The Story of 2010

Does anyone else realize we're nearly half-way through this year? Wow. Crazy how slowly time went last year without my husband and how quickly its going now. Here's a quick recap of some events I've been meaning to blog about for a while now:

January: For Ephraim's 30 days of leave, we headed to Virginia for his dad's promotion to full Colonel at the Pentagon. It was great to have all of Ephraim's family together, minus Elder Jacob in El Salvador. Sorry we spread the 24-hour-flu to 13/21 of the family.

Next the Garner Family Reunion continued in Georgia where we had a blast staying at a beach house on Tybee Island and touring Savannah. Great food and great sites!

We also had some family photos taken. Thanks Sara!!!

Also in January: Max entered the Sunbeams class at church. He came downstairs one day and told me he was going on a mission that day, complete with a tie and a Book of Mormon tucked in his waistband.

February: Freakish Texas snow storm on the same day as Ephraim's PRK corrective eye surgery (which was a huge success!)

We had a great time at a train museum in Temple.

April: We celebrated Jessie (sister of our sister-in-law) and Tony's wedding with a crawfish boil. Thanks for inviting us Sara and Alex! We had a great time. Ezra was fearless at grabbing the crawfish and the boys loved seeing Jensen and Kiki!

May: My mom, Aunt Diane, and Aunt Carolyn all came to town. We had a great time at the beach, eating great barbecue, and braving the famous Round Rock Texas Donut (as big as your head).

My mom was also in town for Mother's Day. We had a great day (notice the beautiful chocolate-dipped berries!). I was spoiled with a DQ ice cream cake, a Wii Fit, and a nice nap. My mom also cheered me on at a 5K I ran and visited our favorite children's museum with us.

More May: Ephraim completed all the requirements for his Expert Infantryman Badge, which entails a pretty rigorous week of events. We're so proud of his hard work. He was one of seven who passed everything on the first attempt. We love our soldier!

Its been a great 2010. Now I'm pledging to be a better blogger.

The Top Three Best Things About Texas

I love Texas. Here's why:

1. warm weather

2. amazing barbecue

3. bluebonnets

Combine those three and you have one perfect day.

Sweet Berry Farm

We had a great time picking our own strawberries the other day at a farm in Marble Falls. The boys loved feeding grass to the horses, donkeys, and goats and Ephraim is more determined than ever to have the goat farm he's been dreaming of for years. We had a lot of fun and now we have loads of jam.

Max is 4

Max officially turned 4 on April 7. Crazy, I know. Max is a fantastic little guy and we sure love him. He has an incredible imagination and is so much fun to be with. He's always saying hilarious things ("For crying out loud!" "That's so not cool!" and other gems) and he's friendly to everyone he meets. I've had so much fun teaching him preschool at home this year and I'm not sure I'm ready to let my little buddy go in the fall...(our school district has full-day Pre-K for 4 year olds...with a bus and everything!) He's growing up, whether I like it or not. For his birthday breakfast he chose (drumroll please....) leftover mac and cheese. He even wanted it cold. What the birthday boy wants, the birthday boy gets I suppose, even if it makes his mom gag. We had a great afternoon at the park having a picnic and playing on the scooters Grandma and Grandpa Garner gave them.

Here are the boys dying eggs and after their egg hunt. They're both newly obsessed with making silly faces in pictures. We had a wonderful Easter and General Conference weekend together.

Birthday Season Continues

On Friday, Max had a GI Joe birthday party with 11 of his closest friends. As you can imagine, with 13 preschoolers we had some crazy moments but we had a great time. The kids made treat bags, played some games like pin the helmet on the GI Joe, throw the soldiers in the bucket, and some GI Joe inspired relay races. The big hit of the party was the cake, decorated by the resident GI Joe authority at our house, Ephraim. Who knew cake decorating was in his repertoire? It was a painstaking process but it turned out well, I think. Some of you may remember it as the groom's cake at our wedding.

Ezra is 2!!!

In an effort to get started on blogging the last 3 months of our lives, here's a re-cap of Ezra's 2nd Birthday. Its hard for me to believe he's not a baby anymore. We celebrated all weekend with a special breakfast, a camp-out (which the boys LOVED), and a fantastic dinosaur cake that Ezra didn't stop growling at. He loves his new playdough and bubble gun. Ezra is hilarious, mischievous, and adorable and we sure love him. We also hope he quickly outgrows his fascination with dumping things on the carpet...such as gallons of milk, boxes of cereal, and huge containers of bubbles. (P.S. I'm happy to finally know how to make collages that you can click on to make bigger!)

1-12 CAV Ball

After 3 months, we're still thrilled to have Ephraim home!! Last week we went to his battalion's ball. Thanks to all my friends who helped with wardrobe, hair and makeup! It's always fun to see everyone in their stetsons and spurs and we had a great night out.

With our friends, the Mitchells

Thanks to our babysitter for taking some photos before we left!

A shot of my shoes for Katie.

A genteel hat tip.

Here we are after getting home from a long night of awards, speeches, and watching people drink themselves silly.

Its the most wonderful time of the year

We've had a fantastic December and hope everyone else has too. Its been so nice to have a lot of time to spend together. Lindsay, Russell, Calvin, and Mason came to visit from Ohio. We took them to the 1st Cav Museum on post (AKA Little Boy Heaven). The boys couldn't get enough of the tanks and helicopters. Lindsay and Russell watched the boys overnight so we could continue our Christmas Steak Dinner Tradition. We had a great get-a-way to Austin, thanks for making it possible, Lindz and Russ! Christmas was wonderful and we hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did.

3 Cute boys by a tank.

Not sure if Ezra's pointing his sword, gun, arrow or other weapon of choice. Whatever it is, you can be sure he learned it from Max.

The boys didn't want to miss a thing.

Our pre-dinner photo shoot. Another fantastic Christmas Steak dinner, thank you Ruth's Chris!

Winking Ezra and Grinning Mason.

Thanks for coming to visit Roberts Family!!

Miracle of miracles, it snowed here (sort of) on Christmas Eve.

Here's Ezra saying "EYE!" after snow got in it. He wasn't pleased.

Here are the boys in their costumes for the Christmas Eve Pageant. With only 4 people (and only 3 who can say their lines) we each had lots of parts but we had a great time.

The boys posing by the treats and note they left Santa (as you can see, Max is sampling them.)

Hurray for Buzz Lightyear Jammies from Grandma Lillie and Grandpa Cory! We love them!

The Christmas Morning Scene.

If you've never heard Ezra's horse impression, you're missing out. He squealed with delight when he saw his horse.

The 2 buckaroos.

Max's new castle. His favorite part is putting people in the dungeon.

Ezra got the hang of his remote control train and had a great time. All three boys were busy playing all day long.

Homecoming

Well, Ephraim came home! When the 1st CAV soldiers come home they have a ceremony at the parade grounds with horses and everything. While we were waiting for the soldiers to arrive from the airfield, they let the kids go up and pet the horses. Ezra would have nothing to do with them. He just stared with this look on his face:

The soldiers pulled up on white buses and got into formation behind the buses and then the buses drove away, revealing the soldiers Extreme Makeover style. Then, they marched up and stood at attention for a really quick speech

Then the families were told to charge the field......

and we found him. Hurray!!!

So glad to have him back!