A Quick Update

Ok, so here's the thing... I SUCK at updating our blog. Honestly, I need to hand all responsibility for it over to Gordon. It's like a journal. I was never able to keep one of those either. I can't believe it's been 5 months since I last posted.

In June we went to Disneyland with the Meier family. The girls had so much fun. Miranda keeps asking to go back. We told her she had to learn to go potty in the toilet first. Little did we know that motivation like that really works. She got her "big girl underwear" almost two weeks ago and hasn't had an accident since. Oops! How do I explain to a three year old that we still have to wait 3 more months for Daddy to get enough vacation time??

Our first day at Disneyland was kinda rough. Our girls don't usually get out of bed until 9 or 10. We had them up by 7 (6 Mountain time) so we could get there before the crowds and go home for a nap later. Miranda had a meltdown while waiting in line for Buzz Lightyear. She needed that nap!


Of course, that all changed once she got inside. She LOVED Buzz! This is BY FAR her favorite ride. She always talks about "Big Buzz" and how she is going back to see him. We probably rode this ride 20 times that week.


Here we are saying, "Hi!" to Sully. Claire did not trust the Disney characters. She kept a wary eye on all of them.


On the way home we stopped by the beach. We couldn't get too dirty because we had to drive 5 hours to Vegas before we could shower. HAHA Have you ever heard of NOT getting dirty at the beach? Oh well, it was fun anyway. Claire was not happy with Papa for getting her that close to the water, but Miranda loved it.


This is one of my favorite things that happens when Daddy comes home. The kids attack him before he can even get in the door. They're sitting in the mudroom because Daddy couldn't get any further.


And here are the girls and me playing with camera instead of cleaning. Miranda loves to say, "cheese". Claire, on the other had, is impossible to pin down long enough to get pictures.

Not much new around here

I finally took a picture of our house. I absolutely LOVE our neighborhood and ward. I think this is where we were supposed to be.

I am trying to get a garden going in the back yard. There is a spot just under the kitchen window that looks like it may have been used for that before. I can't tell for sure, but it's a squarish, dead spot in the grass. It's mostly mud and weeds now, but it's obvious grass hasn't been there in a while. I'm hoping it will work for a garden. It gets A LOT of water (floods very often). That can be good and bad. I don't want to drown my garden. I want to make some raised beds to help. I'm also hoping that the garden will help with the flooding. Hopefully tilling the soil will help with the drainage. I'm also a little worried about the amount of sun it gets. It is on the east side of the house so it's in direct sunlight for about 6-7 hours a day. I know that the garden would do better on the south side of the house (which would be in the sun longer), but the south side of our house is where the RV pad is supposed to be. There isn't a pad there yet, but I think it would be silly to have the RV gate access and then a garden behind it. It might hurt the resale, just a little. =)

The girls and I are supposed to be heading to Vegas this Sunday for a wedding. We'll be riding with Grandma and Papa, if we go. I'm a little torn because Claire is still sick or getting sick again. We can't have more than a day or two of a healthy house, I swear! She has her wellness check this Saturday, so I'll have the doctor check her if she is still sick.

I forgot to mention that we had Claire's birthday party this last Saturday. We celebrated at Jungle Jim's. The kids had a blast. Candice took the pictures with her camera, so I'll post some when I get copies. It really was a nice party. It's a fun place for the kids to go. If your kids don't insist on playing the arcades it can actually be a good price, too. Just make sure you check their website for coupons (we found a meal coupon that saved us like $7.00 on each pizza/soda we ordered).

I still haven't gotten any more done around the house. It takes so long to keep up the house that I can never get ahead and actually unpack. I keep hoping that the girls will finally feel better so they aren't so clingy/demanding and I'll get something done. It doesn't help when I spent 4 hours meeting up with my mom to borrow tools and then running to Home Depot. Two hours in Home Depot and I bought ONE thing! HAHA I was too shocked at the price of lumber to buy the stuff to build my garden. Instead I priced everything and redid my plans. It will save me over $300, but it's not exactly what I wanted. Oh well. I was hoping to spend less than $200 and the original cost (NOT including dirt or plants) was going to be close to $600. I couldn't believe it! I can buy a lot of tomatoes and celery for $600... haha

Alright. I better try to get Claire to bed again. She is refusing to sleep. Little squirt! Thinks just because she had a 10 minute nap at 8:30 that she doesn't have to go to bed. Well, Mommy does!! *sigh* Hopefully...

"We're tired of being sick, we're sick of being poor"

Have I mentioned how great my husband is? He cleans, does laundry, dishes AND changes poopie diapers! I love this man!


Saturday was a lot of fun. First I went to a craft class that Candice invited us to. We made frames and mounted temple pictures in them. (the frames we did are slightly different than the picture above, but I chose this picture) They're GORGEOUS! It has to dry for one more day and then I can antique it and hang it. Here is a picture of the one I did (not mine, but the picture from their website). They are very big. I wanna try to do something like this on our own. Then we went to a coupon class at my mom's house. Yes... I know... coupon class. Sounds terribly boring. But this is the second time I've been. It's fun!! I've finally started saving money (it takes a few weeks to gather enough coupons for it to work).



