Sooooooo much to do!!!!

Betsy walking across the stage to receive her membership into NJHS (National Junior Honor Society)

Yes, that is a teeny tiny frog on his hand!

Malachi eating an orange!

Caleb at Milford Lake

Gideon loves his bouncer!!

Malachi found a little friend

"Parting is such sweet sorrow"

This is how I get my housework done

Samuel getting his award from his soccer coach

Samuel with his soccer team, (he is front and center)

Betsy in her new dress for Night at the Stars (an award for getting good grades all year)

My mother's day breakfast Samuel made for me (scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausage)

Malachi likes Austin's new sunglasses

Gideon wanted sunglasses too

Austin figured out how to carry the baby in her jacket

This is how Malachi fell asleep

Burying caleb in the sand at the park in witchita

Malachi wanted to help Austin on the stair machine

I love this boy even if he does have crazy hair

Gideon loves his baths in the sink

Cute little Caleb!!

Such a cute baby sucking on his fingers

My beautiful daughter is getting so grown up!

Austin playing at her violin concert

Babies are adorable when they sleep!

Caleb and Malachi helped me pick the strawberries in our garden

I just can't get enough of this cute little guy

Malachi climbing around at the cub scout fundraiser

Beautiful Betsy at the Night at the Stars awards!  She got a 4.0

Gideon in his church clothes

This is the dress I was wearing when I first met Travis, I let Betsy wear it to church today

I bought this chalkboard vinyls to put on the wall to help everyone know what they need to do for the day.  I just put "Everything" under mine, because it would take up a whole wall to write down everything I need to do.

Betsy rubbing the baby's back at a baseball practice

Before the haircut (Joseph made a bet with me, that if he didn't get his dishes done before he went to school, I could cut his hair. He lost!)

After the hair cut, he was not happy!

Malachi was kneeling on Betsy for morning devotional prayer

Gideon discovered a cord at the base of his car seat, it eventually made it to his mouth

Caleb and Malachi playing at a park in Manhattan

Such a cute adorable face!

love, love, love!!!

Malachi playing in the sand at the park

Gideon fell asleep on me while we were at the park

silliness

Malachi playing at the pool

Caleb and Malachi playing in the pool together. 

Caleb got cold at the pool

Malachi sitting on Austin to eat his sandwich.  Austin was trying to take a nap

Austin in her dorm room for GROW camp in Manhattan

Betsy in her dorm room for GROW camp in Manhattan

Austin and Betsy together (with Gideon) at their GROW camp

Joseph got some emoji pillows for his birthday!  We'll call this one "sleepy Joe"

"Normal Joe"

"Crazy Joe"

"Angry Joe"

Joseph loves his bow and arrow set from Grandma and Grandpa Hardy

Joseph really liked getting this hunting knife (I'm  worried)

