Family Pics

Kelly and I haven't had pictures taken together since we have been married. We figured it was about time. Plus, Kellys mom has a wall full of pictures from every family except ours. After two years of an empty frame we decided we would get her one. Here are a few of our favorites. Thanks to Kelly's sis Alesha for taking them for us. She did a great job.

4th Times a Charm!!!

I PASSED MY TEST!!!!!!!!

As some of you know I have had a really hard time passing my written test in order to become a licensed Esthetician. They have recently changed the test and are now testing out of 7 different books. I learned from one. This morning was my 4th time taking my dreaded test. I didn't even study again. I have been so frustrated. I know the answer to over 1200 questions and I could not pass this stupid 110 question test. A lot of the questions were quite irrelevant. So this morning I rolled out of bed, threw on a hat and headed out to FAIL my test again. When you get there to take the test they take your picture to print on your pass or fail score. As I am sitting there getting my picture taken (without my hat) I was thinking "Watch me pass my test today" Knowing I looked absolutely amazing for my picture. I don't even care how I looked I finally passed my test!!! I can't even tell you what a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Here is a copy of my score and my amazing look this morning;)

Best News EVER!!!

Click here to find out.

Its finally done!!!

Today is one of the greatest days of my life.(Thats probably an exaggeration, but its still a good day) I woke up this lovely Sunday morning and didn't have to put on my grungy clothes and head to the dreaded townhouse for 7 hours. Thats right 7 hours is how long we would spend there. I get a little nauseous just thinking about it. Anyways, all the hard work payed off. For those of you that don't know Kelly and I lived in this house when we first got married. After building the house we live in now we decided to keep the town house as a rental. It was a pretty nice place, but two tenants and 8 dogs later it was a dive and disgusting. So we have been gutting it for the last 87 years.....ok, it was only two in a half months. Here are some pics of the final product. If anyone knows any one interested in a rental let me know. It is 1600 sq feet, 3 bed 2 bath and a 2 car garage. We are asking 1150. It is located in Salt Lake.

Dining room before

Dining room after
Living room before

Living room after
Stairs before
Stairs after
Loft before
Loft after
The entry, kitchen and living room.

Tree Time!

Every year around this time I start nagging Kelly to help me put up the Christmas tree. With the whole townhouse fiasco it took me three days to get him to do it. It usually only takes three hours. This year I was especially excited to put up my tree because I decided to change it and get new ornaments. I am so happy with how it turned out.

Here some pics of my favorite Christmas decorations.

Of course my tree That I love this year. Not the greatest picture but it's really cute in person.
I love filling my vases up with Christmas balls.



Then of course there is this guy. No explanation necessary he is just cute.

Merry Madness!!!!

Today, November 30th, I was at the grocery store at 5:30 pm. I found myself noticing what people were wearing. Shorts, T-shirts, Tanks. Am I in California or am I really this lucky? After last years Snow Debacle (me stuck in my car for 7 hours trying to get from downtown to my house)I am so happy to see the weather outside. It has been absolutely beautiful. Maybe still a little cold to wear a tank, but I will take the absence snow, a little longer.

As for December and all the madness that comes with it, all I can say is bring it on. I am ready for you. I am excited for all the family parties, my sis to come into town, me to go out of town, my tree, Christmas music, Christmas decor, my Christmas oils, Love Actually, Christmas Vacation, Just Friends...oh and maybe presents. Prepare yourself everyone December is among us.

Coming soon. Townhouse pics. Dare I say, we might finish tomorrow. I am jumping for joy inside and I might even be shedding a tear.

Midnight Movie!!

I can't think of anything more annoying than going to a midnight movie with 700 teenage girls. So what did I do. I went to a midnight movie with 700 annoying, hormonal, giddy, screaming teenage girls. I went to the movie expecting to be disappointed. However, I didn't think it was all that bad. Pretty cheesy but that's how the book is. The acting wasn't great. I loved Bella. Edward started to grow on me. Loved Charly and Jasper reminded me of Edward Scissorhands. I found myself pretty entertained and laughing a lot, though I don't think that is what the director intended. I would say go see it with low expectations and you won't be disappointed.

I did it!!!

