Another Year Wiser?

Well another year has come and gone. More gray hairs, (I've even given up on pulling them out. I decided if I kept that up I'd be bald soon!) a few more wrinkles, (Botox, save me!) and one more year of surviving Alaska! (Sarah Palin gossip really helped this year fly by!) Okay seriously, this year was a great one! I am getting used to Alaska's darkness and long winters. Maybe my "happy lights" and vitamin B's did the trick! Thanks Costco!


As you will see below, I had a very fun birthday! I must say that if you haven't signed up for Facebook you must! I have never had so many "Happy Birthday" wishes in my life, well except for when I taught school. I heard from so many people that day.

So I started my day going to Jared's preschool with Brett and Jenna for Jared's special day! (Brett had the day off, which was wonderful! I think I will request that every year!) Anyway, about once every month and a half a parent goes in to help with a center at school and provide a snack for the children. Jared helped with calendar time and got to bring a special toy from home to share. It's so fun to spy on him and see how he interacts with other kids.

Later that day we invited our friends, the Geroux's, over to help us make pizza and party with us! Jared, Dallin and Jenna made the cutest cards for me and gave me some spatulas. I'll have to remember to use those when they misbehave!=) Brett's gift is coming later. Stay tuned!

Here's the pizza crew! Shouldn't I get some sort of commission from Pam, Prego, A&W and Dole for the advertising? We made a canadian bacon/pinapple pizza and a 1/2 cheese, 1/2 pepperoni one. They were so yummy!

They loved adding more and more cheese! Marci and Mikaela were very big helpers.

My favorite part of the day was when my friend surprised me with this beautiful cake. I LOVE lemon cake and this was so perfect! I think Brett was so relieved when my friend, Michelle, offered to make this. That let him off the hook. The whole day I kept thinking, "When is Brett going to make my cake? Has he forgotten about me? He's in big trouble if he forgets." (You know how those pretend conversations go that you have with your spouse? They start small and then escalate into this huge thing. Before you know it, you're mad at the person and they haven't done anything to deserve it? Am I the only one that does that?!) So, thanks Michelle! You are the best!

After the pizza party, we went to watch a local high school basketball game. One of the girls that I teach in church was playing so we wanted to go cheer her on! Jenna was quite the cheerleader as she yelled, "Go Cara go!"

All in all, turning 38 was a pretty painless experience! Thanks everyone for spoiling me!

Who Needs Disneyland?!

So we were supposed to go to Disneyland last week, but things just didn't work out. We decided to have a fun weekend around here instead. (Our kids are so sheltered. They really don't even know what Disneyland is they didn't know what they were missing.)

We spent a little time earlier in the week touring local hotels. Then we let the kids vote on which one they liked the best. I must say, they chose well! (There was one hotel that had a view of the pool right as you walked in the main entrance. Not wanting to personally turn away business, I immediately vetoed that one. Notice there are no pictures of me in the pool! There is a reason for that!) Enjoy the pictures!

This kids loved playing on the balcony outside of our room! For a split second we really thought we were in California until reality set in and we had to come in out of the cold!

While the kids were waiting for their dinner at Applebees, we played a little "I Spy" with them. It kept their attention for a very long time!

Don't you just love taking pictures of yourself with your camera? I didn't want to be too vain, so I had the kids pose with me. Dallin will love the flared nostrils some day!

I look stoned, but I promise I'm only drinking chocolate milk!

I've got to teach this girl how to pucker up! Then again, there is really no hurry!

I LOVE this picture! They were so excited to go swimming!

Dallin is our little fish and recently learned how to swim! We are so proud of him!

Jared, on the otherhand, takes after me when I was his age and enjoys the pool from a distance!

Jenna loved being able to "swim" with this cute tube!

Nice back float there Dallin! Look at that form!!

We pretended that we were on a sunny California beach! Needless to say, we did not leave with tans! We have come to accept the fact that we will be pastey white for the rest of our lives!

After swimming, the kids watched a movie. Jared was very much at home as you can see!

Dallin, Brett and I watched Monk and Psych. If you've never seen those shows you are missing out!

