We had a LEGO party!

Carter's favorite thing to do with his electronic time each day is to go to lego.com and look at all the lego sets available.  This has motivated him a lot to do extra jobs and save money for different sets he wants.  However, he usually gets burned out around the $15.00 mark and gives in and buys a smaller set that he can get without waiting for months.  The sets he really wants are a lot more money so we have told him that he needs to wait for his birthday or Christmas to get one of those.  That brought on the complaining about how it isn't fair that his birthday and Christmas are all in the same week so he really has to wait all year long to get any big presents he wants.  We decided that was a very valid point and since his birthday is new year's eve, we have talked about different options for celebrating his birthday for years now.  So I told him we could try a half birthday if he wanted to but that meant no presents on his real birthday.  He LOVED the idea!  So we threw a Lego swim party for his half birthday yesterday.  

Here is the goody bag table.

Carter requested cupcakes and that made my job really easy.  I found these cute printables online and attached them to toothpicks.

Thanks to pinterest, we had some really fun games and activities.  First we had a coloring table while all the kids got there.  I just printed coloring pages off of lego.com.  The kids really loved this activity.

This was a fun game too.  The closest guess won a fun dip.

This was a fun twist on a classic.  I had fun making this lego guy.  Rylynn and one of Carter's friends tied on this game.  They got it pretty much completely perfect.  

The coloring pages turned out really cute!

The next game was one I just made up and it turned out to be really fun.  It was a team building contest.   So I divided them into two teams and then had a jar with strips of paper in it with different words of things they had to build.  Some examples were a bridge, a house, a 1 ft tower.   

Then the teams had to build as quickly as possible and the team that finished first got a point. 

After games it was time to swim!!

I bought some squirt guns at the dollar store so that every kid could have one.  They had a lot of fun having a squirt gun fight in the pool.

While they swam we set the table outside so the clean up was really easy.  We had pizza, watermelon, cupcakes and ice cream cones.

These cupcakes were amazing!!  I found my new favorite cupcake recipe on joy of baking.com.  I used the chocolate cupcake and the vanilla frosting recipes.  Sooo yummy!

Then it was present time!  Garrett wanted to be super creative and wrapped his big present that was from us and my parents in legos.  So he spent a lot of time and creativity creating a lego encasement for the present.  The kids thought it was so cool!

Carter's friends spoiled him and he got 6 lego sets from them and a rocket launcher.

He was in heaven!

Then it was time to open the big present.  Normally I don't have my kids open family presents at their friend party but his friends all know how much Carter has been dying to get the Lord of the Rings cave troll set so I thought they would be really excited for him to open it.  Carter's best friend Matheson even pulled me aside at the beginning of the party and asked me if we had bought it for him:)  I love this picture because you can see how excited they all were for him.

All his friends thought it was soooo cool when he opened it and Carter couldn't wipe that grin off of his face.  He ran back to his room trailing 7 little boys to go and immediately start building.  We had to tell him that it would be more polite if he waited until they all left to begin building.  He was a good sport and luckily he only had to wait a few minutes.

You better believe that the second the last boy left he was in a building trance for the next 6 hours.  We seriously had to make him stop building to go to bed and he was so mad about it.  

It was such a fun party and it made me so happy to see the spotlight be completely on Carter for once.  I think this is going to be our new yearly tradition for him.  

School's Out for the Summer

 The little ones were so anxious at the beginning of May for their siblings to be home for the summer.  So we kept busy going to story time at the library,

 playing at the park,

 and just being goofy.  We also got to go to the wedding of one of my Mom's old yw who used to babysit our kids whenever we would come visit.  The kids love her so they were really excited to go to her reception.  My mom was so sad she had to miss it.  Rylynn wrote a special card just for Andrea.  It was really sweet.

 Then the last week of school madness began.

Carter had a kindergarten concert and I even went in and helped with his class party.

 I felt really guilty when Carter said, "please come help with our party mom!  All the other moms come in but you never do!"  I explained to him that that was because his mom was the only one who had had a baby the first month of school and two little boys to take care of at home.  But in the end, the guilt won out and I got a sitter for the littles.  

It was really fun to be in the classroom with him.  My poor older kids.  I know I am going to be a lot more involved in the classroom once I stop having babies!

 We had a deal with Rylynn and Carter that if they stayed on green in their classes every single day for the entire school year that we would buy them a $20.00 present or they could just take the money.  Carter was literally counting down the days so that he could get the shelob lego set for his prize.  They both earned it and we were so proud of both of them.  Carter had this set built within hours of school being out.

 To celebrate the first night of summer, we put up the tent in the backyard and the kids had a camp out. It was a big hit.  Then the next weekend the Albrechts came to visit for memorial day so the kids got to camp out with their friends.

