October

Wow, it has been a busy month!  I should stop trying to convince myself that life is slowing down.  I am getting used to being so busy, and quite frankly I quite like it.

First things first, the picture of the present I made my mom for her birthday:

Second our family Halloween party!  Another success!  It was more laid back this year, but still fun.  I did a Mad scientist theme.  Thanks to my mom for help getting props, and big thanks to those who helped with food, and Thanks to all for dressing up!  So much fun :)

I didn't post pics of everyone, but they all looked great!

Third, a fun girls night!  We decided on doing a craft this go round and since two of my friends are due this December with girls we made hair bows.  I am addicted.  Not quite sure what I am going to do with all of them... but I love to make them.  I should get a girl someday, right?

And finally!  drum roll please... FAMILY PICTURES!  I am loving how they turned out :)  I haven't seen all of them yet, but here is a sneak peek

HUGE Thanks to Brittany Hatch for taking them!

And of course, we can't forget the birth of baby Casper!

What a fun month!    I have to share quickly what my lesson was on today too.

Finding joy now, and through each stage in life.  This was great for me!  Not that I am not happy or anything, I am.  But sometimes I am thinking so far into the future, or yearning for the future that I forget to live in the now and be happy now.  I feel motivated to live one day at a time and cherish the time we have NOW!  It goes by so quickly.  I made the girls these shoes out of paper and told them to enJOY the shoes they're in.

The girls were so into the lesson, it was awesome!  Love that.

LONG POST!  thanks for reading

Birthday

Just had to share about my birthday this last week!  My husband never fails to make it amazing, every year!  I never used to care about my birthday... just another day really.  Until I met Ben, now every year he has me so excited about it!  If you know Ben, you know how observant and thoughtful he is.  I am always surprised on my Birthday.  I never come out and ask him for what I want, but he always seems to gift right on the money!  If you know Ben, you also know he is a bit of a jokster from time to time.  Well this year was a bit different than previous years.  Typically I am told happy birthday several times through out the week of my birthday and he teases me about what my gifts could possibly be.  Well this year, he didn't say much... or anything at all.  He just started a new job and is busy with projects so I didn't think anything of it.  The night before my birthday, he made plans to do projects after work.  I was kinda surprised, but his dad was in town, I figured he should use help while help was here.  No worries, we can go out another time.  So I tried to make plans to go out with my mom, just so I wasn't sitting home.  And of course to my surprise Ben showed up an hour early from work, we made dinner plans and he showered me with AWESOME gifts!  Ben is the best!  My best friend, the best husband, an amazing father!  Gol!  What more could I ask for on my birthday!  So you want to know what I got!?  I have wanted to do cycling classes again for some time now, and have tried to get Ben and I working out more frequently, so he got us gym passes to Golds!  So excited, and every monday we get to go to cylcing together :)  LOVE
My other gift was something I have been putting off for a while, but really wanted as well.  He did some research and got me an amazing sewing machine.  I'm so excited about it!  I really want to learn this skill.  I know the basics, but I want to learn to make cute fun things.  I already have lists of things to do.  Cant wait to get started!
For dinner we went to Setobello in Farmington.  Its real napoli pizza, so yummy ;)  Give it a go

Thank you Benny for another amazing Birthday!  I Love you soooooo Much :)

Well, it seems I was slightly off to think thing were winding down.  I'm glad to be busy for the most part.  Ben's parents will be coming later this week for conference weekend, then we have our Halloween party and Ben's sister will be in town for the week.  My sister Heather should be having a baby sometime that week as well.  We will also be doing family pictures that weekend (hopefully).  I am so excited about our pictures!  It will be the first time we have done them ourselves, meaning just my little family, wearing what we want in the setting we want.  I have been doing research and have so many good ideas!  I can't wait :)  I am also excited about some fun crafts I have coming up.  Girls night with my friends making Hair bows.  Two of them are having girls in December.  Bring on the bows!  The other craft is sorta a secret, I will have to post a picture when I'm done,  Its something I am making for my mom for her birthday.  I know she will love it, it involves two things she is crazy about.  Blake and Halloween.

