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

Looking for what was lost, and I don't like it when my baby is sick

Only two major things to report.
1.  We couldn't find Travis' official passport, and spent almost a week looking for it.
2.  Malachi got sick with croup, so very sad.

On Monday of last week, Travis called me from work to tell me he needed his official passport.  I had no idea where it was, I have him keep his important stuff for work, and I keep mine and the kids important documents in with my files.  Apparently right before we moved, Travis said he put his passport on top of my files, so I would put it with the rest of the passports.  I spent all Monday tearing apart the house and going through my files, I couldn't find it anywhere.  I told Travis it must be in with his work stuff at his office, since he hadn't unpacked his boxes there yet.  I kept looking for it throughout the week, but could not find it, finally on Friday, Travis and I went on a "date" to his office and worked on going through all his boxes there, but it wasn't there either.  So, Saturday we both spent the day looking for it more at home, finally Travis found it in a small pocket of a suitcase in the garage.  Whew!  So relieved he finally found it, he would have been in big trouble at work if he had lost that.

So both Austin and Betsy started getting sick with colds last week, and Malachi got sick starting Friday.  Unfortunately, Malachi's turned into Croup.  Travis also started feeling sick Saturday/Sunday as well.  Poor little Malachi just kept getting worse and worse, he was not sleeping at night, and Travis and I (mostly me) would be up with Malachi all night, since he was struggling so much to breathe, and he had the croup cough (sounds like a barking seal).  Travis, Austin, Betsy, and Malachi stayed home from church on Sunday, but by the time we got home from church, we decided it was time to take Malachi to the hospital, is was lethargic, and struggling to breath, and feverish for too long.  So, Travis and I took Malachi to the hospital while the other kids stayed home.  The ER wasn't busy, and they got us right back, and after checking his lungs, quickly got him back for a breathing treatment and steroid shot.  They waited a while to see if those would work, and when he was still struggling, they gave him another breathing treatment with different medicine.  He was finally starting to breath a little easier, but still not well enough, and they ended up giving him another breathing treatment.  The wanted to keep him overnight, but after seeing him happily using the hospital bed as a slide, and starting to climb all over things, they decided we could just continue giving him breathing treatments at home with our nebulizer and steroids and home to help him with his breathing.
So even though we had a four day weekend, due to labor day, and Travis had the days off work, we didn't do anything fun, just looked for his lost passport, and took care of sick Malachi.  Malachi's breathing is much better, he still has a bad cold and fevers, so hopefully he will get all the way better soon.  I'm getting tired of just staying at home all day.