One Week Old!

Jaxon is one week old today. And there sure has been a lot of things going on in the last week and a half.

This is a picture of Savannah helping wash Jaxon's bottles. She is such a big helper. Savannah and Ashton have played together a lot. Here they are playing with animals and play dough.

Finally some pictures of Jaxon. I didn't notice this one was kind of blurry until after the fact. Sorry. That seems to happen to me a lot. Yeah, he's a binky boy.
Another one of Jaxon. Sleeping peacefully.

So the day we were leaving to visit with Nate and Hazel Keanna got braces on. This is a picture with them on.

This is Keanna before braces. :)

The Sunday before Valentines day we made sugar cookies. (The tall dude is Mat a friend of Ambrea's.)

The final product. They were sooo good we had to make more while staying with Nate and Hazel.

OH BOY!!

Boy Oh Boy. It's a Boy! Jaxon Casey Hardy was born Feb. 11, 2009 6 lbs. 4 oz. 19 inches. Everything went well. We are so happy to have him here. Stay tuned for pictures that will be coming soon.

Road Trips, and more Road Trips!!

The "Never Ending Road" as Keanna called it.

I know, I haven't posted for forever. I have been gone a lot, or busy. So we have been on a lot of road trips lately. Let's see, the first one was about 4 weeks ago. Keanna and I met Hazel and Savannah in Salina at my parents. We did a little scrapbook shopping and mom treated us to lunch at "Mom's Cafe". It was delicious. And because Savannah is so stinkin' cute, everywhere we went they would give her treats. Hazel colored my hair and then they headed back home. Keanna and I stayed over night. It was great to see Hazel and Savannah and spend time with mom, dad, Rick (my brother) and g-ma.

So our next trip was up north to a baby shower for Hazel. Well the shower was Sat. morning at 10:00. I had to work Friday night, so it was a toss up. Get up REALLY early Sat. and head up or leave late Fri. night. We decided to leave Fri. night. Ambrea came with us this trip. We didn't leave here till 10:40. We got there at 2:15. We hit rain and fog almost the whole way. It was about 3:00 by the time we got checked into the hotel and in bed. The alarm went off at 8:00 the next morning so we could all get ready to be there. The shower was very nice and Hazel (or Jaxon) received a lot of nice things. Thanks to everyone who came. We really appreciate you. Then we spent the afternoon with mom, Ann, Bobbi and Heather. Mom treated us to lunch again. After that we went and spent some time with Hazel and Savannah. Later that evening we went to dinner with them. Nate joined us for dinner. Once again, it was so nice to see them. Then we stayed with Gaylene that night. We were lazy the next day. It was snowing so I had Ray call road conditions. He said it only said snow in SL. Long story short, by the time we visited with Nate and Hazel one last time it was about 8:30 before we got on our way. Well, it took us 5 hours to get home because it was snowing the whole way. We just took it slow and easy and the girls were good and patient.

Our next trip was on the 31st. It was mom's bday and I wanted to surprise her. Long story again, which I won't bore you with the details, but we really did surprise her. She wasn't expecting us at all. We spent the day with her and then drove home late once again. I have the hardest time leaving, so I always try to stretch out my time as long as I can. We were able to see Nate and spend time with Savannah today also. She is such a sweetheart. Nate and Hazel moved into their own apt. today also. It will be nice for them. It was hard for me cause their stuff had been in storage here and this makes it a little more finalized that they are up there. It is sure hard to have them so far. But it could be worse I know.

So anyway, we have been traveling a lot and will be doing some more cause Hazel's due date is the 14th. So we are on standby for when she goes into labor. We will keep everyone posted.

HaPpy HoLiDayS!!

We had very Happy Holidays. On the Saturday before Christmas Keanna entertained us with a dance performance. They did great, considering the song was played wrong. The audience wouldn't have even known though. The girls didn't give any indication it wasn't right.

Then on Sunday we went with Randy, Natalee and Camden to see the lights at the temple. It is so peaceful there, but it was freezing! We dressed warm and enjoyed hot chocolate afterwards.

I had to work Christmas Eve and so did Natalee but that didn't stop us from enjoying it. After work we enjoyed a delicious ham dinner. Our cute little neighbors across the street had dinner with us. They are in their eighties and we love them to death. And the best thing of all, Nate, Hazel and Savannah came. It was so good to see them. We ended the celebrations a little early cause we were all so tired.

Then came Christmas morning. The kids were so excited. And Santa even brought gifts for Savannah to our house. She was so cute. We really were very spoiled this year. The girls both got camera's, Carolyn got an MP3 player (it is just tiny and cute), Ray got a bike and Ashton got a Wii. He has waited for so long for one. He had been saving his money to buy one, so now he is going to spend some of that money to get a game or two.

