Friends...

My sweet friend Amy came for a visit from Portland. The bad news... we got the stomach flu just prior to her arrival and passed it on to her family. We were robbed of a fun weekend of late night chatting, girls shopping outings, and just plain "hanging out". I haven't seen her or her kids for a while. It was quite a shock to see our oldest girls together.

Please keep in mind that Amanda has always been a little taller than K. but they sure looked years apart this visit. Now, funny thing is that K. is a couple of weeks older than Amanda. She must get her height from her Aunt Mere (she'll thank you one day). You don't really realize how tall your child is until they are around other kids the same age. I suppose that Amanda will be in the back row of her Kindergarten class photo next year.

Does Calvin miss his crib?

Well, again my boy was caught being cute. I got Calvin up from an afternoon nap and I could tell he was still sleepy. He found an old bottle and headed fof the TV room. There he got into Amanda's doll crib and finished up the bottle in the cozy small space. I was just lucky he was too tired to jump out when he saw the camera.

Great-Grandmothers Hands

Amanda has a special relationship with Great-Grandmother Fern. I suppose it's because she is her only one still living. She calls her the grandma with the wrinkly hands. She enjoys writing her letters and when grandma writes back, she often tapes some money coins to her letter. Amanda has just figured out that she can buy "stuff" with money ( I suppose it time for an allowance).

Amanda is my girl with all the questions. During our Utah trip this year, she was questioning how Grandpa Gardner fit in her tiny tummy. Grandma Fern is a tiny framed lady who is always polished and fully of stories. She has a soft spoken voice that is full of love. I love to see how Amanda and Fern interact together. Amanda is forced to focus on the words and really listen. She also must speak loud and clear for her to hear. They truly have a special relationship. I wish we lived closer to spend more time with her.

Amanda enjoyed counting to 90 (Fern's age) with her great-grandmother. Fern has a picture of herself at the age of four (Amanda's age). She enjoyed seeing what she looked like at her age.

Below is a picture of Amanda's and Great-Grandma's hands. I couldn't resist!

Box Fun!

Why do we even buy toys? We had a trip to Utah to see Grandpa & Grandma when they returned from Oakland. Paul & Mignonne's youngest was also baptized. Since we stayed with Grandpa & Grandma, they were busy unpacking (hence the empty boxes). Their home was not set up with television, phone or internet. We had some good old fashioned FUN!

Amanda's Trip to Oakland

Amanda went on a wonderful trip to Oakland to see her Grandpa & Grandma Gardner. It was her first Daddy-Daughter trip and she felt like a princess! She wanted to pack her own bags (but her controlling mom stepped in to help).

Grandma and Gradpa were in Oakland serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They worked in the mission home. We wanted to all come out before they returned home but were happy that Ben and Amanda got to go and see the sights.

Amanda loved all the personal attention and fun times. Here are some photos.

Calvin's Curls???

One of my favorite things about Calvin is his wonderful curls. He has amazing hair that we have been cutting since 6 months. Here is a sweet picture of those curls back in December.

Ben took my curly hair kiddo in for what I thought would be a trim.... I couldn't believe how short it was (can you say military cut?). Although I liked it, I really missed his wonderful curls. What was I suppose to run my fingers through? Below is a couple of pictures of the results. Yes, we pimped him out... He'll cringe one day.

Conference Craft

Well, I must admit there is nothing better than a Sunday at home in my pj's while listening to conference on television. It is especially nice with a toddler. Church has been VERY difficult the past few months. However, this conference marks change. You may ask, "How?". Next Sunday will be one filled with NURSERY! Technically, a day before Calvin is 18 months old but, we will be gracing the nursery. It will be a great for Calvin and a nice Easter gift for me too!

I like to have some project to do while listening to messages of conference. It's not like I don't have several unfinished projects to work on but I needed something new! This year it was a dress for Amanda. I fell in love with a Sandi Henderson pattern and it drove me into my "craft zone". Ok, with lots of help from my ever talented mother too. If I could just have the confidence in sewing like she does. Amanda wanted to help too. I think she just may have a knack for sewing (maybe it skipped one generation).

The dress is "claire" style. You can check out Sandi's other patterns and design inspiration on her website: http://www.sandihendersondesign.com/. I believe we have LOTS in common and we have never met (I love blogs!). She enjoys thrifting, has great design taste and I believe she may be LDS too. She designs wonderful fabrics but I could not get any at my local fabric store so I picked a tropical print called Nouveau by Sentimental Studios for Moda. I suppose with our late spring, I am already for summer.

What have we done, Calvin can walk now...

