"OH-OH-OH, who's that kid with the oreo cookie?"

My favorite b-day present

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:14:00 +0000

On my birthday, Erik took Kimball to the dollar store and told him to pick anything in the whole store to give mommy for a birthday present. He also told him to pick a card that he wanted to give to mommy...any card. And this is what was in the bag, oh, and he picked the bag too, it had a kitty on it. A spiderman keychain flotation device! yeah!!! complimented by this card...

I knew Kimball was smart but wow, already grasping the concept that we're all brothers and sisters?? ;)

Who knew my favorite b-day present would cost a whopping $2 and involve superheros!

Dragon boy

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:56:00 +0000

Our little dragon picked his costume out a month before Halloween and when he tried it on he wouldn't take it off. He went parading through the mall roaring as loud as he could at everyone and has asked to wear it every day since. Now he's asking for a dinosaur costume.

Mia Hae-Soon Oh

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:05:00 +0000

On Sunday morning the 26th of October, our sweet little Mia was born. She weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs, 13 oz. and was 20 inches long. She has more hair than most may have ever seen and many may wonder how this little girl is mine. Surprisingly, I was born with a full head of dark hair much the same. She has been such a sweet little angel, we are very in love. There is something about a little girl...I forgot how much this newborn stage melts my heart. And now at her 2 week mark, we've still heard nothing but the sweet sounds of a babe. Taking after her big brother, we may have lucked out with with another mellow yellow baby.

And sorry I have been slow in posting as it was so easy to just load all the pics at once onto facebook but I can't neglect the blog for my own documenting purposes. And since there are a lot of pics, I figured no captions were needed. Her cuteness tells the story.

And while we were adjusting to the new babe and enjoying each minute of her cuteness, Kimball was off in very good hands...nothing can be better than hanging with the cousins

Crazy baby week

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:24:00 +0000

I'm off to get some rest for the big day. Tomorrow will be my daughter's birthday, and how crazy that I will hopefully be holding her in about 10 hours! Stay tuned for pics later this week. As for now, I'd like to introduce some of our daughter's girlfriends that were born this week.

Meet Sidney Rose Hatcher. Welcome little one!

And welcome little Mazzi Deann Wood. Still shocked that a girl popped out but glad nonetheless! And to little Logan Child, we look forward to meeting you very soon!!!

Make that 3!

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:39:00 +0000

Okay, Sarah's water broke at midnight last night. Did 3 of my friend's water seriously break within 24 hours? This is out of control! And my question still stands....whose water freakin breaks on its own? I thought the chances were 10%! This is crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pregnant bellies popping everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:37:00 +0000

Here are some pics of us crazy pregos last Saturday. 4 of us are due with our babes within a couple weeks of each other. Then there are more to come every month thereafter. But as for now, Sarah (pictured below) was due yesterday and still no signs of labor. I am scheduled for Sunday so pretty much we figured the 2 of us were gonners this week. Kellie (pictured above) and Tiffany are due early November and what happens? Kellie's water broke last night and her baby came around noon today, the delivery was smooth as glass. And as for Tiff, her water broke a few hours ago and I presume is laboring at this very moment.
A- Whose water actually breaks? seriously...
B - Looks like the deliveries are playing out backwards
C- Sarah is PISSED!!!!!!!!!! ;)

Who knew what 23 cents could do?

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:31:00 +0000

I was seriously thrilled to find out the other day that there is actually a tiny cabbage patch sized (proportionately speaking) soft serve ice cream cone at McDonalds available and it only costs 23 cents. I had to go see if this was really true and sure enough, I asked for a kids soft serve at the drive thru and this tiny little cone was handed to me. It was so cute! Kimball was so excited for his ice cream and didn't even ask why it wasn't bigger. I guess that means I've been pretty good in not buying these often enough for him to know what else is out there. But the point is, it made him SO happy and it was not messy and it was probably 1/100th of the normal sugar intake! If they were smart they would charge more than the regular cone, moms would still buy it for the less mess and less sugar factor. Am I the only one who didn't ever know about these?

Also: I have been lazy about posting to the blog lately but I did just post a bunch of pics to facebook last night as I have been taking pics like crazy the last couple of weeks.

