Giving Thanks

As always we head off to my hometown for Thanksgiving with my family. We went up the night before to enjoy the swim park with my cousin's boys, Henry & Max where the kids all had a blast playing in the water. The next morning we woke up to the following beautiful view on Thanksgiving day:


The day was complete with a great Thanksgiving meal and wonderful time spent with family. It was funny to see the younger ones wrestle one moment and then play just fine the next:


The day was complete as Aunt Pat, Kirsten, Dale, Jon, & I all played pool and reminisced with the old Juke box that Grandpa has. It was interesting to see the same running routes and poles were used for dancing as we did 25-30 years ago. I guess some things just never change over the years.
It was also nice to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa as they are now 95 and 96 years respectively and still living at home. They don't miss a beat and are still very much aware of each other's habit's in life- they have been married for over 70 years!!!! Hopefully there will be more memories of years past next year to share!!!

Surprise 40th Wedding Anniversary

This year as Jon's parents were approaching their 40th Wedding Anniversary, Jon and the siblings decided to throw a Surprise Party in their Honor. Below is Jon's parents:


There is a LOT of preparation work that goes into these parties and thankfully Ashley & I are pro's in planning parties so we were able to pull it off without a hitch for the family, well mostly. Between Ian's GOOSE EGG on his head and my little trip to the ER for stitches in my hand after cutting it doing dishes, you can say we had little bumps in the road, but what party wouldn't be complete without them. Thankfully Nick & Ashley were kind enough to open their home for the celebration (Thanks a LOT guys! Very much appreciated). We were able to get the Love Bird's out to the house where Rich and Lorraine truly had NO IDEA!!!! It was GREAT to see the excitement on their faces as they opened the door to their loved ones where hugs & tears of joy were then shed. The Love Birds enjoyed seeing friends & family from both near and far and reminiscing their 40 years of marriage. I had also worked on a slide show for the party taking our family photos, the siblings pictures, & sneakily getting some from Rich and Lorraine's house. (A night Madie will NEVER forget nor let me forget for some time- she was a great Look out watcher!!, thanks honey) Little touches such as the slide show, music from their earlier days, & personalized pictures on the favors made it all a huge success! It was a Wonderful party to celebrate many years of a great marriage!!!

Pictures of the boys, the girls, and the grand kids at Church the next day:




The Whole Gardow Family:


As Jon & I celebrated our 10th Anniversary this summer we reflected on our many blessings and all we are grateful for in our family. Seeing Rich & Lorraine we look forward to another 20 years and hope our family will give us as much joy as it did for Rich and Lorraine over the years.
Congratulations to Rich and Lorraine!!

For Ashley- Teaching all of us to live our lives for ourselves!

There are many words or ways to say it, but the simplest way of all is: Thank you Ashley for all you do and your continuous love!!! "To one person, you mean the world"


People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
-this version is credited to Mother Teresa

Prego Girl

As many of you know that ties of family run deeper then the blood I share, and one of my FAVORITE PEOPLE in this world is Bird. This October Fest when she was home we had a belated B-day party for my God daughter and then a bon fire while some of the family went to the October fest at the fair grounds. Here is a favorite- although she doesn't like it- picture of the Momma to BE!!!! Isn't she so CUTE!!


And my SASSY girl!!!



And three (3) of my favorite kids at this time...

Granfathers

There is something to be said about the Grandpa's in our lives and the things that they teach us. I love this picture of the kids with Rich as for many of you know the only grandparents the kids have is Rich and Lorraine. It is moments such as these that I cherish with the kids and family. : )

Spooktacular!!!!

This Halloween was interesting to say the least. It was SO WARM out this year that the kids didn't need ANY sweatshirts or clothes underneath their outfits so thier costums were true to fashion.

I just love these poses of the kids!!



