what in the wide world

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYANT!!

2010-05-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

We wanted to wish Bryant a very Happy Birthday! We celebrated with cake too and Noa really wanted to eat it. We hope you have a great year and can´t wait to see you soon. Juan and Noa are really excited to meet you. We love you Bryant!

2010-05-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

2010-05-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS

Love the GIMENEZ GARDNER FAMILY

Juan, Anena, and Noa Paisley

April Fools

2010-04-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

We woke up to about 6 inches snow on April Fools day

Spring sure did fool us!

Bryant and Wyatt were trying to get Chett and Gale to play a joke on their mom, but they both decided they really didn't like having a broken arm.

Fun little boys

2010-03-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

doing the dishes and putting soap bubbles on their faces

Stanford eating the crumbs and cleaning up after his brothers

Gale likes to get pictures with his puppy :)

Take me for a ride in your Big Blue Bronco

2010-03-25T11:40:00.001-07:00

Jake came to get his bronco the other day...

Wyatt behind the wheel. SCARY THOUGHT!

The boys were pretty excited about it!

Jaxon wanted to ride all the way home in the back seat of the bronco. (Chett is in his cowboy knight costume, which later turned into his pirate cowboy knight costume)
Sweet ride!

Happy Birthday Anena!

2010-03-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

Pretty purple paisley cake

The boys singing happy birthday

We had fun making a cake and celebrating Anena's Birthday! We love you and miss you sister :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!

2009-12-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

This is Noa Paisley singing Happy Birthday to her Grandpa Gardner. She wishes she was there to give him a kiss. Hope its a great day. We will visit as we can!

I miss Mayberry...

2009-08-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

So...this summer we've been on an Andy Griffith kick. We went through all the seasons that they had at the library and any other episodes we could get a hold of!
It's been quite fun...however, many times we have caught ourselves doing or saying things that make us wonder if we've been watching a little too much of it! We find ourselves practicing the fine art of Judo as demonstrated by Barney Fife, talking like Gomer Pile....and my personal favorite-wondering what Barney would do if confrotned by an automatic paper towel dispenser.

As a result of this "obsession", we found ourselves naming our pets after our favorite characters.
Meet Gomer the goat and Otis the sheep. One night we caught Otis in the garden and had to lock him up...haha...just like the real Otis.

Meet Ellie, Thema Lou, Wanita, Opie, Andy, and Barney. Our dog had puppies at the begining of August so we got to name them all...but most of them were girls so we couldn't use all our favorite names (Floyd the barber is one of our favs...guess we'll have to save that name for the next pet to join the fam).

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

2009-08-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Mom's birthday on August 6th. We spent most of the day making her a special cake.

Gale even helped by licking the bowl :)
It was a lot of work!

But it turned out great!

Thanks Mom for all you do! We love you so much and know that we couldn't get along without you!!!

Pioneer Day

2009-08-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

The Parade

Eric & Cheryl with the little boys ridding the cart pulled by Wylie for C&E Fence.

Wyatt in the Primary float.

Bryant in the Young Men and Women Float.

The little boys watching the parade.

Happy Anniversary

2009-07-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

This month was Mom and Dad's Anniversary.

Twenty-nine years...I think.

Heidi and I have been wanting to make a wedding cake. Their anniversary was our perfect opportunity to make one!

We really love how it turned out. We can't wait to start our business. Let us know if you ever need/want a cake for any occasion. We love to experiment and welcome any ideas.

4th of July

2009-07-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July we went to the program then to the races.

In the evening we went to a really fun party. There was lots of good food and fun things for the kids.

Wyatt enjoying some cotton candy.

Wyatt, Jaxon, and the gale in the bounce house. Gardners dancing. Chett, Gale, and Jaxon enjoyed dancing almost as much as their grandma and grandpa. They joined right in the middle of the dance floor with their moves and hula hoops. If you look close you can see Heidi and Scottie, Eric and Cheryl, and my dad and mom in the back.
They had blow up animals for the kids. This is Wyatt's photo of his zebra. He wanted to take pictures of it in case it pops.

Fishin' for FHE

2009-07-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Fishin' for FHE

We went to the Enterprise Reservoir

Wyatt first caught a baby frog!

Then they caught a fish!
Dad casted the pole out and sat it by a rock.
We heard Wyatt making some racket and then figured out that he discovered the pole moving. The two of them reeled it in. That's the only one we caught.

Well us girls had a good time. Most of it was spent trying to keep the mosquitoes away. We used A LOT of bug spray.

Baby Stanford

2009-07-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

Stanford Jay Gardner was born on June 19th.

Grandma holding him at the hospital.

Excited big brothers.

Stan, Chett, and Gale.

He is growing up fast!

The grand kids. Soon there will be a little girl too :)

Happy Birthdays of June

2009-07-05T17:51:00.000-07:00

JUNE 5th

MaryLynn's Birthday

The family came over and we had a pizza making party.

JUNE 17

Chett's 3rd Birthday

Chett had lots of family over for his birthday. His dad made dutch oven and the kids went for rides on his horse Wylie. Everyone had a really good time despite the rain.

JUNE 19th

Stanford was born (Cheryl's &Eric's baby)

We were all so happy to finally welcome baby Stan into the world. He is so sweet and we love him so much.

JUNE 28th

Scottie

Heidi made him this cool cake.

Wyatt's Zoo

2009-06-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

The entrance. See half of the zoo keeper with the green hat who is there to take your tickets.

He had a blast building the zoo!

The penguins, alligator, polar bear and seal.

He even provided water for them. This was his favorite part of his zoo.

Bird's eye view.

Family Vacation to Idaho

2009-06-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

At the end of May we took a family vacation.

Levi is doing an internship at a Sheep Experimentation's place in Idaho.

We decided to take a trip and see him on his birthday. We did a lot of things on the trip.

It turned out to be a very fun vacation for everybody, especially Wyatt.

Day 1

We set out early in the morning in Dad's big truck. It went quite well, Wyatt didn't even throw up! He even was most the time okay with us playing music, you see sometimes he says it makes him feel sick. His Sunday clothes apparently have this same affect on him too. :) We got lost a time or two in Salt Lake, but we survived.

HOGLE ZOO

Wyatt had been waiting and preparing for weeks ahead to go to a zoo!

He printed out maps and had to make certain the zoo we went to had penguins. His excitement was uncontrollable when we finally made it there!

This was typical Wyatt at the zoo.

With map in hand leading the way. We struggled to keep up with him.

Quite the little tourist.

Some of the animals he really liked...

Others...not so much.

Yucky rattle snake.

Well can you blame him after our house invasion of snakes?

We soon discovered he did not want to be cooperative with pictures.
He was too busy seeing all the real life animals to bother with posing for a picture.

He says he wants to have a zoo someday but he will only keep the animals for a while and then get new ones. Because, "How would you like to be in a cage all your life?"

Heidi and the penguins.

Yes, Wyatt finally found the PENGUINS!!!

Bryant with his friend Kyler.
Our friends joined us at the zoo.

We found the animals to be a little inactive. But who can blame the I suppose.

The meerkats were the most entertaining. They wrestled each other.

IDAHO

Another 4 or so hour drive and we made it to Idaho!

Levi met us at a motel in Idaho Falls. We were all really happy to see him.

Our motel was in a great location! Right by a river, friendly geese and the temple.

To Wyatt's delight there were TONS of geese and baby geese.

He spent a lot of time playing with them. He fed them Cheetos and mac and cheese.

Look closely it's at the top in the back of the picture.

DAY 2

Happy Birthday Levi

I think this was the most adventurous day...and the most tiresome!

