Kitchen Remodel begins and Caleb's birthday

The Kitchen before the remodel (notice that there is no dishwasher)

Malachi discovered his toes are the best toys

The kitchen as we are tearing apart the walls

Caleb's birthday cake (I didn't make it)(no oven)

Caleb got more cars

Caleb loves his scooter from his Grandma and Grandpa Hardy

Playing at the park on Caleb's birthday

more tearing apart the kitchen

We finally got the last of the cabinets out

So the last couple of weeks have been really busy.  Travis has been doing about 2 funerals a week, plus a retreat every weekend.  The first weekend we went with him to the retreat, it was a couple's retreat in downtown Colorado Springs, at the Antler's Hilton hotel.  It is a very nice hotel, and we had a great weekend.  The kids loved swimming in the pool every chance they got, and we got to eat out every meal, and the kids were in childcare playing with Travis taught the retreat.  I  also helped him with some games, and took Joseph to a scouting event.  On Saturday night (the last night of the retreat) we put the kids to bed (they were all in one room, while Travis, the baby and I were in the other) and Joseph turned on the T.V. and the kids watched T.V. for hours.  So when we went to church the kids were cranky and exhausted.  Some of the kids slept through sacrament meeting and some slept through their sunday school classes, and the rest fell asleep when we got home from church.  The next weekend was Valentine's Day weekend, but at the beginning of the week Caleb got sick, and I spent on night, up all night with him, he ended up having an ear infection (the first one he has ever had).  I took him to the dr. and got him on antibiotics the next morning.  I wasn't feeling well either, but a lot of it was probably due to lack of sleep.  By the weekend we were feeling a little better, and Travis got us two rooms at Glen Erie (the place where he was having the next retreat, but wasn't an overnight one).  It was a nice Valentine's present from my sweetheart.  The kids made it not so fun, by fighting a lot and being really difficult to get to sleep, plus the beds were uncomfortable so no one slept well.  But the area was beautiful, and the food was good.  We spent the rest of the day at Travis' retreat.  This last week we had Caleb's birthday on the 17th.  He is 3 years old now, and is 25lb with his coat and boots on.  Caleb really wanted to have a party, so we had his friend Liam's family come over, and had cake and ice cream with them.  Caleb loved getting new cars, and a scooter from Grandma and Grandpa Hardy.  He takes his scooter everywhere, and rides it all over the house when it is too cold outside.  I didn't make his cake this year, since I currently don't have a stove.  I have two piano students whose mother is a professional cake maker, and I traded her services this month, I teach her daughters piano lessons, and she makes birthday cakes for Caleb and Austin this month.  Caleb got some birthday money from his Grandma Kathy, so I took him to the store and he picked out a small trampoline, and has been having fun jumping on it.  Every Monday night for FHE we have been tearing apart our kitchen getting it ready to be remodeled.  The kids love it, they are great at tearing everything apart, and even cleaning up after it too.  We have been eating in the wet bar area downstairs, cooking with the crockpot, microwave, toaster oven and griddle.  It's been a bit of a change, but it's not too bad.  The most annoying part is everything is over carpet, so it is a pain to clean.  This weekend Travis's retreat was on friday at IT'Z, the kids had school, but we let them skip it, so they could come with us.  We were there all day.  Everyone had a great time, spending the day playing games, watching movies, and eating.  Travis taught the first half of the day, and then had to go do a funeral so we just played until he got back, and then played some more until bedtime.  I beat both Joseph and Samuel at the rock climbing.  Yesterday was our temple day, we have been trying to go to the temple since Travis got back from Kuwait, but the move was crazy busy, and then the temple was closed, and then Travis had the retreats every weekend, so we were happy to finally make it to the temple.  Travis and I took turns going to an endowment sessions at the temple, and we went to lunch at Cafe Rio in between sessions.  We each took the kids to a park while the other was in a session.  I had fun chasing the kids around the park, and definitely got my workout in.  Yesterday while at the park, I told the kids I had to change Malachi and then we would go exploring, Samuel starts crying hysterically and yelling "no, no, no!!! You can't change Malachi!" He is trying to grab Malachi, and I'm so confused, I asked Sam what he is talking about and he said (well sobbed) "Don't change Malachi, I love him so much, I love him just the way he is, don't change him!" I laughed and told Sam "It's okay Sam, I'm just changing his diaper, he pooped." Samuel immediately let go of Malachi and said "oh! That's okay, just don't ever change him, I like him just the way he is." After I changed Malachi's diaper, we started going down a trail, after we had walked about a half an hour, I saw a sign saying the trail we were on was an 8 mile loop, so I told the kids we better turn around, and go back.  We were about halfway back when Caleb sat on the ground and said "my feet hurt, and can't move anymore" so I gave Malachi to Austin and carried Caleb the rest of the way, while the girls took turns holding Malachi.  We finally made it back to the car, and most of the kids slept all the way home.  So after today at church, I now have 4 callings in the ward.  I am currently the primary pianist, a cub scout den leader, and next week start my callings of ward organist and choir pianist.  These callings will definitely keep me busy.  Last Thursday I had to take all of the kids with me to scouts, since Travis had a stake meeting.  Of course the older kids were in their activities, and I just had to keep the 3 little boys with me.  Samuel loved it, since he got to participate even though he isn't eight until November.  Also this Sunday, Travis was teaching gospel doctrine(his calling) during the 3rd hour (they switched it around, just for today, due to the temple president speaking to us during the 2nd hour) So I had to hold the baby on my lap while playing the piano in primary.  It worked out okay though.  We had a good FHE tonight about keeping the sabbath day holy, the kids actually listened well (except for Sam).  I love my husband and children.  Even though they drive me nuts sometimes, they bring me so much joy! 

