Last Week

I thought I would do a game of catch up before I had to post about Halloween.

The day Ben came home, was also my Grammie's birthday. So we were able to go to mom's and celebrate with some cake and ice cream. Grammie is one of the most wonderful grandma's around. I love her so very much. She always makes me feel like I'm such a special granddaughter. She is the most beautiful Grammie out there!! Mom thought she needed to celebrate with a witch's hat on.
The boys love playing soccer, and always want their soccer stud of an uncle, Jeff to play with them. So Matt and Jeff played a little game outside with them. Jeff's really getting into it here.
A little too into it, he'll stop at nothing to keep the ball. Even knocking down his own nephew! Haha
Okay, this picture makes it look like Jeff hurt Quinn.He didn't really knock him over. I think it was Malcolm who kicked him in the shin, and this was quite a few minutes later. He tried walking it off, but ended up sitting down crying. So cute!
Instead of going home for three short days and turning around to come back so I could go to "Phantom", I decided to stay in town. It was quite the last minute decision. The boys had pink eye, and I had a bad cold, so we weren't going to have much fun unpacking and repacking. I had a fun few days, but missed my hubby.

Saturday was my Mom's birthday. I'm so lucky to have her as a mother. She is such loving mom and Gramimi! I'm so thankful to live so close to her and to be able to spend so much time with her. I'm so grateful for the close relationship we have. She is truly one of my best friends. I love you mommy! Isn't she cute! (She hates me taking her picture, so I was getting after her for covering her face. I told her to work it!!!)
My little family went with Mom and Pop to Wenatchee during the day. Mom had her birthday dinner at costco...haha! It was a fun day. That night we had cake and ice cream with the rest of the family. Melanie printed out some pictures for my mom off of all our families blogs. The grandkids were having a great time looking at them with her. When she came to a picture of Emma, she started crying. Which then made me teary eyed. (I'm a sympathy crier!) It was just so sweet! She missed you Emma, Leisha and Richard!! We all do!!
Auntie Holli got a hold of my camera and was having fun playing with it. She got this oh so cute picture of Winston. He thinks he's so big pulling himself up on the side of the tub. Too big he is!Winston and Grayson were enjoying crawling and fighting over toys. Grayson is a lot more aggressive at this point and loved the toy that Winston had. It was so funny! They had fun pulling themselves up and enjoying eachothers space. Ryan and Stephanie asked me to take their engagement pictures. I was really nervous I would totally bomb them. It ended up being great! (I really said a prayer that I could do good, it worked!) They are so cute and in love. Stephanie is beautiful and so photogenic. I got a ton of cute shots. It was a beautiful day and the colors were so vibrant. I love fall. Here's one of the candid moments out of the 550 pictures I took! Seriously, it's a problem of mine, I need to learn to cut back!

Happy Birthday Beautiful!

Well today is the day my beautiful wife was born. What a blessing it is to have her. Shaila is a great Mother, wife, and person. She has a special spirit which touches all those she comes in contact with. There are so many reasons I love and adore her. The greatest reason is how much she loves me. She treats me like I am somebody special everyday. She loves me and tells me everyday. She is always complimenting me and telling me how handsome I am, and if you know a Hardy you know that we love compliments. She believes in me and supports me in my endeavors. She is such a beautiful lady inside and out. She is a loving and caring mother that cherishes her children more than all the riches in the world. She is a hard worker that loves a clean and organized living space. Shaila is charitable and unselfish, always trying to please others and put them before her own needs. I am so glad I married her and that I have the opportunity to be with her for eternity.


Happy Birthday Shaila, I hope that you are happy and feel as loved as I do when I am around you.


P.S. Does this count as a card??

Phantom (Can you hear the music?)

Last Thursday I had the incredible experience of going and seeing "The Phantom of the Opera". It was incredible and worth every minute and penny! I wish I could go back and see it again and again. We sat in the SECOND row and saw EVERYTHING. It was awesome. The chandelier was raised right above our heads. There was a part were a burst of flames went across the stage and we felt the heat rush past us. It was crazy. I loved seeing all the actors on stage and wished I could be up there with them. Although, I wouldn't sound quite as good. Plus, I'd probably be tripping and falling the whole time.

Brianne came up with the idea to go about 5-6 months ago, to celebrate my mom's birthday. She got us great seats at a great price. It helps going on a weekday in the middle of the day! Originally Melanie and Holli were suppose to come with us, but do to circumstances unseen, they weren't able to come. We missed you guys!! Grammie and Telsie took their tickets, and we had a great time with them. It was great to have a girls day and be kid-free! It was the first time I'd been away from Winston that long and we both survived! Thanks Matthew for being such a great dad!

