Easter Sunday - March 28, 2010

Ben and his Daddy

Me and my boys

My girl and me

The Wesley Gardner Family!



Our sweet children!
I am so blessed! I love these precious children and my sweetheart so much! Of course there are the usual challenges and each day is a new adventure in patience but I love them more than I can say! What a beautiful Easter day as we reflected on our Savior and His life and love for us! I know that through Him we can be together forever as a family. This has come to mean so much more to me as I think of my dear friends who we lost in this last few years. Love continues forever.

Neighborhood Egg Hunt -

How many eggs did Josh find?

All our friends together for this tradition

Shelby and Denise had a great time too

Brennen got quite a haul!

Ready to hunt! Little ones first! Go Ben!

March 27, 2010- Saturday before Easter

We love living on Ray Lane! We are blessed with wonderful neighbors who we call friends and love to get together with for holidays. Our egg hunt tradition was carried on at the Pena's this year and the kids had a great time! We sure miss Tonya at our events this year and hope she knows she's loved.

Easter at Sheppard's

Jarom loved the candy!
Ben found quite a few eggs:)

Myrna, Jacob and Amy

We love spending time with our Sheppard cousins and Bill and Myrna have been so kind over the years as they include us with their children for family dinners. They even put money in the eggs for each of our children. We miss having our immediate cousins close and this helps to fill those holes. Wish they were here. Always fun to be with family!

Spring Break Amazing Jakes -March 20, 2010

Ben loved this ride and went over and over!

This roller coaster ride made me nauseous just watching!

Jarom was brave!

Dallin kicking back!

Brennen and Josh on the race track

Jarom and Dallin ready to race

Ben is just so cute I take a million pictures of him!

Brookly got Wes to go on this once.

Ben loved this little train!

For Spring Break we had planned to go up to see Greg's family and go to the big Anthem Days Carnival but their kids got sick so we substituted Amazing Jakes. I think our kids were OK with that after we got there! They had a great time!

Spring Break March 19, 2010

For Spring Break we went to Red Mountain park to fish but it was a little too warm for me. The kids enjoyed playing and trying to fish. Wes took Friday off to be with us! We sure love him!

Just Relaxing- March 14, 2010

Wes and Brookly-Rare down time
Grandpa and Brennen

Grandma with Ben - He always brings her a book to read!

We had fun with Grandma and Grandpa around so much more when they were staying down here at Vicki's after Grandpa's surgery. We were relaxing and I wanted to save the memory.

We love you Grandma and Grandpa Gardner!

New Couch - 3-14-2010

We held a garage sale and made just enough to get a new couch. This is the first one we have purchased other than at a garage sale or what was given to us and we got it for $80.00 off Craigs List. It is a definite improvement and someday we'll have all matching furniture. What would that be like? We do like this one in the meantime.

Court of Honor -March 10, 2010

Proud of my boys! Josh even smiled for a hug.Brennen having to pin on my award.
My boys are constantly working towards Eagle and this is Brennen's 1st Court of Honor as a 11 yr. old Boy Scout. We are so proud of our boys! I never dreamed I'd be such a Scout Mom. 5 boys changed my mind and I knew I was destined from the time I was a Den Mother for Dallin. I really do enjoy working with my boys!

Brennen's Zoo Run -March 6, 2010

We had a great time on this Saturday when Brennen chose to run in this Zoo Fun Run! We all went to the zoo after he finished and had an exciting day! Some of the animals were very close to us! The giraffes, the monkeys and the elephant were amazing! We toured the whole zoo and went home exhausted! Brennen is an excellent runner and when he didn't show up for a while I got worried about his asthma. When he came in he said he was looking at the animals and not racing:) What a boy!

Jarom Star Student - March 4, 2010

Jarom was chosen as the Star Student of his class this week and he got to make a poster of all the things he loves! It was so fun to find pictures of him doing fun things with his siblings and he was so proud of it! Jarom is so happy and full of energy! We love him and his mischievous little smile that he can't hold back!

