Birthday pictures

We finally got Halle's birthday pictures and they turned out great. I was a little shocked that we got anything worth developing because she was in constant motion the whole time. I have no idea when she was actually posed in any of these poses. The photographer really did a great job.

Santa Claus was Early!

Santa Claus came a day early to our house this year to fit our schedule. It was so nice of him to be flexible for us. We hung our stockings and put out the milk and treats for him. Halle was most excited about the orange she found in her stocking this morning. Never mind the other stuff. She also got "shoes just like mommy." I wasn't aware that I had pink heels, but who knows. After we enjoyed our Christmas morning, we found her having good old fashioned fun in her "Herbie" car, otherwise known as the file box.

This picture is at Grandma and Grandpa's house from Monday. We celebrated early there too since half of our families who all live out of town were obligated to work on Christmas. We hope to see them soon in January. Halle got a cash register from Grandma that she knew exactly how to use, a Candyland game, and some light yellow playdough that we discovered makes a good plate of scrambled eggs.

We hope you have a Merry Christmas no matter when or where you get to celebrate. We miss seeing everybody that isn't with us this year, and we hope to see you soon. It's just not the same without you.

A Day at the Museum

We went to see the gingerbread and nativity displays at the museum the other day, and they had such a fun kids play area. We ended up spending more time there exploring. I didn't realize it had changed so much.

Halle was encouraged by Abbie's bravery to crawl through the rock caves. Here they are just chillin' together.

She also found a fabulous log cabin to play in. She didn't seem to mind that the table and chairs were slightly less than authentic. We still had to drag her away.

And last of all, the wooden horse. What a day!

A Snowy Christmas

And here we are again with plenty of snow for a white Christmas. It came down all at once on Monday, and the wind was so strong that we stayed over night at Grandmas house instead of risking the road. Thank heavens we did. It was a mess the next day. When we got home the next evening, we had to go borrow shovels from the neighbors just to get into our garage.

This is a picture from inside our front door. Those are supposed to be steps down from our covered porch, but you wouldn't know it. Some places across the formerly shoveled sidewalk were waist deep.

The snow had stuck to every little branch of the trees during the storm, and it was absolutely beautiful the next morning.

And here is Halle who is always super excited to "help" with the shoveling any time someone steps out the door. If she sees Neal getting ready to leave the house, she bolts to find her boots and snow pants. It doesn't matter how many layers I make her wear out there. She is just beyond excited to play. It's a real let down and a bucket of tears if daddy is just going to work, so sometimes he has to sneak away to save me from the aftermath of disappointment.

The end of our sunday school class

We are getting to the end of the year and we will be teaching a new group of kids in another week. Neal and I teach the 11 year olds that will be turning 12 in Sunday School, and it has been so much fun. Our class has been so great. We made up a review game that we play every once in a while that involves Halle's hats, and they get so into it that we decided to get a group picture. Here they are being awesome sports about it.

Happy Birthday Halle

Halle did have a birthday a few weeks ago, and I am now just getting to her post. It has been a crazy month for us. She was so excited to be the princess, and grandma even brought her very own princess cake for her which was a real treat.

We also had a chance to see Halle's birth father during a quick trip to Utah last week. It was so good to see him again and we had a very nice visit.

Dress-Up Days

Halle's Aunt Anneka made this tutu for her a couple of months ago, and I was just now able to get a picture of her in it. She loves wearing it with her crown and twirling. Of course, I couldn't get her to look at the camera, but you get the idea.
Aedin came over one night while his parents were at a party, and they had a blast with Halle's hats. After I took the first picture, they ran back to get new ones so they could pose again. Aedin is tipping his hat while riding the stick horse. Halle is holding a cow flashlight that also apparently "goes" with the cowboy theme.

Then the rest of the night they were cheerleaders. It took four adults to pry the poms from their hands when it was time to part ways. They were just having way too much fun.

