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).
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.
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?"
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.
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)!
