so much to do... so little time.... so let's throw in a little tile job just to add a little bit more stress

we have been crazy busy trying to get ready for christmas and for the family that's coming the day after. so while i've been busy shopping, cleaning and making christmas treats larry has been busy doing this....

tiling the kids bathroom. when we moved in one of the first items on our must do list was to tile the bathrooms. well 7 years later we finally got it done. and i love the way it turned out. now i am even more excited to get our bathroom done ;)
man am i lucky to be married to such a talented man

just a little sampling......

a few weeks ago our friend kendria took on the ever so difficult task of family pictures. we knew going into it that lily would probably make the task challenging. she did not disappoint. this picture pretty well sums up her attitude about the whole thing

these boots are made for walking, no make that running, as far away from you as i can
somehow, even when she pouts she is a cutie!

we had so many great pictures to choose from it's been really hard to make a decision. but here are a few of our favorites.

yes, we did get lily to smile - a couple of times

love the boots!

this is probably one of the nicest pictures we have ever had of the two of us together

since this was kind of like tackling lily thought it was great

bells and her daddy

brendan and his tough guy face

my two hunks

so sweet

the king on his throne surrounded by his courtiers

thanks kendria for hanging in there and doing such a great job!!

i still haven't decided which pictures to hang in the house!

they are that good!

christmas tree adventure

saturday was our annual traipse through the forest to find the perfect christmas tree adventure. and let's just say that the day did not disappoint. it started off with me deciding that i wanted to have a little lesson in pulling the trailer. i was driving up the mountain, concentrating so hard on keeping the trailer in my own lane that i missed a speed limit change sign - right in front of an officer. well, according to him i missed like 3, but i'm sticking to my thought that it had to be just one. nothing like a little traffic ticket to set the mood for the day ;)

the best part is that our friend dana, who was also in pursuit of the perfect tree, was with us. her nephew had just sent flat stanley to her so we had to get a picture of him with the officer to make an accurate documentation of his adventure in colorado.
the kids enjoyed frolicking in the snow
meanwhile larry and i continued the quest

we finally found this one. the bottom was pretty sparse, but the top looked nice and full

carrying it out of the forest proved to be a little bit difficult. lily and brooke were completely done with the whole adventure and were being less than cooperative. so dana and i took the girls back to the car and told larry we would be back to help him and brendan pull it out. thankfully by the time we were ready to go back to help, he already had it on the side of the road. currently it remains undecorated. hopefully by the end of the weekend it will be beautiful.

just a couple of projects

a little sampling of what i've been up to lately

i LOVE holiday crafts!

weekend of firsts

so this weekend had a lot of exciting firsts in it. it kicked off on friday when brooke got an award at the school assembly.

she was so surprised and excited and we are so proud. she is working really hard and doing so well in kindergarten.

next brendan got to hunt for the first time. now i know what you're thinking ~ didn't he just go hunting a few weeks ago?? yes he did but he wasn't 12 at the time so he didn't get to carry a rifle and he wouldn't have been able to shoot something if he saw it. so this was his first REAL hunt. but, alas, they did not see anything and he came home empty handed. he also got to attend young mens for the first time this week. i swear i don't know how he's that old! he is also anxious for the other adventures being 12 holds ~ passing the sacrament and getting the priesthood.

bella had her first concert today. i wish that i could tell you all about how marvelous she did etc, etc, etc. but i can't because it was a private concert and the parents were not allowed to attend. now if i am going to be honest i would have to say that this bugs me just a little bit. the practices are closed and now a private concert. so besides the little musical tidbits we get from her occasionally; we have no idea what the chorale is doing! we won't get a peek at it until the christmas concert. i understand why it works the way it does. and that the purpose of the chorale is for the kids to have the opportunity to perform for all kinds of audiences. but as a parent it's driving me nuts that i can't see what they are working on!

and can we just talk for a minute about the uniforms? the day bella brought it home she was so excited.....until she opened it up and saw what it was. can you say boring? yes we want all the kids to blend in with each other and we don't want the uniforms to distract from the performance, but can't we do something just a little bit different? it doesn't help that in order to get her shirt long enough it's about 3 times as wide as she is.

but she loves every single second of being in the chorale and that is all that matters.