Every year I try to convince Kelly that we should put Christmas lights on the outside of the house and every year he is to busy to do it. So I took it into my own hands this year. I know what your thinking. "What? Rachel put up Christmas lights? But she falls UP stairs." I was pretty nervous knowing my track record with just walking in general. So I called my sister to come and observe just in case I did fall off the roof, someone would be there to call 911. For the most part it went over pretty well. All the ladders are at the town house (yes the townhouse is still going on). So I had to get on the roof by climbing out the window. No big deal. There was just one part of the upper roof that I couldn't reach to put in a clip for the lights. So I decided to have Julie act as a step stool for me so I climb onto the higher part of the roof. I was almost there but then I freaked my self out and jumped off of her leg very clumsily. Then I got even more freaked out that I was going to fall so I did what any normal person would do and grabbed on to anything to keep my self from falling. It just happened to be Julie's hair. It worked though. I only twisted my ankle. At least I didn't fall all the way down. Julie and I sat on the roof and laughed uncontrollably for about 5 minutes. I still haven't fixed the one part of the roof.

Here are some pics of the final product.







After my big accomplishment I thought it would be great to get a picture of me jumping for joy. Its a lot harder than it seems.


Attempt 1. Hmmm. Not quite.


Attempt 2. Crap still not right.
Attempt 3. Well thats not right.
Attempt 37 That looks horrible but with the incident on the roof and then me jumping up and down my front lawn I figured my neighbors had seen enough for one day.

My mornings

Only on rare occasions does Kelly wake up before me. Once I get up Dax gets up and thinks its time to play. Most the time I am okay to play with but this morning he just wasn't having it. He wanted Kelly to wake up and play with him. I thought it was cute so I took a picture.

Dax strategically places his ball on Kellys neck to try and get his attention. He then just sits there and waits. Usually he just stares at the ball but he saw me taking a pictures so he looked at me.
Then he came over and got right in front of the camera. Curious little dog who loves to get his picture taken.

It's heeeerrrrrre!

My title is supposed to sound like the girl from Poltergeist. Did you get it? Anyways, here is what I woke up to this morning. Not quite sure if I am ready for it.

My camera was out in my car which is parked on the street because it is broken again. So you will have to deal with pics from my phone. HAPPY WINTER.


Daxi always gets little snowballs in his leg hair after going outside.

History in the Making

This election was my first time voting and what an election to vote in. Kelly had a lot of things to do today and voting was not on his list. I put my foot down and told him that we were going to vote. We got up early this morning and headed off to vote. After 45 minutes of waiting in line I finally got my sticker and was on my way.

Although this election made for some very funny SNL's and Daily Shows, I am happy it is over. There are only so many Palin jokes.

Call me crazy, but I am pretty excited about this next President. I have been a fan of his since the Primary's. I don't consider myself affiliated with any party but I thought, in this election, Obama was the man for the job. I won't give my reasons, everyone is allowed their opinions.

I found his speech so inspirational tonight, I loved watching all of the people that were looking at him with pride and hope. What a historical moment to watch. It was very touching. I also thought McCains speech was very good. He was very gracious and what an incredible person to run against.

Here's hoping for a great four years. I am excited to see what we all can do with this wonderful country of ours.

I'm a little sad.,

Click here to find out why.

Photographer Needed!!

We need to get family pictures taken. I am looking for any suggestions of local photographers. I want something artsy, outdoors and really good for a decent price. Let me know if any of you know of any good photogs.

Family Halloween Party!

Every year Kellys parents have a Halloween party. For some reason every year we are out of town when they have there party. So this was our first Gardner Costume party. It was a lot of fun to see everybody all dressed up. Here are a few pics I was able to get.

Chase was really excited to wear my glasses.
Kelsey and Brianne
Kayden was a cute little pirate.
Helen was the pregnant witch.
Dax couldn't miss out. He was Darth Vader. He was also being beat up on by some Jedi knights who wouldn't let me take there picture. They were just doing there job.
Two huge geeks
Walter and Michelle
The Noot family
My sexy nerd

Nothing Else to Talk About!

I really haven't had anything exciting in my life going on. Or at least nothing blog worthy. So I am just going to continue posting videos that I think are funny. This was hilarious.

Tagged!

I was tagged by my good friend Mel. It's a list of 8's.


