Twas the Month of December and crazy we were...

Amid all the crazy happenings in December, this little munchkin just kept growing and getting cuter by the day.

He started smiling and laughing for us in December!  He is showing off his shirt from his Aunt Marianne that she bought him in Spain.

One of the first Sundays in the month we took the kids to walk around the temple and see the lights.  Beckett and Dallas both fell asleep on the drive over so our "family" activity was kind of foiled.  I walked around with Rylynn and Carter while Garrett kept the boys warm in the car.  The kids loved looking at all the nativity sets from around the world in the visitor's center.  

I only brought my phone for pictures which doesn't have a flash so you can't see my kids but they had this cool nativity scene set up in front of the temple with MOTAB music playing and a little message from President Monson.  The kids loved it.

The next weekend my Grandma spoiled me rotten and took me to the play "Plaid Tidings" by the Forever Plaid people.  I loved seeing them the first time in high school in Chicago and it was really fun to see their Christmas show.  Then the next day she took Rylynn and me to the Nutcracker ballet.  Rylynn loved dressing up fancy and seeing the beautiful costumes.  We even got her this little nutcracker ornament to remember the event.  I loved going to the Nutcracker every christmas when I was growing up so it was really fun to share this tradition with Rylynn and my Grandma.

How beautiful is this girl's hair?!  Rylynn's best friend here had a birthday party in the beginning of December. For the party they got to go to the Paul Mitchell hair school and have their hair done and their finger and toe nails painted.  She had so much fun!!  I had to take pics of her hair because she loved it and says she wants it just like this for her baptism. 

 We also went to our ward Christmas party which was an amazing event.  They had the whole gym converted to the market in old Bethlehem.  We had to pay taxes by donating canned goods and then you got gold coins to buy your food.  They had all different booths set up for dried fruits and sweet breads, meats, veggies, and pitas.  They even set up a well in the middle of the gym for drinks.  I was pretty blown away.  We were all supposed to wear traditional Bethlehem attire and this was the picture booth they had set up.  They had a baby jesus in a manger but we had our own so we didn't need the doll:)

Just before school got out, Rylynn had a music concert at school.  It was just the 2nd graders and she did such a great job.  I again forgot my good camera so the pictures are terrible but I had to include them for the memories.

Can you spot Rylynn?:)  They sang lots of cute songs but my favorite was when they sang Silent Night and did the sign language to go along with it. (Only in Utah:)  Rylynn was so excited about the sign language and practiced for weeks leading up to the performance.  So that's the first part of the month.  Much more December fun to come!

Christmas Card Part 2

Some of you may remember a post I (Garrett) wrote a few years ago about how to write a really awesome Christmas card. Almost everyone loved it so I figured I would give it another go. Rather than give step-by-step pointers, this time I decided to just give you an example. I hope you enjoy!


_____________________________________________________________________

The Hall Family

777 Exalted Sphere Dr.

Kolob, UT 77777

December 2012

Dear [family we don’t particularly care for but want to make sure you know how awesome we are],

Another year has passed with so many wonderful blessings in our lives that we wanted to share with you during this special time of the year.

[HUMBLEBRAG]

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from our Celestial abode! 

                                                                                                                       Self-righteously yours,

                                                                                                                       The Halls

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Changes and Goodbyes

 It seems like we watched everybody else say goodbye to my parents, but since we lived with them it just felt like we would never have to.  But finally that day came.  The day before they left we had a goodbye dinner with my uncle Dennis and Aunt Donna, Grandma Allred, and our dear family friend Connie.  Everything was fabulous and it made it seem really real that they were actually leaving.

 Dallas was getting lots of love and attention from all the guests.  I got a pic of him here smiling for his Great Grandma.  Love those little bear ears!

 While Nana and Papa were busily packing, the kids took a giant bubble bath in their bathroom.  They wanted to be right by them every second for the last few days before they left.  Rylynn in particular got really sad and was very clingy to them.  She is especially sad that they will be missing her baptism in a few months.

 The night before they left kept dragging on with last minute things they forgot to do or pack but they finally got it all together and we really had to say goodbye the next morning.  We dropped them off before school so we could all be there.  It was hard but I know they are doing what the Lord wants them to do.  They are such amazing examples for our family.  

 We finally got the kids school pictures today.  I love how they turned out.  I just can't believe these cute babies are going to be 7 and 9 when my parents get home!