Thought I would share a quick video of Calvin at one year. Calvin wanted to walk from about birth...no really about 8 months. He had it mastered by 10 months. This was a big change from Amanda. She was a late walker, like about 14 months.

Little did we know, we should have delayed encouraging him to walk so early. Now he is faster than us all and is busy taking the house apart. I wish we were kidding about that but really, he can disassemble the house. He has managed to remove bead board, baseboards, and weatherstrips from the outside doors. I suppose we should be teaching him how to construct instead of destruct. I could use a new addition.

Amanda's thoughts on creation...

So, my sweet little Amanda has great Primary teachers at church. She comes home from church and shares her thoughts about the lessons she learns. Today while out on a car ride she was talking about creation. It went something like this....

Amanda- Heavenly Father was really great at making the earth. He did such a good job making it.

Denise- Yes, Heavenly Father did do a great job, it must have been hard to create the whole earth.

Amanda- Yes, it probably was hard. Well, except for the sky.

Denise- Why is the sky was so easy to create?

Amanda- Mom, that's the easy part. It's just blue all over and sometimes a cloud or two. Clouds are easy and so is blue.

Denise- (Silence, because what could I really say)

Isn't four just WONDEFUL! Amanda is full of questions and the wonders of the world. I love to see the world through her eyes. I am so blessed to have a sweet girl that reminds me to slow down and have fun with the simple stuff.

Toy's R' Us Adventure...

Just before Christmas this past year we had a bunch of snow and I must admit that I did not have much to give Calvin for Christmas. I really wanted to get him a basketball hoop. The one I saw at toy's r' us was $49.99. I had seen several on craigslist but of course, a week before Christmas, there were none used to be found. I got a coupon in the mail from toy's r' us for $10 off any purchase of $100 or more. Now if you have children and have EVER been to Toy's r' Us the week before Christmas you will know what I am talking about. Something like "I'd rather be rather having a root canal" (I can say that because I have never had one).


I headed off to Southcenter Toy's R' Us with every intention on buying a basketball hoop and some other "goodies" (to get me to the $100 level) and head home.


After about one hour in the isles with every other last minute shopper trying to find the perfect gift I was very discouraged. They didn't have the basketball hoop I was looking for and the other one was just not what I was looking for. I just couldn't come up with a great "Santa" gift for Calvin. Now, it really wouldn't even be a problem except for Amanda. She was really into the whole Santa thing this year. If Santa would have forgot Calvin, who knows what it would have done to her fragile spirit...


I decided to head over to the Goodwill in hopes to find some used big car or anything big without the big price tag. I must admit I am a scavenger at heart. I love a good thrift. There is nothing better than finding something you could never afford at a fraction of the price. To my luck--- I found the PERFECT gift. They had a very sturdy bead activity table. It was in excellent, like new condition and it was only $9.99. I had saved Christmas. Even better yet, it was on sale for 30% off.


On Christmas Eve, I got out the table and my anti-bacterial wipes and began the clean up. It was a HUGE hit Christmas morning. I'll post a picture so you can check out my find.









So the best part of it all was, I decided to see what these tables retailed for online. Here is what I came up with.

educo - Educo Finger Fun Bead Maze Table
FREE SHIPPING!! Little fingers can have hours of fun with the Finger Fun Bead Maze Table. Children can share the fun of zooming wooden beads through a challenging maze... (See Full Description)
OUR PRICE: $174.00Original Price: $219.90 You Save: $45.90 (21%)SKU #EDU1017Usually ships in 3 to 5 days

Man--I couldn't believe what a great find I uncovered! Needless to say, I did not need my coupon for Toy's R' Us. A Merry Christmas to Calvin.

Let there be snow...

Okay, I haven't written for a while and thought I should "catch up" on some happenings in my life. Now when I say "catch up" I say it very generally. Kudos to all those that find the time to blog daily. All I can say is, "It's not my season to daily blog".


This past winter we had so much snow. More than we EVER would have imagined. Living in Washington, we have pretty mild weather all year long. It's always fun to see the snow because one knows that it will melt by the afternoon or tomorrow at the latest. It was crazy to see all the snow we got this year. I will post a few pictures to enjoy.

I have to chuckle because last year after the winter season I was at Target and they had quite a sale of snow items on clearance. Like my husband says, "my favorite phrase is 75% off the already reduced price". We had a little snow shovel at home but Target had these great big nice heavy duty shovels for something like $6.24. I purchased one along with some de-icer and salt for the walkways. Ben just rolled his eyes and commented on how we would not need them. We never get enough snow to warrant this purchase. He even suggested that I return them.

Well, this year they ALL came in handy, especially the heavy duty snow shovel. I think I have great foresight and my "deals" should not be criticized in the future. :-)