SCREAM!!!- AKA Mister Chuck The Elegant Witch- AKA Miss Madison


The Gardow Grandkids

Fall Fun

Every year we take the kids to the pumpkin patch to see the petting zoo, take a walk in the "Haunted Trails", run through the corn maze, play in the hay bails, and pick out the pumpkins to carve spooky faces on. As you will see, a couple of my favorite pictures are of the kids in pumpkins.....

Hoping for a Blustery Day

The kids were really adamant that we needed to go Kite Flying one day because they had purchased a new kite. Even though the wind was not co-operating we decided that it would be a good day to try.




As you will see, the kite never really did make it up in the air, but the kids had a good time trying and I had a laugh or two at Jon really trying (he had more patience then I did) :)

Little Piggies

One night Madie wanted to paint my toe nails seeing how Mom usually does her's. Madison thought this was a GREAT twist to the day to be able to paint Mom's toes. It is one of those moments in life that you treasure and look back at your "Little Piggies" and laugh!!! Mother - Daughter times are always treasured!!

Backyard Football

One night of family fun brought a game of football. It was very dark out but it was fun to watch the kids stragegize with Dad to beat out each other in the game. I am not sure who won, but feel it was a winning game for all because it was family fun!!!

It has been awhile...

So things have been a LITTLE CRAZY at work lately and I have noticed that it has been a whole month since I have last posted any thing. I figured that I would take a moment to sit down and write about the moments we have captured in August. I realized though while I remember a lot more than I took pictures of, at least you can see that the Gardows are on the go as always. I wouldn't know what to do if that wasn't the case. Thank god for our health that allows us keep on moving. : ) Enjoy the new postings.....

One last time.....

The kids were up at the cabin all weekend as Friday Jon and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary and Jon headed up to the cabin on Sat while I headed over to the cities for a little shopping with my sister in law Ashley. The kids had a blast with their grandparents and the 4 wheeling.
When they got back on Sunday we went fishing with the kids (picture to come later of Madie's 1st fish) and then a quite night in. Today the last day of Summer the kids jumped in the pool for one last time of fun before we take it down for the season.
Some great pictures of the kids and their smiles......

Getting Ready for School.....

As we are getting ready for school and we have already gotten the backpacks, the crayons, the markers, the pencils, and folders, one thing remains is the school clothes. Normally Charlie has never really cared to go shopping and never cared what clothes I have bought, I think I have found that I have a new shopping buddy in my daughter and she is a DIVA in her taste. LOL LOL
Check out the outfit that she picked out all by herself right down the matching belt and matching hat. I think I have a girl that LOVES her fashion. I am sure as the school year goes one we will have more pictures of the outfits.




Charlie wanted to join in on the fun of the pictures.

A Day on the Lake...

So I am at work and get this call about 3:30 in the afternoon..... "We are out on the lake, any chance you can leave work early and meet us out here?" Although I didn't leave work till 5pm, I still did meet Jon, Tom, & the kids out on the lake for a little fun in the sun and water.
Of course I was water skiing again and no one grabbed the camera but I was out there again. I told Jon that people are going to think I am making it up that I am going- Madie chimed in and said that she would make sure we get a picture- LOL my little diva!!



Look at the excitement on their faces...

A Day at Lake Michigan

We headed off to Ashland for Jon's State Baseball tournament. Unfortunately they lost the tournament but since we were so close to the lake we headed off to the beaches for the kids to experience one of the Great Lakes.



The kids jumped into the lake and found it was EXTREMELY cold!!! They had a blast anyway!!






Practice skipping rocks...


I don't know why but this is one of my favorite pictures- it just is so sweet!!

Attempting the new....

As many friends and family have told me I should go "pro" with the scrap booking, this year I considered toying with the idea. My girlfriend and I are considering a local craft show this November to start with and just see how well it will go. Thinking about "marketing" ideas, I thought not only would scrapbook pages be a good idea, cards would be a good start as well to going "pro". Being that cards are really not my favorite pass time and I am still finding my niche with it, I had to chuckle to myself as I completed this one. I realized it was a sign for me.......