Morning Time

Those mornings when you walk into the baby's bedroom because you hear him making noises... you look into his crib, he sees you, and his arms and legs start flying all over the place because he is so giddy and happy to see you!  It melts my heart. 

Those mornings when all Kimbri wants to do is read books with me in bed and I'm lucky enough to spend time with that special little girl while brother is napping! She makes me so happy!

Kimbri Turns Two!!!

Happy Birthday Kimbri!

These past 2 years have flown by! I cannot believe it. My little Kimbri is just growing up so fast. Especially lately, it seems, because she is really starting to put words together and is just learning so much all the time. 

I guess for her 2 year mark I'll put together a little list of things that she likes. Maybe things she likes to do, etc... just to have some memories :)

~ First of all, Kimbri loves food! Some of her favorites are:

Fruit: 

Apples, bananas (she has always loved bananas), watermelon, and grapes. Se does NOT like pineapple. She spits it out every time!

Veggies: 

Broccoli, peas, squash and zucchini. She's not a huge fan of plain carrots but she'll eat them if I let her dip them in Ranch. 

Some other foods that she loves include: 

-Spaghetti (or any type of noodle for that matter) with red sauce

-Yogurt (especially the little drinkable kind)

-Cheese. More specifically, string cheese.
-Granola bars and Ritz crackers.

-She also likes chicken nuggets. We get the frozen Dynobites kind that come in a box at Sam's Club. It makes for an easy meal occasionally when things are hectic!

-Cereal (she's just like daddy when it comes to her cereal!) And she loves eating it by herself out of her own bowl.

~ Some of her favorite movies/shows: 

Charlotte's Web, Dora the Explorer, Nursery Rhymes, and Teletubbies

~ Things that Kimbri likes to do are:

-Read books! She loves books. She repeats that word over and over and over!!! Some of her favorites are Dragon in a Wagon, The Grouchy Ladybug, books about animals and any book about Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse. We read books every night before bed time. It's part of the routine and if we don't do it, things get real messed up! She has to have her night time book reading!

-Kimbri really, really loves nursery! She goes right in and totally forgets all about mom and dad the instant she walks in the nursery doors! I'm glad she loves it and we have amazing nursery leaders in our ward!

-She loves to be outside. And I don't think she really minds the heat. Even if it's 115 degrees outside she still loves to be outside. And along with the whole being outside thing, she loves to be in the water! It scares me a little how fearless she really is around water. We need to teach that girl to swim!

-She also loves helping mommy make things in the kitchen! She loves pouring the different ingredients in the bowl or mixer. 

-Kimbri likes to color. We have a stack of coloring books with a colored pencil and crayon box that sit in the front room or on the kitchen table almost 24/7.

-She loves giving Garrett kisses. She loves trying to give him kisses when he's in the highchair, my arms, or on the floor. She loves to try and hold Garrett too. Kimbri is such a great big sister!



-Kimbri loves helping me do the laundry. I sit her up on top of the dryer, which is right next to the washer, and I hand her each thing that goes in the washer and ask, "Can you throw it in for mommy?" and she promptly replies, "Yeah!" every single time. It's so cute. She also likes helping me take things from the washer and put them in the dryer and then pushing the button to start it. She's such a good little helper!

-She's getting really good at helping say prayers! She repeats after us. 

-Play with her baby dolls. Kimbri loves her babies! Sometimes when I'm tending to Garrett I'll say to Kimbri "Go get Kimbri's baby." And she'll run to her bedroom and get her baby dolls and play with them. 

These used to be my dolls back in the day. It's so fun that I have a
little girl now that gets to play with them!

Putting her babies to bed in the doll bed my Grandpa Haycock built me.

~ Something that Kimbri does NOT like:

-She hates the vacuum! I have no clue why. When she was little, the white noise of the vacuum would calm her but now she is terrified of it. She runs and hides behind the couch any time she sees it!