THE FALLS

First a walk around the river near the motel.

By the falls.

Wyatt at the "beach." He loved playing in the sand by the water.

He called it the beach. He liked it almost as much as the zoo!

They made Gilligan's Island.

IDAHO FALLS ZOO

Wyatt says he has to go to 6 zoos before he dies.

He was most concerned about seeing the penguins.

With the flamingos.

We thought these animals were a little more lively than the ones in the other zoo.

BEAR WORLD

Welcome to Bear World!
We got to drive in the bears pen and see lots of bears, elk, deer and other animals.

Watch out and keep the truck windows up!

Look! They turned into bears!

We got to pet a deer in the petting zoo area.

There were also rides.

Wahoo. Levi, Bryant, Wyatt, Heidi and MaryLynn.

Dad and mom riding the train.

REXBURG

We visited the Rexburg Temple.

We also gave Heidi a tour of BYU-Idaho.

Levi, MaryLynn, and Heidi are all excited to attend there together this fall!

CRAIGOS

We ate at Craigos. It is an amazing pizza place.

This is Oreo pizza, by the way.

Wyatt ate too much. Then he felt sick. :)

Exhausted after a day full of excitement.

We also spent some time in the hot tub at the hotel. Wyatt insisted he had to go swimming. But the pool wasn't up and running. He enjoyed the hot tub. I took a picture of him and Bryant in their swimming shorts. It really upset Wyatt because he didn't have his shirt on. After i took the picture he put his shirt on. He is overly concerned with modesty or something :)

We didn't get around to making Levi a cake, but we think he had a good birthday after all.

Wyatt told him he was going to have the best birthday ever!

Day 3

We went to church at the ward Levi goes to at Dubois.

They were friendly. We had a good time.

The Idaho Falls Temple. We walked to the temple and spent some time at the visitors center.

You can't really see us, but we are standing in front of it.

The flowers were beautiful at the temple grounds.

I know, this picture is gross. But I had to include it because it's a memorable part of the trip. Wyatt was in a PANIC!!! After eating some chips the spacer in his mouth started hurting him.

It got bent or something and was hurting his gums. He was worried about it the rest of the trip.

We had some ice cream and used this cool spoon.

We spent the day most of the day relaxing. We need to recover and get recharged for the rest of the fun we had in store.

Day 3

We visited our Great Aunt Pearl. She reminded us so much of granny from the TV show "Beverly Hillbillies." Dad told us before we saw her that she wouldn't be much bigger than Wyatt and he was right. She was just a tiny lady. She was really funny and we enjoyed meeting her, her husband, son, and daughter-law.

It was memorial day. We went to the cemetery at a little town by Idaho Falls.

We visited some graves of ancestors on the Gardner's side.

We ate at the Mexican Bus. It was a cool restaurant.

At first we weren't so sure about it.

But it turned out to have very yummy food and to be lots of fun!

We visted BYU-Idaho again.

We looked around for housing and visited friends.

The Rexburg water park. Wyatt and Bryant had lots of fun on this.

There's Wyatt.

One of my friends made this baloon penguin.

Wyatt was so sad when the air began to leek out of it.

We concluded we didn't want to drive eight hours all at once. So we stayed with our friends in Salt Lake. The kids had fun together.

Day 5

We ate breakfast with our friends and then were on our way. Wyatt enjoyed playing with the kids and trying out their skate board.

The 5 hour drive required some creativeness to keep us entertained.

We played with this ball, sang along to the radio, and took lots of pictures.

Wow it was an exciting trip. Everyone was excited to get home. Well, I (MaryLynn) wished I would have just stayed in Rexburg :)

Heidi's Graduation

2009-06-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

I had some photo shop fun with some of the pictures I took if her.

Congratulations Heidi

2009-06-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

Graduation

Stressing out before graduation.

The walk

You can't really see her. But she is giving her talk.

As Valedictorian, she got to give a speech. She was really worried about it.

She did a wonderful job!

With the family!

Picture Time

This was one of my favorites.

She had to wear lots of stuff around her neck. We were afraid she might strain herself :)

I really liked this one.

The cool tractor thing Heidi made for Scottie.

He quite liked it.

I just had to include this one!

Mixed Feelings:

How do you feel about being graduated?

Excited!...

well, maybe a little sad...

hum...I don't really know yet.

It still hasn't quite set in.

The Party Afterwards

We had a really fun party.

Friends and family joined us for a cookout in the backyard with dutch oven potatoes.

The cake. It was two layers.

One layer was blue the other yellow.

Grandma Staheli made her this really cute quilt.

Jaxon and Gale enjoying the cake.

Senior Fun

2009-06-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

On E-Day the senior class gets to white wash the "E"

And they usually white wash each other too.

Afterwards heidi and her friends ate lunch together at our house.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

2009-05-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

Wyatt plays T-Ball and Bryant plays baseball.

In the OUT Field. Wyatt prepares to catch a ball.

Preparing to hit...

Preparing to run...

and making his way to home base!

He loves to slide into base.

Seminary Graduation

2009-05-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday the 17th was Heidi's Seminary Graduation.

THE FAMILY

Highlights:

Bryant ate about 10 cookies from the refreshments table.

And Wyatt started clapping after Scottie gave his testimony.

Wyatt congratulates Heidi.

Heidi, her seminary teacher, and mom and dad.

Heidi and her friends.

Little Boys in the Summer Time

2009-05-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

The little boys have had a lot of fun in the backyard.

We have a playhouse, sandbox, slide and swing.

They could spend hours out there!

Gale in the sandbox.

Mom's apple tree blossoms.
Chett didn't believe it was a popcorn tree.

Chett looking at Wyatt worm farm.

Jaxon and Lickums. He loved the dogs!

He gave them lots of hugs and kisses!

Gale and Chett in the sandbox.

Toothless

2009-05-19T19:10:00.001-07:00

Wyatt has lost 3 teeth.

Recently he lost one of his two front teeth.

Mom pulled it out for him. He talks a little different now.

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T14:32:00.001-07:00

Some Gifts for MOM

Heidi and MaryLynn got mom High School Musical 3!

She said it was her favorite HSM movie.

Look how excited she was :)

Wyatt mad mom this card at school. Beautiful!

These are the wooden roses Wyatt picked out for mom.

There were lots to choose from. Of course, Wyatt picked the ones that had blue.

Wyatt sitting in the flower planters Jake & Ashlee gave mom.

The Card

So one day when we (Heidi and MaryLynn) were at the store looking at cards we found this one! When you open it to full spread it repeats again and again, "Mom, mother, mom, mom, ma ma...." in different voices, volumes and tones. It reminded us so much of Wyatt because he is always calling "Mom, mama, mother."

It made mom smile and laugh. She said when all the kids move away and she gets lonely she'll open it up and listen to it. I think she liked it a bit better than the card we got her for her birthday last year :)

The Cake

Happy Mother's Day to Anena too! We love YOU!

Chett on Heidi's Head

Bryant the Birthday Boy turns 12!

2009-05-11T14:04:00.001-07:00

May 8th Bryant turned 12.

We were afraid it was going to be a repeat of last year "worst birthday ever" when it ended up we didn't quite get his present in time. But after mom told him what he was getting, a gun, and that we wouldn't have it until later that day, he was very excited! He got to pass the Sacrament on Sunday too. He did a great job.

After much debate on what kind of cake to make Bryant here is what we came up with.

He was rather excited. So were we.

Bryant had some friends come over for his party.

We wanted to have a pizza making party but he insisted on having home made macaroni and cheese. So it was birthday boy's wishes. Also we had a little cookout roasting hot dogs and s'mores.

