Where did all may time go? My little guy has been totally into Star Wars lately. So of course thats what he wanted for his birthday. He was so excited about it. Pretty sad when my 1 year old can sing the tune of Star Wars already. Happy 6th Ben!

A Wonderful Holiday

Every year I try to get a family picture by our Christmas tree. This year proved to be a little difficult so I'll take what I can get. We had a great holiday this year, staying home, playing games, and having a fun, relaxing time. It just goes by too quickly.

Having some fun. . .

My parents came down in December to deliver Christmas gifts. My kids love it when they come. This time we went to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage. It was pretty cool and the kids had a great time.





What better way to spend the holidays than to have some fun with family!

Piano Recital

Kierstyn started taking piano this year. In December, she had a piano recital. She played a duet with her dad and both did a great job. She has another one coming up in May.

End of Soccer Season

Ben finished up his soccer season. He is becoming quite the little athlete. In fact his coach called him the motor of the team! Looking forward to many great games ahead.

Gardner Reunion

Okay, I know its been quite a while and honestly its just hard keeping up. So I'll try to catch up.

Back in November my family had a very memorable reunion. I have to say my family is really unique in that they love getting together and doing some crazy things together. And its nice that we have 2 wonderful party planners (my sisters)that set it all up. This year we did an Academy Award Night including our own improv versions of movie scenes. Come on how many families are willing to do that.



We also went roller skating, which was a blast except for one broken bone.


Other things we did that I don't have pictured was a race night with pine wood derby cars. Kierstyn and I were on the winning team thanks to Andy! We also had a temple day and the big finale a Christmas party just like we use to. Lots of fun!!!

Little Dev

I really admire those who are talented with photography. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. I did get a few fun pictures of Devri with a little cake and balloons for her birthday. She was such a stinker and didn't want to cooperate. Still I'll keep her she's such a cutie!

okay, so I'm in the catch up mode as I took a 2 month break through the holidays. Where does the time go- but blogging was not a high priority so here are pictures from November. Grandma & Grandpa Chappell were able to come down and saw a soccer game and were here for Devri's birthday.



Bentley has really enjoyed playing soccer this year and has become a very good player. His coach called him the motor of the team because Bentley always seems to have alot of energy.



Here's Blake, Jason, and their Dad enjoying a soccer game. It wasn't the best game to watch (one of only 2 loses for the season) but Bentley still played well.



Bentley loves to go to Yogurtland and when he scores a goal we take him. Today we took him because Grandma & Grandpa were here.



Kierstyn loves it too, and yes that is Fruity Pebbles on her yogurt.



The kids really love it when Grandma & Grandpa come!

Dev turned 1!

 

Trunk-or-Treating

The second big W for Ben's soccer team!

Ben's soccer team won for the second straight week but this week Ben made his very first goal!!! and his second!!! He was so excited!! This is a picture of him right before he kicked it in the goal. Not the best picture I know but pretty good considering it was hard to see with the line of moms at the edge of the field cheering on their kids.


Here is Ben taking a break next to his friend Benjamin.


To celebrate we went to Yogurtland after the game, love that place!

Soccer season has begun

And we're off and running with soccer. Last Saturday was the first game. Let's just say we have a ways to go, but Bentley is loving it! Go Ben!

Road Trip!

The first weekend in October we decided to take a little road trip and go see my adorable new nephew in Flagstaff. It wasn't as far as I thought it was and we had a great time. We went hiking on the Red Mountain trail, pictured above.


Then we drove down Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona, hoping to see some fall colors (there was some).


There's my cute little nephew, Weston.


Devri thought it was great, but she also liked to try and eat the rocks.


I forgot how pretty Arizona is! Love this place! Hope to be back soon!

New Project

So one advantage to Blake's terrible work schedule is he is around on weekends and has time to help around the house. I finally convinced him we needed to paint the foyer and I bought the paint. Then I didn't have time to ever get the project started, so he did. The hardest part is done but we are no where near completion. Hopefully, we get it down before Christmas (Ha, Ha!)

I must be doing something right. . .

This morning as I was feeding Devri, Bentley comes in as says "Mom, I'm going to empty the garbages." Okay great I tell him and as he gets started he notices Devri's diaper pail is already emptied. He says, "Mom, next time let me empty it 'cause that's my job." Wow, I love it! Wish all the chores went like that.

And by the way, Go Cougars!! That was an amazing game tonight!

A busy week. . .

You know how some weeks go by and you are busy the whole week but then look back and wonder what you have accomplished. Well many days are like that for me but not this week. It has been a busy week but I was able to accomplish quite alot on top of the normal cooking, cleaning, laundry, getting the kids to school, and homework. Since we made a trip to Utah last weekend, I took advantage and went to the farmers market. So we came home with 2 boxes of pears, 1 box of apples, 1 box of peaches,1 box of potatoes (courtesy of DC Farms), a flat of raspberries, some blackberries, 2 cantaloupes, corn, and tomatoes(the last 3 items courtesy of Blake's aunt who does Schmidt corn in Salt Lake- yummy!)And no I didn't get pictures of everything.








So by the end of the week here is what I have accomplished:
24 quarts canned pears
5 quarts canned peaches
4 quarts peach pie filling
3 1/2 pints peach syrup
raspberry peach jam (1 batch)
raspberry jam (3 batches)
triple berry jam (3 batches)
5 pints apple cinnamon syrup
4 quarts frozen corn

I think we are all set on jam for a while. I still have some apples to go and I'm going to make some salsa this week. And we already ate all the cantaloupe- and it was yummy!! I hope this week is just as productive.

We Love BYU!

Last weekend we got to go to the BYU football game against Utah. Okay, so the game was disappointing and the outcome pretty sad, nevertheless, we had a great time and the kids are ready to go again!

Time for new pajamas!

Obviously, she is growing like a weed and now must of her pajamas look like this, with holes in the toes!

Labor Day

We didn't have any big plans for Labor Day, but since Blake didn't have to work we wanted to do something. So we took the kids and their bikes over to Wetlands park and went for a ride.


It was great for Ben since he gets a little scared riding his bike around our house with all the hills. And since it was a cloudy day it was much cooler, which made it a great day to be outside!

Hiking

This weekend we went hiking. It was something we tried to do the weekend before school started. We got halfway up the mountain and the car started smoking, never a good sign. So we decided we better play it safe and turned around. We took it in to get fixed and I was without a car the first week of school (good thing we live so close).

It turned out to be a great day for hiking, it was overcast and so not very hot. In fact, at Mt. Charleston it was cooler than inside my house.

We hiked the Mary Jane Falls trail so we could see the waterfall. It's not a big waterfall, but still very cool.


Even Devri seemed to enjoy herself. Lucky her, she got to sleep all the way down the trail.


Can't wait til our next adventure!