this and that in words

oh to get back into the swing of things. it's tiring, yet oh so rewarding. i'm amazed how much i love doing my own house work (after i've had a 3 week hiatus from it). monday and tuesday have been non stop go and i love it. when you're at other people's homes it's a torn internal battle between a) but i'm on  vacation and b) what else can i do for you? there's of course things that i see that need to be done but it's those little things that really get the nitty gritty housework done that give you so much reward. being  a ruler over your dominion is truly fulfilling. example: i scrubbed all the walls in my kitchen areas down yesterday. nitty gritty work? most definitely. but the accomplishment of it looking so great and sparkling afterward is so rewarding. doing all the dishes yourself and knowing exactly where they need to be put away. finding the right ingredients because you know their homes. making batch after batch of yeasty dough concoctions and feeling perfectly happy in the middle of the mess. i'm so very grateful to be a wife, a mother, and a homemaker. it truly is such fulfilling work in my mind.

changing the gears to unhappiness: my hibernating bear has come out of his hibernation mode. cue tears. the past 4 days have been back to waking up at 7:45 am, sometimes waking up in the middle of the night and having to cry for a half hour, fighting me to go to sleep, and sleeping around 10 hours each night. it was oh so fun while it lasted. casey and i will be implements all the known variables we experience from wyoming to nebraska that we can think of beginning with switching him to a pack n play. that's the main difference we can think of between the 2 rooms. here's to hoping for success! oh an remember when he was sleeping well and not eating well? well now he's back to eating REALLy well and sleeping not so well.

this last sunday our stake (pretty much all the LDS members in Lincoln) met up for a special meeting that night to learn of new boundary changes for our wards. we were so saddened to learn that we'll be losing a chunk of around 20 solid active families in our ward (casey was most saddened that stake basketball teams were completely messed up). it's all for good reason and we'll still be friends it's just hard knowing that you won't have as many opportunities to rub shoulders with them so often. with the boundary changes and a few other things going on, casey has lost his whole elder's quorum presidency, it was a hard blow on him this weekend. 

last night for family home evening we watched this video that just so happened to be kind of about new years and kind of about helping mom around the house. ha, it was silly but good. i hope casey and maxson got a lot out of the less, wink wink. then we had an impromptu family dance party in the kitchen for about 15 minutes. we kept finding new fun songs on groove shark and dancing away. maxson couldn't get enough of watching us and then excitedly flapping his arms to join or stomping his feet as fast as he could. i'm so grateful to have married the man i did. casey's humor and complete disregard of an ego/embarrassment makes my life so much better. he is my perfect match in so many ways. 

maxson was utterly spoiled in our time in wyoming and was ALWAYS held by someone when he wanted. if you're in the kitchen, there's a 90% chance he will be at your thighs, trying to shift your body towards him so you will pick him up while on the verge of crying/yelling. he wants to be apart of all kitchen things going on. loud noises in the kitchen are his favorite: blenders, mixers, bread machines, washing, etc. he is there and he wants to watch it at eye level. cupboard: he's in them. drawers: his toys. he loves all things the kitchen i swear. if there's a counter space clean enough i can pull up a chair for him to watch me as i'm going, but he's grabby and can reach far, so that's hard too. we're both adjusting.

since we're on the speaking subject of maxson let's just continue. he's adorable. 1 year old are so much stinking fun i can't believe it. they are so much work because  they get into EVERYTHING and even when you thought something was get-intoable, he'll make it that way.  BUT for a trade off they are so funny. they understand so much, can't communicate with words too much but can communicate in so many other ways: voice intonation, signs, body language, facial expressions, sounds, actions, i'm just eating it all up. we can ask him where his hair, nose, tongue, and belly button is and he points to them all (when he's in the right mood). we can ask him "what does a dog say" and he sticks out his tongue to pant like a dog. his little laugh is contagious and brings us the biggest smile. he loves to be tickled and chased, and being pretend nibbled on. he is just a ball of joy.

