Grandma Stevens visit, Kansas Trip, Joseph ER visit, Disneyland and I'm Pregnant!!

Caleb is enjoying the massage chair we got for Travis for Father's Day!

Malachi loves helping me in the kitchen, he is using my mixing bowl as a hat

At the Hardy family reunion, Austin and Betsy with Hazel and Bailey in the swimming pool

Malachi taking a bath in the kitchen sink with cousin lincoln

On the tram, headed for Disneyland

More Hardy Party people on theTram

Malachi fell asleep on Daddy waiting in the lines

On the ferris wheel

On the ferris wheel

Caleb riding the Carousel 

Malachi loved riding his fish on the Carousel

Grandpa and Caleb on the bumber cars

Samuel on the bumber cars

Grandpa, Grandma, Samuel and Caleb on the Caterpillar ride

Austin and Betsy in the Cars ride.  Unfortunatley Austin's hand is covering Betsy's face

I rode the car ride too!  It was my favorite ride

Daddy, Caleb, and Samuel riding the lady bug ride

Joseph loved being in the Ocean, even though it was cold, he couldn't get enough of it!

Cousin Shayden got buried

Malachi never even made it down to the beach, he loved the sand, he was swimming in it, and got so dirty!

Joseph had to get buried too

Malachi loves getting bathed in the kitchen sick, everytime we went near it, he would point to it, and say "bath"

Caleb found a flower to sit on

Getting to meet a fairy

Caleb loved getting to meet tinker bell

Caleb loved playing in the pumpkin he found

Austin, Betsy, me, Samuel, and Joseph going down splash mountain.  I love Joseph's superman pose!

Caleb spent his birthday money from Grandma Stevens to get this Mickey Mouse toy, he loved it!

Caleb and Malachi insisted I go on the Tea cups with them.  It made me feel sick, but I survived.

The kids loved finding the momma duck with her baby ducklings

They also liked finding these duck eggs

Finding the pirates treasure

In the USO at the airport just before flying home!

Travis lucked out, Malachi slept on him the whole way home on the airplane!

