Groundhog's Day Extravaganza

For this year's party we invited 5 couples that we really thought (and hoped) would be able to be goofy with us. We were not disappointed.

Stan and I by the Groundhog's day banner Stan made- his artistry always amazes me.

We ate groundhog stew, yummy bread sticks, cheese and crackers, and 7 layer dip to start off our evening.

Israel's groundhog- his shadow is the grey one to the left (although I'm sure you all figured that out already)

Heather Ann won the guessing how many gummy groundhogs were in the jar-AND she generously shared with all of us:)
Sergio won the "throwing cards into a hat" game (5 out of 10) and had the honor of donning the hat to read Phil's Prognostication - more winter.
The start of our Groundhog Poo Pick-up game (a version of skittles if you've ever played that game- let me know if you want the details) Heather Ann also won this game- she was an amazing pooper scooper!

Matt won the funniest Groundhog's Day Memory (let just say we all had plenty of creative license)

Here's his story:

So there I was, knee deep in the swamps of Vietnam. Chesty on my right, Daly on my left. Today's mission, find that Groundhog . . . and destroy him. Then out of nowhere, Charlie the Groundhog charged. It was a nightmare. Carlie saw his shadow. Chesty got another Navy Cross, Daly his second Medal of Honor. Me? I got this scar, courtesy of Charlie the Groundhog

note: Matt is a Marine and Chesty and Daly are Hero Marines from the past.

We ended the evening with Phil's Favorite Treats (kettle corn) while watching the last 15 minutes of the movie.

Thanks for all the fun guys! We're already talking about next year.

Hi Santa . . .

And she did better than Julia who shouted "No, No, No" once it got to our turn:)

Anybody else have children terrified of Santa?

Trick or Treat Bags

This year for Halloween I had a decision to make- buy 2 more of those plastic pumpkins that take up all that space and are annoying to store- or find a better solution. Thank you craft blog for giving me the basic idea for my "better" solution. I made Julia's bag the pattern size, but made Israel and Eliza's bigger. If you'd going to make one for a child 3 or up I'd definitely add a few inches (I added 2). My kiddos has a great time picking out their own fabric (2.44 a yard at Walmart). The bonus of these bags, besides being cute and individualized for each child is that they take almost no storage space during the 11 months of the year we don't need them:)
A similar bag is for one of you. If you'd like to enter my first giveaway- tell me your favorite Halloween and why. Winner drawn at random Thurs at noon. I'll mail to out Friday so you can have it by the 31st.

Eyes closed!



A few of the decorations we picked up from the dollar store on Thursday. We went back the next day to get a little more and they'd already replaced their Halloween items with Christmas decor. Can you see the eyeballs in the goblets?

Mother's Day/ Warning: Explicit photo

Well we had a Happy Adventurous Mother's Day. I had my piano debut in sacrament meeting (I promise I can play it so much better when there aren't so many people listening) Eliza had a break down in Primary. Once we got home Julia refused to nap, so I went for a breather and read the May Ensign behind the temple while Stan made me a Mother's Day Feast of Pollo Relleno, brocolli, corn on the cob, and brussel sprouts. I've only had br. sprouts 1 time and didn't like them, but Stan wanted to try. I ate 1- I know you're proud. Stan told the kids that if they'd eat one he'd let them had a fruit snack. To our surprise Eliza gulped hers down with a smile. Now Israel was a different story. He tried really hard with one, but just couldn't do it and had to spit it out, but he wanted to try again. We gave him the smallest one left and Stan encouraged him to eat it and drink lots of milk. The last picture is what happened. Look at your own risk.
The pictures in the middle are so you don't have to look at the last one if you don't want to:) This morning at 9am the sprinklers were on outside, so Israel and Eliza has some early morning water fun. (with the pool closed for the summer this might become a habit)

Eliza with her earned fruit snack

Warning- yucky photo below

scroll down at your own risk

Such a good day

Easter at our house was just marvelous. It started with a carmel french toast breakfast (that Stan came home for after early AM meetings), then church- where both Eliza and Julia kept their bows in their hair the WHOLE time, to walking home and discovering the Easter bunny had visited, to reading the Ressurection story as a family, eating off of our china with Amanda and Bryce, multiple Easter Egg hunts (we used the same eggs over and over) to playing Wii (the EB brought MarioParty 8), visiting with Dana and Jason, eating cheesecake, and happily going to sleep. The weather was nice to us and light jackets were all we needed. The sunshine was great.

