Josh

I thought I would update you on what each of the kids have been up to. I thought I would start with Josh. He has been enjoying speech and is really doing well. We also go to story time and go to the park for a play group(if it is to hot we go to Chic-fil-a. Josh loves it. He has also informed me that he doesn't want to go to school. I guess well have a little while to get him motivated. Silly guy.

Josh riding his dragon. We went to the zoo on the one Saturday Zach and Bella didn't have a soccer game. We had perfect weather (83 degrees) love it. Josh loved the fact about the Kimono dragon about if it spits on you it can kill you.

Josh loves finding interesting things to do at soccer games. On this particular day he was putting leaves on a stick. He also had to get the cute skeleton jacket.

Day at the park it was Read for the Record day. Curious George read The Snowy Day. They had several games for the kids to play. Here is Josh throwing "snowballs" through the hole. He had a lot of fun. We didn't stay long enough this year to see Hugo and the Hornet cheerleaders, but we did check out the Insectitarium exhibit. Josh was so into it. He loved watching the scorpions. It was pretty active.

Halloween

For Halloween this year we did Trunk-or-Treat at our ward on Friday and we just handed out candy on Sunday. I made a fun dinner of monster mashed potatoes along with a pumpkin bread pudding. For the monster mashed potatoes I made the potatoes into a circle and then put broccoli around the top for the hair and cut carrots for the eyes and corn for the mouth. This is one of Bella's favorites. Even though we didn't go trick-or-treating this year the kids had fun handing out candy and seeing all the fun costumes. We only had two trick-or-treaters come once the Saints game started.

Zach as a Storm Trooper.

Josh as a knight

Bella as a Gypsy. I took her a while to get use to wearing the eyelashes.

Matt dressed as a desert prince and Amy went as a witch to the ward party. Matt won a prize for the scariest costume. I should have taken a picture. I totally spaced it. Next year!

What We Have Been Doing

Sorry it has been over a month since I last posted. I have been busy getting back into the school schedule. The kids are now in school, and Josh is still doing speech. Josh is doing really well in speech he recently took another speech test and he scored in the average range for both articulation and sounds. He is also finally doing much better with the potty training. He can be so stubborn about it. Zach and Isabella are both doing soccer this year. I am ready for it to be over. The two games on Saturday is tough to handle along with the practices during the week. I think it would be fine if it wasn't so hot. Oh well, only 1 month left. Bella is doing the violin at school and Zach is learning to play the trumpet for band. He is doing great. We are also geat ready to start Zach's science fair project.
Matt and I have also gotten some more callings in the ward. Matt is now an employment specialist for the ward and I am now Isabella's primary teacher. We both still work at the store house also. As many have also heard Matt traded in his Mini Cooper for a Ford Mustang. Sorry I don't have a picture yet. The new car is pretty nice. Both Zach and Bella have gotten to ride in it. I still need to.
Here are some fun pictures of the kids playing some ping-pong. They like to play with everyone having a ball and a paddle at the same time. It gets pretty crazy.

Zach showing his awesome facial expressions.

Zach, Matt, and Josh, Matt took Zach to a preseaon game in August when the Saints played the Chargers. They got some great seats. Josh was a little sad he didn't get to go, but he can't quiet handle staying for a whole football game. Zach didn't even mind missing soccer practice.

First Day of School

It is school time again here in the south. It seems like summer goes by so fast. Here are some first day of school pictures.

Josh wanted to have his picture taken too. After we took the kids to school Josh went to speech. He is doing so good. He is currently taking and test to see how much he has improved. He loves his therapist. He is alsways wanting to go to speech.

Zach is in the 5th grade this year. He is also going to do band this year. He is going to play the trumpet. He is very excited about it. I love that he is going to play an instrument. I started in 5th grade with the flute and played through high school I really enjoyed it. I love that Zach is willing to play an instrument. Matt just hopes he gets his practicing done before 6:00. ( That is when he gets home).

Isabella is in the 3rd grade this year. She gets to do the morning announcments and moring meeting on Monday's and help with other things during the meeting. She loves this. She is also going to try the violin this year. She is also going to take soccer this year. I hope this works out. She still pracitices her ballet moves from last year, but she decided she wanted a break.

It is hard to believe that my baby is now 4. He is such a wonderful easy going boy. We are so luck to have him in our family. Josh wanted to have a dragon theme for his birthday. I bet everyone is surprised to here that:) He loved going to the store to pick out a cake.

