Nacho Libre AKA Halle

So yesterday I was folding laundry and Halle picked up McKinley's underwear and said "Dee's underwear?" and I said yes and explained that when she wanted to be a big girl and go potty all be herself in the toilet that she could wear underwear too. Well she decided that was too long to wait and put on McKin's underwear right on top of her clothes.

I thought it was pretty cute and let her keep them on and kind of forgot about it, and she ended up making a little trek around the neighborhood, Nacho style. What a fine parent moment, I'm sure the neighbors got a kick out of me carrying home my kicking child over my shoulder with underwear on top of her pants. However, as Amber pointed out; she did pick out underwear that coordinated with her outfit, that's my girl.

Goodbye Grandpa Kimball

On April 15th my Grandpa Kimball passed away after a long battle with cancer. I will really miss my Grandpa Kimball, he always told you what he thought and was a great man who helped so many people. But I am so glad that he gets to be with my Grandma again, living without her by his side was really tough on him. Last weekend we traveled to Northern California to be there for the funeral. It was a long trip with 3 young kids, but I wouldn't have missed it.

It was a bitter sweet trip, my mom grew up in California and we spent a lot of time there as kids visiting my grandparents. I felt like it would probably be my last time in their home as well as at many of the spots we always went growing up. We went twice to the Hick'ry Pitt, one of my grandparents favorite places where we always went on visits.

Halle and Whit at the Pitt

My cousin Troy's little girl Emily and McKin. McKinley & Halle LOVED Emily!
We spent a lot of time at my grandparents home, where I have a lot of memories.

Some of my fondest memories are of spending HOURS on my grandparents player piano. They have a whole cabinet full of music rolls from the Big Band Days. My girls were amazed to see a piano that played by itself and it was fun to see them love it as much as I did as a kid.

All of the Kimball Kids. From L to R: Kathryn, Deb, Connie (mom), Jeff, & Scott

My parents and their kids (minus Elder Wahlen) in front of my Grandpa's casket.

Despite the sad occasion, it was great to see all of my Kimball cousins and I'm glad I will be able to see my wonderful grandparents again someday.

Random catching up

So we've been up to some fun things the past few weeks, but I never got around to dedicating a post to any one of those things, so here's a little montage. A few weeks ago, Chan played in the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce basketball tournament with the Pleasant Valley Potato team, and they won 1st place!

From L to R: Val Wahlen, Ryan Wahlen, Wade Wahlen, Austin George, Garrett Wahlen, Chan, Jody Phillips, and John Murdoch.
Also, we are lucky to have Chandler's Grandma Goodwin in Idaho. After many years in Phoenix she is back in Blackfoot and living in the Gables, which is very nice. We are glad to be able to see her more often, our girls love to visit.

My sister Jill decided to come back to Idaho to do hair once a month or so and we were lucky to have her and Easty Beasty stay with us for a few days. We got to go see Hailey and her classroom. It was great to see her in her element. McKin and Halle loved doting on Easton, but he wasn't too sure what he thought of it. The girls got haircuts, here's little Hal for her first official haircut ever, she did so good!

Grandpa Wahlen came to see all the grandkids in action.

Halle found my mom's makeup drawer. I swear she has an internal radar leading her that stuff. Check out that face.

My Aunt Deb and my cousin Troy came from California to visit my Grandpa Kimball. It was great to see them. Troy lived with our family for about 2 years when I was around 6 and was a great big brother figure to me. I remember that when I missed the bus I got to ride to school with him in his sports car and he'd play his music real loud and I felt like the coolest 1st grader around. We were sad that his wife and kids couldn't come. He's great with kids, Quincy had a great time.

Hailey made her traditional holiday sugar cookies with my girls, they loved it as always. Thanks Boog!

Some other random things my kids have been doing and saying that are probably boring for everyone else but I like to have:

One night for Family Home Evening, we talked about the Word of Wisdom and the next morning when McKinley was picking out cereal she picked out Honey Bunches of Oats and she usually hates nuts, so I said "You know this has nuts in it right?" and she said "Well......does it have alchohol in it?" and I told her "No" and she said "Ok, then I'll have it."

