Our Christmas

Time really does fly through the holidays, and I haven't had time to post pictures yet so I'm backtracking a bit. Kierstyn & Ben were really excited about Santa coming to our house. And this was them on Christmas Eve playing Santa's elves!! We played a couple of games on Christmas Eve and Kierstyn still asks if we can play them again, so I think they had alot of fun.



Christmas morning at our house was a bit anticlimatic. Blake & I decided to get us a new tv so we already knew what were getting. The kids biggest gifts (a trip to Disneyland & a playset) weren't tangible on Christmas morning so they were more excited about the cheap little toys in their stocking. Blake spent most of the day putting together the playset and it was nice to just stay home and enjoy our two wonderful kids. Here's a few pictures . . .







Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!!

3rd week of Christmas

This last week was busy but not with alot of fun stuff. Blake's flight coming home from his brother's graduation was delayed so we ended up picking him up at 2:30am on Monday morning, which made for a very hard day as everyone was tired. The very next day Blake took a quick business trip to Atlanta and was gone for 2 days. I finished up Christmas shopping and Kierstyn had her last few days of school before the Christmas break.
















Her school also had a big Holiday Party which was also their big fundraiser. We didn't stay too long but long enough for Kierstyn to sing "I Want a Hippotamus for Christmas" with her class. This is a picture of her by her art work that was being auctioned off.


















After the school party we went with some friends to look at the Christmas lights at Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. Then we went to look at a street in Henderson that was all decorated and was amazing. The kids were pretty tired by then so we plan to go back and look some more.






On Saturday we took the kids to the Bass Pro Shop. We did all their little activities, saw the fish, sat on the 4 wheelers, and looked at the boats. I asked the kids if they wanted to go see Santa and both said no. Which was fine by me since I didn't want to wait in the line to see him.

2nd week of Christmas

The second week of December has come and gone. Here's what we have been doing this week.

Kierstyn & Bentley painted some Christmas tree ornaments to give to some special grandparents!!!




We decorated gingerbread houses with some friends!


And something that we have done the past 2 years, we went to the annual Winterfest parade in downtown Henderson. This year we went without Blake who was attending his brother's graduation. Congratulations Casey!


Kierstyn & Bentley's favorite activity is riding the horses.




They also liked playing in the snow, a novelty here in Henderson.



And looking through the craft fair. We found this cute hat for Kierstyn and Ben wanted a snake (Yeah he's all boy!)


Looking forward to the 3rd week of Christmas!!!!!

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

I love Christmas time. Yes it always is so busy and goes by so quickly but I love it!

So the first week of Christmas here's a few things we did:

We put up the Christmas tree



We hung up the stockings



And put out a few other Christmas decorations. Blake hung the lights outside with 2 little helpers doing their very best to assist.



We started our Christmas countdown



And started reading a Christmas story everyday. Maybe some of my family remember this binder. It use to be at my Grandmother's house and is filled with different short Christmas stories. Now I have it and love reading the stories to my children.



We also attended our Ward Christmas Breakfast. Yes, it was a breakfast this year and not a dinner but it was still fun with alot of good food. What a way to kick off the holidays!

Our Thanksgiving!!

Yes I know I'm extremely slow. What can I say other than I've been busy. But I wanted to post some pics of our Thanksgiving.

We spend Wednesday evening with Blake's family taking some family pictures and just hanging out. Kierstyn and Ben had alot of fun running around with thier little cousins.

The rest of the weekend was filled with a Gardner family reunion. And it was jam packed with activities thanks to some wonderful planners who put it all together(Jamie, Robyn, JaLane, & summer)!!!

So here is the schedule so you know how busy we were:

Thursday-all activities held at the church

Thanksgiving Day Parade
Movie Room
Jedi Knight Training for boys
Beauty Parlor for girls
Dodge Ball
Pictures with GreatGrandma
Dinner
Turkery bowl
Turkey pageant

Friday

We had a quick breakfast with our friends the Hepworths!
Play time and lunch at Game World
Family Pictures
Dinner at the hotel
Wii tournment/ Scrapbook night

Saturday

Scavenger Hunt
Bowling & lunch
Temple sealings
Traditional Gardner Christmas party

Maybe that doesn't sound like all that much just looking at it but doing it all sure kept us busy. We had a great time and it was so much fun to see everyone. It was about 70 people so almost everyone was there. And of course it was great to see Grandma enjoying all the family!!! Thanks Grandma for giving us a reason to all get together had have a good time!! Love ya!

Hiking Black Mountain

About 2 weeks ago I had the chance to go to Time Out for women in St. George. While I was gone, Blake took the kids hiking. They hiked all the way to the top of Black Mountain about a 4 hr hike round trip. He said the kids did pretty good and walked most of the way.




They went hiking again yesterday with the Elders Quorum. They seem to really like hiking and now is the best weather for it!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was alot of fun this year. We did the trunk or treating thing but that was a week before Halloween. Lucky for us, we were invited to a couple of great parties. The kids went to one last Friday that was just for kids, and had a great time. They played some games and did some crafts and just had fun playing with their friends.



Then on Halloween we went to another bash for the whole family it included pumpkin carving, carmel apples, slime, dinner, and of course trick or treating. Can I just say I have never seen trick or treating like that before. The whole neighborhood was filled with small groups of kids going door to door. And I was amazed at how much candy my kids got. Kierstyn was a tropper and finished the whole neightborhood, Bentley was done half way through and just wanted me to carry him.





Thanks Jeanna and Yvonne for putting on the great parties, we had a great time!!