THE TRAVELING GARDNERS

Everything we needed for a fun Halloween night! *Not shown are the caramel apples and caramel popcorn we made after Ben went to bed. And also....I have the coolest husband ever! He made an actual pirate ship flag and put it up in the house. In Halloween tradition for Dan and I, we watched Pirates of the Carribean on Halloween night. And we set up our living room like a real pirate ship!!! So cool with all the candles in our house lit up in one room!!! So fun!!! Some decorations around the house to get into the spirit of Hallowen! Our fall village that my Mom gave us last year. Along with some fun cards thanks to my cousin Shauna and best friend Brenda. Our front door The gate in front of our storage shed decorated with a spider web!

Horsey Ben's fluffy tail. (These are total black male pictures for later in life when Ben is older) When you push the right ear of the horse it neighs just like a real horse, then says - HI HO SILVER...AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When I look at this photo - I think of the movie "A Christmas story" - "Ralphie, go put on the pink bunny costume. Your aunt took the time to sew it"......Ben go put on the horsey costume. Mommy and Daddy paid a whole $15 bucks for it. Sick and twisted or creative?? Let's just say I didn't get this idea from Martha. Ben's original lion costume that he out grew. We bought it only 2 1/2 weeks ago!

Ben was a horsey for Halloween. Originally we bought him a Lion costume but he out grew that! Believe it or not the size of his costume was a size 2T!!! It's hard to believe he is only 7 1/2 months old. He is already off the charts with height, at over 32 inches long. Can anyone say basketball or football player? Can you see in this picture how long Ben's leg hangs down? Ben LOVES his candy holder. We walked up the street to our Community center(military landlords) who were passing out a bag of glow sticks and kit kats. I caught Dan by surprise with the bright flash at night! Ben has a cute smile because he is holding his favorite snack..MUM MUMS(rice crackers)! Our upstairs neighbor (thank you Kevin and Connie)gave Ben that for a treat. After this picture was taken we decided Ben had, had enough and it was his bed time. So after Ben went down to bed, we watched Pirates of the Carribean and ate some yummy halloween treats like caramel apples!! Happy Halloween from the Gardners!...

YIPPPEEEEEEE BABY PETER KENT IS HERE!!!!! ALL THE WAY FROM ACROSS THE OCEAN WE SEND OUR LOVE AND BEST WISHES TO MEG, MIKE, AND BABY PETER KENT! LOVE THAT WHITE BLONDE HAIR!!!

So, I have had this nasty cold that just won't go away. I still am running a 100' fever. (Last night 101')And I am coughing up all kinds of fun stuff. I have lost my voice. So I kind of sound like a teenage boy going through puberty. Ben is showing signs that he is starting to get sick too. Dan says that he feels like he just has a little cold. (EDIT - Ben is super sick taking baby cold medicine, and Dan is knocked out asleep on cold medicine - the flu bug has officially hit the Gardner home. I just went and bought tons of TheraFlu, throat losengens, and Robitussin type of stuff. Hopefully that helps.)We have turned off or changed our air conditioners in the house to 75' auto. But it isn't only us. I guess when someone gets sick on this island it spreads fast. It took me 3 days to get in to see the Dr. (who by the way was a total waste of time) and I called someone from my church to tell them that I wouldn't be at church today to teach my sunday school lesson to...

Our digital camera just started randomly working again a few days ago. I thought it went well with Halloween and being back from the dead. Also day of the dead - Mexican holiday - is coming up. So anyhoo - welcome back digital camera! So, I decided to create winter in our home. Dan set up our wonderful new Whirlpool air conditioner. It has made our home a lovely 69'!!!! It definately feels more like winter. And to go with it, I woke up this morning with a wicked cold. I hope I feel better soon. I really hate being sick. So - self note to myself - when changing the temp in the house drastically - wear more layers of clothes and don't go from 90' in the house with humidity to 69' cold air! Lesson learned! Atleast I dressed up Benjamin in warm clothes! Is it me....or is our little boy getting cuter every day????? Like Mommy like Ben - Ben loves Monkey's too! And here are a few pictures without the hoodie on, to show you he really does have hair under there! Seriously.....

