Ben, Oh Ben!

Ben's spiderweb!

I just have to put down some of the cute things Ben has done lately. Sunday while we were getting ready he blocked us in with his spiderweb. He had really wrapped it well and tied it to the chairs and was so cute! Notice his big brothers playing Wii in the background and not quite ready for church while Wes was sleeping and I got ready. Wes had only 1 1/2 hours of sleep because of a huge project at work so we tried to let him sleep in while I got ready. This is the result:)

Cute Benisms: While at dinner a few weeks ago Ben announced very loudly that ,"Dad, you are soaking wet!" This was hilarious! At Primary Sunday he announced to the chorister that she was Soaking Wet instead of singing "He Sent His Son". Crazy boy! Then he and his friend Mason began singing Pants on the Ground from a funny you tube video of a guy making fun of the sloppy clothes kids wear. Always good for a laugh.

Last night Dallin came in with his last candybar for sale from his Band fundraiser. He told the kids they could have it if they had $1. Ben quickly found 17 pennies and came in and said, "Dallin, I have lots of money for chocolate. I bring you lots of money." Of course Dallin gave it to him:)

On Feb. 17th Ben was rolling Mom's massage bar on my back that she left here. He randomly said,"Mom, this is like pizza."

On Feb. 16th I announced bedtime and told Ben it was time to get jammies on. He quipped back without hesitation, "I can't. I have to go save the day." He was in his firefighter costume and we had watched Fireproof on Sat. night. Cute boy!!

Just a few minutes ago he pulled a chair up to the fridge where we have any pictures of family that are sent to us. He said, "I want to go to Utah. Right there, in our flag shirts." He was pointing to the reunion picture from the 4th of July in Utah. He then went through each one and said, "Whose that?" He gave me a big hug and said, "Mom, you like Aunt Julie." "I like Aunt Julie." So cute! I had just shown him Jared and Julie in the picture. He loves you all and misses you just like we do!

Jarom's 1st Pinewood Derby!

Jarom designed and painted his car himself! At Cub Scouts the leaders cut them out and helped him with the weights and Wes did the wheels.

After his car came in 1st!

Another 1st!

Having a great time!


Weighing in. It was .1 too light so who knows what might have happened if we had made it 5 oz. when it did so well anyway:)

What a fun race! Wes worked on Jarom's wheels last weekend and when race time came Jarom was ready! He won a few and came in 4th overall-2nd for our Ward. It was a great time for all! Jarom was so excited to watch his car speed down and we all went crazy when he came in 1st for those races.

President's Day

Brookly on our walk.Ben was tuckered out and Dallin took pity on his little brother.

Jarom is always ready to play football.

Ben loved playing catch with his Daddy and Jarom.

Here we are! Superstition Mountains in the background! 75 degree weather in February. Perfect!

Finally a day off for Wes and we enjoyed every minute of it! Wes woke up with a migraine at 3am so we cancelled our hiking plans while he slept it off a bit. When he felt human again we ventured to the park and went for a walk in the land around the park. The kids played and Wes played catch with Jarom and Ben for a while. So beautiful! Beautiful weather and family! I love time like this! Our nephew Samuel came with us since he stayed the night with Josh and Brennen.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun way to start the month! I made these darling blocks at a craft day with my friend, Joni.

These candies are part of our tradition to use only these for a while at dinner and not talk. Lots of fun!

At Primary Activity Day the kids made these sweet Valentine's for us:)

Heart Attacked doors are our new tradition.

My girl!

The crew on VDay!

The only picture that was OK. They quickly dispersed before I looked at it too close.

The one I live for who makes it all worth it!

For Valentine's Day we started a fun new tradition of heart attacking each person's door with love notes from the family. It turned out so cute and made us remember who loves us!

Since Valentine's was on Sunday we had a nice dinner at home and used the heart candies with Grandma and Grandpa for a while to talk. Wes and I went to dinner for our date Sat. night and were too tired to go on the roof as planned for a movie. Another time:)

I love this holiday that is all about LOVE! I love my family!

Brennen's Future Coyotes Track Meet

I'm so glad I was able to be there! Thank you to Dallin for changing Ben who insisted on wearing underwear and then pottied his pants during the meet.

On phone is Dad congratulating him!

Brennen our star runner!

Feb. 2, 2010

Brennen ran in this track meet put on by Skyline High and he came in 1st in the 100 m, 2nd in the 200 m and 3rd in the mile run. He had to start the mile after a bunch of 6th graders and a group of 4tha nd 5th who didn't go when the gun sounded and he still ran so fast he passed all of them. He flies when he runs! We love you Brennen!

Lovin My Life!