Josh opened presents first. He got some Lego's ( he loves the little guys that come with them), Dino race track for cars and some dragons of course.

Here is a shot of the cake. It was a How to Train your Dragon cake. We had special sparkling candles. They were kind of fun.

Josh with his viking hat on. He wanted to have cake first. We tried to have him eat some dinner first but that really didn't happen. No wonder he has a hard time gaining any weight. He had a great birthday and loved the cards from everyone. He is looking forward to using his gift card from Grammy and Grandpa, Thank you.

Bella Turns Eight!

My little girl turned 8. Isabella was very excited. She loved having her Grandpa and Grandma Gardner and Anut Trish and Uncle Trevor and their kids here to help her celebrate. Isabella was baptized on Sunday. She had Zach give a talk on Baptism and Anut Trish give a talk on the Holy Ghost. She had mom and Grandpa give prayers and Grandma led the music. She also enjoyed having the girls from her primary class there. The girls have been so good to support each other and go to everyones baptism's.

Dad and Isabella.

Isabella in her new dress for her special day she also wore a special neckace that Aunt Rachel gave her for her special day.

This is a picture from the swamp tour we did with Grandma and Grandpa. These are wild russian pigs. They could swim surpisingly well. They also enjoy eating hotdogs and marshmallows. On the tour were some of our friend from the ward and his parents too. The parents were from Utah so it was nice to hear about home.

Bella opening presents. She got a cute skirt from Grandma and Grandpa. From Mom and Dad she got some more pet shops and scriptures with her name on them.

Isabella and her brothers with the presents.

The birthday girl and her cake. She ate the top part. She is such and cute girl and a great help to her mom. We would also like to thank everyone for coming to visit we have had so much fun with everyone.

Easter and Victoria's Visit

While Victoria was visiting we were able to go to the French Quarter Festival and also go see a plantation. We also got to eat at a lot of great places. It was wonderful to see her. We also went to a lot of soccer games. It was the craw fish tournament for Zach all week.

Josh standing in front of the plantation house.Bella lost her two front teeth along with the bottom teeth Her smile it so cute.

Bella and Josh coloring eggs.

Josh finding a confetti filled egg.

Zach finding some eggs. We are so glad that Victoria and Scott came to visit. It was nice to see family.

Soccer and Nature Walk

Zach has been doing great at soccer. He got moved from defense to forward. So he has made a lot of goals and assists. He liked having Scott and Victoria watch him play. He really wanted to impress them.

Zach is number 1.

This is a picture from the nature walk went took while Victoria was here inbetween conference. Josh fell in a mud puddle and didn't not like being dirty. I had to take off his shirt. He wanted to take off his shorts to but I said no. He was pretty sad.

Victoria, Bella, Zach and Josh watching the turtles and looking for alligators.

Scott Visits

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Alright a long while. I have been enjoying spending time with my brother Scott and my sister Victoria. Scott had the same spring break that Zach and Isabella had so he came down here. I kids loved having him here. I didn't really do that much with him. Matt took Scott and Zach to several basketball games. Lakers and the Blazers. Zach was also glad to see his Hornets play. They had seventh row seats for the Blazer game so you could see them on T. V. a couple times. I recorded that game so they could see it. I took Scott on a nature walk that isn't to far from are house, and also to Insatagator. It was very interesting. They really want you to buy alligator products.
Josh posing with an alligator.

Scott, Bella and Zach listening to some facts about alligator.

Josh touching an alligator. We all got to touch one. I was so surprised that Zach touch one. He didn't want his picture taken but I was glad his touched it.

This is BOB the alligator. He was born without a tail. So he can not go back into the wild. He look pretty weird with out a tail.

Feeding the alligators the marshmallows. They loved them.

Josh standing by another alligator. We had a lot of fun with Scott and our so glad that he came to visit.

Sunday Pictures

Here are some fun pictures of Josh and Bella before church. The primary kids sang in church and they asked them to wear their Easter best. Zach didn't want his picture taken. He was a little tired from going to the basketball game the night before with dad and Scott.
Beautiful Bella

Cutie Josh. Zach would have matched Josh if he would have posed for a picture.

