What Is Up With the Pony Tails?

Here is our latest fad at the Hardy House--we have to wear our hair in pony tails! I am not sure why--but they insist!!!

The Antique Pajamas

Wow! This thought hit me the other night when I was putting these pajamas on Logan. I noticed how faded they were and how old looking they were and I continued thinking. I remembered Reagan wearing these pajamas, and Jordan, too. Then I just thought about how they were hand-me-downs from my sister Susan's kids. And then it hit me. I remember seeing my nephew, Murray, wearing these pajamas and he is going to be 19-years-old in May. So do the math--these pajamas are 19-years-old. They are in great shape! No holes and the zipper works. We love wearing them. Notice Logan modeling in the following pictures.

She can almost turn her head 180 degreess when she wears them.

She can lift her arm up really high--good stretch in the material.

She can even stretch her abs. What great pj's!! I am just so glad I kept these pajamas. When we moved a little over a year ago (before we realized we were having Logan), I went through all my baby clothes and gave away everything except for the layettes that my girls wore home from the hospital, our smocked dresses, and a few other precious items. I had no idea I was keeping such old pajamas!

It's Gettin' Rough Out There!

Jordan started playing on the Academy soccer team this season. We made this decision because we felt it was time for her to learn the real game of soccer with all the positions and rules. She plays on the U10 Girls team at theSummerville Soccer Club. She is the youngest girl on the team and definitely has the most to learn. I caught this picture just by chance. As you can see, the other girls are quite a bit bigger than her (Jordan is in the blue jersey)but she still plays pretty aggressive. She was throwing out some elbows on this girl and was called down by the referee in the game. (I don't know who would have taught her this-I never would have done that! Must have been her daddy.) It was quite funny because Jordan is not a rough child at all but sometimes on the soccer field you better watch out! Logan gets a kick out of going to the soccer games to watch her sister play too. She has her own personal chair that she hardly ever sits in!

WE LOVE THIS BIRD!!!

We just love our Cocky! We had to go to Columbia last weekend for Jordan to play in soccer games and Cocky was there. He was there with USC's girls soccer team and they were having a clinic for the younger soccer players of Columbia. Reagan was so happy to have her picture taken with Cocky!

My Valentine's Day Flowers

I just wanted to share pictures of my beautiful Valentine's Day Flowers that my dear husband gave me two days before Valentine's Day. I just know he spent hours trying to figure out which flowers to get me. (Can you feel the sarcasm?) When he gave them to me on Feb. 12, it went like this: Bill walks in the front door and says "Hello Honey! I am home!" I look over at him and he is holding about 40 of these big white and yellow looking flowers. They are not wrapped in plastic. So I said, "Where did you pick these from?" And he just grinned. So I proceeded with my questioning, "So where did you work today?" He said, "Guess!" So I looked closely at the flowers and realize I have seen these before. I have seen them on the tables at Chick-Fil-A! "So you worked at Chick-Fil-A today?" and he said "Yes, I did and they were going to throw these old flowers out so I brought them home to you!" Gotta love having a thrifty, don't waste a penny husband.....and two weeks later he goes out and buys a gun for $350.00! My Goodness! Let me share a little background behind this story. When Bill and I were first married, he used to work for Pearlstein Distributors in grocery stores all the time. He worked in several of the Piggly Wiggly's that had florists and he was always bringing me home flowers that were being thrown out by the store. We always had fresh flowers at home. However, I can think of twice in ours lives where he has bought me flowers and I gave him such a hard time for wasting money on cut flowers, he now buys me flower bushes I can put in the yard.

I am a SURVIVOR!!!!

YES! I survived my first--and I am sure there are many more to come--birthday party for Jordan in our home. In the past we have always been able to just have a small get together with a few friends and family at our all time favorite Chick-Fil-A but this year Jordan started planning this huge 18-person slumber party that she thought she was having for her birthday. NOT!! I am not ready for the major sleepover yet. I am sure I would be driving home half of the 6-year-olds home in the middle of the night and I do not like to be disturbed when I am sleeping! Over a matter of time, I was able to talk her into having a party on her brithday which was Friday, the 13th, with about 6 friends.

We had Savannah, Samantha, Jayden, Josie, Grace, Alex, and Kylie over. We actually had a great time. When all the girls came over, they played outside well past dark and then came in for pizza, cake, and ice cream. We then became artsy-crafty and made Valentines for their parents. Then came the presents.

