Our Kids Love Food

I guess I tend to take lots of pictures of the kids eating.... what is there not to love about that? :)

I don't have too many pictures of Garrett eating... I guess I should take more. But Garrett absolutely positively LOVES food!!!!!!!!!! 

Seriously. I have tried everything that's within reason to give a 9 month old. 

Like for instance, we were having turkey sandwiches yesterday for lunch... with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, etc... I thought, "Hmmmm, I'm going to give Garrett a tiny piece of tomato." He ate it right up without even batting an eye. 

Then I gave him a small piece of turkey. He loved it. 

The pickle was next. Ate it like a champ. He loved that too- just like his mommy!

I have yet to find something that our little Garrett doesn't like. He is just soooo in love with food. Haha!

Eating one of Grandpa Haycock's apples that he sent home with us after visiting Utah. She loves apples!

Kimbri also really loves pudding... just like her daddy! Earlier today I was feeding Garrett in the Bumbo chair. I guess she wanted a turn to eat in the Bumbo so she sat down and finished off her pudding cup in it. And she was pulling the funniest silly faces!

This is just a fun food activity we did a while back. Eating strawberry hunks in pudding with her hands. So fun.

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!