And also, for a cute little side story:

The other day I was showing a picture to Kimbri. It was when I was in the hospital, just after having Garrett, and Kimbri came to visit! It was a picture that someone took of her sitting up on the hospital bed, looking at Garrett for the first time. 

I said, "Look Kimbri, it's you and Garrett! That's so special." She immediately repeated, "Pecial", meaning, special, and then pointed to Garrett and said, "Derrett" and then herself and said, "Timbri" (she can't pronounce the letter 'K' yet). She took the picture frame out of my hands and just stared at it. And then repeated her and Garrett's name again. Then she sat the frame down on the table in her room and started to run to Garrett's room saying "Baby! Baby!". But I had to quickly stop her because Garrett was taking a nap. Haha! But she sure does love that little brother of hers!

We're excited to see what year three will bring! We love you so much Kimbri! 

It Happened....

Whenever you move into a new ward you are bound to eventually get a calling, sooner or later... and it happened.

Ah!!!! I got called as the ward chorister. Yesterday was my first day. I was terrified! I know how to lead music but I've never really done it because I was always the one playing the piano.... for ward choir, for seminary, often times in Young Womens, in Relief Society and yes, I've also been the primary pianist. I think I've done every piano-playing calling there is. But I've never had a music-leading calling. 

But now I do.

And I'm scared. 

And I hate being up in front of that many people. 

And poor Rick has to handle two kids for the first 30 minutes of sacrament meeting all by himself until I can come sit in the congregation with him and the kids. 

And did I mention I am terrified?!?! 

But I know the Lord will help me be brave enough. He will help me. I know it. And I also know that He probably gave me this calling, instead of a piano calling, so that I could learn something new and grow in a way that I couldn't otherwise.

P.S. Yesterday the organist informed me that next week there are THREE missionary farewells (her son being one of them) next week and that it will probably be packed, just as a heads up. Oh boy. Wish me luck!

Playdough

Last week Kimbri and I decided to make some homemade playdough. We had tried this recipe before when we lived in Provo and it worked great so we wanted to make it again! Kimbri LOVES to help do things like this!

We poured the dry ingredients in first and Kimbri mixed them around. Don't worry! The burner was NOT on in the pictures below of her stirring the ingredients. After she helped me put the ingredients in I got her down from off her chair and I did the part where you have to turn on the burner. 

And also, we tried her new swimsuit on to make sure it fit earlier that day and she didn't want me to take it off... haha!

Getting the food coloring out of the box to mix it in!

Mixing it made our hands very colorful. It took TONS of washing to get it out!

Garrett was happily playing with toys in the highchair
while we made our playdough.

All done!

In the 80's

The weather has been pretty great the past few days! Yesterday, Rick even said he felt a little bit chilly outside. He' crazy :) It was still in the 80's!! But I have to agree it was much better than what it has been the whole rest of the time we've lived here, but I would definitely not call it "chilly"!! Haha!

On Saturday night we went to a get together with all the other student families in the ward at the Bergeson's home. And they have a pool! So after dinner and visiting for a while we all headed out to the pool and let all the little kids have fun in the water. Three of the families all have little girls and it was so fun to have them all play together! Tessa just turned 3. Kimbri turns 2 this week! And Gracie is about 18 months I think. And then there are 3 babies (two boys and one girl) all within about 3 or 4 months of each other! So it was really fun to get to know the other young families with kids around the same age in our ward! They have all made us feel so welcome and I'm so grateful for their instant friendship! They are awesome!

Anyway, we were all out in the pool and it started to get super windy and cloudy. We looked over to the East and the other families said they saw a "Haboob" coming. A haboob a what?! I looked it up on Wikipedia and it goes into way more detail but I guess in short a haboob is like a dust storm that happens in more dry, arid regions of the world. It was weird to see the sky a really dusty color and have it start to get closer and closer to us. The wind really started to pick up so we all raced inside with all the little ones and ate ice cream for dessert. By that time it was bedtime for most of the little ones so we all went our separate ways. And by the time we got home it was pouring!!

