Merry Christmas from the Gardner family!

A Merry Christmas Song from the Gardner Family
(to be sung to the tune Ragtime Cowboy Joe)

(many MANY apologies to those of you that do not know THIS tune)

We always sing
Bedtime music to the girlies that we bring
Back and forth across Wyoming
In our van, a pretty good van,
Got a Dad who does computer
And a Mom who is the tutor
To 4 girls who just get cuter
And they run (yes they run)
To gymnastics church and choir
And we all want you to know
We are loving life in Lehi, Utah
"Son of a gun" we miss you all but
Merry Christmas!
"Talk about your" Christmas!
Merry Christmas ALL!
G…A…R…D…N…..ok ok we’ll stop now!

Bring on the snow!

Who knew?! The wind doesn't always blow after a snow storm?! I remember at DJs wedding in Logan seeing the trees with the snow still on them and thinking how beautiful that was and now we have that here! Actually, I do remember driving on 15th in Laramie and it looking like a magical fairyland with the trees covered in snow. Monday was such a beautiful snow storm and the girls--well mostly Kaylee--have had fun playing in it ever since. (Kierra lasted about a minute) We have the best neighbors ever! I didn't take any pictures of some of the older neighbor kids helping me shovel and showing Kaylee and Taylor how to make snow forts. They were so fun! Then some other friends came around the corner on their four wheeler wanting to take the girls around on the tubes! And now Daddy is home!! Yeah!! He and Kaylee have been working on their snow fort in the backyard. It is actually built around the picnic table. Kaylee is in heaven!! Merry Christmas and happy shoveling!!

The week before Christmas

Have any of you seen this song (by the Transiberian Orchestra) done live? WOW!! It was unbelievable! Make sure you listen to the entire thing--the ending is incredible!

We have been pretty busy this week and so I appolgize for not updating for a while. We'll start with last Saturday morning when we (because I'm so slow on scheduling things like this) had family pictures outside right before the big snowstorm hit. Somewhere in there Monica sent me a text saying something like, is this enough snow for you? Not yet! I'm so excited to sit in my house these next 4 days while the snow dumps some more. Then if it could just be a little off and on during our Christmas travels that would be great!

Sorry--got off track a little. Anyway, I'm waiting still to post our family pictures, but you can click here for a preview. You'll have to scroll down a little to see the girls' pictures and then scroll down a little further to see the family picture that I loved! The 2nd family one isn't the greatest because we were all starting to get pretty cold! Sanae went above and beyond what she called a "mini" session. She was amazing!!

Right after that we slowly went north heading directly into the snowstorm where Kaylee and Taylor had a performance at the Joseph Smith Memorial building at Temple Square. My mom and Dale braved the Wyoming side of the storm to come and watch the girls and then walk around.

Please don't push Grandma in!

Luckily the storm stopped for our Sunday travels to see this beautiful girl in white get baptized. It was such a special day with great speakers, great musical numbers and a great spirit! I love my sister's family and can't wait to see them again over the holidays!

The cousins had a little too much fun with the floor heaters!

And these two....well....how sweet!!

Then Wednesday night the girls had their final concert. We (actually Matt) was kinda running kids back and forth from other activities so I never did get the traditional picture of Kaylee and Taylor with their piano player, so I've posted last year's. We look pretty much the same just with a couple more inches and a couple less teeth. Taylor is on the front row, far left and Kaylee is just 3 seats over from that.

And to end the post of randomness here is Taylor after pulling out her tooth. Like I have described to some of you. She had dental floss wrapped around it and SLOWLY pulled down, one root at a time. pop, pop, pop! It was awesome!

I'm sorry that I don't have much more. We have been slowly getting things ready for Christmas and I think we are there. The girls are out of school now and so we are just ready to hang out and enjoy being together!! We hope everyone will enjoy the holidays and time with family and friends! Merry Christmas!

Something's missing...

We have Christmas letters. I love going to the mailbox and getting so excited to open each letter and see the pictures of friends and family that we love and miss. I can't wait to go to my mom's house, sit at the kitchen table where the string of cards and letters hangs under the window and see what old family friends have been up to.