he is HEAVY too, have i mentioned that? picking him up is like lift a brick that doesn't support itself too much. he's somewhere in between 26-27 pounds. AND he's totally grown taller too. he's about as tall as all the other 18-22 month kids around him it seems like.

casey and i listened to the book for all eternity by dr john l lund on our trip back from wyoming. this is our 3rd time listening to the book and it seriously such an awesome lecture series on marriage and how to be a nice person in life, and it's extremely entertaining. it kinda makes me want to go back to college to sit and learn from these professionals. so for the last week casey and i have been working on the 24 hour challenge where you find a block of time for 24 hours that you didn't criticize anyone else in any way: truthful, sarcastic, demeaning. whatever it is, just stop. neither of us are super bad at this but we catch ourselves every few hours saying some snarky comment or putting someone down in some way or another and have to start our 24 hours over again. it's been really good for us and it's fun exercise. 

other than that, we're just kicking it in nebraska again. casey back to the books at school. i'm back to domestic home like. maxson back to single child life with all his toys. valentine decorations are up and nebraska is back to it's blah  winter weather. 

and since every post deserves a picture:

the stereotype that children are obsessed with escalators rang true as maxson was introduced to his first one last night, all he wanted to do was go back to it every time he got off of it. man with a mission i tell you

btw: this is HILARIOUS

THE BEARD

we have reached the end of an era.

actually we've reached the end of the 3 months time that casey said he was going to grow out his beard.

the first 2 months were really fun for us both, just a fun change.

the third month took quite a long time for us, i'd say.
my favorite months of beard growth were the 5th and 6th picture, roughly the 5th and 6th weeks.
it was funny looking at casey during dinner and seeing all this food in his beard,
i think he was pretty tired of it.
i asked him to use conditioner and shampoo on his beard once to see if it would make it softer, it didn't.
we took a picture about once a week and it's fun to look at the growth (and to see how much maxson has grown!)!!!!

and of course, we had to cut it off in stages.
man, looking at that first picture, he looks almost homeless, ha!
the second picture is quite handsomely-rugged-looking in my book that i really like.
a few friends/family members were just certain casey should keep the foo-man-shoo mustache for at least a few days...
YUCK!
and on the regular mustache, all he needs is a red hat to be mario!

after casey had fully shaved off his beard, it definitely took maxson a little while to know who casey was again.
he wasn't just throwing out his smiles easily like he did before for casey.
it took a good 15 minutes of mostly blank stares at casey while he was pulling out all the tricks from the bag to get him to smile.
maxson finally realized who he was though i think :)

it's still taking me a little while to get used to his baby face.
it just looks so different!!!!!
it's been 3 months since i've seen that clean face so it's a surprise to have it back!

four things

thank you for all the kind words on the maternity photos!

we had a lot of fun and i can't wait to see the rest too.

four things from the past few days:

1. another reason why my husband rocks:

he plays just dance...by himself...by his own free will.

he's determined to get the special crowns on all the songs, such a goof.

i love watching him dance.

it's funny how frustrated he gets on a dance game, haha, that's my husband

the other night we were exhausted and didn't really have any plans.

casey wanted to play video games, i wanted him to watch a movie with me.

he challenged me to a just dance battle, best of 5.

i thought, oh gosh, i have this in the bag, i will totally school him (usually i do...)

but that night, i was off my groove, 100%.

i tried switching controllers, standing in front of him, moving the wii monitor, nothing helped.

THE DANG GAME WOULDN'T GIVE ME ANYTHING.

i was humiliated.

I AM THE REAL DANCER, CASEY IS THE FUNNY DANCER, WHY IS HE WINNING?!?!?!?!?

after 4 songs of him winning, i fake cried with real emotion into his chest wondering why he was winning?

i think he then felt pity on me and let us play the songs i'm good at.

i finally won the next 3.

still not good enough, but at least i won something...

after i was finally able to win a few (he probably purposely let me win those now thinking about it...) i started not caring if i won or not and just enjoyed how fun it was to "dance" a little again (even if it was FLIPPING exhausting...)

