You Have a Special Place

The other day I was at the store and I looked at all 5 of my children and as I looked at them I didn't really feel out numbered. I am sure that when others look at my family walking through the isles at Walmart they are thinking 'WOW do they have their hands full!' I am sure it looks overwhelming.

• An 8 year old that is good and stays to herself till she wants to play stomp on each others feet (they only play this game at the store).
• A 7 year old that always has music in his head, and many times it comes out in full force.
• A 5 year old that is sad most of the time because some one else got to get something that day and she NEVER gets anything and it is just sooo sad.
• A 3 year old that has more energy than any of us put together. He always wants to RUN!
• And a newborn that I rarely keep in a car seat carrier because I love to hold him close.

But through my eyes I see...

• An 8 year old that loves her independence, but still loves to hold her mom's hand. She loves her time alone at home but she is quick to help when she is needed.
• A 7 year old that loves to make me laugh and one that will question us when he doesn't agree with what is being said. He loves to do what is right and he will try his best to make the best decision.
• A 5 year old that has got a lot of spunk, she is quick to disagree unless her big sister thinks otherwise. She wants so much to be big, I over hear her saying to her baby brother, "it's okay, mama's got ya, you'll be okay sweetie."
• A 3 year old that is as stubborn as a mule, but of course he is because he has got so much independence in him that he would go crazy if he had to follow all of the rules. For goodness sakes he's got a mind of his own and he will use it!
• And a beautiful newborn that is just wonderful unless he has gas or he has eaten too much.
• And I can't forget my husband who loves his family. He keeps us laughing, he works so hard. He is passionate about all that he does.
• Then there is me, the mom that does have her hands full but tries to fake it most of the time. A couple Sunday's ago I was asked to give the closing prayer in church. I had just gotten all of my kids folding their arms and I had my arms folded my head bowed and eye's even closed. When I got a tap on my shoulder and someone saying, "were you supposed to give the closing prayer." I was embarrassed, but I was laughing at the situation as soon as it happened. I know my hands are full. But they are full with love, tears, hard work.

Each member of the Hardy Family has a special place and I am so glad that we have each other. I wouldn't trade any of this for anything.

Put Just Right

When I was younger, my older brother and his friend would go into my room and move my 

nick-nacks on my dresser.  They wouldn't move them much just ever so slightly.  Then they would wait.  I would go into my room and I would always notice that something was touched, something was moved.  They would do this over and over again.  They would always watch, and they would always be stunned that I could see a difference. 

This morning I poured David a bowl of cereal, he ate a little bit and then ran to go potty.  When he came back he said, "Who ate my cereal?"  Emma piped in, "Mama did!"  I laughed and said, "How can you tell?  I just had one bite."  He just giggled. -Ma

Grandma came to play

AND THEY PLAYED CHICKEN LIMBO!!

I love these bonding moments. -Ma

Not Great In '08

This past March my family realized that we have had some not so great things happen in 2008.

• Aunt T. found out that she has cancer, however she has gone through lots of treatment and is now in remission. 
  
• My Mothers Aunt M. A. fell and broke her hip.
• Aunt M. got frozen shoulder after first snow storm in Jan.
• My mother also hurt her shoulder.
• As did I.
• Aunt S. had her first cataract surgery
• Aunt P. died and was brought back (cardiac arrest)
• Aunt M. had issues with gallbladder.
• Aunt M. panicked in the MRI machine when pictures were being taken of shoulder.
• Aunt M. A. got hip fixed but now refuses to walk
• Uncle W. tripped over the dog and has a black eye
• Tansy fell off a horse and broke her arm
• Aunt S. had her second cataract surgery
• Grandma was waving at an old guy down the hall of her facility and tripped over her cane and bruised her arm, but nothing was broken.

This is what Aunt M. had to say about all of this,

"Let that be a lesson to you....

walking and flirting with old men when you are 83 years old will just land you on your face!!!

shoveling snow is for youngsters to do!

don't read too much...it ruins your eyes!

if you die...come back

keep the sludge out of your gallbladder

don't go in the MRI machine if you have claustrophobia.

if you teach your dog to lie down make sure he knows to put up traffic cones

stay off of horses especially if everyone else in the family has had some bad luck"

Since March these are some more things that have happened.

