Grandma arrived, and I'm still pregnant!

Austin working on holiday crafts

Samuel making his ornament

Betsy's crafts

Caleb really liked the donkey, it has a story on it, and says the donkey's name is "caleb".  He thought that was pretty cool.

Malachi slept during craft making time

Caleb with Santa Claus

Malachi wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, but he loved this rocking chair

This is our "kid" decorated Christmas tree!

We were playing a game called Quelf, and Samuel had to put on lipstick as part of the game, he was pretty funny.  It's a good thing Austin had some lipstick, because I don't own any.

So we had another busy week getting ready for the baby to come, Grandma Hardy to come, and getting ready for Christmas.  We got another package from our soldier's angel that had tons of craft and decorating stuff in it, and the the kids had a blast doing all the crafts and decorating the house.  We had the until Christmas party on Thursday, and got to eat a potluck dinner, and the kids all got stuffed Teddy Bears, even the baby who is almost here got one.  Joseph missed out on that party, because he didn't make it home in time.  We also had our branch Christmas party on Friday, with a dessert potluck, so I made my homemade caramel cheesecake, and some caramel popcorn.  There was tons of sugar there!!  The kids got to see Santa, and they had a program, in which the primary sang, as well as the nursery.  Malachi sure looked cute up on stage shaking jingle bells, but I was playing the piano for it, and forgot to ask someone else to get a picture for me.  Joseph stayed after with the Young Men to clean the church, and didn't get home until almost 11pm.  I was pretty worried about him by then, I still can't believe that they stayed out that late.  We got our Christmas Tree on Saturday, Joseph had to wait in line in the cold for over an hour to get it, but then he got to pick out the tree for us, so he was happy.  Our tree seems to like being crooked, and has lots of character, but it was free, and it seems to fit right in with our family!  We were able to pick up Grandma Saturday evening, and then after dinner we were able to get the tree decorated.  You can definitely tell it was decorated by children.  It is really nice to have Grandma  here, and have another adult around.  Now I'm just trying to patiently wait for this baby to come!!!  Hopefully the next post will be announcing the baby being born!!!

More Ice, sickness, and a good weekend

The kids designs from playing in the ice on their "snow day"

So the week started out as a snow day for the kids.  We had more ice storms.  I was really ready for the kids to go back to school after Thanksgiving break, but we still enjoyed our time off school.  The kids played in the ice, sledding, sliding and making the designs in our frozen grass.  Fortuneatly the the weather improved, and the kids were back in school on Tuesday.  Unfortunately Malachi wasn't feeling well.  He had a fever starting on Sunday, and the skin on the top of his head, forehead, and the side, and by his right ear started turning red, and getting swollen and warm.  He was pretty grumpy and miserable, but tylenol helped the fever go down, and he seemed happier.  The redness and fever were back again by Monday afternoon, and although the tylenol helped again, the redness and swollen tender skin seemed to be spreading and getting worse.  So by Tuesday morning I was ready to take my sad little boy to the doctor, the doctor diagnosed him with cellulitis (bacterial skin infection), and prescribed antibiotics for seven days, and more tylenol.   Finally, my sick little boy started feeling better.  Malachi's favorite thing to do is "play" with Daddy when he calls.  We facetime with Travis every day, and when he calls, Malachi takes the phone and carries his Daddy all around the house, (while I'm trying to keep up with him)  He likes to hug him and kiss him, and throw him in the ball pit, and then bury him, and then find him, take him down the slide and all sorts of things.  It's a good thing I have an otterbox on my phone to protect it.  I find that although Malachi loves doing this, it makes it very hard to have a conversation with Travis, so I have to wait for my turn, for Malachi to be done playing with his Daddy.  I reached 38 weeks in my pregnancy this week.  So we're getting pretty ready for the baby come.  I found out that by group B test was positive, which means that they will give me antibiotics during labor, and keep the baby closely monitored for infection for the first 48 hours in the hospital after he is born.  I have never been positive before, so I was surprised, by the doctor assured me that it's perfectly normal.  Joseph had a fever and was sick and stayed home from school on Thursday, but was back to school on Friday.  The weather has been really nice this weekend, sunny and in the high 50s.  We took a walk to the park, on friday after school, and the kids loved enjoying the nice fresh air!  Saturday morning when Malachi was trying to get me to get out of bed, I got a bad charlie horse in the calf, man that really hurt.  Poor Malachi didn't know what was going on, and was climbing all over me, trying to "fix it".  It had been so long since I have had a charlie horse, I didn't remember what I was supposed to do to help it feel better, so I told Malachi to bring me my phone, and he did so I could look up how to fix it.  After massaging and stretching it for a while, it finally was feeling better, although it is still quite uncomfortable.  We were able to get all our chores done, and I got the car seats reconfigured and the new infant carseat base installed in the car in preparation for the baby to come.  Saturday afternoon I went to a Chaplain Spouse get together and had a nice time visiting with the other ladies, and eating Hawaiian Haystacks.  Then I quickly drove home, and the kids and I and our friends the Prince's drove to Keats, KS (about 35-40 minutes) to go to a walk through outdoor live nativity called "Bethlehem Revisited"  It was pretty neat.  We would walk through all these different stations that took us through the birth, life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.    The little kids enjoyed hiking along, and holding onto their glow sticks and playing with them.  The older kids got a little more out of it, and I was glad we came.  It took us a little over an hour to walk the whole thing.  On the drive home, I think all of the kids fell asleep, it was after 9pm by this point.  I ended up having to carry both Malachi and Caleb to their beds, but the other kids managed to get themselves to bed, there was no way I was carrying them.

