Spring Break

The boys had Spring Break this week, and I somehow survived. We had a super busy week filled with activities,and on top of everything I'm still taking online classes for my teacher recertification. I'm to the point that I'm counting down the weeks until my life gets back to normal. There's only one problem, I will finish my classes when school let's out, so "normal" won't really happen again until the fall.
Tom and Lori have spent the week in town, so the kids have had lots of time to visit with their cousins. It's been nice to have them to hang out with almost everyday.
Before I start to post pictures of everything we did I have one last BIG news. Clarissa is potty trained!! My baby is no longer in diapers. It's hard to believe, but it feels so good to not have to change any more diapers. She hasn't peed her night time diaper in 1 week (she's only been potty trained for a couple weeks) but I'm not ready to completely remove it and have to clean up an accident.
I better get to bed. I play the organ tomorrow at church, so I need to be rested for that. This is only my second time playing the organ, and I have a feeling things won't go as smooth this time around. Is it the fact that I haven't practiced as much?! Not good!

I turned 30 last month and as part of the celebration I participated in an urban scavenger hunt. Kind of like the Amazing Race. Cory and I love that show and always talk about how we want to go on it one day. Anyway, this was a little dream come true. My friends Staci and Michelle joined us and totally saved us that day!

 

Swimming with cousins during Spring Break.  

 

Cissa and Blake at Crackerjax 

 

We went to the zoo with some ward friends. Clarissa has never been to the zoo before, so this was a much overdue visit. 

 

I wasn't planning on having the kids play on the splash pad at the zoo, but they insisted and I caved. They had to play with their clothes since I didn't bring swimsuits. They had a blast! Thanks Tiffany for getting us in for free.

 

Playing with mud at the park. This is what happens when mom doesn't go to the park with them and dad and grandma are in charge. They loved getting dirty with their Garrett cousins. Drew actually refused to play with mud, he made sure he stayed clean. Definitely my kid! 

 

All 10 Garrett cousins at the Play Factory. This place was empty, for once, and it was nice to just have the play area pretty much for ourselves.  

Old Tomatoes

Just a quick little post.

Sunday Christopher was having a rough day. He was throwing a tantrum in the car after church. After hearing enough complaints and demands coming from the back seat Cory says, "Christopher, you don't give the ultimatums in this family!"
Christopher (frustrated and yelling back): "I give the old tomatoes!"
It was hard to keep a straight face after that. Cory and I just had to tease the kid, and he really had no idea what we were teasing him about.

The boys are always trying to one up each other. Drew trying to tell Christopher he's better: "Well, I know how to ride a unicorn bicycle!" Me: "Drew what's a unicorn bicycle?" Drew: "You know, a bicycle with one wheel." Me: "oh, a unicycle."

Clarissa talks non-stop now. She is always repeating stuff we say (which keeps me on my toes). Today she heard me say "Oh my gosh," and that has been her new word of the day. When we ask her to pray she says "I do it myself." I don't remember the boys praying alone so young.

Happy New Year and New Schedule

We've been super busy these past few weeks. My family flew in town for the holidays and we spent every second with them. My kids get along super well with Alvaro's kids (my brother). The fact that they don't see each other very often (maybe twice a year) helps decrease all the fighting that would usually be associated with having so many kids around. We stayed up late almost every night chatting and watching movies. The cousins had several sleepovers, and swam almost daily. We went to Rawhide, had a girls' spa day, did fireworks and games on New Year's, ate out an insane amount of times and now we all feel like we need to rest from our break. It was definitely a busy and happy season.

Now life is starting to settle back into normal. I start classes for my teacher recertification on Monday and am not looking forward to doing all the work involved in going to school. I took a look at the syllabus and first lesson today and am very overwhelmed. I only need to take 9 credits, and they are spread out over the next 6 months, but I'm feeling the anxiety that come with having to do homework, write papers and take tests. Ahhh!! Wish me (and my family) luck so we can survive the first part of 2014.

Drew and Eric built a sand castle at the park during Jacob (Drew's best friend) birthday party). It was funny to see my brother's kids dressed in shorts and t-shirts every day while my kids had long sleeves and pants. They loved our "warm" weather coming from Minnesota. 

 

These crazy kids swam almost everyday. Even though the pool was heated, it was still way too cold for me to dare get in.  

 

Laura's birthday party at Amazing Jake's. She was the best cousin to Clarissa. Cissa LOVED Laura, specially once she found out Laura had shiny lip gloss. Sweet Laura even gave her some to keep forever, thanks ;) 

 

The kids got spoiled rotten this year with gifts. Every year I say we will go simple, and by the time it's done the kids get way more than intended. Trust me they were good during the year, but not THAT good. This was one of Christopher's favorite gift. A "Flipeez" from aunt Kelly. He still wears it. 

 

 Santa managed to fit a perfect sized, 8ft, trampoline, in his bag. It's large enough for the three kids to play together, but not too big to take up half my yard. Other big items in Santa's bag included a tricycle for Drew, shopping cart for Cissa, and two PlasmaCars (those little fun bikes you have to move side to side for it to go.)

 

 

We took a quick trip to see the Mesa Temple lights. Cory and the boys actually got out of the car to see it, and I stayed in the car with a sleeping Clarissa. I had already gone with the Young Women earlier in the month. I love to see the temple! 

 

Cory got put in jail while at Rawhide. He had to dance the Cancan and promise not to pass gas in order to be freed. We all had a great time and tons of laughs. He was a great sport!! (By the way, my brother was the one that put him in jail, not me.) 

I decorated our Christmas tree into a New Year's tree (after Christmas) filled with over 36 noise makers, party glasses and streamers. The kids LOVED seeing the tree transformed when they woke up in the morning, and they specially enjoyed being allowed to ring in the new year by blowing all those noise makers!!

 

 

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.