My goodness, so many events.  First things first.  Yes, I am pregnant again, so come this December 19th we will have seven kids!!!  Crazy, I know, but we love all of our amazing children.  So Travis was in the field the beginning of May, but was able to come home in time for his Mom, Grandma Stevens to come visit us.  It was really nice to have her visit, she watched the kids that weekend, while Travis and I went house hunting in Kansas.  It was so nice to be able to go without all of the kids.  It was like one really long date!  We saw a lot of houses that we liked, and some that we really didn't like, and had a good time exploring the area and checking out where Travis will work.  We even met up with the outgoing chaplain in his unit for lunch, and was able to get some good info.  Kansas ended up having their first tornado of the season while we were there, although it didn't actually touch down right where we were, we still got some crazy weather.  I learned that Kansas is always humid, windy, and full of bugs.  After we got back home, we had only two days to get ready for our Disneyland vacation.   I had a huge long list of things to do before we left.  Then, Monday morning I get a call from Joseph's school, saying he got something stuck in his eye and to come get him.  So grateful that Grandma Stevens was still here, I was able to go pick up Joseph and leave the kids home with her.  So I picked up Joseph and took him to the ER.  I guess he was fiddling with a pen in class, and a little piece of it broke and flew up into his eye, and it was hurting like crazy.  Unfortunately the ER was busy.  We waiting 2 1/2 hours just to be seen by the Dr., at least they numbed his eye and gave him an ice pack for the swelling shortly after arriving.  Once we finally got back to the treatment room, it still took forever for them to do each thing.  They rinsed his eye out several times, dyed it and looked at it with a special light, and couldn't find what was bothering Joseph's eye.  Finally, Joseph was able to tell them that it hurt right at the very top of his eye, and the Dr. was able to pull out the tiny plastic piece from his eye, that was causing so much trouble.  We ended up being there for 6 hours!  Thankfully, shortly after removing the offending piece of plastic, Joseph's eye was feeling much better.  I had a miserable time at the hospital, because I was so hungry, I had failed to bring food with me, and hadn't eaten anything but a muffin for breakfast.  I was feeling so sick, due to not eating.  They wouldn't allow me to leave and go get food, because Joseph is a minor, and they wouldn't bring in a tray of food, because it's not allowed in the ER rooms. So as soon as we left, I drove to the nearest fast food restaurant, (it was about 4:30) and bought food.  I normally don't like to eat fast food, but man it tasted so good, after feeling so sick and weak from not getting enough to eat.  In fact, it really messed me up and I felt really sick for the next couple days, my body was really mad at me.  Anyway, suffice it to say, the only thing I got done on my to do list, was to get us packed and leave for our trip to Disneyland.  I got a great deal on airfare, so we all flew to Disneyland in an airplane!  It has been a long time since we all flew on an airplane, I think the last time was 4 years ago.  Samuel didn't remember ever flying on a plane, so it was like his first time, and Caleb and Malachi thought it was pretty cool too.  We made it safely to California, although Malachi did throw about 3 different things at my head, he has a good arm!  So other than a headache we were all good.  We got our rental car, and headed to the rental house to meet up with the rest of the Hardy Party!  The best part of the whole trip was getting to see all the family and getting to spend time with them.  My parents rented a house, that fit all of us (amazing) and it had a pool in the backyard.  The kids and thier cousins loved hanging out at the pool.  We went to Disneyland the next day, the kids loved all the rides.  I mostly went around with Caleb and Malachi, while Travis took the older kids on rides.  Joseph went with his cousins for a while, but then went off on his own, but thankfully my Mom spotted him in a roller coaster ride, so we were able to find him again.  