Thanksgiving and Ice

Malachi wanted marshmallows (snow snows)

Austin cuddling with Malachi while she is home sick from school.  He took a nice nap on her!

At our friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  

Malachi loves the stuffed animal that came in a package from soldier's angels

Caleb loves the ducks that came in a package from soldier's angels.  

So Austin got sick, and stayed home from school on Monday, but was able to go on Tuesday.  All the kids had school off this week since Wednesday.  We didn't really go anywhere, since the weather was bad.  We went just one street over to our friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was nice to have dinner with a few friends, and we watched "inside out" after dinner and relaxed.  We forgot the pumpkin pie in our fridge, so I sent Joseph back to get it, but I guess he couldn't get into the house, and then lost his glasses somewhere along the way back.  It was already dark out, so I told Joseph we would help him look for them in the morning.  Well in the morning everything was covered in about a 1/2 inch layer of ice, but we still managed to find Joseph's glasses, all covered up in a layer of ice.  He is a lucky boy.  I did some online shopping, but other than that we mostly just played games, and did a little candy making.  Saturday everything was still pretty icy, so once again we didn't go do anything.  I did make it to the movie store to return a movie, and the grocery store to get some eggs, but other than that we stayed home.  Joseph and Samuel went sledding on the ice and had great fun, and Malachi and Caleb played in the ice on our back porch for a little while too.  We managed to get all our chores done as well, and I got the bookkeeping done.  We are still under an ice storm warning until tonight, I felt bad for the postal service lady and pizza hut delivery guy saturday night.  Our driveway and steps are completely covered solid in ice, I need to buy some of that ice melt stuff.  Anyway the postal service lady managed to carry a hug armload of packages up to our door for us.  We had gotten two packages from the soldier's angels program, and once from our friends the Croaks and Clements in Colorado Springs.  It was awesome, just like Christmas!  The kids had a blast opening up all the packages and pulling out all the stuff that had been sent for the new baby, and games, crafts, and treats for them as well.  Then our pizza arrived, and the kids enjoyed watching him "skate" and slide to get up our steps to our door.  I felt so bad, I gave him an extra good tip.  We ate pizza and watched a movie, then got everything to bed.  It was a good night.  Today all church meetings were cancelled except for Sacrament meeting, and I guess a lot of the city is out of power.  We are lucky and blessed to still have power, and the kids and I have spent a lot of  minutes staring at everything outside covered in ice.

Samuel's birthday

Samuel blowing out his candles for his 9th birthday

He is so excited to eat some of his huge peanut butter cup cake!

Malachi is happy about eating pizza for dinner

Joseph loves cake too!

Caleb is silly

On our wagon ride

wagon ride

kids enjoying themselves at the party

Our wagon ride

Playing Twister at the USO game night

Caleb and Malachi eating big carrots that we got from bountiful baskets!

