mikelly inc.

banana chairs

2010-03-09T14:26:00.000-08:00

we have always wanted banana chairs but could never find any for a good price until we were at DI in rexburg. we found 2 banana chairs for the price we usually find 1 for... this made us very excited! unfortunately they weren't our favorite looking chairs but i guess we couldn't ask for more coming from DI. luckily, mike had a great idea... why don't we reupholster them?! so we decided to dive right in... not knowing exactly what to do or where to start but we figured it couldn't be too hard right?

before

after

pillows: the finishing touch

holiday season

2010-03-09T13:22:00.001-08:00

we were able to spend thanksgiving with mike's family in idaho falls and utah and spend christmas in california with my family. both were a lot of fun! thanksgiving we played the traditional football game in mike's mom's backyard. and for the first time we fought the crowds at walmart on black friday. mike and i both agree that once is enough unless there is something really worth while. afterwards we had breakfast with mikes brother and sister in law at dennys, which made the 5am trip worth it.

it was nice to get away from the cold snowy winter of idaho and enjoy the warmer weather in california. we got some really great things but the best was watching caiden open his presents! its getting more and more fun as he gets older and is starting to figure things out.

checkin' out the stocking

pooh from santa

mickey

monsters

pluto

gingerbread house decorating with aspen

having fun with dinner

its a girl!

2010-03-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

we found out a few months ago that we are having a GIRL! it still seems really odd we are going to have 2 kids but we're excited! caiden still doesn't understand completely that he is going to be a big brother but he'll find out soon enough. only have 6 weeks left until her arrival and we haven't even decided on a name yet. hopefully we'll have something figured out by then.

full circle: a year in review

2009-11-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

october 2008:
on the move again... we moved on halloween last year to shelley. Mike was off track from school and was applying for jobs in idaho falls so we figured why not move closer to IF? we found a wonderful duplex in shelley (just 7 miles from IF). it was bigger and cheaper than our place in rexburg and the places we looked at in idaho falls so we were happy. caiden was a dinosaur for halloween and since we were in the process of moving grandma jana, aunt candice, payton and cierra were gracious enough to take him off our hands so he could play and get some pictures taken. unfortunately the pictures we had were on our computer and it crashed back in june so we don't have anything to show for it...sad!

november 2008:
mike and i both got jobs... mike as a seasonal night stocker at walmart and me as a receptionist at the essence of you day spa and salon. we weren't able to go anywhere for thanksgiving because of our work schedules so i made a small thanksgiving dinner for the 3 of us. it was actually kinda fun! i even stuffed our little turkey with homemade stuffing.

december 2008:
christmas was great! we were able to spend it with mikes brother clint and his family at mikes mom's house in idaho falls. it was great to see them and let caiden and landon play together! later we spent some time with mike's dad and step mom. my brother david and his family came up to visit at christmas time also. that was really fun to hang out with them.

january-march 2009:
not a whole lot happened during these months. my mom and dad were up visiting my brother and his family so we decided to go down and hang out.

pop pop and caiden reading together

pop pop, caiden and mom mom

in march my niece madison was in a dance competition in pocatello so she, my nephew, jackson, my brother, mike and my sister in law, becky were able to stop by and visit which was really fun!

april 2009:
mike started back at BYU-I and we found out they had made more changes and they were no longer offering his major so after a big hassle we finally found out that he could still continue in his health education major with a physical education minor as long as he graduated by dec. 2010. we made a list of all his classes and figured we could make it so he is on his way.
easter was fun! it was caiden's first easter where we dyed eggs. i think he enjoyed it but he thought the eggs were balls so he just threw them around when we finished. luckily the shells just cracked a little and no mess was made... but i was surprised to find out that eggs can bounce.

may 2009:
we moved again... yep thats right. probably no surprise there with how many times we have moved. but our lease was coming to an end and we weren't sure what to do but we were really blessed because mike's step mom, marie, along with his dad asked if we would like to live in their newly finished 2 bedroom 1 bath basement for only $100 rent. we couldn't pass this up so we moved in at the beginning of the month.

june 2009:
caiden turned 2! he got a great handy man tool set from mom mom and pop pop.

one sunday we were hanging out upstairs with mike's dad and step mom and we realized that caiden wasn't around anymore so we went downstairs and found caiden like this:

apparently it was his bedtime. he made his own bed, including 5 different blankets, on the couch because he got all tuckered out.

we had a gartner family reunion at the beginning of the month in park city. my mom mom and aunt denise we able to come out from delaware which was really wonderful! we went swimming, walked around downtown, went to temple square and took a tour of the conference center. we had a great time!

july 2009:
mike finished his semester and was now on his summer break until sept. my mom mom passed away at the end of the month so it was wonderful to be able to see her one last time at our reunion last month. i was able to fly out to delaware for a few days for the funeral services and to help out where needed. both of my brothers were able to go as well so it was nice that all of us could be together at this time.

august 2009:

we found out we are going to have a baby! i am currently 18 weeks and am due april 20th.

september 2009:
mike started school but before he did we took a trip to california to visit my parents. we visited the happiest place on earth for a day! it was a ton of fun at disneyland! my mom was able to get the day off of work so she got to go with us. it was caiden's first time there and he had a lot of fun esp when he got to see pooh, rabbit, and tigger:

october 2009:
yo ho yo ho a priates life for me... caiden was a pirate for halloween this year! aargh!!

stop to smell the roses

2008-10-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

i thought this was so cute... i caught caiden smelling our wallflower from bath and body works. i didn't even know he knew what it was.

ummm... wow!