Gale eating his s'more. It was a little chili outside.

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta!

2009-05-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

La Piñata de PINGUINO

Wyatt wondered what he could be in charge of for the party.

Heidi told him the Pinata. He got right to work! He decided to make a penguin. He worried and worked hard on it for three days. After much trial and error, with some help from his sisters, it finally worked out. And quite well, better than anyone had though it would!

Wyatt made us thank you cards for helping him.

This is a picture he drew in Heidi's card. You can see a person holding the pinata with a stick. Someone blindfolded hitting it. The pinata and candy falling out. Pretty awesome Wyatt!

The little boys all loved hitting it. It was a tough bird to break!

On the mark...Get set...Hit!

As always, Wyatt was quite dramatic!After it was broken.

How many Redvines can Wyatt fit in his mouth?

BILAR de LATINO

Latin Dancing

At BYU-I Levi took a Latin Dancing class...so this year at our 5 de Mayo party we updated and did some Latin dancing instead of country dancing. Marange, Bachata, Salsa, Mexican hat dance, and who knows what the moves are called that Wyatt was doing? And boy oh boy, you should see Bryant try to move his hips for the Marangue. It is quite the sight to see!

Gale is quite the dance too!

La COMIDA

Well it seems the only picture we got of the food was Gale after/during eating it.

Looks like he enjoyed it. And yes, he got it everywhere.

Oh and Cheryl after eating the Tres Leche cake.

We are excited for the new little guy to arrive!

Wonderous Wyatt Updates

2009-05-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

Wyatt got ran over by a Bryant,

riding his bike one day...

Wyatt can ride his bike now with out training wheels.

He had an accident one day when he was riding ahead of Bryant and somehow Bryant ended up running over his head! As you can see it was pretty traumatic!

Wyatt's hat

He had hat day at school during Dr. Seuss week, and was worried because he wanted a cool hat.

So he decided to make one out of a bucket and decorate it.

He won a prize, a camouflage hat, for the creative hat he made!

Wyatt's Friend: Nash Levi...

or Levi Nash (I don't remember)

Wyatt always wants somebody to play with.

I guess he got a little bored and desperate so he used the tripod and made himself a friend.

Nash Levi even had a hat and shield!

He is a pretty creative guy.

They had many battles and adventures together!

Gale Cracking the Mystery of the Eggs

2009-05-11T11:08:00.001-07:00

Chett loved eating the boiled eggs.

He gobbled them down one after another!

Gale decided he wanted one too.

But Gale wasn't sure how to get the shell off.

So he watched Chett carefully to learn how.

Poor Gale, it wasn't as easy as it looked!

After observing Chett, and a few unsuccessful attempts,

Gale resorted to squeezing the egg tightly with both hands. He was determined!

(Hopefully he never tries this with an unboiled egg).

Finally, Grandma came to the rescue and helped Gale.

And the mystery was solved.

EASTER TIME

2009-05-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

Decorating eggs with the Egg Spinner.

At school Wyatt made paper cup Easter Baskets.

He loved them and helped the Nephews make some too.

When MaryLynn and Levi came home from college,

the first thing he did was run and give them a basket.

The Colorful Eggs. Wyatt loved doing the Egg hunt.

We did it a couple times.

Happy Birthdays

2009-05-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Anena on March 18th
and Jake April 19th.

Grandpa's Funeral

2009-03-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

The brothers

Great Grandchildren

Lots of the family

Levi and Jaxon

February FUN!

2009-02-25T15:04:00.000-08:00

Mom's Dolls

Mom has been working on making dolls for the Humanitarian Center. The white doll was already made but she made the dress, hair, and face. She found the pattern for the black doll on the Internet and ended up giving that one to our cousin's little girl because she liked it so much.

Donkey Basketball

Donkey Basketball came to the high school and Dad and Eric played on the farmers team. It was quite hilarious. Dad even made a basket and their team won the championship.

Chett and Gale loved watching their Dad and Grandpa ride the Donkeys!

Happy Birthday

This is the Cake Marylynn and I made for Grandma Staheli's Birthday

TWINS
These are my cousin Jason's adorable twins, Ashton and Aspen. They are two months old. He also has another set of twins that are 2 years old. Both sets are a boy and a girl...what are the odds of that?!?! Holding them made us excited for Anena's twins!
Playing at the Park
We went to the coolest park every for our Gardner Family get-together. MaryLynn and Levi were down for a few days and it was awesome. There were all sorts of gadgets to make ya dizzy and what not. The little boys especially enjoyed it.

FINALLY

2009-02-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to putting pictures on the blog. Life's been pretty busy the last couple months so I never had time, but now it's done. Sorry about the delay.

Over the Hill

2009-02-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Dad's 50th Birthday on December 30th. We even got a "special" candle for his cake:)

This is Wyatt's wrapping paper he made himself. That is a pair of Dad's dirty pants in the corner of the picture.

Heidi's 18th Birthday

2009-02-15T19:26:00.000-08:00

I turned 18 on the 28th of December. MaryLynn and I made this penguin cake for the occation. We decided that it is definately the best so far, and it was actually one of the easiest. It was a great Birthday!

Christmas

2009-02-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

The Live Nativity

Caroling 'round the piano
BEFORE
AFTER
Gale was so tired after waking up so early.

He didn't like Jaxon stealing his grandma from him.

Decking the house

2009-01-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

During thanksgiving we (Heidi and MaryLynn) decided to have some fun and really decorate!

You know it's one of the things we are going to do when we fulfill our dream of starting our own business...but that's another story in itself. :) Anyways, we had a lot of fun...though it was a bit strenuous at times. We enjoyed it!

Getting stuck between the ladder and the wall

Felt a little bit like the Grinch trying to get through the chimney.
So we tried to use packaging tape and pins.
It wasn't working so great.

Wyatt's decorating skills!

Was a bit hard being so short.

So you know the thankful tree for thanksgiving.

Well we had one for Christmas too, with ornaments, but it fell down on Heidi.

Welcome to our home.

The bear of course!

The nativities.

One of the plant shelves

Wow our stocking collection is growing.

We had 17 this year!

Thanksgiving time!

2008-12-28T21:42:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving time! Well we had a blast as you shall see.

It's a holiday, therefore we better celebrate the occasion by:

Decorating a cake... or two.

Our little turkey cupcakes we shared with our friends.

Our giant turkey!

Bryant...um shooting the turkey?

Our next celebration part included
Dressing up in costumes...
made by the wondrous Wyatt!

So, at school Wyatt made pilgrim and indian costumes.
Wyatt decided we should all dress up! So one evening Wyatt began making everyone in the family a costume. He went and asked everyone, "Do you want to be a pilgrim or an indian?" When Heidi replied turkey, he was a little surprised, but he followed her request! He worked very hard on them. We were impressed!

Mom, as the turkey.
(She took Heidi's costum)
Look at Wyatt in the background...he looks a bit concerned.

Wyatt the indian, gale the pilgrim man, and well Chett just had to be a cowboy.

Love his face in this one!

The fam!

I think our Thanksgiving guests were a little curious about our attire:)

Next we had a

Thankful Tree

I (MaryLynn) made one of these for my appartment at college.

So I decided to have one at home too. People take a leaf, write something they are thankful for and then add it to the tree. It was fun to fill it up.

A picture after church one day.

Eric, Cheryl, and the boys.

Birthday Time for Gale & Jaxon

2008-12-28T21:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday our dear little Jaxon and Gale.

They are about a week apart. Gale's is Oct 28th, and Jaxon's is November 3th!

You know how we love birthdays, so we partied it up!