A few of the reasons why I love my life... Brennen was amazing in the Kids Rock Marathon and Ben was the first hug!

Jarom's first Cub Scout Pack Meeting, Wes came even though he had tons of homeowork:)

Flagstaff sledding trip with the kids and some friends

Josh and Brennen on our family hike up "A" mountain after the marathon.

I love moments like this!


Brookly and me after she WON the Brinton School spelling bee as a 4th grader! What an incredible girl!

I've decided I really do love my life!

My thoughts to let it be known that I am incredibly blessed!

I love the hugs and kisses and kid fights and dishes.

I love laundry to the ceiling and enough stress to keep me kneeling.

I love my sweetheart although he's gone for the most part.

I love the many things that being a Mom brings.

I'll take carpools and homework and sassy talk too.

All reminders of blessings of work to do.

I'll take diapers at 31/2 and attitude rant.

Because I don't take for granted that dear friends can't.

My heart aches for those who don't know this joy

The endearment of my girl, the energy of each boy!

I am blessed beyond deserving and feel it keen

As I try and try to teach them to keep the house clean.

Days go by so frantic and always too much to do

I wanted to stop and recount the joy too.
For I feel so grateful for each and every day

I don't want to spend these years wishing them away!

The excitement of hide and seek, the proud papers home,

Reminding me daily I'd never roam.

For being anywhere else Iwill not long,
Home with my family is where I belong!

What a ride!

OK, bear with me as I recap what a day this has been and it's really just an average day in our life of adventures. I need to write it down so I feel I accomplished something when I look at the mess still lying around here. Last night Brennen went to bed with a migraine and Wes got home early to run to Walmart and get some Tylenol for Brennen, early being 9pm instead of after 11pm like all week. He still had homework he had to finish.
This morning I got up at 6:30am and got breakfast for the kids and woke up Dallin, Brennen, and Jarom. Brookly had already woken up and was getting cereal. In the midst of our morning routine Ben awoke and was definitely not ready to face the day. He laid on the couch and informed me he was not going to take the kids to school with me. That's OK, I thought, I'll just get him ready in between runs to school. So off we went at 7:30am to take Brinton kids and then Dallin and Gabby to Skyline. Forgot to send Open Enrollment forms with both sets of kids even though I religiously filled them out last week. Filled out teacher request forms last night as well and forgot those. Ahhh, tomorrow will work to turn them in just as well. So I returned from the first 2 carpools and Ben was still on the couch and now demanding breakfast. Wes was still home - not a good sign and Josh hadn't showered yet. Then I knew my 1/2 hour to shower and get myself ready would not happen yet. I put Ben in the bath and he protested the whole time. I did feed him oatmeal along the way. I did chance the shower and just left for carpool with wet hair. We took Josh and the Gray girls at 8:30am to Smith Jr. High and got home around 9am. I finished getting ready and primed Ben with a movie while I figured out the ad matches for Walmart. We got to Walmart by 10am and after 2 hours of ad matching and fighting Ben and swearing I'll never take him again... (He knows better for Walmart though, we run out of food and I get desperate every 2 weeks) we left with most of our list and semi-sane. I got home aorund noon and put away most of the groceries and by then decided that Ben's nap wasn't going to happen. He didn't want the lunch I fixed anyway. He watched a movie while I began price matching car insurance.
After a few hours and much stress with online passwords and finding what we currently have and contacting 4 different companies-we saved $200 every 6 months for now, and over $2000 every 6 months once Dallin is a driver on our policy. Yes, indeed he gets his permit in 23 days. So I felt quite accomplished but had to bug Wes a bit at work to finish all of this. Now remember that I had to stop at 2:15pm to pick up kids from school. Dallin stayed for tutoring so I got him at 4pm and Josh gets a ride home. So only $457.00 for car insurance now until Dallin turns 16. Then $854. Instead of $2,622 every 6 months. Home insurance will have to wait. It seemed alright for now.

During my phone call to change to Geico, the KVAR guy showed up and Wes had sent him to install a system that should save us a ton on our electric bill. It's advertised on KTAR and Wes got a personal email back form Gatos of the radio show saying it's true. It's technical how it works but should pay for itself by summer with our bills so high. It was another $474.00. Now when the technician left I was on the phone and he took my card number but didn't leave an amount he charged so I had to call the office and clear that up as well.

In the meantime there was the last of the big set of layoffs at Wes's work today. Hard for Wes to concentrate but such a relief that he survived this round. They say this is it for this year. Wes has a ton of work to do now and is currently still at work. It's almost 11pm. We feel blessed!