2008-10-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

so we have been letting caiden feed himself lately... ya know let him learn how to use a spoon and well he sure does have fun!

straw maze

2008-10-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

we went to the straw maze with scott and kaylee on saturday. we had a lot of fun! The maze was haunted but we were brave and made it out just fine. and apparently we are amazing at finding our way because it only took us about 15 minutes.

our picture taking expertise definitely shows in this picture... it was so dark in the maze we couldn't see... and well this is what we have to show for it.

where's the snow???

2008-10-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

so we've been meaning to go to cress creek all summer and in case you were wondering... we didn't make it in time. so at 6:30 tonight we saw that it was snowing and thought hey what better time to go than now... better late than never right?

well by the time we got there it was already pretty dark... but it's pretty during the day

mesa falls

2008-09-29T20:11:00.001-07:00

we went to mesa falls yesterday with some of our favorite people, scott and kaylee. we had a lot of fun! kaylee made these very yummy muffins for us to eat and it was so pretty there...the leaves were all different colors.

here is caiden cheezin' it up!

sittin' on a rock havin' fun

i just thought this was cute

gartner family reunion

2008-09-12T16:02:00.001-07:00

we had our first gartner family reunion this past july. it was at bear lake and we had a lot of fun. we, of course, got to go to the lake but we also went to the paris, id tabernacle and minnetonka cave.

better late than never... right?

2008-09-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

caiden's birthday was only a short 3 months ago... but i figured it still might be fun to post some pictures.

i think it might be time for a hair cut...

2008-05-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

family

2008-05-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

here is caiden with his grandma and cousins: joshua, zachary, and macey

tauphus park

2008-05-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

a couple weeks ago mike's brother dave and his family were up visiting so we got a chance to spend some time with them and go to tauphus park. caiden got to go on his first merry go round and slide. we had a lot of fun!

little rocky

2008-05-25T13:47:00.001-07:00

so caiden decided to pick a fight with a shopping cart and well... you can see what happened. but he was tough and didn't cry...

caiden's first swim

2008-05-25T13:30:00.001-07:00

on our trip to yellowstone we took caiden for his first swim. at first i don't think he knew what was going on but he loves water so he had a real good time splashing around once he figured it out.

2 years already...

2008-05-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

our 2 year anniversary was about a month ago and we decided to take a short trip to west yellowstone to celebrate. we ate at this place that had a old train car outside that we got to go through... it was really cool. and we stayed at this really great hotel and went swimming... it was so fun! and we almost died twice on our way home... i think mike and i both just about had a heart attack... crazy truck drivers on icy roads.

new job... new apartment

2008-05-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

in the middle of february i got a new job managing a girls complex here in rexburg... so we packed up our apartment and moved within a couple days. it was crazy but everything worked out perfectly. we now have a 3 bedroom apartment, which is wonderful because we have so much stuff...and the best part is, its free! we don't have to pay rent and the office is connected to our apartment so its great getting to work in the morning. all i have to do is go down the hall. mike is taking the summer off from school to get a break and stays home to help me in the office and watch caiden so pretty much we just all hang out together. we couldn't ask for a better set up right now.

slackers

2008-02-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

so basically we are slackers when it comes to this whole blog thing... we wish we weren't but well we promise to try harder this time to keep it updated.

celebration

2007-11-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

yeah so a 1 1/2 year anniversary isn't like woohoo but still... my friend makes cool cakes so i had her make us one and i surprised mike with it. it was really fun and it tasted yummy!

our new toy

2007-11-11T19:21:00.000-08:00

we have always wanted a projector but never could afford one...until we discovered byu-i's surplus sale...its a silent auction so we bid on 6 different ones and we won 5 of them so we got first pick of which one we wanted. we were very pleased with ourselves because we got a great deal!!!
so we took a little excursion to lowe's in idaho falls and bought the longest closet rod we could find and found some big bike hooks to hang our screen. next on our mission we went to joanne's fabric and bought some blackout material(its used for curtains to block out sunlight). so we sewed two pieces together because it wasn't wide enough... and voila we have a wonderful new movie watching, wii playing, computer using experience!!! yeah baby!

our little blue monster

2007-11-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

we didn't do anything for Halloween but we wanted to dress caiden up anyway...we saw this costume at DI and we couldn't pass it up!

growing up

2007-10-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

caiden at 3 months

caiden at 4 1/2 months

blessing day

2007-10-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

here is caiden on his blessing day... mike's mom found him this adorable outfit to wear and a friend from home made his cute little blanket for him.

couch potato

2007-10-23T20:51:00.001-07:00

we thought this was a funny picture! what more do you need... a remote and a cheeseburger?! we're training him early to be our little couch potato!!

first bath

2007-10-23T20:49:00.001-07:00

caiden

2007-10-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

for those of you who haven't seen pictures of caiden yet here he is...he was born june 9, 2007... 4:36am... 6lbs 9oz... 18 1/2 inches

hey everyone!

2007-10-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

so we decided to do the whole blog thing so we could keep everyone updated on what's going on with us... not that we have a lot going on but hey it will be fun! right now mike is going to school full time and i'm working at the ups store and well... caiden he just hangs out. mike is taking 20 credits and most of them are really hard classes so he is extremely busy all the time. i just go to work... well thats us in a nutshell! enjoy!