My Little Man

First of all, Garrett absolutely loves his little zebra stuffed animal! I kind of decorated his room with an animal theme. I still have plans to paint a couple pictures of jungle animals for above his crib. But anyway, I found some way cute stuffed animals that I set on the changing table and a couple other ones on his little dresser. 

Now that he has gotten older, every time I lay him down to change his diaper on the changing table, he immediately turns to the left and twists his whole entire body, outstretching his arms and grabs his little zebra animal. It's so cute and so funny too! 

He loves it so much that sometimes I take it with me when we drive somewhere so he can play with it, hug it and yes, even chew on it (he is teething).  He loves his little zebra alright!

And I know I've wrote about this before but Garrett also loves his food. So even though I've already posted pictures of him eating "big boy food", I'm posting more. Because he is just so cute and it's just SO funny how much he seriously loves food! 

He looks like a little bird the following picture...waiting with his mouth wide open for mom to put more food in it. Haha!  

Happy boy! Especially with a full belly!

He loves chewing on his spoon when he is done eating.
Again, I think it's because of the whole teething thing.

I love my little man!!!

Kimbri's Birthday Party

We celebrated Kimbri's birthday last Saturday on July 27. Though her birthday was actually on July 25, Rick's schedule was pretty busy so we decided to just do a little party on the weekend. We had Shelby, Rue, and little Bowen over to celebrate with us! We got some pizza from Little Caesar's (Kimbri loves pizza) and for dessert we had cake and homemade ice cream! 

I made a Texas sheet-cake and carved a Mickey head into it. Kimbri has been loving Mickey Mouse lately so I thought it would be fun for her. When I showed her the cake she pointed to it excitedly and said, "Mickey!!" In her super high, excited voice. It was way cute. You can kind of see the Mickey head in the cake in the pictures...

Lighting the candles.

Kimbri trying to blow her candles out...

Trying again....

And still trying.... she eventually got it!

She got a little chocolate on her face. Haha!

It was really fun to get to buy some presents for Kimbri! We got her some new sandals because she's growing out of all her other ones. We also went to Goodwill (kind of like DI) and got some books since she loves reading! And we also got her a couple movies - a couple Winnie the Pooh movies and some Mickey Sing Along Songs. She also got a pink bean bag and a big ball that she loves. 

Present time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBRI!!!!

We love you!

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!