Weekend Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:05:00 +0000

For Erik and me:
-relaxing with Dad & Connie at their home in St. George
-enjoying the plethora of conference talks coupled with several rounds of minutemaid cherry limeaid

-Connie's meals are always delicious, that was no surprise. But Dad on the other hand, cooked us a fabulous Sunday morning breakfast with his secret ingredient pancakes, fluffy eggs, and crisp bacon. I was utterly impressed!For Kimball:
-enjoying a serious overdose of Dora and the like while we watched the conference

-chasing around Bailey and throwing her ball in the pool only where she'd have to swim to get it
-searching for bats in a cave in Snow Canyon

-building dams in the shower with daddy. For the sake of the blog, I found it best that the other party involved not be included in the picture ;)
-helping Papa fish out the rock that so mysteriously landed in the pool... ;)

I left my heart in Seattle

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:33:00 +0000

We spent the last week up in Seattle visiting Erik's mom and dad, his sis Rachel was able to come up as well. Kimball had such a fun time getting all the special treatment from Halmoni and Hadaboji, his favorite being sleeping in between them at night. Don't ask me how I let that one slide. We enjoyed way too much food, Mommy's homemade kimchi ji gae always being a favorite of Eriks and mine. And no matter how much one can argue the rain is an issue, there is just something about Seattle that always captures my heart leaving me with a yearning to live there, at least for a season of life anyway.

A visit to the aquarium

"Tiger" and "Lion" wrestling - aka, Kimo and Hadaboji

We went to the Pacific Science Center, similar to a children's museum. I had to laugh at this particular exhibit, it was this huge machine where you had to slowly pull up this lever to form a large screen of soap film. Kimball so patiently waited his turn in line with kids twice his size who repeatedly could not get the hang of this thing. Then Kimball did it perfectly and got all these bubbles out of it and people actually started clapping, it was really funny.
This was the insect world, Kimo got to touch some creepy crawlers

Here are a couple of the many butterflies that we saw in the buttefly atrium. I hadn't been to one of these since I was kid but they really are fascinating.

One even fluttered right down onto Kimball's elbow

And this is what it looks like when we go out to Korean food. My camera couldn't fit all of it but that's about 3/4 of the spread. And when we eat at their home, it pretty much looks the same. I so married into the right family.

Even Kimball was going to town! What's funny is, one morning we woke up and Erik's mom had made this seafood soup the night before. Erik can eat it for breakfast, I at least had to wait until noon before my palate would understand. But I had been trying to get Kimball to eat some yogurt and cereal all morning and he wouldn't. He told Erik he wanted some soup so Erik gave him a bite of octapus. Kimball chewed it up and said, "more octapus daddy" - are you kidding me?

It's always fun to go see Erik's buddies from H.S. and their wives and kids. This is Maz and his son Noah.

We were also able to meet up for a playdate in the park with Joie (a friend of mine from college) and her little girl Jezelle. I forgot my camera but this was a darling park on Lake Washington and Kimball was VERY busy chasing the geese down to the water, I think it was the one day he napped.

"No more pictures Mommy!!!!"

A great seafood restaurant on the water where I devoured Seattle's best clam chowder

And there's my little family

Sarah's baby shower

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:11:00 +0000

We threw a supa fun shower for Sarah last Friday night. Her little gender in question babe is due late October, I can't wait to see what it is, my guess is in for a boy.

We had some delish Indian food catered, Sarah's fave. Is it just me or is she seriously Katie Holmes?

5 of us that are prego in order of due dates from right to left. The first 4 of us are all due within 2 weeks of each other, last January must have had some serious love in the air. Well what else do you do when it's freezing cold outside? ha ha ha

Looks like Rochelle and Mary got stuck going for the big win trying to down koolaid from a bottle

Laughing at themselves and the disgusting words they came up with for the mad lib although it was a little bit cleaner this time than it was at her bridal shower 5 years ago....

Sarah's cute mom Deann covers her mouth laughing in shame, the truth is, she's the one who made it disgusting this time, we had great laughs

more candid smiles...

and cute lil linzey loo came all the way from LA

babes...and Jen and Ang who are on the left and the right are both single! Too bad only girls read my blog, the guys don't know what they're missing

"But what is this blue line???" Oh, the laughs that come with the last generation trying to take a picture with a digital camera. note to self: loose fitting blousy shirt not the way to go when you are pregnant and taking pictures, I'll keep it for church ;)

And last but not least, I would not dare post a bare belly pic of Sarah if it were in any way going to embarrass her but seriously, how cute is this??? It is a darling belly and I am INCREDIBLY jealous of her beautiful skin color. My stomach is translucent. seriously.

