School update!

2nd Quarter ended for the kids and time for me to brag again!  Caden earned a 3.5 grade point average and Carlin earned a 3.8!  They both made honor roll again.  We are so proud that they continue to keep up their high level of progress in school with their good grades!  I hope it is not just the monetary reward they receive when they do make honor roll that keeps them motivated.  :) 

Happy New Year!

I know I know it is Jan. 20th and I am behind . . . . :) but I still have to share.

I always love the feeling of a new year with the expectations of hope that it will be better than the last.  You never know what the future will bring.  But, I also have mixed feelings as I reflect on how fast time goes by.  It is reminder to never take anything or anyone for granted, to live in now, and to look forward to the future.
I wanted to share my favorite things of 2010 - the problem is I can't remember everything and I know I will miss something!  My days run together and this is one of the reasons I started this blog.  So I will do my best ;)

FAVORITES OF 2010
1. Mine and Dustin's 39th bdays!
2.  We started really working on saving more and keeping to a budget - didn't do to bad!
3.  Watching Carlin playing baskeball for the school team - She is awesome!
4.  Caden playing Spring baseball with West Jordan - The Phillies took second place!
5.  New baby nephew Easton
6.  Our 19th anniversary
7.  The kids got awesome grades all year! 
8.  Our Vegas family vacation 
9.  Summer BBQ's
10.  Carlin turning 13!
11.  Starting my blog
12.  Farmer's market produce
13. Dinner with my Gpa J.P. who I don't see very often.
14.  Caden playing Summer and Fall baseball for Copper Hills
15.  Finally finishing our backyard!
16.  New family pictures - 20 people on my side of the family - They turned out beautiful!
17.  Getting back in touch with great friends!
18.  Caden's 15th birthday
19.  Getting through the transition at work and knowing my job was safe.
20.  All the holidays

MY GOALS FOR 2011
1.  Work hard to find a balance in life between family/work/my time/social.  Some days I am too stressed and it carries over to family. :(
2.  To help with this my husband says I need to delegate more to him and the kids.  What a great husband to even offer!  I have to try harder since I think I have to do everthing myself.
3.  We are lucky to even have a date night once a month - Bring Back Date Night!
4.  Visit my grandparents more often - I love them so much!
5.  Start a garden this year.
6.  Get more sleep!  Laugh more!  Exercise more!
7.  Start finishing our basement.
8.  Organize my pictures.
9.  Plan our family vacation.
10.  Hopefully a 20th anniversary trip.
11.  I have always wanted to learn how to play the piano - but I don't know if this will happen this year.

Just Dance!

I have to say this Wii game has become a favorite in the Hardcastle household!  Carlin received Just Dance 2 for xmas and the kids immediately started playing it.  You choose a song from the many genres, watch the "person" on the screen and the symbols at the bottom show you what dance step to do and based on the controller in your hand the game scores your performance.  I watched them a few times and thought it looked fun.  I danced in high school so I thought no problem!  I was excited to get my groove on to "Holiday" by Madonna and "Wake me up before you go" by Wham. (Yes - I am an 80's girl).
Those first couple of tries about killed me!  But, the more you practice the better you get and it is fun!  We have had so much fun that we bought the first Just Dance game to go with it. 

Caden and Carlin trying it out

Dinner with our friends who braved a terrible snow storm coming to our house!


Go Sterling and Caden!




"Walk like an Egyptian"



Char and I groovin it Madonna style!



The supporters :)


New Years at Mom and Dads

Hailey, Carlin and Dad!  Dad was gettin down!



Christmas is here!

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree:  the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other."  ~Burton Hillis


We had the Hardcastle family dinner on the 23rd since Dustin had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas :(.  We have dinner together and open gifts.  Along with giving all the grandkids their regular Christmas gifts, my in-laws like to have a prize game for the grandkids.  They buy a whole bunch of random gifts, wrap them, and then give each kid two raffle tickets.  They put the matching raffle tickets in a bowl and whatever number they draw then the kid gets to pick a gift.  It is always funny to see what they buy every year and the kids can trade with each other too!

Since Dustin was working the holidays - we thought we would try something different and have the 12 days of Christmas.  The kids got to open one of their gifts each day up to Christmas then they had just a few small gifts along with their stocking on Christmas morning.  I save all year long so we have our "Christmas budget" to spend when holiday comes around.  Dustin and I put a limit on each other this year so we tried to see what we could get each other without going over our amount.  I think we did a great job!  The 12 days of Christmas was OK - we tried something new but nothing compares to the excitement of Christmas morning!

Carlin's treasures!

Caden's loot!

Someone is loved!

I am spoiled - I even got my favorite Chocolate covered Cinnamon bears!

Christmas Brunch at my parents house has been a tradition for years.  We all go over in the morning and open gifts.  With 10 grandkids there is a lot of commotion and wrapping paper everywhere! LOL!  With the exception of my kids all the younger grandchildren received pillow pets.  It was so funny to watch them open them and see which animal they received.

Then we always have more family arrive to eat brunch with us - grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins - it varies every year depending on what plans are made.  My G-pa Freeze and my aunt Sherene and her kids were able to make it this year.  We don't see them very often so it was great to be able to spend time with them.