I learned that most of the rides made me sick, but especially if there was spinning or rocking.  I kept mentos in my purse, and those managed to help me make it through the day.  At lunchtime, some of us were eating together in bugland, and I took Austin, Betsy, Bailey, and Caleb on a ride.  Once we sat down in the ride, a worker came over to our little group and said that we needed to have someone over 14 with us in order to ride.  I informed him I was 33 years old, and the mother of the kids, and he apologized and let us ride.  I guess sitting in between all the tween girls I looked like one of them from a distance.  Everybody thought it was quite funny though, and Travis likes to tease me about it.  It was getting pretty crowded by later in the afternoon, and I was pretty tired, so we left and went back to the rental house.  On Friday we went to the beach.  The kids loved it.  Malachi and Caleb never even made it to the water, they loved playing in the sand so much.  The older kids played in the water some, but Joseph is the one who couldn't get enough of being in the Ocean.  When we went back to the rental house, the kids jumped right into the pool,they can't get enough of playing in the water.  Malachi was so covered in sand, it took several baths to get it all out.  Unfortunately there must have been mold in the house we were in, becuase every night, Caleb would get all congested and have terrible coughing fits, but during the day he would be fine when we were out and about.  We went to Disneyland on Saturday too, unfortunately it was extremly crowded and busy.  It took forever to get on any ride, and the streets were very crowded as well, it was hard to move around.  We got into some of the bigger rides by using fast passes, with only about 20-30 minute waits, but most rides took over an hour to get in.  The kids still enjoyed the rides, but it was a lot harder to wait in such long lines.  Once again we left in the afternoon, because I was just too tired.  The reunion ended Sunday morning and everybody left.  We went to church and checked into our hotel near Disneyland for the remainder of our trip.  Travis had to drop of our rental car before church, so we walked from the church to the hotel, it was about a mile, so not too bad, but we were all wearing our church shoes, so it made our feet hurt.  We relaxed the rest of the day.  Monday we walked around downtown disney and did our shopping, we even got Malachi is "daddy bear" he was the only one who didn't have one.  He got the "incredible hulk" bear as his "daddy bear" he loves that thing.  Tuesday we were hoping wouldn't be as busy at Disneyland, but it turns out it was Graduation Day, so there were tons of goups there for that, so it was still incredibly crowded. For lunch we walked across the street to Denny's and got lunch.  After lunch we were splitting up, I was taking the ones with me who were too tired to wait in lines anymore, and Travis was taking the older ones back in to finish getting on rides.  After we crossed the street, I looked around, and couldn't see Samuel anywhere, so I turned back to the street, where the light had already turned green for the 4 lanes of traffic that were speeding across the road, when I heard honking and the slamming of breaks, and there is Samuel running across the busy road with hands stretched out on both sides of him to try and stop traffic.  I think I almost had a heart attack watching cars slam on breaks, and trying to avoid hitting him.  Thankfully he made it all the way across, and ran straight into my arms, shaking like a leaf.  After calming him down, we had a nice long talk about what he should have done instead, but I'm just grateful that he was okay.  Anyway after that excitement I walked with the kids to the hotel, and Travis and the older kids stayed at Disneyland until after 10pm.  Wednesday we checked out and flew home.  Austin accidently left her purse in the hotel lobby, but thankfully when I called them, they found it , and mailed it back to our house.  We made it home about 8pm on Wednesday and Travis had to quickly pack for going out in the field, and left early the next morning.  

