Kelly Ripa look-a-like?

So, some of my cousins think that this picture of Taylor looks like Kelly Ripa. What do you all think?

First Day of School!

It is just the 3 of us now. Already Emily and Kierra are playing so well in the other room, but I will be quick so that I can hang out with them.

Kaylee actually started school last Monday. These first two pictures are from her first day. She is pretty lucky to have 2 of her really good kindergarten friends in her 1st grade class this year. I miss her so much. I think I grabbed her cup at lunch time every day last week only to have Taylor and Emily laugh at me and say, "Mom...Kaylee isn't here."


The girls were very cute last night getting Taylor ready for school. Her teacher had given her confetti to put under her pillow so she wouldn't be nervous. Kaylee wanted to wear her first day outfit again and so they set out their clothes and their backpacks and got everything ready. (I wish I had taken a picture of how Taylor laid everything out) Isn't she cute?! Isn't she too small to go to school?! The backpack (which we were told MUST be full size) is bigger than she is!




SISTERS!! I wish we could've gotten one with all 4 of them together. Emily was having trauma though. Maybe we can do that after school.



And here they are at school. Taylor went right to the playground. She was so excited! Then Taylor and Kaylee gave each other a high five as the bell rang. Those are the cool first graders on the other side of the kindergarten fence. Then there is Taylor waving goodbye! And that is it--she is gone. Wierd! Luckily today is early out day so I get to see her a whole 30 minutes earlier! Well, off to hang out with the girls, clean and then paint. The basement is coming along....more pictures of that will be up soon!



I had to do a close up of the picture above! Bye sweet Taylor!

Play Ball!

To start off this post I need to first send you to the following links. Click here to read about the greatest coach ever! I love you Dad! Matt and I LOVE the picture with that article! I hope you are having fun! I'm sorry I haven't called more! Mom--they need to write an article about you now. Either that or just take Loren and Ginger's "Move over Debbie" blog and publish it. Everyone who knows my mom needs to click on that link and read it. Even if you don't know my parents, these are great stories about the best parents in the world!

Now onto my blog. GO BEES! For 4 years I have played the piano for the Lehi Children's Choir and my good friend Catherine! When I'm not playing the piano I get to tag along for fun things like last night. Well, now, both Kaylee and Taylor are in the choir and have gotten to sing the National Anthem at Utah Flash games and Salt Lake Bees games. It is so fun! So here is our video and some pictures from last night's game. Taylor is in front on the far right (the one looking the other way for part of the video). Kaylee is in the front--4th from the right and then her friend Cassidy King is to the left of her!

Gardner Reunion

Oh the dirt! We always forget how incredibly dirty camping is--then we come back and look at pictures. DJ--this first picture was taken especially for you! We just spent 4 days at the actual Gardner family reunion. We went to the same place that some of us went to over the 4th of July, the Hams Fork Campground north of Kemmerer, WY.


Last time we were there the kids made paint out of mud. This time Aunt Danette brought real paint for the kids. It was a huge hit! Glade and Connie's David is the warrior in the back and their little girl Yvonne is in the blue. Danette and Curtis' Eli is shooting us, or something. And then there are our 3 girls--clean for now!



And the big boys played horseshoes and mountain man golf!




Kaylee, Emily and I went on a hike with some of the other cousins. We have done this hike before up to the seminary/EFY object lesson tree. I am very curious to know what direction Matt's brother Ryan will go with this object lesson. Here is one talk that I thought of. We are guessing that at some point another tree fell on this one. Instead of dying off or even growing at some funky angle it went around the obstacle and kept going on the path it was intended to go. The quote —“to act for themselves and not to be acted upon” comes to mind. I would love to have YOUR COMMENTS. What quotes or lessons do you learn from this little tree that could?
The kids had fun taking pictures in the trees (actually Emily didn't, and I couldn't bring myself to posting the picture of her holding on for dear life with tears in her eyes). Danette and Curtis' not a baby anymore Skylar is next to her big brother Eli. Kaylee is below that with her walking stick.




Here are 3 of Chad and Carolyn's kids: Jeremy, Caleb and Jessica. And then the picture of the hiking crew. It was sure hard to say bye to the Houston Gardner's. We miss you already!



“And my father dwelt in a tent.” (1 Ne. 2:15.) The perfect theme for a Gardner campout and tshirt. The kids had fun signing their names. With 23 grandkids and 23 shirts, Emily really got good at writing her name!

"What is the score?!" Traci you are so great! This was such a fun scavenger hunt! I had fun watching all of the kids. They loved it!

Sailing!! Some day we might upgrade to a bigger boat, but this works for now. It was a pretty windy day on Viva Naughton.

I'm trying to get the sailing video posted but it isn't working, so it may be up later.

38 years!! This was a fun night! It was fun to see Matt and his family all together. The family band played while Dave sang a love song to Dixie for their anniversary and then all of the little kids did songs, dances, skits, poems etc. I wish I had more video from this night.



Coy and Kaylee's "Let your light so shine" devotional!

I wish this picture from the cup game had turned out better. I wish I could figure out how to take pictures in the dark. I took a bunch this night, but they didn't turn out well at all. Aunt Danette did a great job with this reunion and especially with this night. It was very special!

So, that's it! Our last vacation and school starts on Monday! We are tired. In fact poor Kierra is just now waking up from a good 5 hour nap! Hopefully her two front teeth came in while she was sleeping. We had a great summer though! It was busy that's for sure! Now off to clean my house and get ready for a routine!

How many Gardner kids are coming to dinner?

Here are a few pictures from our past week. We got home from our reunion late Sunday night, and then Monday around noon Ryan and Kathryn (from Heber) brought their 5 kids to stay with us until Saturday. Ryan was the session director for the EFY in Provo. I will admit that it was definitely crazy, but we had a lot of fun! Really, it only got crazy at meal times. The rest of the time the kids seemed happy and occupied. Here is Seth picking on the girls. Poor kid was the only boy, but he never seemed to care. However, when Matt would come home at night Seth would attach to him pretty good.




Poor Jordan got a little too sunburned. The pictures below were taken with Matt's cell phone so you really can't see her swollen eyes. I guess that's good, 'cause then there isn't any proof of how horrible I am to let her get burned so bad. She was fun to have around. We enjoyed singing songs at the piano. It was fun having the older girls to hang out with. Family Home Evening and scriptures are a lot more fun when you have good readers. My girls sure had a blast with their cousins!









BASEMENT UPDATE: This sheetrock was dropped off on Wednesday and was supposed to be put up and mud and taped by the weekend so I could start painting. Well, they called Thursday morning and said they wouldn't get to it until Monday. I guess I should be greatful, because the finished play room (where the kids' computer is) is on the left and with 5 extra kids in the house I didn't know how we would keep everyone out of this part of the basement. Hopefully tomorrow I will have new pictures for you with a little progress. We did purchase carpet on Saturday! We're getting there!





And then last but not least the 2nd tooth (on top) finally came out! The first 2 pictures DJ took at the family reunion. She had a huge audience cheering her on to pull the first one and as you can see they paid her well. She had a bit of a snaggletooth for a couple of days until I could talk her into pulling the 2nd one. She is so cute without her two front teeth. I LOVE listening to her talk!





Oh...and Kierra is crawling up the stairs. If she could just figure out how to go down a little softer I would be much happier.