Then I put Bill in charge and they played the Wii for the rest of the evening. There was a lot of girly giggling and shrieking going on, and for those of you that know me well, I am not girly. I looked at my mother at one point in the evening and said, "God gave me three daughters. How in the world am I going to survive three girly birthday parties a year for how many years??!! Because, you know, we had so much fun, Reagan is now already planning her birthday party in May. I guess I better get ready!!

We Are The Hardy's

I am writing this post for those of you who do not know us or have not seen or heard from us in years. Or maybe you know who we are but you know very little about us. Bill and I met in May of 1995 at--of all places...the gym. He had come home from college and I was teaching at Fort Dorchester High School and teaching aerobic classes and personal training in the evenings. We ended up dating for close to 3.5 years and were civilly married on July 25, 1998 and we were married for eternity and sealed in the South Carolina Temple on July 26, 2005. We are married FOREVER--even after death. Like my dad told Bill on our wedding day, "This is not Walmart--no exchanges and no returns!" ( I thought about asking, "What about a gift card?", but I didn't.)

After about 3 years into our marriage, we gave birth to our first little blessing. We just knew for sure that we were going to have a little baby boy but instead we were given the most beautiful little girl in the whole world. Jordan was born in February of 2002 and she was (and still is!)a great baby. Thank goodness she was the first born child because she was an easy baby. To this day, she is still pretty laid back as long as we don't change her routine since she is our creature of habit. When we get ready for school in the morning we pee, get dressed, fix hair, brush teeth, and then put on our socks. Do not dare change the order of this routine or the whole world might explode or something! But I can not complain about this girl at all. I have heard other parents complain about issues of dressing their children but not me. Jordan will wear anything I lay out for her (as long as it is not a dress or skirt)--but of course there are certain shoes that you must only wear to certain places--don't change the routine!! She has been playing soccer since she was 4 years old and loves it. She started taking horseback riding lessons about a year ago and has just excelled with it. I do not know where her love for horses comes from because those big ol' animals kind of scare me.

About three years later in May of 2005, our second little blessing came along that we lovingly call Ray Ray. Her real name is Reagan and my mother calls her "Little Alice". Yes, she has a lot of my characteristics but she is a lot cuter than I ever was. I call her my "free spirit" and sometimes (actually a lot of times) I call her "wildfire" because she is nothing but wild fun. There is no routine with this child and she likes to try new foods--she even eats ceasar salad and crab legs! She is quite the jokester and I can usually get her to play a joke on just about anyone and she just loves to laugh. She is the kind of kid that you can watch play all day long and just laugh and laugh. She sings at the top of her lungs usually songs that she has made up. She has been playing soccer for a year now and she is into her gymnastics. She is the most loving child and we can spend a whole day curled up in the chair together. If there are little babies around, they better watch out because Reagan will be taking care of them.

Just when we just knew we were done having babies (even though we occasionally wondered if we should have a third one and try for a boy), we realized we were going to have another baby (yes--totally unplanned and we are still trying to figure out how this one happened!). This sweet blessing was born in July of 2008 and we named her Logan. I knew all along that it was a girl. How could I have a boy? All I know about are smocked dresses, pony tails, and bows. This little bundle of joy has developed into quite a "Momma's girl". She is with me 24/7 except when she goes into the gym's nursery. If someone else holds her she will start to whine. (What a great feeling to be so loved!) And this little booger has blue/green eyes whereas both her big sisters have brown eyes. (I think this one is going to look like me.) She is now six months old and is much more demanding than her sisters ever were. And boy does she have a temper. Watch out world!!

Now a little on Bill and me --he started his own business called PMS, LLC about 4 years ago. No, he is not an ob/gyn or anything like that. It stands for Preventive Maintenance Services, LLC and he works in a lot of restaurants on their equipment. He tells me all the time what he does in these restaurants but I don't understand a thing he is talking about. I just nod my head and say , "wow!". I keep the books for his business (ask me if I get a paycheck--not!) and take my kids to school and back, cook food, work out, keep the house clean, and try to keep us organized (I can be a little OCD on this one). I am not a soccer mom--I refuse to drive a van! I do take the kids to soccer practice, though, and I hit up on Target a lot too! We are big Carolina Gamecock fans and we even live in a black and garnet house! We have two small dogs named Conan and Junior who are 11 and 10 years old respectively.