IN Harders

Finally a new update

2010-08-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

Adam took Chance to the first Preseason Colts game this yr! Boy did they have fun!!!

Adam was able to take both Chance and Avery to the Colts Football Camp. It was HOT!!!! But everyone had a great time!!

Avery got to meet the Cheerleaders!!!!!

Nothing like an icee to cool you down on a 95 degree day!!!

First Soccer game of the season. Chance scored a goal and everything!!!!

Water on his head to cool off after the game!!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! My photos are backwards and I don't want to switch them all around, so here you go!

Avery's class room!!

Avery at her desk!!!

Waiting outside to go in on the first day of school!!!

Chance getting on the bus!

Finally th ebus is here!!

Family photo on the first day of school! Don't look at me so much, as usual I look crazy or something!

The Harders waiting for Chance's bus to come!!!

CHance and Avery, First Day of School 2010 Chance is in 2nd grade and Avery is in the big K!!!

Chance on his first day of seconf grade!

Avery and Brooke!! Avery is 4 and Brooke is 18m.

Avery on her first day of school!!!!!

2010-04-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

I AM NOT TIRED!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so maybe I was a little tired!

Weekend fun!

2010-03-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Here is Brooke entertaining herself with balloons on the way home from Ohio. Too Cute!!!

Brooke made herself at home in Nana's toy drawer!!!

We girls had a little makeup fun with Avery and Carmen. Aren't we pretty!!????

Happy 7th Birthday Chance!!!!

Tavi is having fun!!!!

Chance read us all of his cards!!! I was SO proud!

Love the shirt! Read it! Get it??? Harder!!!! HAHAHA!!!!

Tavi and her beautiful Mama!!!!!

The kids feeling the next cousin moving around!!!!!

Odds and ends

2010-03-25T12:44:00.001-07:00

Look how curly Brooke's hair is!!!!

GO COLTS!!!!

Princesses swimming in the bathtub!!!

March

2010-03-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

For Chance's 7th birthday, we let him have five friends over for a party. Here are some of the festivities!!!

This is Brooke, shortly after all the boys arrived. As you can tell, she is LESS than happy!!! HAHA!!!

Look at me! I can go up the steps all by myself!!!!

Happy St. Patrics day!!!

My baby girl with her baloons and flowers that Aunt Jo and Uncle Brad sent after her surgery!!!!

One ALREADY!!!!

2010-02-10T10:30:00.001-08:00

My little goof-ball loves to climb in her drawer of toys!!!!!

One day, I'm getting dinner ready. Brooke is playing in my drawers and such. I turn around to discover that she must be a hungery girl.........

Yes, she is eating a raw potatoe!!!!!! Doesn't her mommy feed her????? Mother of the year, I tell ya!!!!!

My baby is 1 year old!!! Here are photos of her first birthday party!! Thanks to all who braved the terrible roads to celebrate with us, and to those who could not make it, we missed you!!!!

The food spread... Thanks to gramma who supplied most of the food!!!!! French Hunters Dinner ROCKS!!!!!!!

The birthday girl with her prizes.

She liked the cards!!!

Cupcake paper!!!!

The crowd...

Thanks for the books!!!

Brooke with JD, the big red dog.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

2010-01-18T13:10:00.001-08:00

Avery's hair had too many dead ends and was really unhealthy, so I cut it. I was only planning on 3-4 inches but ended up taking ALOT more off due to her moving and making my cut uneven... It looks really cute and I'm hoping that the curls come back!!!

Winter

2010-01-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

Sledding fun!!!
Adam, Avery, Chance, and even Brooke took to the slopes! Mom took pictures!!!

Fixing Brooke's gloves. She did not know why I put those dumb things on and shook her hands till she finally got one off!!!

I love this photo of Bubba!!!

First time down the hill for Brooke!!!

Ready, Set, Race!

Ave is a snowbunny!!

Cheer started this past weekend. Here is Avery in her outfit!!! She did a great job!!!!

Sorry, no photos of the basketball star. Our camera just does not take good photos in the Gym. I guess for my birthday I'll be asking for a new camera!

Christmas, Harder-style! Check out all the kids!!!! L to R, Chance (6), Brooke (10m), Nolan (1), Kellen (3), Jeremy (2), Jillian (1), Carmen (4), and Avery (4).

Christmas Eve in their new jammies.

Avery on Santa's lap on Chrstmas Eve. Santa came to the fire station in town to get all the kids last minute requests. Funny thing is that my kids couldn't remember anything they wanted!!HAHAHAHA!

Chance's turn!

Brooke did NOT like santa =(

You'd think we were taking Avery to get a shot or something! She does not look very happy to see Santa.

Chance was SO excited because Brooke wanted to sit on his lap. She got comfy and fell asleep. He said "I've never put a baby to sleep before!!"

Brooke brushing her. She LOVES to brush her hair, eventhough she hardly has any!

They really DO like each other!

2009-11-25T11:26:00.000-08:00

Princess Avery. Beautiful as ever!!!
Chance.... being Chance.

My little pumpkin. She is SO CUTE!!!!

Playing with daddy!!!

My son, in time-out, who knew........

I'm out of here mom!!!!

My girlfriend and her little girl came for a visit. We had a blast. Here are some randoms of our visit.

TOO PRETTY!!!!!

Brooke's Chore!

Yes, it is true, as soon as you can stand, you are given chores to do!

Halloween Fun!

2009-11-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from Halloween 2009!!!

