Our Pre-Easter Cake

Our ward asked each family to make an Easter cake together for the Pre-Easter party of Sat. Stan thought it would be fun to make a pastel nest with eggs inside. We thought to make fondant eggs, but with time constaints we ended up instead blowing out eggs (I forgot how hard that is. Stan and I were both pretty light headed after we were done- 1 for each family member to decorate). Israel and Eliza mixed colors of fondant and Israel rolled them out and cut the strips with an pizza cutter. Then everybody- including Julia helped to decorate our cake-(not surprisingly she kepted sticking her fingers in it). I don't think it will win any prizes, but we really did make and decorate the cake as a family, so I'm happy.

My Birthday!

Here's more pictures of me (Robin) on my birthday and the night before at the Hall Party celebrating Granddaddy Hall's birthday as well (Jan 2). We all had such a blast and I got an excuse to make a cake that I loved.

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.

Last Week's FHE

Have you ever planned something out and it just fell flat on it's face? Well, that's how my perfect FHE plan went last week. We were going to make a sugar cookie barn- the super cute idea I got from the Whimsical Bakehouse www.whimsicalbakehouse.com. I had tons of frosting left over for the activity- even in red. We used Noreigen Forrest Cookies (the only cookie recipe I've made without eggs, but boy is there a lot of butter). I'll let the pictures tell the story- and the important thing of course if that the kids LOVED the activity and at least it wasn't sad to eat it in the end. Plus we tied the lesson into the destruction before Jesus visits the America's after his crusifixion. Israel especially thought that was cool. They want to make another:)

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.

Promised Pictures

Julia acting all "grown up" with Eliza' shopping cart and Dora purse

My first fondany cake

Check out my fancy new boots

I love Israel's huge grin- how he wrinkles his nose-pure Israel Joy








Did I mention I've become a balloon twister? I made this heart with a teady bear for my love.

Happy Hall Birthday!

I don't want to commit to really posting consistantly again, but wanted to at least give a Happy Birthday Cheer to my 3 kiddos, now 5, 3, and 1. Here's some pictures from the fun. We had a party at Nelson Grove Park in Orem- gorgeous park if you've never seen it. The only down side we could discover- you can't fill up water there. We sent a friend to fill up our Gott cooler somewhere else- we were quite thirsty on our hot Sat. afternoon. (The pavilians aren't covered)

For some reason I can't seem to move my pictures around- sorry about the weird order, I'm too tired and lazy to try to figure it out any better.
Israel opened this ball first and ran off to play with it with Nathan and Travis. We didn't open all their presents because they didn't even want too. Playing was too fun.
There were a lot of balloons at the party- I'd learned how to make ballon animals and we'd gotten helium filled balloons -that got horribly tangled- and Aunt Dana brought balloons too. What a party


Julia happy with her link toys

This lady bug cake took an entire jar of no taste red coloring to be this red. Julia was happy until it was gone.

Israel and Eliza shared the sheet cake- it took some help to get the candles blown out- thanks Uncle Jason
Eliza got 2 sets of wings from both her Hall aunts- she loves them.

2 years Later . . .

Well, I found our old blog and finally figured out how to get on it, so here I am again:) We were new to blogging back in 2006 and set up 4 different family blogs-vacations, kids, yoga and I've been struggling to put them all together into this one. Maybe in a few weeks I'll have it all together, I need more computer skills!

Quick update: We have another girl Julia Michele, born Sept. 28th. She's such a happy cute kid and looks extremely like Eliza did at her age. She actually likes to sit, unlike Eliza who was always on the move and cruising furniture before she ever sat. Julia has 4 teeth already and loves to smile and find her daddy and big brother Israel. She has lots of attention from her siblings. Eliza even lovingly shares her precious white silky blanket when Julia's sad. Here are a few pictures of the family:


Israel and Eliza at THE CAVE WELLING in Southern Arizona

Stan celebrating his 30th BIRTHDAY at his sister Susan's house in El Paso, TX
Robin climbing at The Cave Dwelling in Southern AZ, my first OUTDOOR BOULDERING experience.