Sunday, March 30, 2008

Peek a Boo



Kimball and Joey love to play a little game where they peek at each other through the hole in Kimball's highchair. I LOVE hearing them laughing together!

Fun Together


Last week when I went to get Kimball after his nap, Joey came running in and wanted to get in the crib and play with Kimball.

It's fun to see them having fun together. Now Joey will stand outside his bedroom door and say, "come here Kimball" over and over until Kimball crawls in. Then Joey will immediately shut the door so Mom and Dad don't know what trouble those two are brewing up together.

Joey was often telling me "Go away Mom," when ever he and Kimball were playing together, but since I have been trying to teach him that that is not a nice thing to say, he has gotten more creative. The other day I went to check on them while they were playing in the basement, and Joey immediately said, "Go upstairs Mom, you need your privacy." What a funny kid!

More snow






Here's some of our fun snow pictures. I guess if you're going to have 2 feet of snow while the rest of the country is enjoying spring, you might as well have some fun :)
We are happy to report that today (March 30th) the temperatures have finally broken out of the 30's--it was so wonderful!

Baby Prison


The other day Joey ran into the kitchen and said, "Mom, I closed the gate." I had no idea what he was talking about so I followed him into the living room and saw that he had rigged up a little blockade so he could keep Kimball right where he wants him.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Snow much fun!




Joseph has been loving the 2 feet of snow on the ground. He had fun running around and falling down with our neighbor, Adam Kingsford.

I love food!

Poor little Kimball has been having a really rough week with all 4 of his top teeth breaking through the gums. One night we gave him a piece of cold watermelon and he could not get enough!



Kimball has developed a great love of the refrigerator--I'm sure this love will only intensify as he grows older.
Whenever I open the door, he does his mach-speed crawl to try and get in before the door closes.

Our little puppy



At times it seems that Kimball really is part puppy, probably golden retriever or lab. He will follow us around, come when called, slobber all over you, and chase balls all around the house. He even gets the cutest little puppy dog eyes when he sucks his thumb.

Two messy boys

So, Kimball's mouth is brown because he has been secretly snatching handfuls of dirt out of the plant when we are not looking. And of course, he loves it!


The other day I was trying to keep Joey busy while I made bread, so I let Joey dig for treasures in a big container of flour. He was doing great for a long time, but then he got a little too excited and ended up with flour everywhere! I guess he was taking very seriously the sign behind him.

Brotherly fun

The other day I was making dinner and I noticed that the boys were being unusually quiet so I peaked around the corner and saw Kimball just staring at his idol (who for some reason had climbed into that little hideout to eat his snack.


Now that Kimball is crawling all over the place, Joey has really begun to enjoy playing with him. It is so wonderful to see them having so much fun together, and to hear them laughing in the next room. One day Joey started crawling around the house in the laundry basket, and Kimball had a great time just following him around.

Movie night




Last Friday we rented a movie and made a dinner feast to eat while we watched. It was fun to sit and relax with the boys.

Snuggle


I finally got a picture of My Kimball snuggling. Of course the only time he will do this is when he is passed out, but I'll take it!

Hair Cut


So I discovered a way to actually get Joey to remain still while I cut his hair. Let him play in the sink and he barely even notices I'm cutting his hair--it's great!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Fire! Fire! Fire

Our soot covered furnace filter.
The night we were able to move back into our house, Joey ran upstairs and said, "I want to jump on my bed." This is his celebratory bounce party.
Sleepy Kimball sitting still for the first time in his life :) at one of our host homes
The furnace that started the fire
Shattered glass all over the basement floor from the firemen breaking the windows

We are finally back in our home after being homeless for almost two weeks because of a house fire. We live in a duplex and on Tuesday the 19th a fire started in our neighbors side of the basement (which opens on the top to our side)

Tuesday afternoon I put the boys down for their naps, and then I laid down on the couch to read, and then I dozed off. About 20 minutes later I heard a pounding on the door and then my neighbor screaming, “Get out, the house is on fire!!!” I flew upstairs (still trying to comprehend that this was real) and grabbed the boys out of their beds. We ran outside in the freezing weather (wind chill of 17 below) and into the house of our neighbor Andrea Rhoten.. Brenna(our friend who lives on the other half of the duplex) then explained that she heard the fire alarm in the basement going off so she ran down to check. She then saw flames coming out of the furnace and ran to get all of us out.

Once the boys were safe and settled inside, I ran back to our house to grab my cell phone. I then opened up the basement door just to see, and a huge billow of black smoke came up. That’s when it hit me that this was for real.

In a matter of minutes there were 4 fire trucks in front of the house, and firemen running in and smashing out all the basement windows to let the smoke escape and to be able to get their hoses to the fire.

The firemen were able to put out the fire before too much damaged occured, but the Fire Chief said that if the fire had burned 10 minutes more, the entire house would have been in flames. Luckily for us, we only suffered smoke damage.

I think the worst part of the fire was all the thoughts of what could have happened. When I walked back into the boys rooms, it was so horrible to see the beds that they were sleeping in and think that I was 10 minutes away from loosing them. We definitely were very blessed and watched over that day.

We also received many blessings from friends and church members who offered their houses to us. We stayed in 4 different homes and were very grateful to have a warm, comfortable place to be. And Joseph was such a trooper. One night when we went back to the house to get Peter's car, Joey got really sad and kept saying, "I want to go in my house." But the rest of the time he was great. He thought we were on some fun vacation, and loved to play with all our friends' new toys.

We finally able to move back in this weekend (after a restoration crew cleaned the carpets, washed the walls, repainted a little, and removed the dirty, soot coated filter from the furnace. We are soooo happy to be back in our little home!

Valentine's Day



We used Great-Grandma and Grandpa Starkey's treat money to have a little V-Day pizza party. We then ate a yummy chocolate peanut butter mouse pie.
Thanks to all the grandma's and grandpa's for the Valentine's Day treats and cards!

Why is butter so irresistable?


The other day Joey walked around the corner chomping on a stick of butter. It was pretty hard to get it back from him.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Grandma's House


Peter had fun decorating Kimball and Joseph's hair with bubbles. They were so cute!

Enjoying the fire with Grandpa


We were able to take a long weekend in mid February and go to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's house. Joey was so excited! We had a pre-Valentine's Day Party and Joey got to make cupcakes with Grandma, and even sneak a little bite of batter.
When we brought the cupcakes over to the table, Kimball started going crazy. He had never eaten a cupcake, but he must have known they were good because he wouldn't calm down until we gave him one. Smart boy.

Bathtub Chomper



Kimball loves to chomp on the side of the bathtub. We'll put him in the water, and after a few we;ll hear "tap, tap tap." Two little teeth trying so hard to take a bite out of that tub. Peter always likes to say that he's eating us out of house and home--literally.
And then if you try and stop him, watch out :)

2 Year Old Trouble


One day Joseph's friend Sariah came over and they went down to the basement to play. After about 15 minutes I noticed it was just a little too quite--some trouble had to brewing down there. When I went down I found they had dumped out a whole bag of flour and were driving the cars through it.

Cutie Patootie



Oh, that cute little nakie baby! Kimball has some real buns of steel!

Balloons!


Joey and Kimball loved the balloons Grandma Taylor sent to cheer up Peter when we found out he didn't match at a pediatric program.