Here are some papermache pumpkinsm that the kids and I made! We had tons of fun and they turned out great! Can't wait to decorate withe them next year!

Our little beauty queen. Check out the pose! Nana, this is the shirt we got when we took back the one purple horse shirt you bought Avery for her birthday!

This is a photo of Brooke that out littl camera girl Avery took!

Chance with his trick-or-treat candy! Check out his missing tooth!!

Avery with her pile of goodies!!!

My little cow enjoying her very first sucker!!! Look how happy she is!

The kids before we set out trick-or-treating!!!

Avery in her Wonder Woman pose.

For halloween dinner Avery and I made little mummies to eat! Hers is on the left and mine is on the right!

Avery made the bottom left three (could you tell??)

Chance's new smile! A little Jack-o-Lantern face, just in time for Halloween!!!

Fall Fun!!

2009-10-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Fall has been very busy thus far! Here is a sample of some of our FUN!
Avery had her Haloween party at school. Isn't she CUTE!!!! The little boy next to her is Logan. Her teacher is trying to play match maker! By the way Avery is standing, I think she may think he is cute!!!!

This is Avery's pumpkin. It is Scooby Doo if you can't tell.

Chance's pumpkin!

Avery with her pumpkin before we carved it. It was a cool looking one!!

The kids are playing Monster with daddy! Brooke is helping dad be the monster!

Brooke on the trampoline!

Eating a leaf! Yummy!!!

Crawling to get the leaf!

This is "safe" when playing monster!

CHILDREN"S MUSEUM

Chance outside the Children;'s Museum in Indy!

Isn't that cool????

Dad and Avery on the Carrousel.

Brooke playing at the museum.

Avery was super excited by the doll houses!!!

Brooke was such a good girl. Just rode around and played with her toys!!!

In the submarine.

LEAF FUN!!!

2009-10-08T12:36:00.000-07:00

2009-08-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

Weekend Fun

2009-07-13T08:42:00.001-07:00

The kids have been given chores to do everyday. For doing their chores, they get an allowence. The kids got to go shopping with their money this weekend. This was Chance's big purchase! He told me that if he saw a robber, he could use the bow to shot the purse out of his hand! So ladies, we can feel confident that our purses will be safe!
He's aiming for you, purse snatchers!!!

This is how Brooke like to sleep. She pulls her banket over her face! Too funny!!!

This is a photo Avery took of Chance. I thought it was cute!

Chance and Avery had fun doing mommy's hair! Don't I look great?? Once they were done with my hair, Chance did Avery's. Very pretty!!!

A close up, so you can see that I had a VERY pretty do.

Another great photo......

Brooke is now 5 months old, I know, hard to believe... So we started feeding her cereal. SHE LOVES IT!!!!! My new nickname for her is piglet!!! Here is some of her first bites!!!

Chance and Avery made cookies with the sitter the other day, so I gave one to Brooke to see what she would do with it. Lets just say she liked it!

Eating cookies is serious business!!!

Watch this video. She licks the cookie to death!!!!

New Floor

2009-07-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

After much debate, we decided to replace our kitchen floor. The old flooring was cheap and nasty, and ALWAYS looked dirty. Adam had last week off, so this was one of his projects.

Here are the finished photos!!! I LOVE my new floor! Great job honey!!!!

Summer Fun

2009-07-09T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos of Brooke and Tavi! Too cute! They are growing so fast! Please note Brooke's pony tail! I was able to pull five hairs together and make a hair do!!!

Tavi got baptised this past weekend! Not the best photo of Jo and Brad (sorry), but check out Tavi's outfit!!! It was beautiful!!!!

Tavi with dad, mom, aunt Jessi (sorry not sure how she spells it)her god mother, and Brandon, her god father.

This is the fourth of July at Nana's and Papa's. Everyone is around the table singing. Jillian is in the middle of it all and LOVING it!!!

Great Grandma with her youngest great grand daughter!!! We love you grandma!!!

Brooke hanging out in the sling! I love this thing! EVERYONE who has a baby needs one!!!!

The two dress-up queens eating aunt Kathy's puppy chow!!!

Aunt Kathy, Avery, and Uncle Barry at the end of a Gator ride!

2009-06-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

Brooke is taking her last nap in her snuggly! She finally out grew it and Ihad to take that feature of the pack-n-play down!

We dug out the high chair. Before we know it, Brooke willbe eating baby food!!! The time is just flying by!!!

The next couple of photos where taken to show my poor baby's roseolla rash. You can't see it very well, but she looked aweful!

This is Brooke's corner of the girl's room. I think it turned out cute!

Another view.

My little muscle man!!! Isn't he cute! He looks just like his daddy!!!!!!

On fathers day, we filled some water balloons and had an attack on dad! These are the photos of the attack. Unfortunatly all the balloons bounced off Adam's chest and popped on the ground!

Fathers Day photo!

This was Adam's slice of the strawberry pie that I made for fathers day. The kids put sprinkles on it to make it special!

Brooke in her little chair! She loves to sit up now! She HAS to know what is going on around her, or she gets mad!

She loves to look at the toys, but hasn't figured out that you can play with them! HAHA!

This photo is for Uncle Brent. Avery loves her hat and wore it shopping with her favorite dress! Pretty, don't you think!!!!

Avery slaving away doing the dishes. She thinks that it is "FUN", so I figured I would let her do some before she figures out that doing dishes is no fun at all!!!

Here is Brooke wearing the ring that Aunt Jo made her for her baptism. In the prior photos you can see that she is wearing it, if you know to look for it. So I wanted to have photos showing her wearing it, to prove that she was actually able to wear the tiny ring!!!