Joseph Pneumonia

Caleb's finger almost all the way better

Caleb woke up this morning and told me "I'm a grumpy boy".  At least he was honest, and yes he has been very grumpy today.  Maybe it was because he woke me up four times last night, because he was hungry.  I guess it was my own fault, we had an early dinner, and Caleb was asleep during it, and I got busy and forgot to feed him his own dinner.  We are getting ready to remodel the kitchen, and started taking everything out of the kitchen and downstairs to the little kitchen.  Yesterday, Travis took Joseph to the emergency room, because he still has not gotten any better, just worse.  So he has pneumonia, and has been on antibiotics for two days now, and still feeling pretty sick.  Hopefully he will start to feel better soon, he has already missed two weeks of church, and over a week of school.  Yesterday he was laying around in a nice fuzzy blanket all day, and at the end of the day, came over to give me a hug, and when he leaned in close to me, his ear shocked my ear...man did that hurt, poor Joseph thought that was so funny, he ended up in quite the coughing fit. We've been having a lot of snow and cold weather lately.  Austin and Caleb were sledding in the backyard today, and Austin slipped and fell down and started sliding down the hill, Caleb said "Oh NO!! My best friend Austin, I'm coming"  It was so cute.  I love having a hill in the backyard for the kids to sled on.  Caleb wakes up every morning and looks out the window to see if there is enough snow to go on the roller coaster "I pull him around on the sled".

Joseph sick and potty training Caleb

Sweet little Malachi getting tummy time.

Caleb running in the snow

Caleb enjoying a moment of fresh air and snow

Caleb sledding in our backyard

Caleb is not a baby anymore, I put this together for Malachi, and Caleb wanted to use it.  He discovered that he really isn't a baby anymore.

The fireplace in my bedroom.

Our roaring fire in our living room

Samuel (the owie is from his fall on the treadmill)

Our backyard, covered in snow

Caleb saying "I don't know" when asked how long it is going to take his hand to heal.

So the past month, has been busy and just full of regular life.  Caleb's hand is finally mostly better, it took a month, but he doesn't need to wear a bandage anymore, and uses his hand pretty normally again.  I have also been potty training Caleb, and he does pretty well at it, we are still working on it, and some days are better than others.  He can make it to the bathroom all by himself, but hasn't figured out how to pull his underwear and pants back up when he is done, so he runs around the house half naked, until I put his underwear back on for him.  It is a little embarrassing when I have piano students over.  Joseph has been sick for the past 3 weeks, and I finally took him to the dr. on monday, he said he has bronchitis, and is constipated, (they x-rayed his stomach).  The dr. gave him three different medicines to take, but he is not getting better.  He has missed school all this week.  I'm thinking of taking him back in to the dr.  Joseph did feel good enough last weekend to go Paintballing with Travis.  They had a good time, until Travis shot Joseph in the head.  He came home with a big goose egg, on his forehead.  After that, the instructor guy joined Joseph's team, and Travis ended up with a few bruises himself.  We discovered that our bathroom bathtub drain (the one towards the top of the bathtub) is leaking straight down to the kitchen.  So we had to rip out the sheet rock, in part of the kitchen, and we still need to get the drain fixed, but as long as no one fills the bathtub very full, it can still be used.  We are still working on the planning of our kitchen remodel, and the contractor we are working with, says work will probably get started the end of feb. or beginning or march.  Austin and Betsy have been doing choir at the elementary school two mornings a week, and Austin, Betsy, and Samuel have gymnastics once a week after school.  I am also teaching 4 piano students, so I am enjoying that once again.  Caleb loves the snow, he calls it a roller coaster, and loves to go out and have me pull him around in the sled.  I was called to be Betsy's primary teacher at church, so I have been busy with that too.  Travis and I went on a date last Friday, and went out to dinner.  We had Malachi with us, and he was really cute.  We layed him on the floor on his blanket, and dropped a cloth napkin over him, and he would get so excited and play with the napkin, it was a lot of fun.

