Carter turned 6!

After Christmas Dallas and I ended up with a bad cold.  Mine was much worse than his luckily but I had no energy after the festivities died down.  Before I could rest, we all drove up to attend a special Allred family Christmas dinner with all of my cousins on the 27th. We got to stay with the Albrechts while we were there.  It was so fun but I was still feeling terrible so when we got back home all I wanted to do was sleep.  However, we got back the day before this little man's birthday so I had to pull it together for one last celebration of the year.

On the day of Carter's birthday we had our family party which included Carter's favorite food of all time, enchiladas.  He also got to open the presents from his grandparents, siblings, and aunts and uncles.  He was very excited to get money and some more legos.  He loves legos!

Look at that boy's eye lashes!  

Transformer legos from Grandma Ryan!

He also got a new DS game from Mom and Dad

later that night we had our annual New Year's Eve toasts and talked about some goals we had set last year and how much we had improved on them.  Carter wanted to hold off on cake and ice cream until the next day when his cousins would be driving through town.  Since I was still sick and Garrett is not a night person we put the kids to bed and fell asleep around 10:00.  I wasn't so sad to see 2012 come to an end.  It was a hard year in a lot of ways.

The next day Carter got his Ironman cake! (It wasn't my best cake creation, remember I was sick and had no energy:) 

I thought we had birthday candles but apparently they were all gone so we had to light our big Christmas candle and have him blow that out instead:)  Oh well he didn't seem to mind and the cake tasted yummy so that's all that matters right?

Carter had lots of fun opening a few more presents from Mom and Dad and from his cousins.  He mostly loved playing nerf gun wars with them for the next several hours.  

After the cousins left town everyone except me and Dallas ended up catching the flu from them and had to miss the first day of school.  Can you tell that our Christmas break involved a lot of illness?  After everyone recovered we got to celebrate Carter's birthday at school.  I am ashamed to admit that I brought in store bought cupcakes for the celebration but it was only because I was forced.  Apparently it is a district wide policy that treats have to be store bought which makes me so mad because it's way more expensive and filled with crappy preservatives and chemicals instead of homemade goodness but don't get me started.  Anyway, Carter picked Thor and soccer ball cupcakes that dyed every one's faces blue and green.  Carter loves his kindergarten class and has made some really good friends here.  His best buddies are Crew, Teagan, Matheson, Wyatt, Dahlia, Tayven, Hallie F., and Erma.  Can you tell we live in Utah with those names?:)  

When we first moved here a lot of the boys played basketball at recess so we got Carter a ball and he loves playing with his buddies on the playground.  He is on a team right now too and has games every saturday.  He is getting better each week and loves to play.  He loves his DS and we have to limit him to an hour of use a day.  His favorite games are lego anything, but he especially loves lego star wars and lego lord of the rings.  He is really enjoying reading and is getting really good at it.  He has always been a little math whiz and continues to love doing math problems in his head.  He also still loves to build and makes awesome lego creations every day.

He and Beckett are great buddies and play star wars or avengers together most days as well as building with blocks or legos.  Carter has always been our more reserved and introverted boy and he still is but he has adapted to a new school, primary, and neighborhood wonderfully.  One story about that is that we moved here just a few weeks before the primary program and they started practices on our first sunday here.  Carter didn't know any one but he knew his primary songs so he sang his little heart out at every practice and got the attention of the teachers and leaders really quickly.  The primary music leader announced that if every kid would sing as loud and confidently as Carter did the program would be a huge success!  He was beaming ear to ear when she said it.  

I can't really believe that Carter is six and every single birthday since his first, I get a little sad because it is one year closer to the day I will have to send him off on his mission.  There's something different about sending boys out into the word from what I have observed.  They never really come back.  It is a good and healthy thing, but it still makes me sad to think that my boys will go off on their missions and then to college, and then they will get married and have a wife and they won't need me anymore.  These years with them are so precious and I feel so blessed to be a mother of boys and to be trusted to prepare righteous priesthood holders for my Father in Heaven who will go out and lead and guide our Savior's church on the earth.  

Christmas 2012

This year for Christmas we got to have Marianne and her kids and Abby and Matt come to celebrate with us.  Marianne and Nathan and Aria got here about a week before Christmas so we got to do some fun things before the really craziness began.

The kids decorated cookies, we went to the temple lights again as well as drove around to look at lights around town.  The kids and Marianne got to be in the live Nativity at Tuacan too which was really cool for them.  I was unfortunately home sick with mastitis but Garrett said it was really neat.  They were all in the Angel choir.  Then Christmas Eve we had our annual holy land dinner and the kids acted out the nativity with Nana's amazing costumes.  We didn't get pictures since we were video taping it.  Then came the main event...

 These smiles say it all!  The magic of christmas morning is so fun with little smiling faces.

 You can tell by the sleepy smiles that these are the stocking pictures:)

 Next came my favorite part of the morning, Christmas Breakfast!  You can tell Rylynn did not agree that it was the best part:)  I remember feeling the same way when I was her age.  Neither one of us is super patient.

 This was one of my favorite moments of Christmas.  Beckett opened the first present which was from Grandma Ryan.  It was a really cute police station with lots of parts.  So basically he opened it up and immediately started playing with it and couldn't care less about opening any other presents.  He is so imaginative when he plays so he was totally absorbed in his little police set.

 Dallas was all smiles while we opened presents.  He got to wear his cute little christmas jammies which were the same ones Beckett wore his first christmas.  It makes it easy since they were both August babies.

I love how Dallas is like half of Rylynn's body length in this picture.  He is huge!

 See what I mean, totally enthralled:)

 Carter is kind of obsessed with the Avengers at the moment so he was thrilled to get a captain america suit.

 Abby and Matt got this cute BYU hat for Nathan.  I can't believe this boy is already 12.  He is going to be at BYU in no time.

 Marianne got the boys these adorable monkey hats!

 Marianne's family had ours this year for the adult gift exchange so they made this really cute activity book for us which included movie theater and cold stone gift cards as well as a babysitting coupon for Garrett and me.  We had so much fun spending the gift cards together throughout the next couple months.

 Okay so this was the highlight of Christmas for me this year.  Rylynn has wanted an American Girl doll for a couple years now but I was worried she was too young last year.  So this year "Santa" thought she was old enough and brought her Samantha.  She was sooo excited!!  The coolest part for me was that I had 4 A G dolls growing up but I got them when I was old enough to take really good care of them, not to mention that I was a really anal child about my doll collection.  Anyway, they are in brand new condition so I saved them for my future daughter(s) and this was the first time I got to give one to her.  It was so cool for me.  

 Carter's big Santa present this year was 3 new DS games.  He got a 3DS from Granny and Grandpa for Christmas a little early since we went up there for Thanksgiving.  So he got really into his DS before Christmas and wanted some new games.  He was thrilled!

 Abby and Matt opened most of their presents before they came down since Abby works night and had to work all night Christmas Eve.  We were so happy they made it Christmas morning before all the fun began.  Ollie is on Abby's lap in his new Christmas sweater.  I personally think this picture with Ollie and a baby looks like a pretty happy picture:) hint hint

 Beckett's big present was this Melissa and Doug pizza set that he was dying to have because his buddy Camden has one and every time we go to see him he plays with it the whole time.  He was so excited to get his very own pizza set!  If you look closely in the background, you can see Garrett's presents from the kids.  Yes, they all bought him soda.  They know what he really loves:)

After some wonderful Christmas naps, we had a yummy christmas dinner and the day was complete.  Until next year.

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.