December 2014

Here are the random pictures we took during December 2014. I'm going to do a separate post for all of our Christmas pictures and from our trip to Utah for the holidays but I still wanted to post our fun random pics!

Wearing mommy's church shoes. And that hair...

Cambria likes holding Garrett and rocking him.

Dressing up in her pjs, a black tutu
 and her swimsuit cover up....random!

We love the "winter" temps here in AZ!

Meeting Santa at the ward Christmas breakfast.

Working on one of her many art projects!

Garrett's reaction when seeing
Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas tree.

I love these things...

Dad finishing setting up the swing set that Uncle Zach got for Kimbri and Garrett for Christmas. He had our name this year and went all out. A HUGE thank you to Zach!!The kids LOVE it!!!!

Making good use of the swing set box.

Zoo Lights

This past Monday for family night we went to the Phoenix Zoo to see their Zoo Lights display. It was really neat! We got free tickets for renewing our membership so that was great. We loaded up around 5pm and headed off to the Zoo so we could get there right when it opened at 5:30pm. The kids were very into it and even though Kimbri was almost asleep when we got there, since she didn't take a nap, as soon as we walked through the gate she yelled, "I'm so excited!" with a long giggle afterwards. She was really excited.... or maybe it was just her being hyper from being so tired. Either way the kids loved seeing the lights! 

Couldn't get a smile from Kimbri in this pic...

Garrett was a little obsessed with the big spider!

Thanksgiving

Thanks to some very loving and caring family, we were able to make the trip to Utah for Thanksgiving! We are so happy that we got to be there for Thanksgiving!! We haven't had Thanksgiving with my family since 2010 so it was really fun to be there and get to see my family and several extended family members!

We left early Monday morning, a few days before Thanksgiving and made the trip up to UT! The kids did great in the car and we got there in about 11 hours. We first went to Salem to surprise Rick's family. They had no idea we were coming so it was kind of fun to just show up and surprise them! 

Then after visiting for a while we headed over to Mapleton to see my family. It was so fun to see everyone! Dawson and Stacie moved back from Nebraska and were living in my parent's guest house until they found a home, so we got to see them too! I'm excited that our kids are getting older and will actually be able to play together at family reunions! 

On Tuesday my Mom, Olivia and I all went out for a girls day shopping trip and for Olivia to get her drivers permit. We also went to Los Hermanos for lunch... my favorite! Yum! Rick and the kids went to Salem to visit and let the kids play. Wednesday we spent cleaning and raking leaves and just getting ready for Thanksgiving the next day. That night Rick and I went on a date while the kids stayed with my parents. 

Thanksgiving Day was fantastic! It was so fun to see so many of my extended family members that I haven't seen in what seems like forever. That morning we all went to my Grandparents house to help rake leaves and get their lawn and yard ready for winter. The kids had a blast playing in the leaves and running around outside. The weather was actually pretty good! Later that day was Thanksgiving dinner at about 2:30pm. It was all sooo yummy. Kimbri ate and ate the rolls. She loved them! And she also loved the pie, as you can tell in this picture, with her mouth stuffed full:

The rest of the afternoon evening was spent visiting and spending time with family, with even a little karaoke that went on. I wish I had taken more pictures! Olivia dressed Kimbri up in a cinderella dress and curled her hair. Uncle Dawson pretended to be a prince and dance Kimbri around the room. She loved it and kept wanting him to dance with her. I did snap a few pictures of that:

Kimbri "helping" rake leaves at Great Grandma
and Grandpa's house.

The boys helping load Dawson and Stacie's moving truck!

And a gorgeous sunrise as we left
Spanish Fork/Salem on our way back to AZ.

The next day we went over to spend some time with the Stone's in Salem while my family went out and got their Christmas tree. Later that afternoon, Sundee tended Kimbri and Garrett while Rick and I went on a group date with his sisters and cousin. Jessica and Eric were also in UT from AZ, Mindy and her husband TJ with their baby, Logan, and their cousin and girlfriend. We went to a place in Provo called Pizza Pie Cafe and it was super yummy! On our way back to Salem, Rick and I decided to drive past our old apartment in Provo and drop by the BYU creamery to pick up some ice cream to take back to Salem. It brought back quite a few memories from our Provo days. It seems like that was so long ago even though it hasn't even quite been 2 years. 

Friday we packed up our stuff and later that night helped Dawson and Stacie pack up some of their stuff into their moving truck. They moved up north to Cub River, Idaho (only about 2.5 hours I think) and moved the next day, on Saturday, the same day we took off back to Arizona. 

The drive back was pretty good and we got back Saturday night just in time for dinner and bed :) It was an awesome trip and we had a great, relaxing time! We were so grateful to be able to visit Utah!

Phoenix Children's Museum

We love going to the Phoenix Children's Museum! We could spend days in that place. And the best part is that it is, obviously, geared toward children! So the kids can touch, climb on, play with and run around anything and everything in the whole building. It's awesome. And they have really cool activities for the kids to do on top of all the regular exhibits. 

Here is Kimbri at the very top of the playground sculpture thing. Rick went to the top with her because I'm so scared of heights. It is 3 stories tall. It's completely enclosed in metal wiring but it still makes me so nervous! 

This thing, whatever it is, is where you put these fluffy pom pom things inside a tube and then it gets sucked all throughout the tubes and then blows out at the end. Kimbri probably spent at least 25 minutes doing this over and over and over!! Meanwhile, Garrett and I went to the activity room and made a turkey hat. He looked hilarious with it on! But it was a fun activity for him to do! And eventually Kimbri joined us in the activity room and we all made straw bracelets and the kids painted the castle!

It's a turkey leg hat, for their Thanksgiving theme!

They have so many fun things for the kiddos! We love this place! 

Then we ended the night in their reading room! 

Did I mention that we love the Children's Museum?!!!

Hole in the Rock

Right before we headed to Utah for Thanksgiving, we were able to get in some fun family activities. The weather has been so awesome that we decided to go on a small hike in Papago Park called, The Hole in the Rock. You can see why it's called that from the pictures. There is a little hole in the rock you can crawl through from one side to the other. The hike is a pretty short one, which made it perfect for the kids! 

The view from the hole was gorgeous! And the kids had a blast being outdoors and having fun. Garrett picked up a rock at the very beginning of the hike and held onto it during the entire trip! Even when we got to the top and were taking a few pictures, he would not let go. He held it all the way back down to the car! Garrett and his rocks... haha. I'm sure we'll be doing this hike again sometime! It was really fun!