Marley's Headstone

On January 3rd we were in Snowflake to be there for the setting of my nephews gravestone. I was so glad that we were able to be there. Between the Powers family & the Christiansen family, & a few friends it was a full audience for the guys putting it in! For those of you that don't know my nephew passed away on Aug. 31 from a rare immune disorder. He was born on Feb. 25, 2008. After about a months long fight in the hospital & test after test his time here on earth was done, his mission accomplished and he was reunited with those he had so recently left only 6 months earlier. What a blessing to have a celestial child in our family. My brother Michael & his wife Clarice are amazing. It is safe to say they were chosen for this task and the strength that they have shown through losing their baby has been tremendous. This was the greatest testimony building experience I have ever had the opportunity to be apart of, how grateful I am to them everyday for letting us be involved with his last hours here on earth. He was a special baby, given to special parents who the Lord knew could handle giving him back after the small amount of time they were given with him. How thankful I am to know we have eternal families & will someday be reunited with him again!

Russ

Our Russ is so much fun at 1! He isn't walking yet, but getting closer. He pulls himself up to everything & walks along, but has no desire to really walk. You would think he would be all about walking so he can get away from Garret! We like to call Russ our "inspector". He likes to inspect everything you give him to eat or play with, he will take it from you & look it over several times & then chow down if it is food or simply hold it until he figures out what else to do with it. He will also take the spoon or fork from you & pull it closer to look it over, once it passes his inspection he will gladly eat it! When you are holding him he will always turn his head & poke it out just enough to get your attention & then he will look you square in the eye & inspect your face for about 10 seconds, then it is like he gives you the ok. This is not with a new face, this happens several times a day with me, his own mom! It is pretty funny. He has a difficult time with lots of people. He really doesn't like being around crowds & especially doesn't like new people touching him. He pretty much freaks out. This is becoming an issue at church because everybody wants to talk to him because he looks like such a friendly little guy, but if you touch his hand or his arm...watch out, he screams. Is pretty funny. He doesn't really even like us touching his hands or feet while you hold him, or if you put your hand under his armpit while holding him, he pulls it away. Funny little guy, I guess he will not be a touchy feely kind of person! His favorite thing to do right now is eat, this has been his favorite thing since birth. He was about an hour old & drank a full little 2 oz hospital bottle like it was a snack & where is the real meal! The nurse got after me for letting him drink it & was counting down the seconds until he upchucked it, however a few hours later after he drank another one she apologized & just gave me warning that he was going to be a good eater...and that he is! It is fun to have a good eater because my other 3 hardly ate anything. He will eat just as much for breakfast as Garret does! He loves to play with the little hot wheels cars & any other kind of car or truck. He has figured out the noise making & scooting them along the floor, this would have to be from Garret driving cars over the top of him for the past year of his life. Garret can't wait for him to get bigger so they can really play. Russ has been so much fun for the whole family, he is so happy most of the time and we are so lucky to have his sweet smile & those big blue eyes to look at everyday! Hard to believe my baby is a year old!

Russ turns 1!

On Jan. 12th Russ turned a year old! It is hard to believe that the year has gone by so quickly. On his birthday me & the kids sang Happy Birthday to him & he had his own little cake that he devoured. That is our fat Russ, he loves food & will eat whatever you put in front of him most of the time, especially if it is sweet! We had his birthday party on the 18th. Almost all of the family was here, from both sides and also some close friends. What a lucky little guy to have so many join him for his big day! We ate hamburgers & hot dogs, chips/dip, veggies, and beans. Then we opened presents. Russ has to be the best dressed kid in Buckeye this week, he got several great new shirts & jeans! Everyone was so generous with gifts for him. He got several fun barnyard & tractor toys & Gma & Gpa got him a Lightening McQueen ride on push car thing (which Garret just loves!) and probably Dad's favorite gift was the little bullriding vest, thanks Mollie & Jared (as the mom I really appreciate the encouragement, it is my dream to have a boy ride bulls...not! it is pretty stinking cute though!). Then after presents we sang to him sitting by his cake, he looked like he might start to cry with that many voices singing & looking at him, but he kept his composure! He didn't want anything to do with the piece of cake we gave him to eat, guess he ate to many beans! It was a fun night and a great 1st birthday celebration for him!

That's all of us!

Deke, Mattie, Jody, Russ, Todd, Katie, Lindy, Adam, Clint

Brennen, Skeeter, Kenny, Lexi,

Garret, Kenzie, Tayler, Makenna, Brianna, Chadd

Hall Family Pictures

We finally had a chance to do some new family photos with the Hall clan. We took them at Kenny & Skeeters house in Waddell. They all turned out so great!

