Easter Weekend!

Its been a while since I've updated so I hope this doesn't end up too long. For Easter we went back to our hometown of Arlington, Texas. The drive takes on average 4.5 hours. We have learned to have fun on the road and now we hardly notice that we have been driving so long. Although some silly things do happen.

Here's Riley sporting Daddy's work gear.

I am always personally excited for Easter because its a holiday all of my friends pick to come home. Since we grew up together going to the same church, we always end up at Hillcrest on Sunday morning(plus or minus a few). It's always fun to go home anyway. Since we've moved 3 times in the past year we haven't seen our good friends as often as we are used to. AJ and I have been blessed to have kept the same friends the majority of our lives. Most of our friends we've been close with for 15+ years. So often times when we go home, AJ and I will split up and spend time with our own friends.

On Thursday evening I was thrilled to get to see my high school friends Cassondra and Libby. We got together for dinner and drinks. We had a great time talking about what we've been up to and remembering silly things we used to do. I spent almost everyday of my senior year with these girls and it was so wonderful to go back in time with them. Just reminded me why I loved them in the first place. There will be more nights like this to come.

On Friday evening we got some girls together for a night out in Downtown Fort Worth. One of my dearest friends, Falisha, and I decided to head Downtown early for good parking and to walk around. I have been telling Falisha about Simply Fondue(I love this restaurant) for a few years now and we have joked about going on a date there. So I thought we would go since we had time to kill.

This is Falisha and I later that evening.

The Simply Fondue downtown is in a basement, fancy but not swanky, definitely my favorite Simply Fondue location. Since we share a love of cheese I knew Falisha would love it. We had a super yummy dinner and still had a little time to kill. So as we left the restaurant we walked through an art gallery. We joked about how it would have made for a good date. Then we walked a few blocks to meet our friends at Lonestar(formerly City Streets). Since another one of my dearest friends Kathryn is getting married we took her out for her traditional "Last Night Out" as a bachelorette.

Here's the bachlorette being serenaded at the dueling piano bar inside Lonestar.

You can't really see in this picture but they had a leopard print piano and a zebra print piano.

We also had some really good laughs at the Karaoke Bar inside Lonestar. ("We ain't ghetto no mo'!" "White people put yo hands up!") Le Freak was also playing at Lonestar, and if you've ever seen Le Freak you know how much fun we had. We ended the night at Pete's Piano Bar. Here we all are:

(L to R: Kathryn, Elayna, Brittany, Myself, and Falisha)

Easter Sunday, the main event! I realize most people try to dress their family in their Sunday best on this holiday. I usually take it a step further to coordinate my family. Just to show you a little peek of something certain people refer to as OCD or neurotic....here is my merchandising studies at work....I put together this template to show my mom the dress I wanted to find for Tatum and the reason I wanted it. Enjoy. Ha ha.

OK back to Easter Sunday...We woke up for church and my mom snapped some traditional "pose outside in the driveway" pictures.  I have more than a few pictures of my brothers, my sister, my nieces, and myself posing in this same driveway on Easter morning. So I am excited that my children will have some of them also.

Don't let the faces fool you! I'm kidding. They are usually pretty sweet.

The Gardner's, Easter 2011

After church service, the kids hunted Easter eggs. They were running around so fast that there are not many pictures of them hunting eggs.

Tatum found some!

Dad was the official bucket holder.

Riley admiring all his eggs....mainly thinking of all the CANDY inside.

Riley and his buddy Donovan were born exactly one month and one day apart. Donovan's mom happens to be Kathryn(mentioned before). They are best buddies and their mommies are best buddies. Here is the typical "buddy shot" of the two of them.

Here is Rinoa, my great-niece, that means she's my niece's daughter.

Rinoa came back to Oklahoma with us and will be living with us for a while.

After a long and busy weekend like that one, we are happy to have had a nice relaxing weekend back at home.

I do realize this was a lot of information to process. I hope I remembered to mention everything! It's May now...oh my! Have a blessed, happy, and hopefully sunny MAY!

-Amber-

somebody's got a new belt...

Last night Riley got his new belt in Karate. So proud of the little man!

Here he is with Sensei Mike Fike(yeah that's his real name).

