Fall

Austin had a wonderful Orchestra Concert, she did a great job

Gideon loved playing in the corn at the fall festival

Malachi thought it was awesome too!

Gideon thought the hay was lots of fun too

Why is there hay stuck to my foot?

Betsy playing with her little brothers in the hay

Austin straightened her hair!

Color Run!  or walk, if your Samuel.  I guess he got tired at the end

Go Caleb!

Make sidewalk chalk art, is one of Caleb's favorite things to do

Caleb wrote "I should love one another"

Spiderman is doing the limbo

Having fun video chatting with Daddy!

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?

Samuel liked showing off all his ninja moves

Malachi is a cute little olaf

This is Caleb's art project he made for his school, it shows him going trick or treating!  He worked hard on this, and did awesome!

First snow!

uh oh, Joseph caught me taking pictures

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Gideon makes an adorable Gorilla

Gideon kept asking for more and more blankets

Austin and her friend Kaitlynn on her last day before she moved

Betsy helping Gideon skate!  He was a great skater

Gideon loves doughnuts so much, he has to have one for each hand, and one in his mouth

Gideon thought it was so funny, to come and sit on my head!

This is one of the cakes Betsy made for her presentation on baking at school

My little Samuel is 11 years old!

Chalk art at the doughnut shop!  AAAARRRGG

My little Caleb chef, helping to bake pies for Thanksgiving

Samuel had to run off all that Jello he ate for Thanksgiving

Gideon liked Thanksgiving dinner

Austin left a random note for us to find after she used all the wrapping paper

As usual things have been busy around here.  I loved attending General Conference and Chaplain Conference in Utah, and felt spiritually renewed and able to press forward.  I returned home, grateful to my parents for taking good care of my home and children.  They had to leave early the next morning to go back home to close on their home they were selling.  The little boys welcomed me home by waking me up at all hours of the night and being clinging to me, since they were upset that I had left them for a few days.  Gideon and Malachi also had lots of pooping accidents or playing in the toilet.  I got to jump right back into the chaos of things!  But my sweet little boys, gave me lots of hugs, cuddles, kisses, and smiles to make up for there not so fun things.  I can't remember if I mentioned it or not in my last post, but I broke my right ring finger on August 12th.  I was standing on a bucket to reach something on top of the fridge, and the bucket tipped and I fell backwards.   I managed to catch myself but hit my finger on the corner of the counter on my way down.  I was so mad, because I hate it when I hurt myself, it makes things so much harder to do.  Travis and I spent the evening in the ER, getting it x-rayed and splinted.  It was our date night!  Malachi asked me if I learned my lesson.  I told him I did, and that I would never climb on a bucket to reach for things again.  I'm always telling the kids not to do that, so I guess I need to be better at listening to myself.  Anyway It was very painful to do anything with my right hand for a while, and changing diapers was one of my most difficult tasks, that usually ended with me in tears.  But, It slowly started healing, but unfortunately after four weeks, my bone had not healed correctly, and the fracture left a tiny piece of bone sticking out of my joint like a thorn.  I went to occupational therapy for my finger for the next three weeks, which was painful, but I was able to gain most of the mobility back in my finger.  Now 3 1/2 months later I still can't make a closed fist, and can't grab or grip things properly with my right hand, and there is still some pain and stiffness as well, but I can do most things without any trouble, and my piano playing seems to be going fine again as well.  We've had lots of adventures as usual at our house.  It got really cold around Halloween and we even had snow on Halloween.  It was so different from last year, when it was almost 80 degrees when we went trick or treating.  We went to two trunk or treats and went trick or treating.  At the branch trunk or treat we had a chili cook off, and I won the best chili award, and got a gift certificate to Cracker Barrel for $25.  The kids loved trick or treating but it was really cold, so they only lasted about an hour, so they didn't get as much candy as they usually do, but I was okay with that.  I started a solo spouse potluck dinner group that meets at the church each friday to have dinner together while husbands are gone.  That has been fun, and I have enjoyed it!  I have also gone to my self reliance finance class every Thursday night, and also a resiliency class on Friday nights (it's for 6 weeks).  I have really enjoyed these classes, and the spirit I have felt there.  I took Austin to a naturopath in Kansas City on October 24th, to have a bio meridian test done.  It is the same thing that help me overcome all of my headache and stomach problems about 6 years ago.  We found some supplements and vitamins that should help her to start feel better.  We found that she is also supposed to avoid dairy, gluten, rice, and soy.  She isn't doing very good at that, but has been getting a little better with the vitamins and supplements.  The boys love fall, and going to the parks and playing in the leaves, they have so much fun!  We've had some pretty warm weather the last week or two, and they have loved playing outside a lot.  We just had Thanksgiving which was nice.  We went to the church to have our Thanksgiving feast with about 30 other people.  We made five different pies, rolls, green bean casserole, jello, wassail, zucchini stuffing.  There was a lot of food there, and it was really good.  We had fun, and Austin and Joseph even got into a little whip cream war with another teenage boy.  Gideon and Malachi have been driving me nuts lately with all of their mess making and fighting with each other.  But, they are both very sweet and cute as well, so I can never stay mad at them for long.  November has been a good month full of Thanksgiving, I have been able to find many things I am grateful for each day, and even though every day is hard, I feel very blessed.

