Finally an Update!!

I am so behind on blogging! I'm finally taking time to update on what we've been up to. First we had to say goodbye to our good friends the Campbell's. They are moving on to the real life from students. The last week they were here we had them over for dinner and some spudnuts. We've had a great time getting to know them this last year. They moved the weekend of Father's Day and we went back home. It was so weird to come home and not have them here. Nikki and I have been walking together this last year and spent sometime together nearly every week day. Last Monday when I told the boys to get their shoes so we could go for a walk, Malcolm asked if Maddie and Sadie were coming. When I explained that they had moved and weren't coming back, Malcolm was really sad saying that he didn't have friends anymore. I reassured him that there were plenty of other kids to be friends with. So funny! I miss you Nikki!!!!
We went home for Father's Day. I only took 7 pictures...are you kidding me!?! I guess I just felt busy the whole time with Winston. We had a fun, but very busy weekend. There's always a lot of family to visit and not enough time to fit it all in.
On Saturday afternoon, my family went to the Aquatic Center for a couple of hours. It was a little windy which made it a little cold. Matt and Milo took the babies to test there feet out in the water.
They didn't cry so I guess it was a success. They were so cute together! Next time will have to venture out more. Matt didn't want me to take my camera in, so Mel took the pictures for me! Thanks Mel, they are too cute!
Hmmm...I wonder if I could do that dive?
At Mom's, Winston tried out Emma's walker. He loved it. I didn't realize it was already time to pull out the saucer. So when we got home I took it out of storage. He loves it. He plays with all the toys and jumps up and down. How can he already be so old!!
He's also started sleeping on his side. Almost every time I check on him, he's sleeping on his side. It's so cute!
This last weekend we were suppose to go camping with the Campbell's and Poteet's. I was really excited to go, especially since we aren't camping for our family reunion this year. It was also going to be a great last goodbye to the Campbell's. At the last minute we decided to skip out since gas prices are so high. It would cost a bundle just to drive up and back. Sorry we ditched out you guys. We miss you all!!

We decided to have a laid back weekend instead. I started cleaning my house on Friday night and finished on Saturday. I was thinking it would be fun to go swimming Saturday afternoon. Go figure, it started drizzling raining. We took the drive to Boyer Park on the Snake river and see what it was all about. It will be fun to go swimming and possibly camping sometime. Quinn was looking so cute in his little hat turned sideways. What a handsome boy!!
Sunday morning I decided to try testing some pictures with the white background. I tried some with all the boys, but none of them turned out. Next time I will definitely need to set my white balance. All of them had blue cast to them. I did get this really cute picture of Winston...he's doing a little sleeping eye action in them.
Right before these pictures, Winston rolled over for the first time from his back to stomach! Yay!! He's doing it several times a day. What a big boy!! I guess we need to work on sitting now.
After church we decided to take a drive out to the little town of Palouse. It's an old town with some old buildings, so we thought we could find some great places to take pictures. I took way to many pictures, and not enough that I like. Frustrating for me sometimes!! Will I ever get a picture I like of all the boys together.
Apparently Matt didn't know he was looking in the wrong direction!
Matt really liked this picture so I thought I would post it. Such an awesome colored, textured wall with wild flowers growing on the side.
Matt of course took over the camera for a while too. The boys were attacking me.
He got this cute picture of Malcolm. Matt's the more artistic on in the family! I keep telling him he needs to learn photography. He would be really good at it!!
Another Matt took. He really likes cars...but an old car...even better!
We found this awesome spot with old brick, grass and this bench. The only problem is that it's about a 12 ft gap between two brick buildings, so there ended up being a red tint to all my pictures. Matt told the boys to be the Hulk. I love Malcolm's face. I have about 6 pictures all with it.
Another attempt with the boys. Winston was starting to protest by this time wanting to eat. Quinn just can't sit still for longer then 5 seconds. Them Malcolm gives me the unnatural smile all the time.
So in between these two building is a flag pole. Around the flag pole is a small spot of dirt with 3 flowers, 2 red and a yellow. Malcolm came over to me with the yellow one. Thanks Malcolm, but we don't pick flowers that somebody planted. So sweet and thoughtful, but I felt guilty carrying it around.
Mom, this looks like your old bike. We should pull it out and restore it for you to ride. I can just hear the music of the witch in the Wizard Of Oz!! Hehe!
So I realized if I posted under Matt's google account, I have twice the amount of free picture storage. It works!! Yay!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

(Tyler with Quinn coming down the big slide)

Today is my brother Tyler's birthday. He came up last summer and we really enjoyed spending some time with him. Malcolm still talks about his Uncle Tyler. Just random stuff. It's amazing how much they remember!! A couple pictures from last summer.(Most of my brothers...Tyler is on the very left.)

The boys wanted to send a message to you, so here you are!! WE LOVE YOU and MISS YOU!!