2009-06-17T08:31:00.000-07:00

Our sweet babe got baptized this weekend! Thanks to all who came and to Rachel and Leah for being god parents!!!! You all mean so much to us!
Aunt Rachel and Brooke!

Aunt Leah and Brooke!

Brooke with her Godmothers!!!!

All of us.

Here is my sweet niece Tavi!!! Way too Cute!!!!

Aunt Doris holding Brooke! What a great photo!!!

On saturday, we girls went to a tea luncheon at Leah's church. It was a ton of fun and the food was great!!!!! Thanks so much for inviting us!!!!!!

This is Jillian at the luncheon! Isn't she adorable!!!!!!!

This was our table. Leah did a great job decorating!!!! It was a rooster/sunflower theme! You can't see them, but Leah made delicious deserts, fruit pizza, lemon bars, and cheesecake! Lets just say, it didn't help in the efforts to loose the left over baby weight!!!! HAHA!

This was the "princess table". All the little girls dressed up as princesses and ate at this fancy table.

My beautiful Princess!!!

This is Leah's sister-in-law Jessica seating princess Carmen and princess Avery!

The two Princesses!!!!

And may I mention best friends!

This is Brooke all dressed up for the luncheon!!! She was excited to go, can you tell???

Here is a short video of my babe!

Odds and Ends

2009-06-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

Brooke has decided that she LOVES to stick out her tounge. She does it all day long. So here is a snap shot of her new favorite activity.
Avery looked so pretty yesterday, I told her to stand like a model and smile pretty. This was the result!

Here she is sitting like a princess.

Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE photos of sleeping babies. So here is another photo of my sleeping baby!!! Look at those ham hocks!!!

This was just too funny NOT to post!!! I LOVE IT!

Summer Fun

2009-06-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well we dug out the trampoline this weekend. Here are a few snap shots of the kids having some fun.

Brooke really thought this was an interesting thing to watch....

Avery was not wearing her sunday best like last year, but she did jump in her skirt!

Brooke is getting to be such a big girl! She rolled over for the first time on thursday, and now she likes to be on her belly!

Look how proud she is of her self!!!!!!!

Tavi

2009-06-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

These are my two jelous goofballs!! I was too busy taking photos of Tavi and Brooke, so these two needed their photos taken too!!!

Like I said, Goofballs!!!

Here is the little princess, Tavi!!! She is SOOO SWEET!!!!!

Jo and Tavi!! Too sweet together!!!

And now the two future best friends... and crib fighters......

In one corner straight from a diaper change...... Brooke Harder

In the other corner, straight from nap time..... Tavilynn Dillender

Although smaller, Tavi thinks she can take on the Brookester with this sucker punch...

But as you can see in this photo, Brooke knocked her out cold.... Match one goes to BROOKE!!!

Memorial Day Weekend!!!

2009-05-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

Chance and Brooke! Neither very happy about the photo op.Here is Brooke with Chance and Kellen!

All Eight!!!! Chance, Brooke, Avery, Carmen, Nolan, Kellen, Jillian, and Jeremy!!!!!

All eight again!

My sweet Brooke!

Brooke and Nolan checking out what was going on outside!

Sissies in matching outfits!

Aren't they cute!!!!!

Brooke playing with her swing toys!

Jillian happy to look at bubbles!!!

Chance, Mom, and Avery swimming!!

A rare photo of mom and Brooke!!!

Another rare photo!

We celebrated Jeremy's 2nd birthday and aunt Rachel gave Avery these boots. As you can see they where a hit and we HAD to where them with our bathing suit!

Here is Jeremy with one of his favorite presents!!!!

Birthday cake time!!!!!

Here are the kids before the party! They just could not wait for the party to begin!!!!!

Kellen playing with Brooke. Nolan wishing someone would get him out!!!!!

Brooke asleep in her snuggle.

Chance at bat. He is playing coaches pitch and is doing VERY good!!!

Here is Chance explaining why he needs to wear a helmet....

Chance's biggest fans at the game!!!!

Throwing a ball, notice the crouching technique.......

This time we are using the standing technique.

Adam went on the zoo trip with Chance. This is dad with all the kids before they left.

This is Brooke checking herslf out..... Too Cute!!!!

Brooke with her big brother!!!!!!

Nana came to help out one week when our sitter was on vacation. Here she is reading to the kids! Thanks Nana!!!!

2009-05-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

Brooke waving HI!!!!

SMILE BIG, BABY!!!

We turned on some music the other day and Avery decided to boogie down! Check her out!

Here she is all done and very proud of her skills!

Isn't she too cute!!! Brooke is hugging her bunny blanket!!!!!

Here is the Chanceman jumping off the diving board at swim lessons! Fun for him, not so much for mom!!!

Here is a little clip of my happy little Brooke.

Misadventures of Avery

2009-05-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

While at preschool today, Avery fell and split her chin. The teachers felt she might need stiches, so I took her to the doctor. Here she is gettingout of the van for her appt.

Here she is waiting for her appointment. As you can tell, she really wasn't too upset or in too much pain.

Here she is getting preped for the glue. Luckily she did not requier actual stiches. It was a close call, but luckily it was small enough to be glued.

Here is the doctor getting ready to fix her up. What a brave girl!!!!!!

And here we are, all fixed up and happy!!!

And here is the finished product. A new scare very close to old one where she busted her chin the first time 2 years ago.

A little bit of everything!