Speaking of the Blakey Boy... He is getting so big!  He is so smart!  I am so in trouble when this kid figures out how to crawl.  He's getting pretty close too.  He is quite good at moving his one little thumb to push buttons and call people on Grandma's phone.  He loves anything with buttons... oh no!  I swore I wouldn't have kids playing video games all day!  The x box controller is one of his favorite things with buttons.   Luckily he loves to be outside too.  He loves the grass and we play (and pick it) quite regularly.  He is getting  so giggly now, his laugh is changing.  Instead of the little snickers, he squeals.  Its so fun to watch him grow and change.  Its crazy to look back at my little tiny newborn to my big (almost) 8 mo. old boy!  I can't believe how the time has flown!   I'm not very good at taking tons of pictures... I need to be, but here is one from the other morning.  We were reading books, like we do every morning.  Blake likes this book especially cause he can put it in his mouth.

His hair is starting to grow in again, and it stayed dark!  Yay!  Not that he wouldn't be super cute blonde, but I was hoping he would stay dark like I did.  He has lightened up some but I think he will maintain the dark for a while.  I will try to remember to post my cute crafts and of course the Halloween party!  I'm excited, we're doing mad scientist party this year with costumes.  Blake is going to be our little monster :)  Can't wait!

Winding down

Ah!  (big sigh of relief) I think after this last weekend things are finally winding down!  It was such a crazy summer.  I enjoyed it, but I'm also glad to say that it is coming to an end.  I don't have pictures to post that aren't already admired on Facebook,  but I will say that Tazia's shower was a success, although we changed locations 3 times within the hour it was to start, her Bridals, receptions and wedding were all lovely as well.  I must say I did a killer job on her hair... just sayin :)  I am quite proud of it. She looked beautiful and its so fun to watch her and Chad be newly weds!

I don't have a good picture of the back of her head yet, but I borrowed this picture from my cousin's Photography page (Brittany Hatch) she took the pics.  This is so you can have an idea of the gorgeousness of her hair

I got to go with her for her bridal shoot too and it was fun to creep in on some photos 

 Heather's baby shower was this last weekend, I had fun making lots of yummy treats thanks to pinterest, my new addiction. And boy isn't it addicting.  LOVE it!

Blakey is getting huge, he is doing really well with solids, I'd say a little over 50 percent of his diet is now solids, which is good.  He is 7 months old now, I can hardly believe it!  My baby is closer to a year than a newborn.  He is such a lover lately and so funny!  He likes to tease me and he giggles all day.  It is so much fun to play with him, he is such a happy baby.  I am one blessed mama to have such an Angel.  He is just easy :)  I love it and do not take it for granted.  Please do not tell me my next child will be the devil, if I only had a nickle for every time.  I was blessed with one angel baby and that does not automatically curse me to have a devil child next.  Anyway, I just love being a mom!  I have left Blake for several hours a few times, mostly for temple trips and I hate it.  We are attached at the hip.  He is my best little buddy and it feels weird to go places without him. I know its a good thing sometimes but I just love him and want to love him all the time!  Sometimes I think it would be nice to leave him, or easier to leave him, but it doesn't take too long for me to change my mind, or miss him terribly and feel that I have made a mistake.  He is the sweetest little guy.

Ben and I started watching Arrested Development again.  If you haven't seen this, you should.  It is so funny!  Most people didn't like it while it aired, but that is because you have to follow the episodes to get the jokes.  There is an actual story line and plot people.  I love it.




This is Tobias Funke, he is the brother in law who is a never nude, and would appear to be gay.  He says a lot that he doesn't realize sounds...er... bad haha it is so funny!  We love this show :) I promise this show is not super Crude. It is Hilarious!

Ben also got a new job!  Yay!  He is working for a company called Evault in their billing department.  He is still trying to get settled but this job is already so much better than working for the State.  I'm so excited for him and this new opportunity for our family!  I'm proud of him for sticking it out with the state for a year and a half.  Grateful for a husband who does everything he can to provide for our family, he does such a good job.  He has really made some sacrifices and I appreciate, and respect him for doing so.  What a Guy!

