Gavin and Gina's wedding

Introducing Gavin and Gina Romberger.

It's official. My parent's are empty nesters. Their baby boy and only son has found his true love. Gavin and Gina were married December 19 in the St. George temple. I am so grateful that I was able to be there to witness their sealing and to be there with my whole family. It was so amazing!! Gavin has always been such a great example to my boys. They have been able to see him serve a mission and now get married in the temple. They adore their Uncle Gavin. Gina is an amazing, beautiful, spiritual, fun girl who brightens up the room the second she walks in. We love her and are glad she is now a part of the family. Congratulations Gavin and Gina!!

Gavin and Gina with all their kids :)

Growing up with 4 sisters, he has always been surrounded by women... and he loves it!

Sorry ladies, this hot groomsman is taken!

What handsome boys!!

Introducing Averee Lewis

I want everybody to meet my newest little neice, Averee. She was born Dec. 2 and weighed in at 7 pounds 15 ounces. I can hardly wait to get my hands on her in a couple weeks. Congratulations Haley and Jon.

Halloween

Lucky for me, my kids have never been the kind that know what they want to be for Halloween months in advance. About a week before Halloween I finally got around to asking them what they wanted to be and they still just shrugged their shoulders and said, "I don't know," which makes it easy for me because then I just go and pick something out for them and they are completely satisfied with it. Here they are in their matching soldier costumes. They had a ton of fun trick-or-treating.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Gerber

Here come the newlyweds

Becca and the Groomsmen

The bridesmaids with their sexy legs. I love Haley's baby bump.

All the little girls holding Becca's dress. Too cute!!

My sister Gina and my nephew Cole sporting an awesome mohawk and red bowtie. What a stud!

Gracie and Ethan

Tayler, Blake, and Maren

My family at the St. George temple.

She's married! My little sister is married! Last week we had the opportunity to travel to St. George to attend Becca and Jake's temple marriage. It was so neat to be in the temple with my husband and my parents and all my siblings. The spirit there was so strong and Becca and Jake looked so happy!! It was a beautiful wedding with fall colors and as you can see, she looked absolutely gorgeous. We love Jake and are so excited he is part of the family now.

Change is in the air

The past couple weeks have brought a lot of change to our family.

First, the weather has changed quite dramatically. It seems like it changed from 90 degree weather to 65 degree weather overnight. Some days have been really nice, but others have been downright cold. Although I love fall colors and cooler days of autumn, it's hard for me because I know that winter is right around the corner. You would think that after being here for 3 years I would acclimate to the weather but, being a St. George native, I don't think I will ever get used to subzero temperatures and snow up to my knees, a.k.a. Logan's winter weather.

Another big change that has happened recently is we went through yet another ward boundary change. This split was particularly hard for me this time around. I really LOVED the ward we were in and absolutely loved my calling in the young women's organization. So, it was very hard to be split apart. Our street was put into a brand new ward; therefore, all the organizations are being put together from scratch. Drew was called to be the executive secretary to the bishop, which is the same job he did in the previous ward. Being a brand new ward, this calling will likely keep him pretty busy for the next little while. I was called to serve as the first counselor in the Primary presidency. I feel a little overwhelmed by it right now, but am looking forward to it. I will be working with some amazing women and I look forward to getting to know all the children in our ward.

School Days

Blake on his first day of preschool.

Ethan on his first day of 2nd grade. This picture is great because it not only has his favorite thing behind him (the green garbage can), but it also shows one of his other favorite things, the bus.

Summer is over and it's time to get back into the routine of school. Ethan started 2nd grade this year and is loving his new teacher, Mrs. Dutson. This year they are trying something a little different for him. Instead of his aid sitting next to him helping him, they decided to pull her away and see if he can keep up with everything on his own. As far as I know, he is doing really well. He seems to be understanding the homework he brings home, so I guess that's a good sign. I love the fact that he LOVES school and is EXCTED to go every day. Blake, however, misses his brother. On the first day, about 5 minutes after the bus picked Ethan up, Blake was saying, "I miss Ethan. When he gonna be home?"
Blake also started preschool this year. He gets to go twice a week for a couple hours. He loves his teacher, Katie, and loves to feel like a "big boy." He is always singing songs that he has learned and repeating stories that are told there. On his first day of preschool he got to be the "special helper" and got to bring treats to share and his Transformer for Show n' Tell. He thought that was the coolest thing ever.