Disney Treasures for Teachers - Feb. 27,2010

All the Treasure Boxes waiting for teachers who can't afford supplies:)

All the kids helped buy, sort, assemble and write special scrapbook thank you letters to the teachers.

We decided to take our family to Disneyland this year when Disney offered the promotional "Give a Day-Get a Day" of service. We make boxes stuffed with teacher supplies and goodies and delivered them to this hub in Tempe. We got free tickets to Disneyland for a day. We are going for Fall Break which happenes to be Brennen's 12th BDay and Wes's 40th BDay in October this year!! YEA!!! We are so excited because the last time we went was when we took Jeff and Dallin was 4 and Josh was 2 and I was very pregnant with Brennen. The rest of our kids have not ever been! We can't wait!!!

New Ficus - Feb. 27, 2010

Jarom, Brookly and Ben very intent on drilling that hole.
As we try to do something with our back yard we slowly keep working on it. Wes planted a new ficus and leveled the square to put in grass. The kids just loved playing with the drill!

Wildflowers-Feb. 26, 2010

Jarom brought me this bouquet of wildflowers from our backyard and was so proud of such pretty flowers for me. What a sweet boy! I love him so much! I hope he knows I appreciated them even though the next few weeks brought hours of hard labor to pull them all out of the back yard. :)

Feb. 25, 2010-Josh's Concert and BDay Letter

Written on June 16, 2010 Josh prefers drums over any other percussion:)
Grandma and Grandpa were still here from Grandpa's surgery and got to come to Josh's Band Concert. Josh did great and we were proud to be there with him!

I didn't get to write his letter for his birthday so I'd like to now.
My Sweet Joshua
In this your 13th year...
As I watch you grow each year I see such a depth of sensitivity and love blossoming.
You have incredible talents and abilities. You have quickly become awesome on the drums and seem to have a natural ability to pick up anything new with rhythm. You are excellent at the bells and worked hard to learn them even though they aren't your favorite. I know you will do great things and be anything you dream of. I hope you try new things and let yourself grow and learn how far your gifts will take you. I love your mischievous little grin and your truly happy smile. I love laughing with you and listening to what's happening with your life and friends. I love your enthusiasm over your new lowrider motorcycle. It was so touching to watch you charge your bike each night during school so that you could give Ben a ride before school each morning. He loves you and this was special time with you. It was so kind of you and you enjoyed it as well.
I'm so grateful for you! You have a kind heart and look for good even when it's hard. You have a strong testimony and I couldn't hold back the tears when I heard you for the first time in April 2010 Fast & Testimony meeting get up. I know that was very difficult for you and I was so proud of you. You were an answer to my prayers that day and a reassurance that we as parents are doing something right. I needed to hear your testimony to strengthen mine. Thank you for trying to do what's right and for wanting to learn the gospel. You are a good example to your younger siblings. I always say that I've never been the parent of teenagers before and we have to learn and grow together. We do make mistakes and hope you give us forgiveness as well. Hopefully we work out some kinks with Dallin and you get the benefit:) Please know we are always here for you and want to know your real feelings. Our love is unconditional and we are here to help. You have worked hard to be kind to your siblings and you show more control each day.
I love your excitement to learn in school and you are blessed with the ability to learn quickly and think deeply. You have amazing creativity! Look into all sorts of careers and find something you love to do because you can do anything! You are a hard worker and you like to finish the job and I love that about you! You prefer to work outside and love to be outdoors, even in the heat. Wow!
You have good friends and you are a good friend. I'm so proud of you branching out this year and making a whole new set of good friends and for keeping your standards with the old. I'm glad you get to enjoy airsoft wars and cool boy toys that we don't have here. I'm proud of you and all you are accomplishing in Scouting. What a blessing your work now in Scouts will be later.
I love you so much and feel so blessed to be chosen as your Mom!
All My Love,
Mom
For your 13th Birthday

Back to Feb. 23, 2010

Ben and Conner

Ben and I went on a fun hike with some of our friends into the mountains just North of our house. Beautiful Feb. day here in the valley of the sun! Ben loved the dirt!