more wagon ride photos

So Samuel is now 9 years old!!  He had a good, yet simple birthday.  He really wanted an electric scooter, but they are quite expensive so he didn't get a party, or going out to eat.  The only present he received was the scooter, (we even used both grandparent's money too)  But, he was super happy!  He loves his new scooter.  I thought I got a picture of his on it, but I couldn't find it on my phone.  We did have cake and sing happy birthday too him, but it was really nice that it was so simple, since I really didn't have the energy to do much anyway.  We did make some gluten free blueberry muffins that he took to school and shared with his class.  I taught joy school at our house this week on Monday and Thursday, it was exhausting, but it is my last week to teach until February, so I'm happy for the break.  Caleb loves Joy school, so I'm happy for him, and grateful he has something to do.  I took Betsy in to the doctor again for her back, it has really been bothering her the last couple weeks.  We took her to get another x-ray, and they are referring her back to physical therapy.  Thankfully though, giving her massages and rest seems to help.  We will get the results of her x-ray back next week.  I had my OB appointment this week as well, I'm 36 weeks, hooray!  Everything looks good, and the doctor said the baby looks good to come any time now.  I'm sure he'll wait at least a couple more weeks to come though.  I'm working on my to do list, for being prepared for the baby to come still, so I'm not quite ready yet.  We did have some fun this weekend.  We went to the USO for a family dinner/game night.  Joseph was on a campout, and Austin was babysitting, but we brought Betsy's friend Jessie with us, so I still have 5 kids with me.  We had a good time playing games.  Betsy is really good at twister!  Towards the end Samuel started going a little crazy, but other than that everyone behaved really well.  Saturday, we had a busy day.  We got chores done, picket up bountiful baskets, including 2 40 lb boxes of oranges, they are delicious.  Picked up Joe from the campout, Samuel had a rain gutter boat regatta for scouts that he enjoyed, and had fun racing his boat.  We went to a deployed families Thanksgiving dinner giveaway, where we got two free turkeys, and a bunch of canned and boxed goods for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was awesome!  We also went to a party at Travis' troops commander's wife.  She had a horse drawn wagon ride that we enjoyed, as well as a chili dinner.  The kids had a lot of fun (Joseph had to stay home and finish his chores and homework).  Then we rented a movie on the way home, and had a movie night.  This Sunday went better than last week.  We had Samuel sit with another family, and their daughter sat with us, it worked out well for us, anyway.  I still played the organ, so the kids were all sitting by themselves for the first 30 minutes, but I noticed a lot less commotion coming from our row, so they did great!  The weather has definitely gotten cooler, I had to start turning on the heat this week, as the house was getting below 60 degrees. I'm finally getting over my cold now, so I'm happy about that!  And, I actually got Joseph to ride his bike to school once this week, so hopefully he'll do better this coming week, now that he's realized he can ride his bike to school when it's cold out and survive.  

Fall

I found Malachi asleep in the bottom of the linen closet one morning while going to wake up the kids for morning devotional.  It freaked me out when I discovered he wasn't in his or Betsy's bed, but luckily it didn't take me long to discover where he was.  

Malachi and Caleb couldn't resist playing in this big pile of leaves we found just outside the post office 

Malachi staring at Joseph to make sure he was being good.  (I asked him to watch Joseph and make sure he was being good.  He took me seriously and stared at him  the whole time, while I was getting him his breakfast)

Joseph, happy to have Malachi watching him to make sure he was being good.  

Malachi was being a silly boy.

This week we've started feeling the cooler weather.  We've still had a few very nice days in the low 70s or upper 60s during the day, but we've have several cold nights as well.  I've been frustrated with Joseph refusing to ride his bike to seminary in the cold. (30s or low 40s)  I keep telling him that it's okay to be cold, that he will thaw out after he gets back inside.  I told him about having a paper route, and riding my bike doing that in the early morning hours throughout the winter in Oregon.  Even when I refused to drive him, he just skipped seminary, and took the bus to school.  So, rather than have him miss seminary again, I drove him the next cold day.  I did make him leave to ride his bike, but he just turned around and came back home, telling me he was already too cold.(I've sent him out with coat, gloves, and a balaclava (but he left it at school or lost it).    I guess he won that battle, but I want it on record that I think he is being a wuss.  Anyway, Joseph and Samuel were both grounded until Wednesday this week, because they hadn't done their chores from Saturday, they finally did them Tuesday night, and got ungrounded.  We were going to go have fun on Wednesday, but I got sick so we ended up staying home all day.  I've had a bad sore throat, headache, fevers, and cough, runny nose since Wednesday.  I finally didn't have a fever yesterday, so I hoping I'll keep getting better.  I also hired a lady to clean the house every week for the next 4 weeks until my mom gets here.  I haven't been able to get some things done that I need to before the baby gets here, because I'm too busy cleaning up after everybody.  So, she came on Thursday and got some cleaning done.  So, I was able to make a bunch of muffins and waffles and freeze them for when the baby comes.  I'm still not feeling well, so I haven't made any progress other than that.  Again we didn't do anything this weekend due to my still not feeling well.  But, at least I got everyone to do their chores, even though Samuel and Joseph took all day to finally get it done.  I also took Samuel with me to pick up our bountiful basket, and went to the grocery store, so we have lots of good food to eat now.  We had our pizza and movie night, which everyone enjoyed.  Travis has also come down with a cold in Jordan, but otherwise seems to be doing fine.  They did have an incident where some Americans were killed, but Travis and his unit were not involved.  My Grandma Hardy's funeral was on Tuesday, and I wasn't able to attend, but the rest of my siblings and parents were,  She was a wonderful woman, I'm glad she is in heaven with her sweetheart again.  There were also some terrorist attacks in Paris, that are very sad.  We also had our house in Colorado have the main sewer pipe back up, so we're dealing with that too.  We've still been working on finding something to be grateful for each day, which is helpful to staying positive.  I'm glad the kids haven't gotten sick, that is a blessing.