 I love this smile.  My darling girl has prayed for her Nana and Papa in every single prayer she has said since they left.  I can tell we are going to have to live right by them for the rest of her life or she is going to be really mad at us!

 This little darling is going to be running around and talking when my parents get back.  He will be almost 2!

 I'm so glad my parents got to really know this sweet baby of mine before they left.  Dallas loved chatting(cooing) with my Mom and smiling for her.  

I had to include the real life picture with the big brother grabbing the baby's head and the burp cloth wiping up the spit between photos:)  Life is so insane with all these adorable little people and sometimes I just wish things would slow down but they never do.  I can't really believe that they are all going to change so much while my parents are gone but life goes on and I'm so proud of what they will be doing.  

Happy Halloween

 Marianne and Aria got to stay until a couple days before Halloween so we decided to carve pumpkins for FHE.  The kids went with Marianne to pick out their pumpkins.  We clear out a whole patch these days:)

 The kids had a lot of fun designing their faces this year.  I was in charge of the seed sorting so we could have roasted pumpkin seeds.  So yummy!  Nana made pumpkin cake too.

Lighting of the Jack o lanterns!  Marianne's is the one with the witch hat.  They all turned out really cute.

 On Halloween day we got to go to the costume parade at the kids' school.  The weather was beautiful and it was so fun to see all the costumes.  I happened to have the cutest vampire and cheerleader in the whole school.  

 The parade was at 1:00 so around noon Beckett started asking to get into his Spiderman costume so he could be twins with Sissy and Carter.  After looking in all the normal places I began to panic because Skyler and Beckett had been playing with their spidey costumes all weekend.  Skyler is slightly obsessed with Spiderman and he had brought down his own costume but he liked wearing Beckett's the most so I called Danielle to see if he had accidently packed it in his bag.  She told me she had unpacked his bag and never saw it so I got off the phone and we started looking again. Then my phone rang and when I saw it was Danielle, I knew we were in trouble!  She said when she got off the phone she thought she would just ask Skyler to make sure.  He told her he had stolen Beckett's costume and asked if he was going to jail.  Then when Danielle started dialing my number he asked her all concerned if she was calling the police!  It was so funny but so sad at the same time because it was Halloween day and Beckett had no costume to wear.  Normally, I would just go through our dress ups and have him pick a new one but all of our dress ups were in the storage unit and there was no way I was going to go pay full price for a cheap halloween costume that would be on clearance the next day.

So Beckett was really sad when we headed to the parade in his regular clothes.  I got to talking with a friend we sat by and told her the whole story.  She has two older boys and said she had tons of dress ups and that we could come pick something out to borrow after the parade.  Beckett was really excited about that.

We headed to her house after the parade and Beckett was thrilled to wear this adorable fireman outfit!  I have to say I was secretly really happy Skyler stole the spidey costume because the fireman was so much cuter and our spidey costume is pretty much in shreds.

Skyler felt really bad and called to apologize to Beckett.  He also told him he was going to hop on his bike and ride over to return his costume.  I don't think he realized how long of a bike ride it is from Provo to St. George:)

After school the kids and I made sugar cookies and they had a great time decorating them and making a giant mess.  That night we went to the ward Halloween party and chili cook off.  Garrett made corn bread and I made chili.  The food was great but I was a little sad because it messed up having our traditional dinner in a pumpkin.  We planned on making it later that week, but it just never happened.  

How cute is this little Halloween monster?!  He barely fit in this 3 month outfit and he turned 2 months old on Halloween.  His little toes were almost busting through the feet.  He is a very long little man!

After getting tons of candy at the trunk or treat the kids went out with Garrett to trick or treat around the neighborhood.  I stayed home with the little monster since he was all tuckered out.  He started smiling a couple weeks before Halloween so I was so glad I caught it in a picture!

Blessing Weekend

We coordinated my parent's farewell with Dallas' baby blessing so we could have lots of people we love there for both special events.  All my siblings and their kids were able to come except for Ben and Molly since they were moving into their new house that weekend.  

These three cousins are best buddies and had such a great time playing together for the weekend.  The first day we took all the kids to a jumping place to celebrate Nathan's 12th birthday.  The kids had a great time and it was nice to see the kids get all their crazy energy out without having to worry about someone breaking something!

After we wore them out, we came home and had cake and homemade ice cream.  I can't believe Nathan is 12!  I still remember changing his diapers when he was one.  It scares me to see how fast it went because I can see how fast it is going with my own kids.  

