Day 1 in Boise

I know I promised you more pictures, so here is our first day in Boise. For those of you who haven't heard yet, we are adopting a 5-year-old boy named Dillion (pronounced Dillon) and we met him for the first time this weekend. He's a sweet little boy with a bubbly personality. He and Halle are like two peas in a pod when they are together.

Our first stop was the zoo. We thought it would be fun to go feed the giraffes, but after the first giraffe swooped down with his tongue to steal Halle's lettuce, neither one would really get close. So here I am feeding the baby giraffe.
That little hand was as close as Dillion wanted to get it. Good thing the giraffe has a long tongue.

Most of the time, we just played on the toys, which was fine too.But they also wanted to feed the goats. Dillion was frustrated when the big goats would get the food when he was trying to give it to the little ones so Neal distracted them long enough to share.

Good job Dillion. You did it. It was scary for him at first, but once Halle started doing it, he realized it might be ok.

Dillion is pretty protective of Halle. She fell behind him getting up to the slide, so he held the line of kids up until she could come up and be next to him (they're the two at the front). I just noticed in the picture that the kid behind Halle was holding his arms up so no one ELSE could get through.

After our time at the zoo, we headed back to the hotel to go swimming. This was one of Dillion's first times swimming, so he was hesitant to get in at first. But he did finally get the hang of it and had fun in the water with us.

Note to self though - tomorrow we will get a floaty thing like Halle has because he's a lot heavier than her, even in the water.

Our Little Tinkerbell

Halle found inspiration in the music on the radio this morning while I was getting ready for church.

A Picture of Progress

Halle and I went to the park by our house the other day, and suddenly she started climbing on things.

She climbed the wall all by herself and only needed guidance for placing her feet on the way down. I was surprised she didn't freeze.

She also mastered the ladder. See how proud she is of herself.


We're proud of you too!

Memorial Day Weekend Fun

We had fun with our families during Memorial day weekend despite the cold and rain. We started the weekend with a quick shopping trip. When Dad comes with us to the grocery store, Halle gets to push the little shopping cart because he can keep her focused while I do the shopping. She loves it.

Then Mike and Anneka invited us over for a barbeque. Samantha has a big dress up box that Halle dived right into. Here are just a few of the wardrobe changes.
This one is classic for it's timing. I was trying to get a picture of Samantha dressed in Halle's shoes. Halle was in the background trying to put the sword back in the sheath and this is what we got.

Then we played a few games on their Wii. Halle beat Dad at tennis twice in a row. She's a natural.
On Sunday, we had a barbeque at my parents house and then roasted marshmallows in the backyard.

Nick enjoyed his fair share of cookies and marshmallows.

And then he shared some with his dad.
That evening, we went to the cemetaries to visit the graves. After explaining to her what a cemetary was, she said, "I'm pretty sure I can feel their arms and legs." She was also concerned when we put the stakes in the ground for the flower arrangements that we might hurt them.

Of course, my dad didn't help matters by going along with it. He also decided there could be a business in graveside holograms like you see in Star Trek. Maybe someone could take that and run with it.That night we had a sleepover at Grandma's house. Halle has been asking for a sleepover for literally months so she was super excited.

On Monday, we attempted to beat the rain and get some yard work done. Halle found spinach and onions growing in our garden already, so we had to save them before the garden was dug up.

The garden still hasn't been planted, but the dirt looks really good :-)

A Hair Cut- to Mommy's Dismay

Halle's hair has gotten pretty long recently, and I thought it was looking really pretty. (See "Candybar" post). However, she's been begging me for about two or three weeks now to have her hair cut short like mine. I wouldn't agree to that since mine is too short to pull back. But I did finally agree to give her a cut.


This is the first hair cut she's had that's been more than just a trim of an inch or so to even out her growth. She even got to wear the cape and everything. Then as I was bathing her tonight and doused her head with water, she asked me if it was still going to stay short if I washed it. I've never seen her so pleased.


She also wanted to post her short hair cut on the blog, so here's her picture.

Sweetest Things

While I was getting ready this morning, I stepped out of our bedroom to see what all the commotion was. I came into the kitchen to see Halle had dishes just about on every counter and she was holding a cookie sheet and a cooling rack.

I asked her what she was doing, and she said (with a "duh" in her voice), "I'm emptying the dishwasher." And so she was. All the plates and cups were on the counter beneath the cupboard where they belonged (too high for her to reach), and the silverware was spread out ready to be put away. I just gave her a big squeeze and a kiss. What a sweet girl.

On another note, we've had some much needed rain this week, and Halle has found it a wonderful opportunity to use her umbrella and rain boots. The rain boots, incidentally, were for playing in the dirt in the backyard because she's so picky about getting dirt in her toes. Anyway, I caught this picture as she was rushing out to play.

And here's a video of Halle's version of dodgeball. She's so slow it's hilarious.

We took a trip to see the cousins in Salt Lake over Mother's Day. We all went to a "jump place" nearby, which the kids loved. We have one close to us, but Halle said she wanted to call the one in Utah "our" jump place too.

They didn't stop moving for at least 2 straight hours.

Posing for a picture was apparently too much to ask.

This beat up old dragon sometimes "ate" the children when uncles were nearby.

Halle and Samantha trying to figure out why this car wouldn't start.

Four kids and three ponies means someone has to share.

We headed to Dave and Emily's after play time for pizza. They were all in tears as we left and kept begging for "one last time."


Lillie enjoyed the company. She and uncle Neal hung out for while.

Slowing down for the night in front of a movie. They are all pretty tuckered.

Halle didn't have a place to crash while we played games with the adults, so we put her on the floor in front of a movie for a little while.

Thanks guys for the fun weekend. We really enjoyed getting together with everyone.

Geese at the River

Halle and I were running errands, and it was nice enough outside that we decided to stop by the river and feed the geese. She was so funny. If you've seen the movie, "Fly Away Home," it's about a girl who takes in a homeless flock of geese and then teaches them how to migrate while flying in her ultralight. Well, the girl's call to the geese is "C'mon geese."

So Halle starts calling to the geese when we get there, "C'mon geese" like in the movie, and they came to her. At the time, there were quite a few other groups of people there tossing bread too, so it surprised me that she was able to draw so many away.

This is a clip of it, but the wind was pretty bad, so you can't really hear her very well over the wind.

This is a picture called progress. Last year, I believe she crawled out to the lookout on her hands and knees. If you look close, you may see some white knuckles this time, but she walked out there herself and even let go of the rail a few times.