Monday, September 6, 2010

The last 3 months!!

The past few weeks have been busy for me as I was released from the Primary presidency and they put me in as the new Young Women's president. It has been humbling and overwhelming to say the least. I absolutely love the girls and am so excited to work with them. My life just got SUPER busy :) It's a good busy though and it will be so much fun!




Chloe turned 5! We decided to have a swim party at the Basha pool and we invited her friends and cousins to come and swim. They had pizza, cupcakes and drinks. For her birthday she got hello kitty stationary, a strawberry shortcake doll, a new shirt and candy, hair bows and jewelry, a princess Tiana doll, a new bike, a webkinz, princess Tiana dress up dress, a cute stuffed puppy, clothes, and a moxie doll from grandma G and g&g Brereton sent her a frog cookie bouquet. Her daddy brought her home some pretty pink roses and she had breakfast in bed which consisted of an omelet and a poptart with water. Happy birthday Chloe!



















Random pictures





This is how Chris and Zach spent their time while we were in Utah! Shocking!



For the past 4 months we have had wonderful missionary experiences in our home. We came in contact with a beautiful lady named Salviah(Sylvia) through the missionaries. We had the discussions in our home and took her to the Easter Pageant, ward activities and to church. She gained a testimony and has taught our family so much. She decided to be baptized on August 21st. She was baptized by Elder Carpenter and Chris confirmed her. I gave a talk on baptism and Sydney talked on the Holy Ghost(voluntarily) she did an incredible job and I was so proud of my daughter and her beautiful testimony and understanding of the gospel. Sylvia is a great lady and we are all better from knowing her. She is ready to jump in and serve and do what is asked of her. Our other picture here is of Zach receiving some awards at the court of honor.








Sydney turned 15!!!! My baby is getting so big. She chose not to have a party this year, so we took the family and her friend Dallon to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I wish I had a picture of her sitting on the saddle as everyone sang happy birthday to her, it was cute. She got a new flat iron, gift card to Charming Charlies, and new bedding stuff. She then went to the D-backs game with her best friend Taylor and got to be on the Jumbotron and had a great time. We love you Sydney.






The first day of School came quickly. Chloe started Kindergarten with 2 teachers Mrs. Salontai and Mrs. Forney (she has the most pics of course, what do you expect?) Kyle started 3rd grade with Mrs. Shore and Zach is at the top of the school in 6th grade with Mr. Shimizu. Sydney is my big sophomore at Hamilton. Here are random pics from the first 2 days.













We celebrated Chris's birthday while Sydney was at camp and I made him a cactus cake which is so fitting for him as he loves cactus. We then went to Utah, right in the middle of Zach's All star baseball season. I got to see 2 games and then we had to leave to get Sydney up to Provo for EFY. We made the trip into 2 days and we were glad to get there and be out of the heat. The kids played with their cousins, swam outside, played games, had sleepovers and ate lots of great food. Sydney had a fantastic time at EFY with Taylor (who broke her toe the week before and had surgery 3 days before EFY) She was a trooper. We were supposed to stay longer but after Zach's team won the district championship I was so sad that I missed it that I decided to pack up early and head home. I didn't want to miss anymore games. They ended the season like 4th in the state! It was a fun summer.
























Sydney headed up to girls camp the middle of June as a 4th year. This was the year of the big hike, she made it just fine and had so much fun. She was a trooper as she had to carry a big heavy pack on her back but she got to swim in a lake and go on hikes. I was able to drive her up and see where she camps, it was fun to see her there.







Chloe finished up pre-school with Ms. Shirley and made a good friend named Hewitt Peterson. These are pics of the kids last day of school and Zach with his science experiment. Kyle went to Cub Scout day camp and had so much fun swimming, shooting, eating, passing off requirements and being with his buddies. He missed the first 2 days because he was sick. One of the days he had a baseball game and he ran off the field after one inning because he was throwing up. He did come and give it his all, we were proud of him.













The boys finished up baseball season the end of May. Kyle played on the Hooks with all of his friends and Chris was the coach. They finished 2nd place in the league! Zach finished his season with the Giants and did great.






Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Mother's Day

Who doesn't love breakfast in bed right?  I love to have breakfast in bed twice a year ( I'd like more but you know how that goes..) Mother's Day is one of those days each year that I go to the grocery store on saturday and buy myself everything that I'd like for the next day, that way I get exactly what I want.  I was served Eggs Benedict in bed and I got wonderful gifts from my family.  Sydney gave me a beautiful letter, Zach made me a notebook that he decorated with my initial on the front, Kyle made me a cute flower pot with a flower in it that has a clothes pin to hold pictures.  Chloe made me a pasta necklace and bracelet and a card that had a sponge on it as a flower.  Chris got me at my kind request and insistence a new Chi so it was a great day.  At church, the kids sang to us and we got Sees candy bars.  Then we went to dinner at my mom's house and played games, it was so nice!  I'm so privileged to be a mother to these 4 beautiful children.  They teach me so much and I'm so grateful for the blessings they are in my life.




Monday, April 26, 2010

Finally!!!

Wow, we finally decided to get new appliances.  It was our 16th wedding anniversary the beginning of April and we felt that it was time to change it up a bit and get 4 brand new sparkling stainless steel appliances.  We absolutely love them, I might love them more but its not a competition right?   They make our kitchen look so much better, what do you think?


Here is Chris the night before unhooking the gas line, nice legs babe!
Ta Dah!  
Ah, a new kitchen!


Hard Work and Persistance Pays off!




I wanted to congratulate Sydney on a job well done!  She worked really hard on her personal progress and earned her YW medallion which is  a beautiful silver necklace with a pendant with the SLC temple on it with a ruby.  She read, studied, and worked on (8) 10 hour projects and then read the entire Book of Mormon!  We are so proud of her.  Some of her projects that she finished were gardening with her dad, teaching her cousins to swim, making a quilt with Grandma Gardiner and budgeting and cooking with me.  She is such an example to me and I hope she found great satisfaction in being obedient and accomplishing her goal.  I love that girl!

 

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Wow! 16 Years




Today, yes today April fools day is my favorite day!  Why?  Because I've been married for 16 years today, no it's not a joke:).  I'm so happy and love my life, I feel so blessed in every way.  I love you!!!  We celebrated last night because tonight we have baseball (nothing new there) we went to Costco, isn't that romantic?  Then we went out for Thai food and then to Home Depot.  Don't get jealous folks I know you wish you spent your anniversary there too.  But we left home depot with 4 beautiful new appliances!  They will be delivered to our house next tuesday and they can't come soon enough.  If you could only see the sad state of our dishwasher as the top rack droops down and everything is rusting.  So needless to say it's time for an upgrade and we decided to do the whole kitchen rather than just the dishwasher.  I'll post pics next week.  Happy Anniversary Chris, thank you for everything!

 

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Spring Break Vacation!

We went to San Diego this past week and had so much fun!  We arrived sunday night and left wednesday.  We were able to go to Sea World ( we loved the Atlantis and Shamu of course)  We also went to the San Diego temple, toured the USS Midway and the Beach!!  My kids had so much fun there until it got cold.  I love being on vacation with the family.    Here are some of the pictures we took.