2009-05-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

My strong men!!! Chance is alway talking about getting BIG muscles like daddy. It is Very cute!

See that big bicept???

Brooke is now big enough to sit for short times in her little chair (it is like those bumbo seats, but better!) Thanks gramma and grumpa, it is a hit!

Check out my happy girl! Can you see the mohawk???

This one needs an explination. Avery had been outside eating one of those lick-a-stick candy things. We had put the sugar in a bowl for her and it was a warm day with a breeze. Her face got sweaty and the breeze blew the sugar on her face! And this was the result. She was not happy with me for interupting her while she was talking to Papa!

Here is just another photo of Brooke! Too cute, if you ask her mama!!!

I was trying to get a picture of her being a big girl sitting all by herself, and Chance was a goofball and jumped in the photo! Too cute not to post!

Another big girl shot, but this time she kinda looks like a little worm! I LOVE it!

We were SO lucky this year that my older brother Brent was home for Easter!!! The kids thought Uncle Brent was a lot of fun!!!! Of course he is not around much and has not mastered the art of saying NO!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Here is Brooke in her easter dress. Thanks Aunt Leah, Uncle Jon, Carmen, Kellen, and Nolan!!! She was way too cute in her fancy dress!!!!!

All three of my adorable kids on Easter 2009!!!!

Uncle Brent with Brooke.

This is my dad's cat KC checking out Brooke.

Dad, KC, and Brooke. KC is trying his best to get in between "his" Rob and that baby thing that Maribeth brought!! HAHA.

Uncle Brent read many book to the kids over the weekend! Thanks Uncle Brent!!

Uncle Brent was also a lot of fun to snuggle with to watch cartoons!!!

2009-03-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

Family of FIVE!!!

2009-03-03T07:08:00.000-08:00

Gramma and Grumpa stayed a whole week to help mommy with all the kids! What a HUGE help! Thanks!!!!!!!

Brooke is so sweet when she sleeps, well she is actually sweet no matter what she does!!!!!

Finally Brooke and mommy got to leave the hospital and go home!!!

Big brother Chance is SO happy Brooke is home!

So is big sister Avery!!!

Mommy is SO MEAN! She gave Brooke a bath! She did not like it at all!!!!!

After the bath she was all comfy in her towel!

Finally all dressed and looking a little wormlike! Look how big my eyes are!!!

Visitors!!!!

2009-02-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

Aunt Bethie had a ton of little visitors!!!!!!! I had Chance, Carmen, Avery, Kellen, Jeremy, Nolan, and Jillian all over for a visit!!! (Plus Aunt Leah, Uncle Jon, Aunt Rachel, Nana, Papa, Gramma, and Grumpa!)
Here I am with all my visitors!! You can't really see Nolan, but her was there too!

Our first family of five photo!!!

Aunt Joleen and Uncle Brad came out to check out our new bundle!!! Aunt Jo will be having a baby girl in April, so I'm sure these two girls will be best buddies, just like Carmen and Avery are!

2009-02-23T08:26:00.000-08:00

Chance holding his new baby sister!!!!

Now it is Avery's turn!!!

And finally, Daddy's turn!!!

Baby #3

2009-02-23T07:07:00.000-08:00

Here are the two big kids waiting for the arrival of their new baby sister!!!!!!!!!

The first glimps of our princess, Brooke Alyssa!!!!!!

Mommy finally gets to meet her little girl!!!!

Here is the classic first photos of baby with the goopy eyes, swelled face, and double chin! Even with all that, we think she is beautiful!!!!

Daddy spreading the good news, and big brother Chance checking out his new baby sister!!!

2009-01-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

Theses two are photosof Joleen and I at Christmas. We are roughly 9 weeks apart.

These two are us at Thanksgiving!!

Photos from our ice storm. It took out a few good chuncks of a few of our trees, as you will see in the next photos.

COOKIES!!!!!!!! These are our X-mas cookies. My grandma Hanck's recipe. YUMMY.

I frosted and Adam and the kids decorated. We let the kids be creative. Lets just say the cookies were loaded with tons of sugar and candies!!!

They took their jobs very seriously!!!!

I know I look hot! No need to comment on that!!!

Here are the kids helping to mail out the Christmas cards. For those of you who took our address off of the return lable, I'm sorry but that was my work address and not our home address. We did not move. I got the lables free and they were very pretty, so we used them. It wasn't until we were almost done with the cards that Adam looked at them and showed me that they had the wrong address on them. If you need my correct address, let me know and I will e-mail it to you.

Christmas

2009-01-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

At Chance's school they had a breakfast with Santa. Here are the photos from that. Avery LOVED Santa!!!! Chance liked him too, but just not as much as Av.

Chance and Avery made a craft for each of their god-parents. They had a TON of fun making them, so I hope you god-parents liked them!!!

This is our photo from the X-mas card we sent out this year. If you didn't get one, sorry, my pregnant mind doesn't work as well as my non-prego brain. HAHA!!

2008-11-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

Trick or Treat!!! Here are just some photos from Halloween!!!! Enjoy!

This is uncle Danny and Blake.

Lauren and Emily.
Look at all the candy!!!!

And all of Av's Candy!!!

So much it hardley fit in Chance's pumpkin, and didn't all fit in Av's!!!!

Chance took this self photo of him and Av. Turned out pretty cute!!

This is a photo from Chance's 1st Halloween party!

Mommy at about 25 weeks!! Less than 15 weeks to go!!!

