Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve was quite the let down at our house this year.  I cooked all morning for our special Holy Land dinner and Garrett and the kids cleaned the house in preparations for all the festivities.  Then as we sat down to start the Holy Land dinner, Rylynn started bawling and saying that she wanted to go to bed because she didn't feel well.  She said she was achy and so tired.  She hadn't slept well the night before so we thought she was just tired, but I took her temp and sure enough she had a low grade fever.  So we got her to force down two bites of bread and then finally just let her go to bed, at 5:15pm!!

Here are some happy pictures, earlier in the evening.  It was so sad because all day she was so excited to do the Nativity and all the fun traditions.

Little Beckett was excited too:)

This is our last attempt to see if we could cheer her up a little and keep her up by letting them exchange sibling gifts.  Doesn't she look thrilled?!

Beckett gave Rylynn and Carter "The Ladybug Game" for Christmas.  The plan was to play it as a family that night, but we ended up just playing with Carter after Rylynn went to bed.

Carter was THRILLED to say the least about his gift from Rylynn.  He is obsessed with all things Disney Cars, and he has really been wanting to add Chick Hicks to his collection, so his loving big sister got it for him!

Rylynn has been wanting Sally from Cars too and Carter surprised her and bought her a Sally for Christmas.  She managed a smile for a minute or two even though she felt awful.

As you can see, it didn't last long and she was begging for bed.  So we sent her to bed and poor Carter had a boring Christmas eve Holy Land dinner with the parents.  Luckily Rylynn sat there while we discussed the importance of the Holy Land dinner before she went off to bed, but we didn't get to do the nativity which was a big disappointment to everyone.  So Rylynn went to bed around 5pm and Carter who had taken a nap refused to go to bed until around 10pm, so the parents were a little frustrated.  Finally he went to bed and we got everything ready for the next morning and were headed up to bed when Rylynn appeared.  So needless to say it was NOT a restful nights sleep.  Carter and I ended up in our bed and Garrett ended up in Rylynn's bed with her.  Luckily, whatever it was that Rylynn had was gone the next morning and Christmas day was a big success!

This picture does not do this dish justice.  I woke up early and made Tyler Florence's ultimate apple, cranberry, pecan upside down french toast!  It was amazing, I highly recommend the recipe!  I also made an egg, potato and bacon casserole.  We ended up having to wake up the kids at 8am since the kids had had such a rough night.  But they popped up right away when we told them that Santa had come.  So we headed downstairs and had them open their first gift from Santa which were plate, bowl and cup sets.  Rylynn got Tinkerbell and Carter got Cars.  So then they were really excited to eat Christmas breakfast on their fancy new dishes!

After way too much yummy food, we started the present opening.  Rylynn got a big pinky-pie pony that has lots of hair accessories so she can do her hair.

She also got "June" from Little Einsteins that sings.  She was so excited for this surprise!

This was "Mac" from Cars and Carter has been wanting him for sooo long!  He was out of his mind when he opened him up.

Carter surrounded by the loot.  Notice he has a lolly pop in his mouth?  He had candy in his mouth from about 8:30am-8pm.  That kid is crazy about candy and Santa must have known cause he sure got a lot in his stocking!

Mom reading the new Fancy Nancy Christmas book to Rylynn.  She LOVES Fancy Nancy!

Carter was happy to help show off Beckett's present from Santa.  These cute Christmas jammies.  I love how Carter is pinching his cheek in this picture.

Our cuddly little Christmas elf!

Love the feeties on these jammies.  After all the presents and playing, Garrett and I got to take Christmas naps and then we went to our really good friend's (the Slacks) house for dinner.  It was so yummy!  We had Christmas ham, rolls, Christmas salad, broccoli, twice baked potatoes, cranberry jello salad, peppermint log roll cake, and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake!  I made half of the food and she made half.  I really enjoyed using my new knives that Santa surprised me with!!  And I have to say,it was really nice splitting up the cooking after three days straight of holiday cooking!  We had a great time and ate way too much.  We have been so blessed this year and have so much to be thankful for.  Most of all, we are so thankful for our little family and the wonderful memories we get to make with them each day.  We are so thankful for our Savior this Holiday season and for His birth into this world.  Merry Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho

These are our ward party Santa pictures.  Carter was a little out of it from all the candy canes.  Rylynn was loving the reindeer antlers!

This one is from when Rylynn ran off and got a picture by herself because she could not wait for us to get there to take her picture with Santa!  How happy does she look?

Merry Christmas to me!!!  Garrett and I have wanted new bedding for about 7 years and we have just been too poor to buy it.  So Garrett's Dad and Step-mom gave us some cash this year for Christmas, (along with a Wii!) so I decided it was time to buy some new bedding.  So this bedding set was $462.99 online, guess how much I got it for?  $69.99!!!!  Oh how I LOVE Overstock.com!  Isn't it perdy?  Now I just need to buy really nice furniture like they have in the picture to match.  Maybe in another 7 years:)

Deck the HALLS!

I know, I'm so punny!  I get it from my father.  Anyway, we are in full "Halliday" mode here at the Hall house.  We are up to our eyeballs in goodies from friends and neighbors and have had way too many treats already!  We had our ward Christmas party and went to a few other parties at friends houses and had lots of fun making new friends and visiting with old ones.  We have all the Christmas shopping done and a little bit of the wrapping done.  I commented to my mom the other day that Christmas as a parent is much more work than as a kid.  I am so thankful I had such selfless, awesome parents who made Christmas so magical for me growing up.  So I am trying to do the same for my kids and not get to overwhelmed by all the work it takes to make these memories.  I am doing the neighbor gifts tomorrow with the kids and sadly this year we are not doing Christmas cards.  Moving, starting our own law firm, and having a new baby around are just a lot for me to juggle right now.  Look for a New Year's card instead, maybe:)  I love how the Christmas season is sooo busy, but so fun.  The kids and I have been dancing around the kitchen to Christmas music the last couple weeks and it has been so fun.  I love Christmas music!  So needless to say, I have been neglecting the blog this month as well as the camera.  But here are a few pictures to catch up.