Nate and Hazel left Christmas afternoon to try to avoid a storm. I wish they could have stayed longer but I am so thankful they were even able to come. We were truly blessed this season. Not only did we receive nice gifts, but we were able to be with family and friends, which truly is a blessing.

We welcomed the new year in by eating way too much while enjoying the company of family and friends. We went to our friends house with the kids. They played while the adults just visited. Ray took Keanna and some of her friends to First Night about 9:00. At midnight they had fireworks and we could even see them from where we were. I have to say that I have yet to see a bad firework show here. St. George definately knows how to do fireworks.

We hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday season and we are thankful for you all.

Read Previous Post Before Reading This Post...

As I was just finishing posting, they just announced on the news that school is canceled tomorrow. Can you believe it?!! It snows a few inches and they close the schools. But in all seriousness, we discussed why they would do it. Because we have no trucks to salt the roads and wet roads and freezing temps don't go together. Wow, quite an interesting day.

A Great and Horrible Day!

So today has been wonderful, but also horrible. It started out very early, 6:00 am. After all the morning routine and doing the crossing-guard thing, I headed off to work for a day shift. (This is a little different for me. I normally work evenings.) Ambrea and I worked the same shift so it was fun to be working together. At least I thought it was. I hope she thought so also. So after work I asked her if we could run to the library quick to check out a couple books. Well, to make a long story short, my phone got stolen at the library. I am just sick, but also so mad at myself. I had left it on the paper towel dispenser. But the thing is, it was only about 5 minutes, no more, and it was gone that fast. And it is so frustrating that people are not honest and just turn it in. I almost feel like a part of my life is gone. Mostly the pictures I had on there. Also all the numbers. So if everyone could please email me their phone numbers I would really appreciate it. (raycarehardy@q.com) Tonight has been ok. It has actually been snowing here, enough that it is sticking, and the kids are loving it.

It snowed yesterday also, but it didn't stick here. Now that was a different story for Randy and Natalee. Where they live they received a lot of snow. Who says it doesn't snow here.? We have lived here for almost 3 years and it has snowed every winter so far.

Being Thankful and Deckin' The Halls!

I am very late at posting about Thanksgiving, but I have been working a lot of hours since then. Anyway, we spent Thanksgiving dinner with Ray's family. We went to a movie (Madagascar 2) and dinner on Wed. night with Nate, Hazel and Savannah. It was so good to see them! Then on Thanksgiving day we had dinner with Ray's family. His sister Michelle and her husband Chris hosted the dinner. Everything was very nice and we appreciate them opening up their home to all of us. It was good to have most of us all together and the cousins got to play. After dinner we had to head home. Ambrea and I had to work the next day, Black Friday. The store has been very busy since then, so Ambrea and I have been putting in a lot of hours. It's all good though.

Then we decided it was time to get the house ready for Christmas. We put everything up, but I didn't get the tree decorated till about a week later. But I finally got it done. Yeah!

As I said before we have been keeping busy. Ashton has had to sing with the school choir three times since Thanksgiving. He was even on TV one night. (With Ray working where he does, Ashton has actually been on TV quite a few times so its not new with him. Although, he still gets excited about it and records it.) On the 13th me, Ambrea, Keanna and Natalee, along with a friend of mine, went to the Kurt Bestor concert. We usually go to the conert up north but he now does one here. He doesn't bring the whole symphony and band with him here. It was Kurt Bestor and two other guys who play with him. One plays wind instruments and the other the guitar. It was a lot different from the concert up north but it was still a lot of fun. It was more impromptu and personal. After the conert we even got to meet him personally and shake his hand and talk to him. He autographed the cd we bought and also the music that was given to us.

So between those things, parties, working and everything else that goes with the holidays we are keeping very busy. But enjoying every minute of it. Happy Holidays everyone!

A Twilight Weekend

We had a very full but very fun Saturday. It started with a visit from the Quigley's (I have pictures but will post them later). We met up with them at In-n-Out Burger (Scott's favorite). It was so busy there it was crazy so we took our food and went to a park. It ended up being kind of cold though. We hadn't brought Ashtons jacket cause I had just washed it, so thankfully Carolyn let him borrow one of theirs. Nathan and Cole ran around and got rid of some of their energy from being in the car for so long. Right as we were getting ready to leave Nathan and Ashton warmed up to each other and had a little leaf fight.

