"Halling" Along

We're back!

2012-01-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

While I may or may not be the WORLDS WORST BLOGGER, we are all still alive and relatively healthy believe it or not. This will hopefully be one awesome update for the last year!

Last November we were given the okay to try for another sweet baby lucky for me I am super fertile! In January we found out we were pregnant. Woo Hoo!!! Unfortunately those silly guys we called our doctors were not so informed on my condition which turned out to be not such a good idea after all to get pregnant. Fortunately for our little family they were none the wiser and we were able to add the sweetest little boy ever!

However this miscommunication led us on a very big adventure. After bouncing around between what felt like a billion doctors and many long drives across the great state of north dakota to see specialists, our doctors recommended our immediate relocation to an area with better specialists. (If I would have known that I might have gotten pregnant sooner :) )

This brought a whole new range of emotions. We were very sad to leave all of our amazing friends and surrogate family behind but knew it was the best thing for our family. Thank goodness for a Heavenly Father with an awesome plan.

We sold our home in 5 days and headed out in search of a new one (thanks to a fantastic Nana and Poppa who helped make it happen). We received our orders to Colorado Springs and off we went!

Sadly this meant the girls would also have to leave the most amazing ballet instructor ever!

This also meant that Mike would be saying goodbye to a job that taught him a lot about leadership.

The girls were very sad to say bye to all of there friends and so were we. Thankfully we know that because of our amazing church we had a whole new group of friends waiting for us. And that was exactly what we found when we got here.

We had the awesome adventure of buying a new home!

Our first few weeks in the ward were met with more offers of help and kindness than we knew what to do with (which was greatly appreciated considered the average of 4 doctor appointments a week).

We were also so excited to see Zoe start here first day of Kindergarten. She loves every minute of it and always tells me she wished it was all day. Ha guess I'm not as exciting.

Isa was very excited to get some mommy one on one time and a break from the big sister pestering.

We were all very excited to find out that Uncle Simeon would be getting married to Aunt Kayla (the girls sure love her especially Isa).

This exciting news also meant that we would be able to get 3 very pregnant sisters together. And of course some very excited cousins!

Soon after we were able to come back home and settle in and await our sweet baby. Though the pregnancy itself brought many concerns and scares along the way thankfully we had some fantastic doctors who stayed on top of all the medication changes nescessary.

September 19 Liam Michael Hall was born. We are all so in love with him that words dont quite do it justice. He was 9lbs and 21 inches at 38 weeks so we will definitely consider this move for health a success!

The girls still can't seem to get enough of him and I fear he is in for trouble with them (can we say dress up)!

We have finally hit our stride and are slowly getting our lives back to normal. My health is restoring well.

For those of you that remember Isa has struggled with the side effects of RSV and had been on quite a few medications to help treat her constant pneumonia. Thankfully we have been blessed and ever since we moved to Colorado she has not had one drop of any of her medications!

Unfortunately while we were in Utah in December Zoe had two seizures (scariest thing by far I have encountered). This sweet girl is such a trooper and it didn't phase her one bit. She told me on the way home from the hospital that she couldn't wait to ride in an ambulance again.......umm yeah I can!

Liam is the best baby in the world! He is so happy and loves to smile and coo. I am so thankful that our Heavenly Father found a way to bless us with him. He brings such joy to my heart every time I think of the struggle we went through to get him here and how much it was worth it! Isa is our little Diva! We love this little lady and all the spunk she brings from insisting that princesses dont wear pants to her contagious giggle she is a beauty and we cant get enough of her. Zoe never ceases to surprise us with her maturity and sweet understanding. She loves the chance to be a second mommy to anyone that will let her and she truly loves to make everyone happy. She has been so much fun to parent and watch and see what comes next.

Mike is loving his new job and cant seem to come up with words to describe it (ha seriously because he could tell ya but then he might have to kill ya). He has been such a trooper this year from being a Mr. Mom to helping with everything house. I love this man and could'nt have survived this year without him.

There you have it one fantastic year of craziness! My hope is to fall back into my blogging ways in order to keep myself up on me. I hope that my next entry will be some details about living with hypoparathyroidism and going through pregnancy with it. If your interested in what I have to say check back!

The Hall 2010 Recap

2010-12-15T15:10:00.001-08:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Bringing style to the AL

2010-11-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!

2010-11-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-11-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

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)!

