Taylor's Birthday Present

Since the football season has come to an end, Taylor is no longer carrying his football wherever he goes. His interest has cooled a bit due to the fact that he can't play football in the backyard because of the snow, there are no articles about football in the paper for him to read and no teams that he can track. So until football season starts again he has turned his attention to skiing and snowboarding. He watched some of the X Games on TV and he has been bringing home snowboarding books from school. So a few weeks before his birthday I asked him if he wanted a toy/gift or his first skiing lesson from his dad. Without hesitation he opted for the skiing.

So this past weekend, Scott and Taylor went up to Scott's parents house for a sleepover on Friday night. They live right at the mouth of the canyon. On Saturday they rented skis and went up to Alta to the free area. After falling many times, he finally got the hang of it and had fun. He came home tired, sun burned and happy. I asked him if he wanted to go again and he said yes. Definitely a success!

All Boy!

Yep, we've got ourselves another boy on the way! Although this isn't the clearest pix of the gender identifying part, the ultrasound tech showed no hesitation in informing us that it is indeed a boy.

So all of the money that I was planning on spending on all things pink, cute and frilly will have to be spent on the one lone woman in the house. I'm sure I can somehow manage that!

and Survey Says...

Imagine our complete and total surprise when upon the ultrasound screen we saw our little baby holding up a rather modest and strategically positioned placard with a little brainteaser. The image was a bit fuzzy, so I have transcribed what it said below.


P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z

Find the number of days in February 2100.
Subtract 27.
The chromosome that I received from Dad is this many
spaces to the left of the letter that is seven spaces
to the right of the letter that is three spaces to
the left of the letter that is one space to the right
of the middle letter.


Hints are available for $5 each or 3 for $10. Cash, check, money order, and PayPal accepted.

A Boy or a Girl?

Today is the day - 3:30 this afternoon to be exact. And barring an uncooperative baby we should be able to tell if I am already ready or if I need to go on a major shopping spree.

And the family predictions?

Scott: "I predict it will be a boy or a girl."

Me: I honestly have had no feelings one way or the other. I generally discount my feelings on stuff like this since they are usually terribly inaccurate. The only dream I have had about this baby was about a week ago. I had the baby at 20 weeks and was 1. surprised that I had delivered. I didn't realize it at the moment and 2. I was surprised that the baby was full term. Could the doctors have messed up my due date by 4 months? When I realized I had delivered the baby there was no announcement of whether it was a boy or girl. But it looked like a boy. Don't all newborns look the same though? So that's what I have going. A wacky dream and no feelings either way.

Taylor: "Probably a girl"

Bennett: "A girl"

Owen: "cereal. cup." - You can see his mind was on eating, not predicting the gender of his future sibling.

Maylee - Now her prediction was a little harder to understand for several reasons.
1. Maylee is our dog
2. Maylee is not the brightest dog around.

So I devised a highly scientific experiment to see what she thinks. I took a pink cup and a blue cup and put a treat of the almost exact same size in each cup. I put them about a foot apart. My hypothesis was that the first cup she went to and ate the treat out of would be her pick. And yes, I am aware that since she is a dog and she does have some sort of color blindness issues, this may be a bit difficult for her to pick the right cup based on her prediction. But I figured that she has had a few pups in her lifetime and she's a dog. Aren't they suppose to have special powers?

The results of my experiment didn't go quite as planned. First I had to show her the cups. She wasn't picking up on the idea that there were treats in them for her. She then went to the blue one first but couldn't get the treat out fast enough for her liking (ie 2 seconds. Did I mention she wasn't that bright?). She abandoned the blue cup, went for the pink and ate the treat in the pink cup first. Then went back and got the treat out of the blue cup. I hadn't anticipated this. So this blows my whole hypothesis out of the water. My conclusion is that Maylee predicts that I am having twins - one boy and one girl.

I will let you know.....

Happy Valentine's Day!

