About the Gardner's!

My photo
This is us! Jared, Stefanie, Anna and Aiden! Anna is 4 and Aiden is 2, time flies so fast! We're doing our best to enjoy life and take every obstacle head on! :) I'm hoping to have this blog be about all the happy things in our life and keep it mostly positive! Obviously, we have things in our lives that aren't so great, but I'll do my best to keep this as uplifting as possible ;)

Thursday, April 23, 2009

continued...







Another post with a few random pictures. Today we went to Thanksgiving Point with a friend of ours and her daughter, who is Anna's age, and we looked around at the Tulip Festival, it was beautiful and so fun! The girls were holding hands during some parts so we had to get a picture of them holding hands! They had so much fun there! We'll have to go back there again soon.
Something else happened a couple days ago in Aiden's room. I put Aiden in his crib with a little crib toy so I could do some laundry real quick. I noticed Anna trying to climb in there with him and I told her not to, because of course I didn't know what she would do lol. I went back a minute later to check on Aiden, and I peeked in his room and saw Anna trying as hard as she could to climb into his crib! She very carefully climbed in there, doing her best not to sit on Aiden, and she just sat down at his feet and started talking to him! How could I be mad at her for that?? lol. So I took some pictures of them together in the crib. Then I told her to come out of the crib and of course a couple minutes later, she was back in there, this time laying down next to him. She was pretending to go to sleep so she would tell him "nuh night!" and lay down next to him! At one point, with NO prompting from me, she leaned over and gave him a kiss nuh night! lol. It was sooo adorable. So I had to get more pictures from that! My kids keep me on my toes and can be VERY frustrating at times, but by golly I love them to pieces!!

Discovery Gateway! and more...lots of pics!











Ok so on Tuesday I took the kids to Discovery Gateway in Salt Lake and it was so fun!! Of course Aiden didn't really know what was going on, but Anna had TONS of fun! If she didn't need a nap and I didn't get bored, we could have stayed there much longer! lol. We were there almost 2 1/2 hours, she just didn't want to stop playing! So we'll definitely have to go back soon! So these were some pictures from there!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

More pics and info...







Well, as I was looking at my pictures, I forgot that since I last wrote, we went on a road trip which was quite an adventure! We had lots of fun though. We left early early, like 5 a.m. early, on a Sunday morning (2-15-09) and drove all day down to Gilbert, AZ, where we stayed with my aunt Melody and her family for two nights. That was one of the worst days though, holy cow. It took us about 14 hours to get down there, we had to keep making stops to let Anna run around for a min or two and of course to get gas occasionally. So of course once we got to their house, Anna was running around like a wild child! Seriously, she wouldn't stop for a second! Poor girl. Aiden did really well though. We borrowed Jared's dad's car, a Lincoln Towncar, because we didn't have enough room in our car to fit everything, so it was great taking his car. I was able to just slide in the backseat and feed Aiden his bottle while in his carseat. He slept most the time and did so so good. The next day, Monday, we went looking around parts of Mesa with Jared's grandparents and they showed us the temple grounds and where they grew up and everything, it was awesome. Tuesday, we left in the morning to drive to San Diego to stay the night with my Grandma and Grandpa, who live on a houseboat. Well, recently they sold that houseboat, so I was very glad we got to stay with them! It was interesting staying on there with two kids, but we managed for one night. Well, we got there in the afternoon and that night, my grandma and grandpa were working at the temple so we drove down the street to Seaport Village and hung out for an hour or so and took Anna on a carousel ride.
The next day we went with my grandparents to the San Diego Zoo and it was so fun!! We stayed there til around 2 or 3 and by that time Anna was so tired, but she also had so much fun! They had a little petting zoo that we took her in to and she loved to walk around with the animals and pet them! Oh and I think her favorite thing was the kettle corn....we tried to take it away from her for a few minutes so she could do the petting zoo, but nooo way, she cried if we did that!
That night, Wednesday night, we spent at a hotel because we didn't want to do two nights on the houseboat. Thursday morning we left and drove to Las Vegas!! Well, technically to Henderson, which is where Jared's Uncle and his wife live. We stayed a night with them, then the next day went to the Coke Store and the M&M Store, both so cool! Then after those, we drove home. It was a short but very fun vacation!
Also, there are a few pics of Anna with black stuff on her face that was taken a few days ago....yes, it's mascara! I accidentally left my makeup bag out and she got into it and starting trying to put it on just like I do! I couldn't help but laugh, it looked so funny! That's it for now!

I guess I should update....









It's been a while since I've written anything, so I guess I'd better write something! lol. Let's see...Aiden can now drive and Anna just moved out last week....oh wait, I guess it hasn't been THAT long haha. About a month ago we got a new car, yay!! Our Ford Escort was just getting too small for us! Well, especially me. The kids were a little crowded in the back seat and it wasn't always easy to fit everything we needed into that car. So we looked a couple places and ended up getting an '05 Mazda Tribute from CarMax. We traded our Escort in towards the purchase of our new one. It's an SUV and I totally love it! I love all the space it has in there, it's so fantastic, soo much better than our other car! So we've been pretty excited about that. Not a whole lot else has been happening with us. For Easter this past Sunday, we spent it with Jared's family and we did an egg hunt for Anna in their backyard, she totally loved it!! It was also Aiden's first Easter, but since he didn't know what was going on, then we didn't do a whole lot for him lol. I got him a couple of new toys, well, I should say they came from the "Easter bunny", and I put candy in his basket just because. Anna got a little Elmo figurine, which she LOVES, and she got one of those "My Little Pony" dolls. She loves that too. I remember playing with those when I was younger!
Really, not much else is going on. Sometimes I take the car for the day so I can go somewhere with the kids or do little playdates or whatever, and that's about the extent of our lives! Jared still works at the Post Office, of course, and is doing so great there. Oh that reminds me, it was really cool last night when I went to pick him up at work! I was just about to pull into the parking lot when I suddenly saw a mama deer and her 4 fawns walking across the parking lot!! It was so awesome! They walked across the street a few feet in front of our car and hung out in a front yard for a minute, then kept on walking down the street then into someone's backyard, it was crazy! But way cool. Anna kept saying all the way home, "kjselfkj ljflksj deer? All gone?" And yes, those jumbled letters was just her saying whatever, I can never understand her when she jabbers like that, I don't think she's really saying anything lol. She kept saying that ALL night too, I was like yes they're gone! But she had to keep asking about them! lol. She's so cute. Anna is of course getting bigger by the week it seems, growing out of her clothes and shoes faster than I can buy them, ugh! She's so so tall so it makes it hard sometimes to find the right clothes for her. I have to buy 3T and 4T shirts to make sure they are long enough on her! She loves to play outside, when it's warm, and with other kids and she is so fun, most of the time! lol. She is definitely in her terrible two's, which can be difficult sometimes, but she really is a cutie. Aiden is now 5 months old and I just keep thinking, "Where did the time go?? I swear he was just born!!" It's crazy how fast the time does go, but Aiden is doing great. He's now sleeping through the night, yay!, and still eats every two hours lol. He loves, loves to play with his toys and smiles a ton. He is such an adorable baby boy and such a good boy too! We love our little family!
Ok I just uploaded the pics and realized they're not in the place I wanted them, I wanted them AFTER the post, but I'm obviously still new to this so, sorry!