...............

Yesterday it rained... again! We are right in the middle of "Monsoon Season". Yes, Arizona has a monsoon season. I had no idea. But during this season it has times where it just pours down rain! It's awesome. And the lightning storms are beautiful... as long as your inside and not going to get struck by it! 

Even though the rain makes it more humid, it also seems to cool things off a bit. Last night it felt so good that we went on a family walk! I've been really wanting to go on a walk with the kids! We used to go on walks all the time when we lived in Provo, but this extreme heat has prevented us from going outside, let alone on walks!

So anyway, there is a little park that's just around the corner from our house which we have been wanting to go to with the kids so we went last night as part of our walk. They have a toddler-friendly play area and another side for bigger kids. The park also has basketball court and a separate area with swings (which both Kimbri and even Garrett loved swinging!) along with a huge open field of grass.

It's a great park and we are excited to have it so close to where we'll be living for the next 4 years!

White Coat Ceremony

I am SO incredibly proud of my fantastic hubby, Rick!!! He has worked so hard for this. We got a babysitter so that I could be there with him at his White Coat Ceremony. So that I could really be there... and not out in the hall with kids :) 

(And as a side note, it was my first time ever leaving them with somebody other than family. But it went great! Ashley Denison came over to babysit for us and she did a wonderful job. Right when she got to our house she hopped right down on the floor with Kimbri and was so great with her. And Garrett slept almost the whole 3 hours we were gone! Score!)

Anyway, it was way fun to hear the great speakers and to see Rick receive his white coat all official-like. And it was so great that Mike and Sundee came! They are so supportive! It was great to have them here in Arizona with us for a day!

They did 8 people at a time. Rick is second in from the right side of the pic.

Class of 2017!

Let the games begin! Or Medical School. Haha! But seriously, we feel so blessed to be where we are at right now and we couldn't be more excited and happy! 

I Love You, Rick!!!!

Garrett Loves Food

I think the title of this post explains it all. Seriously, he is so much like Kimbri was when she was Garrett's age! They both fell in love with solids as soon as they had their first taste! 

Like the other night, Garrett ate two whole containers of Gerber's "1st Foods" plus a bowl of rice cereal!! He seriously loves food. 

We even bought prunes, which looked like chocolate pudding, and Garrett didn't even bat and eye. He just gobbled it all up! And he always loves to suck every last bit of food off of his spoon afterwards. 

People talk about how you should start your kids with vegetables first so they learn to like them... yeah, Garrett definitely does NOT have a problem with that!! He'll eat anything you put in his mouth. At least so far...

Family Outing

Last week we decided to go on one last little family adventure before Rick started medical school. We figured we drive over to the San Tan Mall. It's an outdoor mall so we thought we'd drive around to see what different stores there were. We eventually parked and decided to go look in the Disney Store. 

The Disney Store has always been a place to just go and look, because everything there is always super expensive. But it is SO fun to see all the Disney stuff, and to especially see how excited Kimbri gets when she sees Mickey and Minnie Mouse! 

And, as a random side story, I remember my Aunt Donna bought me a purple Pooh bear from the Disney Store once when I was little and I loved it! Purple has always been my favorite color and I have kept it through all these years and that same Pooh bear is now snuggling with little Kimbri in bed as I am typing this. Haha!  

Anyway.... after we had fun walking through the Disney Store, we found this fun little outdoor kids area, that included a splash pad! We'll definitely be making frequent trips to all the splash pads this summer!

Garrett likes chillin' in his half of the stroller. Oh yeah. 

We also passed by this store that had real dogs in the windows, which was
a real catch with Kimbri. She love dogs.

By this point, we were all starting to die of heat. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration but that's how I at least felt. And as you can tell in the picture below, Kimbri's face is really red. Again, because it was so HOT outside. I started feeling really bad that her face was so red, thinking that she must feel really hot and uncomfortable. 