Anywho, thats whats new.  Now onto NORMAL everyday life

August thus far

This month I feel will be a long month!  Not that that is a bad thing, I'm actually looking forward to it.  Its nice to be busy, isn't it?   Ben's mission companion from Finland came to stay with us with his family for a little over a week.  It's silly, but I was so nervous to meet them.  Probably because whether we all got along or not they were staying with us for a week.  Ben assured me that I would be fine and it would be like I had known him for forever.  Of course, he was right.  We had such an awesome week!  They were amazed at all the temples so close to us so we went to the Jordan River, and the Salt Lake with them.  They also went to Bountiful for their 5 year anniversary.

Jarna and I at Jordan River

Sadly, a lot of what they heard about, and wanted to do here was EAT!  haha  Truly an American past time, yes?  So that's what we did.  They wanted to try all sorts of stuff.  I think I only cooked dinner twice while they were here.  They don't have a Wendy's in Finland.  So we went to Wendy's where Henrik at the triple baconator, a small fry (which isn't so small), and a milk shake.  WHA!  He said he could do it again too.  This guy could put away food!  Wendy's was good practice though, because we also took them to Rodizio's.  We all left so full we were sick!  Ben and I usually don't like to go there, because neither of us can ever eat our money's worth.  I think this time Henrik ate enough for all of us.  He's a big guy.

The Crew at Rodizio's!  

We also went to Kneaders, My Thai, Cafe' Rio, and Tepanyaki.  What a week!

 My new Best Friend, that I sadly won't see again  for many years.

Full!  Full!  Full!

Man love

We had so much fun with these guys.  I never considered going to Finland someday, but I definitely do now. Just to see them again.  It feels like all of us have been friends our whole lives.  They are incredible people and I will miss them terribly.  Blake even made a new friend in little Topias

Jarna and I had a good little cry as they left, but we are determined to make it happen again.  I'll pray for Blake to serve his mission there and we will go pick him up ;)  Someday soon, well relatively soon, we will see them again.

Aside from the awesome company Blakey has been growing up!  He had a little cold for a while but he has his cute personality back and is doing great!  He has been eating sweet potatoes and carrots.  He likes sweet potatoes better than carrots, but he is so good about eating them anyway.

He also just decided one day that he wants to sit up, so he does!

He is growing up so fast!  I'm afraid before too long he will be quite mobile.  He likes to grab the handle on his car seat and try to lift himself up, when he is on his belly he can turn in circles and he has scooted forward once.  Oh boy, I will try and love this stationary phase while it lasts, I don't think it will be much longer.

Soon to come:  Tazia's Bridal shower, reception and wedding, and Heather's baby shower.  Oh boy what a busy month!  Bring it on!

The Gardiner's Garden

Well, while I have been MIA, a lot has happened!  I don't even know where to start... So I guess we will skip the details and just say that in June:  Tazia got engaged to the Mr. Chad Prows!  We are all so excited for them and so glad to be adding Chad to our family. It feels like he has been in the family for so long already anyways, we are happy for it to be official.  They are getting married the end of August.  Tazia already has her dress and most of her wedding planned and it is going to be fabulous!  I'm very excited for her.  

We also had Heather's actual wedding.  My dad's cousin married them and he did a wonderful job.  Aside from the wind it was very nice.  I got to do Heather's hair and makeup, I love doing that.
Heather also found out that her baby is a girl!  I'm so excited, and Blake is looking forward to having a cute cousin to play with in October.

We went to Idaho for Ben's family reunion.  This year we went to Steadman's, which was really fun, they have 2 giant water slides and a zip line and skeet shooting (which I am not so good at...).  We found Lake Cleveland and my nephew Clayton skunked Ben out of his fishing spot.  Blake loved being outside fishing with his dad and grandpa.

Blake started rice cereal... he isn't quite sure how he feels about it, but he is good sport and always eats good for me.  He is also obsessed with his feet and is very good about getting them in his mouth, a habit I hope dies eventually, but its cute for now.

