15 Years & Counting!

Today we celebrate 15 years of marriage!

It's amazing to me how quickly time has gone by but when I stop & really think about the past 15 years I realize we have been through a lot! I think of everything we have accomplished, all the good times, all the bad times, the births of our 5 kids, and all the different "lives" we have lived, and most importantly how much our love for each other & our eternal bond has increased in these past 15 years. How lucky I am to have such an amazing husband who works so hard to provide a good life for our family and to give us all the things we need to survive this life & for the strength & support he is to me. If I had it to do all over again...would I?! You bet your life I would. I believe we are who we are because of each other and we were meant to be together on this journey we call life and I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else!

The New House...FINALLY!!

So after a long month of fighting with our lender we were finally able to sign papers & call the house our own! For a while we didn't think it was going to happen, we had several problems arise from the appraisal and the property location & comparable properties. We spent a lot of time on our knees over this one, and I guess it was meant to be, we just had to be patient!

We won't be moving in for a few weeks, we have painting, remodeling bathrooms, tile work, and lots of cleaning to get done before we can finally move in. I'm so excited & can't wait. I am going to try & take lots of pictures so I have some good before & afters to post. As you can see by the pictures it isn't your typical desert style home but we love the fact that it is different. It is surrounded by hay fields and is only about 1/2 a mile from where we currently live. We are so glad to be able to stay in our ward & stay in Palo Verde because we love it! The home is quite a bit larger than anything I have ever had before and cleaning is probably going to suck, but we need as much space as we can get these days! More than anything I am excited to finally have a place to call our own! It has been almost 3 years ago that we sold our house & moved to Buckeye & started renting, we did luck out in being patient because we feel like we got an amazing deal on the place and it is right where we want to be.

Russ's Wound

This was during the freaking out stage because Garret was riding his motorcycle!
This was well after the incident right before blowing out his candles. It doesn't look to bad in the pictures but up close it was pretty nasty because it slit his skin & then white puffy skin was sticking out. He is all good today though, I'm sure he will have a nice scar, we probably should have just taken him for a few stitches!

Birthday #2 for Russ

Russ before the party started, he is wearing Garret's old boots that are huge on him, but he doesn't care, that is all he wants to wear is boots these days!

Sitting with his #2 cake, that's as creative as I seem to get anymore!

His toy from Grandma & Papa a CAT haul truck that makes noise & goes on its own.

His present from Mom & Dad, a push motorcycle

Blowing out his candles. (Notice the slash on his eyebrow?!)

So for Russ's 2nd birthday we didn't do anything to exciting but it was fun. Papa & Grandma came over & brought pizza & wings for dinner. We ate, then opened presents, then we had cake & ice cream. Between the opening of presents & the cake we had a bit of an accident which brings us back to the slash on his eyebrow! He was going down the hallway on that new fancy motorcycle & lost his balance & toppled it over. Of course he can't just land on the tile, that would be to easy, his glasses hit the tile baseboard & the frame slashes his eyebrow open. I am so used to the boys getting hurt & screaming so we hear his scream & I just sit there on the couch like here we go...again. Gma Skeet races to the hallway to check on him & starts yelling there is blood to which me & Todd immediately hop up to the rescue. The poor guy was bleeding pretty good. We get him rested on the counter & are trying to clean him up & get the bleeding to stop, well he is just screaming, not because he is hurt but because we have taken him away from his new toy & now Garret is on it. We finally get him cleaned up & are contemplating whether to take him in for stitches or not, Todd finally decides that he is a boy & it is right in the middle of his eyebrow so he will be fine. In the mean time he is back on the motorcycle & could care less that he just slashed his eyebrow open & we can see white flesh sticking out! So then it is time for cake & ice cream, well we had taken the glasses off because they took a beating on that crash & one of the arms was all jacked up. He goes to blow his candles out & since he is farsighted, what does he do, he gets closer & closer & closer to the flames & finally it is hot enough on his lip that he jumps back & out goes the candle & he is thinking maybe that hurt & he should cry, but he didn't, he just sat there looking at it & Garret blew the other one out. Meanwhile Papa, Grandma, Todd & I, are laughing so hysterically that we can't say a word, Todd finally says are we stupid, poor kid can't see 2 inches in front of him & we put him in front of flames with no glasses & say blow them out! Duh! Anyway it was an eventful birthday night for Russ!