So after letting her do a ride we saw this snow cone place a couple stores down and decided to cool off with one. First of all, it felt good to just walk into a store that had A/C. Second of all, we ate ice, and that helped cool us down! We had a cake batter and banana flavor mix on our snow cone that we all shared and it was yummy! 

It was a fun little outing as a family! It was hot but it was fun! 

Car Sickness

Tonight we were out running some errands as a family. After the first couple stops getting out and going in as a family we decided that I would just run into Office Max to get a cord for our printer and then into the grocery store to get some peanut butter (Kimbri loves PB&J sandwiches and we were out of PB). We figured since the kids were getting hungry it would just make things faster if only I ran in. Meanwhile, Rick just drove around the parking lot so that the kids wouldn't get too hot being in a car in this Arizona heat. 

Anyway, in the past Kimbri has not done well with long drives, or drives up the canyon, or any extra long periods of being in the car for that matter. It didn't even cross my mind that she might have a potential car sickness issue just out running errands....oh but she did! She never has thrown up in the past when we are just out running errands but tonight, we were probably only a mile or so away from our house and poor little Kimbri threw up! And I think she threw up every single thing she ate the entire day, even down to the spaghetti with zucchini and squash that we had for lunch. Sorry, maybe that's a little TMI. 

I feel so bad for her when she throws up. Throwing up is the worst. I absolutely hate throwing up. 

We quickly made it home and took off her drenched clothes and let her take a bath and she was as happy as could be after that. Then she happily ate her peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich with a handful of grapes. 

Here are some random car pictures of Kimbri that I don't think I've ever posted on the blog. The first one was from when we visited Arizona when we were looking for housing and the second one was from just the other day when we were out and about, maybe after going to the library? I don't remember. But she was super tired and almost about to fall asleep! 

Well, I hope Kimbri doesn't get too carsick on our trip to Utah in a couple of weeks! The last couple of road trips we've given her Dramamine and it has helped a ton. So we'll just be keeping that stuff real handy when we go! 

Garrett ~ 6 Months

I can't believe Garrett is 6 months already! He's actually a little bit over 6 months, but close enough. I don't have any stats to write since we just moved and haven't figured out a pediatrician to go to yet. So when we get that all worked out I'll have to give another update.

But as for now, Garrett is one special little boy and he holds a huge place in my heart! His smile just makes me so happy. I just love him soooo much!

We have officially started Garrett on solids! So far we've just tried rice cereal but I think I'm gonna head to the store tomorrow and get him some bananas, pears, and some vegetables too. He seriously loves eating rice cereal so much that I think he's going to LOVE tasting other flavors of food!

The sleep training has also begun! Last night was our first night. It's just so hard to let them cry! It's hard because I don't want him to have to be sad but it's also hard because I know that I can make him totally happy and go right back to sleep, just by nursing him for a few minutes. But on the other hand, it's been hard to still be getting up 2 times a night, sometimes more. Last night went alright so we'll see how the next several nights go!

Playing on the floor is always fun! Especially now that he can roll over!

Kimbri and Garrett. The two little loves of my life!

Yes, I took pictures of us. As I was snapping pictures of Kimbri and Garrett it occurred to me that I don't think I have one single picture with just me and the kids. So I attempted to take a few. Yes, we are still in our pajamas and yes, last night was an "only-slept-in-her-diaper-night" for Kimbri. But hey, it's hot in Arizona and when you're almost 2 years old, you can get away with that. Haha :)

As I was trying to take this picture, Kimbri leaned over and kissed Garrett. This is a rather common occurrence, of Kimbri kissing Garrett. She loves him so much. It's really cute! 

Also, Garrett was really tired. You can totally tell by his eyes.
He went down for a nap right after taking these pictures.

After Garrett's second nap today (he took 3), I fed him and apparently I fed him lots! He spit up a ton!! So I changed him into an old onesie I found from a box of clothes my mom had. 