This is Chance's new buddy, Reuben. The new sitter, Darla has this dog and he and Chance love each other!!! They are best buddies!!

Here our our carved pumpkins. Could not get them to turn out very good, but I think you will get the idea.

Cinderella....

Ghost...

Spooky tree

Sleeping Beauty

Pumpkin Carving. I Shoulkd have posted these before the lite up photos, o-well, you get the idea.

Dad and Av working hard.

Avery had fun pulling all the junk out.

Mom clenaing out Chance's green pumpkin!

Here is Chance's idea of helping... Hummmm reminds me of the other male in my household. I wonder where he learned this....

This photo was taken by Chance, he is our newest photogrpher.

We went as a family to a farm that holds an annual farm festival in the Fort Wayne area. We went on a night that did not have all the extra activities going on, but still had a blast as you can see!

Here is daddy and his monsters.

Mom with all three kids!

Avery is poseing with her favorite giant pumpkin!

Chance and Av found a new friend!

Chance and his favorite giant pumpkin!

This was a very cool hut built out of corn stalks! It had bails of hay inside to sit on. It had windows and everything. A grownup could stand once inside. The kids had fun playing in it!

Peek a boo kids!!!

A trip to a local orchard (in Ohio) for a day of fun. This Avery, mommy, Grumpa, Joleen, and Chance.

The kids having fun.

More jumping fun.

Feeding the goats, super fun!

Feeding the goats some more. Thanks everyone for going with us. We had a blast!!!

The cheeseball at one of Adam's ball games.

Coach Harder working hard.

Avery at daddy's game.

Here is Avery with a very hungry Jillian.

Here is a much happier Jillian. Too CUTE!!!

Here is big cousin Chance holding Jillian all by himself!!!

2008-11-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

All the big"kids" swinging at the park near Rachel's house.

Chance mid slide.

My little cutie nephew Jeremy!

Avery and Jeremy Playing.

Avery with her new cousin, Jillian.

First day of school!!!!!

2008-08-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

How is it even possible that my baby boy is old enough to go to kindergarden??? I am just at a loss! It seems like yesterday I brought home this tiny, screaming baby, and now he is in all day school!!!!! AGHHHHH!!!! How did this happen????
Ok, so I'm happy that my boy is growing, and yes, he is MORE than ready for the challenges of school, but it is just hard to believe! Do you know where I'm coming from???? Well anyway, Chance is now in kindergarden. He gets on the bus at daycare with 4 of his friends. They are the last kids picked up and literally are on the bus less than 5 minutes. After school he rides the bus back to daycare and is there for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. So far he is loving school and really likes his teacher, Mrs Smith. Now come on, how many of us had a Mrs Smith for our teacher??? Probably everyone!!!! So anyway all is good. I'm adjusting to having a grown up school aged boy and am not crying anymore every time I think of him in class!! (It's the hormones, don't roll your eyes!!!!) HAHAHA. Of course it doesn't make me feel much younger, Avery started preschool this past monday! I have 2 school aged kids!!!!! Anyway, on to the photos!!!

Here is Chance and Avery on the back steps on the first day of school! Yes Avery had to bring her backpack too, eventhough she didn't start school that day!!!

This is the fab 4!! The four daycare kids that all ride the bus together. Grace, Caleb, Chance, and Brenden!!!!

Here is Darla, the daycare director walking the duckies across the street to get on the bus!!! I know she would be very happy with me for putting a picture of her rear on my blog! NOT!!!

Crossing the street....

Waiting to get on the bus....

Boarding the bus...

Waving at mommies and daddies...

And now getting on.

Here the kids are walking to their classrooms!!! Look how big they look!!!

This is Chance's class. I am carrying the 10pounds of schhol supplies he needed for school. His backpack had 2 empty folders in it!
Chance at his seat!
His name at his seat!
We are waiting for his teacher to come and tell us all about school!!!

This is a whole room shot of all of us mommies and daddies and kids in class.

This was the class' first story time. They read a story about a raccoon's first day of school. Yes I cried, don't laugh! Chance is being blocked by the kid ib the red shirt. Chance was VERY excited about story time.

These are not school photos. But we went to Biaggies, one of our favorite places to eat and these photos where too cute not to post!!!!

Welcome to the family Nolan Riley!!!!

2008-08-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

Here he is! Nolan Riley Bickelhaupt!!!!! Born 8-8-08! 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 inches long! Welcome to the family!!!!!! Here are the proud parents!!! Good job guys, he is a keeper!!!! Look at all that hair!!!!!!! Daddy holding his little man for the first time!!! Nana and Nolan meet for the first time! Aunt Bethie just had to see his whole little body!!!!!!!
Avery is very excited about meeting and holding her brand new cousin Nolan!
Chance could hardly wait for his turn to hold his cousin!!! Sure does make Chance seem HUGE!!!!

Finally aunt Rachel got her turn to hold Nolan!
Uncle Adam's turn! Here is Carmen meeting her new baby brother for the first time! What a great big sister she is!! Then it was Kellen's turn to meet his baby brother! "look, I found his nose!" The three kids getting to know each other!One of the first family photos! What a cute family!!!!!

Say hi to aunt Kathy!!! Look at all his hair!!!
Papa and Nolan finally get to meet!
Here are all of Nana's and Papa's grandkids, minus the two that have not been born yet! Left to right, Jeremy (1), Carmen (3), Nolan(1 day), Kellen (2), Chance (5), and Avery (2).