Christmas 2009

This year was a pretty low key Christmas it seemed. At the beginning of the month we got together with my side of the family & had a Christmas party after our family pictures. We did it at Pat & Megan's house, I think it was a great way to start the month off! The kids had drawn names about a month before and they did a gift exchange, probably the cutest & sweetest thing was when Garret opened his present from Sara (they have always been super close & best friends) it was a box full of paper airplane making supplies, he was so excited, he jumped up & grabbed her in a huge hug, seriously it wanted to make me cry seeing them this way. So Garret had picked Sara's name & she opened her present from him & it was the same thing, just great big hugs to each other! I hope they stay this close because it just makes us all smile to watch them together! Us adults did a white elephant give exchange, can I just say I totally suck at buying white elephant gifts!! I didn't have a clue what to buy. The fancy gift I ended up getting was from Pat, just want to give a public thank you to him for the fantastic whoopee cushion. He splurged & got the self inflating one, you didn't even have to blow it up with your mouth it just automatically filled up on it's own, ready to fflllaaaarrrtt over & over. My little boys got the biggest kick out of that. The Snuggie was a big hit too, but the funniest thing was the Cuddlee, I bet nobody even knew there was a knock off of the Snuggie, my mom found it at the dollar store! So Michael & Clarice ended up with a Snuggie & a Cuddlee, the pictures were a crack up (to bad they got deleted!). Anyway it was a great time.

We had our ugly Christmas Sweater Party again this year. Our turn out was a little lame this year as I guess we were competing with other parties that were much be better than ours?! Like that's possible?! Anyway Todd went all out this year. The day of the party he went to the mexican clothes store in downtown Buckeye which will now become his fav store for his work shirts I am sure. Anyway he managed to find some light blue polyester Wranglers, of course he bought them on the tight side (nerd). His ugly sweater this year was purchased on ebay, it was a lovely royal blue with a Christmas tree on it, presents underneath & a fantastic cat that was batting at the presents. The best part was the shoulder pads, he looked so funny! To top off the outfit he had been growing his hair out for awhile & he shaved the top of his hair & left the sides & the back so it looked like he was bald with a receeding hair line, then he took hair gel & the blow dryer & fluffed it straight out. Holy cow!! Talk about a laugh, I couldn't even look at him without laughing. He also did some fancy shave job on his face, was a little on the creepy side. Before we ate he was thanking everyone for coming over & he is being all serious & we all just start laughing because we couldn't take him seriously. He ended up winning the grand prize, I must say he deserved it. What a crack up! I think Brennen took some pics with his phone, I will find them & add to the post because they are so stinking funny! Anyway the sweater party was a great time.

Christmas Eve we spent with the Hall's. It was so low key & quiet. Todd's sisters Lindy & Mattie decided that they should live across the country & have moved. Lindy to Ohio & Mattie to Missouri. So they weren't able to come. It was just Todd's parents, us, Katie & her boyfriend (hopefully fiance soon!) Brandon. We ate dinner, had Navajo tacos & chicken enchiladas, yummy. Then we opened gifts, they gave us a Wii, which we love & the kids play non stop. Afterwards Skeeter had bought this peppermint pig, can't remember what it is actually called but it comes with a metal hammer & a bag. Everybody takes a turn hitting the pig with the hammer and breaking it. Then everybody takes a piece of the broken candy & tells about their good fortune for the past year. Is supposed to help with bringing good luck for the new year. Everyone went around the room, Katie & Brennen were last & of course they made us all cry with what they had to say. It was a great night, quiet but great! We got home from there & cleaned house & got things ready for Santa's arrival. We had done a gift exchange within our family & decided to open them up before going to bed & saying 1 nice thing about the person they bought a gift for. This is the time when my camera took a dump & it really ruined the moment for me because I was so frustrated. Todd had Laynee & gave her some little toys, I had Mak and got her a new Tachikara Volleyball because she starts her vball league this week, Brennen had Russ & got him some CAT heavy equipment toys, Mak had me & she got me some photo albums (for the lost pictures!), Garret had Brennen & he got him the Micro Smores maker, Russ had Garret & got him Tony Hawk DS game, & Laynee had Todd & got him a male manicure set because he can never find clippers! By the time the kids went to bed it was midnight & we figured Santa was going to fly on over the Hall house!

Christmas Day started at 5am for us. Santa brought some great gifts for the Hall kids this year. Brennen got his first shot gun, Mak got an electric Razor scooter, Garret got a new bike, Russ got a powerwheels Jeep, Laynee got a few more toys. The kids were so excited they wanted to immediately open all the gifts, so we did at 5am. It was all said & done by 5:45 & me & Todd went back to bed until about 7:30. It was a fun morning. Later that day Todd's parents came over to see what the kids got & visit for awhile. Then around 6 my parents came & we had steak for dinner & Christmas again with them. They stayed for a few days afterwards. The kids had a great time & got plenty of stuff. I would have to say it was a fun Christmas having 5 kids! Next year will probably be even better with Laynee being older, I can't wait!

So that is our Christmas 2009 in a nutshell & a half...sadly with no pictures :(

Totally Bummed...

So our camera died on Christmas Eve, how convenient is that?! The greatest part about the camera dieing is that all the pictures I had taken over the past few months...DELETED...I still don't understand how the files got deleted from the memory card, but they did and now my memories of Christmas 2009 are gone, not to mention Laynee's blessing pictures with her dad, our ugly sweater party pictures, pictures from our family party at Pat & Meg's house, Christmas Eve at Todd's parents house, horrible! So until I get a new camera, hopefully this week some time, I don't have any pictures to post :(