Gale eating his cake..... just one finger gets messy

verses

Jaxon eating his cake...eventually just about his whole body got messy!

Yum

Trying to share w/ Gale...hum Gale wasn't so sure about it :)

Oh boy...

Grandma with the birthday boys!

Procrastination, Is the Key

2008-12-28T21:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry haven't posted for a while...but hope you'll enjoy the updates of the past few months. Boy, have they been eventful. Seeing as we're on break thought it may be something useful we could do...since sleeping has been our favorite past time :) But napping does have it's own benifits. Y'all should try it sometime. Oh but we do sometimes do the most exciting thing to do in a small town....ya know get the mail! We do a lot...or at least we say we do :) All that doing has made me tired! Um.. I think it's time for another nap. hehe. Oh dear...well anyways ENJOY.

Halloween: The Fantastic 4

2008-12-28T21:09:00.000-08:00

Here we have Chett as Woody (waving howdy), Gale as Buzz, Bryant as a train robber, and Wyatt spider man. Quite a gang! Lookin' Good!

Hey Familia

2008-11-14T22:24:00.000-08:00

I set up blog a while back. Check it out and add me as a contact!

It is "merrymary5.blogspot.com" (i fixed it, i had the wrong address previously.) Lo siento.

it's not that great yet:)

LOVE

MaryLynn.

Greeting family

2008-11-03T10:03:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

How are you all? Happy birthday to Gale and Jaxon! How fun, they are one!
I can't wait to see you all in three weeks, for Thanksgiving! Hooray! I am very excited. Then after that two more weeks and the semester is over. Boy has this semester flown! It's been a blast, my favorite one by far!

So I am someday soon going to make a blog of my own. I've been meaning to for a long time. But I haven't taken the time to do so. I have lots of adventures and pictures to fill it with, birhtday cake creations/celebrations, "Dancing with the roommate," late night fun, dances, apt #204 quotes, and much much more. Oh dear! I'll let ya'll know when I get it.

Well love you all and see you soon. Until then take care and keep in touch.

:)
MaryLynn

We Love Our Nephews!

2008-10-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

We love having the little boys come over. There is always something exciting going on when they are around. Whether it's shooting block guns, roping the bull, playing peak-a-boo, or making cookies, its always fun to have them visit. Thanks boys:)

They are much nicer visiters than this snake we found in the house yesterday!

Bored-Bored-Bored

2008-10-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

So...the other day Wyatt and I were quite bored and had nothing to do. We decided to take pictures to put on the blog. As you can see Wyatt was chewing gum at the time. He ended up "accidentally" spitting it on me a couple times. It was quite disgusterating! Of course Wyatt just thought it was funny.

Pumpkins

2008-10-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

Cheryl and Eric came over to carve their pumpkins.
Of course, Wyatt had to join them.
Wyatt carved his pumpkin all by himself and did a pretty good job of it don't ya think.

Meet Spoon

2008-10-18T17:03:00.001-07:00

This is our new dog named Spoon. He loves to play Frisbee. He can actually catch the frisbee when you throw it. Dad was hoping he'd be a good sheep dog, but he doesn't even look at the sheep. The boys enjoy playing with him though.

The Dance...FINALLY

2008-10-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everyone's sick of my homecoming blogs so this is the last one, I promise. I finally got to just enjoy the dance. Everything turned our really well and I'm very relieved it is over. Now I can focus on applying for college and scholarships...WAHOO

I was seriously struggling to pin the flower on.

Mis Amigas
And They All Lived Happily Ever After:)

Decorating

2008-10-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

My theme for the dance was "Once Upon a Homecoming". I decorated to look like a castle ballroom. This is how it turned out.

Castle Entrance
Dance floor
Balcony
Throne
The refreshment area was the castle garden complete with a water fountain.

It was all a lot of work but it turned out better than I expected thanks to all the people that helped so much :)

Strenuous

2008-10-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

Being the vice president at EHS, I am in charge of homecoming. It was this week and it was pretty stressful for me. There were a couple times when I almost had a breakdown, but everything turned out in the end. The dance is tonight and I've got all the decorating done so i can finally relax and just enjoy homecoming.

Stud-muffin Volleyball. The boys really liked playing and a couple got a little too into it.

The Parade. Right after the parade we had free hot dogs at the football field. We gave out 550 hot dogs...that's a lot!!!

Powder-Puff Football. This is always my favorite homecoming activity. I had a blast playing, but I have been extreamly sore ever since. That's me in the middle with the yellow shirt. I "accidentally" tackled a couple girls when I was trying to pull their flags.

REVENGE

2008-09-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

I finally got my revenge Saturday night. I stole Scottie's bed (which is a hide-a-bed couch) and put it in the back of his truck and hid his truck from him. It was quite an adventure to get the couch up the stairs and out the door, but with Lance, Ashley, and Wyatt helping we made it. I sent Travis to go hide his truck while Wyatt, Ashley and I toilet papered his room. By the way, when I got there, his mom said he could possibly be home in 15-20 minutes so we were in a bit of a rush. Anyway, I left him a sign that said, "I know it's been driving you crazy and I'd hate for you to lose any more sleep over it so may answer is..." and on the other side of the poster it said "Not coming that easily. Your first clue is..." and I gave him the first clue for the scavenger hunt thing to find his truck. I wrote, " There's NO WAY I won't go to homecoming with you!" on his truck windows. Oh, and i left him some candy just to be nice.

Scottie got home not long after we left so I stayed with Ashley because I knew he'd expect me to help him put his bed back because I made him wash my car. I waited at Ashley's house until he finally pulled up in his truck. He didn't get out of his truck so we went out to talk to him. He didn't say anything. He just glared at me and wouldn't even smile. I thought he was just kidding me but he never broke. I didn't think I'd been that mean but he made me feel so guilty!!! We went back to his house to put his bed back. Travis and Lance turned on us and made me and Ashley move the couch all by ourselves. Scottie still never smiled the whole time we pitifully tried to get his bed back down the stairs. He was really starting to scare me.

Well, we finally got his bed put back and most of the toilet paper out of the way after like 40 minutes. Scottie just went and laid on his bed and still wouldn't talk to me. I didn't want to just leave with him like that so I just waited there until he would talk to me. He finally just started laughing and said he was just kidding me. He actually thought it was pretty funny but he wanted to give me a guilt trip since I had given him such a hard time about washing the butter off my car. It worked! I told him to never do that to me again and we both had a good laugh about it.

Anyways, it was quite fun stealing his bed and his truck and trashing his room.

STINKING BOYS!!!

2008-09-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

So today after school, mom totally shewed (if that's a word) me out of the house to go watch chett and gale for a little while. This being just a couple weeks away from homecoming, I was quite suspicous. Then mom told me to take the van and not my car. That totally gave it all away. I was reluctant to leaved my car, being afeared of just what might happen to it in my absense. It has been needing a wash, but i decided to wait a while before i bothered just because i figured something might happen to it anyway.

When I showed up at Cheryl's house, both Cheryl and Eric had goofy grins on their faces. Hah, that wasn't suspicious at all. I was tempted to call Scottie's phone while I was at Cheryl's and ask him if he was done sabatoging my car yet, but i decided not to ruin his fun.

Sure enough, when i got home, my car was up on blocks with all four tires missing and smeared with butter. Surprise, surprise:) Then there was candy all over my room. I didn't mind the candy part so much-at least it tastes good-but i wasn't too excited about cleaning the butter off my car.

A few minutes later, Scottie recieved a nasty phone call from me. He and Lance came back, the kind gentlemen that they are, to put the tires back on my car and return it to its proper place on the ground. I demanded that they wash it as well. They weren't too excited about that. But with the help of Eric removing the fuses out of Scottie's truck so he could not escape, we got them to help wash the butter off.