Sledding In June

I humored the boys and took them out for a bit. It was really wet snow, so we only stayed out for 20-30 minutes. The pictures are a little underexposed...but I didn't have much time to play with the settings since I didn't want a wet camera!
They were really loving the sledding!
Malcolm kept trying to tip them over in the end. I even went down with them a few times. My pants were very wet in the end!
The cold boys, the picture is a bit blurry...but some cute boys! Notice how very wet there clothes are. We came in and had some hot chocolate, and the boys wanted to watch "Polar Express". A true winter day...in summer!
Luckily it has now stopped snowing and is now melting off. It's suppose to be up to 75^ by Friday...I guess we'll see!

Today's Forcast for June 10th...

...Snow!!



When I told Malcolm to look out the window this morning, he said "Christmas!!". Then Quinn came in and Malcolm said "Look Quinn, snow!", Quinn then said, "See Uncle Claus", meaning Santa Claus. Now the boys are wanting to go out sledding. Swimming in June, who needs that when you can sled!!

Last Weekend

So I thought I would finally post about last weekend. Matt's Mom and Grandpa were flying into Spokane from California and asked us if we wanted to meet up with them. We decided to go early and take the boys to Riverfront Square. So we picked up some food from Dicks and ate it at the park. The boys had fun riding the Carousel with me and seeing the other rides. They were sad we didn't let them ride those. They have a really big water fountain that you can run under and play in. Malcolm really wanted to play in it, but by that time we were needing to get to the airport. Sometime we would love to spend a day there taking the boys all around.

Some fine piece of art...the one on the right that is!!
The boys thought the radio flyer was a lot of fun. Who can resist a giant red wagon!!
This is Little Grandpa. He's always playing his ukulele and singing. I love to listen to him. He's great at it.
The boys loved seeing him. Malcolm kept talking about his Great Grandfather. We don't know why he started calling him that, we never told him that.

Bragging Rights

So I meant for this post to be short and sweet with me bragging about Matt...well it's ended up being a long story. At least I've got it all written down for years to come I guess.

So I've been wanting to post about this for a while, actually started it a week ago.

To graduate Matt had to have a year of foreign language requirement. Well he had heard from a friend that he might be able to use, test out type thing, for the language he already knows. (For those of you who don't know, Matt served his mission in the Marshall islands, actually called the Micronesia-Guam mission. It was supposedly an English speaking mission. Once Matt got to the mission he soon found out that most islands had their own language. He served the majority of his mission on the island Majuro where they speak Marshallese. He taught himself the the language during that time. How awesome is that!?!) So he talked with his counselor who suggested that he should write a letter of petition about what language he knew and possibly a paper in that language and send it to the dept of foreign language in order to get credit for his Marshallese.

(Matt's Mission...that's a whole lot of area to cover!! But not much land...)

So he did all this and about a month later he gets a reply that they won't except it, since they can't be sure how well he actually knows the language. He was pretty disappointed that he couldn't use it. So he called the dean of his dept, and he said to contact the dept of foreign language. He was told that if he could find a professor from another school that could test him on his Marshallese, then they could accept it.

Meanwhile Matt still had to meet that requirement to graduate (he was still able to walk), so he signed up for an American sign language to take this summer. (Awesome, I was so jealous!!)

Well Matt googled "Professor of Marshallese" and came up with a Dr. Bender who is a Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii. He doesn't actually teach Marshallese, but lived there and with the help of some colleagues has written some dictionaries and such for the Marshallese language. (Matt happens to own some of them.)

Matt contacted him and eventually, after Matt wrote him a short paragraph in Marshallese, decides he can try and help him. The day of graduation he emails Matt wanting him to call his colleague, Alfred, that is a native of Majuro, and was leaving Hawaii to go back Majuro in a couple of days. That night Matt locks himself in our bedroom, he was really nervous and wouldn't let me listen, and he has a 5-10 minute talk in Marshallese with Alfred.

(Marshall Islands flag)

In the 7 years I have known Matt, I have only heard him say a few sentences in Marshallese. Matt does not like to show off/be the center of attention. I'm not sure of all the reasoning of why when people ask him to speak it, he really tries to avoid speaking it. So as Matt was on the phone, I sat outside the door listening to him. It was so awesome to hear him speak in his language...it's an awesome language. So Alfred is impressed by how well Matt speaks! Matt was really pumped about being able to speak Marshallese again. It was so cute.

(Wow this is way more then I was planning on sharing/typing!)

Lastly Dr. Bender says that he would now just like Matt to write him a 4 page paper in Marshallese about his experience there. Matt wrote it and hoped it would all work out. Meanwhile his had been taking his sign language class anyways.

A sentence in Marshallese that Matt initially sent to Dr. Bender:

Yokwe kia inaj kwalok jidik kon ao jela kajin majol. (Hello now I will show a little about what I know in Marshallese.)