the adjustment continues

33 1/2 weeks pregnant

Bald spot where Caleb shaved his head

Caleb's new haircut

Samuel's new haircut

Malachi needs "daddy" bears when he is sad

"daddy" bears help him feel better

So life continues to move along.  Travis is settling in to Jordan well, and has been enjoying visiting holy sites like the baptismal site of Jesus, and Mt. Nebo.  He also is providing church services for the protestant and LDS soldiers that are on his base.  He also told me he has a bible study, and is going to be teaching a spanish class as well.  We have been able to talk daily via facetime on our phones, which has been a wonderful blessing.  Malachi runs around with everyone's "daddy" bears, and likes to look at pictures and read books about his Daddy too.  He occasionally asks where his daddy is at, but overall is doing well.  He is full of 2 year old independence and keeping me on my toes with all his shenanigans.  He loves to dump things onto the floor, play in the sinks, and pull all the books off the shelves.  He also loves to dip his food into his drink before he eats it.  He is very cute and I love to hear him talk, and he gives very sweet hugs.  His favorite things to do are taking a bath, go on a walk, play outside with balls or scooters, and build with his blocks or trains.  He also loves to take handfuls of cars everywhere with him, so I can usually find cars all over the place.  He has been sleeping better through the night this week, but still wakes up about 5am most mornings.  He wants to do everything himself, which can be a bit frustrating.  The whole him pouring his own milk into his cereal bowl from a gallon jug was a disaster.  He also ended up exploding a bag of cake mix all over himself and the carpet, and had great fun playing in it, until I could vacuum it all up.  Although it was kind of fun using the vacuum attachment to chase him down and suck all the cake mix powder off of him.  He is an expert at opening lids and dumping stuff out.  He has shown an interest in potty training, but I'm too far into my pregnancy to work on that with him.  So instead I get to deal with him taking his diaper off all the time.  He is fascinated with numbers and counting lately and loves to try and count things, (he skips a lot of numbers).  I thought it was funny when he insisted that my forehead (4head) was a onehead (1head).
Caleb is doing well.  He loves going to Joy school, and playing outside too.  He especially loves doing "preschool" with Betsy whenever she is home, in the shed in our backyard.  Caleb is working on being more helpful, and is my best helper when it comes to picking things up off the floor.  As shown in the pictures above Caleb is sporting a new hair cut, due to him shaving his head with my razor.
The other four kids are doing fine, they are gone a lot during the week at school, and after school is filled with homework, practicing, and playing with friends.  The weekends have been filled with cleaning (or trying to get them to clean) and going to church.  We haven't done many fun things, because I can't get them to do the chores, and help me clean the house so we can go do fun things. Hopefully we will get it figured out soon, so we can have a little more fun.  This past week has been a bit of emotional roller coaster for me.  I've been angry, cried, frustrated, sad, mad, happy, and felt blessed.  I'm sure part of it is the pregnancy, and part of it is the reality of Travis' being gone is sinking in more fully.  Even though it has been a rough week, I have felt strengthened, and blessed, and find much to be thankful for.  I've been posting on facebook daily for what I'm thankful for each day, and that has helped me look for the positive too.  I also started a conference group, that is meeting at my house each friday, and discusses a talk from general conference.  I love studying the words of the prophet and apostles.