These pics are from the tree lighting festival a couple weeks ago that the kids went to with Garrett.  They loved seeing Santa and eating candy canes and drinking hot chocolate!

They ran into Stacey and some of her kids there too!  Carter looks confused for some reason.

A couple nights later we made a gingerbread house and gingerbread people.  Rylynn was very proud of her gingerbread girl!

Carter was mostly interested in eating the candy and ate way too much!

Beckett watched the commotion and looked cute(as usual, I might be slightly biased though).

A work in progress, and for some reason we never did get a final result picture.  Probably because we got too busy with cleaning all the sugary mess off the kids and the house.  It was pretty much all eaten within two days anyway.

This is what you get when you are trying to unpack with crazy kids running around.  Yes those are lamp shades!

The craziest things keep them entertained for hours.  I need to remember that while Christmas shopping!

Three darling bugs in a rug!  I love that Rylynn has a queen sized bed and yet they choose to squeeze into Carter's toddler bed instead.

Rylynn had her pre-K Christmas concert on Friday.  As you can tell she was very excited to see her whole family show up to watch her!

She has been practicing the songs around the house all month and she did a great job in the performance.

The kids all got a turn to play jingle bells on the bells in small groups.  It was a great skill for them to learn because different  bells played different notes and they had to read a numbered board to know when to play their bell.  She was so intense about it every time it was her turn to play.  You could tell how seriously she took her part.  She did a great job!

There is no shortage of energy in this bunch!  This was the last song of the concert and they were so excited about it.  I should have known since Rylynn has been singing it for weeks at home.

  

After the concert they got to have a little party.  I made buttercream cupcakes with green buttercream frosting.  She was a big fan!  They had lots of yummy treats, she was in heaven.

Her teachers bought each student the book "Mooseletoe" for a Christmas present.  She was very excited when she opened it up.  She loves her teachers so much and has learned so many great things this year.

She loves to read to her baby brother!  Beckett always gets a kick out of Rylynn and her elaborate activities for him.  Everyday I find at least 2 "beds" set up for Beckett around the house.  Rylynn loves to make these little beds for him and then entertain him with some crazy activity or another.  She always tells me that she is "a great babysitter!"

Ridiculously Late Thanksgiving post!

I have not had time to post about Thanksgiving because to be honest the weekend was a complete blur!  Don't get me wrong, we had a great time, but moving and celebrating a major holiday in the same weekend is craziness!!

My sister Marianne came to visit with her kids Nathan and Aria.  We had a great time doing a fun Thanksgiving craft to entertain the kids while I cooked on Thanksgiving morning.

Carter's thankful Turkey.  He can't smile because he is too busy devouring a fresh baked roll.  The kids were begging to eat them all before we even made it out the door to dinner.  I gave in and gave them each one to try while they were still hot!

Rylynn's Thankful turkey

The kids were soooo helpful with the packing can ya tell?

Especially these two goofballs!

This one too!

For the actual feast, we headed over to Garrett's cousin Stacey's house.  I brought a bunch of food and Stacey had made a bunch of food so we had plenty to eat!  We love them and had a great time stuffing ourselves and visiting and the kids loved playing together.  The food was all delicious!

Stacey took a family picture for us to put in her "Thankful book".  Every Thanksgiving she has the families that celebrate with her family fill out a "Thankful page" and then she takes a picture of them and puts it in her book so she can always remember who she spent Thanksgiving with and what they were thankful for that year.  I think it is such a cute idea!

Marianne and Aria's Thankful book picture.  Nathan was off napping during the picture.  Too much turkey I guess:)

Our family tradition includes a Thanksgiving talent show.  So we told Stacey and Geoff and they wanted to do it too.  So the kids shared their funny talents and Marianne shared a poem project for school.  Carter and darling Addie snuggled up for a picture during the talent show.  We had a great visit with Marianne and the kids.  Aunt Nanners, as we call her around here, was so nice to take the kids swimming at her hotel one day so we could pack and then to the fun park downtown the next day while we moved.  It made a huge difference to have the kids be entertained with their cousins during the move.   We were amazed at how many of our friends and ward members came out to help us move on Saturday. We thought since it was a holiday weekend, we would end up with no help, but the opposite was true.  We had tons of help and the move went so fast!  And now we are soooo THANKFUL for our new home!!

House pics

Here is our little living room right off the front entrance all Christmasy!  We love the fireplace in this room!

Our Christmas tree all lit up shining out the front window

Here is my favorite room in the house!

This is the view of the kitchen from the stairs

Big fan of this huge pantry!

Rylynn's pink room!!!

Carter's little room.  Love the window seat!

Toy room walk-in closet with window seat

Toy room (not the best picture)

Family Room (we're still working on this room)

Love this upstairs laundry room!

Master bedroom (this room has been obviously neglected).  I love the vaulted ceilings in this room!

Backyard patio and grill

Backyard continued

So here's the updated pics of the house.  We are still in boxes and haven't really started decorating much, but it is so fun to be in our house.  We love the neighborhood too!  Our cul-de-sac has tons of kids and literally every other house on the street is LDS.  We'll post more pics as we get settled in.