I loved the fact that I didn't have to do any work. It was fun and relaxing! Can I go back every day?

After such an exciting evening they finally crashed! Ahh, the silence! (Is that bad of me to say?)

Aren't they so cute when they're sleeping? Well, they're always cute, but I just love it when they're asleep!

We had a great time and didn't even have to clean sand out from between our toes, peel because of sunburn or spend a ton of money! (Okay, so I'm just trying to be positive! Aren't you proud of me!)

Oh one more thing! Although Brett and I didn't want to swim Saturday morning, we let the kids splash around. When we walked into the pool area one of Brett's patients was there cleaning. She gave him and hug and told me that he always treats her so well and is the best dentist. About 15 minutes later she showed up with a paper for Brett to sign. She told us she wanted to thank Brett by giving us her "Friends and Family" 50% off discount. (Thanks Blanca!) Add that to the $20 gift card to Target that we received for staying there, and our room ended up being about $20! Can you say WAY CHEAPER THAN CALIFORNIA! (Tammy and Nat--I don't even want to hear about what we missed, okay?=) I'll live in total denial!)

Sledding Fun!

Last night our friends invited us to go sledding. We went to a nearby school with a not-so-steep hill. Some of us had a blast. (I'll let you figure out who did and didn't have fun!) Brett was sick so he stayed home.

Dallin and Logan couldn't get enough sledding in and were so bummed when we had to leave!

Jared liked playing in the snow, but when I forced him to go down on the sled with me he went kicking and screaming the whole way! Later I asked him why he had been so upset by the whole thing and he told me, "When we hit the jump I almost went poops in my underwear!" Okay, that could've been a little traumatic!

Jenna HATED every second. I just didn't get it because she loves playing outside in the snow.

Dallin and I went down and few times and every single time I hit that darn jump! My back paid for it the next day, but it was worth it!

Merry Christmas!

We had such a fun Christmas in the Gardiner home. Although it was below zero, Santa and his reindeer still managed to make it to Alaska! The reindeer even ate the frozen carrots that were left outside. The kids slept in until 7:00 and I couldn't wait any longer, so I made more noise than usual and guess what?! They woke up! (Brett loves this side of me! When we were first married, he thought I was crazy waking up at 5:00 to open presents. He said, "We don't even have kids! Why are we waking up so early?") After opening presents we had a pajama day, lounging around sleeping and playing with toys.


Jenna did not want to wake up! She just kept yelling, "Back to bed! Back to bed!" (Hmm, I wonder who she takes after?) In fact, after she woke up and saw the presents she ran back downstairs and tried to sleep. I didn't let her, of course, because I was so excited!


This notebook was the first present Jenna opened. A few minutes later we handed her another present and she said, "No, I already opened one." It took a lot to get her to give in and open more. Man I could have saved a ton of money!

Dallin and Jared had no problem tearing into their gifts!

Santa made Jenna's Christmas dreams come true. She LOVES being a princess! (She's really into posing half tipped over....something new for her, maybe associated with princess status.) I love the high heels and crack up as I watch her trying to walk in them. She kind of reminds me of myself, which is why I avoid them at all cost!

Jared was so happy when he opened his new train cars and cargo set. He also loves his basketball, soccer ball and football. When he gets excited he talks a mile a minute. It's so dang cute!

The kids loved the choo choo train that Santa brought. Too bad he forgot to bring the batteries to make it run! Poor Santa just had too much on his mind! Dallin got spoiled this year too. He loves his new dinosaur book, bubble gum machine and underwater dino and guy. He is so passionate and yelled and screamed with excitement every time he opened a gift.

Jenna was dying to go out and play almost all day! So late afternoon, she finally got herself dressed in Jared's coat and hat and went outside. The two of us ended up in the garage, sitting in the van, listening to her favorite songs. After that, I pulled her in the sled and made snow mountains with her. What a fun day! I wish we could celebrate Christmas every day!

Pre-Christmas Festivities

It's been awhile since I updated our blog, so I thought I'd share some of the fun things we've been up to this month. We are so excited for Christmas and have been very busy preparing for Santa's arrival!

