Proud

I'm proud of my husband this week. I don't get him on the blog nearly enough (can't help it when our baby is so darn easy to talk about), but I want him to know how much I LOVE and appreciate him. I don't tell him either of those things as often as I should. So here you go Rog, for all the world to see. Brooklyn and I are grateful to belong to you.

The changes in our family this week have caused us to feel like we're on a roller coaster ride. We feel like we have that 'stunned' look...

Followed by some deep thinking....

Then a smile....maybe this will be doable after all!

Yep, definitely good changes!

Yes, definitely good changes in our family! Took a couple of days to swallow the overwhelming time committments Roger will have starting these next few weeks, but how proud I am of his hard work and dedication.

P.S. I think I just became a widow and single mom between his new calling and job. If you find Brooklyn and I fighting with each other, its because I think we're gonna have waaaay to much time with each other in the coming months. Love these two! :)

Laughs

Nice to meet you.....

Some girls in our neighborhood met up for a playdate with our kids at the Petting Zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Love these ladies, and their kids. Brooklyn wasn't so sure about the animals that close up, but she loves other kids.

Brooklyn has given us some great laughs lately. Like this one...

That would be her "what's up" face. No clue where she learned that one. But we wake up to this face every morning. She also does this to everyone that looks at her lately - the cashier at Walmart, the neighbors, during ALL of sacrament meeting (yah, we got some good giggles from people behind us this last week). Hilarious. Most of the time.

Then she does faces like this one - I call this her 'evil' smile. Doesn't she look naughty?

Or try this one ... she has latched on to this blanket. Of all the blankets she has, she chose to love the one that someone made for her. It's tiny, but she loves it. That led me to Joanne's Fabric store for extra material of this exact blanket. Now can someone sew it for me please? I don't sew - Call me the opposite of Martha Stewart.

She sure is funny right now. And curious! And a busybody! She is always moving, seriously. She won't crawl or walk, but she scoots like its nobody's business. So dang funny. She's into everything.

This morning while I was showering, I left her on the floor with some toys (which never seems to work, she still whines at me the whole time I'm in the shower), and proceeded to scoot herself over to the door and scraped some of the hard water residue off the shower - and ate it! Ugh, gross. Better clean the shower.

And last week, she opened a tube of Criticaid diaper cream and ate it. Obviously I need to feed her more.

She's fascinated with her nose. She'll point to it if you ask her. She also points to her belly button, but seems to have missed our lesson in Anatomy....she ends pointing to her boobs instead. Haha.

Another winner? Last week I handed her my phone on one of the 'coma' morning after I had worked and she proceeded to 1. call my dad 2. sign onto the internet and sign me up for Nascar monthly updates. I laughed on that one right after I tried to calculate how much that bill was going to cost me from Verizon. Awesome.

Oh we are so entertained by this girl. Exhausted. Amazed. Did I mention tired? Love her!

Posting Just Because

Sometimes life is simple enough that there isn't much to post about. But I've been sick of seeing the last depressing post, so thought I'd just post some random stuff.

Summmer is lazy and wonderful, sometimes you don't have much to blog about.

Thank you for the kind comments about Rog. We're still doing some follow up stuff with his thyroid issues - waiting for a biopsy result that they decided to do last week - but feeling good about the situation.

Besides that we're just doing the usual stuff....work, play, sleep.

Those that know me know how much I value my sleep. Like I'm a 10-10 kind of girl. Really. Well with a huge smile of accomplishment on our faces we can say that Brooklyn now sleeps in her crib always! Six months of sleeping in our bed and she actually can't fall asleep in our bed anymore. Yes!!! (Pathetic that our 15 month old is just now sleeping by herself) And her naps magically became longer once she was in her crib. :) :) :)

Isn't her hair hilarious? She has a tuft of hair on the very top and that's about it.

Growing Pains

Life seems to creep up on you when you aren't quite prepared for it.

It seems to fly by as we get older, the time when we want it to slow down.

Time brings with it adventures, excitement, growth, learning.

It also brings with it stress, some failures, some pitfalls, and yes some fear.

The past six weeks for us have been a little stressful. We've been waiting to hear if Roger had cancer.

Yes, that's right. CANCER.

To our immense relief, no he does not. A physical found a lump on his neck. Following two ultrasounds, we were told he has a whole bunch of thyroid lumps. But they aren't cancer.

Holy cow, are we old enough to have to discuss such an awful word? When did we all of a sudden grow up and have to deal with 'growing pains'?

So to all of you who haven't had a physical lately, GO GET ONE. Right now, go schedule it.

On another good note, Brooklyn has officially outgrown her kidney reflux. Yet another miracle for us. Modern medicine...love it, but I'm gonna die young from the stress of it.

One Year Older....

....And wiser too?

Not sure about that, but the message Whitney left me this morning included her singing happy birthday and letting me know I'm getting old.

27!!!!!!!

What?! I feel 20, not three years away from 30! Birthdays are a great excuse to feel special, though. Tonight we're leaving Brooklyn with a babysitter and going to dinner and a movie. Lame? Probably, but the activities were my choice. WE, meaning Rog and I, haven't been to dinner and a movie together since we bought our house....almost two years ago!

Birthdays allow you to reflect a bit on your life and where you thought you'd be. Roger asked me this week if I'm where I thought I'd be at this point in my life. I can honestly answer yes. The road getting to this point wasn't exactly what I pictured back when I was in high school - but I have everything I ever wanted....my own little family. I sure do love them.

Happy Birthday to Megan today, too!

And all of the other Rasmussen birthdays this week.

And if you haven't read Meg's blog - head on over there! I earned a new title - I'm gonna be an aunt!!!

Park City - Gardner style

There is a family picture that looks almost identical to this one hanging above Roger's parents fireplace. Problem is, the Gardner family has exploded since that picture was taken almost 10 years ago. So over Fathers Day weekend we headed up to Park City for a big family reunion and took this same picture again with every single one of the 39 Gardners. We owe the photographer big time.

Many thanks to Gary and Susan for paying for this fun filled weekend!

We played hard. And ate lots of good food. Sleep was an afterthought for sure.

Our activities included touring the Olympic Park, swimming, playing softball, riding the alpine slide and the coaster, and shopping the outlets. Did I mention eating?

Trips are just funner with family around. And the Gardner family sure knows how to have a good time!

The rest is pictures of our fun...another long post. :)

Meet some of the cousins. The smiley baby is Abby. I could eat her she's so cute. I almost had Rachel and Rod convinced to let me take her home with us. Baby hunger here we come!

I don't have a copy of the whole family picture yet, but that will hopefully happen this week. I'll post it and let you see what an incredible family I married into. And how big we are!

Brooklyn loves her cousins. She was happiest with them around. I don't have a picture of the newest Gardner baby, Benson, but he sure is a cute little peanut! He was too busy being passed around the family to take time for a picture. But this trip was to celebrate his birth as well - Adam blessed him on Fathers Day. Congrats Liz and Adam, he's perfect.

Thanks again to my in laws for a perfect vacation!

Happy Fathers Day

We're a few days late, but I can't let this monumental day pass without wishing the men in our lives a very happy Fathers Day.

To Roger:
How our little Rogerette loves you. So does her mom. We love you more than words can express. You fulfill the title of 'dad' with so much goodness and patience. Thank you for all you do.

To our own Dad's:

Thank you for just being you - we wouldn't have either of you any other way! You two are the greatest examples we could follow, and your granddaughter loves her grandpas!

(Whitney and Davis wedding dinner - missing Devin. Sorry.)

From our family to yours, Happy Fathers Day!