Funny Things By Zoe

2010-05-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

So last night in the bath tub Zoe had her finger inside the rubber squishy end of a medicine dropper and put it in Isa's mouth. Dangerous territory, she should have known better. Needless to say Isa clamped down and bit her finger. Zoe was of course really upset (Isa drew blood) so this brought an end to the bath fun. I pulled them out and layed them on the living room floor. (for some reason my kids always have nasty noses after the tub, seriously is this just us or does this happen to everyone). Anyway, before I could wipe the nastyness Isa had smeared two big boogers all over her face. Zoe looked over at her and with a really big scowl said "mom I think Jesus gave us the wrong Isa". Ha seriously no lie I had to have her repeat herself because I thought I heard her wrong but nope I heard her right. I asked her why she said that and she said "he gave us the gross Isa". Lol seriously where does this kid get this stuff!
Yesterday in the car she asked "mom why does Jesus need us?"
I said He needs us because he loves us"
She said "no he needs us"
I said "Oh he needs us to be good examples to other people"
Zoe, "OOOH"
Ha okay so that is what life is like with this little kiddie. Everything in her mind (as it should) comes back to Jesus.

Happy Birthday Isa!!!

2009-12-07T14:57:00.000-08:00

We officially have a 2 year old as a baby (thats what we all still call her even though you will frequently here her say "I not a baby I Isa)! We love this little girlie she is the funniest little kid and so stinkin smart. She makes some of the best faces (mostly when she is giving someone the evil eye or a dirty look but you can never pass up her giggles and smiles). Some things you might hear her say if you lived at our house:

"I wanna bite" (at least once a day no matter what you are eating. This kid can eat)

"I can't do it anymore!"

"I can't find it anywhere!"

"Zoe hit me" (usually when Zoe is no where near her or she did something she shouldn't have)

"I wanna talk to Aunt Allee" (no lie Al she really does ask for you a lot)

"I wanna treat"

"I have princess teeth"

"I seben (seven)" (she usually says this to pick at Zoe because Zoe knows she isn't seven)

"Mommy I go poopies"

"Mommy I wake up. I open my door" (this sometimes happens at 3 in the morning)

"Neber, neber" (never, never)

My favorite thing however is when I am changing this little flexible girls diaper and she pulls her legs over her eyes and then pulls them to the sides and says "peek-a-boo". Seriously whoever taught her that is hilarious and it wasn't even me!

For her birthday we had the Sheltons over for some play time, homemade pizza, cake and ice cream.

The kids all had a ton of fun eating the food and playing!

Isa loved her Minnie cake (made by yours truly I think it looked fantastic if I do say so myself and this my friends is without a cake mold). When I brought it out Isa and Amelia both squealed minnie at the top of their lungs.

Isa got a really cute my little pony set and movie from Amelia which she carried around the whole day brushing. We gave her a tutu with a head band so she can play ballerina with Zoe, some bracelets I made

and a baby bed for her babies (this kid is totally all about the babies)

It was been a crazy two years but I wouldn't trade this little monkey for anything. Isa-beeps we love you happy birthday!

MMMMMMM Turkey! MMMMM Pies!

2009-12-07T09:13:00.001-08:00

For thanksgiving this year we invited some friends over for dinner. We had the Stucki's (family of 8), the Honsingers (family of 5), the Sheltons (family of 5) and of course us (family of 4) Thats right ladies and gents 22 peops at our house but seriously it was so much fun we would do it again in a heart beat! It was so nice to have the basement finished (all except the bathroom) so the kids could have free reign and the best part was that the adults got to just hang out upstairs without having kids standing under our feet the whole time. We usually just saw them when they wanted more food. Which reminds me seriously the food was awesome. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoe pie, sweet potatoes, gravy deviled eggs, a relish tray, a tuna salady thing (a must for cami), two types of jello salad (one of which had cheese which I was a little leary of but turned out to be one of the best jellos I have had), apple pie, strawberry cream cheese pie, pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie, banana cream pie, and chocolate pie. What isn't to love about that menu. Soooooo who's up for next year?
Mike and Caleb playing Rock band

The amazing Trish cleaning up.

The amazing Karie cleaning up (and for some reason not pictured is Cami who also did a major cleanup). These ladies were awesome and actually made cleaning a lot of fun with a lot of laughs!

Oh what a mess! Seriouslywe had so much left over food which of course was totally my fault because I kept insisting we wouldn't have enough.. haha boy was I wrong thank goodness Trish kept putting me in check.

Last but not least these daddies had so much fun playing rock band and seriously cracking us up. I can't believe the talent they have listen closely and you just might hear the next american idol!

Ode to The Elders!