McKinley's also been talking a lot about her driver's license. Everything that she wants to do but can't yet because she's too young, she thinks will happen when she gets her drivers license. For example....Me: "I need to make this part of the cookies, that's kind of a mom job." McKin "but when I get my drivers license then I can make cookies all by myself right?" She even told me that when Tanner gets home from his mission she'll probably get her drivers license. I have no idea where she gets this.

Finally, at state basketball my dad taught McKin how to call his cell phone by herself. Since then he gets at least a couple of calls everyday, and she has now learned my mom's number too. They swear they don't regret teaching her that but I'm sure the day will come.

Also, Quincy has started to snort when she gets really excited, a trait I'm sure she'll LOVE when she gets older! Good thing she's cute! She's such a happy baby who's always laughing and smiling, well not always.......but a good amount.

Easter Festivities

The fun began with coloring Easter Eggs on Wednesday night.Quincy didn't get to do much, but she had fun watching and looked pretty dang cute doing it. There seems to be some law in our household that all we can manage is completely goofball poses. Beleive it or not, these were the least goofy of about the 10 pics each that I tried to get of these crazy kids.Saturday Morning, we met Joni, Misti, Saddie, & Easton at Jensen's Grove for some CRAZY Easter Egg Hunting! McKinley & Saddie are getting ready for the big moment, the best picture we could get beleive it or not. We also tried desperately to get a picture of Halle and Easton (wouldn't that be a great pic to show if they got married some day?) but that was definitely not happening.

Quincy Lou waiting for the fun to begin McKin and Saddie going for it, no one should ever underestimate McKin's love of candy, it runs pretty deep.The girls with their hauls
After we returned our easter eggs, (that's right, we are in a recession I suppose, so we return the plastic eggs for reuse and keep the candy) we let the girls play on the toys for a while.

Sunday morning they found their Easter baskets, filled mostly with books. The Easter Bunny was very into learning this year, he must have hit the 2 for 1 sale at the Kindergarten Center Book Festival.

Sadly, we have 9 am church and in no version of reality does this leave us time to take pictures of my darling girls in their dresses before we leave the house. So here's the pics of my kids in forward facing car seats in their Easter duds. We'll try to re-create it sometime.
After dinner, we got to have the Dunns or the "Bunns" as McKin calls them, over for dinner and we got to have Camdyn stay the night! The girls were so excited and hugging and jumping up and down.
And the best part of the Easter, my darling niece Camdyn snuggled up in a BYU Cougar blanket. Sorry Rich, it's all we had........he heHope everyone had a great Easter!

Happy Birthday Miss Halle!

Today my sweet little Halle Pal turns 2, can you beleive it? Halle is my little sweetheart, she almost always obeys, not all the time, she is only 2. She loves to help her mom clean, has good manners, run "fass" and has a great reportoire of "tricks" aka jumping up and down and halfway doing a somersault. She loves to give her sisters hugs everyone morning and say "good morning Dee, good morning Bubba!" (dee is McKin and Bubba is Quincy, how she got that, no one knows) Halle just goes with the flow and is happy and kind along the way and we love her to pieces. Today also marks the end of a 3 day birthday marathon.

I thought that for this birthday I would finally attempt to make a cake. That's right, I have 3 kids and this is the first birthday cake I haven't ordered from Wal-Mart. It turned out ok, although a little cheesy, but I don't know if was worth the stress. I was really freaking out about it for a few days before, we'll see how I feel come July.

We had a party with my family at my parents house on Sunday after conference, everyone was already together and my Grandpa Kimball isn't doing well and my mom needs to be with him so we brought the party to them. Halle loved her gifts, almost as much as McKinley did. Here she is blowing out her candles with a little help from McKin.
Continuing the birthday festivities, Monday night we took the girls to Monsters vs. Aliens, which they loved and Halle actually sat and watched. Today Halle got a couple more presents and was ready to party.Grandma and Grandpa Daw and the Dunns came over for pizza, cake, and ice cream. Here's Hall and Macki having a good time on the swing.
McKin and Camdyn thought they were pretty hot stuff in the Barbie Jeep!
It was a great couple of days. We love you Halle, don't ever change!