Daddy made it home once again!

Gideon loves his stuffed animals from Dad.  Well really they were supposed to be for everyone, but Gideon claimed them.

Bigfoot sighting?  Nope, Just Joseph going to take out the trash in his barefeet.  

Malachi looked so cute in his hat and scarf, and then was bringing me a treasure in a box too, so I couldn't resist taking a picture of this cutie.  

Malachi wanted pretty hair!

boys are missing their Dad

Some friends borrowed Travis' truck while their vehicle was being fixed.  Another car ran a stop sign and his the truck.  It ended up being totaled, even though it didn't look that bad to me.  It was kinda funny, because the guy who hit the truck is another Chaplain who knows Travis.  It will save us from having to sell the truck, but is making it hard for us to get around after we ship our van.  We were counting on the truck being our transportation after we ship the van to Hawaii

These little boys love their Austin

The boys had a lot of fun playing in the box that the broom came in

We had a little fun decorating Samuel's face!

Everyone pile on Sam!

Gideon wanted to wear Caleb's coat!  

Betsy made a tree with the magnetics

Caleb made a whale with spikes!

Samuel built the tallest tower

All the kids with Elder Bischoff

Malachi loves Elder Bischoff!

This is where Joseph lives, every single day except Sunday, doing his "schoolwork" 

This pretty girl had a birthday.  15!  We ate dinner together at the Olive Garden

Au

The girls and I went to Locked, an escape room in Manhattan for her birthday.  It was a lot of fun, we had a blast figuring out clues and trying to escape the room, we were pretty close, but didn't escape.  

Austin loves her new guitar!

Austin is also excited about her new Mandolin

Austin loves her birthday cake!

This is Brett, Joseph's friend, who hangs out with us sometimes.  The kids love having him over

He is so sweet when he is sleeping

After his haircut

Before Joseph's haircut

Travis brought home a salt rock from the salt mines in Poland.  Malachi loves to lick it

Malachi loves brownies

Spring Break!  Having fun at Science City in Kansas City after Grandma and Grandpa Hardy flew in for a visit!

We made it to the top!

Gideon had a lot of fun

Betsy liked the wobbly chairs

Travis and I at a well in Old Nauvoo

Travis new the Joseph and Hyrum Smith statue in Carthage, Illinois

Travis and I in front of the Nauvoo, IL temple

Travis and I with the statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on their last ride together from Nauvoo to Carthage

Gideon has a hot pink tear drop on his face.

Gideon likes eating just the frosting

Does this bed look normal to you?

We were playing hide and go seek and Joseph decided he could fit under the bed.  I had myself a really good laugh watching him try to shove himself under the bed.  As you can see, he doesn't exactly fit very well.  

Gideon wanted to wear Caleb's pajamas.  

Easter Egg Roll Time!

Samuel Won!

So many things have happened the past three months  I think I'll put most of them in bullet points:

