Meet our Neigh-bors

Nathan, Hyrum and I walked to our back fence last night to visit the horses. This is a great group of calm, friendly animals ready to munch away at any apples or carrots we offer. Nathan was not at all afraid of them, which surprised me considering the size difference.

No fear! I was a whole lot more nervous than Nathan was.

He puts the apple on his hand, palm flat like the neighbor showed him, and then giggles as their puffy, whiskery lips pick up the apple.

We talked about the colt and how it stays very close to it's mommy - just like Nathan and Hyrum should.

Thanks, can we have more???

Sticky Fingers and Shadows

After gobbling down a peanut butter and honey sandwich Nathan picked up a penny - which became just as sticky as his fingers. That penny was the greatest sticker he has ever had! He stuck it on his nose, forehead, chin, and cheeks until it finally lost its sticky-ness.

Once he was done with his penny I managed to convince him that we needed to take off the Tigger costume to wash the honey off. He finally agreed and when I returned from loading up my overworked washing machine, I found Nathan making faces at his own shadow.

I wish I could capture on audio some of the funny things Nathan says, he just doesn't say them when I have the tape rolling. The other day Levi had an orchestra concert so was dressed up in his tux. When Levi walked up the stairs Nathan threw both hands up in the air - palms up, raised his eyebrows and declared in awe, "Wewi yooks yike Jared bu it’s not Jared, it's Wewi". The last time he saw Jared was at his priesthood ordination.

39 Hours

The boys and I left Friday morning to go pick up Erika. She has been at Kara's for the week (since she was out of school for spud harvest break). I missed her! It was fun to see on Kara's blog the pictures of Erika's week. It was all familiar to what she does here (read, make muffins, take care of Hyrum) only she was doing them at Kara's and with baby Max. I'm glad to have her home.

My first stop was at Rilda's for a massage. I was worried about the boys because Derek was going to be watching Justin, Nathan and Hyrum in the Yukon for about 1.5 hours while I had my massage and it was cold! We had everything set up for them to watch a movie on the laptop and I planned it so that Hyrum should sleep most of the time, and if he woke up he was ready to eat and Derek could give him the bottle. I worried for no reason. They had a blast. Nathan even said to me, while pushing me away, "No, go back in". ** And the massage was wonderful. Just what my sore, stressed out body needed.

We got to Utah around 4 and I realized that I didn't have Silvia's phone number any more and she had just moved so I didn't have an address for her. I went to her old apartment and talked to the landlord and we headed over to see the Murillo family. What a great family! On our way home from Utah we stopped there again since Erika was not with us the first time and we were able to spend some more chatter time with them.

Time at Kara's is always chill. We are probably a little overwhelming for the Hill family but we sure appreciate them taking us in for the night. The kids enjoyed watching movies, reading, teasing James and sleeping in.

Our chosen fun for this trip was to go to the new aquarium in Sandy. It wasn't quite what the website had led us to think but it was still fun. The kids enjoyed touching the sting ray, finding all the characters from Finding Nemo and wandering around in the fishy atmostphere. Nathan should have been down for a nap so was a bit of a pill but overall we had a good time.

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I think they were just as impressed with Kara's "huge" library as they were with the aquarium. We stopped at the library in Draper to check out a book on tape for the trip home. It was a life saver considering I have gone over 2 weeks with less than 5 hours sleep each night. We listened to Magyk from the Septimus Heap series. The kids wanted me to drive slower, wanting to get in all 12 hours of audio in the 5 hour trip home.

The weather did help us get through more of the book than we thought we would, though it really just made the trip seem stressful for me as the driver. We saw a truck roll over at the bottom of Malad pass, saw a couple of other slide-off's and had a rude awakening to the fact that winter really is on its way. I'm just not ready for that.

Once everyone was in bed and I was making the nightly lock-all-the-doors-and-start-the-dishwasher rounds I heard a strange sound that I hadn't heard at our house before. As I opened the laundry room window to get a closer listen I saw that we had 2 large owls sitting in our driveway 'talking' to each other. It was so cool! They are pretty loud and their eyes are buggy big!

