Pictures with Santa 2011

(left to right) Brad, Dan, Jed and Jeremiah

In High School, I hung out with a group of guys who were, with the exception of Jeremiah, all from Wallsburg. I loved my Wallsburg boys. Dan, Brad, and Jedd. To this day, I still call Dan's mom "Mom" and his little sister "Sis". Jedd has been one of my best friends since I was 8 years old (and was my childhood "Love of my Life"). Brad was always the goofy friend you could depend on for a laugh. Brad passed away in a car accident back in 2002. I still have a love for his family (whom I've sort of adopted as extended family). His older sister and brother-in-law are some of my parents best friends and we have vacationed with them several times. They are often invited to family functions. I've always loved Brad's Mom and Dad. They just have a wonderful goodness about them.

Brad's Dad (Dale) moonlights as Santa. Who knew?! I mean, I knew they moved to Alaska, but who knew that all this time, back in the day, I was hanging out at the REAL Santa's house?! This year for my family's Christmas Party, which almost always includes extra family and friends who are also considered "family", Santa Dale came.


When Santa Dale came in, ringing his bells, all of the kids had the "HOLY CRAP!" look on their face. Most ran out of the room and hid. :) It was really cute / funny. They were all in shock that the REAL Santa made a stop at THEIR party. They all eventually came around. Except Archer.


Archer ran outside. He was running around the house and we couldn't figure out what he was doing. Then when Jeremiah convinced him to come inside, he went into my parents bathroom, sat in the tub and started bawling. I went in to talk to him because he was so upset. When I got him calmed down enough that he could talk, I asked him what was wrong. He said that he just wanted to know if that was the REAL Santa or not. And when he went outside, he couldn't see a sleigh or the reindeer, but that he looked real. After about 10 minutes with Archer, he finally trusted me that it was the REAL Santa and how we could tell was that he has a real beard. The fake Santa's all have the cotton pretend beards, but ours - he was the real deal. Even when he approached Santa, you ccould see the fear. He wouldn't really talk to him at first. And when he did, he was nervous. Afterwards, though, Archer was glowing. Because he met the REAL Santa. (Thanks, Santa Dale.) :)


(I apologize for the pictures - they were taken with my camera phone. The lighting wasn't great, there was something fuzzy on my lens, etc...)

Picture Overload

I thought I would post some collage pictures of some of the fun things we've been doing... And some of the "daily life" pictures as well... :)

DarTanion's Every Morning Hair :)
He's growing it out like Dad's...


Kaylee and Robyn's new outfits,
courtesy of Grandpa Sherrill


Riding the Thomas the Train while at the Train Expo


Mr. Fluffypants,
our evil-looking (yet fun-loving and gentle) 13lb. cat


Archer with the giant Nut Cracker @ Temple Square
(he LOVES nut crackers)


Robyn made herself a bath in the kitchen sink :)


Family Sleepy Time Pictures


Riding the Train @ the Mall

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Those are just a few pictures of some of our happenings here @ the Hardman House. :) More posts soon!

Creative Kid :)

Earlier this month, Archer won a Character Counts award for "Imagination". Jeremiah and I were there for the assembly and when they announced what the theme for the month was, we both laughed. Archer was a shoe-in for this award. There is no kid quite as creative / imaginative as this little guy that we have ever met (and his teachers all agree)! He was SO excited to win. He said that when he saw us at the assembly, he knew it was either him or Tanion that had won something, so he crossed his fingers and toes and hair, hoping that it was him. ;) Cute little guy.


Speaking of using his imagination and creating things, Archer has wanted to build a robot for a while now. Grandma and Grandpa Hardman were aware of this and bought the coolest present for Christmas. It was a make-your-own Tin Can Robot. Archer had been begging to build the robot, so Jeremiah finally sat down and took an afternoon to build it with him. Jeremiah helped, but we made sure that Archer did a lot of the work himself.


This lovely little tin can robot (whom Archer named Gary) will walk around slowly, but surely on the kitchen table or floor. :) Archer is super proud of his "invention". :) Now, if only Fred (Archer's new imaginary friend who gets the blame for everything bad) will leave it alone!!!

Things from 2011 that I never posted...

I didn't do a lot of posting in 2011 and since my whole family is still asleep and I have the day off, let's start 2012 off right with looking back at 2011!!

Archer's SMOLDER face (from Tangled)... Not bad!

Robynson's first day of Preschool
She loves it and has a great teacher!
We love that school!

DarTanion is in Scouts and has already got his Bobcat :)

My parents gave us a trampoline. The boys can now do flips (yay, more broken bones to come!) and Robyn just loves to bounce. Everyone had fun when we spent the night outside on the trampoline on Labor Day weekend.

Halloween is one of our favorite Holidays. Robyn had 3 different costumes (a butterfly, Thomas the Train, and a sandbox - her idea). Archer was the cutest Harry Potter you ever will see. DarTanion was a guy from the movie TRON. Jeremiah helped to make Tanion's costume (out of an old costume and orange duct tape!)

Our family at our Ward Halloween Costume.

DarTanion went hunting with Grandpa Sherrill. This kid has never been so excited to be awake at 5am!

This is just a great picture of the kids playing together in the dirt circle (the lawn under where the tenants pool was this year). Robyn got covered and Miah was getting ready to put her in the shower to wash off some of the dirt. He had to take a picture because when he took off her shirt, you could see the line where the dirt ended (at her sleeves). She really WAS covered!

This is just because I LOVE the bottom of Robyn sticking out her tongue. SO HER and SO FUNNY!

The day before our first family Christmas party of 2011, we realized that we didn't have a typical "cute picture of all 3 kids" for the Christmas cards. So we ran out to the park near by (in 35° weather) and made the kids smile for pictures. These are a few of my favorites of all 3 together.

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Anyway, I just wanted to post a few so that there was some of 2011 documented for the world (and family) to see. Love you all!

New Idea for the New Year...

Since I have been REALLY great at NOT posting anything on the blog this last year, I've decided to try and be better. My new Bloggy Goals for 2012 are:
*Each blog post doesn't need to have a picture (though it probably will).
*Each blog post doesn't have to have a HUGE story (though some might).
*Each blog post doesn't have to have a story for each picture (though they might).

Instead, I'm just going to try to post things that I love. Like a little story from one of the kids that I don't want to forget. Or a picture that is just wonderful. That way, you still get to see a little snippet from our lives - exciting or not (and whether I have "time" or not!)

We'll see if that will help us end up more than our whole 20-ish posts from last year!

Loves!
~The Hardman Family

Happy Halloween!!!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Just incase the video doesn't work:
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/aaeH4w16y3w4b9Nf

MONARCH WINNER IS:

A very sleepy Archer came out just as I was getting ready to draw the name from the paper bag (sorry, couldn't find a hat), so I let him be the "picker" for the contest.... And the name he drew is....

PAUL!

Congrats to you, Paul! :) I'll need your address so that I can send it off to the publishing company so they can mail it out to you!

Thanks to all who signed up. I do have a copy of Monarch that you can borrow, if you would like. OR you can purchase it now at Amazon!