ONE LOOOOONG PARTAY!

Last week was a full blown "Gardner" week! Between the baby blessing of my nephew Samuel, babysitting and crafting with my 3 nieces all day, a birthday celebration for my sister Kimberly, girls night out to Cheesecake Factory and shopping at Nordstrom with a combo birthday bash for my cousin Abby, family dinner at CPK and watching the Harry Potter: part 2 movie, the temple sealing of Samuel with lunch afterwards at Blue Lemon, and finally another birthday celebration for my Mother at Ruth's Chris in Park City!
WHEW!
Along with all those events, we had work everyday and we still managed to pack up and head out of town Friday. The recap of last week goes at follows:

Handsome Samuel was blessed at home in fabulous style. My sister and her husband catered the whole event with scrumptious food from Gin's Bakery and it was delicious. In total, there were about 75 people there to show support and participate in the blessing. It was such a long-awaited wonderful evening! 

My nieces and I were put in charge of the centerpieces, so the day before we headed out the stores and came up with a cute idea. We decided we would make balloon topiaries. We took galvanized buckets from Hobby lobby and filled them with foam. We then spray painted wooden sticks black and attached a foam ball on top. After pinning all the balloons into the foam (just like the Birthday Balloon Wreath that I made) we stuck it into the bucket and covered the top with orange paper shavings. The girls had fun making these and I had fun spending time with them! All in all, we made 7 topiaries! 

Please excuse the poor quality photo, it was taken with my phone. Nonetheless this awesome chick cuz turned the big 2-0 on Tuesday! Woot! Woot! All of us girls in the fam took her out to dinner followed by a little sale shopping. It was such a fun evening. We laughed, shared stories and did exactly what girls do best! This was my purchase for the evening and they are the bomb-diggity! I freakin' love them

  
Although I do not have any photos of the dinner-&-movie night, it was still a blast! Sweets and I have not been to a movie for so long. It felt good to just relax and be entertained by Harry for the last time.  

  

The Temple sealing was so amazing! Our good family friend Elder Steve Snow performed the sealing and he did an incredible job. I have never seen an actual family sealed before, so it was pretty neat. But the greatest part was that my sweet sister Kimberly asked if I would participate in the Sealing. I was so honored. I was able to hold Samuel and be at the alter with the whole family for the sealing. It was such a neat experience for me to be apart of such an important ordinance, but it was also an awesome experience for the 3 sisters of Samuel to be apart of it as well. They got to see things that children their age don't get to see. How lucky...

My sister Kimberly turned one year younger, yet again, on the 18th. We celebrated her as family and friends with cake, ice cream and cupcakes at her house. It was a great day and she deserved a great one too!

My youthful Mother also had a birthday last week on the 21st! She is an incredible Mother and I am so blessed by her example and her friendship. For her big day we headed up to Ruth's Chris in Park City for a wonderful dinner. This is an annual thing for my family and we all look forward to this occasion every year. 
Happy Birthday!


All in all, it was a perfect week! I have so much to be thankful for and I am grateful to my darling Sweets, my 2 furry - stinky kids, my awesome kick-A family, and for the gospel in my life. Without those things, I would have nothing and be nothing.