I really, really wanted to take a picture of the stage before it started...but I didn't want to be thrown out before it started! So here's a picture of all us girls eating after the show!

Good Morning

Winston and I are fighting a little cold. Last night wasn't a great night so I was very tired. When Winston woke up at 7:30am, I wasn't ready to get out of bed. Like I really have a choice! When I got up with sleepy eyes I noticed some papers on the floor. Thinking maybe my mom wrote me a note before leaving for the day, I got Winston out of bed. Then I looked at the papers. The boys woke up early, were so sweet and colored me pictures and put them under my door. It was one of the sweetest moments ever! I thought my mom might have had something to do with it, but they weren't up before she left for the day. Oh, I love being a mom to such thoughtful, sweet boys!!

Growing Up

I just had to share this quick video of Winston crawling. When we got to Matt's parents on Thursday, he just started crawling like he's always known how. It was too funny. I wonder if it was because he was only in a onesie. His pants seem to get in the way. I love it because he's still a little unsure of his little steps. In this video he was chasing a 'shake 'n go' Lightening McQueen car. He gave up in the end and just army crawled instead.

Winston has been pulling himself up just to his knees for a few weeks now. Today while I was at my mom's he pulled himself up to his knees on her walker toy. When I walked back by a few minutes later, he was on his feet. Tonight I had him show me how it's done, it was so cute to see how hard it was to pull himself up all the way. He used all his might. Why does this all seem to happen at once. I'm sad he's not sitting still anymore, but at the same time, it's fun to see him do new things! I miss my newborn!!!!!

Ben's Homecoming

Matt's youngest brother Benjamin came home from his mission on Thursday. We drove up to Spokane, to meet the family at the airport. We ate some lunch then drove back to spend the weekend with the family. (I've actually ended up staying for the week, since we were coming back up on Wednesday night anyways.)

Matt and I wanted to make some t-shirts for the family to all wear. I ended up doing this design. Simple, but fun. So the story behind the "BS". (As much as I know anyways.) Ben has always been a 'story teller', so his siblings started saying "BS" if they didn't believe it, for 'Ben story'. So a 'Ben served' shirt totally fit with the 'BS'. I thought it was funny! HeheI was planning on getting a group shot of everyone in their shirts, but of course, in the moment, I forgot. I'm so mad!! Here's one of Cynthia, Stephanie and Ryan strutting there shirts!!
The first picture of Ben. Nate was on the same flight as Ben from Salt Lake. Ben didn't know he was going to be on it, and was so excited to have him for the last stretch of the flight home.
The first ones to run up and give him a hug were the boys. Malcolm was so funny that morning as we left home. He told me how he missed Ben everyday and was so excited to have him home. Funny that he had never mentioned this before. Haha!
Ben holding Winston for the first time. Even little Win had a shirt. I was so mad though. I've had the same onesies since Malcolm and they were really worn. He was still wearing the 3-6 months and they were pretty baggie on him. I bought new ones in 6-9 months and they are sooo small. I was so mad, but I had to use them and can't take them back now.
Ben's talking to Laura in this picture. See Laura, you were there!!!

The boys had fun riding on Ben's suitcases.

Matt took this video of Ben coming off the plane! So much fun!!!

A Few Things

This is a picture of Quinn at 4 months wearing Matt's lab goggles. So stinkin' cute!
Matt's now given the goggles to the boys' as a toy. They like them in the bath. Apparently Quinn likes them to keep the water out of his eyes in the shower. This kid just keeps getting cuter!
While Winston was in the bath, Matt put Quinn's goggles on him. How hilarious and cute is that!?!
The other night Winston just wasn't content playing on the floor. He just wanted to stand by me. I took his piano toy and converted it to the standing face, and he was so happy to hold of for dear life and play. I wish I could have gotten a picture of his excited face!
Winston's started experimenting pulling himself up. He woke up from his nap and talked for 5 minutes or so before I got him out. When I went in there, he had himself on his knees, thinking he was one awesome baby. I have now moved his mattress down, but he's still pulls himself up.
This is a common sit in our house. (Not the bottle feeding...that's only every once in a while.) The boys are always crowded around Matt cuddling and watching him. They are all such daddy boys.
This last weekend we had a Wii party with the Poteet's and some other families. We went up on campus and played on a projector. It was lots of fun!! I love playing the Wii. Thanks for the pizza and games!! (The only picture I took all night.)
I was trying to get Winston doing his pat-a-cake skills, but he found a toy more interesting and decided to show off his new moves. He is crawling a little now too, but mostly does the army crawling still. He's not very fast yet, but in a couple weeks, he's going to be following his brothers everywhere.

