Holidays

Axe throwing at the hardy reunion in St. George, UTah

hiking with Gma and Gpa Hardy above their neighborhood in St. George

View on the Angles landing hike

Navajo bridge, a stop along our drive to st. george

making turkey cookies

the pool at Gma and Gpas house was a big hit

yummy lemon meringue cheesecake that sam helped to decorate

Caleb and his best friend cousin Hazel

Gideon found a random egg at a park near a bunch of rocks that was probably leftover from an easter egg hunt.  He was super excited about it

Gideon's birthday party at the park, this is his car pinata

boy cousins watching cartoons

Gideon singing with his kindergarten class for christmas

making rock nativities

my cooktop broke when a tupperware fell out of the cupboard near it.  So sad.  We were blessed with a miracle when a secret Santa left an envelope with $500, enough money to help pay to replace the cooktop

Going on a candy cane hunt

Ward Christmas party with the grinch

Watching song and dance through the nativity with the girls at the reunion

Malachi's class party

Joseph and Jessica in their hardy shirts

Gideon at his Christmas class party

Everything given to us by our secret Santa, including the tree and decor.  We are so blessed!!!

Caleb's rock nativity

having a balloon party in the minivan with all the leftover balloons from the party shoved into our van to save for Gideon's birthday

 Going to the St. George reunion was awesome.  Joseph finally got a job at Pizza Hut so he and Jessica werent' able to come, so the rest of us loaded up in the minivan and Travis drove us 18 hours straight to get to St. George in record time!  We only stopped for gas or bathroom breaks, and one stop on a cool navajo bridge.  We learned that gas stations don't have their bathrooms open in themiddle of the night, so some peeing on the side of the road happened a lot.  We made it and had an amazing time at the reunion, filled with love, laughter, hiking, devotionals, yummy food, concerts, amazing parks, music and axe throwing!  The best Thanksgiving ever!  I love my family, and Austin even took a shuttle down from college to join us.  The drive was certainly worth it.  I'm not sure how Travis does it, but he is a driving machine!  Travis deployed on December 3rd, and left for Europe for the next 9 months.  We still had a good Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Hardy coming to visit Christmas Eve, and Austin flying home from college.  Money has been really tight since we spent all our savings on places to stay while waiting to get into our house, so the kids were only going to get one gift for Christmas, and that was with money from Grandma and Grandpa.  We ended up having a secret Santa drop off a tree, decor, presents for everyone and an envelope of $500 cash that I ended up crying in gratitude when I saw it, because my cooktop had broken just a few days before and I didn't know how I was going to replace it.  We were able to do a few small secret Santa deliveries to a family in our ward and visit with a lonely sister.  We loved watching Christmas movies, playing games and checking out new parks when we had nice weather.  

Moving into our house

Building our Brainrich kids gym in the upstairs room.  It was supposed to be a Christmas present that I ordered a long time ago, and finally came.  But with Travis deploying, and not having any our household goods yet we decided to put it together early!

On the San Antonio Riverwalk, Joseph and Jessica

Caleb's school picture

Malachi's school picture

The climbing dome we built together has a swing!

Samuel turned 15

        Gideon built himself a little house with the box pieces that came with the massage chair    

Malachi on his field trip, to the inner space cavern

Watching the Dia De Los Muertes parade on the Riverwalk in San Antonio

Malachi before hair cut

Malachi after his hair cut

Samuel after haircut

Caleb after hair cut

Joseph and Jessica watching the parade with us

Gideon school picture

Gideon in our new massage chair that got delivered

Joseph swinging on the swing at the park with us

I found a Hawaiian Christmas tree at Lowes, and bought it for only $20

Travis at the Alamo

Travis speaking at our marriage retreat in San Antonio

Joseph's after hair cut

The movers finally came Nov 8th with our Household goods, the wait is finally over

putting together the climbing dome

Samuel before hair cut

Joseph before hair cut

Caleb before hair cut

Caleb as a robot and Samuel as a soccer ball, at our ward trunk or treat for Halloween

Gideon and I were at Caleb's soccer game, it was cold out, so he was helping to keep me warm. 
 We finally got to close on our house on October 8th, but unfortunately, our household goods shipment was still delayed so we moved into an empty home, with nothing but what we brought from Hawaii.  Luckily we had wonderful ward members who loaned us items, and we rented furniture from a furniture store to hold us over until we would get our stuff in another month.  I was able to find a free piano and start teaching piano lessons to a few students.  

So by this time, Joseph and Jessica were homeless in California.  In august they were kicked out and unable to pay for their rent, so they were homeless, Joseph tried to get a few jobs, but was only able to get a few temporary ones that didn't last long.  He also had to get his toe fixed (ingrown toenail again, which had been infected for a while), with no medical insurance.  Joseph and Jessica claimed to have learned from their mistakes and wanted to move back in with us since they had been homeless for several months, and couldn't find a way out of it on their own.  We flew them to texas and picked them up from the airport on our way to our marriage retreat that we were doing in San Antonio at the end of the month.  We had a fun weekend watching the parade on the riverwalk and seeing the alamo and having fun on our retreat.  Then Joseph and Jessica moved back in with us, while Joseph tries once again to prepare to ship out for the marines.