Deployment

So, life as usual has been very crazy lately.  I have been having troubles with my computer for the last month and a half, so I haven't been keeping up on my blog very well.    Anyway I've probably already forgotten most of what has happened in the last month and a half, but the biggest thing is that Travis deployed.  Now, before I get to that, Travis and I were able to go to General/Chaplain Conference the beginning of October.  We got to go, just the two of us, it was so nice to be able to spend some time together before he had to leave.  We were able to get a Young Adult preparing to go on her mission, to watch our kids for the six days we would be gone.  She did an amazing job, and the kids were all fine while we were away.  We flew to Salt Lake City on Friday, Oct. 2nd.  We met Travis' sister Maia for lunch, and got to spend a little time with her.  That night we attended the banquet where Gary Stevenson (soon to be called apostle) spoke to us.  While we were there for Chaplain conference we got to hang out on Saturday with two Jordanian religious leaders who were there as VIP speakers for the conference.  It was really neat learning more about them and their country and touring around salt lake city, provo/byu, and sundance with them.  We ate ice cream from the BYU creamery, rode on a ski lift up in the mountains, and had a wonderful Jordanian dinner with all the Palestinian students from BYU.   Sunday we were able to attend all the sessions of conference, and go to dinner at the military relations missionaries house that we knew in Colorado Springs.  Monday, we attended all the sessions of chaplain conference, wonderful speakers (including the two Jordanians, and the wife of newly called apostle  Rasband)  We went to dinner at the cheesecake factory with some friends from Colorado Springs.  While we were walking back to our hotel, we ran into a man and woman who asked Travis about his military uniform and the "crosses" he was wearing on his uniform, and when he found out he was a chaplain asked him to pray for him, as his wife died last night.  We ended up sitting on a bench talking with them for a little while, and Travis prayed for them, it was interesting to see Travis ministering to them, the way he would for his soldiers, (I don't usually see this part of what he does firsthand).  Tuesday we had our final day of conferences.  I love going to conference, I come away feeling so rejuvenated, and filled with the spirit.  We spent the last night, just the two of us at a nice little Italian Restaurant that had delicious food.  We left Wednesday morning and flew back home, we had an almost 4 hour layover in Texas, so we didn't get home until almost dinnertime.  The kids were sure happy to see us.  Malachi would not let me put him down, or let anyone else near him.  We were very busy getting Travis ready to deploy, and he left Friday, Oct. 23rd.  He is getting settled in his base in Jordan, and we have been able to talk to him almost daily, so we know he is doing well.  The kids and I are adjusting to having him gone.  We are keeping very busy, as a lot of things got put off, since we were getting him ready to leave.  I was able to sell Travis' car for him this week, so I'm glad to have gotten that done.  The kids and I all went to a trunk or treat at the church Friday night, and we all went trick or treating last night, except for Joseph (he stayed home to pass out candy).  The kids all loved trick or treating, and had a lot of fun.  For the first hour, Malachi insisted on walking all by himself (he didn't want to sit in the stroller) and carried around his bucket of candy too.  He finally started tiring and allowing me to push him in the stroller at the end, but I was surprised how long he lasted. Other things that happened this past month and a half include:  Malachi split his chin open again, while we were at the park, and I took him to the ER and got it glued shut, (fastest ER trip ever, in and out in 45 minutes).  Travis had his birthday, I made him his delicious cake!.  Took a tour of the hospital labor and delivery area with Travis before he left.  Went to a fall festival on post as a family, and had a lot of fun.   Had Parent/Teacher conferences with all the kids teachers and they are all doing pretty well.  Finally got the kids all registered with CYS, so I can start using free childcare hours.  Austin had her first Orchestra concert.  Took Caleb and Malachi to the pumpkin patch with Joy School, and they had a blast!!  And the last thing I remember is that we had our primary program in church.  I also played the organ that sunday, and travis had already deployed, so the kids ended up by themselves for all of the sacrament meeting, becuase I went from playing the organ to playing for the primary.  But, Betsy, Samuel, and Caleb were all up on the stand with me for the primary program.  They seemed to do well, I never saw anything big going on, and Betsy, Samuel, and Caleb all did a great job on their parts.  We are now busy preparing for the holidays and the new baby to come.

Caleb playing at the park at the family organizational day for Travis' troop

Travis with his little boys

At the fall festival getting to pet a horse

At the fall festival Joseph and Samuel sparring.  Poor Joseph has a pretty big advantage, Travis finally told Samuel just to dive for Joseph's legs to know him down, and he did.

Malachi loves his stuffed animals (Ralphie is the dog and has been passed down from Travis to each of our boys)

Travis and I at Sundance, UT

Travis with the Jordanians

Happy Birthday Travis!

Getting Malachi's chin fixed

Caleb having fun at the pumpkin patch

Malachi swimming through the hay after jumping in with reckless abandon (just like he's been taught by older brothers)

Running along all the hay bales

Malachi and Caleb with their Joy school group

Caleb wanted to be a nerd like me, and stole my glasses

Caleb shaved a bald spot into his head, with my razor

Caleb playing at the park, loving the beautiful fall weather

Zombie Sam

Olaf and Monkey

All my little trick or treaters (okay, and some not so little)

Betsy Bunny

Austin Angry Bird