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

Spring Break, Easter, April Fools, Grandma visiting, cub scouts, new beginnings

Gdeon loves his new blanket so much!!

Malachi loves to eat ice cream!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Love to wear green on St. Patrick's Day

Samuel loves his Gideon

Caleb got a little carried away with the purple sidewalk chalk

Austin and Betsy at New Beginnings (Austin was a scarecrow)

Samuel at his pine wood derby

Such a sweet, sleeping babe

Caleb loves hunting for Easter Eggs

Malachi loves it too

Samuel found a really big egg

Malachi was cold at the soccer practice and was wearing my sweater to stay warm

Gideon loves to read scriptures with us

Gideon dressed in his Sunday best, spitting bubbles

Travis at Petra

Love his cute little tongue sticking out grins 

Travis with his assistant at Petra

Austin holding Gideon

Gideon was looking for his Daddy on my phone, he was a little disappointed when he couldn't see him

Caleb/s freckles are coming out

 Gideon is laughing at Austin

Cute baby Gideon

I can't get enough of this cute little face!

It was a little chilly during soccer games

Caleb's soccer team

I straightened Austin's hair, she also had a friend over.

Gideon stole Austin's pizza, so she stole his hat!

So much has happened the past month, it's hard to remember everything.  Gideon was being fussy one day, then a package arrived from Travis kirkman's penpal and in it was this super soft quilt she had knitted for him with prayers and love. We wrapped him in the quilt and he immediately stopped fussing, sighed and went straight to sleep.  My soldier's angel, who has sent us stuff for Christmas, and every holiday since, also sent my a box containing 14 packages, for me to open one a day.  It was so much fun to have a present to open each day.  The kids took turns picking out a package for me to open, and would usually open the present for me.  Austin loves that I get all these gifts, because if it is something like jewelry or scarves or something that I won't use, she usually gets it and loves it.  Even though everything has been so crazy and overwhelming every day, I feel so many blessing every day, and know that I'm being strengthened by my Heavenly Father, and I have angels all around me helping me.  Lately I've been feeling very frustrated about the lack of being able to do good things that I desire to do, but when I was listening to the Women's broadcast, Sister Esplin said "Sisters, some of you listening may feel stretched to capacity ministering to the needs of family members. Remember, in those routine and often mundane tasks, you are “in the service of your God.”1 

I felt like God was talking directly to me and my situation.  I feel so completely overwhelmed with just the daily tasks of taking care of my family, I don't feel like I am helping others around me enough, or am reaching my potential.  This helped me realized that I am doing the service God wants me to do right now, and that for me, right now this is most important.  So now, when I have to tell other people "no" when they ask for help, I don't feel so guilty about it, and I know that there will be a time I can help others more, just not right now.
We had spring break starting the 14th.  We tried to get a lot of cleaning done, and have some fun too.  I was a little frustrated with how little we were able to get cleaned.  I wanted to deep clean every room in the house and get kids switched into different rooms, so I could move Malachi into his own room.  But, even though we didn't get everything done, I was able to get Samuel, Joseph, and the girl's room (we got Betsy moved in) deep cleaned in the downstairs.  We started work on the kitchen, but never completely finished.  We went to sonic one night for dinner, they have an outside playground and volleyball court to play on, so we ordered dinner outside and played in the sand and playground area.  As we were finishing up, several other chaplain families showed up and we had a great time talking with them, and the kids played well together, we ended up staying two hours!  Another time we made an outside chalk board game on our driveway, and had fun playing with that.  We went on several walks to the park and even though I tried making it a no t.v. week, that only lasted until Friday.  We played lots of board and card games though, and had some fun.  After spring break week, my Mom was able to come that Sunday, and stay until Thursday.  I loved having my Mom here, she helps me in so many ways.  She pruned all my bushes, and helped Austin plant her Salmon berry plants she got her for her birthday.  Austin and Betsy had new beginnings, which was fun.  Betsy got to go, because she will go into YWs this year, when she turns 12 in August.  Austin and the other young women put on a little play with a wizard of oz theme, and Austin was the scarecrow.  After Grandma left, Samuel had his pine wood derby in Manhattan, he had a great time, and even though his car didn't do that well, he still enjoyed it.  For April fools this year, we didn't do too much, but I did make a german pancake and put it in a pizza box for dinner, for an april fools joke for the kids.  Joseph wasn't too happy about it since he loves pizza, but hates german pancake.  We started soccer, and Caleb and Samuel have been having two soccer practices a week, and a game every Saturday.  Caleb also ended up with a double ear infection due to allergies, and woke up two nights in a row screaming about being in pain.  He is taking daily allergy medication for the rest of spring.  Austin and I learned not to have pillow fights with Joseph anymore, as he injured both of us during a pillow fight (actually he was using couch cushions)  He accidentally hit me in the temple with his fist, while trying to hit me with the couch cushion.  And he hit Austin over the head with one, and she fell to the ground, and ended up with terrible headaches for two days.  Caleb and Malachi each had falls getting big bumps on their heads too, Malachi fell off the swing in the backyard, and Caleb tripped in the kitchen, hitting his head on the corner of the wall.