This is the only picture I have of our weekend for some reason.  On memorial day we had a bbq and the adults played home run derby in the back yard.  Aric may or may not have tried to cheat.  Just kidding!

 June was hot but not terrible so we made our weekly trips to the library and then stopped by the splash park.  

 The summer charts came out in full force and the kids were very excited.  It always wears off by about the third week, but those first three are quite glorious.

 Rylynn has been a total book worm this summer!  She has already blown through over 20 chapter books along with tons of other short stories that she reads to Beckett.

 There is a little carousel next to the library too so we have gone over there for a few rides.  Beckett is a huge fan!

 Dallas got to take his first ride with sissy.  He loved it!

 He loved crawling through the little splash river too.  Yes we are the ghetto people who let our baby swim in just a swim diaper.  Who needs baby swimsuits really?

Cute Carter

 I started the canning season off with a couple batches of jam.  Summer berries are the best!

 Rylynn is back on her snaily campaign.  She loves collecting these little guys throughout the back yard.  Garrett has had to have a few talks with her about taking a creatures freedom away and how they would really prefer to not be trapped by her.  She is getting better about letting them be:)  However, this obsession dates back to when she was two so I don't think she'll be giving it up anytime soon.

 Dallas is crawling everywhere and started walking around holding on to furniture.  This is of course the stage when babies have a ton of bruises on their heads/face.  Poor guy!  He is very mobile and I fear he is going to be another early walker like Carter was.  He's so anxious to keep up with the rest of the kids.  I can't get enough of his big blue eyes!

 We have all been slightly obsessed with Mo Willem books this summer.  They are Carter's favorites to read on his own so we have pretty much checked out every single one the library has.  I love the clever humor too so it is fun to read them all together.  The best is reading them to Beckett because he gut laughs and piggie and Gerald.  

 On one of the cooler days in June (only 91 degrees;) I spoiled the kids and took them to In and Out for lunch.  It was so nice that we ate outside.  I love having my kids home for summer.

 This little guy loves having them all home too because they leave lots of little treasures on the floor for him to find and eat.

After work sometimes the kids help Daddy wash Papa's car.  They are very helpful:)  This is one of the jobs they have been doing to earn extra money.  Carter is especially into earning money this summer.  He is determined to buy every Lego Lord of the Rings set so I have had a lot of help from him!

We all get old eventually...

It really happened.  I turned 30.  I never really believed the day would actually come, but unfortunately, it did.  Garrett and I had already celebrated in Vegas, but for the actual day, we drove up to Provo to spend the weekend with Jordan and Danielle.  Jordan's graduation was on the big day so I almost forgot about getting old. Almost.

For the big birthday breakfast/graduation feast, I requested the amazing crepes that Garrett had made for conference.  Danielle also made yummy scrambled eggs Monson style which means with lots of veggies, fruit and donuts.  The donuts were a big hit with the kids.  It was all really yummy!

Then I got to go with Rylynn to Jordan's MBA graduation ceremony.  I teased him that Rylynn and I came to his undergraduate graduation from U of A too so I am therefore his most supportive sibling:)  

It was so fun to be back on BYU campus.  They do such a beautiful job on their flowers.  The girls could not resist the temptation to stop and smell the tulips.  

This is a squinty pic but I had to include it because these cute cousins had so much fun together.  We are so sad they moved away to Michigan:(

On the way home from the graduation MY Jeep pulled out right in front of us!!  It was a perfect birthday present trip down memory lane.  It still had the Naperville Jeep sticker and the U-Haul hitch that Garrett and I installed for our first move.  I got this car when I was 16 and then just before we had Rylynn, Garrett and I traded it in for a more practical four door car.  We had seen it on campus right before Garrett graduated with a faculty sticker and were so excited that we had found it, but that was over 6 years ago, so to see it again was crazy.  

That night we got a babysitter for all the munchkins and went out to celebrate all the fun accomplishments at Tucanos.  I got my free birthday dinner and it was so good.  I am not a huge meat eater, in fact I probably eat red meat 5 times a year total but I make an exception for Tucanos.  It was really fun to celebrate with Jordan and Danielle, Abby and Matt, and some of Danielle's siblings.  I have to say on a serious note that as I reflected on the 30 years I have been alive, I was so amazed at how blessed I have been.  I have a lot to show for those 30 years.  I have 4 amazing children and a husband I love more and more each day.  A lot of people thought I was insane for getting married at 19 but I would make that same choice now in a heartbeat.  I have such an amazing family and great friends in my life and most importantly, I have the gospel of Jesus Christ that keeps me centered and focused on what is most important to me and what I am here on this earth to do.  So with all those blessings, I am dedicated to making every day count for the next 30 years!  