July:   on the 4th we had a BBQ with some of our friends here in our neighborhood.  We had our own little firework show after we ate.  Blake slept through most of them (which surprised me), but its better than crying through them.  One of our aerial fireworks tipped over and started shooting in all crazy directions.  it finally started making its way towards where we were sitting and we all started scrambling a little too late.  I had Blake in my arms and saw one land right in front of us!  I turned just in time to save Blake but my hip took the brunt of the shell and I sported a nasty bruise for quite a while.  We felt like we had been in a war.

A week after we got back from the reunion we headed back up to Idaho for a funeral.  Ben's Grandma passed away, which was unexpected, but a very nice service.  She was an amazing woman.  I don't think anyone was worried about Grandma, but it was hard to watch Grandpa. That is always the hard part about funerals, is the ones left behind.

Tazia moved out.  She got a fun little apartment, I know she is excited and loving it.

Heather had her reception on the 13th. She let me make her wedding cake, which was a new thing for me.  I really enjoyed it. We had lots of family in town.  My aunt and cousins stayed here with us, we had a full house!  It was nice to see family and friends that we don't see often.

Blake started rolling over and is getting quite good at it, which makes it harder for me to do things... he is not so stationary anymore.  We spend a lot more time on the floor now.

Now to explain the title.  We started a garden in our backyard with the help of Ben's sister Audri and it is doing so well!  I went and picked a ton of veggies this morning and there are tons more coming.  The garden was seeming like so much work, its hard to find a time that isn't too hot to weed.  Picking the produce was so fun and super satisfying though

Almost ready to start picking ...

Long update!  I will try and blog more often so they are shorter.  til next time

Recap

Wow, it has been a long time since I've been on to blog!  I can't believe my little guy is just about 3 months old now!  The time has flown by.  Blake is so big now, Its crazy how fast he's grown!  He is quite the little jabber jaw.  He likes to talk to me in the mornings... He always wakes up between 5 and 6 to eat so at that point I just keep him in bed with me.  We like to snuggle.  He likes to put his hand on my cheek when we fall asleep. By 8 I wake up to this cute little face looking right at me just talking away.  I love being home with him, being able to witness all the cute things he does, not having to worry about missing any firsts!  I am so grateful to be a stay at home mommy!  Blake has also become... well for sure become such a momma's boy.  My mom was saying that its weird that he is so aware of where I am already, that usually its not for a few more months that they get this way.  I can't even leave the room without him knowing, and if he is left with someone unfamiliar he freaks. Even if I am right there in front of him, its not good enough until I am holding him.  He even makes a ma ma sound when he cries.  Oh boy, I better figure out how to break him of this or I will never be able to date my husband again!  That said, he is an amazing baby.  He is so good and so chill, I just love it.    Anyway aside from Blake getting enormous, here are some pictures of what we have been up to:

Blake's first time to church:  Easter, My Young Women just eat him up

Easter Sunday

first Easter!  

Auntie Audri even gave him his own basket so he could hunt eggs with cousins :)

This was a few weeks ago, Blake is huge and thankfully, mommy is almost not huge.  YAY!

oh, and we got a piano ;) double YAY

We Blessed Blake on the 6th, We hope we didn't offend anyone but we only invited family, and that was enough!  My yard was swarming with people!  We're glad to have so much support.  Blake looked so handsome in his little outfit.  It's the one Ben wore when he was blessed.  I especially liked the shoes.

Big Thanks to Maggi for letting us have it

My Grandma wanted a 4 generation picture, which is very cool.  There a few others we need to get.  One in particular that I think we absolutely need is with great grandpa Golden, Grandpa Gardiner, Ben Golden, and Blake Golden.  Since there is so much name sake, it would be nice for Blake to see who he was named after 

We have been so busy lately, I guess that comes with a baby.  It makes me appreciate the down time I have with him even more.  It also makes me appreciate my husband even more, he does so much for us and I'm so so thankful to have him.  We are so incredibly blessed and are grateful for God's hand in our lives.

