Happy Anniversary!

This was our engagement picture... Look how young we are :)

My Mom came and took our kids for us and we spent the whole day together. We went to the gym, the temple, lunch, dinner, and a movie. It was the best day ever!

11 years later and I am still totally crazy about this guy :) Happy Anniversary Babe!

Share the Love :)

Tyler and Elisabeth Fish and their children are going through an extraordinarily emotional and financially draining experience and are in need of help. Natalie (8) has been ill since she was 2, seeing doctors and specialists of every kind to diagnose and treat her numerous maladies. Alice (2) began to display similar symptoms and the doctors finally discovered the cause of their illnesses. Natalie and Alice were diagnosed with an extremely rare condition called LEAKY SCID Severe Combined Immune Deficiency. As its name implies, the infection attacks the immune system causing it to fail completely. Read more about them here

or here

Natalie 8

Alice 2

Matt went to school with Tyler Fish. He contacted him about being one of the charities featured on his website and Tyler was very appreciative. We would love to be able to help out Tyler and his family as much as possible! There are a couple of fun challenges starting up pretty soon and all of the money they earn (aside from the $2.99 site fee per participant) will go directly to the Fish Family.

There is...

A house cleaning and organizing challenge hosted by my very talented sister-in-law Debbie Gardner starting February 27th

A couple's Marriage boost challenge hosted by Cody Webb starting February 27th

And a Healthy Habits challenge Hosted by Myself starting March 5th.

We would love for you to come and join one. We could use any feedback on the site as it is still in the testing phase, and would also love to help out this family as much as possible! So Share the Love! Join a challenge :)

go to yochallenge.com and click join to find the challenge you want

Happy Valentines Day 2012!

"All the money in the world is no match for hard work and ingenuity" - Spanky (Little Rascals)

We decided to home make our valentines this year. What was I thinking? I have 4 kids in school, so we needed 100 valentines :) I survived though, the kids had fun, and they turned out really cute so it was okay. They are supposed to look like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc, and the tag says "I've got my eye on you"

While I was being CRAFTY :) I decided to put some of my fabric scraps, buttons, paper, glue, ribbon, socks, and flowers (basically anything I had around) to good use and whip up a few more homemade goodies. I made the girls belts, headbands, and necklaces, Lola's shirt and bows (and I also turned some of my socks into leg warmers for her), and Chase's valentines mail box. It was fun, but I am officially "crafted out" for a while! I enjoyed taking a nap this afternoon with my kids rather than running downstairs as soon as they were asleep to work on a project.

Matt made me the yummiest breakfast EVER! Mimi's Cafe, BLT Omlet... Mmm Seriously SO GOOD!

That night we had a nice red dinner (pizza and cranberry juice) and then the girls rushed off to ballet.

My Mom stopped by later with some of her own homemade goodies for the kids (there must have been something in the air) She wove these cute little hearts for all 14 of her grand kids. Thanks Grandma!

Happy Valentines Day!

Gardner Birthday Party...

Like I said earlier, the festivities we've had this week have been extensive! This was our last birthday celebration. The Gardner clan has 6 people with birthdays in February! That is a ton, right :) So we had one more big bash before officially calling it quits on the celebrating.

Debbie is so cute and creative! She walked in the house and went straight upstairs to hide Chase's gift in BJ's room because it was "to big" to put in a bag. Chase let her know he was really looking forward to getting some money from her because he had already spent it and was at the moment in debt to his parents, and was wondering if she was teasing him about the size, I mean how hard is it to hide a few dollar bills right? Well she wasn't lying, it was huge! And Chase wasn't disappointed because each little balloon contained a one dollar bill...

If you look closely you will notice that Lola is looking very "well endowed", thanks to Jaddin. She stuck a couple of tennis balls down there.

Happy Birthday... BJ February 7th, Scotland February 7th, Addi February 11th, Lynn February 18th, and Brooke February 24th! We love you guys!

Lunch with Grandma T

When we got home from the hotel my girls slipped off to their cousins birthday party, Matt went to school, Lola went to the neighbors, and me and the boys got to go to lunch with my Mom :) After lunch we went shopping and she let each of the boys pick a present. That was a funny experience, walking up and down the toy isle waiting for Scott to find just the right gift. He looked at literally EVERYTHING! In the end the decision was very easy, he found a game that must have spoken to him because the second he saw it he knew it was what he needed. Chase asked everyone for money this year so he could buy an IPOD touch. I was really not ready for him to have one of these, it makes me feel like he is so old! Not to mention the kid doesn't need one more piece of technology to distract him... But his heart was set on it, and he was able to pay for it so that's what he got. He is LOVING it!

Party at the Hotel...

We did this last year for the boys birthdays, and like I said Scott has been planning on it ever since, so we did it again. It was so much fun, I think we have decided it is a Gardner Birthday tradition. Because even though we have 5 (almost 6) kids, there birthdays all fall in 2 months, February and June (except Lola, but she is barely in July, so she can still be grouped with the June-ies). So it is 2 hotel visits per year, nothing to crazy, and the kids LOVE it! It makes their birthdays so memorable!

If you've read my blog before than you know the hotel routine; swimming, games, and movies. Now add to that the Birthday routine which is obviously cake and presents, and what you've created is one crazy fun weekend!

Where a kid can be a kid!

Scott has been planning his Birthday for the past 6 months. I'm not kidding! The details have varied a bit but 2 things always stayed the same, Chuckee Cheese and a Hotel! So we could not disappoint :) We checked the kids out of school Friday at noon, and stopped by Chuckee Cheese on the way to the hotel for lunch (and games of course). It is always a little hard for me after I've spent $30 on tokens to see them each come out with a pack of smarties and a plastic ring for a prize... But they have a blast earning the hundreds of tickets it cost to purchase those, so I guess that is all that matters :)

I love this picture! Matt tilted his head so it would be closer to hers, but then she copied him.

This little girl LOVES horses! And there's nothing cuter than her saying "howsy"! We are constantly pointing them out to her just to hear her say it! It is adorable!