So, Dallin gets home and I ask him about his Chemistry grade that he'd been trying to pull up. I go to check it online and it's now a 64%. He's going to tutoring and thought he was doing better. He had a 0 on a quiz with a note Poor Effort. What?!? When he comes in for tutoring! So Wes is going next week to talk to the teacher and see what we can do to help Dallin. He says he doesn't know why that comment would be. That was just last Friday for that quiz so we'll see what she says... It will be helpful that we have leverage of NO permit until Chemistry is a B.

Then I decided to check out K9 on the web that my cousin recommended for internet filtering. It's free!!! It's wonderful!!! I had a pretty east time downloading it and it's barking at me now because it's past time to be off the internet. Her stake president recommended it personally to each member and wants the wife to be the only one with the password. Interesting. Check it out if you don't have it, it's great!

Then I did dinner, scriptures and prayers and the bomb of all bombs bath for Ben. He says he wants to be big and then has poop run down his legs because he's too busy to pull down his PullUp so he's back in a diaper tonight. I was so frustrated I couldn't believe it!

So, I fought kids for an hour to get in bed and then went to my room and remembered my VT ladies needed checked on. Too late but I texted and found out that Lauren is on IV meds because she's so sick with this pregnancy. She's 9 weeks and I didnt' know. So I offered dinner for her poor policeman husband and will take it every Friday until she's well. She's getting help for her little 1 yr old Wyatt from her family who lives in Mesa. That's all I can do and I studied my Art Masterpiece to present to Jarom and Brookly's classes tomorrow. Fun but hard to get bsit for Ben each 2 weeks to do it. I take him to the first one and try to get a bsitter for the second. We'll see how the adventure unfolds tomorrow.
Time for my prayers and bed. Don't know when Wes will get home or if he will tonight at all because of the "hot" cable he's having to rework and finish by tomorrow. Keep him in your prayers too.
I think that's most of what happened today. Also a few dishes and some laundry thrown in there so the kids have pants tomorrow. I think I did get Walmart stuff put in the right rooms now at least.

Jarom's Baptism December 26th, 2009

With Mom and Dad on your Baptism Day!
All the Sheppard family that was there. Buckpitt's and Uncle Verle and Calli also came. And lots of friends.

Grammy and Grampy with Jarom

This is what it's all about!
Wes and Jarom so excited for his Baptism!

With new scriptures from Grammy and Grampy

Program Picture

Here's what I typed for the program for the Stake Baptisms. I really can't believe he's already 8! Where did my baby go? He was our baby for so long! I just love him so much!!! I want to squeeze those cute little cheeks and kiss him but he's getting too big for that I guess. Never too big for hugs though.

"Jarom is full of joy! He finds joy in his family with 4 brothers and 1 sister and is a wonderful help at home. He finds joy in bearing his testimony each month and tells his Mom what to write down so he can remember everything he wants to say. Jarom finds joy in playing outside and he is so excited to finally be in Scouts just like his 3 older brothers. Jarom loves the gospel and is a great example."

What a special day for you my Jarom! Grammy and Grampy came down for Christmas and to be here for your big day. Grandpa Gardner had open heart surgery a few weeks before so Grandma had to stay with him but they sure were sad to miss this big day for you. There were lots of friends and family there for you! I gave the talk on Baptism for the Stake and then Daddy Baptized and Confirmed you. You have such a sweet spirit about you and you just were glowing! We came back to our house for subs and cake and to visit!

2009 Christmas Letter

Gardner's 2009 Update

In December Wes's Dad had Aortic Valve Replacement surgery and a double bypass. 8 1/2 hours and having to go back in for a small leak once he was already closed was quite a scare. He is doing well and is recovering at Wes's sister's.

With that event brought family to visit for almost 2 weeks in the middle of December and trips to the hospital each day, thus everything else for Christmas was neglected.

During this time our niece on the same side of the family had twins at 25 weeks at a different hospital and they are having daily ups and downs. They are miracle babies for sure!

Once company left, we had 6 days to prepare for Mom and Dad Sheppard to come stay with us for Christmas and then our big event of Jarom's Baptism the day after Christmas.

Whew! We made it through those special events and then had a George and Devaun Sheppard Reunion with our extended family for the New Year.

So... here's the rest of the year and what we're up to.

Oh... Ben says “No” when he has to go so diapers are his friend. (He's 3 1/2 yrs.)

Wes is now High Priest Group Leader and working diligently to finish his Masters for more security in this economy. He has traveled to CA on and off this year for Orbital Sciences and this summer we went with him for a week to Lompoc to play while he worked. More travel is in the future and with 250 positions already laid off and more expected at the end of January we are grateful to have a job for now.