Our mini Yang Wei

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:42:00 +0000

The little guy finished his last week of gymnastics for a season or two. He was in classes at Gymcats all summer and it was the highlight of his Tuesdays! If the kids are 2, the parents are required to be with them during the class to help out. With me getting bigger and more lopsided, imbalanced, or whatever you wanna call it, I kept getting stuck in the foam pit among other difficulties on the various apparatus. So, Erik has been taking him to class the last month and they've had a lot of fun together. The only fear Kimo has yet to overcome is the rings, he only did them very hesitantly a couple of times but then again, it was a pretty high climb to get up there and once you were swinging it was a nice long drop. I plan to put him back in when he turns 3 in the spring, let me know if any of you want to join in with him.

The foam pit was clearly more exciting with daddy in it

Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:02:00 +0000

Oh, the lovely Paris. My husband was kind enough to grant my wish of going to visit a very dear friend of mine and her husband, Leslie and Dave Arnold, who live in Paris. Leslie joined Dave to live in Paris one year ago when they were married and I knew if I wanted to make this trip, it had to be before baby #2 came, even if it meant being 7 months pregnant. It was such a wonderful trip, spending quality time with a great friend of 12 years and touring this charming city that was only something I had seen in movies. I must include several pictures for my own benefit, so enjoy what you see until you get tired of me and that's just fine.

A few pleasant surprises about Paris:

1) It is INCREDIBLY clean. Trash cans readily available on every street and they never fill up.

2) Clean drinking water readily available, even on the streets! They have nice little statues that you would think are just pretty fountains with a thin stream of running water. It is actually for you to fill up your water bottle and it tastes great! Those alone must have saved us 50 euros!

3) No bumbs, no crime. Everyone out and about that city is respectable seeming. I wouldn't have been scared wandering a strange street at midnight by myself, everything is just charming.

4) The city is not very big. I didn't realize how close in proximity all of the fabulous sites were. Dave took me on a little vespa tour of the city my first night and I think I saw it all in less than 25 minutes and we were back at his front door. I had no clue.

5) Everything about this city is charming. I guess that wasn't so much a surprise. The Arc de Triomphe. This is where I took the bus into from the airport. Les was here to meet me as they live only a few blocks away from this gargantuan landmark.

Les and me after my first marvelous dinner in Paris. Yes, all the streets are this cute.

That dashing cute couple, Dave and Les.

Notredame at night, so beautiful.

A woman I tutor frequents Paris and suggested I must go to this place for ice cream. It is over on the little island Saint-Louis. Dave was able to translate all the flavors but the one I wanted. It looked like "gold medal ribbon" from baskin robbins and I said I wanted it anyway. This pic was before I took the venomous bite I will never forget. Immediately upon swallowing my throat was in flames. All I could do was run to get a bite of Leslie's to tame the sting as I blurted out "this has liquor in it!" Well, we decided to google this flavor when we got home and it was a type of brandy swirled with prunes! Could you imagine anything more gross!!!?? Trust me.

A lamborghini with Saudi plates, just chillin on the side of the road.

View off of Dave and Les's balcony
We took a little ride on the metro just outside the city to St. Germain and enjoyed an afternoon of lots of cute little streets and shops and plenty of beautiful things to look at.

There's that lovely couple again...

Too many beautiful things in Paris, even down to my cone of gelato being shaped into a flower

Le Louvre. It was just so freakin big, this picture does not do justice, a panorama shot would be much cooler. DaVinci Code was on TV the day after I came home, it was definitely kind of fun to watch since I'd been there 2 days prior.

Okay, totally lame pic of the Mona Lisa. I have a new camera with a different software and I can't seem to find the "crop" feature to get this dude's head out of the way. What's funny is, does anyone really care that I have a picture of the Mona Lisa? Frankly, I don't really care but for some reason I felt pressure to take a picture when there were 100 gazillion people pushing and shoving to get their stupid picture of it. I stood there wondering what in the world ever made this the most famous painting when as I looked around the room there were so many beautiful paintings 10 times the size and 10 times more beautiful, I don't get it. Art history majors - any thoughts??
My fabulous tour guide ;) I think we had just as much fun people watching in this place as we did "art watching" ;)

I thought this pic was pretty sweet. It was actually taken through a glass window from inside the louvre but you can't even tell.

Hotel de Ville, Paris' city hall.

side shot of Notredame in the daytime.

Doors at the entrance of Notredame. All of the intricate carvings and fine details throughout the design of this chapel are just so unbelievable on both inside and out.

This gives a decent view of the inside of chapel but I could have done a whole post dedicated only to the massive windows of the incredibly beautiful stained glass.

Beauty in Paris definitely goes beyond the architecture...