Uncle Adam is SO fun to play with!!! Get me next!!!!Avery is down, time to catch the next one!Run faster, he is going to get you!!!I'm not sure what the girls are doing here, but ut was too funny not to post!Nothing like wearing a dress to teach your dad not to leave you with nana for the afternoon!!!!
Jeremy found a pine cone and was just so serious as he checked it out! TOO CUTE!!!!!! This photo is special for Jon H! Yes your wife is eating a brat, not a veggie brat, or even a turkey brat! It is the real deal. She ate the whole thing and LOVED every bite!!!!
Jeremy with his first corn on the cob!
Hey mom, let me try!
Yum, yum!!!!!

Finally, another post!

2008-07-22T15:48:00.001-07:00

Over the 4th of July weekend, Chance, Papa Lee, and Uncle Lynn went fishing! Chance caught a bunch! Here is Chance and papa cleaning the fish he caught!
Here is chance holding one of his whoppers!!! Like his dad, he is a little squimish around the fish, so he had to wear gloves to hold it.
Here is my little fishes swimming at papa's and nana's!
More Swimming!!!

A few weeks ago we had the Bickelhaupt family out for a visit! Boy did we have fun playing with Chance's train set!!!!
Avery and Carmen were dress-up queens!!! Carmen was having a blast playing with the trains too! Who said trains were for boys!!!!
Here is a future Buckeye!!! Kellen was smiling and showing off till I got the camera out. Then he put a mean face on.

Aunt Deb, Uncle Randy, Megan, and Ryan came out to one of Chance's last ball games this year. I promised to make them all part of my blog, so here yougo!!!! Thanks so much for coming to the game, it made Chance feel super special to have more than just mom,dad, and sissy there!!!!
Here is Chance and his buddy Mason with their medals they got for playing tee-ball. We've missed Mason ever since ball ended! Mason was in daycare with Chance, but since his mom is a teacher, he gets to stay home this summer!! We miss you! See you at Kindergarten!!!

My mom and I LOVE cake!!! And I'll use whatever excuse I can to go out and buy a yummy cake! Well with Chance's tee-ball, and all of our spring/summer busy-ness, I missed mothers day with my mom and my mom and dad's wedding anniversary. It worked out that we were going to be home on the 1 year anniversary of my parent's car accident, so I bought a cake to commemorate all the special occasions!
My humor is a little sick, but we got cake out of the deal, so no-one complained!

We recently moved Avery into a new bedroom. She used to share with Chance, but they were starting to talk more than sleep, so we moved her into our old guest room. Here are a few photos of here new digs!!!! In the first photo, Chance has some fake nasty looking teeth in his mouth and is giving Av some bunny ears! Always the jokester!!!

Tee Ball Foulies

2008-06-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

As you can see, words can't describe how Chance runs the bases after hitting a "Home Run." Be sure to watch the video carefully, as there are multiple things that occur to laugh at. Enjoy!

Chance's Pre-school Graduation

2008-05-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

Chance is lined up and ready to start the procession for his graduation.

Chance and his class singing a song for crowd and giving the "yes sir" signal.

After Chance received his diploma, in his "Superman" fashion, he leaped in the air with excitement. Too bad they still don't do this for Toyota commercials, the crowd loved it.

Chance, his buddy Caleb, and Nanna getting ready to go have cake and punch.

The pre-school grad, Chance, now ready for Kindergarten.

Dad and Chance sharing the moment!

Chance and Papa smiling big after the ceremony.

Chance letting Avery know what it feels like to be a grad! What a good big brother!

Trip to Pittsburgh and Jeremy's 1st bday

2008-05-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

For memorial day weekend the IN Harder's traveled to Pittsburgh to visit the Haigh's new house and celebrate Jeremy's 1st Birthday!
Here is a photo of the cakes, getting ready for the big celebration!

Jeremy getting to dig into his 1st Birthday cake!!!

Opening gifts was a fun time for all. Chance was especially excited to see that Jeremy now has "Superman" pj's like he does!

All of the cousins, from left to right Avery (behind Rachel), Ben, Carmen, Lindsay, Jeremy, Julia, Ashton, and Kellen.

After all the excitement, Kellen, Carmen, and Chance laid down to watch a movie together.

Jeremy and Kellen going for their first "road trip" together...as you can see Kellen's shirt says it all!

In the backyard, Ben, Chance, and Kellen enjoyed playing freeze tag and on the swing set.

Despite the cold weather, Chance was the only IN Harder to brave getting into the pool. This would be all the further he would enter.

Avery brought Chance over to Jeremy's new pool for him to check out and see what pool water is supposed to feel like.

The annual Memorial Day Harder! Last year's picture is missing a few, due to only some of the family being present in AZ for the birth of Jeremy, so it was nice to have everyone together again for this photo. Next year there will be two additional people to add as Leah and Rachel are both expecting!

Mothers Day Weekend

2008-05-12T17:36:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning we wake up, and Adam heads out to the gym to meet up with the guys. Chance, Avery and I are hanging out when we decide that it is going to be a perfect day to plant flowers. Problem is that I hadn't bought any yet, so the kids and I head out to Walmart. While at Walmart (or as I like to call it, the Devil's Haven), we decide to buy some lunch meat. As we head over to the meat counter, we find a little area all set up with cake decorating supplies and little cakes. Walmart was having a special deal where kids could decorate cakes for their moms for mothers day, and it was all free!!! Of course we decided that it looked like fun, so the kids and I made this beautiful cake!!!!
Chance's half is the side with the dark red frosting and the red white and blue star sprinkles. Avery's half has pink fluffy frosting flowers and pastel sprinkles! They did a great job! Here they are showing off their pretty cake.