Cute little Gideon eating his toes

As you can tell by my lack of consistent posts, I'm overwhelmed with just daily living.  Every day is full of my seven children needing me, and running the household.  I have many things on my to do lists that never get done.  I try to maintain some sort of balance, but many days fail.  I have tried to prioritize and make sure we at least get the most important things done.  So many days are incredibly hard and full of many challenges, but I receive so many blessings, that I feel grateful to my Heavenly Father every day!  Since I last posted, school has ended, and we have had several weeks of summer already.  We had a couple weeks of tornado and severe storm warnings.  There were lots of end of the school year activities. Austin had her voilin concert, and Betsy got into the Junior National Honor Society, and Night of the Stars (both awards nights for good academics). Both Austin and Betsy were able to go to Worlds of Fun (a water park/amusement par in Kansas City)on the last day of school!   We finished up the soccer season, and started baseball season.  Samuel has had cub scout day camp, and Austin babysat all day long for the cub scout leaders kids while she helped at the day camp for three days in a row.   I've started taking the kids out on dates again each weekend, and every friday and Saturday I take out one of the kids on a date (with Gideon too).  It's been a lot of fun, spending some individual time with each of the kids. Joseph ended up needing to attend summer school, and is currently doing that.  Joseph turned 15 on the 9th and today I turn 35!  We leave in 3 days for our Hardy reunion, and when we get back Travis should be back within a 5 days, so we are almost done with this deployment.
Gideon is getting so big!  He is now almost 6 months old, and weighs over 17 lbs!  In the last month and a half he has starting rolling, scooting around a little, and starting to sit up better, and cut his first tooth last night!  He is such a joy in our family, everyone loves him so much!
Malachi is quite the little trouble/mess maker.  Caleb was such an easy 2 year old, I'd forgotten how trying this time can really be.  Malachi does not listen very well, and lives to change his mind constantly, and make messes.  But, his vocabulary has really come along, and he is starting to get better at communicating what he wants.  He still struggles to share my attention with all of his siblings, especially Gideon, but he loves him, and wants to hold him, and give him hugs and kisses.
Caleb has grown up a lot, he is getting ready this summer to start Kindergarten in the fall.  He is starting to help out more with chores, and help me more with his little brothers.  He still has a sweet and tender heart, but occasionally has outbursts, and throws a tantrum (learned from older brothers).  He loves to say his prayers, and is such a joy to teach about life.
Samuel loves playing sports!  He is happy school is out for the summer, and loves having a little more free time to play this summer.  He really enjoyed cub scout day camp.  He loves helping me by holding Gideon and entertaining him.  He is also a great helper with any projects I need done.
Betsy is such a blessing in my life and this family.  She is so kind and compassionate I can almost always count on her to help out when I need it.  She has really excelled in middle school, and received a 4.0 GPA for the whole year, and she made many friends.
Austin continues to grow and mature, she loves baking and playing with Gideon.  The girls and I have a new tradition, that if we were able to get the kitchen cleaned after dinner, we sit down on the couch and watch"Monk" and color in our adult coloring books (most of the time they end up coloring, while I take care of the baby)
Joseph continues to struggle with school, and we tried starting him on a new ADHD medication called strattera ( a non-stimulant)  and it has worked much better than the last medication.  He has had no side effects that we can see, and he says it helps him focus in school.  He was able to pull up one of his grades to passing, but still ended up failing 5 classes.  He is retaking two of them in summer school, and seems to actually enjoy summer school.  For his birthday, we got our military IDs renewed (they were expiring soon) and I got him donuts for breakfast.  He went to summer school and then swimming with a few friends.  When he got home, we had prepared a treasure hunt with clues for him to find his presents, it was very fun.  He loved getting a bow and arrow, hunting knife, and a new kindle.  I think he had a great day.
A few more highlights and adventures of things that happened the the last month and a half:
On the last day of Soccer we ended up being out on the fields from 8:30 in the morning till 1pm.  It was hot and I forgot about sunscreen, so we tried to stay in the shade as best we could, but everyone ended up with a little sunburn.  Samuel especially, because he had no shade during his games (he had two) or during the awards which was outside right next to the field.  Then when we got home, Samuel ran over to his friends without telling me and ended up mowing lawns for people in the neighborhood for money.  He earned $20, but got a terrible sunburn, as he was out in the sun all day long.  I had him take a bath with apple cider vinegar, and used aloe vera from our plant, and made up a sunburn spray with essential oils, and he healed pretty quickly.He wouldn't wear his church clothes on Sunday, since he said they hurt, but tried to wear his best non-church clothes.

On Mother's Day, the kids made me breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and most of them gave me cards.  Joseph was very difficult, and wouldn't even go to church, making me very sad.

Joseph was holding Gideon and set him down on the edge of the bed, and walked off, the baby fell off the bed before I could catch him, and was very sad.  But, he was okay after a while.

One day as we were about to walk out the door to go somewhere (I don't remember where).  I was trying to find Caleb to tell him to get in the car.  I found him in the bathroom covered from head to toe in poop, with poop all over the bathroom.  Apparently he had pooped in his underwear before he could make it to the toilet and things just got really messy while he tried to take off his clothes and clean it up with poop covered hands.  It took me a good ten minutes of cleaning as fast as I could to get him cleaned off and the bathroom cleaned up (that was gross).