9th Anniversary and Blake's birthday

Present time, present time, open the present, see what's inside.

Blake's new Handy Manny toy

Mmmmmm..... Cupcakes!

Attempting the "fill the bucket with the sponge" game. I found out it doesn't work out so well with 4 and 5 year olds. The concept of waiting in line and taking your turn didn't click with them.

Ethan didn't really want to participate in the water activities.

Playing a water balloon game.

Drew and I recently celebrated our 9 year anniversary. I can hardly believe 9 years has already flown by. It's crazy! I wish I had our wedding photos digitized so I could post some. The past 9 years have involved 4 job changes for Drew, 6 moves, 2 children, and many wonderful memories. I have the greatest husband in the world. I love him so much and I look forward to spending eternity with him and our family.

One memory I have is our 5th anniversary. I was very pregnant with Blake and was actually having contractions all day. I couldn't let it ruin our big day, so we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. We took Ethan with us knowing that the next few days he might be feeling a little neglected. I was having some hard contractions all through dinner that night. Luckily we were in a more secluded area of the restaurant so nobody could really see or hear my periodic grunts. I ended up going in that next day and delivered Blake.

Blake is now 4 years old. I threw him his first "friends" birthday party this year. We set up one of our bouncehouses and filled up the pool and had a water party. My sister came up with her kids and helped out. She was a lifesaver, I don't know if I could have done it on my own. I can hardly believe my Blakesters is 4 years old. He is such a little man. He idolizes his father and wants to be just like him. One of his favorite things to do is to "help" dad do jobs around the house, as long as some sort of tool is being used he is more than willing to help. He is such a fun kid who keeps us on our toes all the time. We love you Blake William Davis!!

Tuacahn pictures

Here's some photos of me and my sisters and mom on our fun night at Tuacahn. Top picture is with Louis Van Amstel, and the other is Thayne Jasperson, who played Ren, and the actress that played Ariel in "Footloose."

Cole's Blessing

Okay, I know I'm always a few weeks behind in my posts. It seems that whenever I read other's blogs it's always for stuff they did that day or maybe the day before. But anyhow, better late than never right. A few weeks ago I was able to travel down to St. George to attend my nephew's baby blessing. Since we had our family reunion the week before that, Drew wasn't able to get more time off to go, so I went down with my sisters. And the best part is that I left the kids home too. My mother-in-law came up to watch them on Friday, then they spent the weekend with Dad.
On Friday, before I headed to St. George, I had the opportunity to attend the first part of our wards Youth Conference. We went down to Ogden to a Ropes Course. It was a blast. We did some activities to help us build up our trust with our team, then went on to the high ropes courses. They were tough, but a lot of fun. I especially loved the zipline.
While I was in St. George I was able to go with my family to the outdoor Tuacahn theater and see "Footloose." It was sooooo good!! For any of you who watch "So You Think You Can Dance" the main character, Ren, was played by one of the dancers from season 4, Thayn Jasperson. He was amazing. And then to top off the night, after the show the cast comes out to the plaza and gives autographs and pictures with the audience members. So, while me and my sisters were watching all the little girls get their picture with Thayn and secretly wishing that it was us that was brave enough to ask for an autograph and picture, my sisters both noticed someone just as exciting, and he didn't have a big crowd around him. It was Louis Vam Amstel, a dancer on "Dancing with the stars" and choreographer for "So You Think You Can Dance." So with the help of our mom, we went and got his autograph and took pictures with him. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me that night, so I got one on my camera phone that didn't turn out that good. After that we decided to get in line and talk to Thayn too. We felt like 12 year old girls, but it was so fun!!
Sunday was the blessing. Cole is the cutest little guy. He is a chunky little thing with a head full of hair that sticks straight up. He looked so handsome in his little white tux. It was the same tux that both my boys wore for their blessings, so it was fun to see it again.
It was a great weekend. I have to thank my wonderful hubby for allowing me to go and for having the kids for the weekend. I love you!

Romberger Reunion 2009

The Boys at Lagoon

My little sister, Becca, and little brother, Gavin.

My cute "chunky" nephew, Cole, at 2-1/2 months old

My favorite picture--Blake and Tayler were little buddies.

