Kimball and Kiki

Ewwee, slobbery kisses

They boys just love the dog. Kimball especially loves to snuggle her. Often during quite time when Kimball is supposed to be in his room, I'll find him curled up on the floor with Kiki. Two little sweeties!

new hats and washing the car

Sally, Melissa and I went to Academy--a great sporting goods store here and we all got the 50 cent hat. What a great deal. Peter tried to take some candid shots. I did learn what those neck thingies are called, but I have since forgotten the name. What is it meliss?
We were very happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Gurr, aunt Melissa and Great-Grandma Froerer stay at our house for the weekend of the sealing. Apparently I was not very on top of taking pictures because this is all I got. But the boys were in heaven with all our quests. They played candy land non-stop. Thanks for bringing us a new game!


Sally and Me

Ella's Sealing

At the end of February we had the privilege of being at little Ella's sealing. It was such a wonderful experience and made me so grateful for the large eternal families we have on both the Gurr and the Taylor side.

Ella was so sweet and beautiful. I'm so glad she came to join our large family!

Pizza delivery

I am so behind in posting. Way back in February Joey's school had a fundraiser for the where when you order pizza part of the proceeds go to the school. Then you can tip the delivery person who is really the teacher (in advance), and all the money goes directly to the school. I guess we tipped a little too much because we got a serious show.

It was in the afternoon and the boys wanted to ride their bikes around the circle so we were outside waiting for the pizza to be delivered in some beat up old car. After a few minutes Joey and Kimball said they saw a fire truck. I peeked around the corner and saw the truck. Then as it turned toward our house the lights came on and siren started wailing. And I literally had a mini heart attack. For those who may not know, we had a house fire when we lived in Buffalo where I had to run and scoop up my two napping children and run to safety at the neighbors house, so I have a little PTSD I think. As soon as that wailing truck came close to my house I started to panic. I thought, "Oh my goodness, is there really a fire? The only one in the house is kiki and dogs can't call 911 (or can they? The dogs in Joey's pet heroes book can). Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!!!"

After a 20 second heart/panic attack, I looked up to see Joey's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Erikson, beaming and happily waving from the truck. "OK, there's no fire. But what is going on?!?"

I was trying to calm down my heart rate and casually talk to Joey's teacher and the firmen like this was all totally normal and everyday for us. Still totally confused about the reason for the fire truck. I quietly asked Joey if he had won some special award at school, but he just gave me that blank stare like I was speaking Chinese.

Well they handed us the pizza and took a thousand pictures, and thanked us for donating. "Oh, man they must never get anything from anybody if our tip warranted the fire truck." Anyway, I was feeling totally embarrassed at that point and still feeling some heart palpitations so I was so glad to see them leave. I was glad the boys had fun, but I will never be donating to the school again :)

Peanut Butter and Scriptures

Totally unrelated topics. One day I came down stairs to find this. Sweet, little Kimball was searching through the cupboards for a snack and managed to shatter an unopened jar of peanut butter on the counter. What a tragic loss :(

For Valentine's Day we got the boys their own copy of the Book of Mormon and a scripture bag. The next day they wanted to read outside. It was so sweet!

Gotta love those sunglasses. it was a prize Joey picked from the treasure box at school. I think they actually make your vision worse.

Sea World

Sea World just redid their kiddie area and it is so fun. We went early opening day and had a blast for 2 hours until all the crowds came. The highlight was the new carousel. The first ride though Kimball was so excited to hop on a horse.Joey opted for a bench seat the first go round.

Then we went on the crazy spinning around ride. (I had to have a focal point so I wouldn't loose it :)

Then the boys unleashed their energy climbing on the giant playground

Second try--Joey was so excited to get on a horse. He saw that they were tame horses and decided to give it a try. And he loved it!

rThe highlight for Kimball was the Elmo show. He was however heart-broken when we missed touching Elmo at the end

Wicked

When Peter's family came out for Ell's sealing, we got to go see Wicked! It was such a fun night and a great experience getting to be with Melissa for her much anticipated first showing of the play! (It was out first time too, but Melissa has waited much longer than we have to see it).

zoo

It was nice to take the boys to the zoo during our warm late February. We had a few freezing weeks, so it was nice to get back to warm weather.

