July Highlights

The month of July was pretty busy, that's for sure. We celebrated the 4th by having a family BBQ and Paul and I went to see the fireworks in West Jordan. I really hate that I wasn't able to get pictures. 

We also moved out of the house. We are fortunate enough to have wonderful friends who have room and offered to let us stay with them until we leave in September. We decided to take them up on the offer as it is helping us save for the move too. 

I had an extra holiday off for the month. In Utah we celebrate the 24th as Pioneer Day. It gave me an extra day off work. I enjoyed that. 

Other than that nothing new going on. I just thought since I had time I would catch this blog up. I hope that with our move that you will continue reading this to stay caught up with the Gardiners. 

What Honeymoon?

Remember the Brady Bunch when all the kids ended up with them on their honeymoon? Thats what happened here! My cousin Maddie left on her mission on July 9th and her farewell was on June 30th. Because of this mom and Steve changed their plans for the family trip to Cali in August and made it happen right after the wedding. Unfortunately Paul wasn't able to make it and I went near the end so I miss DisneyLand. This was one time I was looking forward to it because it was new to my niece and nephew. I'm glad they had fun. I still got to join in with Balboa, family dinners, swimming, the farewell, etc. It was so fun. 

 

Moms Wedding

 New Family

 On June 21 my mom got married and I now am the oldest of 11 kids. Steve is a great guy and all of us have blended well. It has amazed me how quickly we have come together and how good we all get along.

Exciting Changes

In the beginning of the month Paul and I announced to our family that we are going to be moving to Iowa in September. This decision did not come easy, but we both feel that we are in a rut. We are inbetween grad school and life and just felt we needed a change. We are looking forward to going out that way and to spend some time with some other family members that until recently we havn't seen for years. 

 

Since the announcement we have moved out of our house and are looking forward to the changes that lie ahead for us. It is a bittersweet time in our life as we have lived here in Utah and feel that our lives are here, however we have always known we would be moving and also feel that we need some type of change. We will miss all of our friends and family here in Utah and hope you will continue to stay in touch and come and visit us. We love you all. 

My Birthday

This year for my birthday I wanted to go to the zoo. My sisters-in-law and nephew met us there. We had a great lunch and a great visit. As always my favorite were the monkeys and the sea lions. After the zoo we met my family for some gelato. It was a great day!

May: Mom Turns 50!

May started out with a bang and finished with a bang. After my Iowa trip nothing new happened until the end of the month. My mom turned 50 and we had a surprise party for her. It was quite fun. Memorial weekend was spent with the family and it was fun getting to know our new family.

Dad and Robins Wedding

Iowa Trip May 2013

In the beginning of May I had the opportunity to go back to Iowa for my Dad's wedding. I'm so grateful I was able to be out there. I got to know my step mom Robin and totally love her. We had a ton of fun. These are a few pictures of the trip besides the ones I have of the wedding. 

Robin and I before going off to the airport

Dad, Robin, and I. Excuse the wind

Me and My Dad

I love pets! I totally fell in love with Robins cat and dog. Mimi (cat) will lay by the fireplace and play dead. Its too funny. Can you believe we had the fireplace going in May? Yeah... I flew in a snowstorm in Chicago and my plane was delayed. It sucked. Robin's friend patty has two grate danes that I just fell in love with. Had to have pics with them too.

Due to the storm wedding was moved inside. The ceremony was held in John and Patty's house and the reception was in the garage. We had a lot of work to do to not make it look like the garage.

Rehearsal Time

 

8 Years

April 15, 2013= 8 years of happiness

This past April, Paul and I celebrated 8 years of marriage. I am so lucky to have Paul as my husband and best friend for Eternity. We have definitely had our ups and downs but I wouldn't choose any other person to have at my side than Paul. I'm so grateful to have him in my life.  This year we went to Ruby River for our anniversary dinner. Later in the week we went to one of our favorite places to get away, Anniversary Inn in Logan. We went and stayed in Richs Drive In. We had our tradition dinner at the BlueBird and had a great weekend just being together with out any interruptions. 

I loved the room so much that I had to take pictures.