April Milestones

April was a pretty huge month for us in the Hall household.  First off, Rylynn got her ears pierced!!  The rule in my family growing up was that we had to wait until we turned 8 to get our ears pierced but with the excitement of Rylynn's baptism we kind of put this milestone off for a couple of weeks.  Finally on April 4th, Thais turned 7 and she got her ears pierced for her birthday so Rylynn insisted that we go that same day and get hers done.  She was so excited and so brave.  She didn't even flinch.  She of course chose aquamarine studs since it is her favorite color and her birthstone.

The next milestone was that we got to open the pool for the summer!  Yes the summer comes a little earlier here than in WA.  The kids have swam pretty much every single day since it opened except for a couple of rainy days.  They are little fish!

We got to enjoy General Conference which is not a milestone since we do that every six months, but the milestone was that Garrett made crepes so the kids got to try their very first crepes!  They were amazing!!  He made these lemon creme filled crepes with berries on top and fresh whipped cream.  I love that my husband looks up new recipes to try for occasions such as these.

 Dallas started crawling!!  He does the funniest crawl.  We have a video of it, but you can kind of tell in this picture.  He crawls normally on one leg and then walks with the other leg.  We call it his kickstand:)  It makes it really easy for him to stop and pop right up into a sitting position.  I have a love/hate relationship with this milestone because it makes me soooo much busier but it's so cute too.

 Carter went on a working spree for us in April to earn money for lego sets.  He is completely obsessed with them and builds every day.  When he's not building though, he is on lego.com looking up new sets he wants to save up for and playing lego games.  He bought 2 sets with his own money but now all he wants is the $80+ Lord of the Rings sets so they might take a little while to save up for.

Carter also lost his first two teeth in April so maybe that was part of his money making plan.  It worked!

This little one loved his new found freedom and got stuck in all sorts of random places.  I love that smile!

You would think after 4 kids I might get a little sick of the baby stage, but nope.  I'm still completely in love with babies!

This little man was my errand buddy in April because he officially stopped taking naps.  It was a sad day for me but he had a good run.  Almost 4 years, not too shabby.  He also started riding his bike like a pro. He still uses training wheels since he is our cautious child, but he finally got the pedaling thing down and now I can't ever get him off it.

 We also had our first bird funeral.  A poor little bird flew into the glass window and died and the kids were so sad so we buried it and had a little funeral.  Rylynn made the little headstone(out of paper).  Beckett kept asking for the next few days when the birdie was going to get resurrected.  He was pretty disappointed that it wasn't an immediate thing.

Dallas loves Rylynn and she can get the best giggles out of him.  We have an adorable video of him gut laughing at her.  

 Carter started T-ball and loved it!  Garrett was the assistant coach and they had a lot of fun doing that together.

His favorite position to play was right behind the pitcher(the coach pitched).  He got really good at fielding grounders and running them to first base.  He would keep track of all his outs and inform Garrett every time they switched positions.  It made us laugh since they didn't actually keep score.  They just let each team bat twice. 

He would proudly announce that his team had won after every game so we didn't tell him that the other team was saying the same thing:)  He got really good at batting throughout the season and by the end he was hitting most pitches from the coach instead of using the T.

Rylynn and Carter passed off their school year reading calendars and earned kites at the kite festival for the final prize.  They were so excited to fly them so for FHE one night we went to the park and flew them.  Dallas sat in the grass and cheered us on.  

 Rylynn's kite was a huge butterfly and it flew really high, but unfortunately Carter picked a really cool looking shark kite but it didn't fly very well.  

Beckett had to get a kite too of course so he picked spiderman and his flew the best of all of them.  

The crawling excitement only lasted a few weeks before Dallas started pulling up on everything.  This stage makes me nervous!

As you can tell from this picture, Dallas was also teething and finally got his first two bottom teeth.  Look at those blue eyes!!

Lastly, I had a milestone of my own.  The YW and YM in our ward had a dessert auction fundraiser for their summer camps so as a leader, I donated two dozen of my cinnamon rolls for them to auction off.  Well since I moved into my parent's ward and my recipe is from my Mother, they already had quite a reputation.  So when the auctioneer announced that next up were the famous Monson cinnamon rolls, everyone went a little bidding crazy.  Some people even looked around for my parents:) but I had to reassure them that they were still on their mission.  So the first batch went for $60 and the second went for $75.  They were a big hit.  As you can see my toughest critics were big fans too.  Wow that was a lot of milestones for one tiny month.  And I didn't even mention the biggest one of all....I turned 30!!!!!!!  but that deserves it's own post.