What do you do on Valentine's Day with 3 kids in various stages of sickness? Absolutely nothing. Bennett is on the tail end with a nasty nagging cough, Owen is now on antibiotics for an ear infection and has a cough and a terribly runny nose and Taylor is hanging out with a nice fever. We are waiting for the cough and nose to start acting up. Let's see, the only one left in the house that has not caught the bug is me. Scott had it last week. We will see how long it takes me to be out for the count.

And if I'm not mistaken last year on Valentine's Day Owen was a sick little kid. So apparently this is a tradition in the Kimball family. There goes another year of not doing the Larsen all red Valentine's Day dinner.

Scotty, I love you to death. Thanks for making my life easier and wonderful in every way possible! Maybe next year we will have better health. Time to go..... Kids are whining!

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Happy Birthday kiddo! I find it hard to believe that you can be eight already. I believe that makes you halfway to driving and dating! If that isn't a scary thought then I don't know what is!

Although Taylor's birthday was on the third, we officially celebrated his birthday this past Saturday. And of course, as no surprise he wanted a football party. Due to the amount of snow outside, we figured out a way to have a football party inside without actually playing football. And can you not think of a better place to put a bunch of rowdy boys than our basement? So down we went to play various football themed games. Somehow they all seemed to enjoy wrestling and running around more than anything. Scott had hoped that we could have a demolition party and give everyone a hammer and let them go at it. They probably could have made a lot of progress down there. They definitely could not have made it worse.

We ended the games with a football pinata and then went upstairs for a football cake and some ice cream. Note to self: don't try to make, bake and decorate a football cake all in one morning. It makes for a marginal looking cake! Everyone had fun, there were no black eyes or broken arms, so we will call it a success!







And anyone who is interested, but don't feel obligated, Taylor will be baptized on Saturday, March 1st in the morning. Not sure of the time yet, but probably 10:00. Since he is the only 8 year old in the ward to get baptized this month, it will only take about 45 minutes!

Telling It Like It Is.

Mom to Bennett: Do you think there is a baby growing in my belly?
Bennett: Yes
Mom: Why?
Bennett: Because it's so fat


Thank you Bennett, thank you very much for reminding me that my waist is gone and will not return for many, many months.

I guess I'm not helping the fatness by eating chocolate cake at 10:00 in the morning. But I have a good excuse. I just heard some wonderful news from a friend, so I need to celebrate! And can you even think of a better way to celebrate than with cake? I can not!

Disney Cruise

Here's a few quick pictures of our cruise.


A part of the ship the boys called "Batman Town." Each day we would walk through it and they would point out where Batman and the Joker lived.


What Taylor got for dessert one night when he told our server he wanted "nothing." This is what both boys requested for their desserts the rest of the cruise - words spelled in chocolate and vanilla sauce.


Castaway Cay - Disney's private island. This was the best port of all. The beach was shallow with no waves. Perfect for the boys to play in and for Scott and I to sit and soak in the sunshine. The water was a little chilly, but that didn't seem to stop the boys. I returned with a pretty good sunburn on my legs.


On our way to the awaiting submarine. We went down about 100 feet where we saw coral, fish and the edge of the continental shelf.


Every Disney character imaginable was roaming the ship. Of course the boys had no interest in the princesses. I did learn one new thing on this cruise. My boys haven't seen a lot of the Disney movies. If they aren't manly they aren't interested. One night we were watching a Broadway-like show about Cinderella. Halfway through the show, Bennett, in his most disgusted tone of voice said "This show is all about princesses!" A point I couldn't disagree on.


Pirates in the Carribean Party. Complete with scarves for everyone, singing, dancing and fireworks.


A Goofy hat and a Peter Pan hat made out of napkins. Made by our servers and just one of many things they did to entertain the boys during dinner time. I must say, our servers were so incredibly attentive to the boys. By the second day they knew our names and our food preferences. Each night Jonathan, the assistant server, would have magic tricks, puzzles and games for the boys. They would cut their food and give them ketchup in the shape of Mickey Mouse. Both boys loved going to dinner to see our servers.

A Study in Contrast

This is the view I left


This is the view I came home to.