Outside

We love being outside!

We love playing in the water!

We love Arizona! 

(At least for right now. We'll see if I change my mind when it's 120 degrees)

Playing in the water is a near daily occurrence in our backyard! Kimbri and Garrett love it!!

Garrett loves his swing we got for his birthday! I couldn't decide on which photo to put up so I just did all of them! He was laughing his head off when I would throw the blanket on his face and then pull it off. 

We also love hanging outside on our chairs eating popsicles to stay cool!

And again... I couldn't decide which picture to put up because Kimbri has such a cute smile in all of them! So here are all of them :)

And here is the water table that the kids love love love!

A gorgeous Arizona sunset

Kimbri loves to help water the plants...

...and the grass.

All the ducks lined up on the each of the lake!

I can't even express how much Kimbri and Garrett love the park. It's tragic every time we have to leave. We have to do major bribing to pry them away from the swings and slides and wide open green grassy field they love to run around on! And I love that it is right around the corner from our house!

Garrett loves to gather rocks and pine cones.

Worn out from all her hard playing!

We love walking around this little lake to see all the ducks!

I have seriously loved having such great weather all winter long! It made moving here in the deathly heat last summer all worth it!

Errands

Sometimes running errands with children is hard but sometimes it is so fun.

We've had several "so fun" errand trips lately! For example, we needed to get the kids some sandals (mainly Garrett) since the heat has been making their feet sweat like crazy in their closed-toe shoes. So we went to the outdoor mall and found sandals 2 for $6 at The Children's Place. 

It was a pretty windy morning but the kids had a blast playing on the kids playground right next to all the kids stores. And  we saw the Easter Bunny! We waved as we walked by. Maybe next time we'll sit on his lap? I didn't know that was a thing the Easter Bunny did... I mean, I know you can go sit on Santa's lap but the Easter Bunny?? 

There is a dog store at the mall and Kimbri loves to go see all the puppies through the windows. 

Wearing her Minnie Mouse sunglasses her Aunt Jessica gave her. She loves them!

Also, if you go to Sam's Club around 2 ish in the afternoon they usually have tons of samples! 

This particular shopping trip we were on one end of the aisle getting a sample and the sample lady told us to go around the corner to the other end of the aisle and they were giving out ice cream samples. When we got there and saw that the samples were full on ice cream cones the kids were super excited. 

And I grin so big every time I look at this picture. Garrett's face is priceless!

And sometimes when they are worn out from errands and start to get grumpy I let them watch a movie on the way home. Garrett was really getting into Finding Nemo this particular day :)

Oh and one more funny story from our errand to Winco today:  We were on the cleaning supplies aisle getting Comet and across from that was insect spray stuff. There was a big spider on one of the cans and when Kimbri saw it she said, "Ooohhh, that spider don't get my mommy or my brother Garrett!" Haha! She is so funny :)

Best Buddies

Kimbri and Garrett are my world. 

Lately it has been so fun to see Kimbri and Garrett starting to really play and interact together. I'm so glad that they are close in age (now that they are a little older it is just so fun!) and that they always have each other for a buddy.

Doing bubble machines they got from Evi's birthday party.

Such a good big sister, pushing Garrett's stroller.

They LOVE this car. Totally worth the $6 we paid for it!

Being so giggly!

In a big fort at the zoo!

Spring Break

We were totally spoiled last week! Rick had a whole week off from classes and studying!

Since he was at the convention in Philadelphia the week before he had to take an exam he missed on Monday morning. But after the test we got to spend all the way till the next Monday morning with him! It. Was. Awesome.

Monday afternoon we went to Sonic and got 1/2 price slushies and then headed to the pool. Yes, we went to an outdoor pool in March. It's still kind of weird to me how hot it already is. Mid 80's in March. I'm not looking forward to when it is 30 degrees hotter!

After the pool we decided it would be fun to go on a picnic. So we made sandwiches and took string cheese and grapes and headed to a little pond/lake not too far from our home. The kids loved being outside, running around, feeding the ducks, and having the time of their life.

Garrett is obsessed with grapes! 

Kimbri likes to jump off things!