Now, i get to come up with some way to get my revenge. I want something extreme!!! so if you have any ideas, PLEASE let me know:)

Me and My Roommates

2008-09-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of me and my five roommates. They are Mandee, Katie, Cami, Taresa, and Ashla. On Sunday we went to the gardens and had a photo shoot. As you can tell we had lots of fun. These are some of my favorites.

Roomates: Ashla and I

2008-09-13T17:54:00.001-07:00

This semester is my second year of college.

It has been a blast so far. I am now roommates with my best friend, Ashla!

We have wonderful adventures and random fun times together, as you can tell and imagine!

She is a music major and I am an art major. So yes, we are pretty stressed out as are all college students I'm sure, but we still have fun! She practices her music with her little piano and does her vocal exercises and I practice my Spanish. So it makes for some interesting times:)

BFF's

me...prepping for school! strenuous!
me in my room. Something was wrong with my knee.

Ashla LOVES her classes! She was beaming when she came back from the book store and found showed me her books. I just had to take a picture!

Wyatt's Birthday

2008-09-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

Wyatt woke us all up at 7 in the morning so he could open his presents. He got chocolate mild straws from Marylynn. Mom gave him blue boots, black wranglers, and a fancy belt&buckle. Bryant gave his a ring pop and blue bubble gum.

Wyatt got to talk to Levi on the phone.
Anena came to the party via web cam. That was lots of fun! It was good to see her.

We could not forget the Spanking Machine.

Wyatt wanted a bus cake because that is his favorite part of school.

Wyatt's best buddy Nathan came over for the party along with all three of Wyatt's nephews: Jaxon, Chett and Gale. It was quite a roudy party:)

I-Night

2008-09-10T16:47:00.001-07:00

I-Night

I- night is a big event that happens at the beginning of each semester at BYU-Idaho. There are tons of activities. Levi and I went with a small group of friends and we had a blast!

Some of the events we tried were: laser tag, rock climbing, balloon shaving, ball toss, frog jump, bungee run, wheel chair basketball, tug-a-war, dating game, comic frenzy, cherry/whip cream game, and probably more. We decided to pass on a few like sumo wrestling, bull ridding, and twirly dizzy getting rides.

The group we went with.

Levi, MaryLynn, Cami, Sydney and Mandee in the front.

Here we are!

This was an interesting one. They have a cherry and then squirt whipped cream over it and you have to dig for the cherry with your tongue. Then we had a race to see who could eat their whip cream the fasted. We all felt a little ill afterwards:)

Me and two of my roommates getting a little crazy while waiting in line for wheel chair basketball.

Wheel chair basketball. Levi doing some blocking.

Levi and I on the bungee run. It was well a little strenuous but fun. Levi beat me every time of course! I think I did a back flip thing once when the bungee pulled be back. It kinda hurt!

It was a I-night to remember!

A Birthday Wish for Wyatt

2008-09-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WYATT!

Wyatt, I hope you have a fantastic day!

Have fun being 6!

A little gift for you something you love!

Chocolate Milk :)

Wish I could be there to help with your school bus cake, but can't wait to see pictures of it! I bet it will be awesome!

Love and miss you,

MaryLynn

We Made It to BYU-I

2008-09-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!

This is MaryLynn. Greeting from Rexburg! Well, Levi and I are here (in Rexburg at the BYU-I that is)! It was a long drive but we are so excited to be back! It was wonderful when we saw the temple in view, I can't wait to go there. So after an 8+ hour drive, we dropped of the stuff at my apartment. My old roomate Mandee was there and it was great to see her again. We are rooming together along with Ashla and some other girls. Then we went to Levi's apartment and dropped of his stuff. Three of his roommates were there, they were all freshman. They seem nice so that is good for him. He said it was weirder to come back than the first time! It is so fun to have him here too. Heidi....next year! Ashla will be here tomorrow, I can't wait.

Then we ventured to the lovely local grocery store Brolums and gave one of Levi's roommates a ride too. Fun, fun, we bought food and such. Ya know stuff like Berry Colosal crunch. hum sounds like some good dinner with a little peanut butter on it. hehe. It is chilly here, but no snow yet...maybe tomorrow:) I am quite tired from staying up way late packing, so I don't think I will venture on anything too exciting tonight. It was fun talking with Mandee and catching up and making some fun plans for the semester.

I am having a goal to be more outgoing, social, and friendly. Hopefully having a year of college behind me...not being a freshman will help. I think Levi was a little sad that he wouldn't have Bryant pestering him that it was time to go to bed :) haha. Heidi can't wait tell you are here! Are you surviving the um brothers?

Well, I guess I should go unpack and such, and eat, and sleep. I am way tired!

Well, Love you all family and miss you.

Talk to you later. Post some pics with the sheep!

P.S. Wyatt, how are the straws?

Coming Soon....

2008-09-04T00:21:00.001-07:00

Coming up soon on What-in-the-wide-world-gardners....

So, um...What's for dinner?

So we were thinkin'

Wyatt's Flying Tricks

Passing the Torch

and

A Peachy Time in the Kitchen

There going to be great, so be sure not to miss them.

Little Wonderous Wyatt goes to School

2008-09-03T23:55:00.000-07:00

Wyatt's First Day of School

A little worried, but happy and excited too!

Wyatt started kindergarten a few weeks ago. It ended up that he started a week later than the high school. He was all ready to go when they did, but after waiting another week he told mom he wasn't so sure about it.

The first day mom stayed with him, maybe more for her comfort than for his. :) He has done just fine at school and mom has done okay home alone too. :) He has shown his artistic abilities and imagination. Everyday when asked how school was he says, "Great!" He is making new friends, but to his dismay has not yet learned how to read. How long does that take anyways?

His second day of school, getting on the bus.

When we asked him what his favorite part of school was, he exclaimed, "Riding the Bus!"

Back to School!

2008-09-03T23:44:00.001-07:00

Back to School cake!

Summer is ending and school is begining!

How do you feel about school?

Heidi: 'Ugh stressful!'

Bryant: 'Aaaaahhhhhahaha!' (maybe because of girls, or is it the math homework?)

Wyatt: 'I don't know, I havn't been there yet.' (and those were his exact words)

Random Summer Fun

2008-09-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Well, as you know we the Gardner's have some pretty fun time. There are lots of things we have done this Summer. It's been pretty eventful...making food creations, surprise creatures on the counter, working in a jungle of weeds, being attached by pumpkin plants, sister getting married, brother returning from his mission, Wyatt being Wyatt and the list goes on. Here are some pictures of some of the things we have done. Each has it's one story with in itself, so I'll just briefly tell about each one... because "A pictures worth a thousand words."

Time for a Rodeo

Wyatt and his best friend Nathan having a Rodeo of their own out in the yard.
They had many events, barrel racing, bull riding, calf roping, and some they made up themselves.

My favorite was when they would have their horses attach each other. Looks like they are getting ready for that event right here!

Eventually Wyatt found his boots and was styling in his shorts with boots fashion.

Sheep Joys!

Of course the summer just wouldn't be the same with out working with the sheep and getting them ready for the lamb show. Wahoo!

Here they are taking them for a walk/run/drag. Bryant made Wyatt take the big one, which weighs at least twice as much as him, and Bryant took the little one. Bryant claims that, "the big one is calmer." Well from the looks of the picture Bryant's lamb seems to have escaped him, causing um...a little stress on his part. :)

Well, looks like Wyatt can handle them both! He's pretty tough, like his big brother Levi! Notice, he is once again in his favorite style (boots w/ shorts).