After seeing the animals, the boys wanted to go to the little beach area. Since I hadn't planned on that I told them we could go, but they could only put their feet int he water and play in the sand.

We had fun burying them

Climbing on the turtle

Jumping off the turtle

crawling through the turtle

and making snow angels

But the boys decided it was just not fun to stay dry, so they sat down in the water--fully clothed. Which is why they had no clothes for the ride home.

Joey's class picture

Funny Kimball

Kimball was really making me laugh to day. This morning at our weekly Meals on Wheels route we went to the house of an older couple. The husband loves Kimball (as does pretty much everyone we bring food to). Kimball sometimes is a little leery of the ogling eyes, "interesting" people, and crazy spanglish.

As we got back in the car after that house where the man was very grateful, Kimball looked so sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "That man called me an alien and I didn't like that." Totally confused I did a quick mental search of everything that had just transpired and said, "Oh, he didn't call you an alien, he said 'thanks a million.'

Maybe I need to get his hearing checked. I think he is a little sensitive because all the old people coo at him and say what a sweet baby he is (totally out of love), and Kimball gets so mad. "I'm not a baby Mom. They called me a baby." Poor kid. He's a good sport.


Then, today we had the first day of swim lessons for the boys at our neighborhood pool. The teacher was off with another kid mid pool and when I turned by back, Kimball apparently jumped in by himself and got nervous. When I turned around, he was slipping under the water with that panicked looked on his face. Not knowing what to do I jumped in--fully clothed--and hauled him to the side of the pool. (It was not fun sitting with a soggy bum for the rest of class :))

When we got home the boys wanted me to jump on the trampoline with them, and I thought that jumping might help dry out my clothes. While we were jumping Kimball started to retell our exciting adventure. "Mom, today I was sinking in the water, and you saved me. Like I was a princess."
Apparently only princesses need to be rescued. Tomorrow I am wearing my bathing suit to swim lessons in case he wants to be a princess again :)

Sweet Lessons

My boys officially fried my phone. I gave it to Joey Tuesday evening to call Dad to see when he'd be home. Apparently he was pretty close because I heard the boys tearing outside a moment later. As they rushed outside I yelled "Joey, bring me back my phone." Apparently he didn't hear me, and I was in the middle of making dinner so I forgot about it until I needed to use my phone the next morning. Joey was already off at school, but Kimball brought it to me dripping water from the ice pack I gave him the night before.

When Joey got home I told him what happened (without getting upset--which is a new step for me, a very new and necessary step :) ). I just calmly stated the facts and waited to see what he would do. Joey took off upstairs and came down with his bank and said, "Mom, you should take some money." I told him that was very sweet of him, but I will try to dry it out first and see if it works. So today, after 24 hours of drying, it still does not work. When Joey asked about it again, I told him it really was broken. He asked, "did you take my money mom?" I told him no. He said, in a very grown up kind of voice, "you should."

Again he brought me his bank--his only valuable asset--opened it up, and said, "take some." I looked at the ten dollar bill (the savings from great-grandma's birthday gift), and a few coins, and I didn't know what to do. I said, "Joey, why don't you give me what you think you should give me for my phone." He pulled out the bill, a gold dollar coin and a nickle and asked, "how much is that?" I told him it was $11 and 5 cents. Looking a little dissatisfied he pulled out some more coins and asked, "mom, is that 1,000 now?"


Oh, what a sweet boy he is! I love him. He taught me again what a good soul he has. And a reconfirmation to me that getting upset does not teach anything. These sweet kids have such a strong desire to do what is right!