An author was doing a poetry reading of some sort in front of this favorite bookstore of Dave and Leslie's "Shakespeare & Company" - but what I want you to notice is this FABULOUS fountain with pure drinking water, my bottle got some great use! This is what I was talking about at the beginning of my post
Routine had it that Dave would call to find our whereabouts at the end of a work day and come cruising up on the scooter to meet us for a lovely dinner. Here we dined in a hip little crepery to enjoy some fabulous crepes.
Sacre Coeur was definitely my favorite place to visit. It is located on the highest point of the city and is a beautiful Roman Catholic church or "basilica" dedicated to "the sacred heart of Jesus". When we walked around inside there happened to be a religious session going on with people in attendance. Of course it was all in French but it made it a fun experience all the more.

It was fun to walk right around sacre coeur. It was a cool little atmosphere with this place called "painters square" where all these painters had their artwork on display and you essentially walk around this big square to view and buy the art.
How cute is this little truck? It was visibly clear by the textures that this pic was hand painted.

This was in the Jewish district. Leslie had been telling me we had to go get fallafels at this particular place and they were spectacular! We enjoyed them on a bench in a park and I now wish I lived there just so I could come order from this place every single day for lunch!

The bikes in Paris are free to use, you just have to slide in your bank card when checking it out (so they can charge you if it doesn't get returned) and then there are all these places around the city you can check out and return bikes. Easy access and so much fun, we biked over to the eiffel along the river and I took lots of video footage. I cannot show the video footage b/c you would think I was endangering my unborn child. I promise I wasn't, I learned the art of dodging scooters on a bike in Taiwan and I never had one accident.
Seine River
Goodbye to lovely Paris, thanks for treating me well and thanks to the Arnolds for being the host extraordinares!

Holla for Challah!

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:22:00 +0000

I belong to a gourmet club that gets together every other month for a gourmet feast and socializing. The intent behind g.c. is for people to learn how to cook/host/entertain for special and not so special occasions. Our group is very casual compared to some, we mostly like to get together to catch up with everyone's crazy lives. It was Courtney and my turn to host this month so we did a "breakfast at tiffanys" theme on Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun and we had fantastic food if I do say so myself. I wanted to share my favorite which was Challah french toast and buttermilk syrup....mm..mm..good! Challah (Hallah) is a Jewish bread that is thick, braided, and divine. Here is a pic of the bread as is, but the french toast is a recipe masterpiece. You can find it in a number of places but we got ours at Leslie's bakery in Holladay, highly recommended.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/challah-french-toast-recipe/index.html

They suggest a different syrup but the buttermilk syrup we used which is delish can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Buttermilk-Syrup/Detail.aspx

Courtney was in the kitchen just working away like a madwoman

......as I was busy getting the table set

Well apparently Jen sensed my disappointment that our 2 most Audrey Hepburn look-alikish friends Dree and Mikell were not able to make it, so she brought me my own full size Audrey to make me feel better, she added a great touch ;)

Thanks for a great time girls!

So frank and innocent...

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Well I knew the day was coming. You hear those stories and get the e-mail forwards of kids making embarrassing comments in public and you are found helpless in trying to delete what was really just said. There are those comments that are made at the cost of your own pride, and those that so viciously attack strangers though the intent is purely innocent. I experienced both in the last week. While picking up groceries a few days ago, my tummy was feeling a little unsettled. And well, I accidentally let one go. Or maybe not so accidentally I don't remember. Anyhow, Kimball's acute hearing did not bow in my favor. Next I knew, he let out a big darling smile while giggling, "mommy farted, ewww". I couldn't help but kind of laugh too because he was just so cute when he said it and who really cares about the one lady that might have heard, she was probably laughing too. But he really embarrassed me today at the checkout line when he had to go and attack a stranger. The man was definitely not just large, but extremely large. Unfortunately Kimball had to notice right as he was ringing up my items and just candidly stated, "this man has big tummy mommy" --wow!! What do you do in those instances? We both clearly heard it and we both ignored it. How awkward, I just didn't want to make it more awkward for the man by acknowledging the comment and reprimanding Kimball so I pretended it never happened and then tried to explain to Kimo in the parking lot that some things are not nice to say. Poor man. Feel free to share your own embarrassing "toddler funnies"

