Andrew and Becky’s Wedding

This is my younger brother, Andrew and his sweet new bride Becky.  They were married in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple on September 23, 2011.  We were able to go down to Utah and witness their sealing in the temple. 

This is Vance with my four brothers outside the temple.  Tyler is on a mission…that’s why he made his appearance in cardboard form.

They had the most beautiful reception at the Highland Gardens.  They had a light dinner, dancing, musical program, and a slide show.  It was so fun to celebrate with them.  Aren’t they a handsome couple?

 

These are my two sisters-in-law Megan and McKenzie and my Aunt Beth.  We are standing in front of my favorite part of the reception.  Instead of having a traditional wedding cake they had a cake bar.  There were about a dozen gourmet cakes there to sample.  Man, were they delicious

This is Kaleb with my sister Emily.  Kaleb behaved himself a lot better at this reception than he did at Marc and McKenzie’s, but Austin…not so much.  So the reception was in this beautiful indoor garden.  Lots of plants and ponds and water fountains.  During the musical program my sister brings Austin to me soaking wet.  I said, “Austin, what happened?”  He said, “I went swimming!!!”.  He had gone wading through the pond in the middle of the reception center.  This is one example of a time when I wish I could pretend I didn’t know the child.

Vance and I sang “Quando” by Michael Buble.  My dad and I were going to sing it but the day of the wedding my dad didn’t feel like he knew the song well enough, so Vance was the back-up.  Gheen and Beth sang a really cool version of a Journey song and Becky’s uncles and cousins sang “Grow Old With Me” accompanied with a banjo, fiddles, and an upright bass.  It was really cool.  After that we watched a sweet video of Andrew and Becky.  It was a really fun night and we were glad we got to celebrate their new life together.  The newly-weds are going to school at BYU-I so we get to see them a lot.  It is really fun to get together with them and get to know Becky better.  They are a perfect match.

It’s great to be a mom

So I have had some really great “mom” moments lately.  My kids are at a stage of life right now that is just so fun!  I often .get restless as a young mom.  I miss adult conversation during the day.  I miss going to a job and feeling like I am contributing something to society.  I miss having something to get dressed up for.  But lately, there is no other place I would rather be that at home with my precious little boys.  My heart just feels like it is overflowing with love for the little rascals.  We had a lesson in Relief Society today about parenting and I found myself wishing my boys would stay the ages they are now forever.

Austin is 3 and a half years old.  I often have moms say to me, “isn’t 3 the best age?”  The past few months I have come to full heartedly believe that it is.  Here’s why.  Austin is able to comprehend concepts really well now.  I feel like I can tell him to do something and he will do it.  If he doesn’t want to do something, or is angry or sad, I feel like I can reason with him.  I can explain why it’s time to go to bed and a tantrum doesn’t immediately follow.  I can tell him to put on his shoes and get in the car…and he actually does it.   It is so fun to tell him we are going to go do something fun and see how excited he gets.  When going into a store I can say, “stay right by mom, and don’t touch anything” and, for the most part, he does it.  I love that he is talking so much better now and can tell me what he wants and what he likes and dislikes, .   The whining and tantrums have reduced to at least half simply from the fact that he can express to me his points and he can understand mine. For example: a few days ago I needed to go to Walgreens.  Austin was outside playing in the yard.  I went out and said “Austin we need to go to the store”  He replied with “In a minute?”  So I said sure, we will go in a few minutes when he is done playing.  About five minutes later he walks in the house and says, “Okay mom, all done.  Let’s go!”  Then once we got to the store he saw something he wanted to look at and said, “Just a minute mom”.  I stopped and he looked for a few minutes and then we continued on our way.  Just 6 months ago that whole experience would have been filled with tantrums and nonstop whining.  I really feel like his is growing up and able to express himself so much better now.  Love it!!!  But my all time favorite thing that Austin does is holds my hand when we are walking somewhere.  He has never done that.  In the past, it has been me chasing him down, holding him back, and strapping him to some sort of restraint.  I love that he will just walk beside me and hold my hand like a sweet little boy. 

Kaleb is 7 months old, and is one of the happiest babies I have ever seen.  He  has grown quite attached to me lately and reaches for me whenever I walk in the room.  Sometimes it can be a little annoying if I am trying to get something done and he won’t go to anyone else, but most of the time it just melts my heart.  He is at that really fun stage where he is alert and aware of his surroundings, but is still little enough that is not yet mobile.  He is so close to crawling and is going to take off any day now.  But for now, I can sit him on the floor to play and he just stays there.  He doesn’t get into things he not supposed to and I don’t have to constantly watch every move he makes for fear he will fall down the stairs or get his head stuck somewhere, or bring something toppling down on himself.  But my all time favorite thing about Kaleb right now is when he curls up against me sucking his thumb and falls asleep.  Not many things in this world are better than a baby sleeping in your arms. 

Now this is not to say that there aren’t hard days.  There are.  And I have no delusions that things are going to stay like this forever, but for now, I love the stage of life I am in.  I love that I can stay home and watch my boys grow.  I love that I don’t have to miss the first time Kaleb crawls or when Austin learns a new word.  I love that right now, I just get to be a mom. 

May not be suitable for all readers

Okay, Austin did something really funny today but I feel I must add a little disclaimer.  The contents of this post may not be suitable for all readers.  If you are not amused by humor involving your bowels please stop reading now.

So today Austin was having a bout with some really gnarly gas.  Anyone who knows Austin very well knows that his boofs can really clear a room.  In fact, anyone who knows the Gardner clan in general knows that this trait did not start with Austin.  Have you ever met my brother, Andrew?…enough said!!! To this day, I swear he waits until the whole family is in the car with the windows up to let it rip.  It is something I hope he doesn’t share with his cute little wife until they have been married at least a couple of years.

Anyway, back to Austin.  So Austin had some pretty strong flatulence going on this afternoon so I said, “Austin, do you need to go poo poo?”  He says, “no” and I say, “are you sure?”  He then pulls down his pants, bends over to show me his bum, and says, “Look mom, there’s no poo poo in there.” 

Wow, a little more that I wanted to know, but I got a chuckle out of it anyway!!! 

Austin’s building blocks

So, one day while I was packing up the kitchen to move to our new house, Austin decided to help me.  I look over and Austin says, “Mom, it’s so big!!!”  He was so proud of himself that he had stacked this canned food so high.  I ran to get my camera to document this proud moment of his.

This is Austin’s really excited/proud face.

He was so proud about how high he could stack that he kept on stacking.

and stacking…

and stacking… He was at it for a really long time.  He thought it was so fun that I was taking pictures of his accomplishment.  He would add a can and then come see the picture I took of his new addition. When the stack would get to high and start to wobble he would say, “Nope, that’s too big!” and then start a new tower.  I thought this would be a one-time thing because all the cans were just lying around in boxes.  NOPE!!!

Once we moved into our new house, every time I turned around Austin was getting into the cupboards and stacking all the cans.  Every time he did it he would say, “Take a picture, mom!”

After a while I got tired of taking pictures every time he took all the cans out of the cupboard.  Not to mention how annoying it is to have to put away cans every five minutes.  I told Austin not to stack the cans anymore, just his blocks.  For the first time in his life he actually did what I told him and he hasn’t stacked the cans since.  Kind of sad now that I look back.  But not that sad, because my cans actually stay where they are supposed to be.

Family Pictures (BYU Style)