Busy Easter Bunnies

Our Preschool Easter Party.

Notice Israel's super cool Bunny Hat. He was actually the only kid able to do the spoon on the egg race. But then he was the oldest kid there. **Note: We Mom's aren't totally foolish, the eggs were hard boiled

Here is Julia- she realized that eggs were food. She just pushed her nail right into this egg.

Eliza right before the egg hunt.Julia with her fluffy bunny basket. Stan bought it for her last week after she carried it all over Toys R Us. The littlest kids were given a head start. She did really well until one of her eggs opened. Once she realized there was candy inside she quit finding eggs and started happily munching.

The after picture. I don't know why, but after the Easter Egg Hunt and all that sugar we gave them cupcakes for a treat. We all had a really fun time- and Mom may or may not have been munching on Easter candy all day:)

Groundhog's Day

We're still waiting for Brian's pictures, but here is a taste of the fun we had at our 8th Annual Hall Family Groundhog's Day Party. As always we ate groundhog stew, rolls, had treats and played plenty of silly games. Thanks all of the friends and family that came to celebrate it with us! Stan decorated the room with his impressive droundhog drawings. Notice the groundhog family that looks quite like us:)

Christmas with the Extended Hall Family

All the Cline and Neoma's posterity were together for Christmas- here's some pictures of our fun.
We had Grandma and Granddaddy Hall and Dana and Jason over for Christmas. I had so much fun cooking dinner and making pies and wassel.

Those cute skirts that all the little girls are wearing Dana Marie made.

Christmas Morning at the Halls

We had a happy relaxing morning enjoying Santa's surprises and being in our jammies. The kiddos were so happy to have all the "presidents"

Recent Christmas Happenings

At our RS Enrichment this week I got to make the cake! I used Sylvia Weinstocks Classic Yellow Cake, buttercream, and filling recipes- it was very rich and yummy. I decorating using wafer chocolate. It took a while, but I was really glad that I made a stacked cake from scratch.

Also at our Ward Christmas Party last night Israel and the Primary did a little number and hopefully this video will actually load:) Well it's not loading, hopefully we'll get it on here soon.

We're excited for Christmas and going to put up the tree tomorrow- wish us luck with Julia:)
We also took our Christmas photo at Church today. We squeezed Eliza into her outfit from last year, so we all looked festive, so hopefully we can get cards in the mail the end of this week or the beginning of next.

We hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas Season and the focus of celebrating our Savior.

Getting Geared Up for Halloween

Here is my Stan with his FAVORITE candy. I promise he didn't eat the ones in his ears and nose:)
For our ward Halloween Party tonight I made this Spider to guard our candy for the Trunk or Treat
The Cake I've been laboring over for the past 2 days. I love it and am so happy with how it turned out. The hardest part was getting the fondant all the colors I needed it to be.

What October Brings

Israel is going to be a cowboy for the 3rd year in a row for Halloween. This year there is no way he's going to squeeze into the Woody costume he wore the las 2 years, so we're making this one on our own. Stan has been wanting Israel to have cowboy boots for quite a while so I told him now's your chance, take him shopping before Halloween and it can be part of his costume (the only purchase this year besides candy:) We're borrowing a doggy costume for Julia from my sister Jane and a fancy princess costume from Andrea in our ward. Thanks for helping me be lazy this time around.

Getting mono really did a number on me. I had all these Christmas plans that I've scratched and halloween ideas I've not done. I learned that it's okay if my house isn't clean when people come over and that I can wear jammies all day long too. We finally do have 2 mini pumkins by our door thanks to our preschool field trip to the Vineyard's Pumpkin Patch.
One thing I'm still doing is taking the Fondant Wilton Cake Decorating Class. I'll post my first cake too (Thanks Michele and boys for helping us eat it.) I like to make cakes, but only enjoy eating so much.