Back in Arizona

After spending a really fun 3 weeks in Utah, we are back in Arizona now! We got back this past weekend and are enjoying the weather. I loved being able to experience a little bit of Utah fall before coming back... that cool nip in the air. I love it. 

But I also love that when we came back to Arizona it was still hot enough to go swimming! So that is what we did this afternoon.

And while we were there, Kimbri learned how to hold her breath and go under the water today!! After figuring it out she wanted to do it over and over and over again. She would jump of the step in the deep end to me, go under the water, and then I'd pull her back up and stand her up on the step again. And then she would say, "Adin, Adin" (which means, in Kimbri language, "again"). Anyway, it was really fun!

Here she is all ready to go in her swimsuit we got from walmart, the fun Dora coverup from my aunt Londie (thanks! she loves it).

Garrett also had a ton of fun at the pool! We love that there is a pool so close to us (it's right next to Rick's school only 1.5 miles away from our house). We'll definitely be making many, many trips there during the next 4 years!

Our Anniversary!

I am SO happy to be married to my best friend for eternity!

He is most definitely my better half and is the most amazing father and husband a girl could ask for.  

I've been looking through and reminiscing about our wedding day, so here are some photos from that wonderful, perfect day: 

We tried and tried to find a babysitter so that we could go out on a little anniversary date... but we failed. We called about 7 or 8 different girls from the ward but since our anniversary was also on a holiday, everybody had family plans. So hopefully we'll get to go out sometime this weekend! 

Here are the beautiful flowers that Rick surprised me with on our anniversary. They are beautiful and they smell so good!

Kimbri is a little jealous of my flowers.
She points to them and says,
"Kimbri, flowers", haha!

And also, Rick let me sleep in!!! It felt super amazing. After I finally woke up (at 10 am - I can't believe I slept that long!) Rick went down for a nap while I took a turn watching the kids :) Sleep is precious when you have kids! Haha! 

It has been the best 3 years of my life and I can't wait for an eternity with my incredible husband! 

I love you Rick!

Princess Kimbri

As I have mentioned multiple times before on this blog... Kimbri loves to read!! Lately, we have been reading some of the Disney princess books. She loves the Aladdin book (especially Abu, the monkey), Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.

So the other day we whipped out some of her tutus and played dress up. It was fun. And she had lots of fun running around in her tutus. She would run into the front room and then back to her bedroom and want a different color on. So then we'd put on a different one and she would run back into the front room and we'd repeat it all over again! Haha :)

Kimbri dancing around in her tutus. If you look closely you can see she has 2 on at once... a dark pink on top and a light pink underneath. She kept wanting to put both on so why not? It made things extra puffy. She's such a fun little girl and such a joy in my life!! I can't believe she is 2 years old!

Family Fun in AZ

This past weekend my parents came to Arizona along with Olivia and Enoch! We were SO excited to have them here for a couple of days. They've been on a family vacation, visiting family all over. Their first stop was in Nebraska to visit Dawson and family. Then they stopped one night in Missouri on their way to Arkansas to see Londie and family. After that they headed on over to Texas to visit Delicia, Donna, my Mamaw and Papaw and everyone else. And then they headed on to visit us in Arizona! What a trip! I'm so glad they made a stop in AZ!! 

They arrived late Friday night and stayed until Monday morning. Friday night we probably stayed up too late visiting. But it was so fun to see them and just visit and chat :) 

Then on Saturday Rick headed to campus to study for the morning, my dad and Enoch went to search for some chile peppers at a couple of markets, and my mom, Olivia, me and the kids went to the mall. We got some school clothes shopping done for Olivia since they start school soon! 

That afternoon we hung out at the house. We played Settlers of Catan while the kids could get in their naps. When they woke up we went out to eat at a place called "Si Senor". We went there when they came down to help us move and it is officially one of my favorites now! I love it! SUCH good Mexican food. Yum!