Moving,Christmas, and accidents (lots of them)

Travis and the kids coming down the stairs Christmas morning

Caleb giving his new panda a hug

Caleb is excited for his new race track

Joseph opening his boots

Joseph got new boots

Austin and her new scarf from Daddy from Kuwait

Samuel showing me his hex bugs

Austin's new dress

Caleb got a Camel from daddy from Kuwait

Austin got some barbies

Caleb got some hex bugs

Betsy got some books

Betsy got a new scooter

Malachi and his camel getting to know one another

Malachi loves his camel from daddy

Our Christmas "tree" normally our shoe tree, but we turned it into our  Christmas tree Christmas Eve

Caeleb fell asleep on our bathroom floor of our old house while moving out

Caleb fell asleep on the stairs of our new house while moving in

Caleb fell asleep in the emergency room while waiting to be seen by the dr.

Caleb's hurt finger

So much has happened the past two weeks, it has been crazy.  We have been working like crazy from the time we wake up, until the time we go to bed.  On Tuesday the 17th, I got a deep tissue massage from a massage therapist in my ward, and it really messed up my neck.  I have been in constant pain for the past couple of weeks from it, can barely move my neck, and have had to take tylenol just to sleep, finally these last few days it has gotten a little better.  Travis started painting the new house on the 17th, and was gone every day until friday painting, and friday we packed like crazy. We closed on our new house Dec. 19th, and I set up all the utilities and we borrowed a truck and a trailer from two different friends.  We started packing stuff up and moving a little bit that weekend, with the truck and trailer, but rented a real moving truck on Monday the 23rd, and moved almost everything that day.  We had the missionaries and a father and son from our ward, helping us load the truck.  It was a crazy work day, and at one point Caleb climbing up on top of a desk that was on top of another desk, and then when he wiggled, the desk and him fell off and Caleb got a nice goose egg and cut on the side of his head.  I was just happy that he didn't need any stitches and calmed down after a few minutes, once I let him take off the ice pack.  We didn't have anyone to help us unload, so Travis and Joseph unloaded almost everything themselves, finally Travis had to ask our neighbor to help, because Joseph couldn't lift some of the heavier items.  We slept in our new house monday night.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I had some kind of allergic reaction to something, and had puffy, splotchy skin, and itchy.  I had to keep taking allergy medicine, but it finally went away.  Christmas Eve, we unpacked, and then in the evening we decorated our shoe "tree" to be our christmas tree, and set up our stockings and a few decorations in the living room.  We put the kids to bed and wrapped presents for the next couple of hours, and then dropped off to bed exhausted.  Christmas morning we opened presents and let the kids play for a couple hours.  My favorite part was Caleb coming downstairs to see our shoe tree turned into the christmas tree, he just stared at it for a couple of minutes trying to figure it out (he had fallen asleep before we decorated it).  Then he was all excited that it was a christmas tree, he was so enthusiastic about everything and was so happy.  Malachi also loved the camel he got from his daddy, he was so cute just looking at it, smiling at it, and trying to eat it.  After lunch we had to go over to the old house and clean the rest of the day, I did leave early and make a nice christmas dinner for the kids and Travis when they got home.  The day after Christmas we had the carpets cleaned in our old house, and then worked more on cleaning the rest of the house.  Friday we worked all morning too, but I did take a break and go to the chiropracter, since my neck was bothering me so much.  We cleared housing at 1pm, and they made us pay to have the carpets cleaned again, because the first company didn't get all the stains out.  We bought a treadmill from our old neighbors and put it in our basement, and Saturday morning, I was working on cleaning up after breakfast, the kids were all downstairs.  I heard Caleb screaming, and Travis ran upstairs with him, and brought him to me in the kitchen.  Apparently Austin had been running on the treadmill, and Caleb was watching the t.v. and leaned over onto the treadmill, and somehow got his hand stuck, and Austin immedietly pulled the emergency cord out, and Travis brought him to me.  I sprayed it with a pain reliving spray, and bandaged his hand.  I didn't get a good look at it, it just looked bloody.  Once I calmed Caleb down a little, I also gave him tylenol.  He was in pain, but I was able to distract him, and keep him occupied most of the day and took care of him.  Caleb started calling me dr. mom all day.  Travis took the older four kids in the truck and trailer to pick up some things he had found on freecycle and to IT'Z as a reward for working hard.  But, apparently the truck we had borrowed had the wrong size ball for the trailer, so when Travis turned a corner, the trailer overturned and bumped the truck a little, and messed up the tire on the trailer.  After the got everything fixed they kept going, and I started having a bad feeling, so I called Travis and told him to come home.  