Pierced Ears for Haylee-Finally!

     Haylee is only 7 years old, so by finally, I don't mean because she waited so long.  It's because she has wanted it for so long and we have gone to get it done SO many times only to have her change her mind once we're there.  She has been wanting pierced ears but has been too afraid to go through with it.  So when she actually went through with it today, I was stunned.  We all went to Wal-Mart for a few things we needed (diapers, salt, and night lights).  Daren and Haylee split off to do a secret thing while the rest of us shopped for school supplies and other things.  They came back and Daren whispered to me that Haylee wanted to surprise us by getting her ears pierced but the lady wasn't going to be back for 15 minutes.  I said that was fine, but I didn't really think Haylee would go through with it this time either.  But when they came back, Haylee had a big surprise for us.  She sure enjoyed her sister's reactions!  The thing that surprised me the most was that there was only one piercing person there.  So that meant that Haylee had only one ear done at a time, instead of both at the same time like her sisters.  I probably wouldn't have let her even start if I had been there.  I am always too afraid that they'll get one ear pierced and then lose the nerve to do the other ear.  But Daren let her do it and she did just fine.  She's very excited and they look really cute on her.

Haircuts!

     School is starting next month and it was time to think of haircuts for the girls.  Usually we go to a place called Jack and Jill's Cuts for Kids.  The girls love it there because they get to play video games while their hair is done and after it's done, they spray it with glitter or put beads in it.  We were intending to go there, but then we heard about a friend whose daughter was looking for haircutting jobs to earn some extra money.  I was a little hesitant since she is still in beauty school and I had my own bad experience with a beauty school haircut before.  But I knew she might also be very talented and if she would do a good job, I was willing to help her out.  She's a single mom and needed some extra cash for her rent.
     Being the chicken I am, I waited until she did a few friend's haircuts first so I could check out her skills.  We went over right after the Cannons and I have to say that Katie and Grace's haircuts turned out very adorable.  So we decided to go ahead with the haircuts for the oldest three girls.  As a quick disclaimer, I just want to say that the girl who did their hair is a very sweet person.  So I feel kind of bad that this blog post comes off as pretty unkind to her.  But she isn't done with school yet and it appears that she struggles with very thick, straight hair.  So that's what she can focus on, but I sure won't be the one to tell her.  Anyway, here are some pictures of her work:

She did a pretty good job with Haylee's hair.  (I need to trim about 2 long hairs hanging down but that's it.)

And Mackenzie doesn't look so bad from the front.  And her left side turned out pretty good too.  However on the right side, as you can see, the front is much shorter than the back.

And Natalee...

     Natalee's hair, like Mackenzie's, isn't too bad from the front. And she did a very nice job with Natalee's bangs. But the sides and back...Oh My!! The funniest part is that the girls have no idea that they got bad haircuts. Natalee said to me, "My haircut is different from the other girls." I asked her what she meant. "I have layers," she told me. "Layers," I said. "So that's what it's called." "You didn't know what layers are?" she asked. I decided not to answer. I prefer that the girls keep believing they got great haircuts. Sometime soon, we'll come up with a reason to visit Jack and Jill's. Preferably before school starts. Unfortunately, that's less than 4 weeks away!

Nathan's Blessing

Nathan's Blessing Day, July 25, 2010

     Last week we were delighted when Daren's family came for a visit to see the new baby-and his adorable big sisters too, of course!  Daren's mom and dad, Devin, Julene, and Jena's son Spencer all came.  It was so wonderful to see them.  We wanted Daren's family to be a part of Nathan's blessing so we blessed him last Sunday.  Then we got some more good news.  Jon's family was going to be visiting Lancaster that same weekend, so they were able to come up for a visit too.  It was the first time for many of us to meet Jon's son Tyler.

     Unfortunately, Daren wasn't feeling very well the morning of the blessing.  He had a low fever and was very tired.  He took an ibuprofen, and off we went.  When Brother Paulsen announced the blessing, he said, "We will now have a baby blessing.  The Hardy's have a son to be blessed.  Wait-did I say that right?  A son?"  Then he grinned.  I thought it was pretty funny.  Daren brought Nathan up to be blessed and while the other men were gathering around, Mackenzie was bent over Nathan giving him tons of kisses.  Daren was telling her to get back to her seat but she kept trying to get one more kiss in.  We were on the front two rows so it wasn't very far for her to get back to her seat.  Daren gave Nathan a beautiful blessing.  And he even named him Nathan William Hardy just like we'd planned. :)

     Rachel Huber kindly wrote out the blessing for us.  She said she missed a few things but these are the things she wrote down:

     "Our dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this day in the power of the Holy Melchizedek priesthood to give you a name and a blessing.  The name that will be recorded on the records of the Church is Nathan William Hardy.  Nathan, we bless you that your body will be strong and healthy, that your mind will be sharp and quick, and that you will be able to discern between truth and error.  We bless you that you will choose to follow the prophet and that you will be of service to your fellow men.  You will be able to bless the lives of many through service.  We bless you to be cheerful and to be aware that joy in life comes from service."

