Merry Christmas

My super talented friend Rachael took our family pictures this year for our Christmas cards. She always does such an amazing job. Here's the picture we used for our cards. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We will be busy with family in town for the holidays, so I won't be posting again until 2014.

I also always take the kids to JCPenny for their annual photo shots. I still think Rachael did a much better job, but it never hurts to have more pictures of your kids. They grow so fast!!

Christopher 5

Andrew 4

Clarissa (and her tongue, ahh) 2

 

 My three cute kids. I do love these shots of the 3

Random Pictures

I was looking through my pictures on the computer and realized there are several pictures I never posted that I still want recorded. So here's a walk through our year in a somewhat chronological/random order.

We took the kids to Krispy Kreme for their first time sometime in January (it might have even been the end of last year). They reopened here in Phoenix. Drew and Clarissa loved the doughnuts and Christopher was fascinated with doughnut machine. He's not a doughnut fan, silly boy!

 

My 29th Birthday. My mom and cousin Renata were in town. It was nice to celebrate with family.

All the Garrett cousins in March

Easter Egg coloring

Clarissa and Cory at Walmart during the summer. She no longer uses binkies, so it's fun to see pictures with them now. This girl loves hats/helmets.

Christopher's birthday at Red Lobster. He loves to eat crab and lobster, This day he found old, chewed up gum under the table. He pulled it off and CHEWED it!!! Ahh, will he ever learn?!

Bubble bath at grandma's house.

Drew and his beast friend Jacob during preschool graduation. These two were best buddies since they were one. 

There's a Catholic church in our area that does a Fall Carnival every October. We love going to it. I was happy to find this picture of the kids on one of the rides.

Drew cleaning guns with grandpa and dad. You can tell by his smile that he was in heaven. Such a boy!

October Is A Time for Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

We had a busy October. This year we got to go to two pumpkin patches. One in Utah (a real one) and then one here in Arizona the following week. For those of you not aware of Arizona pumpkin patches, you take a hay ride down to a field where they have several pumpkins nicely cut and organized on top of hay stacks. It makes it for an awesome picture background, but not really a pumpkin patch.

Karen treated us to a day out at McDonalds' Ranch. The kids loved spending time with their cousins and doing all the fun things at the pumpkin patch. I think their favorite was the petting zoo. Christopher was fearless and pretty much touched any animal he could. We ended up getting 3 more pumpkins here and now I have a whopping total of 7 pumpkins to cook, puree and freeze. I'm so excited about the thought of having pumpkin ALL year long!!! One of the pumpkins we bought was over 30 lbs!! That baby is HUGE. Not sure what we were thinking, it won't be easy to have to cut and cook it all.

Halloween this year was fun. The boys where superheroes. Drew insisted on wearing Christopher's Spiderman costume from 2 years ago  even though we bought him a brand new Ben 10 Humungasaurs Alien costume. Christopher was Ben 10Spider Monkey Alien. Clarissa, Cory and I were hippies. She was the cutest hippie. She totally understood the whole trick or treating business this year, and refused to skip any houses. This little girl ate so much candy. She always had something in her mouth the ENTIRE night.

We had our friends, the Timothy's, come out and trick or treat with us again this year. The kids got an insane about of candy, as usual, but this year I have somehow managed to hide the candy from the boys without them noticing. Kelly and Karen also joined us on Halloween day. Karen was so helpful and volunteered to stay behind at the house to pass out candy. I was grateful for her help, because it allowed me to fully trick or treat with the boys for the first time.

Utah

We took a trip to Utah in the beginning of October. We spent about 4 days with Tom and Lory (Cory's brother and his family). The kids absolutely LOVED the time they spent with their cousins. I'm mad at myself because I didn't get 1 pictures of the boys with their cousins playing.

We left Phoenix Friday afternoon and drove about 8 hours to a little town called Filmore, UT. We pent the night at a cheap little hotel that served an amazing hot breakfast. The kids always get so excited about sleeping in hotels. They don't even care if the place is practically a dump .Our bathroom sink was leaking, so we had to use the tub for any of our water needs - washing hands, brushing teeth, washing bottles... It was FREEZING cold that morning, and I was grateful I lived in Arizona.