I went to Witchita for my varicose vein appointment.  I ended up taking Austin out of school to come and help me with Caleb, Malachi, and Gideon (I couldn't find anyone to watch them all day).  Gideon slept the whole way there, which was very nice, and the little boys just played on their kindles (2 hour drive).  We stopped at a park and played to let some of their energy out, then we went to costco for lunch and to do some shopping.  It was so much fun to go to Costco again.  We went to my appointment, and while we were in the waiting room, Malachi climbed on top of Caleb, who was sitting in a chair.  That caused Caleb to fall off of the chair, bringing Malachi with him.  Malachi hit his head, and Caleb's head hit Malachi's mouth, causing him to bite the inside of his upper and lower lip pretty good making them bleed a lot.  I gave Gideon to Austin, and scooped up Malachi and rushed him to the bathroom to wash his mouth out.  Several nurses followed me into the bathroom to see if they could help.  The boys crying so loud made quite the commotion as well as Austin yelling "blood".  I rinsed out Malachi's mouth as best as I could, and started trying to stem the bleeding with paper towels.  One of the nurses gave me some gauze, and one went to get ice.  Malachi wouldn't let anyone touch him but me, and he was very upset.  We managed to mostly stop the bleeding, so I cleaned up the blood in the bathroom and carried Malachi out.  The nurse with the ice came back, but Malachi wouldn't let me put the ice on, so the nurse said she would see if she could find a Popsicle.  We came out to find Caleb hiding under a chair crying.  He was so upset that he hurt Malachi, even though it wasn't his fault, he couldn't stop crying.  I managed to coax him out, and he hugged Malachi saying how sorry he was.  He felt a little better after that.  A different nurse came out, saying it was my turn to be seen, so the nurses helped us gather all our stuff and a carried a still very sad Malachi back while Austin carried Gideon and I held Caleb's hand.  We went back to the room, where we barely fit in the room, and I sat on the table with a sad Malachi.  I tried to answer the nurses questions, while trying to comfort Malachi.  Travis called to Facetime us, so I gave the phone to Austin, and when the nurse left, I talked to him with Malachi.  Another nurse came in with some popsicles for Caleb and Malachi and that helped a little bit.  The Dr. came in and looked at my varicose veins, and had the nurse take pictures.  He said we would schedule a doppler appointment to look at my veins and then I would come back in and he would discuss the results with me.  I thought that I was having the doppler being done at that appointment, and the follow up all at the same time, so I was a little disappointed that I had to come back two more times before the Dr. would even tell me how to fix my veins.  Anyway Gideon had fallen asleep a little in the Dr. appointment, so when we went to drive home he was awake and crying in the car.  I hate hearing him cry in the car.  Austin did everything she could to make him happy, but nothing worked.  I finally pulled over and tried feeding him again.  He calmed down, and when we put him back in, he fussed a little bit then fell asleep.  We made it home, just in time to quickly finish up our dessert for the cub scout dessert and service auction.  I had made the pavlova before we left for Wichita, but we still had to decorate it.  Then we all went to the event.  We brought Jessie (Betsy's friend) with us, since Austin stayed home (she had a headache).  There was a service auction, and a dessert auction, and a talent show.  I signed up to sing and play the piano.  I did a parody of "my favorite things" from the sound of music.  I had hardly any time to practice the piano for it, but it was still fun.  Samuel sang the "US presidents" song that he learned in school.  We bought a cake from the auction, that the kids all loved, and I bought several things from the service auction, but I lost the papers, so I don't know how to redeem any of them : (  At one point Malachi walked over to the dessert table, and took one of the oreos off a fancy looking cake, I wrote on the explanation card, that we were sorry that Malachi had taken one of the oreos.  When the announcer was auctioning off the cake she read that, and thought it was one of the scouts that was named Malachi, and said he was in trouble, poor kid was probably so confused.  Anyway after that Malachi stood near the dessert table and took of his pants and started taking off his diaper.  I quickly scooped him up and took him to the bathroom to give him a new diaper and put his pants on.  Unfortunately, that was right when Samuel performed his song so I missed it, and Betsy couldn't record it for me, because she doesn't know the password for my phone.  But, everyone told me he did a great job.
    Betsy had a final school project of building a castle model.  She chose to build it out of graham crackers and candy, and had a great time making it.  It looked like so much fun that I wanted to build one too, but then everyone wanted to build one, and I ended up having to take care of little ones while Austin and Jessie made castles.  I was a little sad I didn't get to make one, because they used up the supplies, but I'm glad they had fun. Betsy ended up getting an A+ on her project and I think her classmates enjoyed helping her eat it after it was graded.  If forgot to take a picture, sorry.