I feel like I live in a circus. Joseph didn't come home after school like he was supposed to, and called my right when I was getting dinner on the table.  I asked the girls if they could watch Malachi and Caleb, while I picked up Joe, but they said "no" since they had already watched them while I went to the grocery store.  So, I put all three little boys into the car.  Since it was dinner time, they kept complaining about how hungry they were, and I had some leftover easter chocolates in the car that Austin had made, so I gave them each one of those to eat on the way.  When we got to the library, Joseph was supposed to be waiting outside for me, but he wasn't.  We waited outside for a few minutes, during which I had to give the boys the rest of the chocolates to keep them happy, and they got chocolate all over themselves.  Joseph still hadn't come out, so I parked the car, and got all three little boys out of the car (two who were covered in chocolate) and went in to get Joseph.  I tried telling the boys to stay with me and quietly look for Joseph, but as soon as we got inside they ran over to some giant animal displays (that said "do not climb") and started climbing on them.  I quickly got them off the animals and they started running around again.  I spotted Joseph, and had him help me round them up, and we headed for the door.  Right as we got to the door, both little boys bolted for the car, running across the parking lot.  I sent Joseph after them, since it is really hard to run after them with the baby, and I figured he be faster, but they got to the car before Joseph.  Luckily no cars were coming, but it still made my heart race.  Anyway we got home and during dinner, Malachi spilled his milk, while cleaning it up I accidentally knocked over Joseph's milk, to get out of the way he jumped up knocking over his chair. At one point, I was wiping up milk with one hand, holding the baby with the other hand, wiping up milk with a towel with my foot, and then standing on that one foot and using my other foot to shut the door that the wind had blown open.

Malachi ate my contacts!!!! I hadn't put my contacts in yet one day, when Malachi came running in the kitchen and said, while giggling, "I ate your contacts." I said "what?" (thinking I just misheard him) he took me by the hand and pulled me into my bathroom and pointed and said again "I ate your contacts." The lids were still on my case, so I thought he was just confused. But, sure enough, when I opened up the case, both contacts and the liquid was missing, I looked at Malachi and he said, "Malachi, where are my contacts?" He pointed to his mouth, and said "I drank them." Seriously!! He opened up my case, drank my contacts, and then put both the lids back on, and put my case back right where I had them. I was telling Travis about this, and complaining about how expensive they are, and he said to just watch for them to come out the other end, and then wash them off, and keep using them.That is totally gross, and I'm definitely not doing that!  Anyway five minutes later, I discovered Malachi brushing his butt with my electric toothbrush.  Luckily I have extra toothbrush heads, and could just replace the head.  The next day I caught Malachi drinking my contacts again, and managed to stop him before he ate the second one.  I am now locking up my contacts and toothbrush in my closet.                    