2009-12-06T16:04:00.000-08:00

Okay so we have always been that family that has the Elders over at least once a month (if not more) for dinner. Along the way we have found some Elders that we absolutely love. Elder Christiansen and Elder Guyman are part of our Fav 5. They are so funny and my girls can't get enough of them. Zoe's favorite thing to do when they come over is to play pillow fight. You can not get this girl to stop laughing when they are playing until you tell her its time to stop then its instant sadness. Here are some pics of this wonderous event. The funny part is a year ago this chica wouldn't go near these guys she would just stand under my feet in the kitchen while we finished dinner. So needless to say our brainwashing is working we are slowly getting her to realize that missionaries are the only way to go and that if she wants to always have pillow fights she will marry one! haha

The Ever Lasting Pumpkins

2009-11-21T16:56:00.000-08:00

So some might think this lame but I personally think its awesome. We never carve pumpkins (unless of course Nana helps us) we always paint. That way the girls can do everything and I can just take pictures! They had a blast this year and here are the pics to prove it!

Christmas in October

2009-11-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

Okay so as some of you know my older sister had surgery a little while ago. I went out to help her for a week and when I came back was when I started my whole virally infected state. Since then she has frequently asked what she can do to help which always made me laugh because it would have given true meaning to the blind leading the blind. Anyway she found a way to help and help she did. She sent us Christmas in October which was so nice and the girls were so excited. I tried forever to upload the video I took of them opening them and all the squeals involved unfortunately it did not work but here is the pre opening picture. They were so excited for their presents. Isa got a baby that she calls momma because it giggles and says"momma". Zoe got the new trio blocks and has since built many scary monsters. The girls both loved the baby so much that they kept arguing over who got to play with her so Mike finally went and bought another baby for Zoe. Thanks Aunt BRITT!!! They loved the presents. PS look how nicely wrapped they are I must have missed the gene that gave her the wrapping skills all I got were nun chuck skills!

Whirl Wind of Fun in October!

2009-11-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

In mid October we had our stake conference in Bismarck. Mike stayed behind to help a member of the ward finish the roof of his house before the snow hit (what a good guy but secretly I think he planned it to get out of stake conference ;) ). I was asked to sing a solo for the leadership session and a duet for the stake general session so I needed to go (PS throwing up what little you had been able to keep down an hour before you sing in front of the stake is can I just say the last thing I wanted to be doing). I took the girls with me and hit the road. Thank goodness for good friends like the Sheltons! I was still not doing very well health wise and my Karie was like my stand in nanny those two days. It was a lot of fun too because we took all the kids to the pumpkin patch and they had a blast.

They had set up all these cute photo areas but unfortunately this is the best I could get. Seriously Isa had been running a fever for the majority of the day so she was not feeling well and yes I probably shouldn't have had her there but well that was my lemon and this was my lemonade.

Isa and Amelia were so funny with the wagons they would climb in and ride around but if there was ever a pause in motion they were very quick to get out. They also loved pulling them around though we had a few men down along the way when they would run into someone.

There was this tree branch pretty low to the ground in the "Wobbly Woods" that you could hop on and bounce which all the kids thoughtThey had a tractor pulling wooding cars that we got to ride in all through the patch which was great for a moment of down time because the kids were truely just go go go!

There was also this wooden train for the little kids to play in and Isa and Amelia totally took advantage.

In the Hay forts there were tons of tunnels. This is Zoe coming out of one. That when you know your child was meant for the runway is when she looks like this while running, jumping and climbing yet is still 100% girl!

This is Lane and Zoe getting ready to climb up and go down the slide. It was so funny because it was so slick that they would come just shooting out!

Halloween my favorite holiday!!

2009-11-10T14:20:00.001-08:00

For halloween this year the girls got to pick what costumes they wanted. Zoe has been telling me for months that she wanted to be an elephant (lucky for me I already had the costume). I took the girls to hobby lobby to pick out a costume from teh patterns for Isa and she said as clear as can be "I wanna skunk!"

So there you have it! This was the first costume I made from scratch and I think it turned out pretty good! Everyone loved her costume and people were constantly pointing her out and smiling. She loved it and every chance she got she said "I be skunk". She still says I wanna trick or treat.

Zoe wore a costume given to us by Aunt Wendy that Christian had worn. It was a little small by the time halloween rolled around but it worked and she loved it. Zoe was having so much fun that when it started to get to cold she kept going with Mike she ended up trick or treating for about 3 hours! Seriously I like candy but not that much. This girl loved it.

