Sunday, December 22, 2013

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Hardings 2013

This year finds us yet again in Israel. We have had a neat time while we have been here.
Chris has been busy this year with work, his calling as the Young Men’s president and being a member of the school board.  He enjoys it all and has grown from each new experience. He and Candice were able to escape reality for a whole week and visit France and Italy. They went to a grundle of museums and ate way too many pastries, and had a splendid time. It was a vacation that they will always remember.

Candice is enjoying her time here is Israel and loves being a stay at home mom. She has learned to bake while overseas and has become quite good at it (although not a professional). She had a hard time letting Michael go off to school this year but has really enjoyed the solo time with Tristan.

Jonathan is about to turn ten in January. He is enjoying the 4th grade, and has really grown up a lot this last year.  He continues to be a book worm.  He has read all of the Percy Jackson books, and the Heros of Olympus series. Jonathan also loves to read nonfiction books about earthquakes, planets, outer space, and anything else he can get his hands on. He also remembers all sorts of interesting information from his reading. He loves Greek mythology and can tell more facts about the gods than you would ever want to know

Olivia is seven and is in the 2nd grade. She loves her teacher, and has been doing great in school. Olivia has had 2 best friends while here in Israel. Both girls have been from Germany, her first friend left during our first year here. Her new best friend Katie leaves at the end of this month, Olivia is devastated. Olivia is a very girlie girl but she is still able to hold her own with her 3 brothers. She begs her mom to give her a sister, but hasn’t been lucky so far.  She loves to write stories and her teacher says she is extremely good at it for a 2nd grader.

Michael is six years only and in kindergarten. He is a social butterfly and the teacher says he is loved by all of the students, but mostly the girls. Two of them have declared that they plan to marry him. Michael loves school and has done really well. He is enjoys building things with his blocks putting things together.

Tristan is two and growing by leaps and bounds and says the funniest things.  He enjoys being a big boy and sleeping all by himself in his bedroom at night.  It has been so nice to have him potty trained these last eight months.  He enjoys going to nursery and learning to color and sing and play with his friends.


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Beach with Grandpa 11/30/13

The beach is kinda cold this time of year, but we still had fun putting our feet in. Of course nothing could keep Olivia out of the water.







Friday, December 6, 2013

Thanksgiving/ Hanukkah 11/28/13 and 11/30/13

We had a great time this year for Thanksgiving, we had 3 families over at our house and we all combined to make a huge feast. The food was terrific and the company was wonderful and we were truly thankful. 
Earlier in the week we made Indian headbands as a craft for the holiday.

Hanukkah which means "dedicated" is referred to as "The festival of Lights". Jews light special candles in a special candle holder called a Hanukiah, for 8 days they light a new candle. 
They eat fried food called levivot (Potato Cakes) and sufganiyot (jelly donuts)
The kids play with dreidels which are tops that have 4 letters on it. The letters say (nes gadol hayah po) which means "A great miracle happened here".  It is referring to the oil found in the temple that should have only lasted for one day and night but lasted for 8.

Our neighbors Susie and Julian invited us over to celebrate with them the 4th day of Hanukkah. We ate all sorts of yummy foods and it was a lot of fun to hear them singing the songs and lighting the candles. The kids played with dreidels after the candle was lit. 
My Dad was here for a visit and was able to go with us, I think it will be a memorable experience for all.





Tel Afek 11/9/13

Tel Afek Is what is left of the city called Aphik mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 19:30 which belonged to the tribe of Asher. 
It was a smaller place than many we have been to and it was so close to our house, only about 20 min away.
So it was really easy to see in the morning and then make it home for lunch!




Yummy Guava! 11/19/13

Guava is our newest fruit to try. This one is a white flesh guava and to us it had the texture of a pear. The kids gobbled it right up and said they loved it. It was just ok to me, but I don't know that I want the strong smell of it ripening in my kitchen again. Overpowering!






Thursday, November 7, 2013

Happy Halloween!!!! 10/31/13

Halloween! The kids school had a fun little parade during the afternoon and class parties for the kids after.

Tristan as Spider-man and Michael is a scary skeleton creature of some sort) 

 Jonathan as a scary Ghoul.

Olivia as a beautiful witch squeezing the life out of her best friend Katie (Pocahontas).

 The AIS school did their trick-or-treat again this year on a Saturday night. Since we wouldn't let our kids go on the Sabbath day we decided tho have a party at our house on Halloween night. We wanted our kids to not feel like they were missing out. 
We didn't bring with any decorations so we had to make do with stuff around the house, I think it turned out pretty good considering.
(I am against the BYU paraphernalia on our dead man, however, he turned out perfect!)
 Who knew that some white pillow cases would make such great ghost chair covers!
Add some long socks and some shoes to the table and it comes alive.



The party was a success with 32 people in our home! We had great food, fun games and terrific friends!


Fun with Lisa and Maria

Aunt Lisa and Maria came for a visit from Oct 12-19th we had so much fun with them. We were able to visit most of the places that they wanted to see and I think they had a great time. I know that we sure did, and it was sad to see them go. Yes there were tears mostly from Olivia!

Pools of Bethesda, it was cool to see the pools after the talk in conference;

"Wilt Thou Be Made Whole? "



We finally made it to the Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem.


The Safari Zoo was on the top of their list to do with the kiddos.

And yes what would a zoo experience be without feeding a goat!

First Tooth 10/10/13

Michael lost his first tooth on Thursday he was super scared and it was a relief when he finally let Mom pull it out.

Jerusalem's Biblical Zoo 9/29/13

We took the kids to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo on Sunday. It was a lot of fun, we still like the Safari Zoo more but this one had some really neat aviaries. The zoo is known for their collection of animals mentioned in the Bible.




The aviaries were truly the best part of the whole zoo it was so much fun to be in with the birds and have them zooming all around you.



This bird gave me the creeps with its bright red beady little eyes.






Every zoo has to have some goats to feed :)

Monday, September 30, 2013

Yom Kippur #2 9/14/2013

I wont put any info about Yom Kippur since I already have it on last years post. 
However, Yom Kippur is still my favorite holiday here. Yes it is probably because you get to ride a bike on the freeways or that the world is so quiet without any cars driving it just seems so peaceful. No matter the reason, we always have a blast this holiday. 





(Michael got tired so we towed his Bike LOL)




Yom Kippur landed on a Saturday this year and so church was canceled. The Branch President gave permission to have the sacrament passed in our friends home so a couple of families meet there and had a little meeting and then lunch.
It was so hot we about died biking home at 2pm but we still had a great time.