Davis: a charming rarity

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:57:00 +0000

With a population of 65,000 residents and an additional 30,000 UCD students, Davis still pulls off a seeming small town atmosphere. The Davis theme song should come straight from "Cheers" - our favorite 80's sitcom. It's all so familiar and it just feels like home. Living in a predominately conservative population (myself included) I often tend to forget about my good time granola roots. Davis is a university-oriented city with a progressive, vigorous community noted for its small-town style, energy conservation, environmental programs, social innovation, parks, preservation of trees, red double-decker London buses, bicycles, and the quality of its educational institutions. Davis residents boast the highest level of education in the state of California with more than 80% of Davis' adult population completing a minimum of one year of college training and more than 60% having attained at least a four-year college degree. And let's just say that when all my friend's parents asked where I was going to college, a state university was anything but impressive or worthy of conversation. But I bet I had a whole hell of a lot more fun than they did! ha ha. I find all this recent emphasis of "going green" funny because, Davis went green long before I was born. In fact, I even remember as a kid people watching us in disgust as we'd pack our car with paper/plastic grocery bags when they'd walk away hauling their canvas totes, though I really didn't get it at the time. Unique to it's own, Davis features more than 50 miles of bicycle paths and more bicycles per capita than any other city in the nation. It's a Northern California Mecca for artists of many media, featuring dozens of public and private galleries all within a few blocks of this quaint and homey town. No matter what direction you turn, the stroke of a local artist is evident. Truly a rarity, Davis is just Davis and there is nowhere else like it. I have received a few of these email forwards in the last year and I thought it would be fun to share. It's just a good summation of those crazy Davis idiosyncrasies… and a place I'm proud to call my hometown

…your family owns more bicycles than there are people in your family.
...the highest crime rate is bike theft
...you have a whole section of town devoted to Lord of the Rings...you don't find it odd that we have a whole section of town devoted to Lord of the Rings

...THE place to hang out, is Borders

...you find nothing odd that there's a whole grocery store that caters to vegetarians and vegans.
...you see a vegetarian homeless person
...you see a BUSH04 sticker and realize there are other political parties.
...your neighbor's house sold for a million dollars when, in any other town, it'd be worth four hundred thousand.
...your water is heated by solar panels.
...you have picnic in the park and Dinner at the Dump.
...you know of people getting a noise violation for snoring
...you know 5 different routes to the same location because all the roads in Davis are connected
... a city ordinance was passed to dim the streetlights so that you could see the stars better at night.
...all directions anywhere start with "you know where Baskin Robbins is?"
...we have 2 holidays over spring break: Easter, and Picnic Day
...you always buy Mother's Day gifts at the Whole Earth Festival.
...in high school you bought your clothes at the Salvation Army and were cool for it

...and you were even cooler if you bought them on Telegraph Street in Berkeley (consignment shops of course)
...you get pissed off in a line of 3 cars.
...Gay Pride Day gets proclamations from the City Council and County Board of Supervisors and a straight city council member shows up in drag.
...anything, and everything you say, can be twisted into something community leaders will consider to be offensive to any group imaginable in the entire human gene pool, including but not limited to one-armed bald eastern European midgets who talk with lisps. The city council would then instill courses into the curriculum to raise awareness that such groups even exist, and remove anything valuable from the curriculum to make place for the new courses.

...you didn't bat an eye when the Holmes Jr. High mascot was changed from "minutemen" to "minutemen & minutewomen" - much more p.c. of course
...any kind of a controversial issue instantaneously spawns town-wide panic, protests, marches, emergency city council meetings, candle light vigils, TV news stories, apocalyptic hysteria and other bullshit, all to establish some moronic politically correct status quo for something that never was a real issue in the first place
...nobody thinks its strange that a 60,000 population town is a "nuclear free zone."
...a corporate record business (Tower) goes out of business before a private business (Armadillo).
...the city council votes in favor of and builds a tunnel for toads.
...the postmaster's father builds a town for and writes a book about the tunnel for toads.
...you get really nervous when someone goes to put a plastic/aluminum bottle in the trash can.
...everyone you know got their braces from Dr. Chin
...Wednesday night means Farmers Market
...the police let the homeless guy keep a garden down by the railroad tracks.
...You don't know how to get to your friend's house by car because you have only ever gone by bike
...you call it Murder Burger [note: The name was changed to Redrum Burger because some folks thought that "Murder Burger" seemed too violent -- yes we have city council debates about such things!]
...you understand the archaeological significance of potholes
......you see nothing unusual about a Nutcracker whose cast of characters includes teddy bears, gnomes, country line dancers, swing dancers, bugs, bees, and insects.
...You met a Republican once. It happened in Sacramento. You screamed and ran away

....You think you're better than people from Woodland

....You have at least one friend with dreadlocks

....You have been pulled over by a police officer... while riding your bike

....It has a population of over 60,000, but you still consider Davis a small town

....You say you're from Sacramento because no one outside of Northern California has heard of Davis. Then you correct yourself, because you can't stand the thought of people thinking you're from Sacramento

....You will forever be part of the 'bubble' no matter where you end up.