Malachi gets stitches and being frustrated

Waiting in the ER waiting room to get stitches

On the way home after getting 5 stitches

Malachi is happy about getting the chicken eggs

Caleb is one cool dude

Samuel at his bug concert

Malachi found a perch at the lodge we stayed in at the Chaplain Retreat

I haven't posted in a while, but my computer is not working, so I am currently using my kindle to post this, so I will have to go back and add pictures once my computer is fixed.  So about two weeks ago for some reason the computer started opening Windows media center no matter what you clicked on, it was so frustrating, no matter what i tried, the only thing that would open is Windows media center.  Finally we asked a guy in our ward to look at it, and so far he has been unable to find a virus or anything that is causing the problem, so he is still working on it.
Also about two weeks ago, Austin was downstairs with Malachi while I went to the bathroom, and she started screaming and yelling that Malachi was hurt.  She rushed him up to me, and his whole head was covered in blood, and both Malachi and Austin are crying.  I grabbed MalAchi and stuck his head under the sink to wash off enough blood so that I could see where the cut was, while Austin is telling me that he fell and hit his head on the corner of the fireplace.  I found his cut, right above his nose at the bottom of his forehead.  I grabbed a wet rag, and held it to Malachi's forehead to stop the bleeding,. Malachi is really fighting me, and I'm having a hard time stopping the bleeding, so I called Travis and told him I needed help, that Malachi was hurt.  After a few more minutes I finally got the bleeding to mostly stop, so I texted Travis and told him to meet me at the ER, and left Caleb home with Austin.  We made it to the hospital, and I got Malachi checked in.  He wasn't crying anymore now, unless I had to wipe blood off of his owie, which I frequently did because it kept bleeding.  Travis got there and we had to wait about an hour and a half to get seen by the Dr.  Malachi was climbing on the chairs, and running around, keeping Travis and I busy preventing him from bumping his owie.  Finally we got called to see the Dr., she determined Malachi would need several stitches and got everything ready.  They put Malachi in a straight jacket and cleaned, numbed, and put 5 stitches in to close up his cut.  Of course, Malachi was not happy during this process, but calmed down quickly afterward.  Travis went back to work, and I took Malachi back home, where he took a nice long nap.  Austin had cleaned up all the blood and taken good care of Caleb while I was gone,  she was very upset about Malachi getting hurt, and felt like it was her fault since she was watching him at the time he fell, but after talking to her for a while she felt better.  5 days later, I took Malachi to get his stitches out, and he fell asleep on the way there, and stayed asleep the whole time they took out his stitches, it was awesome.  His owie is still healing , but it looks like he will have a nice little scar there.
We went on a chaplain retreat the last weekend of April to buena vista, colorado.  It was nice, but Travis and I were both feeling under the weather, so it could have gone better.  But I didn't have to cook or clean the whole weekend, so that part was great.  This past week Travis was in and out of the field, so we didn't get to see him as much as we're used to.  And then he left this morning for two weeks in the field, and he can't use his cell phone, so I have no way of talking to him.
Thursday and Friday were a little frustrating.  Joseph informed me at 6:30 on Thursday that he had a big science project due the next morning, and he had to bake a cake that looked like the planet Uranus, including the four layers, Plus 27 moons.  We started baking cakes, and made frosting for one of the layers and went to bed.  We got up early the next morning, used Oreos for the core, then used cake for the next layer, frosting for the next layer, and halved marshmallows for the last layer.  He put that in the center of a large box we covered in foil, and then attached 27 moons using cotton balls.  It looked great, I forgot to take a picture, but I'm sure you can imagine how it looked, Travis drove him to school, only a little late.  Joseph has his neurofeedback appointment every Friday at 4pm, and it is about a 45 minute drive to get there.  Normally Joseph rides his bike or walks home, then we leave at 3:10 and pick up Betsy and Samuel a little early (their school  ends at 3:30) and drive to his appointment.  Well, since Travis drove him to school, and we were busy getting his project ready, I forgot to remind him to hurry home after school, when Joseph didn't arrive at home by 2:45 like he usually does, I hurriedly put Caleb and Malachi in the car and we drove to the school looking for Joseph the whole way, we didn't see him , so when we got to the school, I called and had them page Joseph to come out( he loves to stay for the after school program) he didn't come out after a few minutes, so I called and had them page him one more time, after waiting a total of 15 minutes, I figured we just missed seeing him walk home (he is notorious for finding short cuts) and drove home to see if he was there.  Right as I pulled into the driveway, I got a call from the school, it was Joseph asking me where I was.  I turned back around and drove back to the school and picked up Joseph.  By this time it is too late to pick up Samuel and Betsy early, so we wait in the car pool line and pick up Samuel and Betsy, by the time we get them, it is almost 3:40, so I hurry and get on the freeway heading toward the appointment, not long after getting on the freeway, we hit traffic, I texted Joseph's Dr. To let him know we will be late., he didn't respond, but he usually doesn't when he is in a session.  We finally arrived at the Dr. Office, Joseph was about 15 minutes late, and I sent Joseph in.  I was about to drive away, and take the kids to the park, when I realized Joseph was sitting in the waiting room, and hadn't gone in to the office.  I went inside and asked Joseph why he didn't go in, he said his door was shut and he was talking to someone.  I went with Joseph and he knocked on the door to let him know he was here, and the Dr.  Said that I cancelled all the appointments for May, I said I only cancelled the appointments after the 8th.  (I had sent him text message on Tuesday telling him that Joseph would be at his appointments the 1st and 8th, but then we would need to cancel the rest of may's appointments)  He said he misunderstood, and he had to get back to his client.  So we left, and while driving home got stuck in several major traffic jams, and didn't make it home until after 6pm!  We had been in the car for 3 hours, all for nothing, I was very frustrated.  I had agreed to take dinner to a family in our ward by 6pm, so I quickly heated up some leftovers and took them over, and then we stopped and got some food at a culvers since we were all starving.  Travis was still out in the field, but I texted him about how frustrated I was, and sent him a copy of the text I had sent to the Dr.  He said it was very clear, and that he would take care of it the "irish way"  and that Joseph would be able to get his appointment next week back.

We had our stake conference today and Betsy and Samuel got to sing in the stake primary choir, and sat up on the whole stand, they did awesome, and took pages of notes.  Travis and I also went to the adult session last night.  I played the organ and Travis lead the music for it.  They talked a lot about the importance of family councils, and keeping the Sabbath day holy, and preparing for the sacrament, it was a good meeting.