LET'S PLAY THE GAME ...

CATCH UP!
Oh geez ... I am such a slacker! My apologies!
Here is my first of a few catch up posts. Maybe one day soon i'll be all caught up with this blog (but don't hold your breath).

Sweets has been doing a lot of Mountain biking with different groups of peeps. They usually bike the Crest up Big Cottonwood and they usually bike it at night with their nifty cool lights. However, this ride was on a Saturday morning and he went with his good friend Cody (pictured) and Kevin (not pictured). Although they somehow got split up from each other, they still had a great time!

Sweets and I are apart of Young Leaders of United Way and they had a charity golf tournament at Old Mill that we participated in. It was fun to get out and play a round as well as mingle and make connections with other people our age in the community. Our team (consisting of Sweets' two friends Jarum and Travis and us) ended up taking 4th overall and I ended up winning "longest putt" and snagged some really awesome goodies to take home! 

I still have been doing a lot of cooking and loving it. I promise soon I'll share some of my latest recipes but until then here is a teaser. While peaches were the thing a month ago, I couldn't resist and grabbed a bunch and made this super yummy salsa and incorporated it into dinner! 

Recipe:

1 large peach, peel and diced small (or 2 medium peaches)
1 large avocado, diced small (or 2 small avocados)
1/2 red onion, diced small
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 of a yellow pepper, chopped
place all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir.  (add the avocados last so they won’t get mushy)
serve over salmon or chicken or as a salsa for chips!
I paired mine with salmon and pea couscous. (Normally I like my couscous with cinnamon but I thought it would be too many flavors).


I headed here:

for some R&R for a few days. It was fabulous and just what I needed. I flew down with my sis and my Parentals and left my three favorite boys home to fend for themselves...but something told me they were ok without me. We soaked up some "vitamin D", went shopping everyday, hit up daily trips to Trader's Joes, Holiday decor-ed our homes from Rogers Gardens, toured the island of Balboa, went to dinner and movies, and goofed around with each other. 

Thanks for the fab trip!


Lastly, I have been trying to get my home ready for Fall (the BEST and my MOST favorite season)! I made a wreath out of striped burlap for my front door, but it's not hung because it somehow ended up at my mother's house. I'm making a new one though for my door. I did fix up our entry way with some mirrors and branches and set out my Fall subway art. I just love how the leaves are starting to change and the temperatures are cooling down. It makes for a peaceful and pleasant existence. 

Stay tuned for more of the game CATCH UP!

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.  

GET UP, STAND UP...

Stand up for your right!
Don't you just love Bob Marley?
 I do.
Summertime is the best for listening to Reggae music. I don't really know why, but I also seem to have it playing in the warm summer months. 



This year, the 4th of July was a low-key Holiday. Sweets and I spent the weekend up in Midway with both our families hanging out, reading our books, horse riding, eating, watching fireworks, swimming and playing games. Life has been busy lately, so it felt good to just relax.
I was in charge of the 'snack' table so I made up some bunches of licorice tied with scrap book paper, dipped pretzels in chocolate and added sprinkles, made confetti cupcakes with red and blue frosting (sorry no pic), and put together some fun Holiday decorations to top it off. Oh and I also set out some sparklers and snaps for the kids. They loved it!
Overall, it was a great weekend and we are so lucky to have the freedoms that we have and we honor those you have gone before us and who are now fighting for our rights of Independence!   

THIRTY - TWO

Sweets turned 32!!!

He kicked his birthday off a day early and went mountain biking with some friends in Moab on Friday. It was a quick trip (down and back), but nonetheless, it was exactly what he wanted. After rolling in sometime around midnight (ps i love that song!) he was up at 6:30 Saturday morning doing service work for our ward. What a trooper! After spending the day with me running 'fun birthday' errands we had his friends over for a little get together that evening. It was so good too see those who were able to make it and catch up with them but we missed the other peeps that couldn't make it. We had the Memmott Family, 1/2 of the Stone family, the Davidson family, the Packer Family and the Devere family.  

the birthday wreath in all its glory

the H.S. friends

the children jumping on the tramp in between the rainfall

We ate the infamous 'Bookclub Salad', Texas Cavier, Mexican-corn dip, veggies and 7 boxes of pizza! It was all super yummy. Plus, for dessert:

Add caption

we ate Nutter Fluffers, Angry Bird cupcakes and Chocolate chip cookie dough pops! Boy oh boy were they D-LISH! 

After hanging out, jumping on the tramp, popping snaps, playing with balloons and everything else that adults with 10 something kids do...it was time to call it a night. 

But, the Birthday bash wasn't over! Sunday afternoon we had Sweets' family over for Hawaiian Haystacks and dessert. (I didn't get a pic because I am horrible with the camera thing) but it was fun to celebrate his 32nd birthday with the family! We 'stacked' the hay with lots and lots of veggies and other fun toppings and then enjoyed  

these orange-kissed cookies and

this Ice Cream Sundae Layer Chocolate Cake! Seriously...you NEED to make this cake. It was fabulous! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETS! 