• David was getting Jacob out of his crib and dropped him on his head.  He had a cat scan done.  They were going to make him sleep through it.  However I nursed him to sleep and asked if we could try with out the sleeping medication.  We tried, he woke up, but I got up on the table, laid on top of him, held his head straight and sang a song trying to keep the tears back.
• David cut his hand really bad with scissors
• Jacob fell off the couch and busted his lip
• David had his tonsils removed
• We went to the mall, loaded the kids in the car and forgot to load up the junky stroller, and some really cute red shoes that were with the stroller. Went back to get them and they were gone!
• Emma had to face going to ALL day school.
• Emma has had run in's with kids at school.
• We had ants bite our children like crazy
• Abby wrapped a rubber band around her finger and it was on their for at least 2 1/2 hours, her finger was a deep purple color.
• Emma got a thorn in her head
• Jacob gets burned with hot water
• Emma has been getting strange headaches 
• Jacob fell off of a tall chair, on his head again
• Pa's Grandmother passed away
• We went on an unplanned road trip got stuck in a K-Mart parking lot many miles away from home for a couple of hours
• On the same road trip it felt like something was wrong with the alignment, turned out our tire was bubbled, it could have popped
• A family member is going through a very ugly divorce
• Pa's mother found out that she has to deal with health issues, including cancer.

Yes, there were some difficult times this year, even things that I wouldn't want to relive, or wish that family members would have to relive.  However, everything that is listed above, they are getting better, I am thankful for that.

I am thankful for family and friends.  I think that is the only thing that is keeping us here in AZ.  If it wasn't for Ya'll then we probably would have moved to PA when Pa graduated years ago.  I am also so grateful that I have a family with such a good sense of humor, it helps when things are not so great. Thank you for being so good to us. -Ma

More New Photos

More photos from the photo shoot at Goldfield in Apache Junction. Thank you for all the great feedback! I created the borders with onOne PhotoFrame 3 plug-in for Photoshop. I saved these as 24bit PNG's to preserve the transparency for the web. Shot originally RAW+Jpeg with my Nikon D300 and 17-55mm 2.8 - Pa

Gingerbread House

Once a year my mom comes over and makes gingerbread houses with the grandkids.

Abby working intently on her wall.

Yummy this is tasty.

Lets keep working.

Just one more lick, this is really good.

Emma's masterpiece.

David's wall.

Aunt Tami helping David.

Willow Mae and her Dada working together.

My Brother Ben and his beautiful house.

So glad Danny could be here.  Missed you Heather.

Aunt Tami and Emma, with our gingerbread house and nativity set in the background.

The finished project.

From left to right, our house, Ben's house, and Paul's house.

I am so sad that we didn't get any pictures and Paul and kids.  Kids loved playing in the back yard.

Thank you Mom, for putting all of this together.

Thank you all for coming over, we had tons of Fun! -Ma

Because They Are Famiwy

After putting the nativity set out.  The kids love to look and touch.  I don't know what kid wouldn't because the set is from Dreamsicles and they have the cutest faces.  If they weren't breakable I would let the kids play with them.  I remember when I was little and my mom would put out the nativity set I loved to take Jesus out and just hold him, I felt closer to Jesus when I did this.  So I try not to get mad when they are touching.

Back to the story...

Abby climbed up on a little table up to the shelf with the nativity set.  I noticed her up there as I was passing by and I stated, "You can look but please don't touch."

Later I was passing by again and Abby was still on the table looking at the set.  However the set was now clustered together in a tight circle.

I said, "Abby, I asked you not to touch."

Abby said, "I not touching Mommy, I just looking."

Me, "Abby, they moved and I asked you not to touch."

Abby, "I not touching Mommy, I just looking."

Me, "Abby, if you're not touching, how did they move?"

Abby, "Because they are Famiwy.  They are together."

-Ma

Babysitting

For the last two days I have had my niece and nephew over for a few hours.  Abby and Mackenzie are 9 months apart.  And Jacob and Holden are 3 months.  I felt like I had two sets of twins in the house.  Just the way they acted, they wanted the same things at the same time.  They were a lot of fun.  Either they loved each other or they fought!  The moments of love were so wonderful, and the moments of fighting didn't last long enough to even worry about.