     The men in the circle besides Daren were: Bishop Paulsen, Bishop Anderson, Will Ewer, Max Moffitt, Dale Hardy, Tim McFarlane, and Brent Cannon.

     Because Daren wasn't feeling well, we decided to go home after Sacrament Meeting.  Daren went straight to bed and his mom, Julene, and I got some food ready for a big lunch.  Amy, Tim, and Juliet are also in town for a visit right now so they were there for the blessing and lunch also.

     Here are some pictures from Nathan's blessing day:

Spencer was quite taken with his new baby cousin.  He was very adorable with him.

Grandma Bobbi with her new grandson

Big sisters with Nathan before church.

Our first visit from Tyler Moffitt

Kylie and Juliet having a great time together

Nathan with Amy, Tim and Juliet

Grandma Poetschlag, Mom, Me, Jon, and Amy, and all our kids

Grandma P., Mom, Amy and Juliet, Me and Nathan

Me and my baby boy-still can't believe I have a boy sometimes

Nathan in his little blessing outfit

Natalee, Mackenzie, and Kelsey with cousin Kaylin

Haylee and Kylie

Brandon holding his new cousin

Jamie and Nathan

Kelsey was very taken with Tyler

Julene and Nathan

Grandma Poetschlag and Nathan

Jon and Jamie

Brandon, Steven, Kylie, Kaylin and Tyler

Braces for Natalee

     I was sad to hear that Natalee needed to have orthodontic work done.  Natalee was excited to hear it.  She has been so excited to get braces like her good friend Ryan Farrell.  I admit that I was a little bad at first-I found it frustrating that she was so excited we had to spend thousands of dollars on her mouth.  So I told her that for the price of her braces we could have bought a horse stable.  But then I repented and told her that it didn't matter though because we wouldn't have bought a horse or stable anyway.  She was supposed to get an appliance to give her mouth some space before getting the braces.  At her appointment last week they made a cast of her mouth and then today they were supposed to put in the appliance.  We got there and they told us that they had sent it to Palmdale to be made and it hadn't come back yet.  So they decided to go ahead and start her braces today and do the appliance next week.  Natalee kept telling me that she was going to get braces and I kept telling her that she had to do the appliance to space her teeth first.  So when they told us they were going to do the braces first after all, Natalee was thrilled.  She picked turquoise for her bracket colors.  She says her mouth is a little sore but she is very happy with how pretty her smile is with her turqoise braces. :)

Deep Thoughts by Mackenzie Hardy

     I don't know how Mackenzie gets these questions in her head.  I know that having a new baby is part of it.  This is a conversation we had a few days ago:
Mackenzie:  Mom, what if people had too many kids and not enough beds?  What would they do?  Would they have to give away some of their kids?
Me:  They would just buy more beds.
Mackenzie:  But what if we had 100 kids, Mom?
Me:  That wouldn't happen because it would be too hard to have 100 kids.
Mackenzie:  You would just have them 1 at a time Mom. (said very matter-of-factly)
Me:  It would still be too hard Mackenzie!  :)

P.S.  I am so excited to take Mackenzie shopping tomorrow for a backpack and lunch box.  I can't believe she starts school next month!

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

     About an hour ago...Haylee and Mackenzie heard Nathan wake up in my bed, and were in the room playing with him.  They called for me to come and said he was hungry.  They were enjoying putting their cheeks next to his mouth and said he was kissing them when he was trying to suck on their cheeks.  So I went in to feed him and sent them out.
     While I was getting him situated, before he started eating, Mackenzie runs back into the bedroom and says, "Oh dear, I lost something on your bed and I can't find it."  She seemed very concerned.  "What was it?"  I asked her.  "A carpet beetle," she replied.
     Well, she sure makes life exciting.

     As long as I'm telling about my cute kids, Nathan just started hiccupping (again!) and it made me think of Kelsey.  When he was first home and started hiccupping, I told Kelsey that Nathan was hiccupping.  She just can't say the whole word.  So now every time he hiccups, which is pretty much whenever he's awake, Kelsey always says, "Nathan hiccing."

     Poor Natalee wants a horse so badly.  I don't know if it's because we let her do riding camp, or because one of her best friends recently got her own horse, but she has been even more obsessed lately.  She has started pretending to ride a horse everywhere she goes.  She mostly just does it around the house, but this morning she and I were at Wal-Mart and she did it there.  We were walking towards the checkout and when we got close to the jewelry, Natalee said, "Let's go look at earrings!"  Then she clicked her mouth, put her hands in front of her like she was holding reins, and trotted off to the jewelry.  Our poor deprived child.
P.S.  I have to say that it really drives Mackenzie crazy for some reason when Natalee does this at home.  She's always telling her to stop and that it's really "annoying".  But unfortunately for her, imaginary horses are not against our house rules.