I am blessed to have such a sweet 5 year old boy. Caleb rinsed off the dishes, while Betsy was at school (climbed on top of the sink and with one foot on each side of the sink, squatted down and scrubbed all the dishes in the sink, climbed down, and then said "man, that was hard work, but it was worth it because I love Betsy, and it will make her happy that I have done her job for her"). He also made my bed, and said he made it extra flat, because he loves me so much, he wouldn't want me to have a lumpy bed. He also hugged Malachi when he fell and bumped his nose, kissed it better, and brought him a pillow and a blanket. He helped me make pretzel bites and then separated them into piles for all the kids, so that everyone would get some, and gave me the biggest one, and said that I deserved the biggest one, because I am the best! We were in the car, and Caleb told me how much he loves the whole earth, and how much he loves all the colors, and how he wants to thank God for the earth and the colors, so I tell him to pray, and he says the sweetest little prayer, and the whole car fills with the spirit, and I feel it so strong, I am crying.  Such a sweet, sweet, boy.  These are just a few examples of his thoughtfulness and kindness. I am so grateful I get to be his Mother!
So I have been having a lot of trouble with my varicose veins lately, they have become quite painful, causing me constant pain, so I went to my Dr. and she referred my to a vascular surgeon in Wichita, KS (I'm not looking forward to the two hour drive).  I have an appointment for May 17th, to see if surgery will help.  In the meantime my Dr. gave me a prescription for some compression socks, to try and help until I can get surgery.  So I took Caleb, Malachi, and Gideon to the hospital to pick them up.  Malachi decided he had to bring his big red truck and had to push it on the ground the whole time.  When we got into the hospital he pushed his big, red truck right up to the front desk, and stood on top of it, to say hello to the ladies there.  His little eyes barely looked over the counter, and the ladies thought he was quite adorable.  They directed us to the brace shop, where I could pick up my compression socks and we made our way through the hospital, with Malachi noisily pushing his big red truck the whole way.  When we got to the brace shop, I realized the prescription I had in my pocket was missing, and I knew it was in my pocket in the elevator, so we rushed back to find it, and someone found it in the elevator and was coming to turn it in to the brace shop so we lucked out, and I took it back.  The gentleman at the brace shop helped me get my compression socks quite quickly, I believe my little boys were too noisy for him.  Anyway, we made it back to the car, with Malachi pushing his truck and saying hello to people the whole way.  We drove to Manhattan, and went to the Varsity Donut shop for a Chaplain spouse meeting.  We didn't get to park very close, and they were busy streets.  So, I held Gideon, while Caleb and Malachi held hands, and Caleb held onto my jacket while we walked to the donut shop.  The donut shop had this huge wall that was covered in chalkboard paint, and they had little buckets of sidewalk chalk to use to color on the wall.  After the boys ate their donuts, they had great fun coloring all over this wall.  They kept running back and forth all along the wall, and ended up getting covered in chalk dust from head to toe.  There was a nice, black man who took quite an interest in my three cute little boys, and kept asking Malachi and Caleb for high fives.  They gave this man high fives and every time they did they would leave their little chalk handprint on this man's hand (it showed up really nicely on his brown skin).  Anyway, Caleb kept rubbing his face and eyes, and was getting chalk dust in his eyes, so he went to the bathroom to wash it off, and only ended up making it worse, so I decided it was time to leave, especially since I wasn't able to pay attention to the meeting I was supposed to be at, because I was too busy chasing my little boys around.  So I said it was time to go, and Malachi took off running out of the shop, with Caleb right on his heels.  I quickly grabbed our things, and said goodbye as I ran after the boys.  I caught them before they ran into the street and had them grab my jacket while they held hands again, and we made it back to the car.  I fed the baby, and then we went to a grocery store called Aldis, after I cleaned the boys off as best as I could with wet wipes.  I carried Gideon, with Malachi in the shopping cart, and Caleb helping me grab all the things we wanted from the grocery store, filling our cart to the max.  We checked out, but the lady couldn't fit everything back into our cart, so she filled up two carts.  They didn't have anyone available to help me, so Caleb pushed one cart in front of me, and I held Gideon and pulled the other shopping cart behind me, while stopping and steering Caleb's shopping cart with my foot.  We looked like quite the spectacle, but we managed to make it out to the car without any crashes.  Caleb and Malachi each sat in a cart and threw groceries into the back of the car, while I quickly grabbed the things that I didn't want squished.  We drove home, and the boys helped me take everything inside, and then I gave them both baths.  Whew!  That was quite the morning.  
So three weeks ago, April 4th, we started Joseph on Concerta (ADHD medication) he really needed some help focusing at school, so we have been trying this.  The first week Joseph had trouble sleeping at night, and was constantly hungry, (I had to send a bag full of snacks with him each day).  The second week, he started needing to sleep all the time, he missed three days of school, and only made it to seminary once (20 minutes late).  He slept almost the entire weekend, only waking a few times to eat.  The third week, he started the week out okay, but by Wednesday was having serious trouble waking him up, and starting Thursday he missed school and was sleeping most of the time again, and slept most of the weekend again.  I've taken him to the Dr. twice and taken him off his meds.  They took his blood and ran some tests and everything came back normal.  If he doesn't start acting normal again soon, they will refer him to a neurologist.  They can't figure out whats wrong with him, his medication was a stimulant, and shouldn't cause him to sleep, plus he hasn't had any since Wednesday.  In the past two weeks he's missed 4 days of school, and church.  Last week we managed to plant a small garden, and some blueberry plants, and get the watering system set up for the backyard.