A first for everything

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:05:00 +0000

including the ice cream man! A few weeks ago we all of a sudden heard some music playing outside (funny that it was "rudolph the red nosed reindeer") when Kimball asked what that was. I told him to hurry and get ready to run as I grabbed my camera and some $. Kimball Nantou and I ran out the front door to chase him down but he'd already headed down the neighborhood. We just kept walking and walking hoping he wasn't far and Kimball was so excited when I told him we were going after the "ice cream man." Sure enough, we heard the music getting closer and there he was, heading down our way, Kimball gave him a good taxi wave and there you have it. His first transaction with the good ole ice cream man.

Who Petty?

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:42:00 +0000

I used to just sing whatever songs to Kimball at night before bed and he would gladly listen to anything. Lately I have been the singing subject of his requests as he now loves to sing along with me. Last night he cut me off in the middle of "twinkle star" and said "no mommy, sun sun sun." I thought he meant "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" so I started singing that and he got very irritated. "No Mommy, sun sun sun song!" Clueless at this point, I broke into "Here Comes the Sun" by Tom Petty. He intently listened and then excitedly asked,
"What's that Mommy?"
"Tom Petty," I replied.
"More sun petty, more sun petty!"
-okay I had this song in my head again this morning and not sure why I said Tom Petty? Beatles, Tom Petty, you know, just a couple eras off, wow, that's something my mom would have said. Well now I wonder if Kimball is in fact a Beatles fan, I better brush up on their music!

Pregnancy comments from strangers

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:51:00 +0000

It was only fair for me to accompany a dear friend in her baby registry this morning as it can be such a daunting task to a new mother. Not to mention she accompanied me for mine since Erik knew that it would be a nightmare and I would most likely not consider his opinion of products anyway. Although that day nearly 3 years ago was more like the blind leading the blind, not to mention we kept thinking we must have looked like a lesbian couple registering, just glad the bump proved that I at least played the girl ;) just kidding. Anyhow, Sarah is also not finding out what she is having just like we did with Kimball, the good ole "surprise" method. As we were considering product "A" over product "B" taking into account the unisex aspect, I was reminded of the #1 comment people gave me ALL through my last pregnancy and it got so dang old. And though I found out this time about our little girl, I will always have sympathy for those "surprise" parents who have to deal with the stupid comments. Here goes:

Stranger: "When are you due?"..... "Wow, so what are you having?"

Me: "Actually we didn't find out"

Stranger: "OH MY GOSH YOU ARE CRAZY, I COULD NEVER DO THAT, I AM SUCH THE TYPE OF PERSON THAT HAS TO BE SO PREPARED I JUST COULDN'T HANDLE IT.

Me: "Well yeah, we're excited, and actually it doesn't really eliminate much prep work ;)"

What the person meant to say was, I have to have a whole closet full of gender specific baby clothes and very girl or very boy bedding that co-coordinates with the curtains and rug.

Newsflash: your newborn lives in onesies and layettes for the first couple weeks of it's life unless you seriously want to undo full blown (no pun intended) outfits every hour to change the diaper. Heaven forbid you have white onesies (which babies are cutest in anyway no matter the sex). 2 weeks after Kimball was born I went out and in one afternoon got his entire summer wardrobe and it was a lot better being able to choose what he wore than receiving random whinnie the pooh outfits (if someone would so dare). And say you are a first time mom having a girl, it's not like you buy a pink stroller, a pink pack and play and a pink carseat and if you do, well, I just hope that when you do have a boy he turns out alright.

So listen stupid comment makers, next time re-think what you are saying, I promise the surprise parents have prepared just as much as you have, they just have a few less outfits in the closet and a few more dollars in their pockets. So cheers to all you "surprise" parents, it is so much fun!

And my #1 stranger comment this time around?

"Oh my, I don't know how you do it in the summer! Aren't you just so miserable?"

Honestly, I appreciate their sympathy and realize that there just probably isn't a whole lot more to say so this becomes the default comment to pregnant women in the summer but I haven't been bothered any moreso by the heat than I would be if I weren't pregnant. I guess I can't speak for all and I'm sure there are those that do get miserable when it's hot but I actually prefer pregnancy in the summer over the winter and here's why:

I slip on my flip flops in the morning and go. Enough said. There was nothing more annoying and dreadful to me in the winter of 2006 than bending over every morning to put on socks and then tie shoes or pull boots on and off when you can't even see over your belly much less trying to reach all the way down to your feet and get something accomplished. Not to mention the several layers of clothing you have to pack and shed each day. Such a nuisance. There's my 2 cents.

