We're having a baby girl!

For those of you who don't know, we're expecting Baby Kimball #2 and we recently found out we are having a little GIRL! She is due June 10th this year which means I'm 21 weeks along. Here are a few ultrasound pics!

Thomas Updates!

I wanted to do a post dedicated solely to my little Thomas and all the things he's doing and saying lately. I'm sure we'll look back on this later and smile!

Thomas is getting big! At 28 months, he is now about 36 inches (3 feet) tall and somewhere around 35 pounds. He is a solid little boy! He seems big for his age. He has a short buzz to his blonde hair. He has dark blue eyes that seem like they may be changing color. He’s got a big smile with adorable teeth and one dimple. He wears size 3T and size 6 ½ shoes.

He is so smart! He knows all his letters and can count to ten. He’s working on lowercase letters (he knows about 4/5 already!) and the sounds letters make as well as counting from 10 to 20. He knows all of his colors and shapes, including “zatewabe” (trapezoid) and “ottadon” (octagon), courtesy of a game on the kindle that he likes. He can even pick out triangles, squares, circles, etc. in the environment! He loves playing the kindle and will turn on shows on Netflix like Blue’s Clues or Dora or he will play puzzles or games.

He’s talking better and better each day. One of the funny things that he says is “Oh goodness!” (mimicking me, of course). He also can’t say “quack”—instead he says something awfully close to the “f” word! We can’t help laughing when he begs to read the book Little Quack! He asks for us to “Lay down a you” when we put him down for bed or for a nap. He also still talks in third person and says things like, “Hi, Thomas!” when he’s talking to us. He often calls oatmeal “meh” or “meuh” and says “seeder” for cereal. One of my favorite things he says recently is “Aw, come ‘mere!” while tilting his head to the side with his arms out for a hug and back pat. Adorable!

He loves singing songs and his favorite used to be “I Love to See the Temple”, but now seems to be what he calls “Soapy” (I’ve Traveled Around this Penopee). He also likes Turtle, “Poo Ply” (Shoo Fly), Popcorn Popping, I’m a Child of God, and just about any song he hears.

He LOVES the snow! When it finally snowed a week ago (here in Virginia), Thomas saw the ground covered in white and for a while kept calling it “bubbles.” When we went out, he loved stepping in it, throwing it at daddy and mommy, etc. Now whenever we see even a little patch of snow, he wants to touch it or step in it. He likes going for a walk to the bridge with his bucket that we fill with rocks and throwing the rocks into the river. He also loves reading books, playing with his letters, blocks, or train set, running back and forth in the apartment, coloring, and playing with playdoh.

He has had a few undesirable habits and mannerisms lately, including one where he will cry out/yell really loud out of the blue! He does this at home, in the car, and at church. It can be when he’s frustrated or just when the idea gets into his head! We are working on it… he usually gets a time out or a pat on the mouth when he does it. He also hits mommy, usually when he is angry or frustrated. He also usually gets a time out for this. In time out, he often doesn't stay on the chair and has to be put back over and over or held there. He can be very particular about his food and other things, getting really frustrated if it’s not the way he wants it. He wants to do everything himself, even when he can’t.

Most of the time, he’s an adorable little boy who is sure growing up! We love our little man.

Christmas in Virginia

For Christmas this year, though John had 12 days off work, we were allowed to take just a 5 day "leave" from being near base. For those 5 days, we decided to visit my sweet Opa who lives in Falls Church, VA, about 2 1/2 hours away.

On break before the actual leave, we did several things. We went to the Petersburg battlefield, John ran a 5k in an amazing time (21:30!), and we went to the Children's Museum in Richmond.

 Thomas absolutely loved the Children's Museum. It had all kinds of displays and interactive exhibits, toys, etc.

Exploring a tunnel!

This was a neat machine that sucked colored scarves through pipes and spit them back out.

An ambulance was one of Thomas' favorite things to play in.

Riding a triceratops!

Just a random silly picture!

 While in D.C., we first visited the Arlington Cemetery. It's HUGE. We walked around to see the many memorials.

 That evening (Christmas Eve with Opa!), we caved and let Thomas have one of his presents (too big/awkward to wrap anyway). A big bag of Mega Blocks!

Loving his new blocks!

Daddy had just as much fun with the blocks as Thomas did! He made Thomas a helmet.

 Thomas immediately latched onto Opa! He LOVED his silly faces, noises, and how he patiently played with him.

Opa and Thomas playing and having fun!

New Christmas jammies!

 Thomas' Christmas Haul: Mega Blocks, jammies, alphabet game, firetruck, Thomas trainset (from John's sister Amy who had us for Christmas), playdough, puzzle, books, recorded video stories from Oma and Opa Whatcott, and a few other things.

My guys playing the piano--Adorable!

 On Christmas, we had some delicious roast and hudtspot (delicious Dutch dish with potatoes, carrots, and onions all mashed together) and we drove to the Washington D.C. LDS temple to see the beautiful lights and nativity set up for the holidays.

