Brennen-My Oldest Child

Brennen Tyler Hall was born on June 27, 1995. He came in to this world 8 weeks premature weighing in at 4 lbs 11 oz and only 15 inches long. Brennen has the most amazing spirit with him that he has carried since birth. As his mom I knew immediately that he was going to be a special child who was intelligent, complex, and very spiritual. After 2 weeks in the hospital he was finally released and we were able to bring him home. At the time we lived in Taylor, AZ and had only been married for 6 months and I was 16 and his dad was almost 19. It was a little scary to bring him home & not have a clue what I was doing, but mothering Brennen came fairly easy for me because he was such a good boy. Brennen is very smart, at about 8-9 months he could already say mom, dad, ball, & dog and knew what they were! Brennen has excelled in school and is usually at the top of his class, always thinking out of the box as some of his teachers have said. He is a great big brother to his siblings, he likes to tease them all the time, but he also watches over them & protects them. He is such an example to his entire family. It is so great to see his willingness to serve others & to be a spiritual strength to those around him. My hope for Brennen is that he will continue on the path he is on, that he will continue to have the desire to serve the Lord and to set personal goals that will reflect the love he has for his Heavenly Father. How blessed I am to be given such a choice spirit to raise in this day. I am proud to be his mom!

My Amazing Husband

I just wanted to post a little something special about my husband. With 4 kids it seems that sometimes he gets lost and pushed to the back burner...you never hear him complain about it though! I am so proud of him for all of his accomplishments. He will be graduating from U of P in a few weeks and I know it has been a long road for him, but what an accomplishment, he is the first of his immediate family to graduate from a University, he is also one of the first to ever graduate within both sides of his extended family. I am still not sure if he really wanted to go to school, but he did it and finished, yes it took him almost 8 years (he gets reminded of that regularly!) but the important thing is he finished what he set out to do and nothing makes me more proud of him. During this time of going to school full time & trying to be a husband & father he managed to quit a very stressful job working for a huge corporation, which he had worked very hard for, (started as a loader operator and years later ended up being a plant manager) he managed to start up his own business doing what he loves...playing in the dirt all day. He started Western Aggregates almost 2 years ago, it is a sand and gravel business. He loves just about every minute of it and best of all one of his business partners is his best friend, his dad. How blessed I am to have such a hard working husband who is so willing to go the extra mile to provide for me & our kids. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father everyday for the blessing of Todd in my life. We have been together for 15 years now, married for almost 14. Because of getting married so young I have now been with Todd as long as I was with my parents! I can't imagine life any other way. He is my best friend, the one I think about all the time, the one I can't wait to walk in the door, even after this many years when I hear him pull up my heart beats fast because I know the other part of me is back home safe and without him I am not complete. I can't imagine spending eternity with any one else. He continually puts up with me and loves me for who I am. How grateful I am to him for the amazing life he has given to us and the amazing person he is, I love you babe!

Exciting News!

On Sunday morning Lindy Todd's sister had a sweet baby boy! He was 6 lbs 9 oz and 19 inches long. He was a few weeks early and he seems so tiny! He looks just like his daddy! His name is Clinton Wayne. We are so excited for them & I think this completes their family because I can't imagine her going through another pregnancy after the great time she has had with this one! :) Welcome to the world little guy we are excited to have you in our family!

Weekend in Pima

Brennen cutting the "perfect" pumpkin

Mak can barely carry hers

Garret and his long stemmed pumpkin, it took him forever to decide on this one!

Our hay ride from picking our pumpkins.

Me & my mom, she is amazing!

October 11, 2008

This past weekend we went to my brother Michaels house in Pima. We spent some time in the rain & the mud & it was a little cold at times, but it was a lot of fun. On Friday we went to the Fair Day parade in Safford, sorry for anyone from Safford, but the parade was a little lacking! The kiddos were totally bummed that they only got like 5 pieces of candy, and there were so many politicians, I honestly don't recall any actual parade floats. Best part of the parade was going to the tortilla factory & getting freshly made tortillas that were still steaming hot! After the parade we spent some time at Michaels house letting the kids ride their quads & the mule, they had so much fun. Saturday we woke up to 100 mile an hour winds (you would think we were in Snowflake or something!) and then the rain started in. After a little bit of rain we finally decided to make our way to Willcox to go to Apple Annies pumpkin patch. It rained on us the entire way, we figured it would be a complete mud hole, but to our surprise it was nice & dry! So we took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and all the kids picked their pumpkins, then we took a hay ride back to the entrance & paid for our pumpkins. Todd took Bren, Mak, & G through the corn maze while I took Russ & we got kettle corn & shaved ice and sat in the extreme wind that had started up. The kids had a great time and it was fun to spend some time with all the family. This year we had around 40 people all together! It has become a yearly thing for us to go to Pima on the 2nd weekend in October. Typically we go to the county fair, however with the weather this year...not an option! It was still a great time, another weekend of memories made!

It's about time!!

I continually say I don't have time to do a blog, however after seeing so many neat blogs & knowing how many friends & family are out there blogging, I decided it was time to make time for my own blog. So for now I will post as often as I can and try to keep up to date with our life happenings. Thanks for the encouragement from everyone to start the blog up!