The Hall 2010 Recap

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Bringing style to the AL

So we were in alabama for 5 weeks and it was a lot of fun and a lot of crazy. We stayed in a one bed hotel room with a pull out couch and a kitchenette it was probably about 400 sq ft of chaos. The girls loved it and we didn't have to be without a daddy for 2 months. The set up was pretty good considering. There was a huge sand box full of all sorts of toys and a playground just outside our room. so as long as we didn't mind the smell of our own sweat at 100 degree weather than we were good to go. There was also an indoor playroom were the girls had a lot of fun destroying someone elses toys. We made so many good friends there! Isa still to this day talks about Addison and Yasmine and asks all the time when she will see them again. Zoe would wake up every morning there and say "mom we have to hurry so we can play with the boy friends". Seth and Gavin will be greatly missed because anyone that can keep up with Zoe is a friend worth keeping. Me and Mike made lots of friends as well and managed to sneak in a couple three day vacays with some of them. all in all a great trip though I just realized we were so busy having fun that we forgot to take pictures. We learned a few valuable lessons at thie hotel: 1: always check to see if the AC works before you unpack in case you have to switch rooms. 2: always request the top floor in the south. one word cockroaches! 3: never assume that just because you are lucky enough to stay at a "hotel" on base that it will be like a hotel stay. You know clean rooms beds made excellent service. All in all though a great trip!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Happy Birthday To Mike! Thats right ladies he is now the big 31! We had a lot of fun this year and hardly have slowed down but somewhere in the middle we found time to serenade our way through Mikes birthday. We had a bunch of friends out to dinner at the alaska alder grill. We reserved one of their teepee's (sp) and had dinner with friends and the guitarist their came in and sang a bunch of songs for us. On the actual day of his birthday the girls and I gave Mike an IPOD ITouch. He is now addicted and we might any day have to stage an intervention. Happy birthday to a wonderful daddy, husband and friend. 'Holla"

We're back!

Thats right Zoe has finally reached preschool age. She started preschool at Our Redeemer here in town and she loves it! Her teachers are Ms. K and Ms. B. She was so excited to wear shoes that tie and to show everyone her new backpack. Notice the flames thats right Zoe picked it out herself and there was no changing her mind. She is doing so well and is loving learning new things.

Isa is our little Diva! She has the strongest girly emotions I have ever seen in a child. she loves everything girl and her favorite thing is to dress up with sun glasses. She also loves wearing headbands which I have decided are impossible to work with. We love this girl and all her girlie ways!

Grandma and Christian came to town! The girls were so excited to have their "big boy cousin" and Christian was a great sport about keeping them entertained. We went to the zoo, the pool, the splash pad and the state fair while they were here. The girls can never resist being a penguin at the zoo and even got christian in on the action.

Isa had lots of fun snuggling with grandma and I'm pretty sure grandma loved it just as much if not more!

We went to the splash pad and I think Christian had even more fun than the girls.

all in all it was a great trip and a lot of fun to have family in town. Thanks for visiting grandma and christian we can't wait for next summer!

Wormy worms........Now thats my kind of pet!

A few weeks ago we had a really bad rainstorm that dropped a total of about 6 inches and 4 of those in less than an hour. Some of our window wells were completely full of water. After watching it poor rain for a while once it let up I decided to take the girls out to jump in some "puddles". When we got out there what did we find.....Oh yes it was like like Christmas! There were hundreds of worms floating down the street in the rivers so I got the girls each a bucket and told them if they caught a bunch we would make worm houses and they could keep them as pets. Yes i know disgusting but very entertaining. Needless to say Zoe jumped at the thought. Isa thought it sounded fun but was not about to touch a single worm herself so instead Zoe, being the awesome sister that she is, put every other worm in Isa's bucket. By the end we had probably a couple hundred worms. Along the way this is what Zoe said, "Oh mom arent they just sooo cute, don't you just think they are cute?" or "Mom don't you just love worms" and "Mom look I caught a big daddy worm!". This little girl is going to make some man very happy one day with her willingness do do anything dirty and disgusting. We got home got out some big glass vases labled one Isa one Zoe dumped some mud in and then dumped our worms. We covered them with wax paper and a hair-tie, those suckers can climb! We had those babies living on our kitchen counter for about 2-3 weeks. Yesterday I finally decided we needed to get rid of them so we dumped them into the garden to fertilize it, I did not expect them to be alive still. Well, I was wrong. I have never seen bigger earth worms in all my life....disgusting! I nominate myself mom of the year for this little adventure!