On Sunday morning we all got dressed up in our Sunday/Christmas best and headed off to church! I can't believe we actually got a couple of good shots of the kids. (I admit, I was being a little, okay a lot, psycho as I was trying to take these in a hurry before running off to choir! I hope Santa will still come and visit me!)

Behind those beautiful smiles they're saying, "Please Mom, can we be done?!"

My friend, Erika, and her husband invited us over for a fun party. Santa came and Dallin finally got to tell him that he wanted a "dinosaur underwater sea diving guy." Man, it's amazing that Santa gets it right every time, even with a description like that!

The boys and I spent some quality bonding time making gingerbread cookies for Santa to eat.

They were YUMMY! We did manage to save a few for Santa though! Hmm, for some reason I really don't think Santa really needs them.

Jenna is so excited for Christmas and loves her little reindeer that one of my past students gave me.

Yeah! We did it! We actually made a gingerbread house this year. (Okay, so I cheated a little and bought a kit, but at least I made time to do it!) Mom, I will never know how you had the patience to do several, made from scratch, each year!

Okay, I look so stoned in this picture, (Hmm, could it be all the frosting and candy I ate?!) but I just think Brett is so dang handsome, so I had to post this!

Wait! Santa has aged a lot since the above picture with Dallin! (I just had to explain to Dallin that Santa can't be everywhere and sometimes has elves help him out! Whew! That was a close one!) Jared wasn't too sure about the whole Santa thing. He chatted with him from a distance, but wouldn't sit on his knee. I can't say I blame him! He asked for a cargo addition for his train set.

Jenna loved this first encounter with Santa. (The second one didn't quite go as well.) She asked him for princess clothes.

Look! It's Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors and Mary! Some of us had fun dressing up for our ward party and some of us didn't. And no, there will not be a baby filling that manger any time soon!

Once there was a snowman! Dallin and Jared built this cool dude all by themselves! Don't you love the leaf eyes? We still have a few inches of leaves under our snow!

We had a fun playgroup party at our house! The kids exchanged gifts, ate lunch and had a great time!

Halloween Fun!

Happy Halloween! We hope your day was as fun as ours! Our kids did very well scoring candy for their parents, um I mean, uh... for themselves. They enjoyed "trunk-or-treating" at the church as well as knocking on a few doors. It was pretty chilly so we were home by 7:15, although it felt like 10:00!

Yesterday the kids began with pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. Why not start the day with chocolate chips and syrup?!

Mr. Crocodile, Jenna the unicorn (I know...hideous costume but it was warm and free. Besides that, the cute little girl makes up for it!) and last, but not least, Dash. This picture was taken last week at Dallin's school Halloween party. They had fun playing games and even went through the haunted hallway. Jenna is still talking about the "scary guy" that was there!

Our playgroup got together for our annual Halloween party. The kids had fun playing "Hot Hook," (It's like hot potato except played with a hook hand.) "Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Bat," and a balloon popping game. They also ate pizza and frosted cupcakes. Thanks Hayley! You are the best party thrower in town!

Boo! Can you say VERY SCARY UNICORN!!!! Maybe we could call her Dracucorn!

Okay, so last year I carved our pumpkin by myself because our kids were grossed out by the guts inside. As many of you know, when I was about 7 years old this girl in my class brought pumpkin seeds to school to share with her friends. Her dad had laced them with drugs, so those of us who ate them got pretty sick. To this day I can't stand to look at a pumpkin seed. (Maybe I should get therapy!!!) So until my kids get bigger and can decorate their own, I made an executive decision that we would decorate our pumpkins with markers this year. For those of you who think I'm a party pooper, I just have to let you know that I even let them use permanent markers. That's a big step for me! =)

The sugar high wore off quickly. Once Jenna was in her seat in the warm car she went to unicorn land. I was very bummed, however, when she got home and was wound up from her 5 minute nap.

I think Dash is done being Incredible! We drove for about one minute and Jared was out. It's a good thing he was clicked in. It would have been just tragic had he fallen out of his seat into the empty candy bags behind him!