Nonsense . . .

Trying to put on eyeliner when you have the hiccups does not produce a pretty portrait of female art. You’re more than likely going to poke your eye out …I know this from experience.

One of Kara’s favorite thoughts/quotes is “stand in the wind and eat peanut brittle” from the book Stand in the Wind by Jean Little. A quote I seem to live by is “stand in the kitchen and eat everything” from the book Self Control: Where is it? by Kimber Jo.

If you cut your finger while slicing onions it hurts twice as bad . . the cut and the onion juice in the cut. Also from experience.

Slicing up onions, peppers, celery, and carrots and washing and cutting greens ahead of time is a great idea for easy prep, healthy meals and on the go snacks . . . unless you never pull them out of the fridge again. Then they just mold and go limp.

Watching The Biggest Loser does not shed any pounds off the viewers, particularly me. The Firm slowly brings results while providing the wanna be health nut (me, once again) with sore buns.

Feeding a 6 month old only milk and fresh bananas brings on a smelly case of painful constipation. Switching out the bananas for this years pear crop does cure the constipation . . all over clothes, blankets and baby. At least he was smiling when he did it, unlike the squealing pushing that had been taking place.

If the power goes out during the night for a couple of hours and you don’t have a flashlight with working batteries on hand, take it as a reminder to be prepared for the power to go out. If the power goes out 3 nights in a row and you still don’t have a flashlight with working batteries, you’ve completely failed the emergency preparedness prep course. (We are ready for tonight!)

I let Erika go to Kara’s house for the week. What was I thinking?? I wanna go to Kara’s house for a week!

I wish my biography could be titled “Life of a Jogger: the inspiring woman who jogged her way to good health while keeping her life in balance and order”. Unfortunately it will probably be “Life of a Blogger: the humdrum woman who sat on her duff recording all the nonsense that crossed her mind while her family waited for dinner”.

Ummm . . .

Hello.

My name is Kimber Jo and . . .

I am a foodaholic . . . < < < sigh > > >

I owe Sarah and Terra $10 each

It wasn't even worth it.

In the Hood

My week disappeared. It was consumed by motherhood, office manager-hood, wifehood, sisterhood, neighborhood - basically I have worn alot of 'hoods' this week. It's all good.

A laughing motherhood moment - and a bit of a devilish hair day for Nathan.

Erika and I had a bit of creative crafty time together making a diaper cake for Jessica. It was fun to personalize it to Jess and we were amazed at how different it looked from the one we did for Kara's baby shower. We did the front to look (hopefully) like a baseball cap on the top for Jess and the goodies for her and the baby. The back was done for Jake with a more masculine bow (knot) and a bib.

Then on Saturday Erika and I traveled to Lava for Jess's baby shower. Kara did an awesome job pulling that together in only a week! There were several people there and we all had a bit of a delicious, competitive hour eating, playing Baby Bunko, and showering Jess with gifts.

This picture shows a rather odd position (she is reaching for a gift) but it also shows her cute Kylee belly and a natural Kodak smile. Man, I wish I looked that good 8 months pregnant!

The rest of the week was busy (and still is) with food storage planning, buying, canning and building shelves. That post is still coming later.

All Caught Up

I've not let myself post until I get all of my past posts printed and in my "Bloggy Journal" binder. I had already printed up to March 17, just before Hyrum was born, and wanted to get it current.

I don't actually have March 20th through September printed yet but they are all put together on Word and ready to go . . . all 55 pages!! I have to say I like this kind of journal (especially once it is printed). It was so fun to read back through the last 6 months of posts, look at pictures and laugh with the kids. **Update: It's all printed and in a binder.**

To celebrate my return to posting I just have one very adorable boy to show off:

I love the giggles and cuddles that come after bath time!

That's so . . .

. . Adorable! On the way home from our case-lot adventure (coming soon) Hyrum was letting me know in bellowing fashion that he had endured enough for one outing. Nathan kept trying to calm him down with "it's ok buddy, we're almost home" and "I love you Hiam, we'll be there in a minute" and even resorting to singing to him.