Summer!

Betsy got to hold's a friend's baby we saw at the Discovery Center in Manhattan

Samuel climbed up the statue at the park

Poor little black-eyed baby, why did he have to climb on the table, and then fall off

Gideon wants to help sweep

Gideon loves his Samuel

Austin at the hospital (it turns out her appendix was fine)

Gideon loves this spot on the couch

Gideon tries to cuddle Austin and help her feel better

Sad baby, doesn't feel good.  Ate something plastic and had a hard time digesting it, thankfully it all came out on it's own

Me and my little boys

why, oh why, do they love climbing the furniture so much!

Gideon loves being swung in the blanket

Caleb loves building things

Waiting for Austin to get her MRI done

building cars with boxes

What do you want to be when you grow up?  "Smiling at you" (Malachi)

Austin's choir concert

Malachi loves picking strawberries, and trying to find the biggest one

Date night at Texas Roadhouse

feeling the tornado

Malachi "I love this watermelon" Gideon (mmmm...yummy table)

brotherly love

yummy noodles

Austin made this for her teachers the last day of school!

8th grade graduation, 

Joseph at my piano recital

All of my piano students, they did great!

I love the joy on his face when he sees the legos!

peek a boo

i see you

Gideon found a flower picking buddy

touching tree branches on the swings

Gideon sleeping you is the best

Gideon likes the car we helped Austin make for drive in movie night

no tv for the summer, so the kids just sit up there

Happy Birthday to me!

"mom, can I have some of your acid popcorn?"

WHat?  Gideon and I were hungry

Gideon absolutely loved playing pool with Daddy at the Hardy Reunion in St. George

Malachi loves his cousin Lincoln

hiking was so much fun with cousins

Gideon got a little tired of hiking

Austin finally got some Salmon berries

I love this little guy!

milking cows at the children's museum

haha!!  just woke up

I love his little curl

another owie, this time from tripping and falling into a wooden chair

Austin helped Caleb build this

Daddy and Gideon love the zoo

look! he fits!

Daddy handing Gideon a tennis ball in the car, makes him happy once again

This is how I babysit!

It's my french bread

cute little birthday boy

He carried his teddy bear the entire hike!

Konza Prarie Hike

Taking girl scout cookies to Daddy and his soldiers

Betsy got a Harry Potter mug for her birthday!

Malachi dressed himself!

Malachi put on his own underwear, oh wait, those are Joseph's

perks of homeschool, taking a nap between classes.

Happy early birthday Daddy!

Goodbye Daddy!

Goodbye dear husband

I cut my own hair

apple days wore him out

I love General Conference!

Getting to go to conference with my sister in law is the best!