Grandma's Christmas Tree

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Ours was packed with family gatherings, so we are ready for a break. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures as we were running all over the place.

Thanksgiving morning, Halle helped Grandma decorate her Christmas tree with complete enthusiasm. She had a blast hanging all the balls. We forgot to move the stool so they pretty much ended up all in one spot.

And then she started playing with a little Santa Claus ornament, hanging him on different parts of the tree. At one point she put him too far into the middle and she was upset that the alligators in the tree got him. We really don't know where he went, and I am sure we won't find him until the tree comes down. Grandma had no idea she had alligators in her tree.

The next day, she helped me set up our tree. It was so fun to watch her make all the snowman ornaments talk to each other as we were getting them out. Now, before she even comes into our bedroom in the morning, she stops and turns the lights on to the tree. It's fun to see a childs pure exitement for Christmas.

Happy Birthday JoAnn

I thought this was pretty cute. Halle was sitting there telling me how old JoAnn is today, and so I ran and got my camera. I am sure she will appreciate her answer.

Halle received this pink cowboy hat from Grandma a couple of months ago, and since then she has been obsessed with riding her horse back and forth across the house shouting "eeehaw." I thought by now she would have moved on to something new, but it still entertains her. She has now taken to giving her puppy and baby doll rides, so she had to pose with both of them for a picture.

The most amusing part about this is she's going to fit right in here in our small country town despite our best efforts.

Our next story is about this mysterious red flower. I have this small flower arrangement sitting in Halle's room that I made a very long time ago. It just went there becase I didn't have any other place for it. But when I was making a new floral arrangement, I gave her one of the red flowers to play with. She firmly believed that it belonged in the flower arrangement in her room and promptly took it there.

After about a week, I took it out and tossed it in her top drawer with some other random stuff and forgot about it. However, I have done that about five times now and somehow that flower still ends up back in this pot. So I suppose if that's where it goes, I should just leave it there.

Band-Aids Fix Everything

Halle was in her room playing this morning and at one point she crashed and bumped her head. She is usually pretty resilient, but it was enough to make her cry. So in the middle of her sobs as she is coming to where I was in the kitchen, she tells herself, "It's ok, your mommy will get you a band-aid, sniff, sniff." I tried not to laugh in the face of trauma, but it was so funny. And as you can see, the band-aid fixed everything.

Riding on her Road

Halle got some sidewalk chalk from Grandma for Halloween, so Neal used it to draw a road on our driveway. We should of thought of this months ago, because she stays on the driveway now instead of trying to wander off. When all the neighborhood kids get home from school in the afternoons, they all stop by and ride around her road with her. I even saw one little girl come over and ride on the road when nobody was out there. It's been a hit.

Unruly Orange Juice

So let me start out by saying that my life revolves around potty training right now. Taking care of an infant is a breeze compared to this in my opinion. But to herald a recent success, she actually used the toilet at the church last Sunday. This was incredible progress for us considering her fear of heights. Yes, teetering on the edge of a tall public toilet counts as being too high in her book, but she still did it. Yeah!

And now for a word of caution about the orange juice in our refrigerator. According to Halle, it jumps out and spills on the floor "all by itself."

She has apparently felt fairly liberated in her abilities to be just like a grown up now that she is using the toilet, and she is now attempting things like getting her own breakfast and finding things on the computer. I know this is probably mild in comparison to some of her cousins, but it just took us by surprise. She's trying to grow up on us.

Halloween Festivities

Thanks to our friends, Bryan and JaNan, who invited us over for Halloween dinner and pumpkin carving. We had a great time. Halle didn't want anything to do with the insides of a pumpkin after she found out how slimy it was, although she did try taking a bite out of a pumpkin piece that had been carved out. The sugar cookies tasted much better.

We attempted to have fun at a local carnival but they didn't have much for younger kids, so we ended up doing the good old trick-or-treating down our street which turned out just as fun for our princess and Santa Clause.

