Beginings

A new and precious member of the family joined us on Dec. 8, 2010. Her name is "Little Miss" for blog readers & for privacy.

A friend of mine took these adorable pictures, this is just a small sampling of the photos she took, she is just staring out and I think she did a great job.

Melanie and Justin choose not to find out if she was to be a girl or boy, so the excitement was tremendous. I took the liberty of being a grandmother and was prepared for either. So little pink dresses, shoes, hair bands and bows were in the baby gift closet just in-case they were needed.

Big brother has adjusted pretty well. Just like Melanie says, It's hard to tell if it's just being two or having to share the attention, but he is a little more emotional and demanding than he was before.

Mel and Justin are great parents, she is blessed to have so many people love her and care for her. We are so grateful she made it here safe and sound and can tolerate all the attention we fight to give her.

Beginings and Endings

I've struggled with what to write. My life has been very complicated in the last 2 1/2 months. With unbelievable joys and sudden sadness, along with lots of worries and some events that expressions can not be given in print.

I'll start with the endings.

Kim's father Donald Lee Hardcastle passed away unexpectedly Sunday, Dec. 19. At McKay Hospital after suffering a dissected aorta. He became ill Sunday morning and went home from church, and when his wife came home from church with a friend, because Don didn't come back to pick her up, she found that he had fallen on the floor, weak, and couldn't get up. After a 911 call and an CT scan it was found he had a very large & long dissection in the aorta.

After the heart surgeon and cardiologist talked they both shared the possible and very poor outcome with the family. He had already gone into renal failure and he was unable to keep any blood pressure without medication. They were honest and blunt with Don and the kids and then the decision was passed to Donto make. He of-course decided that he would not have the surgery.

His wife & kids were able to say good-by, along with my four kids and a few in laws. He was made comfortable with pain medication, BP meds were adjusted and he went to sleep and passed about 7:45pm.

Don didn't have a lot to say, but he made up for it in his actions and love for his family. He loved and cared for his wife and they were together 55 years. Any time there is a loss there is sadness, remembering and pulling together. And most of all there is relying on the Lord and being grateful for his eternal plan for all of his children.

A picture perfect weekend. I'll start with the end of the day and work my way backwards...since that is the way the pictures were layed out. Someday I will figure out the picture thing with blogging, for now .....

The Volcom pumpkin by Jodi and Trevor, I am not sure at all what this has to do with Halloween, but each couple got a pumpkin and no rules were attached.

If you cant figure out what this is and who carved it, then you are not really a member of the family. Gordon...Oh now you know, says this is what he thinks about 24/7, driving, fixing, adding too, and being in...Sorry Jess.

The Love birds. Jodi did all the cleaning and preparing and Trevor claimed he did the hard work...what punching a bunch of holes.
Moms cute and adorable painted pumpkin, no messy pumpkin guts for me.

Now talk about pumpkin guts...Jennie was all into it. Matt came later but Jennie had already finished all the work, but she didn't have the heart to throw any of it away.

Justin did a very detailed and great looking head. I am not sure who it looks like, but you wouldn't want to be alone with this guy.


Melanie and Dad made a fabulous dinner of Chili Verde, it was eaten by all and not a speck was left. They did a great job.

You can see the concentration of the artists at work, Gordon and Jennie kept their plans a secret until their work was begun. Jodi was just hanging waiting for the artiest of her group.

More workers and Hyrum getting an early dinner, now this kid has had a fun and very long Halloween weekend.


Modern and up to date pumpkin carvers can't really do their job without having the Internet available, we actually had 2 lap-tops operating at the same time.

Now for the kid stuff. Hyrum playing and relaxing with Simom in the back yard. Hyrum loves playing and running with Simon. They are so dang cute together.

A healthy treat at grandpas office.
SUPER Y. A reading super hero is Hyrums favorite character and TV show. Melanie was able to find him the costume and he has been delighted to tell everyone that he is super Y. He didn't realize he had a cape or what it is supposed to do, but when he was looking out of the 3 story window at Jodi's bank he said "I jump", so maybe he does know what it's for.

Hyrum with Aunt Jodi at the bank, Jodi was Etch from Toy Story 2. All of Jodi's department dressed as toys from the movie.

Hyrum getting ready for the lout of his short little life time. He quickly learned that a few simple words like "Happy Halloween" and "Trick or Treat" could win him hand-fulls of treats, I am not sure what happened to the full bag either.

The pumpkins before the big slaughter.


Hyrum his mom & his friends moms gave the kids a little Halloween party and I was the only grandma that got invited. They made pictures, had stories, ate treats, made candy necklaces and just ran around and ran around some more.

A cute little raggedy Ann and a little UofU cheerleader.







Super Y---Spider man or men---Buddy---& 3 Rexx

A few light-up-eyeballs to make the season bright, oh wait that's Christmas, well they were just cute and fun to make.


Getting ready for the Party



This is where is all began, making Jodi's very complicated and expensive custom for her work party.

I hope everyone had a fun, family filled Halloween. I am so grateful we could get together and have some fun. Even the 3 cousin dogs came to grandmas for the night. Now onto the next family gathering, Travis's Mission farewell.