Abby referred to Holden as Golden.

David made Holden laugh from the gut, it is so awesome how kids can do that with babies.

Jacob just loved Holden so much!!  Holden couldn't go to sleep while being held with bottle, or while pacing floor, he really likes his crib.  So, I was holding Holden on my lap with bottle and Jacob was slightly jealous, he climbed on the couch and tried to get on my lap in-between Holden and I.  When he realized he wouldn't succeed he started giving Holden gentle kisses on his forehead.  Soooo, cute!!

When lunch time rolled around, Jacob and Holden needed me to spoon feed them.  So, mac and cheese on one plate, two different spoons (just because one had a runny nose) and they ate.

Thank you Andrea for letting me spend time with your little ones, we had tons of fun!! -Ma

You are Unique

I love to go to Costco... most of the time just to get the fun food.  What better thing to do than walk around a LARGE busy store and get food along the way?

Okay so more than the food I love the cute little lady's that hand out the food.  Some are grouchy... but that is another story!  And some are so nice.  Pa and I went to Costco on Veterans Day and they were passing out yummies.  We talked with two ladies, one about soy milk.  And the other about how the world is and what it was.  She was passing out cottage cheese with blue berries, we talked about what it was like in her time.  If you have moldy cottage cheese scrap off the top and eat the rest, don't let it go to waste.  We talked of how I was taught to scrape the inside of the egg when you crack it (don't waste anything).  We talk of how there was no room for wants in her time.  We talked of flat screen T.V.'s.  Then we talked of our tiny house and how it is squishy but we are happy that we have each other.  She spoke of how couples need to hold on to each other to make it.  How it is more important to have a family, children.

Then she looked at our cute and unruly children, we were in the refrigerated isle and they were walking on the ledge by the doors.   She said, "You are unique.  It is nice that you are able to put your family first and not the world."

I am very thankful for a great family, we might not have a house that fits our family by the worlds standards.  Or a two car garage that can hold our unneeded stuff.  Or two full sized bathrooms.  Or even a flat screen T.V..  But we do have each other and a lot of love that goes around and I am so thankful for that.  I will take being unique. -Ma

Thank You Grandma's

Thank you Grandma for putting my Strawberry Shortcake blanket together.

Thank you Great Grandma for quilting on it.

I wasn't feeling so good when this photo was taken and it brought me comfort.

I love you!! -Abby 

Proposition 102

So I don't know how to copy and post videos but I have a friend that does and she has an amazing video on her blog that I think everyone should watch.

How can we not take a stand?

http://kobialkafamily.blogspot.com/  -Ma

Independence Day Family Portraits

Link to more family portraits

Family Date Night

First let me say we have been trying to come up with something creative to call the kids.  So we have decided to their initials.  

So, we went to the movies last night to watch Nim's Island.  Fun family movie.  The kids were great!  J.D. was a HOOT!!!  I couldn't get enough of him.  He is 10 months old now, and he was so into the movie.  We had bought pop corn and a $3.50 cup to put ice water in.  :(  I was holding J.D. and Pa was holding the popcorn.  J.D. could not take his eyes off the screen, he would reach over to the pop corn bag, move his hand all over in the bag making the popcorn fall all over the floor then he would get one or two pieces, eat them and come back for more, with his eyes glued to the movie.  The sea lion came on the screen and he would laugh and laugh.  He did get a little fussy (probably from thirst) because he nursed and then went to sleep for the rest of the show.

After he was asleep I think A.E. (2 year old) saw the opportunity to need to go potty.  Pa got J.D. and I took her potty.  Then D.M. (4 year old) went potty after that.  Pa had to leave for more popcorn... because you know most of it was on the floor.  :)  E.N. (6 year old) was a little afraid at times so she got some good snuggle time with both Ma and Pa. We sure do love our family!! - Ma

I've never seen anything like what J.D. was doing. It was astonishing to watch him so involved in the movie and so intent on eating the popcorn out of the bag. Just an amazing experience to be parents sometimes. - Pa