Scorpion Traps

It's that time of year... Can I just say GROSS?!?! And I just have to get it out there and say how much I HATE scorpions. No, I have never been stung by one, knock on wood, but I just hate everything about them. Except that it is kind of cool that they glow under a black light. But even that kind of creeps me out. 

Anyway, I stocked up on sticky traps and loaded up all sides of our garage with them. I have a love/hate relationship with these traps. Every time it catches one I think, Yes! it caught the nasty little bugger. But then I think, Sick! Why are they even in our garage in the first place?!  I'm glad that the traps do their job so well but it grosses me out every time it catches a scorpion. 

Tis' the life of living in Arizona.

Bike Ride

The weather has been fantastic! And the kids looooove going on bike rides and they especially love wearing their helmets, which is a good thing I guess :) 

This was a bike ride we did one evening after Rick got home from studying. It's funny how just going around the block can take foreeever. But they love it and so do I, seeing them have so much fun. And Garrett's face in that bottom picture... oh my! Haha! That is the face he pulls when you tell him to say "cheese". It's almost like he looks mad or something but he is actually just saying cheese.

Garrett & His Ice Cream Cone

Not long ago I was out doing a little grocery shopping and on one of the end aisles they had several boxes of cones. So I made an impulse buy and we had ice cream cones after dinner that night. The kids loved it! Well, Kimbri ate down to the cone, loving the ice cream, but refused to eat the cone. Haha. Garrett, on the other hand, was having the time of his life and ate every. last. bite. He was in heaven! 

Books

My kids are obsessed with books. I'm glad they love them so much! I really do. But I can barely sit down for 2 seconds before they realize I've sat down and they run and grab arm loads of books and come running over to me. And most of the time I love to sit and read with them. It's so fun and they are SO into every story we read that they literally just sit there and could listen to stories all day. But lately, with this pregnancy, I have been so tired by the afternoon. 

We have a routine of getting up, having breakfast and going to the gym. It gives me a chance to exercise and chat with my friends at the gym while we do the treadmills and the kids have a chance to run around with each other and play in the day care and on the playground. But by the time we get home, do a few chores, get through lunch and finally sit down again, my eyes are ready to just close themselves and sleep. So the instant I start reading a book we've read for the umpteenth time, I start to fall asleep as I'm trying to read. 

Anyway, so lately I've been putting the kids down a little bit early to bed at night and they get to read books in bed for about 30 minutes before we turn the lights out and it works pretty good! I give them each a pile of books and they do great and sitting there, reading and looking at books!! It's a win win!

And sometimes Kimbri also looks at books in her bed during "quiet time" while Garrett is napping. 

Because of the book love we have in our house, I'm always on the look out for new books... meaning new to us. Haha. Most of them I get at garage sales, Goodwill or DI. It's awesome because I usually can find them for super cheap. DI is the best because most all of their books are only .50 and they are usually in fantastic condition! I once spent $18 on books at DI and was wondering if I went a little overboard. But then I added up how much it would've cost me to buy them all new and it would have been $120!!!! And I got them all for $18! So it ended up being a smoking deal. And I always love a good deal :)

More Dress Ups

I feel like I post a lot of random dress up pictures.... and it's probably because Kimbri LOVES to dress up. She is always asking if she can get her dress ups out. Then she puts on the whole sha-bang and twirls and dances around the house and asks me to take pictures of her. Haha! So here you go. Some dress up photos of the one and only, Kimbri Stone! 

One of our awesome babysitters, Emily, gave Kimbri the sparkly blue dress in the picture below. Her mom is a dance teacher and Emily said it was one of the old extra costumes from the studio. Kimbri is in love with it!! And the bottom tutu part flips up when she twirls and Kimbri loves that about it. 

Fireman Kimbri

Kimbri got all dressed up one afternoon and came and took a bow in front of me and said, "Your majesty." Bahaha! It was so funny. I guess I'm the queen of our castle :) And then out walked Garrett in a red tutu. I guess we really do need to get some boy dress ups!

Pedal Boat Date

While Olivia was in town, she offered to babysit one night so Rick and I could go on a date. A huge THANK YOU to Olivia!!! It was so fun! We went to Tempe Town Lake and rented a pedal boat for an hour and pedaled around the lake. It was kind of breezy which made it hard to pedal against the wind but it was really fun and relaxing to be out on a lake and just be able to chat with one another without interruptions. And it was a gorgeous evening and great weather that afternoon/evening too!

Yes, my hair was all in my face because of the wind. Haha.

Pool Day Gone Wrong

With the weather warming up we have been going to the pool pretty often. We have a system. Eat lunch, put Garrett down for a nap and Kimbri has "quiet time" and when Garrett wakes up, we go to the pool. It's a good system. But one day it failed. Garrett had just woken up so we gathered our swimming stuff, packed floaties, swim diapers, sunscreen, water toys, etc... You name it. We even packed soap/shampoo stuff so I could just give the kids a shower in the family bathroom so we wouldn't have to do baths when we got home. 

Anyway, needless to say, we were prepared that day and everyone was excited and we headed to the YMCA to go swimming. The instant we walked in to the YMCA the front desk workers, seeing that we had towels and a bunch of swimming stuff, told us that the pool was closed. What?! But this was routine. We come after nap all. the. time! I guess they must've changed their hours without me knowing but the kiddos were devastated. I had talked up going to the pool with them probably a little too much....

It was HARD getting them to turn around and walk back out to the car. They just didn't understand why. And I didn't either. I mean, come on. Closing the pool on a Friday afternoon when all the kids are out of school and want to start out the weekend at the pool?! Ugh... So I told them that since the pool was closed I'd take them to get an ice cream cone. 

Worked like a charm. 

They loved it! 

And they were happy again. 

And so was I :)