Riley- age 5

Alabaster Caverns

This morning we woke up early and drove out to the Alabaster Caverns about 20 miles North of Woodward. We went on a guided tour through the caverns. The camera died after the first picture we took so there aren't too many pictures. We got to touch all the ceilings and walls of the naturl caverns. We saw where the pioneers would camp out and hide inside the caverns. We also saw bats....yuck.

Here the kids are looking a little freaked out by the bats....I was too.

After the tour through the caverns we had a picnic lunch, played soccer, and hiked some trails. AJ and Riley decided to climb to the top of a small canyon.

Here is the trail the boys hiked.

These pictures are zoomed so you can see the boys.

They were so high up.

Tatum and I sat in the car in the air conditioning. I told her to smile and say "cheese." Here she is with her classic cheese face.

It was a beautiful day out. We had so much fun that when we got home we all crashed. More adventures to come. Stay tuned....

-The Gardners-





Free Puppies!

No really they are free puppies. These are half golden retriever and half australian shepard puppies.

Female-all black w/a little white on the neck and chest

Female- blackish gray w/ small patches of white on the chest and feet

Female- black and white

Female- black w/ small patches of white on front feet.

and our personal favorite:

male- gray and tan w/black spots and small white patches on feet

Farm Expo!

Lately we've been finding there are a lot of fun things to do in our area that don't cost any money at all. This past weekend we went to the Farm Expo in Woodward. There were lots of crafts and booths. There was a inflatable obstacle course and bounce houses. You cannot drag Tatum away from a bounce house. Some how we managed to. There was a turkey hunting video game the kids liked playing. Team Riley/Daddy shot about 15 virtual turkeys and Team Tatum/Mommy shot about 8 virtual turkeys. Then Riley got to do some target practice with a paintball gun. I was really surprised he wasn't scared. Later we watched a little bit of the Cowdog Trials.

But their favorite part was the pony rides!

Tatum loved her pony "Smokey." She would say "Come on Smokey!"

We had so much fun at the Farm Expo. Can't wait to do something else this weekend!

Have a great Thursday everyone! 

Will she be a fashion designer or a hairdresser?

One day I was making Tatum a dress and she decided she wanted to make one too. Tatum colored her own fabric in the design of her choice. Then Tatum traced a pattern out. Tatum meticulously and carefully cut out her pattern(with safety scissors of course). Then Tatum draped her pattern pieces on her dress form to ensure a perfect fit.

Now if you are thinking this is pretty advanced for a 2 year old....you are probably correct. Tatum has watched me prepare patterns to sew plenty of times. So if you are thinking she's a prodigy....you are probably NOT correct. This is my shadow....pretending to be mommy. Isn't she sweet?


My precious little girl wanting to be like me, makes my heart smile. Then she reminds me that she is only 2 years old.

I'm thinking, "She's playing so sweetly, so I can get back to making her dress." I go back to what I was doing and I hear her snipping away with her safety scissors. I turn to check on her just as she snips a chunk of her hair out! My fault for not paying attention. Oops.

So here she is with her new hairstyle.

That little stinker!

BACK TO SCHOOL!

I decided I would go back to school. Actually it was AJ's idea. I told him when we moved to Oklahoma that I would start looking for a job. He said he would take care of us, if I would just go back to school and finish.

I thought school was out of the question for me until he mentioned it. After he did and I got enrolled I left the school knowing that this was a very attainable goal.

After I had Riley I thought, "School is just out of the question. It's time to do what I can to take care of my family." Now I've realized that school IS what I can do to take care of my family.

I had to meet with the Dean before they would officially enroll me. Which is something my other schools never had me do. It was such a blessing to get to meet with her. Dr. Fisher is such a caring woman who wants her students to do well. She gave me some great advice too! First she convinced me to change my major to something a little more broad. Instead of Fashion Merchandising and Marketing, I've changed to Business Administration and Marketing. I told Dr. Fisher about how worried I was about school. She told me, "Do you ask your doctor what grade he made in freshman Biology?" "All you know is that he passed and now he's your doctor." "So just do your best and get these classes done." "And I'll be cheering when you walk across the stage."

I have a feeling she says that to all the students she speaks with but it helped me either way. I'm motivated to change my life for the better.

So here's to a better life for my family....and to every step I take towards graduation!