Round Up

We had such a fun week last week! It was Lehi Round Up week and we tried to take in as much as we could! Monday night was the family picnic in the park and "Lehi's Got Talent". We had pizza and saw a lot of our neighborhood. Our really good friends Monica and Katelyn hung out with us a couple of times this week. Our girls absolutely LOVE them--Kierra will even go to them with or without mini nilla wafers!

The weather has also been so great for pool time with our friends!

On Thursday was the horse parade which I should ban Matt from. He is once again looking to buy horse property that maybe someday we can afford. We had fun going with our Heber cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Gardner. That night we also went to the rodeo! I wish I had taken more pictures! (The picture of Tay and Emily on the right below is with their literacy center teacher who has been so wonderful to our girls! We saw her at the horse parade and had to say hi!)

Finally, Saturday was the Pancake Breakfast and big parade with TONS of candy. We found the perfect parade spot with shade the entire time and even a puddle for Kierra to play in!

It was really a fun week! We sure love where we live! I especially love the events they had at the park. Lehi is growing so fast, but those activities make it still seem like a small farm town where we do see a lot of people we know. It reminds me of "Freedom Has a Birthday" in Laramie. We will sure miss being there and also with Matt's family who we usually go camping with over the 4th of July. We'll just be sitting here waiting as patiently as possible for our baby boy! (who still remains nameless) Maybe the fireworks on our street and on Saturday night will get things going!

Summer nap time!!

I love that even my big girls wear themselves out so much that they need a nap--and even want to nap. Especially Kaylee--she'll just come up to me and ask if she can rest on my bed or on the couch. Taylor and Emily aren't quite as willing, but they do fall asleep during an hour of quiet time. Now Kierra on the other hand...well, this poor girl has been moved from crib to toddler bed (a few months ago actually), then without a mom for a week, then moved to the downstairs with her big sister and then a few days later moved out of her toddler bed into a new bunk bed. Oh...and Mom is also trying to keep the binkie in the cupboard as much as possible. Poor Kierra doesn't know what's going on. Hopefully we'll keep things at that for a few weeks before we really throw her for a loop. Anyway, as you can see from the fingers under the door, this is how she falls asleep often. She'll cry, come to the door, wave her fingers under it and then fall asleep. 10 minutes later I come and move her to the bed and she sleeps great! I love summer nap time! (maybe one of these days I'll even take one!)

Happy Father's Day!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO THE BEST DAD'S IN THE WORLD!!

I love pictures of Matt with our babies. I can't wait until he gets to hold our first son!!

Remember this Dad!! I found this back when I was looking for camp pictures. I think this is one of the only pictures I have of the two of us. Too bad I'm pregnant in this one! And too bad it's at your least happiest place on earth ;) It would've been much better at home plate! This was such a fun week and it reminds me of all of the fun times and talks we have! I love you so much and hope you had a great Father's Day!

Then, Happy Father's Day to the best father-in-law ever! We all love Grandpa Gardner!

I am so thankful for these 3 dads!! I love them so much!

The girls had so much fun all week long coming up with new things to make or do for their dad. After the girls made the mugs, I read online that the #1 most tacky gift to give on Father's Day is a homemade one--who voted for that?? They must not have children!

Our girls absolutely adore Matt. He does so much to make sure each one knows how loved and special they are! It is amazing to me how he loves to come home after a full day of work and just be with his girls. Here, he and Kaylee have been running a little bit every day getting ready for the Roundup 5K this Saturday. Kaylee (well really all of them) is such a Daddy's girl. She looks forward to her Daddy time so much. She'll even leave him little notes reminding him about her Daddy time!

Friday night, just for fun, Matt decided he wanted to set up the old tent and sleep out there with his 4 girls! I was all for it! They all had so much fun!

Then Sunday we had family come over for dinner. We love when our Heber cousins come over and we see them so much that I always forget to take pictures! I tried to remember this time, but still only got 2.

We ate so good! We had a fun time playing games and hanging out!

