Rhett and Natalie

Adam's brother, Rhett got married last Wednesday. He married a sweet girl and we are excited to have her in our family. Congratulations! It was a beautiful morning with the family at the temple.

I haven't words for how grateful I am to my Heavenly Father who has given me this beautiful little family and for temples that make is possible to be with them forever.

Tori spent the whole 2 hours on this bar doing gymnastics manuevers. I was so afraid that she would fall and hit her head on the concrete, but luckily, she didn't.

This is Mick and his cousin, Lijiah. They are trouble when they are together, but they sure have fun.

I love these two so much!


Rhett and Natalie had a formal dinner/dance instead of a reception that evening. Natalee arranged for us girls to have our hair done by Imageworks. It was a special treat to let someone else do our hair and make us feel beautiful and pampered.

Adam's baby sister, ErinAdam's momAdam's other sister, MeganSister-in-law, Jamie

And my before and after hair. I liked how it turned out, although I had a raging headache by the end of the night from the 52 bobby pins holding it all together.

Some pictures of the dancers.

It was a great date with my handsome husband!

4th of July

On Independence Day, we did what EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE, in Utah must have done. We went to the Freedom Festival in Provo. It was neat but so crowded. There was lots of cute shopping booths that I would have liked to have browsed, but it was so crowded that you couldn't get in them. Despite the crowd, we did do a few things.

They had colonial type areas set up for us to see what it was like back at the beginning of our country's birth. We saw how candles were made, what their beds and tents were like, how they cooked their food, and a lot of cool original artifacts from the Revolutionary war, including a cannon.

The kids are waiting in line to jump on a bouncy house.

My favorite part of the day was finding some shade and eating snow cones and relaxing for a while before heading home.

Later, we bbq'd and did some sparklers, but I forgot to take pictures. Oops.

About a month ago, our local grocery store was doing some promotional thing in their parking lot. They had a hot dog stand that was selling hot dogs and ice cream etc. for 25 cents a piece. The kids had their own few quarters with them and wanted to buy some food, even though we had just ate. Tori went over and ordered her hot dog, gave the lady her quarter, got her hot dog, raised the hot dog in the air, and yelled really loud: "I love America!" It was so cute.

And I do too, Victoria. Despite it's problems, there is no better place to be. Thank you God that I was born an American!

Mick's 7th Birthday

I took Mick and Tori and a friend of their choice each to Jumping Jacks during the day. Later, that night, we had a family party for him at our house. It was a nice relaxing birthday. I enjoyed having a smaller get together rather than a lot of little kids over for a big party. I know we will be doing that again on another birthday, but for this year it was a nice change. Mick seemed to be really happy and that was the most important part after all.

Present opening time with the family:

making a wish:
Mick got lots of books as presents (thank you everyone, they were much appreciated by him and his mother.) He also got his first mp3 player from Grandma and he has enjoyed that on car rides quite a lot. From us he received a hermit crab. He named him Herman. He has been a pretty fun pet. Hopefully we can keep him alive. This picture is of Mick and I watching Herman.

Mick wanted a "bug party" and this was the cake he dreamed up. It was fun to make.

Anyway that was a recap of his birthday. I am glad I get to be his Mama.

My Science Lesson For The Day

Me: Oh dang it, the shade moved while we were at the pool and now the car is in the sun.

Mick: Mom, the shade didn't move. It was the rotation of the Earth that did it.

7 years ago tonight

7 years ago tonight I was getting my bags packed to go to the hospital the next morning to be induced to have Mick. I was very very nervous. Everything went as planned though and without a very hard labor and delivery, Mick was born on July 2nd at about 3:30. He was such an easy tiny baby. At two months old, he slept 12 hours a night without waking up and he hardly ever fussed. Once he started to crawl, wow, did life change. He became a whirlwind all the time.
He has always been crazy and loud and into everything, but he makes up for that by being so caring, and funny, and smiley, and forgiving.
I know my Heavenly Father sent him to me. There was no mistake. There was no, "Well, they look like they need a kid and this one is handy so ship him down to the Halls." He was supposed to be mine without a doubt. At times in my life when I felt I could not breathe another second without falling apart, he has always been the one to keep me going. He always has a smile and a kiss and a hug for me. He always tries so hard to cheer anyone up who is down. And he has forgiven me for countless times I treated him with less patience than I should have.
I am always amazed at how happy he is. If everyone could have his attitude, it would change everything about this life. So I just want him to know that I love him, he is one of my 3 best friends, I admire him, and I hope someday to be like him. Happy Birthday tomorrow!