the Big T-H-R-E-E (11/2)

my oh my...... where has the time gone? it's hard to believe that just three years ago we brought this adorable little one home from the hospital. and from the second her daddy saw her adorable big blue eyes she has had him wrapped around her little finger. three years later the blue is not quite so strong, in fact it's all but gone, but her daddy is still wrapped firmly in place. i love to watch the two of them together. they share such a unique bond.

we had a quiet, family celebration to mark this momentous birthday. i called it the pinkalicious party due to the shockingly bright pink cupcakes. and yes i can count - there are 4 candles because it's a hahl tradition to put an extra candle on for good luck.


and to finish off the night we enjoyed a viewing of the newest ice age movie.

just a little side note here ~ this blanket is quite possibly the ugliest blanket i have ever seen in my life. but larry has had this for about as long as he can remember and has no immediate plans to part with it. and it is by far the warmest blanket i have ever seen. just goes to show you that the old school stuff really was of superior craftsmanship.


i asked each of the kids to give me one word that described lily.

brendan - irresistibly cute


bella - sweet


brooke - friendly




as for me; i would say that lily is:
adorable
full of life and energy
beyond mischievous
affectionate cuddlebug
infectious smile and laugh

happy birthday baby girl!

we love you!!

knocked out lily style

lilster's plays so hard all day everyday. the nice thing about this is that some nights she is sooo ready for bed. last night she ate dinner, walked into the kitchen, aked larry to cut her a piece of cake and promptly laid down on the floor and fell fast asleep. larry turned around to hand her the cake and she was already out.

it seriously took her all of 60 seconds to crash on the floor. in this exact position. what i wouldn't give to sleep that soundly.

the chocolate thief

a couple weeks ago i was trying to work out some details about our new roof installation with larry on the phone. lily was being a little, shall we say, NOISY so i went upstairs for a little bit of quiet. on my way back down the stairs this is what i found.

and in the family room i found this

i asked lily who got into the kisses and she looked at me with her big ol greyish blue eyes and said

"it's not bliss mom but it's still good chocolate"

she never ceases to put a smile on my face

evolution of a self portrait

hmmm...... not quite
closer but still lacking

perfect - especially the cheeto smile

larry and brendan spent last weekend hunting. the results of the big hunt.... nadda. but they did have a lot of fabulous father son time and that counts for a lot.

it seemed like a good idea

earlier in the summer, larry was painting the house of our neighbors\friends and they offered to let us have their basketball hoop. well the summer has come and gone and we didn't do much about collecting said hoop. so last weekend when brendan and a couple of his buddies were standing around outside without much to do i told larry we should go get the hoop. "it'll entertain them for hours" i told him. he was a little reluctant, didn't want to "bug" but made the call anyway and promptly went down to retrieve it. the boys and girls in the neighborhood "gang" were very stoked at the idea and helped larry get it set up. all was well and everyone was having a ton of fun until.......

brendan caught the ball with his mouth knocking out his half fake tooth again for the second time in less than 6 months. this tooth has been SUCH a pain - and i'm not just talking physically. it got knocked out for the first time in 3rd grade before it was even all the way in. his baby tooth had barely been gone. i remember thinking at the time, why couldn't this have happened 2 months ago and then we wouldn't have to even worry about it?? why must we destroy our permanent tooth when it's just barely scratched the surface?? so from that day forward he has had a partial fake tooth. and this is the 3rd time it has gotten knocked out. except for the initial impact, the tooth doesn't hurt when it comes out. until this time. apparently 4 times is the magic number. this time it really hurt and the dentist had to put some special medicine on the nerve to try and "calm it down". which also meant that he couldn't fix the tooth all the way. so poor brendan is stuck with just a little stub until the end of the month when the dentist will build up the tooth to normal size. and he informed us that the earliest he will be eligible for a cap or crown is around 18. so we decided that it would be fun to have a running bet as to how many times the tooth will need to replaced before that time. my personal guess is 12 more for a total of 16 knockouts. and we are getting him a mouthguard for all sports. no sense in tempting the fates where this little puppy is concerned.

the three muskateers

i'm really behind on my blog posts but am trying to get them caught up. while working on the post of my parent's 50th wedding anniversary last month i found this adorable picture of lily and brooke with their cousin rebecca. the whole weekend those three had so much fun together. you would have thought they had known each other forever rather than just met.

it really touched my heart to watch the girls bond so quickly. i don't think that i could ever put into words what their sweet little smiles did to me. priceless.....

opening a new chapter

i'm not really sure how it happened. where did the time go? and how on earth am i old enough to have this happen???