These photos are more for my mom. She was here a few weeks ago and all my flowers beads where overgrown and basically a mess. So here are my beds all cleared out and halfway planted.
This one is a little naked. I may have to buy some fillers!!!!
Yes I know, another lovely photo of me. I was hanging laundry out and had stuck a few clothes pins on the bottom of my shirt to save my from bending over five hundred times. Avery kept aking me why I had a skirt on. It was cute to hear her little voice ask, "mommy why you got skurt on???" So then I put a few on the neckline of my tee-shirt and then she wanted to know why I had a necklace on..... so then I added a few in the front just for extra decoration. Avery thought I looked fancy! Once again, in the minds of babes!!!!

After 3 years of begging, I am closer to having my deck finished!!! Adam's friend Mark came over to help with the stairs and railing.
They got the side stairs almost done and 1/3 of the railing up. Hopefully soon it will all be done!!!!
Here the guys are, hard at work!!! Great job guys! Thanks for all your help Mark!!!
Of course it is just a plain old saturday, but my little girl has to dress like it is the prom or something! Here she is playing on the trampoline!!
I love her hair!!!!!!!

Did anyone lose a monkeye???? HAHA.

This is Super Chance flying across the trampoline!!!!!!The kids had some more of their cake tonight! You can't really see very well in the photos, but Avery turned her piece upside down and ate the cake, and Chance ate all the frosting off the top of his!!! Just goes to show how completely oposite my kids are!!!!

Science Central

2008-05-07T15:51:00.000-07:00

Can you see it??? Doesn't Chance look a little....GREEN???!!!!! You can't see it??? Sure you can, look harder........ Don't you know that when you wear Incredible Hulk Jammies and Incredible HulK underwear at the same time to bed, you can turn into the Incredible Hulk!! Well Chance believes it! He has been asking us all day if he was green... HAHAHAHA!! In the minds of babes!!!

Well this past weekend, Adam and a few of the guys had a guys morning, so I took the kids to Science Central. For all you Ohio folk, think a smaller, cheaper COSI!

This was one of Avery's very favorite things. It was a water table with a ton of rubber toys, and such.
Here is Chance playing on the jungle gym thing they have.
Same photo, ooops!
Here is the jungle gym thingy, very fun!!!
Under the jungle gym, they had a little room full of pillows, Chance thought it was cool!

As you can see, we spent a great deal of time at the water table!

Here the kids are playing at an activity table that has the cut-off nails and you can make shapes by pushing up on them. You can kinda see their hands if you look hard.This was a pully chair. Supposedly you could pull on the rope and raise yourself up,........ Must have to be a little bigger. They had a traveling space show there,.... the kids thought it was pretty, but we did stay in this area long.
Avery was a little builder, or as you can see in the photo, she was also the little destroyer!!!!

This was fun. Chance and I played with this for a long time. You placed the flat blocks into the board so you could put a ball on them and they would roll all the way to the bottom. Chance was better at it then I thought he would be!!!Now this was the favorite by far. It is a room built on an angle. The table was nailed to the floor so they could hang on it, then let go and slide down the floor. I am taking the photo at the correct angle, so you can see how angled it was!

Now this is kinda funny, at least to me. Avery had a blast looking in all the little doors all over this board. Now the funny/weird thing is that the board shows all the damage that heavy drinking causes on a human body. She of course just thought it was a body. Sorry, probably not funny to you...... O-well!!!Now this was FUN! they had whole series of silly mirrors. I can't believe these actually turned out!!!Of course, no fun day is complete till you have shopped! So of course we went shopping and bought these new jammies. (these are the jammies that caused us to believe that Chance just might turn into the Incredible Hulk! Just imagine our dissapointment when we never really turned green!!!!)

2008-04-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are wondering what in the world this photo is all about, here we go. When Chance was a baby, I heard of a family who takes photos of their son on their birthdays wearing one of his dad's shirt. They used the same shirt every year till the child was 18. So I started this on Chance's 1st birthday. This is photo #5. It is really cool to see all five lined up to see how much he has already grown. So that is the story. I wanted to post this, so those of you who have seen the other photos could see this one!

Chance had his first t-ball game tonight. Here he is getting ready to bat!
Here he just hit the ball. Run Chance Run!!!!!!
Adam helped out tonight. He was the first base coach that told the kids to stop at first, then to run after the next batter had hit. Avery of course wanted to be on the field with her daddy and cried the whole time he was out there!
Here he is feilding the ball. Lets just say he was a little of a ball hog! The coaches had to draw a box around him in the sand to make him not field every ball! Of course the very next batter, after they did that hit it square to him!! So he got the ball anyway!Here he is again getting the ball.This is a photo of everyone taking their places. Notice Chance has chosen a prime place to stand! No wonder he feilded 85% of all the hits!HAHAHA

This past weekend we went to Ohio to help my brother and his wife, dry-wall their basement at their new house! We LOVE their new house! I think they willhave years of great memories there! We can't wait to see it when it is all done. After working on saturday, mom brought out a feast for all of us. We had steak, potato salad, brownies, and zuchini (sp?) bread! Joleen had chips and wine! I think we all ate way too much. Of course the staeks mom bought were HUGE!!! Of course that stoped NO ONE for not eating the whole thing! HAHAHA.
Chance looked too cute in his sun glasses and big boy shorts! Check him out! Joleen has one of the huge steaks on her plate! Thanks for the meal mom and thanks for letting us all hang out at your new house Brad and Jo!!!!!