Happy pregnancy to all you others out there along with me and just remember to not pay any attention to any other stupid stranger comments you may receive but if they make a good story, feel free to share...

Should man eat corn?

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:22:00 +0000

I haven't been able to get enough corn on the cob recently. It just seems to go with every dinner. I just wish the prices weren't so shifty. What's up with 5 ears for $1.00 one day and then 60 cents an ear the next? Anyhow, my friend Reelika has her brother visiting from Estonia right now. They came over for dinner tonight and he didn't grab an ear of corn for his plate. I told him to help himself and he just smiled and said, "No I do not eat that." Reelika and her bro exchanged this understood smile with a quick mumble in Estonian and then I had to inquire. She laughed and said, "In Estonia cows eat corn, not people." Who knew?All done! I knew Kimball was catching on to this sharing thing, he just wanted to save a snack for the cows ;)

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:39:00 +0000

Last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of visiting here with the Winter family. Dad and Connie were up in Park City last week for their grand daughter Calista's softball tournament and my mom was in town staying with us this week. She brought my nieces Kaitlyn and Mikelle with her who stayed with their friends in Midway but luckily we got a tad bit of quality time with them, Kimball adores all his cousins. It was good for Kimo and Grandma to have quality time alone together without the distraction of other cousins though, this was the first time in over a year! Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Grandma and Kimo cause the first night Mom was here I left my camera in the grass (after running to pick up Kimball from a bad collision with another kid) and didn't find it until 2 days later, after the sprinklers had run of course. Luckily my memory card did save what I already had taken but my camera is no longer alive, it was on it's last leg anyway as you can see my picture quality has been slowly digressing.Papa and Kimo bug hunting. Notice Kimball's very important tool tightly clutched; behold, the magnifying glass. You carry lip gloss and a compact in your purse? I carry plastic dinosaurs, cars, magnifying glasses, you know, the usual.Papa teaching Kimo a little sum'n about baseball...
We went up to the Olympic Park to watch the U.S. ski team practice their freestyle aerials, this was very impressive and looked way too fun. Kimball's little buddy is Connie's daughter Heather's little boy who is also named Kimball. Yes, I know, we are both apparently proud of this family name though Heather and I come from separate Kimball lines.

This is crazy cool. Too bad that the only thing that could come out of my mouth in a moment of awe was "oh wow, holy cow" - I just sound so stupidI always thought that Kimo's first chairlift ride would be with mommy over beautiful snow covered ground with a pair of some sweet little toddler rossi's slapped on his feet but heading up with Papa to cruise down the mountain on the alpine slide is still pretty cool I suppose...Dad said Kimball had a great time flying down. And as much as life has no good room for lies, pretending Kimball was 3 years of age was so worth it, if only I could have pretended that was just a pillow under my shirt too.

A stroll down Main St. after a dip in the pool. Kimo wore floaties for his first time (since the public pools don't allow them) and he was so cute trying to swim with them all by himself, I wish we could practice with them more often. I think Connie got pics of it.
Treats from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. And whoever said women were the ones so crazy for chocolate, they all look pretty concentrated on that bite if you ask me.Who better to share your chocolate with than Papa?
First night Grandma was in town, wish we could have captured more on camera but so it goes...

Kimo's T*ball debut

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:55:00 +0000

While browsing Walmart's toy section for lake/water toys over the weekend, we came across a toy that would supersede all else. T-ball baby.

Setting up his home plate and all about business

Ball mounted, checkin out left field, yep, looking pretty promising...

mid swing, a successful contact...(even though the plate AND his grip are backwards:)

A base hit indeed...
off to the bases in my onesie and muddy sweats!!!

And a 4 sec. clip of my son's studliness

How cute is that? I think he nailed it every time but once, I'd like to attribute his mad skills to his mother but Erik's sis informed me that baseball was Erik's first love so I guess I can't take all the credit. Either way, I wish he'd hurry and grow up, I can't wait to see him in a little uniform up to bat for the first time, I'm sure I will cry.

Happy 4th!

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:35:00 +0000

A fun mellow 4th of July spent with friends and our little family. It's always a good time hangin with the Woods and the Parrys, after a little BBQ at Sarah & Trev's we walked down to Sugar House Park for the firework show. Kimball was cracking up everybody around us with his creative and LOUD commentary after every firework. Examples: "Ohhhh, kitty!" "Ewwww tiger!" "Ahhhhhh pink stingray!" and so on and so forth, it was hilarious.
We also enjoyed a nice day boating with the Tim & Krista out at Yuba Lake which is south of Nephi, the drive was a little long but definitely worth it. Next time we want to camp on the beaches there.