One of those days

My sister-in-law, Emily, usually has the trump card when it comes to crazy kid stories, but I just had to share this one in case anyone was feeling like they were having a bad day. Halle was refusing to take her nap today, so I offered to let her sleep on our bed which she always agrees to. But when I took her in to our room, I noticed I hadn't finished putting away the laundry, so I moved the sorted piles to one half of the bed and left her on the other side.

Two hours later when I checked on her, I couldn't find her. She was buried deep in a pile of every piece of laundry that had just been washed and sorted. I finally uncovered her and she was wearing Neal's socks and was in the process of trying on his basketball shorts which was pretty hilarious. But the best part was, in the middle of this dress up event she had wet her pants and needless to say . . . I am still doing laundry.

Happy Birthday Mom!

It's my mom's birthday today, but we celebrated last weekend. The kids got to come in their Halloween costumes, which meant we had two princesses and a tiger. Halle had just swapped her wand with Abbie's and you can see she's pretty excited about the trade.

We also had dry ice in the punch bowl, a Halloween tradition in our family. Both of the girls were pretty fascinated by it and insisted on having a "cloud" poured into their cups before they could drink from it.
And then after dinner, Abbie and Halle pretty much ran around the house squealing for the rest of the night. They both dashed behind these curtains when Angie walked into the room, but it looks like the balloon gave them away, or maybe it was when Halle said "we're not here."

Tagged

This tag is about our awesome husbands, and Neal has been waiting a few days for me to get this posted, so here you go.

1. Where did you meet? Not sure, but I think it was 7th grade pre-Algebra. We became friends in 9th grade seminary class.

2. How long did you date before you got married? About 1 1/2 years not counting mission time.
3. How long have you been married? Almost 11 years -on Dec 30th. Yikes!
4. What is your favorite feature of his? His incredible calf muscles and his dark eyes

5. What is your favorite quality of his? He loves his family very much and he works so hard for us. I love to see how much fun he and Halle have together when he gets home.
6. Does he have a nickname for you? Sweet Pea

7. What is his favorite color? Blue
8. What is his favorite food? Reeses Peanut Butter cups, but if you don't count that as a food (which I don't), then it would be Chicken Fried Rice.
9. What is his favorite sport? Ultimate Frisbee

10. When and where was your first kiss? Ricks College, 1994

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Movie night on the couch and spending time with family and friends

12. Do you have any children? Yes, one daughter

13. Does he have a hidden talent? He is very good at finding things I am looking for at the store, even in places he doesn't go to very often like fabric and craft stores.

14. How old is he? 32

15. How tall is he? 6’6”
16. Who said "I love you" first? I did

17. What is his favorite type of music? Mostly country, but other times it varies.
18. What do you admire most about him? His ability to shake things off and keep going when life gets a little tough. He is always able to press on with an amazingly optimistic attitude.

I tag Jolene, Angie, and Jamie

A Wedding Weekend

Neal's brother, Alan, got married this weekend down in Utah, so his parents rented a house for all of us to stay in and we partied all weekend together.

Eating totally yummy cupcakes with Olivia and Nixon . . .

And plenty of other wonderful food . . .

Going to the zoo with Papa and the girls . . .

Playing in the backyard with the cousins . . . Lounging around . . .

And sewing dresses into the night with lots of moral support . . .

We don't have a picture of Halle with Caleb, one of the other two-year-olds, but they became best buds by the end of our stay which was really fun to watch. After church, Caleb came knocking on our bedroom door while we were changing. He announced, "Hello, my name is Caleb. Is Howly there?" as if he were making an official visit. It was pretty adorable.

We even had Neal's sister, Jennifer, surprise us from Ohio so we took the opportunity to take a couple of family pictures. This is Neal with his parents and all of his brothers and sisters, and the next one is of all the brothers and their dad.

We welcome Tiffany into the family and wish our best for them.