The girls got so much candy that it has been awesome for me.......I mean them ;) All in all it was a lot of fun and we didn't even freeze this year!

Zoe-lina Ballerina

2009-10-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

Well about a month ago Zoe started Ballet and she is having a blast. She takes lessons from Rinat, I think he is from Russia. He has a very thick accent but he is so good with the kids. Zoe loves learning all the new stuff and can't complain because two of her really good friends are in the class with her. Its funny because before nearly every class she asks me to give her ballerina hair. I can't believe how big she is getting. Its funny because some how her teacher found out that Mike was a dancer and always says she is very good its in her blood. Stayed tuned for future recital posts!

When Daddy's in Charge!

2009-09-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Okay so recently I have been a little out of commission and good ol Mike stepped up to the plate. For two weeks he did most everything for the girls and the house which was pretty awesome if you ask me. Here are some pics of what you can expect when Mikes in charge.

Nothing like playing on the tramp with the sprinklers.....this definitely calls for goggles

First of all notice the marker all over the kids and second they pretty much had chips and salsa for lunch 50% of the time.Little girls falling asleep in doorways instead of beds.Yes that is a strawberry marshmallow and yes she is dipping it in chipotle ranch salad dressing.

Don't worry Zoe has the salad that goes to that dip and lucky charms for dinner. Interesting how all the marshmallows are gone and nothing else is.

Nothing like riding a cow in just a diaper with what we lovingly call Isa's curly hair.....Crazy Hair.Faling asleep in the car with your goggles on.Falling asleep in your bed with your goggles on.....you never know when you might need them. Seriously what kind of dreams is this kid having?Lazy days of eating lunch......The perfect place on a chair in the living room where we just put brand new carpet !Isa taking notes on how to be a nosey neighbor from our own personal nosey neighbor! Just kidding Gerald we love ya.

And there you have it. It would be rude though if I did not share teh gratitude I have for a husband willing to take on the daddy daycare for two weeks.....You rock babe!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

2009-09-08T06:16:00.000-07:00

So a few days ago Mike turned the big 30!!! I know seriously can you believe it is already here. I had these grand plans of throwing him a huge party to celebrate ........ unfortunately someone else had different plans because I came down with Strep and mono (hence the blogging hiatis). Instead we had some neighbors over for some icecream cake and a firepit night and I gave Mike his present.....drum roll please.....he got a GUN CABINET! I know I know you are all jealous.

I just want to publicly brag about the man on his day (belated day). Mike is awesome! As you can see there is never a dull moment with this guy. He is a very hard worker and the past week has proved it. I have been pretty out of commission so he has taken on the responsibility of the girls and the house, thank goodness. He is always doing something on the house to make it a more comfortable place for us to live (currently we are finishing the basement pictures to come). He always goes out of his way to help anyone in need and is never afraid to share the gospel with those that haven't heard it yet. Happy B-Day Mike we love ya!

Back At It Again!

2009-08-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

As you can see we are back at it again. July 15 (keep in mind this is two days after we got back from our two month trip) we decided to finally re-do the floors upstairs. The first pics are what the house looked like when we first moved in.

We have gradually made quite a few changes so there are some inthe middle pics as well.

For those of you who say the following to me "I wish my husband would do stuff like that" it is only because you see the before and after and not what it is like to live in the construction zone tha is constantly my house so I provided a few pics of that as well.

Lucky for me we got it all done in about 3 days so it wasn't too bad. The last pictures are of what it looks like now. I absolutely love my nearly complete kitchen. Now all we have left are teh kitchen counters and replacing the stove.

Fun in the Sun: Utah Style!!

2009-07-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun in the sun while we were in Utah. It was so nice to be somewhere where we didn't ahve to guess as to whether or not it was a shorts and T-shirt day or a light coat day.
First we went to the Thanksgiving point petting zoo. The girls always love it here!

We had to make the most of our picture in the parking lot because I couldn't get the girls to hold still long enough to get a good one with me inside.

Zoe and Isa loved riding the horses! They both were pretty sad when they had to say goodbye!

Look at this chica! She really knows how to ride in style!

Isa loved petting every animal she came across.

What a cute kiddie I have!

In the little jail house. the next house was a mock theatre and we total got Zoe to do her happy feet dance. It was awesome!

Petting the cows.

I took the girls to discovery park in Pleasant Grove with a picnic and Aunt Allee and they had a blast.

I have always wanted to take the girls to this park and we finally did it. They had so much fun I could barely get them to stop for a picture.