Enjoying the show.
Tim & KristaSarah & Trev
Us girlies

I think Kimball must have been stumped right here, he wasn't sure if he should announce these fireworks looked more like worms or snakes.

Kimball and daddy spent ages excavating these huge rocks from beneath the shoreand then off on a joy ride of tubing, though Kimball looked pretty concerned and this was before we had a wake so you can imagine how the face got more and more terrified as the moments passed...I think he was actually less scared last summer!
and those darn life vests are just so unforgiving on the cheeks!D and K-roAnd....Kimo passed out and callin' it a day

Aloha Pres. & Sis. Kim!

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:49:00 +0000

So President and Sister Kim (who I served under) in Taiwan, were out from Hawaii this past week so we had a mini mission reunion/mtg Sunday night to get together with those who are in the area and start spreading the word and building a committee for our big 10 year reunion that will take place in April of 2010. At Christmas time of 2000 our whole mission had a 2 day retreat in an amazingly beautiful tropic area of Taiwan called Xitou. President Kim had then asked us to all contribute our personal goals and future goals for the mission itself and bury them in a time capsule where we would then open it 10 years later. I think we put a bunch of other stuff with it too but I don't remember what. So anyhow, he will open our cute little time capsule at that reunion and wants to have as many missionaries as possible there so for those of you I served with who read the blog, start planning on attending and spread the word. Above is a picture we took of some of the group on Sunday night: Amy, Dallas and Jeannelle: maybe you will recognize some of these people, a lot of them served in Pres. Kim's early days so I wasn't as familiar with those who showed. Not to mention it seemed like everyone had like 3 kids which was totally crazy to me, my basement was a total war zone!!!

So this was my first time meeting one of President Kim's daughters, Lorinda. She and her husband live here in Utah so they came along to be with the fam. She is a Korean/Hawaiian/Chinese mix and her husband is a whitey like me. Her 3 year old Kai was just an older version of Kimball in every sense of the word and it was totally freaking us out. They were instantly best friends and Kimball was even sharing all of his toys with him so he must have REALLY liked him!!!

So this was hilarious. Sister Kim was trying to get a family picture of her daughter and everyone agreed their family just wasn't complete without Kimball. They even joked about sending it out as a Christmas card this year to see what people would say. So sad that my little boy looks like he fits in another family all too well!!

We thought we didn't look too bad with 2 boys ourselves, we may have to double check that ultrasound! (I think their little guy had already squirmed away by this point).
Anyhow, good times, looking forward to reuniting with more elders and sisters in 2010!

A visit from Halmoni & Hadaboji

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:31:00 +0000

Erik's parents came to town this weekend and first things first, we drove right to Myung-Ga, our favorite Korean joint in the greater Salt Lake Area. The food is a little more authentic than others we've tried and absolutely delicious, located in West Salt Lake. Spicy pork & bulgolgi are my favorites dishes there.
Alas, Halmoni and Hadaboji thrilled to be with their little man once again, Kimball was equally delighted as he'd been waiting all week for their arrival.

Okay so I know it looks very un-appetizing but I took the pic after we'd finished. Man, did we devour enough or what??
These are 2 of the darling family members that own the restaurant. They also live in our neighborhood in Draper and happen to be Kimball's nursery leaders, he LOVES them!!!

Kimo and Hadaboji love to read books together. We often found them in the family room reading, jumping, playing with toys, watching cartoons together, and last but not least, Kimball showing off his "kung fu panda" moves as seen below.
Saturday night we went to get boba drinks, my favorite! I lived off these things in the summers in Taiwan. The only problem was, we usually get them at joints in Salt Lake that are actually owned and operated by Asians. The Yogurt Stop in Sandy was a little bit of a let down as everything was made from a powder and not fresh, blah.

Showered with love to no end! So cute!
Kimball didn't seem to think this drink was all too shabby!

Wheeler Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Denise) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:59:00 +0000

Reelika and I took Kimball and baby Max to Wheeler Farm this morning. Kimball had such a blast feeding the ducks and making commentary on the other farm animals such as, "Look Mommy, cows sharing!" (when they were both drinking water out of the same trough) If only he could follow the cow's example ;) These pics of me are really comical, I had no clue how pregnant I really looked until today, and I still have 4 months to go???