Obsessed with touching all the lights!

Having fun with (Great-) Opa!

Such a sweet photo.

The day after Christmas, we decided to brave the super-cold rainy weather to head into town. We rode the metro (Thomas LOVED riding the train!) into downtown and walked the rest of the way, getting cold and soaked, to the Capitol Building. We toured around a little on our own, but didn't think we were up to any of the long tours with a 2-year-old. We decided to head to the Library of Congress to check it out.

Inside the Library of Congress.

Thomas fell asleep on our way home!

Out.

What a cutie.

The next day, we went to the Air and Space Museum with Opa. There are some pretty neat aircraft there! (Including the Discovery space shuttle!)

Our last day in D.C., we were able to go into town and get a (free!) parking space right next to the National Mall and walk around to all the memorials. It turned out to be a nice day and we had a great walk around to the WWII Memorial, Washington Monument, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jefferson, Korea, and Vietnam memorials (plus more I'm probably forgetting).

Pointing to and naming each letter.

So cute!!

We had a great week with my Opa in Washington D.C.!! Our trip home took us 5 hours because of the horrible traffic, and we were reminded how much we appreciate the wide open roads of the west! The following Monday, New Year's Eve, we had our good friends Adam, Chuchie, and their daughter Alexis who live in Virginia Beach over for some celebrating. We played 7 Wonders (a game), checked out Ft. Clifton, ate good food, and had a good time.

So that was our holiday! It was nice to have such a great break and spend time together enjoying some of the neat things not too far from us.

This last weekend, we went to see Jamestown and Yorktown (we already saw Colonial Williamsburg). It is about an hour's drive away. (We forgot the camera, so I don't have any pictures to share.) Jamestown is the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. I'm surprised how much has been found and preserved in the museum there! Swords, suits of armor, books, and even glassware! They had recreated the ships the first group sailed over on and you can get on and explore the ship which was super neat. They also recreated an Indian village and the first settlement founded in 1607. So interesting!

Yorktown is where General Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington in the Revolutionary War. We saw another neat museum there with tons of artifacts as well as the monument there. We got a magnet for our fridge with all three of the historic cities represented. Hooray!

So now, we're down to less than a month until we head home to Nevada! We're all getting extremely anxious to leave...we miss our home, our stuff, John's job, the west, our friends, and being closer to our family.

Virginia!

So a lot has happened since I last posted. I get so behind it's hard to be motivated to catch up!

Before taking off for Virginia, my and Thomas' friends from our moms/play group were sweet enough to throw us a surprise "Going Away/Happy Birthday Thomas" party! They brought decorations, games, and treats (I'd volunteered my house so I could finally show off our newly-furnished place) and we had a great time! It made me so grateful to have much such great friends...sure going to miss them while we're on the other side of the country! (Sorry, no pictures--those taken by my friend Lesley won't work for some reason...)

We finished packing up and cleaning up our house and yard, leaving it to some nice renters. We packed our Saturn VUE to the brim with clothes, shoes, toiletries, toys, and stuff for our 5-month venture in Virginia. I love that feeling when you work together to get a whole lot done! We left late on Thursday, Sept. 20th for Utah and got in extra late after the 5 1/2 hour drive. We crashed at John's parent's house and got some car repairs done the next day.We stayed and had a nice BBQ with much of John's family (most of them live within an hour's drive) before heading on our way east.

We knocked out about 6-8 hours of driving that first day before stopping somewhere in Colorado for the night. The next day was Sunday and we pushed on. We stopped mid-day for a lunch/stretch break. We had a nice picnic lunch at the most amazing park I've ever seen!! It  had a swimming pool with slides (now closed), an awesome splash park (still open), and a HUGE 3-story rocketship playground with a million things to do. We all had a blast playing and helping Thomas check out the great stuff. They even had a real tractor to climb up on! (He loved that!)

 Neat splash park

 Tractor!

 Coolest park ever

  We pushed on and made it to Illinois to visit with John's oldest sister, Amy Reed and family. We went for some lunch and met up with Amy to see our nephew Chandler run in a track meet in a nearby city. We made it just in time and watched him run a great race! We also got to check out the Cahokia mounds and visitor's center the next day. It was really neat! It is where a HUGE pre-historic community lived for around 300 years and where earthen mounds can still be seen. Tons of artifacts have been found as well.

 The largest of the Cahokia mounds--quite the climb!

 You can just make out St. Louis in the background!

We continued on our way to Virginia and stopped for the night in Kentucky and stayed at Mammoth Cave National Park. We got to go for a hike and eat some dinner before crashing in the hotel room for the night. The next morning, we did one of the shortest underground tours (seeing as we had a 2-yr-old to keep happy!) and enjoyed walking through the cave. I had been as a kid and though this part of the huge cave was "unlike the rest," it was similar to what I remember with stalactite and stalagmites, neat structures, and an underground river/pond.

