still sing along to your favorite songs and imagine it being you in front of the fans, share sweet moments with your children where you play imaginary games, sing songs, read books and cuddle and kiss them good night. You will fall deeper in love with your husband and share many fond memories with him that the two of you will hold onto for the rest of your life. Blog and Blog and Blog. Write this post and anxiously wait for others to write one's similar to this for you to read. You're here.

This blog was inspired by my cousin Christie who I have loved reconnecting with and inspires me with her words of wisdom, my sister, Robyn and brother, Michael who remain to be two of my very best friends and help keep us connected although we are far away! Writing this blog was a really fun trip down memory lane!

Friday, June 22, 2007

Where's Luke?

Can you find Luke?
Oh, there HE is!!!
I am so glad my kids play so well together. I love to see them use their imagination and be creative! I can't help, but brag about how cute they are!