brendan started middle school about a month ago. to say that it's been surreal is a complete understatement. i swear to you it seems like just yesterday he was starting elementary. a small little kindergartner. and now we are in middle school. i ran into a friend i haven't seen in forever the other day and she told me her oldest is a junior this year. a junior! no way! and then i realized, that before i even blink that's going to be me. time just flies so fast and i can't seem to keep up with it.

here's brendan on his way to school yesterday. everyday he lugs that huge, weighted down backpack and his trumpet. the trumpet is a new addition. he really, really wanted to try band this year and since electric guitar is out he opted for trumpet. as for his playing skills, well right now it reminds me of a wounded animal bugling others for help. but i'm sure in a few months it will actually sound like music. in general he is loving middle school. i was super nervous and still am but he is taking it all in stride. it's been kind of a tough transition because almost everyone he knew from elementary is in a different pod and his neighbor friend is older so they don't see each other at all. so he is basically starting from scratch in the friend pool. hard times but again, he's a trooper my son is. he has such a positive attitude about the whole thing and i'm sure (praying anyway) that before long he'll fit right in. the other big change middle school has brought is his desire to wrestle. the season doesn't start until winter so he might change his mind by then. but for right now he is super excited about it. i think it would be a great sport for him and am anxious to cheer my little man on!

lil-i-vader

lily's new favorite form of entertainment

luke - i'm your father

so we did a little camping

a couple of weekends ago was the annual church campout. for the first time our schedules were such that we could attend. now i have to say that while i am a fan of the camping activities - i do not enjoy sleeping in a tent. part of this might just be because i am not used to it. in all the years that we have been married this was only my 4th time going camping. larry says it's technically the 3rd, but i'm counting the time that we went to moab, slept in char's unfinished house out in the desert with no electricity or running water moments after killing a rattlesnake and a black widow as a camping trip. that's getting up close and personal with nature folks. no way around it. anyway - back to the current camping story. since i decided in the middle of the night to forgo the tent and climbed into the car for a peaceful slumber many of you think that i am not into camping. that simply is not so! i really do enjoy it. i just can't sleep in that stupid tent!! so next time i'm just going to start out in the car, pure and simple! so don't judge me you sleeping bag snugglers and tent lovers. let me be one with nature in my own ridiculous and unconventional way ;)

one of my favorite pictures from the trip is this one of my friend olivia and her hubby packing up their car. how they managed to fit all that stuff plus 2 kids and themselves is still a mystery to me.

before heading home we went fishing with some friends of ours. the creek was cold but the kids loved it. right after this picture was taken brooke slipped and smacked her nose on the big rock over there causing a massive bloody nose. it's not camping unless there's a bleeder.

lily and her daddy hanging out by the creek

some crazy random ladies hanging out on a rock - otherwise known as: dana, jami and me

dan and lilsters playing squishy face

the roberts brought louie which was great for us because he can entertain lily for hours.

all in all it was a great camping trip. hopefully the next one will be sooner rather than later.

sunday art work

during church on sunday brooke was quietly drawing. as quiet as she ever is during church anyway. i looked down and noticed that she had done this.

me: brooke, you really shouldn't turn jesus into an indian. it's not appropriate.

brooke: but mom, he's not an indian. i was drawing him a crown.

me - a little embarrassed: oh sorry. of course it's a crown. my mistake. it's lovely. great job.

swimming lessons

our kids are like fish. if they could breathe underwater i am convinced that is where they would live. since they are so comfortable with it, we haven't really spent a lot of time doing swimming lessons. however, i had a little break from watching extra kids and a few of our friends were doing swimming lessons so i said "why not" and enrolled brooke. due to her amphibian skills, we skipped the first few levels. at first i was worried that i had made a mistake. but in the end i picked exactly the class she needed. she learned a lot and actually passed!
she loved going to class almost everyday and has really missed it this week. it was so much fun for both of us. we each got to hang with some of our friends for a couple of hours poolside. what a great way to pass summer days!

our little stingray!

just a SMIDGEY too small

bella was super petite when she was a baby\toddler. she still is on the small side if you compare her to her friends. when she was about two and a half her favorite pajamas were pink with blues clues characters all over them. now that lily is the same age she loves the pajamas just as much. can't say they fit the same though........

oh well - lily loves them anyway! and in the summer you need some air on your tummy and arms.