Fire Stations, Parks and Pumpkin Patches...Oh My!!

I've been having problems with blogging lately. It's not that I don't have anything to blog about, I'm just having a hard time getting a post up. I don't know if it's the fact that I take way too many pictures and have to decide which ones I want to blog. The time it takes to resize them all. Or the time it takes to actually upload and type it all up. I need to be better!!!

Quinn has already had 3 field trips that I have yet to blog about. The first one was to the fire station. I always love going to the fire stations. I get to reminisce about my dispatching days to myself. So I just have to share, for my enjoyment. For part of my "training" I had to go sit with the fire fighters for 2 shifts. I would go on calls...if there were any. The best time was when they had me get all suited up in the gear. When we first got all the gear on, they got paged out to a woman falling in Safeway. So all suited up, actually with only the boots and pants on, I rode on the ambulance and went into Safeway, where everyone thought I was just one of the fire fighter/EMT's...Haha! After transporting her to the hospital we went back to the fire station where they set the practice building on fire. After they got me all set up with ALL the gear on, including the oxygen and mask, I got to crawl in between two fire fighters helping drag in the hose (which is very heavy). They even let me spray the water myself (also very hard since it's so heavy and tons of water pressure). It was so awesome and so very, very hot. I'd have you know, if I didn't have a family, I would totally be a volunteer fire fighter. I loved it!!

On this field trip, right after we got started on looking at the ambulance, the station was paged out to a medical call. All the kids had to line up on the wall, as the ambulance and fire truck left. We almost had to reschedule, when two fire fighter that were training, came back and finished the tour.

Quinn waiting his turn to go into the ambulance. Malcolm was being really bashful and didn't want to participate. Which is so funny, since he's done it twice before.
Quinn coming off the ambulance, he was pretty excited to be lifted out by the fireman.
There's always a few kids that get scared and cry during this part. The fire fighters do a great job of letting them see the real guy and slowing getting on all his gear to help make it less scary. They like to let all the kids know that if there was ever a fire and they saw a guy like this, he's not scary.

Malcolm giving him a high five.

The second field trip was to Reany Park where the kids were all going to collect leaves and such for a nature collage. Malcolm, Winston and I waited for about a half an hour until the class came. Apparently the bus got stuck when it tried turning around after forgetting something.

Malcolm had fun waiting and playing on all the toys. I just loved this picture I captured of him. He is one handsome boy if you ask me!!
He kept posing for me in various parts of the play toy, wanting me to take his picture. Perfect, I loved it!! Here he's making his sad face. So, so cute!
When the bus finally got there Quinn was a little excited to be there. He just wanted to play, and I had to convince him to look for leaves and things. He wasn't there 5 minutes when he found himself a mud puddle to jump in. This doesn't capture the full effect of it. He had it all over his other shoe and up the back of his legs. He's such a nerd!

My little Quinnie. He's a beast, but I love his little personality.

With his bag of nature stuff. I think Malcolm and I picked up more stuff then he was. He was just anxious to get to the toys. I don't blame him really. Especially after sitting on a bus for so long! Quinn was sad when they had to go back to school and was crying. It made me feel so bad, luckily his teacher let me take him home. We had a talk that if he cries when I come, I won't be able to come.
This last field trip was to the pumpkin patch. It was so cold, I was really worried the kids would get to cold. I made sure to take gloves and hats with me. I'm glad I took the gloves. Winston stayed cozy and warm in the sling. I wish I took a self portrait, he looked so cute with his little hat and jacket and then he even fell asleep in the end.

