A Great Man

On Thursday night, September 2, 2010 about 9:30pm my grandpa- Thurman William Gardner- died at his home, surrounded by his wife and children. He is the best grandpa a girl could ever ask for. He was such a good example of how to live a Christ-like life. He was always willing to serve others, to teach others and to love others. He loved his wife, my sweet grandma, more than life itself. His last words were "I love you" to her. He was a great father. He taught his children well. He was an only child but created quite a posterity- He had 4 children, 16 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren. The greatest blessing was that almost everyone was able to be there for the funeral. Everything was so lovely, and I was blessed enough to be with my parents and grandma for the weekend while preparing everything. It was so great to see my grandmother and her strength. She is an amazing woman! I loved my grandpa and I will miss him, but I am grateful that he no longer has to suffer, and I am grateful to know that he is with our Heavenly Father.

Thurman William Gardner

8/4/1928-9/2/2010

A New School Year

This was such a great summer, but very long. We have been waiting for school to start for a few weeks and we were all very excited when it finally did. Can you tell how excited these kids are? Even Timothy got to get in on the "first day of school pictures" since he is starting Pre-School this year. Yes, that's right- ALL FOUR KIDS ARE IN SCHOOL THIS YEAR! (And you wondered why I was so anxious for school to start.) Tommy is in 3rd grade this year, Savana is in 2nd grade, Siera is in Kindergarten (all day every other day) and Timothy is in Pre-school two days a week! I am really excited for them to make new friends, learn new things and improve on the things they already know. I just love school!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was in Pocatello this week building a house for a very deserving family. I don't know them, but I learned a lot about them yesterday. This is such an amazing project and it was fun to be part of the reveal. Mohna, the girls and I braved the heat and the sardine can squishing with all those people. We got to see the designers, Ed, Paul, and Jillian. We saw the bus, the Limo- we were there with the news cameras, and got to watch them film the reveal. "MOVE THAT BUS!" It was really hot, and really neat. Ty Pennington came running down the street and gave everyone high fives- INCLUDING ME!! Yep, I got to touch a famous person!!

This is Paul
This is Ed
This is Jillian
The Bus with a whole lot of people
close up of the bus
The arriving limo
And here is TY!! The best part!

Even though it was really hot, I'm really glad that I went and could participate! I hope that family loves their new home, and I can't wait to see the episode air!

Camping Fun!

We had such a fun weekend. We got to actually go camping, overnight, with our tent and everything. We packed up Friday morning and headed out to Oneida Resevoir. It seemed to take forever to find a camping spot, but we found a great one. Lots of trees, shade and water. Too bad there was no bathroom- YUCK! But we all managed fine. Our friends Matt and Janette met us there later that night and we had a great dinner of dutch oven potatoes, steak and fruit. The poor kids were soooooooo tired they crashed out as soon as their heads hit the pillows. Saturday morning we headed down to a nice park area with a boat ramp, super dock, and a beach- and we played ALL day long! The water was really cold, but it felt great because it was sooooooo hot outside. Josh and Matt took the boat and went fishing, while Janette, Patricia and I played with the kids and the dogs. Rocky loves the water, it was hard to keep him out of it. Zoey got swimming lessons from Savana, poor dog. We came homes with some bumps, scrapes, and sunburns, but big smiles on our faces- "The best camping trip EVER" (tommy said that before we even left, I hope we fulfilled that!)

What Sunday looks like...

Have you ever wondered what a typical Sunday afternoon looks like? Well, we all meet at Grammy and Papa's house for family time and yummy food- but this is the pre and post activity for the boys!
Boy- just gotta love Sunday!

A day for fishing and other things

We love it when daddy comes home. He was gone for TWO WHOLE WEEKS and we just about died, but he promised we would do something fun when he got home so we decided to go camping. Well, there is something you should know- Mother Nature doesn't like Josh. We were going to go camp Friday night, but the winds blew and the clouds produced lots of lightning and thunder and rain, we thought it best to stay inside. But luckily enough Saturday was gorgeous. So we got in the van and drove to Milner Resevoir for a day of fishing, hiking, picnicking, etc- we had so much fun. The dogs came along and Zoey, who can't be trusted, was on leash the entire time being led around by Savana. Rocky wouldn't leave Josh's side. Well, he likes the water and kept jumping in. That doesn't lead to success when fishing. So Josh only caught a few little ones, and Tommy caught quite a few- no keepers though. We had lunch, played in the water, climbed the rocks and had fun throwing a toy out in the water and watching Rocky learn how to jump out into the river. It was such a fun day. We can't wait to go again- but maybe we won't say anything, and hopefully Mother Nature will be fooled!

We made PICKLES!!!

I know what you are thinking- Pickles? Who makes Pickles? WE DO!!! This year our cucumber plants are thriving, and as much as we LOVE cucumbers, its really hard to eat this many in just a day or two. We have eaten them, given some away, but are still having too many left over- so we researched how to make pickles. It was relatively easy, and in just a few short hours we went from fresh cucumbers to....

Yummy delicious pickles! We will have to keep tweaking the recipe until we get it just right, but they are super tasty! I bet your mouth is watering right now just dying to try one of our homemade pickles! Too bad!