So Matt, I know you had to put the ribs on the grill and even do a couple of "honey-dos" this weekend, but overall I hope you had a great Father's Day! We love you so much! Thank you for all that you do for us!!

He has everything but a name!

Who knew that little boy clothes could be so fun?! I had so much fun looking at the blues, browns and greens I got. And OH the baseball outfits!! We got so many cute and wonderful things for our little boy!! Thanks so much to my amazing friends for putting this shower on for us and thanks to everyone that came! I was especially excited that my mom and sisters could come from so far! My mother in law and sister in law too! It was so great to have them here! (I wish I had pictures of DJ, but once again, she was behind the camera--sorry Deej!) Anyway, I had such a blast! I wish that I had taken pictures of the girls going through everything! This poor little boy is going to be another doll for them! It will be so fun!!

One problem though--he needs a name! He is about to crawl off of my pregnancy ticker at the top of this blog which means he is coming soon!! We have a few names floating around. Matt says he is already absolutely set on one! I'm still not so sure. HELP!! I'm not even gonna tell you our ideas 'cause I need new fresh ideas! Come on people--what do you think?!

Oh--and I need new songs for little boys!

This was one I liked, but it wasn't on the playlist! I know you moms of little boys must have a long list!

Girls Camp!

WOW!! Once again Girls' Camp has been the spiritual highlight of my year and as I have sat here thinking about all of my years at girls camp I have just realized how many years it really has been. My senior year (summer of 96) was our "rollin' with the homey's year". (a friend had rolled her car the weekend before, but she was still able to be at camp) We had such a blast doing hair and eating twinkies. I may have skipped one year before I became the Stake assistant camp director for 5 (maybe 6) years. (one of those summers I was 6 months pregnant with Kaylee) The summer before we moved to Utah I was the primary president but I still remember visiting camp and even bringing Taylor who was just a couple of months old. Our first two summers in Utah I was in another primary presidency and didn't go at all. Then as Young Women President I went 3 times (one year being 4 months along with Emily) and this year I was once again able to be one of the stake assistants (8 months pregnant with baby boy Gardner).

All of this also means that Matt has either come with me or watched kids for 8 of our 10 summers together! He and my niece did an amazing job taking care of the girls and the house while I was gone!

So, only my family knew that I was about 12 or 13 weeks along when I was called into the stake offices. That morning I had seen one of the Stake YW presidency and right away had the feeling that they were going to call me to camp. I was emotional that whole day and especially as Pres. S. was asking if I would accept this calling to girls camp. I cried as I told him the situation. I had already calculated earlier that day that I would be 5 weeks away from having a baby. I'm sure he sensed how much I loved girls' camp though!

After hearing a good heartbeat and talking to some people we decided it would be okay--the plan probably being that I would do all of my part beforehand and then just go for a day or so. Well, I have actually been feeling really good and much to Matt's dismay my Doctor said, "Oh sure--she'll be fine."

I still went thinking I'd try to stay the night and if I didn't get the rest I needed I could always go 20 minutes down the mountain to Heber and stay with family there. Instead, I slept soooo well. Like I mentioned earlier, there is something so relaxing about sleeping in a tent while it's raining. I was so very blessed to be able to stay up there the entire time.

The other leaders were so great about keeping me from doing too much. I even got to ride and drive the four wheeler!! That was fun!!

The best part of this calling is not only teaching the girls, but learning and growing right along with them. This year's theme was incredible!! I was even able to make a commitment, sign my name on a balloon and watch it float away as I thought about the things I needed to do to keep that commitment.

I LOVED the ladies that I was able to work with. It was amazing how everything just came together so well. I definitely felt the power of prayer with these sweet sisters from the first time we knelt together. They are incredible women! They are people I have looked up to and learned from for years and now I got to really work them! I now look up to them even more!! I promise :) I really do!! (I have so many other pictures I keep debating on putting up but I want them all to still be my friend! Unfortunately I have no skit pictures or videos. It was so much fun!)

UH-OH!! To all my high school friends!! I've stepped away from the computer and started going through boxes! Look what I just found!!

(Oh and Happy Happy birthday to Krista! Love ya!)