*On fast Sunday in January, Malachi really wanted to bear his testimony, and whispered to me what he would say, and it sounded good to me, so we went up to bear his testimony, but someone beat us up there, so we waited in the front row by the steps until he was done.  It was snowing that day, and some snow was blowing in through the door that led from the chapel to the outside, so Malachi kept crawling over there and eating the snow.  Then when it was his turn to bear his testimony, it was about how God loves us, so he gave us snow!
*About the middle of January to the middle of February we have influenza A and B hit our house.  We all got hit at least once with one of the viruses.  It was a pretty miserable month.  I ended up pulling a muscle in my chest from coughing so hard, and it took a long time to feel better.  A couple of us ended up going to the ER for it, but no hospital stays.
*Caleb turned 7 and Austin turned 15, neither of them got a party this year, but Austin had the missionaries over for her birthday dinner, and got a girls night out at "Locked"(an escape room in Manhattan).  I took Caleb out to dinner at Cracker Barrel for his birthday dinner, and he loved it.
*  At church one Sunday, Gideon shoved whole fig newton bars in his mouth, chewed them up, and then slowly dropped big chunks of it out of mouth and onto the floor, so it looked exactly like poop on the carpet.  It looked really gross, and was annoying to get out of the carpet with wet wipes
*The truck got totaled
*I left Gideon with Joseph for a couple hours during the day, while I had a meeting to go to, and he got super clingy to me after I got home.  He was apparently traumatized that I actually left him alone with Joseph.  I think Joseph just basically ignored him, so Gideon pretty much fended for himself.
*I was trying to take a shower and Gideon came in and stripped naked and pooped on the floor and played in it, when I got out, he hugged me covered in poop, and Malachi had pooped in toilet and needed help wiping, so I had put Gideon on the toilet, help Malachi wipe, and then clean Gideon up and me up, and then the bathroom.  Luckily it was all on hard surfaces so it could have been worse
*Gideon dumped bright blue paint all over the floor, and then ran through the hallway tracking it everywhere.  I scrubbed all day trying to get all the paint out.
*Gideon snuck a piece of ham on my chair when I was sitting down. After I got up and walked around for a few minutes, the boys started laughing like crazy.  The piece of ham was stuck to my butt.
*We've had the missionaries over about every week.  Malachi loves having them over, and drags me over to the missionary calendar each Sunday to sign up.  Some of the dinners have been pretty interesting.  One dinner Samuel got mad at Betsy and threw his cup of water at her, and soaking several other people in the process.  Another dinner, Gideon stuck a ton a lettuce in his mouth and chewed it into little bits, then proceeded to spit the little bits all over the table and us like a fountain.  There was only a couple of us left at the table at that point, but the elder sitting across from Gideon got covered pretty good, and his companion was laughing pretty heartily at him. Another dinner just as we were all sitting down to dinner, Gideon grabbed the cinnamon/sugar shaker and dumped it all over the Shepards Pie.    Another dinner Samuel covered his arms and face with jello and rice, and then started throwing it at people and across the room.  I have not made jello since.
*  I had a dentist appointment, and the numbing stuff they gave me didn't work right, and my left eye ended up completely numb, and wouldnt' blink.  I was so uncomfortable I ended up taping my eye shut and played pirates with the little boys while I waited for the numbness to wear off.
*Malachi put butter in the microwave and said "Alexa melt the butter" (Alexa is our voice enable speaker in the kitchen that we use to play music) he cracks me up.
*Travis really wanted to surprise me when he was coming home. He was coming home early since we are moving to Hawaii, and it takes a long time to get ready for an overseas move.  He told the girls when he was coming home, but not me.  I figured he was coming home soon, but I didn't know exactly when.  On March 9th we were going to family game night at the USO, and Austin had said she had a seminary scavenger hunt at the USO a little earlier then that.  It sounded a little suspicious to me, but we went to the USO, but it was closed, so we went to a park and let the little kids play for a while, then we went back to the USO for the game night.  We got there, and got our food and games and went to the conference room where they put our family.  We were having a good time eating and playing, when Travis came in the side door and surprised us.  Everyone was pretty happy to see him, I had just stuck a chip in my mouth when he walked in, and practically choked on my chip.  Betsy said my face turned all red, and she thought that the look on my face was priceless.  The little boys were hanging all over him, and everyone was happy he was home.  We finished our game night, then went home.
*Austin and I had planned a date night to go see a musical at her high school, so we got an extra ticket and Travis came with us.  It was a good play, but we were all pretty tired, so we left after intermission.  Travis was pretty jetlagged so he slept a lot for the next couple days.  He had traveled for over 50 hours to get home.
*I was leaving to take Samuel on a date, and Gideon crawled under the van and was hiding behind the wheel of the van.  Luckily Samuel and Brett (Joseph's friend) saw him.  Then Malachi saw us leaving and chased us all the way to the stop sign, with no shoes and only a T-shirt, crying and running as fast as he could.  (it was 30-45 mph winds and 30 degrees out).  I saw him and put him in the van and drove him back home, then took him into Austin to comfort him while I was gone with Samuel.  Samuel and I had a nice date eating Freddys and playing hand and foot, and then shopping at Walmart.  I am grateful for angels watching over my children.
*My parents came to visit for Spring Break and we had a fun day in Kansas City at Science City and Chick-Fil-A.  Travis and I were able to get away for 3 days and visit church history sites in Nauvoo, IL and Missouri. It was a wonderful trip, so nice to get away from the kids for a few days and enjoy each other's company, and feel the wonderful spirit present at the church historial sites.  It was really special to be in those places and hear and feel the testimonies of the pioneers and Joseph Smith.  The spirit was especially strong in Carthage jail, where Joseph and Hyram were martyered.  We also got to enjoy the temple, and spend a lot of time together.  Our last night we stayed at a B and B in Kansas City, that was really nice, it had a grand piano that we played a song on, and a wonderful fancy breakfast in the morning before we left.
*Gideon strips naked and either poops or pees on the carpet at least once a day.  It is very frustrating.  He also got into Austin's black charcoal face mask, and rubbed it into my carpet at the beginning on the first session of General Confernce.  Austin, Malachi, Caleb, and I spent the whole first session of conference scrubbing the carpet trying to clean it, and still couldn't get most of it out.
*Conference was very powerful and spiritual, We sustained a new prophet, President Russell M Nelson, and two new apostles.  President Nelson also announced new changes to Home and Visiting Teaching becoming Ministering, and YW could be companions.  They also talked a lot about developing our spiritual relationship with God, and relying on the Holy Ghost for personal revelation.
*Travis visiting his Dad over Conference weekend with Samuel, and they had a good time.  We had our Easter Egg roll on Monday after he got back, and Easter dinner, and Easter Egg hunt.
*Yesterday I rolled my ankle/foot and it is painful to put weight on it, but was still able to go to the adult session of stake conference and sing in the choir, and play for a men's quartet that Travis was in for the session.