2. we went to yogurtini the other night.

provoins: you know how you have like a million self serve frozen yogurt places around you?

well, here's the truth, they're all yucky.

yogurtini is so much better.

TONS of actually yummy flavors.

and TONS of really yummy toppings.

definitely my new favorite cold treat place.

3. a bomb went off in my kitchen this week.

it started sunday night,

got bigger monday,

and got HUGE tuesday.

it was so terrible,

and there's honestly no excuse because i stay home practically all day, ha.

so wednesday i cleaned up the debris.

it only took like 45 minutes, yuck.

even if we have to wheel our dishwasher in and out of the kitchen i'm still grateful we bought it.

it makes all the difference in our marriage and dishes mood :)

4. tuesday night, my super wonderful and kind friend/neighbor, katie, put on a baby shower for me!
can't wait to share all the photos with you!

jorts

let's go way back in time,

october 2008 back in time.

it was casey and myself's first date.

we were going to the byu v utah st football game up in logan.

i swear, just the week before a friend on my freshman floor, stacey,

brought up the conversation of jean shorts aka jorts,

and how no boy should ever wear these,

that they were the ugliest thing ever,

that no one in their right mind would buy/wear them these days,

only weirdos wore them.

i fully believed her.

i soaked in all her words.

i was like "yeah, they are ugly. what are these boys thinking?'

well you guessed it, casey wore JORTS on our first date!

gasp!

luckily, i was able to look beyond the jorts and easily forgave him. 

we're sitting here talking about them and casey thinks that when we were engaged i told him they were yucky and he should never again wear them.

wow, am i a rude person or what?!

but what can i say? i didn't like 'em? ha. 

well, i've been working on a project and those shorts were i the pile.

i held them up and we laughed.

casey says he still likes 'em.

i still don't like them so much.

other kinds, maybe...

those ones definitely not.

but i just cut them up so he can never wear them again :)

i love you, sweetie!
thanks for never again wearing jorts :)

manners.

excuse me if this post is too personal/offends you but i think it's hilarious and just can't forget about it.

casey

+

confined in someone else's home for 2 hours plus

=

the second the door shuts behind us to begin walking home, there's about a 30-45 second (or so it seems) blowhorn that comes out of him.

this is the only time in our marriage that i completely belly laugh at his not-so gentleman-like sounds.

i die laughing.

and he's dying from pain of holding it in.

everytime.

everytime.

but i am grateful for his manners in someone else's home. grandma christensen and mom cutler have taught him well.

provo utah bucket list: feeding the ducks at the duck pond

#1 reason i love tuesday and wednesdays: we don't work.

those 2 nights are pretty much the only nights casey and i don't work and don't have plans.

those days feel marvelous.

so today we kinda just chilled.

worked on the puzzle.

organized our little place.

made chocolate chip waffles.

and randomly decided to take a walk because the weather was just splendid.

on our way out i thought "let's go feed the ducks while we're at it!"

new found pleasure: feeding the ducks at the duck pond.

i was pleasantly surprised at how fun it was.

it was like being a kid all over again and being thrilled that all these ducks would come so close to you!

the challenge: trying to get the bread to the duck you want it to go to

the comedy: casey chasing away the mean ducks (i'm chuckling right now just thinking about it).

he'd just chase the mean one around the walking area til it flew back into the pond, calling it names.

too funny.

i was amazed at how close the ducks got to us! we could feed them straight from our hand! 

(i didn't because, eww, that's gross).

but they were no stranger to strangers for sure.

we will undoubtedly be going back again soon bc we had such a hoot doing it!

ps- top left picture, on our walk to the pond, this HUGE duck was randomly on the street and started chasing us!
(imagaine a duck like the duck joey and chandler have on friends)
it was literally about to bite casey!
i don't know if it was someone's pet or what but it was blocks away from the pond.
it freaked me out and bc i freaked out while casey was on the phone he freaked out,
needless to say, we took a different street home.

