Lovin' Living in Arizona

We are loving Arizona! I wouldn't say that I love the heat, but at least our A/C works! We had a little bit of a rough day last week when the A/C broke and it got up to 90 degrees in the house. We decided to try and escape the heat and got a couple miles down the road when our car overheated!! So we wound up in a bit of a bind and called Shelby, Rick's cousin, and she came and rescued us from the blazing heat of the house and took us to her home while we waited for the A/C guy to call.

Then Shelby's husband, Rue, is super smart with cars and he fixed our car for us, which was a HUGE blessing. He literally saved us more than $1,000 by fixing our car for us. I can't even imagine how to thank them enough! They are so kind and it makes me want to be better about looking for ways to serve others. A huge thank you to Shelby and Rue!!! And also, they have an adorable little boy named Bowen who is only about 2 weeks older than Garrett, so we're going to be planning some way fun play dates together!

Kimbri was hanging out in only a diaper because it was SO hot. 

And this is what our freezer looks like living in Arizona. Thanks to Nolan and Brooke for the Otter Pops and to my parents for stocking us up with ice cream and watermelon to keep us cool! And for all the other things you stocked us up with before you left. Thank you so much! We also love to make berry smoothies for a healthy snack in the afternoons. My favorite- bananas, berries and skim milk!

As a side note, Kimbri's favorite otter pop color is blue. It's so funny. She'll walk over to the freezer and point up to it and say "Blue" over and over again. She also cannot say "popsicle". She instead say "pickle". She can say "pop" and "sicle" but she can't combine the two. It just comes out as "pickle". I think it's really cute! She's really starting to say tons of words. Ah. She's just growing up too fast!

Anyway, not only do we love our hot weather cold treats, if that even made any sense, we absolutely love our house! We are so grateful to have found this place. It's in a little neighborhood but still only about 1.5 miles down the street from the school but it's still close to everything without losing that quite neighborhood aspect!

We decided to go with a 3 bedroom house. It's even cheaper than renting an apartment!  And we have our own backyard, our own garage (which is soooo nice to park your car in so it's not out in the blazing sun), and we don't have to worry about living under or above anybody like the other places we've lived in. Plus there is room for growth! Since we'll be here for at least 4 years we'll hopefully have another baby during that time.

Both Rick and I are excited to finally be in a non-student ward now too. Basically we are excited to be out of Provo. I feel like in student wards people are always moving and there's such a high turn-over rate you don't really, really get to know people before they or you move away. Our ward is the Cornerstone Ward and we meet at 2pm. 2pm people! It was SO hot on our drive to church. But we got lucky and found a shaded spot. It was really weird not getting out of church until 5pm. But since there are 4 wards in our building I'd imagine we'll get to move to 8am at the beginning of next year We'll see.

So anyway, here are some pictures of our house!

Our house! I love the mini palm tree in the front.

Garrett's bedroom

The changing table that my dad made for my mom.

Kimbri's room. That's my old bed and the blanket I made for a YW's project!

Garrett hangin' out on Kimbri's bed.

The Kitchen! We have so much cupboard and counter space!

Dining area

Fridge and more cupboard space.

Laundry room!

Front room

Other half of the front room

Master bathroom

Master bedroom - Rick's desk for all the studying he'll be doing!

Other half of the master bedroom.

Hallway

Our garage. I love the extra storage space along the walls.

Our backyard! Some green grass and lots of dead grass. Gotta love AZ :)

Well, there ya have it! Our new home in Arizona. Have I mentioned that we love it?! We are so grateful for all the help that we had in getting down here. For my parent's letting us live with them in between moves for 6 weeks. For my parents and the Stone's letting us use their garages for storing our stuff. For my dad and his amazing packing skills as he loaded all of our belongings in his trailer and truck, and for driving down with us. We really are so grateful for all the support we have received from both our families! We love them all so much!

We are so excited to be here in Arizona and to have this next adventure and phase of our lives!

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Oh, and here are a few pictures my dad sent me from when they were here in AZ helping us move. We  went out to eat at "Si Senor" and made a trip to the Mesa Temple to visit the temple grounds.

Kimbri and her Uncle Enoch

Mommy & Garrett

Dad, Enoch, Kimbri, Alina, Rick, Garrett

Utah Valley Half Marathon

For the past 3 years Rick has been volunteering with the Utah Valley Marathon. I actually had signed up to do the half marathon last year but then I found out I was pregnant about one month before and my training just went downhill in a bad way. I was just too nauseous with the whole morning sickness thing to do it. 

But this year I decided to do it because several of my extended family members were doing it too, so it gave me motivation! It was so much fun. 

The most I had run at one time before this was 8 miles so I was a little worried but we all finished and it was great. It took me about 2 hours and 16 minutes. Honestly, I felt like I could barely walk afterward because my knee hurt so bad but now that I've recovered from my knee issues I would love to do another one someday! 

Alina, Allison, Janelle, Doug, Dad, Carla, Jake, Camille, Margaret

The siblings: Doug, Lyle, Carla, Camille, Margaret

My Dad and I after getting home.

I know some people took some pictures at the finish line so maybe I'll have to track those down and add them later to this post.

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Also, Rick did a half marathon the week after I did. He ran the American Fork Canyon Half Marathon with his sister, Jessica. Kimbri, Garrett and I decided to make our way up to American Fork and wait close to the finish line and cheer them on through to the end. Thank goodness for a double stroller :)

This half marathon is put on by Intermountain Healthcare so all proceeds go to cancer patients. Jessica and Rick ran in honor of their Aunt Brenda who has cancer. They did great!

Rick running towards the finish line!

Life in Provo

As I've been trying to catch up with the blog I found a bunch of pictures that I took during our last week or so of living in Provo. We sure enjoyed our time living together in Provo but we are excited to move on to a new part in our lives! 

These pictures don't really have any rhyme or reason but I want to have them in our family book! So here they are:

Kimbri got to watch movies while I tried to pack. Otherwise she would
unpack all my boxes faster than I could keep them packed! Haha.

She loves cereal, just like her dad :)

Lots of naked Garrett pics. We love his chubby rolls!

Kimbri with her binkies. 

Kimbri and Garrett sittin' on the couch together.

It was hot and they were both just in diapers so I had to snap a pic.

They both are a little unsure about this pic. Haha!

Kimbri trying to read a book to Garrett. She's so
cute always trying to help out, sometimes in not so
good ways, though like trying to feed him her bottle! 

I was in the middle of trying to pack, so Kimbri got
to watch Dora the Explorer.

She woke up with CrAzY hair!