Zoe is such a sweet girl she will always strike a pose!
Oh what to say about this one. I had packed Strawberries in our lunch and well the combination of Isa and warm strawberries from the sun created this fantastic pic!

Nana was so much fun with the girls. We filled up a little pool one day in teh front yard and the girls had a blast!

Anyone who knows my parents knows that they are avid gardners. They always have this awesome garden that supplies most of the neighborhood with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and all the herbs anyone could ever want. Zoe spent the day with my parents and Mike gardening and it looks like they did a pretty good job!

The garden in the beginning. It used to be a lot bigger but once the twins went on their missions my parents lost their free labor so they had to cut back.

Zoe and poppa in the garden. My girls love their poppa!

Zoe planting flowers!

As if there were any question as to why Zoe is a daddy's girl!

2009-07-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

These two are pretty funny. What is it about little girls and the bond they have with their daddy. I can't quite explain it so maybe this will do it justice. PS soon to come more trip pics.

PSSST!

2009-07-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

We have added new fabrics to our store at http://jennycandydesign.blogspot.com. Over that last two months we have sold nearly 300 wipe cases alone and have had orders to India, Singapore, Canada, England, Denmark and Austrailia and all over the US. We are now wholesaling to 3 boutiques! These are a hot ticket item so be sure to check it out.

In the words of Zoe "We Saw The Yellow Stones"

2009-07-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

So we are finally back from our two month vacay and grateful to be home. So in true blog spirit I will be updating everyone who is interested on the trip. First off let me just say that I came down with pneumonia the night before we left so the pics of yellowstone are not so hot of me. So just picture me at my best (5'10" lucious brown long locks, legs to die for and a body even barbie would be jealous of)!

Here we are at Yellowstone we just took the second day of the vacation and hit some hot spots then headed on down to Utah for day 3.

Last and Final Sickness update. (As if you want one)

2009-05-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

So I am finally feeling better I am assuming it will stay that way since it has been 12 hours since I had a fever. I went to the ER last night got some IV fluids and another dose of medicine and am feeling like a new woman! so no more posts about whiny me!

Traveling Woes!

2009-05-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

Okay so we just got into Utah last night and I unfortunately had to put the girls to bed and then go to the hospital! I apparently traveled here with pneumonia and teh antibiotics I was on weren't helping. 4 days later I am still running a fever have burning lungs and seriously want to curl up and cry but the show must go on and I am grateful for all teh help Mike and My familia (mostly my mom) have been! Thanks guys! Seriously taking two antibiotics at teh same time seems to be helping a little hopefully we can get out to see everyone soon!

You Lucky Duck!

2009-05-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

Okay so for once I will post mostly about Mike and I!
First off I haven't given my mothers day post mostly because the day in and of itself was not so hot and I needed time to forget it. The night before I stayed up till midnight ( I didn't get home until 10) working on Zoe's talk (coloring pictures). Around 1 am is when Isa decided she was done sleeping and didn't feel well enough to at least be up and happy so she cried, mike cried and I certainly cried! Mike finally resigned to the couch around 2:30 (he had to work the next two days). I continued the battle of wills until around 5 am I pulled her into bed with me where she finally settled in and fell asleep around 5:30. Ever since Isa has been on all of the meds she is on sleep is precious and rarely seen by me so thank goodness Zoe is such a good kid because when she woke up and found me in bed with Isa without waking us she shut the door, went in the living room and turned on the TV (I always keep it on PBS). Isa awoke at 8:30 ready to take on the day.......I was not so ready. We quickly got some breakfast and I hurried and finished working on my lesson for Relief Society. After I got both kids ready I went to finish myself and wouldn't you know it little Ms Isa found an apple and started munching away only to completely stain the front of her dress with orangeish juices! We changed and finally got to church 20 minutes late! From there I helped Zoe with her talk then let Isa run around until it was time for Relief Society. Can I just remind you that Isa had only had about 7 hours of sleep and I had only had 3. She was cranky and I don't think there is a word to describe how I felt. THANK GOODNESS FOR THE ELDERS QUORUM!!! They had planned a surprise lunch for the moms during Relief Society so there would be no lesson. It was taco salad and desert. The best thing that had ever happened at this point! Unfortunately I still had to deal with a naughty 1 year old while we ate so it was a little frustrating but thank goodness I didn't have to make dinner or we would have had hotdogs! So there you have it. Now for the good stuff Mike had given me a beautiful bouquet of flowers the day before a book that I have really been wanting to read and a massage at a local spa! Seriously that massage hit the spot! Thanks babe for everything you do for me!
Now for Mike. Mike recently promoted to Captain (May 15th) so you can officially call him Captain Hall! We are so very proud of our him! He has had to accomplish a lot over teh years to get to this point! He has had many obstacles thrown at him but managed to surface unscathed! He is a wonderful daddy, husband and friend and he always keeps us on our toes! We love you Mike! Also Mike gave the girls cute little presents for being there for him over the last few years of this crazy adventure (after all we have moved cross country 3 times in four years). He also gave me a beautiful diamond necklace that I love wearing. We can't wait to see whats in store for us next!