Oh, and it was 119 degrees outside that afternoon. Wow.

Enoch, Olivia, Garrett, Alina, Kimbri, Rick, Dad, & Mom took the picture.

On our way home from the restaurant we drove by the Gilbert temple which is still under construction. It's beautiful! Can't wait until it's done. 

That night Olivia taught Rick and I how to play Monopoly Millionaire Deal, or something like that. It was pretty fun! I think it's a game I would like to get sometime. Then Rick had to get a little more studying done so we got the kids in bed, Rick studied, Enoch and my Dad watched a movie and my Mom, Olivia and I went back out for a little bit of girl time at Target and the mall, again. 

On Sunday we kind of lounged around throughout the morning. We don't have church until 2:00pm.  My mom watched the kids so Rick and I could sleep a little bit longer.... it was a rough night with Garrett getting up quite a bit! So a HUGE thanks to her!! 

Later that morning Kimbri and I made peanut butter cookies and they turned out SO good. I think they are my new favorite kind of peanut butter cookie. They have a mini Reese's in the middle. How could that not be good?! It was scrumptious. And between all of use we ate the whole batch by that night! 

After church Rick grilled some chicken. We have discovered a marinade that you can by for .62 and it is super delicious!!!!! It's a tomato, garlic and basil marinade and seriously, it is soooo good! It's my new favorite kind of chicken. Lots of new favorites this weekend :) We had the chicken with rice and made a big stir-fry full of fresh vegetables. Maybe it's because we don't get out of church till so late and we were just all really hungry, or it was one seriously good meal, if I do say so myself. It makes me want to make it every single night, it was so good!

Anyway, we got to spend the rest of that evening hanging out, visiting, playing Monopoly Deal, and we even went scorpion hunting. We found one in our house last week and it freaked me out!!! So I went and bought a black light flashlight so we could check our house at night. We decided to check the outside of the house too. Creepy. Rick was the leader. I stayed really far back. The only reason I went was because I wanted to see how they light up and glow when a black light is shining on them. It seriously was so creepy. And gross. We will be spraying our yard VERY soon. Ooooo. Seeing those things creeps me way out.

Well, my family packed up their stuff on Sunday night and they left early on Monday morning, around 5:45am. Even though it was a quick trip it was so fun to get to see them and have a fun weekend with them! And a huge thank you to all my family that sent things our way! Kimbri loves the puzzles and especially the bear puzzle. And the cute dresses, and toys you all sent. Thank you! And my mom and Olivia gave Kimbri her some birthday presents while they were here. Needless to say, she is in love with all of them, especially the fun Minnie Mouse gown, stickers, bank, book and color-doodle thing :) You are all too kind. Thanks so much! 

We love you and are happy you dropped by sunny Arizona to visit us! Can't wait to see you all again soon!

Ra Ra Ra Random

Ever since getting an iPad I've taken a lot more pictures of the kiddos doing random things throughout the day! My camera is super old and takes forrreeevvveeerrrr to turn on that usually by the time it is actually on and ready to take a picture, Kimbri is on to the next thing or notices that I'm getting the camera out, so I miss the moment, or whatever. 

Anyway, with an iPad you can just whip it out and snap a picture almost instantly. I know the quality probably isn't as great but it's good enough for me! And then it's SO easy to just email them to myself and have them on the computer instantly, instead of waiting to upload them all to your computer. Rick showed somehow 'sinked' the iPad and his laptop together so that if I take a picture with the iPad, it automatically appears on his laptop! I have no idea how that even is possible. But it's sweet!!

Anyway, here are some fun pictures of the kids as of late:

Kimbri loves broccoli. And so does her mama! It's among my favorite veggies. I have know idea how she even got this idea, but whenever we have broccoli she bites of the tops and doesn't eat the stems (you can see a pile of stems on the counter next to her bowl...haha!). 