Fun with the nephews

Gale, Chett, and Jaxon!

Sweet Jaxon!

Playing cowboys.

Making apple pie of course!

Lookin' good Chett:)

Gale with some Root beer... well actually it's just water. (For you Anena)

Swinging in Grandma's yard.

Buggy Rides

Inside

and out!

Fun at the Park

Wow Wyatt! We are all amazed he is almost six and hasn't broken a bone with how crazy he is!

The sister...and Wyatt. He insisted on being in the picture, that's okay.

Wiggle Racers

Have you ever ridden a wiggle racer? Well, they are awesome. We have all, young and old, big and small, had a lot of fun on them.

Looky here, even dad got on one. I think Wyatt won him in the race. Once when the home teachers came, Wyatt made them try them too!

And More Fun Times

Brain Freeze from the smoothy eating contest. Actually, I think Bryant and Wyatt were the only ones who were trying to eat them fast. We just wanted to see them get brain freezes. Mean of us huh!

Um...Bryant doing "Walk Power Walk" I wasn't supposed to put this on the blog, oops!

Too bad we didn't get any pics of us doing Yoga!

Three little cowboys, and one sleeping dad cowboy.

Bryant and his blue violin. Yes, that made the summer um entertaining. :)
Pudding fight, during a cream poof making session.

Well I hope you enjoyed seeing some more of our Summer fun. It has been quite the summer, as you can tell, we keep ourselves entertained somehow. There may not be a lot to do in Enterprise, or on tumbleweed lane. So we make our own fun, and as you can tell, we do have fun, at times maybe more than we should! :)

Mom's Birthday

2008-09-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

Mom's birthday follows right after Cheryl's, so we were already in the birthday spirit.

The Controversial Card

One of our favorite things is singing cards (especially Hoops and Yoyo -they are great)! So we thought we'd find mom one! Well we found one, it didn't exactly sing but made noise. Heidi and I were so excited about it and thought it was perfect for mom! Well, after we got home and listened to it more carefully, we weren't so sure. We mostly liked it for the part about taking a nap because mom really enjoys that. The card says something like, " Happy Birthday (with lots of enthusiasm)...This is an elderly person so we need to make this as least exciting as possible....happy birthday.....no no that's too much we don't want to send them into a tail spin...okay happy birthday (with less enthusiasm)...." Anyways we were a little concerned about the elderly part. But after a long debate we finally decided to give it to her.

Here it is.

The front.

Inside Spread.

Close up of inside.

Close up of the back. See the "Happy napping!" :)

Mom examining her card...will she like it?

Being sure she hears it I guess. haha. I am pretty sure she liked it. She smiled and laughed, so I think we were safe, luckily. :)

The Cake

At our house, a birthday just isn't a birthday with out a cake. And so we try to make something special for everyones. For mom, we decided to create her back yard, because it is something she loves and spends a lot of time with. It took a lot of work and time, but between Heidi, Cheryl, and I, I think we mastered it pretty well.

Tada! I really had a lot of fun on this cake.
The real back yard.

Mom loved the cake so much she wasn't sure she wanted to eat it. But um she did, along with the rest of us! And it was yummy!

Presents

Well, you can't really see it so well, but Bryant gave mom a necklace he got from the Indian reservation. The green present that is unwrapped is a photo frame with pictures of us three sisters. Off to the side you can see Wyatt card he made her. And I think he may have also given her some stuff from his "Special drawer."

2008-09-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

Will be having new posts tomorrow. Be excited to see them :)

Cheryl's Happy Day!

2008-08-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

As you know, we love birthdays. We had a lot of fun on Cheryl's Birthday!

Someday you should all join us in one of the celebrations, they're fun!

Presents! We had a hard time at first trying to think of what to get her!

But in the end, we were happy about what we found for her, and I think she was too:)

Anastasia, one of her most favorite movies! Now she has one all her own.
"Pop ice" as she calls them. Gale looks excited about them. He's eyeing them.
Cheryl loves to make apple pie! Mom found this handy dandy apple slicer/peeler/corer.

Looky there, it works!
Wyatt's photography skills! Cheese.

We couldn't think of what to do for her cake. We finally decided to make her boot. It turned out rather successful.

Chett is the candle putting in guy, as always.

Make a wish! No matter who's birthday it is, Chett always loves "happy days!"

We topped off the celebration with the kitchen dance.

Look Anena, we are doing the cowboy cha cha, but I'm not sure we did it right. We had fun anyways. Mom and dad were doing rather well, and Scottie and Heidi caught right on!

Attach of the Drones

2008-08-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

Every year around the same time, our house is swarmed by flying drone ants.

They come down the chimney, just like old Santa Clause. So, in order to stop the unwanted intruders, we have to cover up the chimney, which takes great courage. Heidi was the nominee for the job this year, lucky her! Seeing as all the boys were off somewhere (as they always seem to be in times of tragedy:), mom decided Heidi was the person for it. Then they had to figure out a way to get up on the roof, hum? Mom suggested she climb up the scaffolding and walk across the roof! Well, Heidi wasn't so thrilled or agreeable with that idea. Mom asked if her shoes were too slippery. Heidi said that she didn't want to find out! She decided just to use a ladder. The ants were swarming all over her. It was a scary thing indeed, especially trying to get down!

Eww, look at them all.

Mom vacuuming them all up! They were everywheres.

Heidi being attached by the ants! And fearing getting down.

This is my personal favorite photo of the adventure. Love her facial expression:)

Can she make it?

Yes she can!

_____________________________________________

She was happy to be on the ground again! Perhaps Wyatt will be the chimney plugger upper next year, or maybe Bryant, hum?...

Anyways, we survived another exciting adventure at the Gardner's!

Our Freaky Friday: "Eating Lunch with a Reptile" & "Smelly, Furry, Bloody Mouse Blobs"

2008-08-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Eating Lunch with a Reptile

One day I was going to eat lunch, as Wyatt would say, “I was staaarved!” So I went in search of something to eat. As I scanned the kitchen in search of something tasty and edible, on the counter to my astonishment there was an oversized snake slithering in my direction! Naturally, I was quite alarmed. I quickly leaped back. “What in the wide world!” I thought. I felt I needed to shout my astonishment from the top of some place very high. After my initial shock, I began exclaiming, “There’s a snake on the counter, there’s a snake on the counter!” I didn't know we were having company. Usually company is a much welcomed pleasant surprise for us, living on "Tumbleweed Lane" and all. Well, this visit was definitely a surprise but sure wasn't pleasant, nor welcomed! Luckily, Levi was around so I told him to take care of the creepy intruder. It was a struggle, but as usual Levi came out victorious with his weapon: a plastic bag. Why a plastic bad…I know not. I wished it a deathly fate, but they just set it free. As for me, after all that I decided I wasn't "staaaarved" anymore. The nasty blow snake was gone and so was my appetite! I ate a few crotons that were meant for my salad, but they just made me feel somewhat ill. So I didn’t eat lunch after all.

The experience has left me with an unrealistic fear that snakes are lurking everywhere, and are ready to strike! Actually, it wasn’t the first time we discovered a snake in our house, or the second in fact, it was the third! There was one in the shoe room once, and one in my moms closet. But one in the kitchen counter in the middle of the day, oh dear! So, watch out! If they can get on the kitchen counter, can’t they get just about everywhere?!?

Soon after this traumatic event, we went to the park with some friends. Someone yelled, “Snake.” As a result a bunch of people started being frantic. Then they explained that it was “Snake question mark not snake exclamation point.” So be sure to specify is it “Snake!” or “Snake?”