V-I-S-I-T-O-R-S and Ballet!

Yes its true wait for it wait for it..........Someone other than my mom and Allee in my familia graced us with their presence and decided to brave the untameable weather of North Dakota. Cassie and Scott we would like to declare this moment to be your moment! All joking aside we had a blast they cam for four days and we accomplished a lot in those four days in fact we did so much that I only have one picture to show for it (oops!). We went to the zoo, splash down, darby land and yes oh yes we played us some guitar hero (Scott rocked it so until next time my man you are the champion). Apparently according to my faithful sister, splashdown is better than seven peaks so there all you non visiting Utahans! We had so much fun we didn't want them to leave especially since the girls played more hide and seek than ever. There was also an awesome dishes fairy that was here for that same time ........ hmmm (Cassie) and an entertain my kids fairy ........ hmmmm (Scott). Thanks for visiting guys your the best! And yes to my other McGee siblings this is a challenge to you to be the best also. Timing was perfect while they were here because Zoe had her ballet recital and it was awesome! Mr. Rinat is sooooo talented and choreographed an amazing night of ballet which I at times forgot was not professional. Zoe was an Angel in the prayer dance. They don't allow flash photography during the performance so I just have a picture of Zoe and the bows at the end! Zoe was so excited and couldn't wait to show what she had learned. The ballet went for three days so Zoe thought that at the end of every day she should get a rose (just like the first) good thing we came through for her! Anyway all is well and ballet is over for two months but we will resume end of July.

Oh The Places.......... We've Been

The Snow is Gone!!!! But at lest we made a snow man!

So for those of you who are wondering "What happened to the Halls?" here is your brief update (very brief its been a crazy 6 months).

So I last left you at Isa turning 2. She is such a sweetie and talks soooo well. We just love this curly sue and can't get enough of her. She can do everything her sister does and tries really hard to keep up!

On December 9, 2009 Mikes dad Don passed away. Though Don had lived a long and full life to the age of 88 and had struggled with many health problems we truly weren't ready for him to leave us. It was somewhat sudden and we hurried back to Utah to take care of the funeral and everything that comes with that. We were very fortunate because Don had pre paid for his entire funeral so all we paid was $48 and then bought flowers. The funeral was very nice and we appreciated every coming in support of the family. He was buried in the Mosileum (sp) up at the larkin cemetary in Salt Lake City. Mikes family also needed a lot of help sorting through the great undertaking of picking up the financial pieces of their lives. We have made 3 trips back each at least 2 weeks long trying to sort through things and settle the estate. Mike has had an interesting work load placed on him due to his dads passing and has pretty much given up any free time he had left to help them. We will truly miss don and his energy for life!

December 19, 2009 Miss Zoe turned 4! I can't believe I have a 4 year old! She is so stinkin funny and keeps us on our toes! We had her party while we were in Utah for Mikes dads funeral. It was fun because she was able to have all her cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles there. I thought I had some pictures of her party but haven't been able to find them. I made her a kind of cute cake of arial sitting on rocks in the ocean. Her biggest present was a barbie lap top from us and nanna also gave her and Isa a vanity which they love! She is currrently in Ballet and having a blast. Her first recital is coming up and she can't wait! She starts pre-school next year and tells everyone she meets about it. She is so sweet!

Christmas was actually a lot of fun considering the circumstances. We don't normally get to see family for the holiday so we were excited to have them there for that. Luckily before Mikes dad had passed we had finished all our shopping and started wrapping presents. We had alread even built our ginger bread houses! It was nice that the Lord had prepared us so well in order to be ready for the abrupt trip back home. We were literally able to load up and be on the road within 4 hours of the news. Mikes family always has "Santa" come and visit the house on December 23 and all the kids get a goodie bag from him. My girls absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to sit on Santa's lap and they had so much fun having so many girl cousins around their age! We always open pajamas with my family on Christmas Eve and this year we were able to go with all my extended family to my Gammy's house. It was so much fun to see everyone!