Things still haven't gotten far in the unpacking. It's funny because I'm home all day with the girls and somehow don't have any time. The last couple weeks have just been filled with sick children. Like I mentioned, Miranda had her tonsils out. She is finally back to normal. We have her check up this coming Wednesday to see if she's completely healed. Claire and Miranda both got a stomach bug right after Miranda's surgery (this was a house of throw up for several days). Now Claire has RSV! I'm so sick of us always being sick! I thought this was normal because I was always sick growing up, but Gordon said it is NOT normal for a family to be ill this often.

We've Moved... again

Hooray! We have our first house. We actually moved in about two weeks ago. And this is a picture I stole from the listing because I still haven't gone out to take any. Our house is a disaster! I don't understand how people can unpack so fast. It takes me MONTHS... if not years. ;) We are excited, though. We love the neighborhood and the ward. And I love that it is close enough to family to visit (although, eventually we'd like to live even closer).

Ok, I know this is a crappy post. There is actually a lot to catch up on (Miranda had her tonsils out on Tuesday). But I am really tired and I should get Miranda something to eat now that Claire is asleep.

2011

Ok, so there is no excuse for how long it's been since I've posted. I don't know what to say except that I'm REALLY bad at blogging!

A lot has happened since my last post (duh, it's been more than 4 months!). Gordon got a job at Harmon's in Ogden. So we have moved back to Utah! HOORAY!!! He started there at the beginning of October. We've been living in Payson with Gordon's parents, and staying in Draper with my parents a couple nights a week. We're really lucky to have family that has let us do this. Otherwise we would have rented a place and had to sign a year long contract (they wouldn't go any shorter, we asked). Because we didn't have to rent we were able to save up some money and are now trying to buy a house. We're in the process right now. If this goes through we'll be living in Syracuse (about 20 minutes southwest of Ogden).

We had a great time on the last few holidays. Being here is GREAT because we get to see family (there are only five things I miss in Casper: Brianna, Brandon, Braylynn, Brinlee, and the Lime Leaf). For Halloween we wore our Harry Potter costumes again (young Lily, young Snape, and a snitch). I tried to make Claire be the Sorting Hat, but I didn't get the costume done in time. So she was a jack-o-lantern. It was really cute.



Oh yeah, Claire being the jack-o-lantern... she had to wear a corrective helmet for three months. She developed a flat spot on her head because she had a tight neck muscle. She is all done wearing it and everything looks great. She was such a good sport about it.



We were able to spend some time with both families for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go Black Friday shopping because I wasn't feeling well. That has been the biggest downside to moving back home. We have been sick A LOT! It's just because we actually see people here. When we lived in Wyoming we stayed home 99% of the time.

Christmas Eve we had breakfast with Santa with the Meier family. I love this idea! We need to keep doing it. Then we spent Christmas day in Payson with the Hardys. It was really fun to open presents with Braxton and Zach, too. Miranda was so excited this year. She finally understands presents. We spoiled her, just a little... but she has hardly gotten anything from us for Christmas the first two years (probably 1-2 toys each year). So it's ok. haha

Ok, maybe I didn't make it out of the Abyss...

So, apparently I'm really bad at keeping the blog updated. I have to get Gordon to start doing it! He usually remembers to do things online. It seems like the only computer I ever get to use is the laptop because I can't keep Miranda entertained upstairs. =) Miranda, Claire, and I are going to Utah on Monday. I wanted to make one last trip before the deer shop gets really busy. I think I might be too late though. I thought the big hunts didn't start until mid September, but Papa sounded pretty busy the last couple times I've called. =(

The girls are getting SO big! I can't believe how fast they grow up. It's been nice since Brianna moved here. At least Miranda has some friends to play with now. It's nice for me to have someone to hang out with too!

This is very short considering it's been almost 3 months since I posted, but Claire is getting impatient. Gotta go!

Back from the abyss

Ok, so it's only been 5 months since my last post. HAHA I thought I had gotten on here and posted the pictures when Claire was born, but apparently it was only on Facebook. Which is really weird because I hardly ever use Facebook anymore. I am posting this from my laptop so I only have the pictures that I can pull from Facebook. I'll post one here. These were taken the day after Claire (Clarissa Lynn Hardy) was born. She looks a lot different now. She just turned 3 months old.

We moved to Casper, Wyoming, last week. It seems like a nice town, but Gordon is pretty unhappy with his job. There was some miscommunication about the work schedule. We're not sure if it was intentional or accidental. He was told this was a good position for him (as opposed to Grand Junction and Cheyenne... the places we wanted more) because he would have good mentoring here and there would be a lot of overlap hours so he wouldn't be working on his own. Well, now that he's here he's found out that not only will there be no other pharmacist on duty while he working, but there will be a lot of time without a tech as well! Arg! So much for this being a good position for a newbie. We figured the recruiter told him this was a good fit for him because it is such a hard position for them to fill, not because it actually is good for him.

Oh well, at least he is getting experience. He plans on taking the NAPLEX at the end of June and the law exam the next week. He wanted to put it off as long as possible so he could have a little more time working with someone else. He will be by himself as soon as he's certified.

I am feeling so isolated today. Verizon's phone service is down AGAIN. It's happened here (all of Wyoming) before. Maybe it's a good thing... it made me get online and actually update the blog. =)