This is an older picture, but I thought it goes perfect with this post! I just wanted to share with you all, an experience that I had yesterday with Ben. He had just woken up from a nap and when I hear him talking to himself that is usually an indication that he is awake and done with his nap. Then as I got closer to his crib, I thought I heard him "tooting" and I thought to myself ..... "oh great, not another poopy diaper!" But oh no, not Ben...he wasn't really pooping...he was just making the noises on his arm! I am not even kidding. Benjamin was making farting noises on his arm like a 14 year old teenager. Thinking it was funny he kept doing it. He had his arm straight out in front of him while laying on his stomach. As he would put his head up he giggled to himself, then would put his head back down and go blllrrrpppp on his arm and make "the noise." Dan likes to give Ben raspberries on his stomach, so I think this is where he gets it from?!?!? In...

Seriously...my first book that I will write will be titled: "I don't have a life, I have an adventure!" Tourists walk by a crack in the road after leaving their rental car behind due to the closure of the Akoni Pule highway in Kawaihae. Hawaii. Our little island makes the news..... http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/16/hawaii.quake/index.html http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hawaii_earthquake_power;_ylt=AjR8trzR89mMhTQw1GfkxFJH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NmxuamZjBHNlYwNyaGw - As I sent out an e-mail to everyone, this is just another post for our adventurous day. Here are some links for any news about our quake and safety. Now that our power is restored, we are really okay. And just surprisingly continuing on with our evening. I have homework and quizzes to do. Dan is helping take care of our little man. Our weather along with the quake has been pretty rainy. We had flash flood warnings going on. But those are stopped now. It was nice to get some showers. It cooled off the island. It really pu...

This post was written, saved, and never posted. It was written before the earthquake. Just to keep you updated, I decided to post it. :)...... Weather is calling for flash flood warning! Yipppeeee!!!! Let it rain! the humidity cloud that has been lingering over the island is starting to slowly leave. To give you an idea of how hot it has been, all of the Wal Marts on the island are sold out of air conditioner units!!! So we bought one from the Navy Exchange. It took a nice little chunk out of the wallet....but oh is it worth it!!!!! We also bought some chocolate colored dark curatins to hang in our living room to block that hot sun shining in on us!!! I am a happy camper. Ben is sleeping better and not an angry sweaty baby. Dan is relaxing watching some college football updates enjoying the cool room. :)

Daddy Dan and Ben are ready to go junkin! We found a 3 person all weather tent at a garage sale for only $15.00!!! Who's ready to go camping? We are! I just love this picture! This is the last time Ben was able to fit in his carrier. He is growing up wayyyy too fast.

So one week into Dan's recupperation, I needed to run an errand. Dan wanted me to pick up his text books early for his new semester. I was more than willing to take Ben with me. But, Dan said No! Leave him here and let me give you a break. So without an argument I thought, Dan is feeling a little better so I'll go real quick and be right back. I was gone literally for 10 minutes. And this is the destruction(that I caught on film) that my men did to the house. A lovely diaper of Ben's left on what? Oh yes...our kitchen counter. The sink looked like this..... And Ben's changing table (aka: hurrican Ben) But then......right as my frustration was growing as I was thinking of all the mess that I would have to clean up after I had just cleaned the house....I walked in to our bedroom to find this........ Now how can I be mad? Dan on pain killers, still not able to sleep on his back...gave Ben a bath and they took a nap together. So cute huh?

It's surprising to me: That the moment I start complaining about the hot weather and humidity it starts a torrential down pour and continues for days. That I watched the movie "CLICK" with Adam Sandler...and cried! That my son can go down for a nap faster than a speeding bullet without a fight. That, thanks to the movie "Click" my new favorite word for butt is bun buns or tushie...hehehe And last but not least, it is surprising to me that life has finally calmed down, (Ben is taking a nap, Dan is back at work, house is cooled down with the borrowing of 2 turbo fans - thank you Jessica!) I have time to sit down and type out a blog entry, and have a little me time, and maybe do some homework. YIPPEEEE! Life is good. P.S. It is the month of breast cancer awareness. So....be aware! Dan and I are going to try and get entered in to the Susan G. Komen race for the cure! For more info go to: www.komen....