In March for some reason Zoe awoke in the middle of the night (sometime between 2 am and 6:30 am) cut off all her beautiful hair, cut bangs, cleaned up all the hair and put it in the garbage and went back to bed. This was a sad day for us when we discovered the tragedy. We tried really hard not to get mad at her.
When she could tell we were upset she said "are you mad at me?"

I said "No I'm just sad because your hair used to be so pretty and its not as pretty anymore"

She said very matter of factly "Well, I think its pretty."

And that was that. She loves her new short hair and tells us on a daily basis about it.

On January 27, 2010 I had surgery. (PS Mike was supposed to come with me and the girls to a friends and well my family all started puking the day of my surgery literally a few hours before we were supposed to leave for the hospital so I quickly made arrangements for a friend to come with me for my surgery and Mike to stay with the girls.) They went in to remove my thyroid and I got a little more than I bargained for. I had been taking medication for a while for my thyroid trying to get my levels under control. I had two large cysts that weren't helping by producing their own hormone so it was decided that my best option left was surgery. When they removed my thyroid they also ended up removing 2 parathyroid glands (this shouln't have been that big of a deal because you usually have at least 4 and only need half of one for it to perform its function). Your parathyroid glands help regulate the Calcium in your body and well apparently thats a big deal. I left the hospital (Bismarck hospital 2 hours away) came home and wasn't feeling fantastic but thats to be expected. By 4:30 in the next morning I had tetany in both my arms and hands and also in my face. I couldn't open my hands or move my fingers they were contorted into claws and I couldn't move my facial muscles and could barely open my mouth enough to slur out a few words. We rushed back to the hospital and found out I had developed hypocalcemia which usually goes away with some IV calcium and eventually those pesky parathyroids usually start doing their jobs. Lucky for me I was part of this really small percentage of people, .8%, who develop permanent hypocalcemia. I ended up at the hospital for a week on IV calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D, I had serious pain in most of my muscles and lots of other stuff to come with all that jazz. After receiving the treatments through IV for 6 days every two hours they were finally successful in switching me to pill supplements every 2 hours and sent me home. For the first 2 weeks I was taking about 65 pills a day (60 calcium) but they have been able to get me to a point of only 24 calcium pills a day and a few others. It has been quite the roller coaster ride and we are doing our best to manage the new list of health problems. Luckily we have had lots of good friends helping us with our kids and meals.

On February 20, 2010 my little brother Solon got married to Brandice and it was so much fun to have another sibling join the married clan.

We just happened to be in Utah for Easter this year so the girls were able to do an easter egg hunt in Cedar Hills with Aunt Allee and then the Easter Bunny visited us at Nanna's house this year. The girls had a lot of fun and I think they actually enjoyed me telling them about the reason we celebrate Easter. Zoe loves to hear about Jesus and Isa is always eager to join in.

April 10, 2010 we held an enormous estate sale at Mike's parents house and that lets just say was no easy feat!

While I was gone taking care of that Mike ripped out our main bath and remodeled it and it looks fantastic! I couldn't have asked for him to do a better job! Pictures to come!

Last but not least on April 24, 2010 Mike got really sick randomly with a fever and stayed that way for several days. We took him to the doctor but they said he just had the flu and sent us home. Two days later we took him back in to the Doc where they discovered, through my demands of a chest x-ray, that he had pneumonia and a possible collapsed lung. We took him to the hospital only to be sent home with some antibiotics. After 36 hours on antibiotics Mike started to get really bad chest pains and a racing heart his fever spiked even higher so I took him back to the hospital. They finally admitted him and found that the pneumonia he had was resistent to the antibiotics they had put him on. They switched him to two different meds had him on Oxygen and he stayed at the hospital for 2 days until he was well enough to come home.

We found out while all this was going on that Mike had been selected for SOS school in Alabama and it is supposed to start June 1. We are trying to get it bumped back.

So there you have it our life in a nut shell for the past 6 months (believe me that was one small nut shell)!