Numero Siete

JEFF + CAROLYN = LOVE

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY !!

I can't believe we've been married for 7 years. It definitely goes by fast. I know there are days that go by without me telling you how much I appreciate you and I'm sorry. You work so hard to make sure our family has what we need. The boys love you to death and I hope they'll soon realize how lucky they are to have you as a father. You are an excellent husband. I love when you help out with the dishes or trash or baths without me having to ask. I love that you still think I look good. I love that YOU still look good. Thank you for keeping us on track with the spiritual aspects in our lives and thank you for trying to teach Griffin everything you can about the Gospel. You are so patient with me and my occasional moodiness. I love you so much and I'm grateful for everything you are and do.

---- Me

Twilight at midnight

Am I enough of a Twilight fan to go see the first showing last night at midnight?

YES.

Was I a bit disappointed?

YES.

Did Edward look really intense and weird almost the whole movie?

YES.

Did Jasper look just plain weird?
YES.
Were there any funny and enjoyable parts?

YES.

Did my sister, Katie (who has not read the books), like it?
YES.
Were the people sitting behind us really annoyed because we tried many times to get a picture of us sisters together?

YES.

Do we think Katie can take a picture without blinking?

NO.

I love the one where Katie is licking the side of the picture. Frame #4.

And frame #7 is me trying to hold Katie's eyes open until the very last second. Not successful.

JILLY BEAN !!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILLIAN !!!

Oh man !! What would we do without Jill. She is the best sister anyone could ask for. Beautiful, sweet, caring, funny, great sense of style (with enough clothes to share), spiritual,

lickable.... ....I mean LIKEable.

Willing to share -- her glasses.

She's always willing to help and be there for me and my family.

Love ya Sis!!! I couldn't have asked for anyone better.

LAME-O-LANTERN

Actually the Jack-o-lanterns we made this year were pretty neat, but I just thought the title was fitting, seeing how it's taken me this long to post about Halloween.

The reason being because we ended up with zero pictures of us in our costumes. I spent quite a bit of time on Treyson's and NOTHING to show for it.

As for Griffin and Kai, I'm sure most of you can just imagine them -- Griffin was Black Spiderman and Kai was Red Spiderman. There were plenty of those costumes out this year. Since I've tried to keep a family theme going, Jeff was Peter Parker, I was Mary Jane and Trey was the Sandman. The shirt I made for him was pretty dang cute and unless my mom got some pictures, we may have lost the memory forever.
DANG IT !!

Here are the few Halloween pictures I did get:

Griffin had a Fall Festival at school where he acquired a classic party favor:

Quite a studious looking bunch.

Now back to the pumpkins. Jeff got his done first. He opted for the traditional scary approach. I was kind of in a time crunch to get mine done -- so I went more "simple chic".

As I was trying to take the above picture, I kept getting blurry shots because I turned my camera on the no flash setting to get the full effect. I got frustrated after a while and wondered what would happen if I purposely moved my camera around while taking the shot. Here is the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING result:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!?? I couldn't do that again if I tried! 20 MINI JACKS ON ONE PUMPKIN !!! ...... I...... uh...... I'm still speechless. What do you think?

This was my brother Jason's disgusting display (the pumpkin, not his face):

Less volume please.

There are usually only two ways Griffin and Kai play well together.

The first is: VERY LOUDLY during Treyson's naps.

The second is: Normal Volume but at bedtime, when they're both supposed to be silent and on their own beds.

Can someone tell me why this is?

Prayers

Griffin has been trying hard to put in additional phrases while praying, along with the usual -- "Thank you for this day", "Bless Jason and Todd" (family missionaries -- even though Jason is home :), "Help us to be good", etc.

Kai, on the other hand is just trying to get the basics down. He does really well repeating what we say, but when it's left up to just him, all we get is:

"Heh-ye Fadda -- Anem"

(And, no I didn't spell AMEN backwards on accident, that's how he says it.)

Tonight during prayers, Griffin went ahead on his own and Kai, not waiting for his turn, joined right in saying his "Heh-ye Fadda - Anem"... "Heh-ye Fadda - Anem" ... "Heh-ye Fadda - Anem" ... "Heh-ye Fadda -Anem"..... over and over and over until Griffin finished.

It would probably be ten times better if you could actually hear him saying it. Oh well, it was funny to us.

Halloween Kick-Off

Last night was the Gardner's Annual Halloween Dinner. We haven't been able to go to the previous two because of living in Flagstaff, but it was a lot of fun. Each family was in charge of bringing something to share. Here are some of the spooky dishes we devoured:

HAMBURGER MAN

MONSTER MOUTHS

SPIDER GUTS ----(really good chunky salsa)

-------------------- RICE CRISPY JACK-O-LANTERN

----------------- STRAWBERRY GHOSTS

AMAZING PUNCH -- it's hard to see, but the ice floating in the bowl was in the shape of a hand.

After dinner, Tom and Hope (Jeff's parents) had a treasure hunt for the kids. The prizes included Halloween socks, pencils, punch ball balloons, little foam guns, and some candy. They loved it!! Then onto the next activity...... Hide and Seek. Each person wore a glowstick on their wrist, all the lights were turned out, and the game began. Treyson didn't really enjoy being in complete darkness -- PLUS he was getting hungry. So instead of taking over one of the bedroom and eliminating hiding spots, I just took him out to the car to feed him.

It was a fun night. Thanks Grandma Hope and Grandpa Tom!!!