8 TV shows that I love to watch...

1. Heroes
2.Greys Anatomy
3.Lost
4.One Tree Hill
5.Gossip Girl
6.Desperate Housewives
7.Brothers and Sisters
8.Greek
9. The Office
10. Ugly Betty
11.Real World/Road Rules Challenge
12. Oh...was I supposed to stop at 8 because I could go on forever.

8 Favorite Restaurants
1.Flemings
2.Cheesecake Factory
3.Outback
4.Chik Fil A
5.My House
6.My Mom's House
7.Olive Garden
8.The Yard House

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. Woke Up
2. Complained about heading to the townhouse(we are gutting it and it SUCKS!)
3.Got in trouble by Kelly for complaining
4. Went to the Stupid Townhouse
5.Sanded stupid base boards
6.Finished the never ending Masking project around the townhouse.
7. Watched Kelly paint the base boards and doors
8. Went home and fell asleep at 10:00
Ya yesterday was lame.

8 Things I am looking forward to
1 Finishing the townhouse
2.Halloween
3.Christmas
4.Anaheim
5.Thanksgiving
6.Melissa's Baby
7.Giving snowboarding another shot
8.Finishing the townhouse

8 things I love about the fall
1.The changing leaves
2.The smell
3.Sweaters
4.Scarves
5.Boots
6.The return of my favorite T.V. shows
7.Anticipation for the holidays
8.Pumpkin Spiced Everything

8 things on my wish list
1. I wish my fairy godmother would wave her magic wand and our town house would be done.
2. I wish that my sis would move back from Cali
3. I wish most of my friends didn't live out of state
4. I wish my written test wasn't so hard
5. I wish I had 80 billion dollars
6. I wish I could think of a cute Halloween costume for Kelly and I.
7. I wish Kelly would stop going out of town
8. I wish Saturday Night Live would stay this funny forever.


8 people I tag
1. Angela
2.Britt
3.Jen
4.Amy
5.Annette
6.Helen
7.Megs
8.Mom

Marley and Me!

I love Jennifer Aniston. I am so excited that she finally has a new movie coming out. This looks so funny. I heard the book was amazing. I can't wait to see it.

Laughable

Am I the only one that is having a hard time telling the difference between Presidential Debates and Saturday Night live? I find my self laughing at both of them.

Oh Sisters.

Every year around this time my siblings and I start going to the variety of haunted houses that Utah has to offer. This weekend Kelly has been out of town. My sisters, Julie, Sara and I decided to go it alone for one night. We thought it might be fun to try a new haunted house so we headed down to Provo and went to the Scream Asylum. We were a little nervous when we got there because it was a Friday night and there was no line, but we went for it anyways. We walked through the haunted house with our arms interlocked at all times, you know, to protect each other. Or so I thought. At the end of the haunted house we walk to what we think is outside of the building, but it wasn't. Instead we here a loud chain saw heading for us. So what do my sisters do? The both let go of my arms (I was in the middle) push off of me and run screaming in opposite directions . Leaving me alone with this guy.
Can you believe that. So I just stood there screaming with my hands over my ears. I think Sara even tried to get into a crawl space at one point. It was pretty funny.

Maybe this year I will learn my lesson since they seem to abandon me with the chainsaw guy every year.

Don't let the tiny line fool you. This haunted house was pretty good.

New Twilight!

Thanks to my friend Angela I already have my ticket. Do you?

Charity Bike Ride

This past weekend we had the opportunity to participate in the charity bike ride for Capt. Terry. He was the officer who was shot in the head a few months ago in Lehi during a routine traffic stop. I had seen big bike rides before but it was really amazing to be in one. There were approximately 500 riders. We had a police escort every where we went. It was quite a site. We went with our friends Chris and Jen, and Mr. Dahlberg :). We started in Orem and headed up to Nephi we then went through Nebo canyon and came out in Payson. It was a beautiful ride and so much fun to be a part of something like that.


In front of Timpanogus Harley
Lots of bikes
Jen and Chris
Dahlberg
Kelly and I riding through the canyon



Kelly and cute little Chase

Best wishes to Captain Terry and his family.
Those who want to help with Lehi Police Capt. Harold Terry's medical bills can make a donation to any Central Bank in his name.