When I was looking through the pictures I just laughed when I saw this picture of Quinn. He looks so cute with that expression on his face.
Each kid got to pick a small pumpkin to take home. This picture would have been so cute of Malcolm with his pumpkin, if kids didn't keep walking by! Haha.
The boys with their pumpkins. I tired getting them to look at the camera, it just never works.
Quinn picked up several pumpkins and would put them back. I finally tried telling him he had to pick one so he could take it home. Then he told me that they were "pokey". Haha, he was right, the stems are "pokey". Luckily I had those gloves, I put those on him and he was fine after that. Love this picture of him. Okay, really, what pictures don't I love of my kids.
Again, I tried capturing a super cute picture of the boys with all the pumpkins behind them. None of them looking. Quinn here is even getting his fist ready for some fighting, apparently.
I love this picture of Quinn. I love to see my boys' eyelashes on their cheeks. They all have wonderfully long eyelashes. (If a girl ever comes to this family, this trait will probably skip her! Haha) During the field trip, Quinn kept telling me he wasn't going to cry. At the end, he still did. It makes me feel so dang bad!! It was better this time. He actually went with his teacher on the bus. I'll give it one more field trip, and if he cries again, I just might have to skip. If I can stand doing that!

This just in...

...They're engaged!! Ryan and Stephanie are tying the knot December 12th. We couldn't be happier for them. Ryan even got on one knee and asked, way to do it the right way. (Matt!!) It's Stephanie's birthday too. What an awesome birthday present. I'm so excited for another girl in this family. We are in desperate need!

Welcome to the family Stephanie and Happy Birthday!

Congratulations Rhino and Stephanie!!!

Malcolm's Star Wars

The other day while Quinn was sleeping, Malcolm brought out his Star Wars ship and a guy that flies in it. He was playing quietly by himself, as I was cleaning the kitchen floor.

He was acting like two "guys" were talking back and forth, in sometime of hostile situation. One name he kept saying was Obi Wan, I didn't notice who the other was. After one of them was talking on the "radio", he ended the transmission with "roger...roger dodger." It was hilarious, I totally laughed to myself!!

Eventually Obi Wan starts talking to R2D2. When R2D2 responds back, Malcolm whistles for him. I just couldn't help laughing and smiling. I love the imagination of a child!

More of Winston

For being such a happy baby, Winston sure doesn't laugh much. So the last couple days, we've tried getting the little bit of laughing he does on video. Matt's also always having Winston stand on his hand. For some reason Winston thinks it's pretty cool stuff. It always makes him so excited.

8 Months

On Thursday Winston turned 8 months old. Every month I can't believe he's another month older. I hate how fast the first year goes, but I love seeing his little personality coming out. He is such a great baby. Always content and happy, almost always smiling. He's only really serious faced if he's really tired or hungry, but other then that, he smiles at just about everything. I was really wanting to have a little photo shoot with him, but with the weather turning bad gloomy, it just hasn't happened yet. Maybe this next week I can snap some. Here's a little what he's been up to this last month.

~ According to my scale, he's up to 17.6 lbs.

~ Actually starting to really like baby food these last few weeks. YAY!!

~ Learning to take a bottle, and occasionally with formula.

~ Started saying mama!! He now says dadadada, babababa, mamamama.

~ Has two new teeth that broke through just this last week! I'm so glad since it's made him a unhappy baby sometimes. For the last two weeks he's had a terrible diaper rash from all the diarrhea. I know you all wanted to hear about that one!

~ Gets all over the place by rolling, pushing himself backwards, turning himself while on his tummy. He's getting up on hands and knees sometimes too. Today I went in to get him up from his nap and he's sitting there in the crawling position. I told him to stop it, I'm not ready for him to do that yet!

~ Can put his binky in his mouth all by himself. I put a few of his binky's in one corner of his bed, so if I need one during the middle of the night, I know where it is. Sometimes I come in and he has sampled all of them, with one in his mouth.

~ Is adoring his daddy more and more. Not that he didn't before, but you know how they just start being drawn more to them. I love it!

~ Also adores his brothers. Mack and Quinn try rolling with him on the floor. It drives me nuts, because I'm afraid they'll hurt him. Winston on the other hand just thinks it's great stuff ever. He will watch and play with his brothers all day!

Some pictures from this last month.

He loves biter biscuits. He now whines for "real" food when sees it or gets in his highchair.
Looking up at me while I'm taking pictures of Quinn on a field trip.
Trying to smile at me with a binky in his mouth. I don't usually give him a binky while he's awake, I try to save it for bedtime. But lately when he wakes up in the middle of the night (teething has started this up again) he's become a binky hater and won't let me give it to him. He'll move his head side to side so that I can't put it in his mouth. The little stinker!
Nothing like a sleeping baby! What is it about sleeping pictures I love so much.
Another picture while on one of Quinn's field trips.
Earlier this month he had his first bath with his brothers. I don't know who liked it better, Winston or Malcolm and Quinn. The older boys sure loved making little splashes with Winston.