Then, as almost everyone knows, the movie Twilight came out this weekend. A couple weeks ago I decided to have a Twilight party. Keanna and Ray helped me and we made some very cute invitations. So at 5:00 the Twilight guests arrived. We played Twilight bingo (which Ray had made up) and ate Twilight food. This, of course, consisted of lots of blood. :) We had bloody drinks (cranberry juice), and the cups were tainted with blood (I had dipped the tops of the cups in karo syrup that had been colored red), and bloody chips and salsa, popcorn covered in blood (red chocolate melts), and cupcakes that the vampires had left a bloody bite on (a little raspberry jam). (Sorry, no pictures. I was so worried about making sure everything was going smoothly that I forgot all about taking pictures. duh!!) Then it was off to the movie. We wanted to arrive early so we would have good seats. While waiting in line we played Twilight trivia. I had prizes for the winners of the games (I had taken unfinished wooden frames, painted them black, put a pictures of Bella and Edward in them, and then cut out the words "Bite Me" in red and put on the frame.) We had two guys come with us so they received BMW's and Volvo's (matchbox cars) for being brave and coming with all us females. (As you may know the vampires all drive very nice cars.) There were about 22 of us who all went to the movie. I had great support from people I work with, some of our neighbors and my sister-in-law and niece even came from Salina. Needless to say, we had a great time and everyone thought the movie was great. The girls and I want to see it again and keep finding ourselves discussing it. Yesterday Ray's brother Randy called him to talk for a minute and I think it felt good to Ray to have someone to talk to about the game on Saturday instead of hearing about Twilight all the time. :) We definitely recommend you see the movie and if you haven't already, reading the books.

Aaahh, Rest and Relaxation!

Last week Ray and I had the opportunity to take a few days and get away to take a little break. We did a whole lot of nothing, and it felt great. We did things that we don't normally get to do. Things like, sleep, take walks, sleep, exercise together, sleep some more, read and eat things like donuts and ice cream. Actually, I'm the one that did most of the sleeping. I am always so tired and can sleep anywhere, anytime. Ray can't believe how easily I fall asleep.

Anyway, it was one of those trips that as Hazel puts it "now I remember why I married you". We just relaxed and was lazy. And the kids did fine at home. They kept up with everything and the house was still standing when we got home. jk :)

So Much to Blog, So Little Time!

I'm finally getting around to posting. I know, it's been a while. So beware, this is kind of a long post.

It starts off a couple weekends ago when Keanna and I took a quick trip up north and had a great time. We left Saturday morning and when we got up north we met Nate and Hazel for lunch. It was so good to see them. Savannah couldn't wait to be with Nanna (Keanna). After lunch we did a little browsing in a Michael's store (I had to check out another store. See what it was like.) then we went to a park to take some family pictures. Savanna wanted nothing to do with it. She currently hates her picture taken. She would much rather have played on the playground toys with Keanna. We did get a few that will work, and the ones of Nate and Hazel really turned out cute.

Then my sister Sherri and her boyfriend Gary met us at the park and we got some cute pictures of them.

After that we went to Sherri's house and she had a wonderful dinner prepared for us. Hazel colored my hair (the main reason we went up there) and then Sherri's. She was dang tired after all that. But she does such a good job on covering up my gray. I only trust her. After dinner Keanna and I went to stay the night with my cousin, Gaylene, and her family. Her and I stayed up until 3:00 am visiting. Just like old times. Keanna and I slept late the next morning and when we got up Gaylene had a yummy breakfast for us. We lounged around and was just lazy. Before we left Gaylene had also prepared a very yummy dinner. Wow, we sure were spoiled on this trip. On our way out we stopped to visit with Nate and Hazel again. Savanna wanted right into our car as soon as we pulled up. Then we stopped and made a quick visit with the Quigley's. We met Scott's mom and what a pretty lady she is. Then we made another quick stop to visit with my mom and dad. It was quick, but so good to see them. And dad insisted on buying our snacks. Thanks dad. Needless to say we didn't get home until 12:30 am but it was such a wonderful trip and so good to visit with so many people.

So then Halloween rolled around. I'm not really big on dressing up myself, but for crossing-guard we did it.

This is Angie (the gal I cross-guard with) and I on Halloween morning. I can't believe we did this, but what the heck. You have to be crazy to stay sane, right?!! (If you can't tell we are cones. They match the cones we use. Orange cones are for construction and green are for crossing-guard.)Now Keanna on the other hand loves to dress up. She always knows what she wants to be for Halloween and prepares well in advance. This year she was a fairy. With Pixie Dust and all.
Ashton does not like to dress up. This year he just wore his Jazz jersey and called it good. The great thing this year, he was able to wear shorts, even at night. This weather is great.

This is a picture of him and a couple friends trick-or-treating.

We have the tradition of having chili on Halloween. Randy, Natalee and Camden joined us this year. It was kind of hectic trying to get everyone to eat something and Camden wasn't so sure about it all, but we had a great time and he made a darling little lion.