Also, I found it amusing after telling the story to a friend that she thought it was the snake that ate the crouton not me! Oh dear.

" There's a SNAKE on the counter! There's a snake on the counter!"

"It could creep out a bat!"

It was crawling all over the kitchen counter.
_____________________________________________________

Smelly, Furry, Bloody Mouse Blobs

That same day, my mom wanted us (Heidi and MaryLynn) to clean out the storage room, after the scaring event of the snake. I know, how much can we handle in one day? Geez. Yes, we were quite afeared that we would come across yet another snake. But come to find out, there were worse things ahead for us to encounter. Oh dear.
After delaying the ordeal for quite some time, we decided to face our doomed fate. We finally mustered up the courage to enter the eerie storage room. With gloves on (which were a chore to find), and Clorox disinfectant in hand, we thought we were knights ready to conquer the quest that lay ahead. We soon found that mouse droppings were more abundant than pepper on dad's Sunday baked potato, and the ghastly mixture of aromas from the droppings and cleaner were making the boys' work hats seem like pleasant perfume. Our bravery and confidence were slipping away, but we continued onward. While clearing the storage room, there was a black sleeping bag laying on the floor. As I went to grasp it, I couldn't help but fear a viscous snake bounding out of it, as a picture of the lunch visitor reentered my mind. As I did someone comes up behind me puts there hands on my back roars. I let out a scream then laughed as my heart slowly stopped racing. We were tempted to abandon our quest but pressed forward with wavering courage. Perfect timing indeed.

Heidi's adventures of cleaning the storage room was much worse! Here it is.
Heidi's tale. Poor Heidi. So, as if the mouse droppings weren't bad enough, there were more remains of mice, or at least something furry and gross! As we were moving, arranging and disinfecting, Heidi came across some blobs of things that had hair remains and blood. We call them "smelly, furry, bloody mouse blobs." As far as we can figure some mice must have somehow died and left some remains. It sure did smell of death, which almost killed Heidi as well. She was about to through up! (Hum, throwing up in the storage room? Sound familiar anyone....Bryant hehe! Another great story that it!) Anyways, the brave soul (Heidi) somehow was victorious over the smelly, furry, bloody mouse blobs. I feel kind of bad. I was cleaning and just kept laughing a lot as she was half gaging/ half laughing as she turned her head away and tried to wipe up the sfbm blobs. Good thing they didn't just come back to life and get her, then again maybe they were alive to begin with.

Coming close to throwing up!

Laughing

Perhaps our two stories are more related than we thought. Maybe our lunch visitor, The Snake already had lunch in the storage room, left us a little of it, (hence the smelly, bloody, fuzzy mouse blobs) and was coming to the kitchen in search of dessert! Hum, well, I didn’t want to be dessert. But I guess it could have eaten a few croutons if it really wanted to.As much as we usually like and welcome visitors, we would much rather have just eaten our own food and done it alone with out any visitors at all. Although that would have left us with out this great story to share with you.

And that is the joys of life with the Gardners. Indeed we have good times. Just wonder what is up ahead…? Well after this incident I hope for not so much excitement, or at least a different kind. But then again, with Wyatt around, There is always excitment lurking aroudn somewhere. Sometimes the excitement comes right up behind you and jumps on your head, literally! You may just know what I mean, and ouch it hurts. I know from experience!
May you live without ever having an "Eating lunch with a reptile" experience or coming face to face with a "Smelly, furry, bloody, mouse blobs."

A Long Awaited Wrestling Match

2008-08-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

So, remember the arm wrestle and Eric winning.

Well, this time they decided to have a wrestling match. It was really intense!

And....Levi pins him.
Gale cheering for his dad. Go Dad!
Hurray!

Here goes round two.
They decided on a rematch.

Levi's still pretty strong!
Levi pins him again!
Bryant was supposed to be the referee. But he kept telling Eric all sorts of wrestling moves.
Eric didn't understand any of them.

Chett and Gale watching the match. They just kept smiling and laughing.

Levi's Homecoming Lunch

2008-08-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

After Levi's homecoming talk we had lunch at the park with family and friends.

There was dutch oven potatoes, rolls, roast, mutton, and lots and lots of jello and pasta salads, of course! Oh, and cake. It was fun to see everyone.

The cakes we made him.

The line for the food. The food was a hit!
Eatin' Girl cousinsHum.
Levi and his friends.

Feliz Cumpleanos Madre!!

2008-08-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!
Thanks for all you do and have done. I realize what a special mom you are more and more all the time and I don´t know how you do it. But thank you. I hope you have a happy birthday.

I love Wyatt...He´s a RIOT!!!

2008-08-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

In the words of princess Giselle........OH MY GOODNESSSSSS!!! Como es posible?? How is it possible for Wyatt to be so funny. Honestly! By the way this is Anena Giménez...PERMISO I´m writing on the blog. Do you have any idea how much I laugh out loud in public internet places looking at this blog!! I just have to say thank you for keeping it up to date and letting me share in the fun of the Gardner household still...where does Wyatt come up with this stuff?? I guess he was just born funny along with crazy. I LOVE YOU WYATT!!

Let's go to the RODEO

2008-08-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

It was the 24th of July and that meant rodeo time. We all got ready to go, except mom, she wanted to stay at home and rest. As we were getting ready to leave Wyatt decided he wanted to stay home with his mom. He was kind of doing his indecisive thing. So the rest of us got in the van. We figured after we pulled out of the garage that Wyatt was probably crying because he changed his mind and wanted to go to the rodeo. So dad honked the horn as we were driving away. Then we hear some screaming and look back to see Wyatt chasing after us! "I changed my mind, I want to go," he said in tears. Oh boy! So he jumped in and we were off.

Wyatt wondering if maybe he should have stayed home?

He looks a little concerned.

Look at em all decked out in the cowboy gear! Oh yeah!
Levi stealin' Wyatt's hat. I love this picture!
Ohh la la! Look at Wyatt! He even wore his Wranglers.

Was he trying to catch some girl friends, or friend girls I mean?

Heidi was telling him how good looking he was. Wyatt then said, "Levi must be a handsome shopper then, because he's the one who got me this shirt." Oh dear:)

He had lots of fun at the rodeo. He enjoyed getting some food and the chicken chase. He said he would have got one but he bumped heads with somebody.

Overall he had a blast, and was happy he decided to come.

Living in the Past

2008-08-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

These are the big horses. Eric made a buggy and likes to give hook up the horses and go for rides in it. This is another wagon they hook the horses up to. Here they are getting the hay from the field. They really enjoyed doing this, especially Dad and Chett.

Going out with the horses to gather up the hay at Grandpa's.
Way out in the field.Returning
Dad backing up the horses to unload the hay.
Yee Haw!

More 24th Festivities

2008-07-26T16:15:00.001-07:00

Bryant and his blue violin playing with the string band.

He looks so happy.

The string band.

We were going to line dance to it...but decided not to.

Wyatt running his race! He practiced for it a lot!

Chett after his race! He was so excited.

24th of July Parade

2008-07-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

Dad with the Y/M & Y/W. Dad enjoyed driving the horse team.

Heidi with the drill team dancing, well running in this picture. She was exhasted!

Bryant & Wyatt with the Primary Float.

Wyatt wasn't sure if he wanted to go on the float. He got a big bag of candy for it though. So he was happy!

Chett with his candy. Chett enjoyed the parade. I think his favorite part was when he saw Wyatt on the float.

Welcoming Levi Home

2008-07-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

We were all very excited for Levi to come home.

The little boys didn't waste any time showing him all he'd missed.