Odds and ends

2008-04-30T16:07:00.001-07:00

My college room mate Jen-Jen was so nice and brought her baby girl, Isabel to my mom and dad's house last weekend so we could all meet her! Isabel is SO cute!
Chance LOVED holding her. He would have held her the whole time if I would have let!
Avery was SO excited to ge tto hold a baby! She wanted us to take her home with us! For some reason, Jen-Jen said no =)

Here is Jen-Jen with Isabel! Jen-Jen, you are doing a super job, and you are a great mommy!!! Your daughter is too cute, and SO pretty!!! Thanks for sharing her with us!!!!

Trampoline!!!!!!

2008-04-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a family photo we took this weekend. My parents came to town for a visit and to help us put up the trampoline. It has been a realy LONG time since we've all had a photo together, so we took this chance a snapped a few. This one turned out pretty good, so I decided to post it. For all of you who know me, I HATE to have my photo taken, so this is pretty rare.

I just HAD to post these! I had gone out for a walk and wore this headband to keep my ears warm, and when I got home Avery just couldn't resist putting it on herself!
As you can see, she did a lovely job! The hair is just beautiful! I just hope my hair didn't look that pretty when I was walking around the whole town! HAHAHAHA!!

Here are the kids with the new trampoline!!!
Chance got to be the first one to test it out. Grumpa and Gramma bought the trampoline for the kid's birthday presents this year. Since Chance's comes first, it was bought for his birthday, which ment he got to test it out first.
There he is jumping high!
Here is a knee drop!
Since Avery weighs about two ounces, I had to get on with her to even make it bounce! She just likes to run around in circles. Then she falls downand laughs!

Here are the kids with their chocolate bunnies!!! Avery's is about the same size as she is!
They went right for the ears!! The eyes went next!!!

Look Whos FIVE!!!!!

2008-03-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

Here is Chance and his birthday cake at nana & papa's house!
Blowing out candles...
Here is his cake and party favors at gramma & grumpa's house...
Blowing out candles again!
Here is Chance setting off some party poppers! Thanks gramma! Those were fun!!!
And finally here is mom and Avery popping our popper!!!!! Happy Birthday Bubba!!!

For Chance's birthday, mom and dad bought him a 4-wheeler!!!!

Here he is taking it out for a spin!

Plenty of room to take sis for ride!!

Thanks for the ride Bubba!!!

Time to Color Eggs

2008-03-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here we are getting all ready to color our Easter eggs!!!
This is Avery's first egg she colored. As you can tell, she was very proud of herself!
Hey dad, is it ready yet?? Bubba and daddy are checking to see if this egg was ready yet!
Bubba is such a big boy, he can do his eggs all by himself!

Here our all of Avery's eggs! And no, mom is not drunk, just another bad photo!!!!

Dress Up

2008-03-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

Have they caught the Uni-bomber yet? If not, I might know where he is!
Here is our little princess, or Diva as we like to call her!!!!!
Just too cute not to post!
We have no fear at out house! We have our very own, personal ninja to keep us safe!!!

Egg Hunt

2008-03-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

Every Easter, one of the local parks has an Easter egg hunt for all the kids. They are broken up by age, and put in different areas of the park. As you can see, the "2s" were in the tennis court. Unfortunately, I only have pictures of Avery hunting because they start all the hunts at the same time. So anyway, here is Avery before it started. Look at all the eggs!!!
Here she is nabbing her first egg!!! Go Avery Go!
Here is Avery, Chance, and Lainie (my future daughter-in-law) after the big hunt!
Look at all of Chance's eggs!!! Good job Chance!
Here is Av with her eggs! Way to go!

2008-02-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

Chance, Avery, and Daddy sledding in the front yard.
Here comes Chance down the hill.
Avery and Mommy sledding down the hill to Chance and Daddy.
Chance loving to play in the snow!

2008-02-26T16:39:00.000-08:00

Avery in her new "Princess" jammies.

Daddy and Avery getting Super Chance!!!

Chance showing off his new Superman pj's.

Avery "beating up" Daddy.
Super Chance doing his best to beat up Dad.Maribeth and her Mom getting ready to go to Jen Jen's baby shower.

2008-02-26T16:19:00.000-08:00

Maribeth and her college roommate Jen Jen, at her baby shower.
Avery tickling Grumpa...watch out, she'll get you.
Gramma holding back Avery getting ready to attack Grumpa.
Avery, Grumpa, and Chance playing with Play-Doh.
Avery and Gramma playing Play-Doh.

2008-02-07T16:12:00.000-08:00

Chance and Avery with their new prize...Whoopee cushions!
Avery tootin away.

Time for more.."gas".

Chance showing Avery how to let a "Big One"!Chance after he set it on Daddy's chair and it popped. Bummer huh?

2008-02-05T17:40:00.000-08:00

2008-02-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

Avery is chillin watching some tv. Looks comfy!!!!!!

Look at my boy, isn't he just too cute!!!!! I mean handsome!

Chance and Avery got sleepingbags for christmas. This was something "fun" they found to do with them. Luckily neither bumped into anything too hard!

This was just too cute. The kids where climbing all over daddy!!!! He can never lay down, or the kids both have to jump and climb all over him!!!

This is my beautiful mirro that my parents bought me for Christmas! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

Here is Avery after putting on just a little bit of the princess chap stick she got from her cousin Carmen's birthday party....pretty!!!