(stay tuned and i'll post the recipes for all these scrumptious foods!)

BALLOONS FOR HIM

materials needed

Sweets birthday is this weekend and we are having a few parties with friends and family, and I wanted to make something special to decorate our home with the 'birthday vibe'. I found this tutorial on best bites and I decided it was simple enough to throw together in no time. All you need in order to make a balloon wreath is some sort of a wreath ( i used syrofoam), balloons and floral pins!  It was so super easy and it turned out great! I completed mine in about 1 hour. 

the almost finished product...in which you will have to wait for until this weekend

 I am not posting the finished product quite yet as to not give away the surprise, but I will post more about this and the other birthday party festivities in a few days. It will be quite the Birthday Bash for the up-coming 32 year old! 

seriously I love the colors of the balloons

 Happy Pre-Pre-Birthday and Party Party Day Sweets!!!

EXTRAVAGANZA

It was quite the extravaganza at our home yesterday. We had twenty-two family members from both sides over for Easter dinner. It was so fun to get together with our families and enjoy such a special day with one another. 

I started off with making name cards for the place settings. Technically they aren't 'cards' but everyone had a specific seat. This is what they looked like - 

Basically, I took rolled tin foil into a ball, covered it with sculpey clay, stamped the names, baked them in the oven and then colored them in with a fine-tip pen. They all turned out SO cute! 

The Easter menu was so fun to put together. I worked hard the last couple of days to get everything prepped and ready and it all came together nicely. The menu consisted of:

- Honey Baked Ham with sweet honey mustard sauce

- Citrus Salad with Lemon vinaigrette 

- Tossed Salad with Red onion dressing

- Roasted asparagus with stemmed carrots 

- Sweet potatoes and Yams

- Rolls

- Raspberry-Lemon layered cake- Brownies- Cupcakes- Mixed Fruit - Lemon-lime water 

My very first scratch made cake EVER! It was uberly yummy.

Happy Easter. How tweet it is. Bunny cupcakes for the kiddies

Everything was really tasty and I was really happy how it all turned out. A big shout out goes to Sweets for doing so much to help get everything ready. He was a huge life-savor and I couldn't have pulled out all the cooking/cleaning/baking/setting up/gifts/decorations/etc with out him!

CRAFT ROOM: PART 1

I was so excited to get my craft room started last weekend, that I cleared my schedule (somewhat) on Friday and spent my time clearing out boxes, finishing a few projects and building my storage cubbies. I am so happy that things are finally starting to take shape with the room. Here are a few things that I worked on over the weekend, and if you just be patient, I'll post the whole before and after room at the end of the month!!!

This is my Magnet Board that I constructed super easily and mega cheaply! I bought a magnetic cork board and covered it with fabric and attached ribbon for the design. The bow in the middle is actually connected to a ribbon on the back to hang on the wall.

Magnet Board

This is my office tool box that I made that was easier than the magnet board. You see, I am all about easy crafts that require no work or machinery. Maybe one day I'll actually be crafty! Anyway, I took a bead container from Hobby Lobby, wrapped it in ribbon, traced out scrapbook paper on the top and then attached the letters. I am still trying to figure out what to put on the other side but you get the idea. I filled the inside sections with office supplies.

Office tool box

Push pins, brads, paper clips, rubber bands etc.

Each year I ask my entire family when their birthday's are, and every year I write them down just to lose for the next year. So, instead I made this calendar (help from eighteen25) that you can write all the birthday's on and keep every year! I decorated the bottom of all the pages with coordinating monthly scrapbook paper, and now I will be able to use them and add to them every year. YAY! I put them into a boxed clipboard so all the pages are kept safe.

Birthday Calendar

Birthday pages

Ok, so if you thought the above items were easy, then check this out. Here is my Things To Do list that I printed from (eighteen25) and put inside a frame. All you need are dry erase markers and you can make your lists on the glass. I am the princess, next to my mom the Queen, of writing To Do Lists on paper and then hoarding them all. I have things written on paper all over my house of things that I need to get done and quite frankly it is ridiculous! So, this way I save trees and keep my house clean. 

Things to do

Dry Erase Markers

I finally put together the IKEA cubby unit (which was on sale) and filled it with lime green boxes for storage. I am in the middle of emptying out the old and haggard containers that my crafts reside in now and using these instead. Thanks Sweets for helping carry this up the stairs and with the assembly process...

Cubby Unit

 Slowly, my room is coming together and I can't wait for the finished product. I think y'all will love it...I hope!

PROJECT SECRET AND THEN SOME!

I will let you in on a little secret. This pic has a little to do with a new project that I am working on! It unfortunately won't be finished for awhile, but when it does, I guarantee that you will love it and want to do the same thing!!! As I continue working on it i'll post a few other 'hint' pics. It should be awesome! 

In the meantime, here are a few other items for another project that I am helping with. It has been fun working with them and hopefully soon we will be able to put together a few rooms in their newly built house. I am excited to see how this all turns out and comes together!

home decorators.

crate and barrel.

ikea.

ikea.

crate and barrel.

pier one.

pier one.

company c.

crate and barrel.