25 years is a long time for any relationship. You get used to the way things work, you feel comfortable, the service is what you have come to expect. The office is 2 min. from home, and everybody knows your name...But not any more.

Today I had my regular 6 month dental cleaning appt. Our good friend and great dentist, Dr. Pete(Dr. Peter Christensen) has finally 100% retired. He has been heading in that direction for at least the last 3 years or more. Today his name was off the door, no diplomas on the wall, no sign that says make checks payable to Dr..... The walls and decor were the same, but I couldn't hear his friendly voice or see is smiling face.

Dr. Pete really knew us. He would ask about our family, talk about our jobs, he even tried to get our daughter to date his son a few years back. There was even a rough patch in his life where he was one of my patients.

He was the best dentist a family could ever have. Our kids have only gone to him, they never knew he gave them shots and none of the kids have dentist fears like I do. He would head you to the right person if there was work he couldn't do. He never forgot that when pulling my wisdom teeth there were problems and in the middle of the procedure he personally called my husband told him to come get me and take me to an oral surgeon, who he had already called and made arrangements for me to be seen right way. He would often talk about it and for years he kept apologising.

Melanie has been driving an hour for her appt. since high school. Jodi once, in the middle of an appt. with the new guy, asked if Pete was in the office and wanted to see him and get his opinion he of course came and talked to her. When Matt got a terrible face infection from having his wisdom pulled, from an oral surgeon, he looked at him right away, took a pan0-xray, with charging us called the surgeon, explained the situation and we were seen right away. He is even to blame for Gordon's Valium ear, which is another long story. And every year he would give Kim a free Crest Whitening kit for the auction.

Long story short, we have been very blessed to have such a great family dentist. We are going to miss him and we wish him well.

We also have the same relationship with our family physician...we are a strange bunch.

There has been life since the wedding, and some of those events have photos, and many do not.

The do nots...I had 25 straight days off work, and I pretty much studied 15 straight days of that preparing for my math exam....and I passed. I was so relieved, that I cried waiting to find out and then I cried when I passed, I am now in my last class and hope to finish soon.

Paul Hardcastle had his mission farewell, and I got no shots of the who family or him. He is currently in the MTC headed for South Korea. We pray for his success.

Travis Latham got his mission call and in Nov. will be headed to Taiwan. He is so excited and we are for him too.

Cleaning out closets and cupboards has kind of been my relief from studying, and I love making my DI pile, almost everyday I add to it and it feels great.

I cleaned my craft room and now the little guy has a little big boy bed and the room looks great.

Now for some pictures, there are a lot, but oh well...

The girls and I and Karen went to
Swiss days again this year and had a great time. We each sent our spouses a picture of ourselves surrounded by packages, but none of our men believed any of us when we told them these were all our own.

How-ever the being exhausted part was real.


Jenni was the real tough one, she held most of them at once.

We had a fun time and I got us a really nice Condo in park city for the two nights.

Jess, LeeAnn, Jenni, Karen, Jodi, Melaine.

Jodi and Karen relaxing before we went shopping again.




My cute and ever so helpful tutor, Abby, sent me a fruit bouquet after passing my math test. She was awesome and I was so grateful to have. It tasted fantastic.

Jessica was incharge of Davis county's 5K. So we all tried to support her hard work and went to the race, and then enjoyed a fun breakfast together afterwards. Here are a few too many shots of the morning. This is the little guy after he finished running his race and receiving his medal.



He was so excited to run. He kept telling all of us "I running, I running" just looking at this picture and I can hear him say that. He was so happy all morning, just being outside and the center of all our attention.

Matt and Jenni after the race, I'm not sure what the face is for, but he says it makes photos more interesting, I guess he right.

Mel and the little guy waiting for his race to start.



Karen and Travis coming in, they still look happy.

Matt and Jenni walking fast, they wanted to run, but if you signed up to walk you had to walk, those were the rules.



Trevor, Jodi and Wade after they ran, and you didn't want to get to close to them, as you can tell.



Jodi coming around the last turn.

Here comes Gordon. We cheered for them all.



Justin did well too. I don't remember the order of runners, but they were all happy to finish.

Look at wade go, want a trooper.




This was Jessica starting the race. According to her husband they were both grateful the day and event was finially over. They had a hudge turn out and Matt even run a price at the give a-way.


Smiles and a blue buddy before the race. Buddy didn't run, but he is always near by.

Jess was all smiles before it started, so I don't know what stress Gord was talking about.


The little guy had a sleep over at grandmas and we went to the park and splash pad, but his favorite is the slide and climbing bars.



He is one tough kid, with no fear at all, I guess my fear of him getting hurt makes up for his lack of it. You would never know this kid had been sick for weeks, in the hospital for vomiting and dehydration. Kids bounch back to fast.

I think this is were I started with the wedding stuff. Matt and Jenni opening gifts after the honeymoon. They have a really cute townhouse and seem very very happy, and my family food bill has gone down drasticly and the family room actually is clean all the time. He doesn't seem to be starving, so they must be doing all-right.

Life is busy, I am grateful as always.