I tried to get a picture where you can see what it says but every time Garrett gets excited he makes fists and brings them to his belly, like so:

Boy do I love those chubby legs of his!

In this picture you can see it better. It says, "Somebody in Louisiana loves me!"

What a happy little boy!

 We are so happy that you are in our family, Garrett! And we love you so much!

Tuxedo Brownies

These things are sooooo yummy. I've never been a huge chocolate fan but I love Tuxedo Brownies. Maybe because it's not a totally chocolatey chocolate treat, but it has other stuff in it too. Plus putting raspberries on top makes them even better! I love raspberries. 

Anyway, the first time that I ever remember having these is when my aunt Margaret made them for a family get together. Which having made them myself now I can appreciate how much time and work she must've put in to making those for a big family function! 

So I've only made them twice now. The first time I made them, they were for a get together with Rick's neuroscience lab and we wanted to try a fun new treat. I most definitely gave Margaret a call and she gave me great instructions on how to make them. Thanks Margaret!! Sine making them that one time, I've wanted to try making them again. Yesterday we were invited over to Cam and Mona's house (Rick's Uncle and Aunt) and it was a sort of potluck thing. I said I could bring a dessert. So on Saturday night Rick and I decided it would be fun to take those so we went to the store and picked up some ingredients. 

The next morning, since we don't have church until 2pm, Kimbri and I made some of these bad boys! Kimbri mostly helped with dumping ingredients in the bowl and of course with the tasting. You can't go wrong with giving an almost two-year-old some chocolaty beaters to lick and then a spatula full of the cream cheese, cool whip, white chocolate chip mixture!She loved it!

After much time in the kitchen, we made ourselves some delicious Tuxedo Brownies! And I quote Rick, "I love Tuxedo Brownies." Haha. He's been talking about them all day today. Luckily we had a few left over from last night that we indulged ourselves with today. Yum!

Kimbri loves being my little kitchen helper! 

And then we got all ready for church! Thanks to uncle Zach for the cute little dress he got for Kimbri!

July 4, 2013

The 4th of July was HOT! I guess it wasn't much hotter than any other day down here in Arizona but we decided to go to a get together with some of the other A.T. Still University students.... at 12pm. And yes, it was outside. We took a salad and a red, white and blue strawberry treat (strawberries sliced in half with some cream and a blueberry on top). Other people brought things like watermelon, pineapple, and some people were grilling chicken. Oh how I would hate to stand over a grill in the middle of the day, outside, in Arizona.

Anyway, we quickly found our way to some chairs under the water misters. Even with water misting over me, I was still burning up. Seriously though, it was SO hot. After a while, I walked over to the pool with Kimbri and we stuck our feet in. I stepped out of the pool and even though my feet were wet the ground about burned my feet off. Ok, so that's a little bit of an exaggeration but that's how I felt. Even wearing flip flops down here, I feel like the instant your feet touch the asphalt, they feel like they start to melt. 

So after about an hour of visiting and meeting some other people that Rick will be going to school with we decided to head out. We didn't want to risk being out in the heat too long with Kimbri and Garrett. Plus it was both their nap times.  It was fun but I was soooo grateful to be back indoors where there was A/C. 

Later that evening we went to the store to get a couple ingredients we needed to make homemade ice cream and we decided to pick up a few sparklers to do with Kimbri.  It was our first time ever making ice cream with our ice cream maker. It was fun! But I think next time we'll have to freeze more ice. Again, it is just so hot here in Arizona that it melted our ice faster than we realized, so it didn't quite freeze all the way so we just stuck it in the freezer to get it a little harder :)

And afterwards we went outside on our back patio and did sparklers with Kimbri. By this point Garrett had fallen asleep so he was already in bed. 

It was an enjoyable night together with our little family! 

Rick chopping up the ice.

Kimbri is excited for the ice cream!

Doing Sparklers!

Kimbri was a little nervous at first.

I took a pic on the "firework" setting. Everything else was blurry.