Update

 Cutest baby in the world!  I tried to upload a video... but it wont work, I will try again later

A little update on life... I love being a mommy!  Best job in the world.  Blake is such a good baby!  I feel so lucky to have been blessed with such a sweet little baby!  Don't worry everyone, I'm not crazy...and I may be singing a different tune later on... But I can't wait to see what the next one is like!  I love Blake so much and it will be so fun to watch him grow up.  Although he is growing up so fast.  Tazia got on the scale with and without him and the difference is 10 lbs!   I don't know what happened to me but as soon as she said he was 10lbs, I started crying haha.  Aw man those hormones creep up on you sometimes.  I guess if it makes me look stupid sometimes its ok.  I have been very blessed again as far as those hormones go. I've had bad days for sure, but I can count them on 2 fingers... and thats it!  I've just loved every minute of this experience so far.  Baby blues have yet to get ahold on me, and I hope they dont.  I love my little family!  Life has never been better :)

Blake Golden

Happy Valentines Day surprise to me!!!  Blake was born a day early (or an hour early really) when we thought he would be almost a week late.  Talk about timing!  This baby has always, from his first ultrasound at 8 wks, measured right on to the day.  The 15th was the due date no questions asked.  He was text book throughout the whole pregnancy!
As you know my Dr. told me since I wasn't progressing we would see where I was at on the 13th and maybe move the induction back to the 20th.  So on the 13th at my appointment, my Dr. confirmed that I was still only 50% and a tight 1 cm.  I couldn't believe it! Thats 3 weeks that I sat at the same spot!  So she said I would be going into the hospital on the night of the 20th, they would give me a pill to soften my cervix and start me on pit the next morning.  I left there a bit discouraged to say the least.  That night, or more like Tuesday morning at 2 am I woke up for the usual...Pee and didnt quite make it to the toilet.  That was my initial thought anyway. I ran the rest of the way to the bathroom and to skip the details I called my Dr. and she said I better go to the hospital and have them check it.
We grabbed our stuff and took our time going in, it was sort of surreal and we both thought we would be sent home.  I couldn't get past all that fluid though!  I knew it was not pee.  At the hospital, we checked in and headed to Labor and delivery where they put me in a room, dressed me in a robe and hooked me up the external monitors.  They came in after a bit and checked the fluid, claiming it was not amniotic fluid!  What the heck was it then???  I did not pee my pants!  OK, so I was left to be monitored for a bit longer when I finally felt my first contraction!  and a giant gush...gush...gush!  We called the nurse in and she checked the fluid and said we would be staying.  Ah ha!  I knew it wasn't pee!  I didn't feel any contractions after that although I was having them.  By 6 o'clock they finally put us in a room and started my IV and PIT.  It took a while but I was finally starting to feel contractions...and they got worse pretty quick!
By 10:30 contractions were 1 min long and anywhere from 2 to 3 min apart.  The pain was manageable, however even between contractions it never left my back.  Even though the pain wasnt too bad, I was hungry and exhausted!  I had been up since 2!  Needless to say, I was having a hard time mentally staying on top of the pain.  Ben suggested we talk to the nurse and after doing so we decided to go ahead and get an epidural.  That was in place and working nicely by about noon.  PS it was a piece of cake!  I hardly felt a thing.
The nurse decided to go ahead and check me while she was placing the catheter and she said "oh hun, I think you made a good choice, you're still only a 1!"  Oh my!  So from that point on its really pretty boring... numb legs and ice chips (cause that's all you can eat)  They checked me again at 3, I was a 3.  Again at 7 I was a 5-6, again at 10...I was a 10!  Hallelujah!!!  My Dr arrived shortly after, we pushed and had a baby!  Easy Peasy!  Seriously, it was long and boring for the most part, but after he was out I looked at Ben and even said "That was a breeze!"    I thought the pushing was the hard part...
Baby was perfect! 7lbs even, 19.5 in long, and Super cute! 

 This is Blake on our way to his first Dr. visit.  Dr. was well pleased with him.  He didn't even bother checking his jaundice, because it was so minimal.  He is already back up past his birth weight too!  He's seriously the best baby!  Only whimpers when he's hungry and Cries when you change his bum.  He is not a fan of anything cold.  Wipes especially.

I love this little guy so much!  I must admit, I am a baby hog.  I could hold him all day long, and sometimes I do ;)