Christmas Eve...better late than never...

kid table
The girls were so good and waited patiently to open their presents.

Brooklyn just loves Hailee so much and so I thought it was only fitting...
Christmas Eve with all the kids...Jeff's brother's kids and our kids and Brooke's kids
Brooklyn and Justin


Tom and the girls played hungry hippo (Thanks Brooke!) while I sewed to quickly finish the pajamas for the girls so that they could go to bed.

Opening their jammies Christmas Eve
These are the jammies I made the girls. Tom cut out the shapes for the tops and I did all the sewing. I thought they turned out quite cute.


Ya, I am just getting around to posting about Christmas. Life has been busy! During the holidays we had Brittney come and stay with us. Then Christmas came in a hurry, we went to Boise for a week after Christmas, we took on the project of painting and decorating the girls' room, then the Stufflebeams came this last weekend. I am feeling a little behind. So, it may take me another month to get it all posted, but it will get done! Here was our Christmas Eve. We went over to Brooke's house for dinner, opened presents then came home and I quickly sewed the jammies, they opened them, then Tom and I got everything ready for Christmas. A very crazy day, but fun to be in my own home Christmas Eve. I have always wanted to go to Boise to be with my family on Christmas Eve and Christmas but this year I wanted to have my family in our own home opening our own presents. So we did. I love this time of year.

Makin' chocolates...a Hall tradition

Every year it is a Hall tradition for Tom to make carmels and cashew brittle. I love and I hate this tradition. I love it because they are sooo yummy and I hate it because they are soooo yummy. I really do love it because it is a family tradition that Tom grew up doing and has passed it on to our family. Traditions are important to me. As you can see, Brooklyn was very hands on too. I think we may have someone to keep it going!

Life goes on...

Ya, I promised a bunch of Christmas posts but I can't seem to find the time to sit down and do it. I have 10 minutes before my presidency mtg. so I figured I would write a little update. This past week Tom and I conquered decorating and painting Brooklyn and Kenzie's new room. Princess theme. I painted a huge castle mural on the main wall and had a friend come over and paint a frog prince, butterflies and ladybugs. Tom put some bead board up and I think it is the most darling room ever. We just need to get the beds in and can call it good! Kenzie is all princess and Brooklyn loves bugs so that is how we came up with our theme. Also, during the whole painting project I caught a 24 hour flu then Brooklyn caught it. Tom and Kenzie came away unscathed. Oh and I forgot that earlier this week Brooklyn had pink eye. I swear, whenever we decide to do a big project all Heck breaks loose. So, between sanitizing, painting, taking care of Brooklyn and hauling around our gimpy (Kenzie with her broken leg)....I'm tired. I had to conduct in R.S. yesterday and while I was conducting I looked down and noticed I was wearing blue nylons with my black dress. I also noticed that there was a huge run in them. Can't win 'em all, right? It was just one of those weeks.

Memur

Today our family cat, Memur, died. We got her when I was around 14-15 years old. I remember my Mom brought her home and said she picked her up from the neighbors. She was such a cute kitty. I remember we all wanted to name her different things but the name Memur just stuck. Memur was a great cat. She fetched things and when she ate she took 1 piece of cat food out of the bowl onto the ground then ate the food. Brooklyn and Kenzie loved to feed her, hold and pet her when we went to Boise. When my Dad called this morning I was at Home Depot picking out paint. When he said she died I was kind of in shock so I didn't cry. Then when I got in the car I started bawling. I never thought that cat meant that much to me. When I would go home I really didn't pay much attention to her. I guess the sad part for me was that yes, she died, but also it meant a part of my childhood was gone. Don't we all cling on to any part of our childhood and try and make it last as long as we can? Mine was pretty darn good. The sad part out of the whole thing is that she was attacked by raccoons and that is how she died. Dad buried her where all the other family cats had been buried right under Lou's window well. He said he placed the Christmas wreathe from the door over her grave. Memur, you are loved and missed.

Christmas a little early

Thanks Grandma Faye!


Debbie got for us a picture of the temple...it made me tear up.


This is the blanket I made for Brittney. She loves rainbows so when I saw it I had to do it.
Buddies
Grandma Debbie playing shutes and ladders with Brooklyn
The girls and Scott playing with their new zhu zhu pets. They LOVED this!

A couple of weeks ago the Stufflebeams came to stay with us. On that Sunday we opened presents from them and from Grandpa Nate. The girls were totally thrilled! They loved everything they received and are still playing with the new toys they got. Looks like I need to go through our toy closet and make some decisions on what stays and what goes. Thank you everyone for your generosity. You spoil us and our girls.

Makin' cookies

When the cookies were in the oven Brooklyn made her own cookies and told everyone to come to her picnic.


Notice the big opening on the sprinkles. This kid is smart. We shut it and he would sneak and open the big end and dump all the sprinkles.



Brooke, Jeff, Hailee and Justin came and helped decorate too. Actually, Hailee did 75% of the decorating.
Brittney picking out the cookies she wants to take home with her.
Kenzie was giving me a smile 5 seconds before the picture was taken. Now look at her face. It looks like Brittney is hurting her. She really wasn't.


The weekend before Christmas we were lucky to have the Stufflebeams come and stay with us. While they were here we went shopping, decorated cookies, and had a mini Christmas and opened the presents they brought. I took a ton of pics so we will do the cookie post today and the opening presents post tomorrow. I still have our Christmas to post plus we went to Boise and the cabin so I have those to post. Looks like I will be posting quite a bit the next couple of days and weeks. :)

Watch what you say...

On our drive up to my folks cabin in McCall, Idaho I was mentioning to Tom how we've had a healthy family, for the most part. I told him I couldn't imagine taking my kid to the ER because it would be so hard to see them hurt. Well, I guess you should really watch what you say. It can jinx you. Mackenzie broke her leg Dec. 27. Here's how it went down...no pun intended...I was goofing around with my 2 nephews (Ryan and Austin) and niece (Hailee). Well, I had Hailee on my back and was chasing Ryan down the hall. I didn't even see Kenzie at our feet and neither did Ryan. He tripped on Kenzie and I tripped on him and we all came tumbling down onto Kenzie. So, there was Ryan, Me and Hailee on my back on top of Kenzie. I heard her whimper so I peeled all the kids off and saw that she was holding her leg. I thought it was her knee. We saw that it was swollen so we bundled her up, gave her a Priesthood blessing, and went to the emergency room in McCall, Idaho. She was a trooper. So, she has to have a cast for 3-4 weeks and can't walk on it until she is ready to walk on her own. At first we had to carry her EVERYWHERE! If you have been around Kenzie enough you know that this kid doesn't sit still. After a couple of days I could tell she got sick of relying on others so she figured out how to scoot on her bum while holding her leg up. Talk about an ab workout! This kid is determined. She knows she's not supposed to stand on her leg so she tells us all day, "I not standing, Mommy. I careful, Mommy." She is so darn cute in a cast.
At the E.R.
At the Orthopedist's in IF
We thought we were getting a hard cast for her, but this Dr. felt like a soft cast was fine...

Doesn't she have a cute leg? The break is right below the knee. It is a fine line.

The Doc said the bone got bent too.
The break is kind of hard to see here. It is right below the knee. There is a line that looks like a piece of hair was on it.