Ethan and Blake--Crazy drivers!

I love this picture of Carolee on the bumper cars.

All the grandkids together (Brynn, Ethan, Gracie holding Cole, Carolee, Tayler, Blake, Maren)

This year's Romberger reunion was one that will not soon be forgotten. Becca did a great job with planning a fun-filled weekend for us. Unfortunately we weren't able to do everything we had planned on. We went to Lagoon on Friday and had a ton of fun there, at least up until around dinner time when Blake started throwing up. We weren't sure at the time whether it was heat stroke or if he caught the stomach bug that Becca and Carolee had had the day before. That night Drew was up all night feeling sick and spent much of the night in the bathroom. Luckily we were staying in our own hotel room because the next morning we found out that Drew and Blake weren't the only ones that were sick all night; my mom, Jon, Gracie, and Tayler had all been sick that night too. So the next day's activities got set aside and we just all hung out at Haley's house. (Drew stayed at the hotel because he was still feeling sick.) We came home on Sunday, and what do you know, Ethan and I ended up getting sick that night too. I think out of the 19 people at the reunion, there were only 4 that did not end up getting sick eventually. It's a good thing we all love eachother because, even though it was kind of miserable at times, we were able to still have a good time together just hanging out amongst all the craziness.

Christmas in July?

I have to post a funny story about Ethan. For those of you who really know Ethan, you know that he has this obsession with the garbage cans. When you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he will either tell you he wants to be a garbage man or a mail man. He gets very excited on Tuesday mornings because he knows the garbage trucks come that day. It's great because he usually takes the garbage cans down to the street for me on Monday nights. When the garbage truck comes, he will walk down the street alongside it and watch it the whole way until it's out of sight.

Anyway, on to my story. I finally got around to ordering a green waste can cause I got tired of the regular can getting filled with grass clippings. So, the other day the much awaited "green garbage" can arrived. Imagine the excitement; it was like Christmas at our house!! It totally made his day. All I heard about for the rest of the day was, "We have a green garbage now, mom" and "Now we can watch the green garbage truck come to our house on Tuesdays" and " I get to put the green garbage out after Family Home Evening now" etc., etc.

Then on Thursday morning I went out to weed the yard. So, of course Ethan was right by my side the entire time because I was using the "green garbage" can for the first time. He was spouting off a thousand words a minute about the garbage can. After about 15 minutes of his nonstop talk about the garbage, I had about had it. I finally asked him to stop talking about the garbage can and talk about something else. He stopped for a minute and said, "hmmm... I'm going to talk about the garbage truck." Anybody else think he's obsessed, or is it just me?

Ahhhh!!!

Okay, I know I just did a post about how much I love my boys, and I really do, but sometimes it's all I can do not to strangle them. The other day I went into my room to work on a school assignment. It took maybe 10 minutes to finish up and this is what I came out to them doing. The had laid out all my table cloths around the kitchen, then proceeded to take out my waffle irons, sandwich makers, and electric skillets and fill them with pancake mix, flour, and sugar. They had my skillet full of sugar and flour and had it plugged in, so the sugar was starting to carmelize and burn onto the bottom. And they so innocently tell me, "Mom, we're making breakfast!" It was hard to be mad at them at first because of their innocence, but cleaning it up was a pain, and of course they didn't cooperate very well with the cleanup, so that's when I really did get mad and had to ground them for the day. This certainly isn't the worst mess they've made, believe it or not, and I'm sure it won't be the last, but I just pray that they don't burn my house down one of these days.

School's out

I can't believe it!! Another school year has come and gone. Ethan's last day of first grade was June 4. During his last week of school, he was able to participate in the 1st grade program as well as receive a reading award in the school assembly. The 1st grade program was so cute!! They sang some really fun songs, and kept us all really entertained. Blake really liked the song about brushing your teeth and flossing, he's been going around singing, "Brush, brush your teeth. And floss." The school does a reading program where the kids earn points by reading books and taking tests on them on the computer. When they earn a certain amount of points, they get an award at the monthly school assembly. The first award is for 25 points, then it goes, to 50, 100, 250, and 500. Ethan was able to earn his 100 point award during the last assembly of the year. He is a great reader and we are so proud of all that he has been able to accomplish this year.