We have the Christmas tree, decorations and Christmas lights!

We have gingerbread houses. We had a fun time making these with our really good friends last Monday. Don't worry Uncle Dale, we'll buy another one to make with you!

We have Christmas music. Being a piano player at this time of year is very busy, but very fun! In the picture below you can see Emily (who isn't in the choir) Kaylee and Taylor (well, Taylor's hiding from the sun) and a choir friend in their black clothes ready to put on choir robes for a mini concert in town. We will be able to go to Salt Lake this weekend to sing at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. This is always a fun concert in an amazing venue!! Then they have their final concert next week! (pictures and video of the choir to come)

We have Santa! We still have yet to sit on his lap and tell him what we want for Christmas, but we have seen him!

What we don't have is SNOW!!!

(not yet anyway...)

For Camille

Here you go Auntie Camille! ;) The last two pictures of Emily's collage. The one of the 4 of us was in a different place because you had emailed it to me, but it is now in my 2005-08 folder. Someday ALL of my pictures will be completely organized! I just need to spend a day, month, no probably forever picking your brain on how you organize it all!

Anyway, for those that don't know, this is my amazing friend Camille and her little girl Rebecca! She and I served in primary presidencies and a relief society presidency together and our hubbies were in the Elder's quorum presidency together. We had some good times with this family back in our Laramie days and we miss them all of the time!! I love keeping up with her blog and watching her sweet family (and vehicles) change and grow. The plan is that those boys will just come off their missions one at a time (or two at a time) :) and we'll send our girls their way!!

So, Camille mentioned that we have a lot of birthdays close together and she is right. We have 1 birthday a month from September to January and then Taylor's is in April, so we are coming to the end of our birthday frenzy. Lucky for all of you I don't have 32 years worth of Matt's pictures, but I'm sure I can find a little something for his collage in January!

Emily's Birthday Collage

I finally finished Emily's birthday collage, but you have to scroll down past my "happy? birthday" post to see it. I didn't realize that because it was already saved as a draft that it would go into my blog before other blogs that I posted--if that makes sense. Anyway, it took forever to do, so please scroll down to see our beautiful 4 year old who had a wonderful birthday, despite having no voice and not feeling the greatest.

Happy? Birthday Emily

Or not so happy birthday. Those sweet swollen eyes were swollen and gooped shut for most of the night. At least I got to wish this sweet girl a happy birthday at midnight--oh and 1 and 3 (3:33 to be exact--crazy) ;) It was definitely a long night--especially without a priesthood holder in the home. From midnight to 1 her temperature was just skyrocketing. I was trying everything and was about to make some phone calls when I woke up to another cough attack at 3:33 and realized we actually slept for a couple of hours and her temperature was back down. I took a warm wash cloth to her eyes once again and she fell asleep (with a couple of cough attacks) until 8. She'll miss gymnastics today and her dinner at Winger's (which I am very sad about) :( She'll open presents and hopefully have an appetite for cake tonight, but her big present she got back on Tuesday. I am glad we don't have to go to the place again for a while ;). We will work hard to keep that secret from Kierra for as long as we can.

Anyway, she has no voice, her cough and eyes are pretty bad but at least her temperature is back down and she is pretty happy. We all love taking care of her because she really is the sweetest sick girl ever. She is so fun to cuddle with--I just hope she doesn't pass it on to us!

So, I do have her picture collage in the works. Maybe she'll take a nap today and I can get it done. (or take a nap with her)

Happy birthday sweet Emily!! We love you!

Happy Birthday Emily!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY LYNNE!!

Emily with Grandmas

Emily with Grandpas

Emily with Daddy

Emily with Mommy

Emily with Seth (these 2 are 12 days apart--I didn't realize how many pictures I had of them together)

Emily with Aunts, Uncles and Cousins

Emily with sisters

Video of Emily

and now for our feature presentation....EMILY

We love you so much Emily Lynne! Happy Birthday!