Richs Drive In is obviously a movie themed room. Our bed was in the bed of the truck. The room provided a nice projector screen, movies, drinks, popcorn, and the ususal cheesecake and sparkling cider.  It was fun to stay at.  There was a little kitchenette. The bathroom had an amazing tub and was the black and white movie theme and where the toilet was it had a poster of the top 100 quotes from movies.  I would totally recommend it. I had the best anniversary with the most amazing person ever!

February and March

Special Delivery

Binkie

I really don't feel like we had too much going on in February and March. One of my best friends had a baby in March and our office did a small shower type thing for her. I also attended her baby shower. In all honesty though, this year is flying by. For Pau'ls birthday in March we went to Hines Mansion. It was a nice weekend get away. 

 My Friend Shari had a baby in March. For her baby shower

her father in law made the balloons. These are just a few 

that I thought were amazing. I love the stork with the baby boy. He also made some feet, binkies, and I can't remember what else but he has an amazing talent.

One of my good friends had a baby in March. These are a couple of pics we took at work when we gave her our gifts. This group are some of my favorite people in the world. I feel blessed to be able to work with such amazing people.

Shari and her gifts.

Something sweet for Valentines. The guys from our office bought some flowers for us. I have to brag... I work with some pretty great people.

My baby brother Hunter was in his schools musical. OKLAHOMA. He played ado annies (hope I get name right) dad. He did an amazing job. I'm so proud of him.

California

 February Cali Trip 2013

Catch Up Time

I've obviously have fallen behind in my posts. The next few will be catch up from February to current.

New Year...New Beginnings

Happy New Year!

2013 started out with a bang! We celebrated the new year at a party at my mom's. We enjoyed a night of games, food, laughter, family, and friends. As we all came in from outside after 12:00 I noticed my mom's boyfriend pull something out of his jacket. I wasn't the only one. The next thing you know everyone at the party had their cells and camcorders out sitting in the living room and my mom honestly didn't realize it. You have to know my mom, she wants to keep everyone happy and never takes a minute to sit down with people at the house. She was oblivious to everything going on that Steve had to take her hand and turn her around before she caught on. She said Yes before he even popped the question. It was sweet. It was cool that he did it with most family there and some friends. 

Of Course after the new year I got sick. I was sick for most of January. I got a couple of fevers within a couple of weeks, so between that time when I was feeling good I pushed myself to go out and do things. We celebrated my sisters birthday at Texas Road House. It was delicious. We also had an opportunity to go to a Jazz game. They won in overtime! Then at the end of the month my dad called me and told me he was getting married. We now have a wedding to go to in May. I'm looking forward to going out there. I can't wait to see more cousins. I have been able to meet Robin on Skype and really like her. I'm happy for both of my parents. Its nice to see them happy. 

Nothing too new going on. Paul is still researching so he can get a good letter and starting to look into GRE prep courses. I'm just working. I wish life could be a little more exciting, but I'm happy in life and happy with the way things are going as of now.  

2012 in Review....

I know this is a little late but I thought I'd just take a moment and remember 2012. 2012 was a pretty good year for us. We have both good and bad memories. I thought I'll just share a few of our moments in the year. Paul and I are lucky that we didn't have employment change this year. We both have good jobs and are happy about that with this economy. In April we celebrated our 7th anniversary. Paul graduated from the U in May with his bachelor degree. We took a vacation to California. In July we enjoyed a car trip with my mom and grandma to Carson City, NV for a family reunion on my grandmas side of the family. I had so much fun seeing some cousins that I havn't seen in years. It was fun for Paul to meet them too. In August we lost Grandpa Gardiner. I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to say goodbye. I was able to meet more of our cousins that I havn't met before. That was fun. We had a big cousin party at our house. Sometimes, I miss those. I was able to enjoy a few lunches with the girl cousins on Pauls side of the family. I'm so grateful to get to know such wonderful people and to know that they are my family. I'm glad for that opportunity because at the end of August we lost one of them. I'm glad for the time I had to get to know Julie. The holidays were great. We spent Thanksgiving with my family. Christmas was divided. I love the time we have with our family. We look forward to see what 2013 brings!