. . Wild! Levi has joined up with 4 other boys to create the lastest boy band. Their drummin', electric and bass guitarin' quint is called "Unexpected Irony" or as they have now designed for t-shirts, "UXI". The unexpected irony for me is that they are all clean cut, well mannered, well dressed, handsome boys practicing for their "Bullet For My Valentine" like debut. Great kids!

. . Helpful! While Kara was here for 3 days I had regular breakfast and lunch meals prepared and presented right in front of me. It was so great to have someone just make it for me because I seldom remember to eat and if I do it's less than gourmet. Why is it that when someone voluntarily makes me scrambled eggs and toast it feels gourmet? Maybe because it isn't PB & J.

. . Annoying! I counted the soliciting calls on my caller ID for just Friday. 9. . Nine . . Nueve. Yea, annoying. I answered the phone for every one of them. However, I missed 2 calls from my neighbors. How do I get my name off of all these warranty, credit card, mortgage, satellite lists???

. . Yummy! A couple of weeks ago I went to a Thai restaurant with a friend. Since then I have been craving Massaman Curry. I was unsure if I loved it just because of the great company and much needed girl get-a-away so I finally gave in to my craving today and ordered take out. It's as good as I remember if not a spicier bit better. I've now found 2 recipes to attempt making it.

. . Mmmm Mmmm Good! Nope, not soup - Pears. I've never cared for pears but my tongue has changed my mind this week. I've always thought them to be gritty and hard. Yet, the ones that I have had this week are melt in my mouth delicious! Nathan and I have pigged out on them, trying to enjoy every last gooshy bite before Erika and Justin beat us to it. Unfortunately our eating them now has only allowed me to can 12 jars of them . . and I'm sure they won't last long either! I saw on Food Network how to bottle them preserving the best texture and flavor.

. . Heroic! Derek killed 15 flies in about an hour. Disgusting, yes. If only my 2 year old would leave the door shut!

. . Fantasterific! We are all (yes all 6 kids and I) addicted to the Disney show "My Friends, Tigger and Pooh". So much better than the tan colored story book version that I remember and wow! does Tigger up the vocab. We have added to our daily conversations words like bouncercise, prexactly, fantasterific, adorabibble, kerfluffle, changerate, solverate, vice-veristy, imPoohster . .and the list goes on.

. . Strange! Both of my little boys are wearing size 4 diapers. One of them is not so little :)

. . Good for US! Erika and I have been walking 2 miles a day. One in the mornings (6am) and one in the evenings. It is so nice to have a walking buddy and she's no dawdler when it comes to acting the part of mom's trainer. My foot is slowly breaking into it - hopefully not breaking worse. Yesterday I had quite a bit of swelling and pain because of wearing heels for Saturday's baptism, broadcast and Sunday church. Today it feels and looks much better.

Relief Society Broadcast

After making myself be really brave, I went to the Stake Dinner alone, hoping I would find someone I knew. I was actually thinking of Kellie going to Peru and realized that I could go across town and exert myself just a little to make some new friends. It was SO worth it!

I was greeted in the parking lot by one of my neighbors and ended up sitting at a table with 6 of them. Perfect!

Then the broadcast . . . wonderful. Especially Elder Uchtdorf. I feel like my purpose has been clarified. It felt as if he was speaking just to me, especially when he would look in the camera and speak so emphatically. Almost like when I take Nathan by the face, have him look at me and I enunciate my words and really want him to listen. Kate and Terressa kept great notes and summarized it perfectly on their blogs . . Thanks! . . so I won't duplicate. This will be a talk that I print off and re-read often.

I am so excited for conference. I didn't hear one talk from last conference because of moving the same weekend, trying to settle in and Hyrum only being 2 weeks old. I feel like my spirit just really needs a boost from those who have direct communication with our Heavenly Father. I'm so thankful that they have dedicated their lives to spreading His word in my behalf.

Movie Review

Highly Recommended

Not the usual sporty, feel good movie . . It's better