I took a bunch of video clips of the 1st grade program, but my camera didn't upload them with the rest of the pictures for some reason. So here is a still shot with Ethan sitting on the end. If I can get my videos figured out, I will have to post them.

This is a picture of Ethan receiving his first reading award earlier this year for getting 25 points. I didn't have any good pictures from when he received his 50 and his 100 point awards, so just imagine his smile being even bigger with each award.

Mothers Day (Only a month late)

Okay, so I know I don't have that many readers, but I do want to apologize to those few people who do read this blog. I have been such a slacker about keeping my blog updated. I keep thinking to myself for the past 2 or 3 weeks that I need to do this, but I have been busy doing homework, taking kids to swimming lessons, young womens, trying to keep my kids under control, etc., so it keeps getting put on the back burner. So, I am going to attempt to fill you in on our life the past month. Instead of trying to cram it all into one post, I will separate them into different events. So, my last post was about my birthday, so it looks like I can start with Mother's Day. Mother's Day weekend was a fun one! We had my sister-in law, Carrie, and her husband, Ryan, and their two kids, Ellie and Wyatt, and my mother-in law up for the day. We set up both of our bouncehouses for the kids and we barbequed and had a lot of fun. Of course, with the bouncehouses up, we had all the neighborhood kids over as well. It was a fun filled day for everyone and we were all completely exhausted by the end of the day. And, Oh, how could I forget? Drew also surprised me with a new patio set. What a great husband I have!! I feel so lucky to be a mother to my two wonderful boys. It has been so fun to watch them grow up and I am so grateful to my heavenly father for giving them to me. I also want to tell my mom how much I love and appreciate her. She is such a great example to me, and I would not have what I have today if it weren't for her love and support.

29 and holding

Last week I celebrated my 29th birthday. Growing up, whenever we asked my mom how old she was, she would always say she was 29 and holding. Now I understand why. I am at a great time in my life right now, and I would love to just be able to freeze time and stay this age forever.
Despite having sick kids, I had a great birthday, thanks to my wonderful husband. He took the day off of work so that he could stay home with the kids and let me get out. I was able to go to lunch with some friends and do a little shopping alone. Just being able to get out and have some alone time by myself was so nice. It's amazing how rejuvenating something like that can be. Well, then we decided to go out to dinner. The kids seemed to be doing a lot better, so we took our chances and took them with us and went down to Maddox. Big mistake! The kids were just fine on the ride down, but of course when we get into the restaurant Ethan starts coughing like crazy. I think the people around us were probably thinking we were spreading the swine flu. So I took him into the bathroom and tried to make him take some cough medicine. All I had was one of those Triaminic thin strips that dissolve on your tongue. Now, if you know Ethan, he has the strongest gag reflex ever. So I tried to make him take it, but before I could even get it on his tongue he starts making himself gag and throw up. So, needless to say, it didn't work. We had to hurry and eat our dinner and get out of there as quick as possible. Then, of course the whole trip home he was fine. Go figure. All in all, it was a great day, and I look forward to always being 29 and holding.

Treehouse museum

A couple weeks ago, I met my sister Haley in Ogden and took the kids to the Treehouse museum. For those of you who live in northern Utah and have never taken your kids there, I highly suggest it. There is a ton to do and will keep your kids busy for hours. When we first got there, my kids got a little overwhelmed by it. They would play with something for about 30 seconds then go running to the next thing. I finally convinced them that we would be there for a while so there was plenty of time to see everything they wanted to see. Here are a few of the highlights.

Fire chiefs

Master musicians: Ethan, Carolee, and Blake

The music room

My niece Brynn having a tea party.

Blake puts on a puppet show.

Ethan working on a puzzle of the United States.

Ethan meets Barack Obama.

Dr. Blake Davis

Blake demonstrates the proper way to brush your teeth.

After we dragged the kids away from the childrens museum, we decided to drive down to Farmington and surprise my Grandpa Chamberlain with a visit. We had a great visit with him and he shared some great advice with me about being prepared for tough times. For those of you who know my Grandpa, he is very serious about food storage and being self reliant. It has been one year since my Grandma passed away, so we went to the cemetery and brought some flowers to put on her grave. My grandma was such a wonderful, compassionate, funny woman whom I have always looked up to and wish to be like. I miss her dearly.