 

people of provo: go feed the ducks.
you'll have a blast.

conference weekend.

wow, it's thursday.

mwf went so fast for me, they always do.

my thursday and fridays are so easy, i just look forward to getting over my wednesday!

general conference was wonderful this year, as always.

we woke up at 9:56 to prepare ourselves for the 10 am session, we're awesome.

casey and i snuggled on the couch while we watched.

and then i fell asleep between sessions.

sadly, i can't remember one particular talk from those sessions, i just remember feeling good and happy the whole time.

every once and awhile, i say to casey "this is such a good talk!"

i'll be happy to see november's conference issue of the talks come out.

but for conference,

my brother, kirk, and his most dear, dear friend, whitney, came up from mesa!

i got to pick them up from the airport late saturday night

i was late picking them up and took the wrong way home.

we shared some great memories on that drive home.

the 4 of us got to go to the (very early) sunday morning session of conference.

sadly, we only had 3 tickets to that session.

so casey and i stood on the corner as he held up his finger begging for a ticket.

most embarrassing and funniest thing ever.

oh my word, i was dying of laughter and wanted to give up asap.

our attitudes weren't making it any better either, ha.

an old man in an electric wheel chair came up to us and said he was meeting his grand daughter on the other side of the conference center and that she might have an extra ticket.

(our countenance may have brightened up a little bit).

but his elderly wife (with a walker) needed help getting there.

so for about 5 minutes we helped this cute, old couple get to the other side of the building.

once up there, we began waiting around for his granddaughter.

not sure if she was really going to have a ticket or not, casey began holding up that very embarrassing finger, notifying to all others we were begging for 1 more ticket.

within 30 seconds, a couple tapped casey on the shoulder, and handed him a ticket.

ah, the sweet joy of relief (of embarrassment!).
what a tender mercy from the Lord.

after another little embarrassing scene with getting through security,

we made it inside.

casey finally looked at the ticket and realized the ticket we received was for the very bottom level!

yes people, the bottom level closest to the apostles etc.

umm, so cool.

way worth the embarrassment of holding up that one little finger.

my favorite part of the session was hearing the mormon tabernacle choir sing "I Believe in Christ."

it's my absolute most favorite hymn and it brought to me a reconfirmation of my testimony of this gospel.
top left picture is me with the wilford woodruff statue, "oh hey grandpa! we have the same chin!"

we met kirk and whitney outside where we walked around temple square a little.

it was a gorgeous day outside and the very first conference session i had ever been to where the weather wasn't cold!

so glad we got to go with these 2.
it'll be a great memory we'll all have together!

ps- this last weekend we had our first date 3 years ago and did the same activities together these 3 years later:
BYU v Utah State game + conference.
precious.
i remember after the date staring at this top picture SO much! i thought casey was so cute, and couldn't wait to see more of him! 
i also thought we were so cute together! 

april fools

April fools from Kimber Cutler on Vimeo.

don't you like that the first thing he says he's mad about is that he "just put on new clothes?"

casey didn't like it so much at that moment, nor even 10 minutes later

but 15 minutes later when he watched the video, he laughed too :)

what a cute guy eh?

chocolate for breakfast

remember how casey and i love cereal?

ya, like we do a lot.

the only thing i don't do for cereal is when it gets too sugarey.

 Kimber! too sugary!? what in the heck does that mean?!

yes, that's what i said, too sugarey,

i don't do chocolate for breakfast

i.e.

  they were on sale.

casey was ecstatic.

haha, love that guy

trash bag fun

roll of black trash bags

+

stairs

+

casey

=

a large roll of black trash bags that has rolled all the way down the stairs

the dumb trash bags

casey had lots of fun rolling them up :)

in a pickle

(sorry for the blurry pic, it's from my phone)

but do you see this?

i was laughing so hard watching casey at the bottom of the stairs with this mass of stuff in his hands trying to open the door. i couldn't go down and help him bc there was no room for me either! so he stood there for like a minute trying to figure out a way to open the door but not put down the stuff or come back up the stairs, he's a crack up! it was just so funny!