Saturday morning after breakfast we hopped in the car and drove to Tom's house (while listening to conference on the radio). Tom and Lori live in a really fun neighborhood where I felt safe just letting the boys run outside and play in the front yard without supervision. They also have a huge common area (the ravine is what they call it) that has a rope swing. That afternoon we walked down to the ravine and the kids took turns on the rope swing, and just running around in the grassy yard.

The next few days were filled with going to parks, doing crafts and playing at home and going to a pumpkin patch with Halle and Kiera's home school group (their cousins). One day the children decorated the basement as a haunted house and had the adults come down so they could scare us. I loved seeing my kids so enthralled in so much creative play. I got to spend a ton of time chatting with Lory and eating. I seriously gained a lot of weight on the trip. Lory just kept cooking and feeding us. My favorite was her AMAZING homemade granola. I still need to get that recipe from her.

Tuesday morning we packed up and let the kids play until lunch time. Then we started our drive back home. I really wanted to stop at the Jordan River temple (where Cory and I were sealed) and get a family picture. Christopher was asleep when we got there, so we decided to just get the other two that were awake out of the car for pictures. There's something special/different to be able to take your children to the temple your family was sealed and show them were it all began. I couldn't help but think about our wedding day and how they were present in spirit that day during the sealing, but now I had them physically here with me. How grateful I am for the temple and the sealing ordinance. It brings me great peace to know I have my family with me for eternity.

After the temple we made another stop at BYU. First we took the kids to the BYU creamery where I worked. We all got ice cream scoops. I LOVE their ice cream. It is so rich and tasty. They remodeled the place and tore down all of DT (Deseret Towers where I first lived). It was fun seeing how everything has changed. Next stop was at the actual campus. We ate lunch at the Cougareat (I know we had ice cream first and then lunch), did some shopping at the bookstore and took pictures. I was able to brainwash encourage Christopher into wanting to go to BYU. Now when you ask him where he wants to go to college he says "BYU, and I need to get A's to go there." I love that kid!!!

This was actually mine and the kids first time at a real pumpkin patch. We each got to pick our pumpkins straight out of the vine.

 My little dare devil. He's never content just doing things safely. I love this picture of him jumping on to the slide.

 Jordan River Temple and BYU

1st Day of Kindergarten

Christopher had his first day of kindergarten last week. He was so excited to meet his teachers and classmates. The minute we got to school he kissed me goodbye and wanted me to leave. I had to explain to him several times that I was staying for a little bit, but he kept on asking "when are you going to leave?"

His teacher gave some quick instructions to the parents, read "The Kissing Hand", had the kids give and receive a kiss from their parents (on their hand) and then dismissed the adults. When it was Christopher's turn to get his hand kissed he looked at me as if I was the craziest person. Why would he need his hand kissed? He wasn't going to miss me like the raccoon in the story so he needed no kiss. I, on the other hand, insisted on getting a little kiss in my palm.

I can't believe my little boy has officially started school. I remember when my oldest niece started kindergarten as if it were just the other day. Today she is in 6th grade. She is almost done with elementary school! Where has time gone? I feel like once kids start kindergarten their childhood years pass super fast. I have this overwhelming feeling that my stay at home with 3 little kids life is changing drastically fast. This year is Christopher, next year Drew starts school and Clarissa goes to preschool. What am I going to do with my life/time? When I had Christopher I struggled with the idea of leaving my teaching job. I felt like I was loosing my identity, losing everything I had worked to become. I kind of have these same feelings now. I'm going to soon lose my identity as "stay at home mom with 3 little/rambunctious kids." Well, I guess I have at least 3 more years before Clarissa starts kindergarten to get used to a new phase. The thought of having 3 more years eases my mind and heart for now.

Here are a couple of pictures of the happiest kindergartener.

I Can't Believe it's True, Clarissa is Two!!

Time flies, and I can't believe my baby is so grown up. Clarissa turned 2 over the weekend, and we celebrated with a little pool party at my parents' house just for the family. I had a ton of fun planning a girly birthday party for once! I did it all around flowers and the decorations turned out super cute. There were lots of sugar and the children devoured it in minutes. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and the birthday girl was on a sugar high, so she was EXTREMELY happy.