Kimbri recently has become somewhat obsessed with the Mickey Mouse hat in the following 3 pictures. She went and found it, got some books and sat at the kitchen table and read books for quite a long time, with nothing but a diaper and her Mickey Mouse hat on. And to be honest, I have no clue where that hat even came from! But she loves it.

Now it's Garrett's turn!

Garrett was all ready for church and was chillaxin' on Kimbri's hot pink bean bag that she got for her birthday. And yes, he is teething so that's why the fingers are in the mouth :)

The other day, the kids and I were playing in Kimbri's room when Rick got home. He immediately came and joined us, got down on his hands and knees and started saying "dadadadadada". And to our surprise, Garrett said it right back to him! His first word is officially "dada"! Wahoo! 

It was so cute. And Garrett got really excited about it... probably because we were so excited about it. And his smile is super contagious.

Bath Time & Snuggle Time

Kimbri has been totally enjoying taking bubble baths lately with the bubbles she got for her birthday. Good thing the bubbles are tear-free since she insists on putting bubbles on her head and face! Haha :) I love my little Kimbri!

Garrett loves bath time too! Gotta love the pink bath tub. It's soooo manly! Wink. Wink. That's what he gets for having an older sister. Hehe :) But to be honest, the pink baby bath was cheaper than all the other ones, so there ya go!

Look how much these kids love each other. They are so cute! Snuggle time in Kimbri's bed! 

Balloon Blobs & Mindy's Reception

Yesterday was a fun day! Busy, but way fun. Kimbri and I made "Balloon Blobs" in the morning while Rick was studying and then that afternoon we headed up to Snowflake, AZ for Mindy's wedding reception, since her husband is from there. 

We made a HUGE mess making the balloon blobs with the flour and all but it was fun and Kimbri likes playing with her 'blobs'. Haha :)

Check out all that flour on her shirt!

And as for the reception, we loved being able to go even though Rick is crazy busy studying for a test that he has on Monday morning. Since we didn't get to go up to Utah for the actual wedding we were so grateful to get to go to the AZ reception!!

We left around 12:30pm and drove about 2.5 hours to Heber, AZ and hung out with some of the extended family at their cabin for a couple of hour. We went on a little family ride on "The Rhino". It was way fun. . . since we only went like 5mph with the kids on board.

BUT, after we all got off Rick's cousin, Tanner, took Rick on a ride and good grief! I thought they were going to go flying into the air and land on their heads. 

After they were done Tanner said that Rick was going to watch the kids while he took me for a spin on The Rhino, which I quickly refused, because it looked way to horrifying!

Rick wanted me to go on it soooo bad. Probably so he could laugh his head off at how scared I was! Haha, just kidding. But he bribed me saying that if I went on it with Tanner then he would give me a 15 minute back rub for a week! Haha! 

So I said yes. I couldn't turn down that offer!!

So I went. And I was terrified. I was gripping my seatbelt for my life! But I survived. And it was very thrilling, scary, and exciting (in the scary sense). Not sure if I'd ever do it again but hey, now I get a back rub for a week :)

***************

Around 7 we arrived at the reception and it was beautiful! It was at a cute little outdoor place with the prettiest decorations and colors and everything! I'm SO happy for Mindy and TJ! They make a great couple :) It was way fun to get to see all of our Stone family that we haven't seen for a while and to visit and relax for the evening.

The reception got over at 9pm and since we were driving back to Gilbert that night, we had to get going. So we made the 3 hour drive back and got home just after midnight.

Thank goodness Kimbri didn't throw up! 

And Garrett was an angel baby on the way there and on the way home. He slept the whole way both ways. He was super happy the whole time we were there too, but I was especially grateful that he was happy in the car! Because what baby likes to be strapped in a car for that long? Probably no baby. But it turned out great and he literally woke up right after we pulled into our driveway. I fed him, and he went right back to sleep. Yay!

I wish I would've snapped some photos from this fun trip but I totally spaced it. Oh well. We were just having so much fun!