So a few things Dr. Bender wrote to Dr. Gonzalez, with the dept of foreign language here at WSU:
"I am happy to be able to report to you that Mr. Hardy's command of the Marshallese language clearly exceeds that which could be expected as the result of having studied the language at a college or university for two semesters and having received a grade of B or better." and "He and I concur that Matt clearly exceeds the one-year requirement, even without taking into consideration the fact that it is almost 10 years since he was using the language on a daily basis."

Dr. Bender also attached a letter Alfred had written to him. He's a few things he said:

"Frankly, I was impressed by Matt Hardy’s written Marshallese when I looked at the copy of the composition he sent you. The composition also led me to conclude that Matt did acquire a good command of the language while he was on Majuro. I don’t think the average student could learn that much Marshallese in two years time."

Then Dr. Gonzalez wrote an email back stating: "We will consider Mr. Hardy to have passed his foreign language requirement."

I actually read Matt's emails before he got home and couldn't wait for him to see them. I am so very proud of my husband!! He totally amazes me at how smart he is, and how much he retains!! Way to take control of the situation Matt and find a way to use Marshallese as your foreign language!!

Matt took a summer semester of ASL, but since he met his requirement didn't take the second semester. I was hoping he could come home everyday and teach me what he had learned, but since it was a 2 1/2 hour class everyday...he surpassed me on the first day. (I only know the alphabet!) There was no way I could catch up that fast!!


I found a few pictures of Majuro from some guys blog. Beautiful!!
Matt's says there is tons of garbage there...goes to show I guess! Not all just a paradise!

My First Monthly Special!!

So my awesome sister in law Melanie sent me an email about this blog called Take Out Photo. He's doing "monthly special" photo challenges. His first was to build this grid. I was really excited to try it, but hadn't found the time to play. Today I finally turned on my computer and did three. That's how easy it was.

The first one I did while I was holding and nursing Winston. (Must be easy!) I decided to try black and white and color. What do you all think? Would it look better in just black and white, or just color?I also wanted to try just one picture. I think this looks cool, but would be better if the subject was centered down one row only. So what do you think?
Since I did one of the other two boys...why not do Quinn too. I wanted to see how it would look doing a close up of one picture. I think it's kinda cool, but should probably fill the frame more.
Just a quick fun thing. Plus, as you can read on the blog, Costco prints 12x12 pictures, so I can print them then frame them...fun huh!?! You all should try it too!

Annoying!!

So I was doing my last post on Winston uploading pictures when I get a message saying that I've reached my Picasa Web Album limit! What!?! So apparently we are limited to the amount of photo space and if you want to succeed that you have to pay so much per year. If you delete any pictures, then they are deleted from your blog. But then I'm looking through the albums, and there's some duplicate pictures. Why? I don't know! But then who's to say if I delete one of them, it won't be on my blog anymore? Has anyone else had this problem or know anything about Picasa to know how I'm suppose to know which duplicate is on the blog so I don't delete it? UGH!! I'm mad a blogger!!!

I should clarify a little. When you upload your pictures just like you've always done, blogger now puts them into a picasa album. They recently changed it to do this. Why I don't know? They must be trying to make money for picasa!! The limit is 1GB, but my pictures are so big, I guess it filled it up fast. It's only $20 for 10 GB...but still really annoying. Matt also made a good point of when I publish my blog into a book, we could just delete the pictures...but when will that happen!

Just a random picture from this weekend which I'll post later about later when I can delete some pictures from my albums!!

Four Months

Today my baby is four months old. How can that be!?! Everyday I look at him and think how big he is looking. I love to see them grow and get a personality and hit milestones, but at the same time it sure is sad for me. I really love the newborn stage! Winston is such a happy and content baby. His brothers adore him and can't get enough of him. They think it is so fun to make him smile and always want to hear him laugh. We love you little Winston! You bring such a sweet spirit to this family.

~At our WIC appointment today he weighed in at 14 lb. 14 oz. I don't always trust what they say, so we'll see when he goes in for his well baby check up with our Doctor next week.

~He's always smiling. He is such a happy baby. I can walk in the room and look his way and he will just start grinning. He smiles very easily.

~He's always chewing on his hands, which in turn makes him drool a lot.

~He loves his bath. He's learned how to kick the water, especially with his right foot.

~He still loves his swing. He now will grab his toys and hold on to them. So cute!

~He loves to talk. He's very loud too. He know he's competing for attention!

~He's ticklish. Whenever I try taking off his shirt, he starts giggling just because I'm barely touching him.

~He loved his binkie...until I recently took it away. I know I'm a mean Mom, but he wouldn't go to sleep if he spit it out. So one day I just let him cry it out once, and now he only whimpers before going to sleep. I don't know how to do the binkie thing!

~His June 12, 2008 doctors appointment he weighed 14.8 lbs. 40-41%, height 26 in. 80%, and head circ. 17 in. 67%.

So here are some pictures I took of him yesterday. I'm not really happy with them. There are a few cute ones, but nothing that "wow" me! I wish I would have had more time today to take some more creative ones, but I just didn't find it.