     This morning Haylee and Natalee wanted to go to yard sales with me.  We were looking for a dresser (so we could give Nathan the baby dresser), a bigger bike for Haylee, and possibly a baby bouncer (the kids destroyed our pink one but-it was pink).  The first yard sales were at 6am so I woke the girls up at 5:45.  Haylee sat up in her bed, then after I left the room, laid back down and went back to sleep.  So Natalee and I left without her.  Daren said she was pretty upset that we went without her.  She asked why we didn't wake her up.  He told her that I had woken her, she had sat up in bed, and I'd talked to her.  She explained to him that talking to her doesn't wake her up.  You actually have to tickle her in her armpit to get her awake.  We're going to start doing that from now on and see if she still wants us to use that method.

5th of July Celebration

     We didn't get too hyped up for the 4th of July this year.  We've been so busy with the baby and the 4th was on a Sunday, so we didn't see any reason to buy fireworks.  But it turned out that we still had some sparklers left over from a couple of years ago.  There were some colored smoke things and snakes too.  The girls loved watching the colored smoke.  Unfortunately, the snakes wouldn't go off.  Just too old probably.  Then we lit the sparklers.  Of course Kelsey needed a lot of help since she didn't seem to realize that the tip was a fire.  The first time Daren tried to hand one to Haylee, a hot ash fell off and touched her hand for a second.  It didn't burn her and she shook it right off, but she was so afraid it was going to start burning that she still ran into the house to run her hand under water.  Then she was too nervous to take one again.  So that's the explanation of why Haylee's sparklers aren't lit in the picture I have of her.  She became Daren's helper and handed him the unlit sparklers so he could light them off of each other instead of lighting matches.

     For our FHE dessert, we had some Little Debbie's Swiss Cakes that my mom had bought for the girls.  Earlier today, I finally got out of the house by myself.  I decided to make a trip to Wal-Mart and my mom came with me.  On my way out the door, Mackenzie stopped me and asked me to get some food for her.  I asked her what kind of food she was talking about.  She thought for a second then said, "Something for a princess."  I asked her what she meant and she just said, "You know, something for a princess!"  I didn't want her to get too frustrated by my lack of understanding so I said I'd look and headed out the door.  I told my mom about her request and she decided to look for some princess fruit snacks for the girls.  Unfortunately they don't sell them at Wal-Mart so she got them the Swiss Cakes instead.  It worked out perfectly for our treat and I didn't have to do any baking.  So here are some pictures of our very small 5th of July party.

Those durn snakes just wouldn't light!  Luckily I was there to monitor things.  Daren was starting to take it as a challenge and was ready to pour lighter fluid on them.  Don't worry-I stopped him.

Look at that assistant pose-a future Barker's Beauty if you ask me.  Well, if there were still Barker's Beauties.  Are they called Carey's Beauties now?

Mmmmm....Chocolate.

Happy 10th Anniversary To Us!

     I'm having to catch up to tell about our anniversary since I didn't get it done before Nathan was born 3 days later.
     Daren and I celebrated our tenth anniversary on June 24, 2010.  We were so close to having 5 kids by the time we were married 10 years.  Oh well, close enough. :)  Due to the fact that I was 8 months pregnant, we couldn't do anything too big to celebrate our tenth, and we decided we'll have to put off a big romantic getaway for another year.  For Father's Day we gave Daren a fishing license, so we decided a day trip to Lake Isabella wouldn't be too far away in case I went into labor.  Fishing and swimming was the plan for some family fun.  After that, we would drop the kids off at my parent's house and have a night to ourselves to play some Band Hero.  Since we didn't get to do something big for our anniversary, we decided to buy ourselves the Band Hero game for our gift to each other.
     Unfortunately, the trip to Lake Isabella wasn't quite what we'd hoped.  It didn't seem windy at all until we finally got down to the lake.  But down by the shore, it was SO windy!  I was sort of miserable.  We brought a shade structure but it kept getting blown around.  I finally put some chairs around the legs to try to anchor it, but even the chairs fell over once.  One of the legs ended up getting bent, which was sad since it's a brand new shade structure.  And since the ground was sloped, it was sort of uncomfortable to be sitting in a folding chair 8 months pregnant.  The fishing wasn't very good for Daren since he was trying to cast into the wind.  But we held out for awhile since Daren and the girls were having so much fun fishing and swimming.  Even when we said it was time to go, the girls were really disappointed.  I'm glad they had so much fun.
     After we got back from the lake, we took a LONG nap.  When we got up, we fed the girls some macaroni and cheese, then took them to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Then Daren and I got some takeout from Bernadino's.  They make the most amazing taco salads-I got the chicken and Daren got the steak.  We took our salads home to eat, and then played Band Hero for a few hours.  We are both getting pretty good on the easy setting.  It has been a fun toy for the whole family.  The girls really love playing it and I have to say, it is REALLY fun to watch them play.  Haylee especially can get into it when she's on guitar.  I think she might be trying to imitate her avatar.
     Being 8 months pregnant doesn't make for the most exciting anniversary, but I loved having some alone time with Daren.  It's been a wonderful ten years that has blessed us with 5 beautiful children.

Natalee was a huge help with Kelsey.  Kelsey kept wanting to play in the water but since I didn't have a swimsuit and Daren was fishing, Natalee ended up holding her in the water.

Daddy and his girls