Caleb started complaining more about the pain in his hand, and it looked like his bandage needed to be changed, so I started trying to change it, but he got real upset, and when I looked at it, it looked really bad, and I thought I could see his bone.  Caleb asked me to pretty please take him to the hospital so they could fix it.. So I called Travis and told him to get home quick, because I needed to take him in to the hospital to have it checked out by a dr.   Once Travis got home, I took the girls and Malachi with me.  (the girls to help me with Malachi, while I took care of caleb).  We were in the ER for about 4 hours.  They x-rayed his hand to make sure nothing broke, when his hand got stuck in the treadmill. They also said it wasn't his bone that I was seeing, and that it was a pretty good sized abrasion, but to just keep it bandaged and keep an eye on it, and make sure it was healing properly.  They said it should take about three weeks.  So we have been changing his bandages daily, and it looks like it is slowly getting a little better.  He isn't taking tylenol for the pain anymore so we're hoping he will continue to get better.  We have been still working unpacking, organizing and cleaning every day.  We went to wal-mart on new year's eve, we had a big list of things to buy for the house, and grocery items.  We were also having our friends the Croaks over for dinner and games, so we were picking up some things for that.  Joseph stayed home, but we had everyone else with us.  Caleb kept running away and hiding in the aisles, so it was frustrating trying to shop with him, and we kept having to run and find him.  We were almost done with our shopping trip, and had two full carts, and Samuel was pushing one cart, and Betsy was holding on the side of it, when somehow her foot got stuck, and the full car tipped and fell on top of her, pinning her underneath.  I was walking in front of them with the other cart, and turned when I heard the commotion (Travis was looking for something and missed the whole thing).  I was holding the baby, the another lady and samuel helped me lift the shopping cart off of her.  Betsy was crying, and a whole crowd of people had gathered around, to see what happened.  Caleb started running off again, so I sent Austin after him, and tried to comfort Betsy.  After a few minutes she calmed down and said she was okay, her leg hurt, but she could put weight on it.  A manager came over and talked to us about the incident, and then Travis finally made his way back to us, and found out what happened.  We quickly finished up our shopping, and checked out.  Malachi was getting pretty hungry, so I told Travis I would take Betsy, Caleb, and Malachi out to the car.  He had parked by the tire exit, so we walked back through the store, and tried to go out that exit, but it was locked, so next we walked to lawn and garden exit but that was locked, so we walked back to the front of the store and went out that exit, then walked around to store and over to where we parked.  We arrived at the car, just before Travis got there, and made it home a half an hour late, and Joseph let our guests in when they arrived, and entertained them by having them watch him play video games until we got home.  Betsy's has some pretty good bruises on her leg, but she is doing fine, other than a bad cough she has developed.  So we went to bed by 10pm  New Year's Eve, sleep is too important right now, to give any up.  New Year's day, I had put Malachi in his bouncy seat on the table and was getting ready to make some muffins for breakfast.  Austin took him out and was holding him, and she said she could put him back, but I told her she could hold him if she wanted, I just wanted her to ask before she took him next time.  I opened the pantrry door and was pulling out ingredients (the door blocked where I could see the baby's seat) when I heard a thud, and the baby started to cry.  I quickly moved the door and saw Malachi face down on the hard floor just below where his seat was on the table.  Austin had put the baby back in his seat, but didn't buckle him in, so he had wiggled and fallen from the table to the hard floor.  I quickly picked him up and tried to calm him down.  He was pale, and was having a hard time crying, and wasn't being consoled.  I took him upstairs and was crying, becuase I was scared and got Travis out of the shower and told him what happened.  He quickly dressed and gave Malachi a priesthood blessing, then I took him to the emergency room.  He fell asleep on the way there, and when we checked in, he seemed much better, he had color in his cheeks again, and even gave the nurse a little smile, and started cooing at him.  By the time we saw the dr.  he was acting pretty normal again.  The dr. said everything looked good, and just to watch him closely the next 24 hours.  Malachi was a little more sensitive then usual, but other than that is good.  He must have had angels to catch him.  Austin was very distraught about both Caleb's and Malachi's injuries, and we've had to reassure her a lot, but everyone seems to be recovering nicely from all there injuries, and we feel very blessed.  We finally went to IT'Z today since the kids never got to go on Saturday, and had a good time, it felt good to get out of the house and have some fun.  Wow!  This post seems to have turned into a novel.  Anyway we are hoping for some less eventful times for the rest of this year.