Well, it's official...our little digital camera has bitten the dust. It was Dan's from way back in the day. Try 5 years back in the day. So we were impressed it lasted this long. This just gives Dan and I, a chance to put the SLR beautiful digital camera on lawaway for a Christmas present to ourselves. But when the camera originally broke down I said to Dan, "Oh no! Now I can't blog!" Priorities right? What I meant was now I can't show everyone updates of Ben and our life here in Hawaii. Luckily though we have our video camera that also poses as a temporary digital camera. Not the greatest quality....but at least we can still capture moments of Ben and his "firsts" and relay them on to you! Mommy and Benjamin - Oct. 1 2006 Daddy and Ben cuddling - Oct. 1 2006 Daddy Dan recupperating from his surgery. October 2006 Kisses!

So lately, I have been really focusing on my body and how to lose the baby weight in a healthy way. It is so easy to look at celebrity magazines and think "oh I wish I had her body." And, "she lost the weight fast, why can't I?" I was getting down on myself for being so down on myself.... if that makes sense. But, then I saw this article and I thought to myself...everyone is always going to be harder on themselves. This former spice girl is not what I am striving for with body image. In my opinion she is really really skinny. But, it just goes to show you that even if you are a runway model, you will still find something wrong with your body in your mind. And we should just appreciate the bodies we have now. Here is the link to the article that I read: http://people.aol.com/people/article/0,26334,1544089,00.html

It is not fall. Is it? Will someone please send me pictures of "cold and windy" weather? It is 89' degrees with like 100% humidity. Dan and I decided to take advantage of this weather. We went to Home Depot and bought some flowers and plants to pot. Our yard is pretty bare. We wanted to take advantage of this sunny weather and improve the ozone with some fresh plants. Everyone is soooo envious of the state that we live in. I thought we would try and enjoy it some more. My mouth is still a little swollen and sore, but Motrin is my new best friend and really helps out with those problems. But as we got home and started to get to work with the soiling and planting...we started to sweat...I mean really sweat. Great work out and all but.....Ben was just sweating watching us. We are about to buy an AC unit to put in the house. We found 1 a few years back for free on the side of the road and have that set up in our bedroom. But the rest of our house is pretty darn toasty lately....

While pregnant with Benjamin I found out that I had an "extra" wisdom tooth growing in. Oh - how lucky of me. Even though I had already had 4 wisdom teeth removed, yet another shows up to rear it's pretty head. Because I was pregnant, I had to wait to have it extracted. And with everything that has recently gone on, it was put on the back burner. But, about a week ago it really started to hurt. I found out that it was growing in sideways. So I made an appt for the 20th of October to have it removed. But, yesterday I couldn't take it any longer. I had used up all of Ben's oragel on my wisdom tooth, so I went in to the dentist to see if they could bump up my appt with the oral surgeon. Come on in they said. We have a opening that canceled. EEKK! I started to shake with anxiety. I REALLY hate the dentist. Add the fact that they are going to remove my wisdom tooth and the hate turns in to loath which turns in to fear. ..........30 minutes later after about 10 minutes ...

Here are some favorite pictures that for one reason or another have not made the blog yet..... I love these photos. This photo of Dan and Ben reminds me of getting ready for Benjamin's bed time. I love this picture because Dan is so tired and still in his work clothes...yet still helps out with tired Benjamin. I think this is exactly how we all feel when we are put on hold when on the telephone! I love this picture of Benjamin and I. He's my little cuddle bug! I think this is the cutest picture of Ben. I love the expression on his face. Feet stuck in the blankie. Cuddling and sleeping with his blankie. I think of my Grandma Sue every time I see this blanket. Grandma Sue actually made this for Ben even with arthritus in her hands. Now that is love! Ben was so miserable this day. His gums were really hurting him. So, I sat down with him and let him gum on his teething keys. He was so happy. He loves those keys! Thanks again Mom. Also, this picture caught a glimpse of what...

The Saturday before Dan's surgery we enjoyed some family time together. Daddy and Benjamin still waking up while watching Saturday morning college football. Dan dressed Ben up in a Buffalo Bills jersey to match. I let it slide...but next time he will wear a Chargers jersey! We've got some east coast/west coast rivalry going on! You bite my fingers and I will bite yours. Benjamin also known as "Bam Bam" waking mommy up. Benjamin - it is all fun and games until you poke someones eye out. Ben and Mommy cuddling and still waking up. Mommy is impersonating Ben sucking on his hand bent backwards. How does he do that? I tried, but only got 2 fingers in my mouth. Our little camera ham enjoying some tummy time.