CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOG LAYOUTS, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Monday, June 29, 2009

Good Friends

Have you ever met someone with whom you immediately feel a kind of bond with? I have, not too many, but when it happens it seems to stick! My first day at UofA, or close to it, I literally ran into this crazy girl in the hallway of the music building. Both of us were lost, it turns out, and oddly we struck up a sort of conversation. We were close to the same age, both talk too much, both a little energetic for our own good, both getting our Masters, both relative newlyweds, both did our undergrad at the Y, both repeating quite a few courses because we failed the diagnostics...(they expect you to retain that stuff?)...the list goes on. We had an immediate kinship.
Adriane Parry Hapgood...











...Well, she is now an outstanding musician starting up the Ozarks Girls Chorus out there in ArKANsas (I like to tease). With her husband and...COUNT 'EM... 4 girls!! She came to town on her way to Germany, go figure, and we met up. You know the kind of friend, where you can go a year or so without talking at all and suddenly one day get a phone call that lasts hours...thats this friendship. We went swimming and watched a movie...what fun...maybe one of these cuties could end up in my family someday? I couldn't wish for better in-laws for my guys!

Friday, June 26, 2009

RoCK StARs!!

We enrolled in Miss Jenee's That's Entertainment workshop this year...a high intensity 2 week musical workshop.So much FUN! Monte had it hard dancing and practicing every day for about 4 hours!! Seth and Clyde had less movement to learn but more songs...everyday for an hour and 1/2. It was a long haul for two weeks commuting them to the Queen Creek studio, but worth every penny and every minute in the car! I was SO PROUD of my little Rock stars! They still perform their shows for me when I turn on their music CD! (It's crazy to think that I used to help her run this workshop 12 years ago when Monte and I were just engaged, and then a few years after that when we lived in AZ as newlyweds...time flies!)

We LOVE Miss Jenee!!

A goofy highlight was in the "limbo" song when Seth didn't have his arms high enough for Clyde's liking...he was supposed to limbo under...we had a "brother" moment on the stage that the entire audience thought was quite funny!

Monte Birk's solo gave his mommy chills. He was so confident and he sang so well!!

There is nothing so wonderful as seeing your children enjoy the things they are participating in and doing a wonderful job! Grandma Gardiner came from Utah to see the show and made it feel extra special for us all. We love you Grandma!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

DaDDy DaDDy, DaDDy

HaPpY FaThER's DaY MoNTe SR!
(we'll blog more about that later!! oh my...)

We love you Daddy!!!!

This just seems to say it all!!!!

RoCK StaR!

There is this magical "spiker gel" we came upon a few years back that can actually handle the Gardiner Cow-licks...we fondly refer to it at our house as "liquid nails" for hair. It came in quite handy today for the crazy hair day at Miss Jenee's summer work shop. I just had to put in the two pictures so you could see how high it actually stood...and it DID stay! For over 3 hours of rehearsal and summer sweat and well into the evening, that is, until we swam!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Lake Powell

The day after Kindergarten Graduation...all school aged grandchildren, their Dads and Grandpa went to Lake powell for a weekend...How FUN!!!

Walter and Monte
Uncle Davids yacht, oops, I mean boat

he doesn't look too happy...does he?


Monte, Walter, Reid, Robert Jr, David, Elizabeth, Bailee, Adrienne
4 families represented
By all accounts the weather was crazy cold and raining one minute to hotter than hot and dry the next, how FUN! Thanks to Uncle Rob and Uncle David for their boats and to Grandpa for trying...there's always one on the fritz in the Arnett clan...just wouldn't be a Lake trip without that! They hiked to hol ein the Rock, and camped and played and tubed and skii'd anddrove out to rainbow bridge...well, you get the picture!

graduations

We had Miss Dillon at Patterson Elementary for more than 3/4 of the year...and she was AweSomE...but there was something very special about Miss Hann that Monte took to right away. She was our teacher at Meridian for his 2 month stay finishing out the year. He was always one for the pretty ladies!! Seth and Clyde should be so lucky as to get her when they arrive at Meridian!

the graduation show was SO COOL! They sang songs and did actions, each class had it's own color T-shirt! Monte Birk held his own quite well for being the "newbie" in class.

Miss Jenna...WE LOVE YOU!! I need to get a picture of our wonderful pre-school teacher Miss Jenna Bailee...she was FaNTabULouS! The twins also sang songs, and had their graduation caps...they even got diplomas! I can't wait to get their graduate school pic's together and frame them along with this...their first graduation...well...then again...maybe I CAN wait!
Seth -L Clyde-R

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Mother's Day Tea at Pre-school!!
I felt so SPECIAL!! Thank you Seth and Clyde! (for those of you without the Mommy know how...Clyde is in the Gardiner T-shirt, Seth the transformer!)


When we went to pick up Jackson from the Tueller's house..this is what we found...sound asleep. The only thing that kept him from going all the way under was the food storage under the bed! I had to wake him for his Dr's appointment right then and found that he had burst his other ear drum...poor baby!


The hard part of the trip was #1 a sick baby. Jackson had been throwing up for 3 days before we left. My thinking in taking him was, "How long can it last? He'll feel better soon." Well, he didn't... I finally called my Aunt (a pediatric nurse practitioner for the last 50 years) and listed his symptoms, 6 days of him keeping nothing down at all, falling over, chapped bleeding lips, red chapped cheeks, no pee pee diapers in a 24 hour period...to which she replied, "Take him to the ER now and get him hydrated!"...so we DID!


Thank Heaven for Modern Medicine!

Utah...again

We went on a "quick trip" to Utah to our cousin Eric's farewell. Coming from the triple digits in AZ we were in NO WAY prepared for Utah Spring! We had to purchase Jackets (2 sizes too big so we could use them again next year)...

...and shoes (we needed those for soccer anyway) the sandals were NOT cutting the mustard! The highlights of the trip were... #1, of course, the farewell where Eric spoke wonderfully and Alexa sang a beautiful song, #2 the night before the farewell when we went to their stake production of Beauty and the Beast where James was main stage crew and Jan conducted the orchestra pit, #3 running an playing with our cousins, #4 flying papre airplanes #5 going on long walks as a family outside #6 the Tulips in everyone's yards and #7 playing games and building things at Grandma's (then taking pictures to show her because she was ill in bed.)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

upStaiRS BaTh
no before shot, just put this in because it makes me happy!! (The Bright purple is the same color as the boys bedroom in the "old" house and the top line of writing is written in Mirror image...let's face it all little boys need reminders!)

DiAne'S TeAChiNG RoOm
before

after

BoYS RooM
before

after

angle #2 after


JacK-ets RooM
before

after

UpSTaiRrs HaLLwAy
before

after

UpStaIRs PlaYRoOm!
Angle #1 before

Angle #1 after

Angle #2 before
Angle #2 after
Angle #3 before
Angle #3 after