 Cheeser

Tuckered out afterwards!!

We then drove to the highest peak in Kentucky. It was a windy, curvy, backroad that, though it made me carsick, was so intriguing to drive along. All the small towns along it had tons of character and history attached. The fall colors were starting to fire up, too. Anyway, the actual "peak" is a tiny road you can drive up to, right on the border of Virginia.

 The peak itself didn't have much of a view...

 But nearby...

 It was gorgeous!

PS-We got a double-screen portable DVD player and a few movies for the drive, which was a lifesaver, especially when it was dark out. This is Thomas vegging out to Lady and the Tramp!

After driving to the peak, we stayed in a hotel not too far away. It was hard finding a place, for some reason there were hardly any hotels. The next day, we went to find Virginia's highest peak! (The two peaks aren't too far away from one another.) After finding the right campground, John left Thomas and I to run up the trail to the peak. Thomas and I played at the playground at the bottom...that is, until it start POURING! At first, we took cover under some trees, but as it worsened, we made a mad dash for the bathrooms to wait it out. Unfortunately, John didn't make it quite to the top before the weather turned bad, but he came and got us anyway. I think it was close enough, be he doesn't. Oh well!

After that, we pushed most of the day and made it to Virginia Beach that evening to see our friends, Adam and Chuchie Barnett and baby Alexis. We had a fun weekend enjoying walking to the beach (they are only about 6 blocks away!) and talking, etc. John headed to Ft. Lee near Richmond (about 2 hours away) while Thomas and I stayed for the week so he could get housing figured out. (Lucky us, the army doesn't like to let you figure things out in advance). We set up the bottom part of a house in Colonial Heights to live in, a 2-bedroom fully furnished place that was reasonably priced. John came and got us the following weekend and we FINALLY got settled in! (You get tired of living out of a suitcase for a few weeks)

 Since being here, we have spent one weekend going to Busch Gardens, a huge amusement park, during their free Veteran's Day special. The Barnetts met us there.

 Thomas and Alexis

 Merry-go-round

 One of the roller coasters we rode!

 Sesame Street land! So fun.

 Riding the boat ride

 Halloween Grover

Big Bird

We also went one weekend to Colonial Williamsburg, a city where many of the old buildings with a lot of U.S. history have been preserved and several of them have tours with people in period clothing, etc. I'm fascinated with old stuff and places and really enjoyed it. Some of my favorite places were the governor's mansion, an old church, and the cemetery outside on the church grounds. Many of the tombs were still engraved with dates like 1705!

 Inside the Church

 Cemetery

 Beautiful tree--fall lasts so long in VA!

 Entrance to the Governor's Mansion--marble floors and hundreds of mounted weapons

 Governor's Mansion

Fife band playing traditional songs after Declaration of Independence reading

We also had a fun Halloween, we took Thomas to a ward trunk-or-treat party where his Elmo costume was a huge hit! We also took him trick-or-treating along our street. I have to admit, he's the cutest Elmo I've ever seen!

 Trick or treating

 Cheeser!

Elmo and Zoe! (Elmo's ballerina friend...)

I flew to Utah for my beautiful older sister, Candace's sealing in the new Brigham City LDS temple! It was so wonderful to be able to be there for her and to see her go through the temple making sacred covenants to God with her wonderful husband Matt who she is now sealed to forever!

 My gorgeous sister and her handsome hubby

It was also wonderful to see family, even for such a short visit! (Christine, not pictured, was there too)

*PS-These pictures were taken by Kristin Spencer Photography, not me!*

We missed Angela and Corinne!

Also, we spent Thanksgiving holiday with our friends the Barnetts. They were generous to have us over and to prepare a wonderful Thanksgiving feast! They had some other friends join us and it was great to not be alone on Thanksgiving, even being on the opposite side of the country! Though it wasn't the same without being with family, we had an enjoyable holiday with great food and great company.

 Gorgeous spread!

Otherwise, we've just been hanging out around the house. Thomas likes coloring and playing with playdough. He also is learning quite a bit: he knows his colors, shapes (even "ottagon", ie: octagon!), numbers, and almost ALL his letters! He talks a lot more and likes to sing songs with us. His favorites: I Love to See the Temple, Bill Grogan's Goat (family song), "Poo-ply" (Shoo Fly!), and Row Row Your Boat. He also takes over my kindle fire any chance he gets, playing educational games and watching videos on Netflix. He navigates it like a pro! Oh, and we also gave him a much-needed haircut! Here are some pics and a video:

 

Playdough

Haircut!

Drums!

Though there have been things we have enjoyed about the east coast (the beach, the super-long fall season, the U.S. history, being close to the Barnetts and my grandpa), it has made us realize how much we miss the beautiful western desert! I miss (being closer to) our families, our friends, the beautiful desert sunsets, the space, the undercrowding, our house. How lucky we are to have such wonderful things to return to after this short venture!