Clarissa has been a fun baby to have. For the first year of her life she was super mellow and cuddly. She was the perfect baby. Then came the second year. That's when we got to know her personality. And boy, does she have one. She is super sweet, still very cuddly, but boy she is one bossy little girl. She almost always gets her way. There is no talking her into something she doesn't want (specially when it comes to eating). I CANNOT feed this girl. She has to do it herself. She learned how to say "I do it" a few months ago, and she has to do everything by herself. I will confess she is still drinking milk from a bottle. We tried switching to a sippy cup last month and she went a week without milk until Cory gave in and gave her a bottle. That's just her personality!!

Clarissa loves to eat beans, noodles, and soup. Marshmallows are a favorite treat. She loves the water and swimming. She enjoys singing (and having us sing to her). Drew and her get along super well and they play together often. She loves the boys and most nights won't go to sleep without having them give her a kiss. She likes playing with baby dolls, although she seems to know all the superheroes better (she can name a couple of them, but Drew has a strong part in that). We love you baby girl.

 It was hard to get a picture of her without having her be eating anything. She always had some sort of treat in her mouth!

 All the cousins. I love having family near us so we can celebrate birthdays with them.

 Blowing out the candle.

 Finally some girly presents. She loved her princess crown, shoes and wand.

She was so happy, she couldn't stop laughing and giggling

Birthdays

Summer is birthday season at our house. Christopher turned 5 in June. Drew turned 4 yesterday, and Clarissa's birthday will be in 3 weeks. I'm starting to get a little burned out. I LOVE decorating for their parties, and enjoy picking a theme for it with the birthday child, but I stay up too late the night before prepping.

This year Christopher wanted a fish birthday party. Not fishing, or surf, nor pool themed, but a fish theme. I actually had a lot of fun planning it because it was a little different. I planned party games for the first time and the kids had a blast. We had several water games, but the water balloons were by far a favorite. I made chocolate fish for the cupcakes and used pretzels as fishing pols. We also had Oreo and sour worms cups (as bait). 

Christopher is growing up so fast. He's lost 2 teeth and enjoys telling anyone and everyone about it. He is super talented with music, he can shake his booty way better than anyone else in this house, he's also a great singer. One of his favorite performers is Adele (and Selena Gomez, still). Christopher has a testimony of the gospel and enjoys sharing it EVERY fast Sunday at church. He has an amazing memory. Christopher is also a great swimmer, and is pretty much fearless around water. His favorite restaurant is Red Lobster (that's where we went for his b-day). At first I just thought he liked seeing the lobsters there, but the kid actually really enjoys seafood. He specifically asked for lobster, crab and shrimp for dinner (an expensive taste for a 5 year old if you ask me). He had a great time at his party and is supper happy to be 5. Happy Birthday big boy!! We love you!!

 Water balloon games

Drew turned 4 yesterday. I can't believe he's getting so big. Andrew is so fun to have around. He loves 2 things: being tickled and superheroes. So it is no surprise that he had a superhero party. He actually wanted an Ironman party, but I hate specific themes, so I talked him into something a little more broad and again, I had way too much fun planning and decorating for the party.

I usually do all the decorating when the kids are in bed, so when he woke up on party day he was AMAZED. I kept hearing over and over again "this is the best birthday ever!" He was so happy and grateful, that it made my hard work all worth it. 

I wanted to do superhero games only, but Drew insisted on having water balloons for his party too. So, once again, I filled over 60 water balloons up (and told myself, never again am I doing water balloons for a birthday party).

Drew is a super sweet little boy. He's quick to apologize, loves playing with friends, and is a great friend to anyone. He plays super well with both his siblings. The only thing Drew likes more than superheroes is being tickled. He can't hear or see us tickle Clarissa or Christopher and not get involved. I've never seen a kid beg so much for tickle time. His favorite foods are pizza and soup. In fact, when we asked him what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner  he said "Soup!" (We always take them out to eat on their birthday and Cory and I were trying to figure out where to take him.) We love you Drewzinho!! (Little Drew in Portuguese)

 His smile says it all!!

 I dressed Clarissa as Batgirl

 I had costumes for the kids could dress up. They loved it. Drew is Spiderman (and I am Super Mom).

 I love this picture. Spiderman VS Captain America. Christopher tried sneaking in to blow the candle first. You can totally see the stare down he got from his brother.

 Blowing out candles