Brennen started trumpet, Brookly took up violin,

Josh is an excellent drummer, my quest for quiet won't win.

Dallin had a wonderful last year in Marching Band.

Now it's time to focus on Academics. He made this decision himself and we are proud of him.

Jarom had a wonderful 8^th bowling birthday party and a beautiful Baptism on Dec. 26^th.

Nicole was moved from Youth Sunday School with Dallin, to CTR 8 with Jarom for a few months and is currently Ben's new Sunbeam teacher. I love how they seem to put me with whichever of my sweet boys needs me the most! I'm still Advancement Chair for Scouts and I still teach one piano student and mainly do laundry and work on getting our children to do their work. I enjoy this time with only Ben at home and realize how precious these years are!

Sending all of you our love and best wishes for a Happy New Year! May you feel the love and blessings of our Savior as you face the challenges and joys this new year brings!

Love,

Wes, Nicole

Dallin, Josh, Brennen, Brookly, Jarom and Ben

wesandnicole@hotmail.com

#480-288-8850

Slight address change:

1853 W Ray Lane

Apache Junction, AZ 85120

We have a private blog. Email if you'd like to join in.

January 19th, 2010 Letter

Hi Family,
Just FYI: Wes was informed today that Orbital Sciences will NOT pay for any more schooling. He is only 1/3 done with his Masters and this is just great news in the brink of layoffs and very little raise and Dallin driving soon and needing insurance. Now we do feel reassured, a little, for a job that they have made Wes the alternate for a different program that launches in March/April. In addition to his program that launches in October. So I will be a single Mom for a year of travel but we have a job:) This requires lots more travel but means they really need him, we hope. They let 2 more engineers on his program go this week who were contractors. Hard to see.
I also got a call from my Dr for my "annual" checkup results and the bloodwork is not all well. High cholesterol and thyroid low is what they said when I went back in. Wanted a pelvic ultrasound but that came back normal. Just scary to have to go back in.

Then I updated Brennen and Brookly and had to go to concert for Dallin and Josh. Busy as ever!

Mom's work is never done but our taxes are:)

I took the last 2 days to work on our taxes and except for a few bugs from 2008 to figure out we are done! Thanks to our children and the wonderful credit they give us we actually get a refund and this is an incredible blessing! Our children are blessings in so many ways!
so... now to my favorite journaling and blogging. I don't even know if I should try to catch up at this point but I don't want to just leave 2 months out so I'll start with the now and work back so I don't miss the today events.
We are in February and I wanted to write a few things that the kids are doing lately.

Dallin is taller every day and we just had to buy new shoes and Sunday pants again. He says he'll make due with the highwater Levi's for now until he can wear shorts again in a month or so.

Josh got his new drumset and he is quite good! He composes and plays as long as we'll let him from what he hears in his head. I hope he gets to use all this talent for something great!

Brennen went to his first track meet today for Skyline Future Coyotes and is like lightning on the field! He took 1st in the 100m and right after he ran with the 4th-6th graders the mile. They started the 6th graders first and he was behind a group of about 20 boys who didn't go when the gun sounded until they said "Everyone go!". He couldn't get past them to start and he still advanced to come in 3rd for the 5th graders in that mile! WOW! Imagine if he ever gets to start on the first row out! In the PF Chang's Fun Run mile a few weeks ago he started in the 5th group and came in 7th overall for 5th graders in Phoenix area. He loves this and we love to watch!

Brookly just won the Brinton Elementary School Spelling Bee as a 4th grader! Against 4th-6th! She went to the Mesa District Bee and was so surprised to get through the first round and then fall in the intermediate to the word rutabaga. At the time, none of us could spell it or even think of what it was! Other words in the same round were patience and luau. Since Brinton didn't give trophies we got her one on our own! What an amazing girl we have!

Jarom is full of adventure and is such an avid reader! He comes home on Monday with his homework packet and finishes all of it so he can play all week. He loves Scouts and is newly baptized (definitely a whole separate entry needed). He is starting his Pinewood Derby car for the Derby on the 17th. We found out today - the 2nd.

Ben is still not potty trained although he wanted to wear underwear today and I let him. He pottied at the track meet and luckily I had stuck extra pants and PullUps in the diaper bag. Thanks to Dallin for changing him so I didn't have to miss Brennen run. I loved the support of all the kids there for Brennen to cheer him on. Wes has schoolwork for his Master's on Tuesday's and has to stay late at work and was sad to miss this. Only another year or so and he'll be done:)

I won!

OK, how cool is it that I posted comments to Jen's site and I did win the Mary Poppins DVD and she threw in the darling red hair flower for Brookly! Love you Jen! Thanks a million!:) I can't say I never win anything now:)