Oh my, I don't really know where to start.  These pictures are from the end of school all the way through Oct. 1st.  So many things have happened in this time.  The kids finished up the school year, we had 2 family reunions, and lots of fun activities throughout the summer.  Austin started having horrible cronic pain in her side and even had an exciting ambulance ride to the hospital because we thought it was her appendix.  She also still continues to have terrible migranes, and is still seeing Dr.s for that, but all the tests come back normal, and she reacts badly to any medication.  Betsy got to spend some time in the hospital while we were in Utah as well, for some health issues, but is doing much better.  Gideon got two black eyes over the summer.  Austin was devastated when her salmon berries she planted last year, turned into raspberries.  But, luckily we found some at the grocery store in St. George at the Hardy reunion.  A few things I remember are:
-Gideon got into the peach gummies and was super happy that he had them, and was especially happy to share them with Austin, who was not feeling well.  He even ran back into the other room and grabbed the whole package and ran in and excitedly threw it to Austin.  I love how happy it made him to make Austin happy
-Joseph got a job working at Papa Johns, and missed all our reunions, he stayed home by himself for most of the two weeks we were gone.  Travis flew home mid way and checked on him since he had to come back to do a memorial for one of his soldiers.
-Joseph passed all of his classes, except for one credit recovery class, so he got to start learning and practicing driving.  He only got pulled over once, he didn't see the red truck next to him and almost ran into him.  Luckily the police officer gave him a verbal warning.  I've aged considerably since trying to teach Joseph to drive our 12 passenger van.
-We had a lot of fun at the children's museum in St. George, UT.  Gideon loved the chicken eggs and milking the cow!  At the splash park Samuel scraped his chest up, but the little ones loved running through the water.  Malachi loved throwing his hat in the water, and chasing it as it flowed down the "river"
-Malachi fell off the ladder on the bunk bed at the house in St. George, and the ladder fell on him and hurt his legs.  They go pretty beat up, but he is okay.
-I had to go to the dentist in st. George and get antibiotics for an abscessed tooth.
-Betsy liked playing with her cousin hazel and going tot eh cool swimming pool near the house in St. George
-I liked walking a few blocks to the Harmon's grocery store with Austin and Betsy and getting gelato, so yummy.  We also found Salmon berries for Austin, and she loved them.  We also got to go to an amazing outdoor theatre in St. George, and saw the "Newsies"  So amazing!
-After the Hardy reunion, we went to Salt lake city, and stayed for another week, and saw Travis' sister in Tooele.  We went to several Children's museums!  The kids love them.  In Tooele we went to a small train museum, and Caleb got stung by a bee, but the kids loved chasing a bunny around and had fun.  We went to a splash pad in SLC, and Malachi got covered in sand, then the sand got in his eyes, so I had to grab him and hold him under the water to get it all off, we both got soaked.  The only extra clothes I had for him were Gideon's, so he got to wear those the rest of the day.  We met all of Maia's family at the walmart afterwards, and they were having car trouble, so we all piled into the van, for a short ride over to their van, where thankfully they were able to get it started.  Then afterwards we got Gelato!
-We went to Thanksgiving point, but I had to take Betsy to the hospital, but Travis and the kids had a great time playing there all day, until Betsy and I came back to pick them up, just before closing. 
-Joseph, Austin, Betsy, and Samuel all got to go to a YMCA camp and had a great time.
-Austin, and Betsy got to go to YW camp and enjoyed it as well.
-School started up again, and all the kids went back to school. I'm still keeping Joseph and Caleb home, so they keep me busy.  Malachi loves going to preschool for a couple hours, 4 days a week. 
-Travis Deployed September 21st.  When Malachi, Gideon, Caleb and I dropped him off, we were driving home and Malachi and Gideon wouldn't stop pinching each other.  They were not listening, and it was driving me crazy, so I told Malachi that if he wouldn't stop, that I would have to pull the truck over and spank his bottom.  He said "but mommy, if you do that, it will hurt my spirit!"  Immediately all my frustration and stress melted away.  I told Malachi he was right, and that I wouldn't spank him.  I asked him to help me teach Gideon to be soft, and the rest of the ride home went much smoother.  I am grateful for the angels that were with us and were able to speak through Malachi.