Rick and I decided it would be fun to go on a couple dates while he was on spring break so one night we went out and exchanged a birthday gift and went to eat at Si Senor. I got Rick a watch for his birthday since he had been needing a new one but it wasn't quite what he wanted, so we returned the one I got him and he picked out a new one. 

Another night we got free tickets to see Divergent and it came with free popcorn too! Rick and I read the book together last year and thought it would be fun to see the movie together. It was so good! I loved it and want to see it again. And I actually just finished reading the second and third books too. So I'm excited for the other movies to come out!! Anyway, that night Rick chose where to eat since I chose the other date night. He wanted to go to an all-you-can-ate buffet. We went to a place called Old Country Buffett. It was similar to Chuckarama but they don't have those in AZ. 

Here are some pictures of our family trip to the zoo:

Check out that mountain goat way up there!

Saturday morning I went to some garage sales with a couple friends without the kids and found some awesome deals! Like those little sandboxes that are shaped like a turtle... I got one for $2. We just fill it up with water and let the kids play with water toys. They love it! I also found some sandals for Kimbri and some really cheap books that were in great condition. We are always reading books around our house so it's always a fun thing to find at yard sales for cheap.

Saturday night was a Young Women fundraiser dinner with a silent auction. We bid on some babysitting from some of the Young women so now we have a few nights of babysitting we can use!

We had such a fun week having fun and just relaxing together as a family. So glad we got to have Rick around for a whole week! Now we just have a few more months until Rick finishes his first year of med school and then we'll have a summer break! Wahoo!!

Rick's Birthday Cake

Since Rick was gone to the convention in Philadelphia on his birthday we did a little celebrating before he left and some when he got back. 

On the Sunday before he left I made him a "birthday meal". He requested honey-lime enchiladas. And I made the same cake he requests every year on his birthday - Better Than Anything cake. I totally forgot to by 25 candles so he only had to blow out 4... with the help of Kimbri of course :)

I wasn't super prepared for his birthday this year. There just wasn't anything I could think of to get him that I knew he would really want. So I got him a watch (he mentioned that as an idea so I wasn't very creative), and then we went together to have him pick our some sunglasses. We both somehow lost our sunglasses since moving to AZ and now that the Arizona summer sun is getting hotter and hotter I thought that might be a fun idea for a gift but I wanted him to pick it out. I also printed off our engagement and wedding pictures (finally) and put them all in a book for him (really us, I guess), so even though it's really fun to have it wasn't super creative. 

But, we are getting a car since Rick will be traveling a lot during year 2 of medical school so that is kind of a huge deal and can count as an awesome birthday gift, right?!

Happy 25th Birthday, Rick! 

You are so old ;)

Philadelphia

Last week Rick had an ACOFP Convention in Philadelphia. Last Tuesday afternoon we stopped by Zupas as a family and ate a little lunch before taking Rick to the airport. We said our goodbyes and he was off to the convention until Saturday night! The kids and I had to keep ourselves busy so the time with Rick gone would pass by more quickly! 

Our time was filled with going to the zoo with our friend Catherine and her two sweet children, going to Tumbleweed Park with Erin and her girls, going on runs to different parks in the neighborhoods around our house, and having a girls night with Jessica! Oh, and I also did a lot of cleaning and organizing and reading at nights when the kids were asleep and I was alone. I had to keep busy somehow to keep my mind off of how far apart Rick and I were!

Pretty sure we've never been that far apart in our married life. R = Rick, obviously, and the blue dot is me!



Kimbri and I did nails one night! She chose the color all by herself. That girl loves getting her nails painted ;)

Little Red Rocking Chair

So Kimbri loves to read and I've been wanting to create a little "reading corner" in her room with a book shelf and chair. Well, I finally found the cutest little miniature rocking chair at DI and a little white book shelf at a yard sale last Saturday. So it's finally complete!

The rocking chair has been quite the hit at our house with Kimbri and Garrett. They love it.

Ca you tell by their expressions?!

And Garrett loves to stand on the chair and dance... which is why there are four different pictures of him standing in the chair, he was dancing and I just kept snapping pics. He was acting so cute and silly :) Love him!