Bryant loves to play the violin, he even has a special blue one. He said, "Oh Levi hasn't gotten to hear me play the violin." Heidi and I thought, 'Oh dear!'

Here he is chasin' Levi down with his violin.

As for Eric and Wyatt in the back ground....who knows?

Wyatt and Chett in awe of Levi's skills on the pink guitar.

He also enjoyed getting reacquainted with his Ukulele.

Wyatt is crazy! He says, "I was just born crazy."

He had to show Levi his tricks on the swing set. He climbs back and forth and hangs on the posts. He says he has to do them everyday.

They also wrestled with him. Bryant thought he could take him down.

Fun at the Party

2008-07-22T13:07:00.001-07:00

The Arm Wrestle

Ready, set, go!
Pretty intense! It was like this quite a while.
Eric finally won.

He said, "I think that is the first time I've ever beaten Levi."

Jaxon had fun!
I guess Chett wasn't getting enough attention with Levi returning.

So he pulled out some of his tricks. They worked.

"Bah la bah la bah la bah la," says Chett as he sticks out his tongue and pulls his ears.

(This one is for you Anena!)

The Party at Jake & Ashlee's House.

2008-07-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

We had chips and dip, watermelon and hot dogs. And of course we made him a cake!
Say cheese!
The boys.

Levi w/ Jaxon and Gale. Fun!

Last Moments at the Airport

2008-07-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

Mom, Levi, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma
Oh boy, the family at the airport.
Levi trying to speak English. :)
Getting the luggage.

Levi and the Nephews

2008-07-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

One really exciting part was for Levi to get to see his three nephews.

Two of them he had never even met yet!

Meeting Jaxon
Meeting Gale

Reuniting with Chett.

He was only a few weeks old when Levi left!

He was a little unsure about Levi at first.

Hugs, Smiles, and Tears

2008-07-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

Mom was the first to embrace Levi.

(She must have one the fight with Bryant).
Levi and Dad.
Levi with Bryant.
Wyatt was a little shy at first, but he came around.
Levi and Grandpa Staheli.

The Airplane with Levi has Arrived!

2008-07-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

The airplane has arrived!

The three missionaries finally reappear.

We saw Levi get off the plane, but then we wondered where he went.

I think the missionaries were trying to trick us.

After everyone else came in, and then a few minuets later,

they finally came in to reunite with their families.

Mom and Bryant fighting over who gets to hug Levi first.

The reaction of seeing Levi walk in the door.

Look at Mom, she is way happy!

Waiting at the airport for Levi

2008-07-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

We were all so excited for Levi to come home and finally the day had arrived!

July 17 2008. We arrived at the airport and waited anxiously for him to arrive.

And we waited, and waited, and waited!

There was a mix up/ cancellation of one of his flights.

So after two years of waiting we got to wait a few more hours than expected.

One of the signs we made for him.

Chett and Eric reading the paper while waiting.
Gale was getting a little tired of waiting! :)
Wyatt and Bryant kept looking for the plane to arrive.

Baking with Wyatt Part I: Preparations

2008-07-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Baking with Wyatt.

Today Wyatt will be demonstrating how to bake a cake.

First put on an apron.
Yeah!
Then preheat the oven to 350.

Baking with Wyatt Part II: Ingredients

2008-07-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

1. Cake mix
2. Eggs
three of them
3. Water
4. Oil???

Baking with Wyatt Part III: Mix and Stuff

2008-07-20T19:07:00.001-07:00

Now Beat it!
Spray and flour the pan.
Put it in the pan.
Taste test.

Baking with Wyatt IV: Time for the Oven

2008-07-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

Put it in the oven!
Set the timer,
for 1/2 an hour.
Eat the beater well, the batter off the beater.
Hum....now what? What should I do while I wait for it to bake?

Baking with Wyatt Part V: What to do While Waitin for the Bakin

2008-07-20T18:30:00.001-07:00

While waiting for it to bake, here are some possible things you may

consider doing to keep yourself busy and entertained.

Do some break dancin moves.
Answer the phone. Watch out it may be a "Stupid message system!"
Play some tunes on the guitar.
Go for a horse ride...meet up with a bear!
And last but not least, do some flying tricks!

By the time you do all that, it may just be finished baking!

Baking with Wyatt Part VI

2008-07-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

Decorate
Blow out Candles
Cut the cake (w/ your hand?)

Eat it up! YUM!

3-2-ONE Levi Comes Home

2008-07-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

Levi's countdown chain. It's now only one link!
The chain used to be from the ceiling to the floor and then some!

Ahhhh! I can't believe it!

Levi will be home tomorrow and the family is getting pretty excited!
Everyone is having plans for him...even before he has left the mission!
Wyatt wants him to help "make his farm" and
Bryant can wait for him to "teach me some new wrestling moves."
Eric has some fence jobs lined up and of course there are the sheep to be tended to.
Oh boy, hopefully he can get some rest in!

A Mid-Night Snack

2008-07-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Wyatt had to use a big spoon!
"Cheese"
"Muahhahaha"

Time for a BIGGER TOUGHER spoon!
Big deep scoop. Use those muscles!
Oh dear!

Chett & Friends

2008-07-12T16:49:00.001-07:00

Chett loves Woody and Buzz. They are indeed his favorite!

"Howdy"

"Zoom" They always having to be riding something.

It's usually a horse but this time it was a dinosaur.

"It's a Giant Wut"

2008-07-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

"Come see, come see!" Wyatt exclaimed excitedly, "It's a giant wut." We finally figured out what he was saying root. Mom dug up a tree and the root was huge. It reached clear across the kitchen. Wyatt enjoyed it.

Meet Sam

2008-07-12T16:28:00.001-07:00

Wyatt loves to have many pets, some stinky, some missing eyeballs, some swishy and gross. This is his latest pet "wurm"...but I don't think he has him anymore.

He named it Sam.
This is the stink bug Wyatt caught a while back that was on the kitchen floor. It was huge! Somehow he ended up in the dumpster.

Wyatt says, "That is why the dumpster outside still stinks!"haha.

"Oooohhh Stink"

2008-07-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

"Ooohhh Stink"
Preparing to cover up "Stink"
"Stink go?"
Looking to stab the stink.

Chett was playing outside one day. He discovered a "stink" (stink bug) and began covering it with a rock and then trying to stab it with a fence stake. He said, "Stink go," then "oohh stink." It was splendidily hilarious! Oh dear.

Little Boys & Little Dogs

2008-07-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

Meet Whopper, Baby Ruth, and Twixy. Or as we call them, The Late Luigee, Yo Gabba Gabba and Fransisco.

These puppies have been through a lot... maggots, loosing eyeballs, painful smelly "medication" etc. Now we shall see if they shall survive Bryant and Wyatt. One has already passed on...let's just say he might be the lucky one. j/k. They're cute. Chett likes them mostly and so does Gale.

(I should not do this for I cannot spell).

Juan's Birthday

2008-07-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

La Torta Bonita.
Tada!
Hehehe

Feliz Cumpleanos Juan. We celebrated by making a cake of course...or cupcakes that is. Chett sure enjoyed another, "Happy Day," as he blew out the candles, a couple of times as usual. We hope Juan had a splendid birthday.

I made it!

2008-07-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

This is Anena. I made it to Paraguay. I am so happy to be here and to be with Juan. Wish you could all be here to and meet him. He´s wonderful! I put the pics on my blog. It takes forever to load them, so I´ll just put them there... juanandanena.blogspot.com.

But here´s one I took for the fam. LA PULP!! Still takes good....

thanks for everything family. I miss you all. please post pics often.