Catching Up

We did a big celebration for St. Patrick's Day this year. Josh was more excited for March 17 than for Christmas it was pretty funny. We had green pancakes for breakfast. Everyone wore green except for Bella who did wear green hair pretty. Before school the kids followed different shamrock trails left by a sneaky Leprechaun. Josh was the one who finally found the right path that led to the pot of gold (which was chocolate covered in gold foil). The pot also had two green balls for the boys and some lip gloss for Bella. Josh loved it he still is talking about it.

Here is a rainbow cup cake that I made for the special day. Josh had fun making the different colors.

Here is just a fun spring picture of Josh blowing bubbles. We have been loving the wonderful weather. Getting lots of flowers planted.

What We Have Been Up To

Sorry I haven't posted for like a month. We have been busy with everything. Picture of Josh with a knight at the blue and gold banquet. They even built a castle out of cardboard boxes. Josh loved it. It is probably a good thing he didn't bring his own helmet and sword because I have a feeling he would have taken on the knight.

Zach received his bear and his religious knot. We are so proud of him. We barely finished it before the banquet. In our stake they only give out awards for scouts once a year so we wanted to get it done before we move.

Zach and his pinewood derby car. We used his car from last year. He didn't win this year, but he was a great sport. They competed with the boy scouts. All of the cub scouts beat the boy scouts. It was pretty fun. Josh even took a few turns racing against his friend. He used Zach's first car the has only 3 wheels. It even beat one of the boy scout cars. Isabella just had fun running around with her friends. Matt missed it. He was in Houston with his new job.

Finally we have a soccer game. We have had rain every soccer game since January when soccer started up again. We have had two games the first game Zach's team won 3-1. 2nd game tied 4-4. Zach even scored in the second game. He usually plays defense. He does. great.

Josh has been doing great with speech. we have also started going to a play group. He had so much fun. Bella has been busy with friends and dance. For the spring dance recital they are doing Cinderella, for tap she is doing the monster mash.

This week we had doctor appointment and the flu. Monday Zach was sick and missed school. Tuesday we had doctor appointments all day for Zach. Wednesday Scouts. Thursday mom and Isabella have the flu. Friday Josh has flu and Bella still not feeling well so she misses school and field tip. She was pretty sad. Zach's test results came back and everything was normal so they are just going to keep him on his prescription for a couple years. Thank you to everyone for all your prayers. Saturday Josh still sick. Isabella goes to the movies with a friend and Zach has a soccer game. Sunday everyone is finally feeling better. Matt is the only one who hasn't been sick. Hopefully he doesn't it was nasty. I am hoping things go better this week so we can get things ready to put the house on the market by May.

Mardi Gras

It is Mardi Gras time here in Louisiana. We attended our first parade Friday night it was the Eve parade. It is an all women parade. We got to our parade spot at 5:30. The kids had a hard time waiting for the parade to start at 7:00. It was like we were in the car having the kids ask "Are we there yet." They kept asking what time is it. They all had a lot of fun and enjoyed being able to yell.
Josh fell asleep while we were waiting for the parade to start. He slept through about 30 minutes of the parade before he woke up. The kids got a little cold waiting. Zach didn't want to bring another jacket and Bella thought the jacket mom brought for her wasn't her style so she only wore her sweater. So they could stay warmer I let them hold Josh.

Here are the happy kids after the parade with their favorite things from the parade.

Go Saints!

Friday was Saints day at school. So Zach was so nice to let Bella wear his Reggie Bush jersey. We are all hoping that the Saints can win on Sunday. It would really make Zach's day. So go Saints!

Adventures with the Weather

We haven't been up to too much lately. We did take a trip down to New Orleans and go to the Aquarium and watch and movie at the IMAX theater (Dinosaurs). Josh was really into the movie it was in 3-D. We have also been enjoying the cooler weather.


The kids watching the otter. Josh kept wanting him to play with some of his toys but the otter was happy just swimming around and around.


Standing in front of the Mississippi River.

Josh didn't want a picture on the frog. Zach and Bella could have played on it all day but there were other kids waiting for their photo opt.

We are learning that down in the south they are not use to cold weather. One day this week it was 40 degrees and Isabella could not go out to recess because she didn't have hat a gloves. Also we have school cancelled on Friday because of the cold weather. I could not believe it. All the time we lived on Pinedale we never had school cancelled because of the weather and there were quiet a few morning when it was well below 30 degrees and here in Louisiana school is cancelled when it gets to 20 degrees. Crazy. Oh well the kids loved having a day off.