Caleb's friend across the street moved, and we received new neighbors, they don't have any kids, so my kids were a little sad.  Anyway, they gave us a package of bathtub color tablets, thaickly gave Gideon to Betsy, and ran into the bathroom.  Malachi had dipped the entire container ot change the color of the water when they are in the bathtub.  It came with 120 tablets and was unopened.  Caleb and Malachi were really excited about it and we used a tablet or two in their next couple baths.  One day they were taking another bath and I was feeding Gideon and I heard Caleb yell, "No Malachi, not the whole thing".  Caleb started screaming like crazy,  I guess Malachi had dumped the bottle of color tablets into the bath and then dumped the entire bottle into a pile on the bathroom floor.  The pile of tablets had started fizzing and bubbling like crazy, and was a black chemical mess.  Caleb was totally freaked out by it and was yelling "it's going kill me," and was seriously scared.  I grabbed Caleb, trying to calm him down, wrapped him in a towel and  took him to his room.  Meanwhile, Malachi was happily stomping in the black, fizzy, sludge.  I grabbed him and washed him off and took him to his room as well.  Now, the chemical reaction of all these color tablets was so strong, that there was a horrible, chemical smell in the bathroom, and it made your tongue feel fuzzy and weird, so no one would help me clean it up.  So I grabbed a bunch of paper towels and tried to breathe and shallowly as possible, and cleaned up the mess, before it died everything colors.  The toilet seat got a little stained, but I was able to get everything else clean.

So, we had quite a few storms, I guess that is normal Kansas spring weather.  We spent some time getting our emergency kits ready, and due to tornado warnings, some time in our storm room (Joseph's under the stairs room).  Caleb was pretty upset and worried about these storms, and the loud thunder and lightning. We had over a week with pretty much every single afternoon evening was filled with severe storm/flooding/and tornado watches and warnings.  We had several different times, tornadoes touched down and were heading towards us.  We would head to our storm room, and Caleb would pray almost constantly, and as we would watch on the radar, the worst of the storm would move around us, like we were in a bubble.  It was very faith promoting for Caleb, and he saw this as a direct answer to his prayers. We had plenty of hail, thunder, lightening, and rain, but the closest a tornado got to our house was when one touched down over a lake about 5 minutes from our house.  On the night Austin and Betsy went to Worlds of Fun, and were coming home on the buses, they had to stop and seek shelter in a local high school because the storms were so bad.  It was a little scary, but Betsy said she and her friend read scriptures and felt better.   They were safe, and finally made it home by 11pm.
 
Travis was in a rollover accident over in Jordan, on his way home from a trip to the dead sea with some soldiers.  I guess the driver swerved to avoid a pot hole and over corrected and they flipped several times.  Everyone had a few bumps and scrapes, and a few people needed stitches, but mostly everyone was okay.  Travis lost his phone in the crash as well, so it's been harder to stay in contact, although lately, he has been borrowing someone's phone to facetime with us, which has been nice.  We are very grateful that everyone is okay, and hope that Travis doesn't get into any trouble, as the commander in charge of the trip and vehicle.  (he didn't do anything wrong, so he shouldn't).

Caleb had his first T-ball game!  He was so cute and funny.  First off, he is so small that the batting helmet is huge on him, and covers most of his head and face.  When he got up to bat, he hit the ball off of the T, and everyone yelled for him to run.



Malachi thinks he is so smart! He is always trying to get me to make him a honey sandwich, but I always tell him that he has to have a peanut butter and honey sandwich to make it healthier. He asked for a peanut butter and honey sandwich for lunch today, and as I'm making it, he grabs a stool and climbs onto the counter next to me, and whispers "don't put any peanut butter on it." I told him then it would be a honey sandwich, and he needs to have peanut butter. He said "no, I want a peanut butter and honey sandwich, just with no peanut butter." He was so cute about it, I compromised and gave him a tiny bit of peanut butter, and a lot of honey. He was so happy, he gave me a hug and kiss and happily jumped down from the counter with his sandwich, pulled the sandwich apart and ate the piece of bread with honey on it. what am I going to do with this kid.....
Favorite quote of the day. Joseph said "Mom! I'm going to get a job this summer a G-O-B, job!!! I started laughing so hard