On Saturday we had a mock Thanksgiving dinner since my parents are going to miss 2 Thanksgivings and Christmases while they are on their mission.  Everything was amazing as usual and I am kind of thrilled that I get two Thanksgiving dinners this year:)

Look at all these cute grandkids!  We were just missing Reagan.  Sunday was my parent's farewell.  They did such a great job on their talks and my sisters and I sang a song we had sung at Jordan's farewell a long time ago called The Olive Tree.  It was a beautiful meeting.  

After church we came home and had the baby blessing.  Dallas was a good boy and slept through the whole thing.  It was kind of funny though because Dallas was asleep in his church outfit and I just couldn't bring myself to wake him up just to change him into his blessing outfit, so he just got blessed in church clothes.  I guess you can tell this is my fourth child:)

It was a beautiful blessing that talked a lot about the two amazing men that Dallas is named after.  My Grandma was able to be there too which was really neat since he is named after her husband Dal.  I am so thankful for the priesthood in my life and for the blessing of being surrounded by wonderful men who hold that power righteously.  

Here are the three singers.  I of course got all emotional at the end of the song and barely finished.  I was very happy to have my sisters to pick up the slack for me.  I am such a cry baby these days!  Every time I get together with my siblings I get sad that we don't all live by each other.  However, I am a lot closer to two of them for now and it is so fun to get together more often. 

We are going to miss Nana and Papa soooooo much!

Fall St. George style

I have always lived where there are four seasons and where there is a real and cold winter.  Our kids have always loved playing in the snow so I was a little worried about how they would react to the lack of a real winter.  Turns out it was a really easy adjustment!  The kids loved swimming all the way through the second week of November in Nana and Papa's pool.  One beautiful day we went over to swim at Great Nana's pool and got to have strawberry popsicles on her porch.

Baby Dallas has loved the porch swing where he takes lots of naps while the kids swim.  Every time he would get fussy I would take him outside on the swing and he would calm right down.  He loved the warm October air.

There have been lots of acrobatics around the pool this fall!  Beckett has mastered the under water flip even with his swim vest on.  

The afternoon swims have really been wearing the kids out.  Beckett has fallen asleep more than once on this couch while waiting for a movie to start:)

Dallas loved lots of snuggles with Nana.  This was his normal position at the dinner table since Nana is an expert at eating while holding a baby and I will never turn down that offer!

Since we missed the first month of school, the kids had their school pictures on the retake day.  This was Rylynn's outfit.  Thanks to Aunt Danielle for the cute peace sign vest!

Carter and Beckett have become best buddies in the morning while Rylynn is at school.  They even pause from their wrestling to hold baby Dallas every once in awhile.  Notice the lack of warm clothes in these pictures.  I can tell our "fall" clothes are going to be very deprived living here.

Newborn Pics

I by no means am a photographer, but we didn't have the time or money for professional pictures with Dallas so I gave it my best!  Luckily, my mom has an awesome camera so they turned out pretty well.  Plus Dallas is a beautiful baby (in my unbiased opinion) so that helped too.

First Day of School. Kind of

The first day of school in Liberty Lake was September 5th which was also my due date.  However since Dallas came early and we decided to move on the 12th we just figured it made more sense to keep the kids out of school and just start them when we got to Utah.  I knew schools in Utah had already started about 2 weeks before WA so I was pretty anxious to get them there and get them in school.  Little did we know at the time that we were actually going to be moving to St. George where school had started a whole month before. 

Rylynn 2nd grade

Carter Kindergarten

Normally I wouldn't really care that much that they were starting a whole month late, but I was really sad that we didn't get that real first day of Kindergarten experience with Carter.  That was such a big deal with Rylynn and so I was kind of worried he would be really sad.  Luckily he is my easy going kid and he didn't mind at all.  He was really excited to start and we went the night before and bought them their new backpacks and school shoes which was very exciting:)  Carter loved his first day and his teacher and settled in like a pro.  Rylynn loved her first day too and made friends right away.  She loves her teacher and her best friend is on our street.  My kids have always lived where there have been some members of our church but most of the kids in school and in the community haven't been members so it is still so exciting for Rylynn that all these kids in her class are members of her church. The first three weeks of school straight she would come home and be so excited and say, "guess what Mom!  So and so is a member of our church too!"  She found out one of her friends was a member when she started to sing a primary song in class and she got so excited and asked her if she was a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!  I still don't think she gets that pretty much everyone here is:)  I'm just so thrilled that we found a great school for them that they love.