Grandma & Papa with all of their grandkids!

Garret with his cheesy smile!

Just the granddaughters

And the grandsons!

Christmas 2008

This year our Christmas was a little quieter than most. We had decided back in November that instead of the usual Christmas we wanted to do something different. So one night for FHE we talked to the kids about choosing a family in our ward that needed some extra help for Christmas and that we would use the money for them to have Christmas instead of ourselves. The kids agreed & were pretty excited, I had anticipated them to be a little upset, but I have amazing kids, and they could see this was a great idea. We spoke with our bishop & was given a family...a large family at that! So we enlisted the help of our neighbors because they also wanted to be a part of it. The kids were so excited, they helped pick out most of the gifts & then put some stockings together for them. We were able to secretly deliver everything to them & hopefully it was a neat thing for the family to be surprised. So for our kids this year they each got one gift from Todd & I, then we did a gift exchange between all of us by drawing names. So they only got 2 presents to open Christmas morning. Santa did come & give them a few more and thankfully Gma & Gpa were at our house for Christmas Eve & Christmas morning, that gave them a few more to open. We never heard the kids complain about not getting enough, even though I have wondered if they felt a little bad when they didn't get even half as much as some cousins & friends did, but I know they understood what we did was important & was done in the true spirit of Christmas. I am so thankful to have kids who are giving & understand that they don't need all the cool stuff to survive and that Christmas is really about our Savior and not how many presents are under the tree. We have decided this will probably be something we do regularly if we are able to. It was a great experience for us all to have a lesson on service & giving.

We spent Christmas Eve doing nothing much, just enjoying each other. The kids made a gingerbread house, I was quite impressed with their creation! We played some Guitar Hero World Tour, for the record...I am the champ in the Hall household! The kiddos went to bed around 10ish and were back up at 330 to see what Santa brought. We told them to get back in bed, it was way to early! They did go back to sleep, but not for long. At 530 they were back in our bedroom begging us to get up so we could open presents! So we finally gave in and got up. We opened presents and then had breakfast. We kind of cleaned things up & then my parents left to head to Pats house and we went to Todds parents house for Christmas Dinner. Gma Pat & Papa Tito were there from Bisbee & Aunt Katie. Uncle Kelly & Aunt Becky showed up after dinner to visit for awhile. Todds parents bought themselves a Wii for Christmas, so we spent most of the time playing wii. After dinner over there we came home & just enjoyed being together as a family. I would have to say it was one of our most quiet Christmas' that I can remember, it was good though. Next day the tree was out the door & all the Christmas stuff was boxed up & out the door! I had enough, I needed the clutter out!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

On the 20th of December we had a party, because we don't have enough of them at my house it seems! I love throwing parties & will come up with any lame excuse to have people come over. So this year our Christmas party was an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party! What a great time! Everyone had to wear the most hideous sweater they could find that was loaded with all the joys of Christmas. There were 10 couples including us. We ate ham, mashed red potatoes, rolls, veggies & dip, cheese ball & crackers, and Todd made up a meat tray that he was sooo proud of. I also made a Christmas punch that turned out great, I wished I had doubled it because we drank it up so quickly. After eating we did a gift exchange of "As Seen on TV" gifts, which was a riot! I wish I had taken more pics, but since I was the hostess, pictures didn't get done. Some of the gifts were the Perfect Push Up (still waiting to see Jared all buffed up!), Tater Mitts, which we had Tiffany demonstrate how they work, while she is scrubbing the potatoe like a mad person, someone in the distance is reading...boil potatoes for 5 minutes before peeling! (um I could probably have it all done by that time!), the Big City Slider Maker was a sought after item, we had 2 of those being passed around, I am still curious as to how well it works, the funniest thing was the onion glasses, I did get a great picture of that one, along with the onion keeper. I know that we had to of gotten the best, most useful gift, it was the Easy Open to help you open packages that are in the hard plastic, it also has a razor blade that slides out the bottom and a screw driver that pops out, let me tell you...very awesome for Christmas morning! Anyway there were more gifts but I can't think of them all, but everyone seemed to have a really great time. After the gift exchange we played Win Lose or Draw on TV, my friend Rachael brought the game, I had never seen it before, there is a drawing device that you hook to the tv, you can't actually see what you are drawing, but it shows up on tv for your team to see! It was pretty fun. The girls were in the lead, but choked in the last round and let the guys come back & win. It was so much fun! We are going to do it again next year....however...we will be having new rules for the Christmas Sweaters and there will be different categories to win.

Enjoy the fun pics from our party.