Nicknames

2009-05-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

Playing dressup with the girls. I am not so sure why Zoe doesn't look happy in the pick she was having a blast while we did it.

Zoe about Isa: "Momma I call her Eeeeess! Eeeees is her name."

The Family Circus!

2009-05-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

So recently we went to the Shriners Circus which can i just say I was quite intrigued by the acrobats and so were the girls they could have cared less about the dancing tigers and dogs or even the "magic" show for that matter. This is them watching the circus!
We also took the girls on a pony ride and Zoe got to go on an elephant ride! She thought that was awesome!Despite the fact that the "picture with the dogs in car" Indian dude who didn't speak english kept yelling at me and tried to have me removed from the circus becasue he couldn't understand what I was saying, it was a lot of fun!The girls love to play dress up as any good girl should. here are some pics of them playing dress up with Madi. Don't think for a minute that Isa misses out on any of this stuff. She follows these girls from room to room trying to do everything that they do and has a blast!
The girls have also been dressing up in their halloween costumes which is hilarious especially when they make the animal noises!

After all this fun wouldn't you know Zoe was to tired to wait for me to put Isa to bed so that she could go to bed. Literally ten minutes passed and this is what I found!

Seeking Medical Advice!

2009-04-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

Okay so this is for all of you who currently live or have lived in Utah (ie Provo/Salt Lake area). We are going to be coming to the area for an extended stay of about 7 weeks. Because of the length of time we are going to be there and teh frequency Isa needs to be seen by a doctor I am in search of a really good pediatrician. I would prefer to have one that specializes in childhood asthma but if you know a really good pediatrician let me know. I would love it if you could tell me their name and what it is that you like about them. I have had my fair share of not so good docs with this babe and need to make sure he will work well with us. Thanks so much for your help!

Funny Bunnies

2009-04-24T15:11:00.002-07:00

These girls are so funny! Zoe loves to play beauty shop with me and this is what I looked like after. I tried to find all the clips and get them out after she went to bed but in the morning clips kept dropping out of my hair! She had a blast and everytime I asked if she was almost done she would say "no mommy just three more minutes".
We have recently discovered Isa's love of performance. This kid loves to get peoples attention and pose for pictures. We often see her walking up to random strangers and waving and saying "hi" She thinks she is so cool when they say hi back and ooh and ahhh at her. Her are some of her poses.Zoe does and says the funniest things. Lately she has really been into helping me make lunch and almost everyday that lunch is requested to be ham and cheese sandwiches with "clean cheese" the kind you have to slice not "yucky cheese" pre-sliced. Yesterday we were making these sandwiches and Zoe kept asking if she could stick her finger in the miracle whip and taste it. I kept telling her no then Mike walked into the room and she said "Daddy can I please please have a taste I really really like it" without missing a beat Mike walked over grabbed a spoon and gave her a spoon full to which Zoe replied "mmmmm I wuve it momy". That is when i learned that when Mike makes lunch she always gets a spoonful of miracle whip......DISGUSTING! What is it with these Hall's and their condiments.

Today I was making lunch with Zoe and I said "you are such a silly monkey" and she said "Mommy I'm not a monkey I don't have a tail. Let me see your tail mommy"

Do I look like a monkey? Don't answer that.

It's finally here!

2009-04-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

So if any of you are wondering why I have been so busy check out a new blog and find out http://jennycandydesign.blogspot.com/! Let me know what you think. You can also find me on etsy by clicking on the link on my side bar.

Spring planting!

2009-04-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

So in order to get ready for our sudden summer (because that is exactly what it is, one night there is snow on the ground and the next its 70 degrees with the snow gone) we are planting peas and green beans along with some flowers. We have decided that after our attempt at starting our own tomatoes last year that it is best left to the pros for us.Zoe had a lot of fun playing in the soil and planting the seeds
And as you can see so did Mike!

Easter Morn!

2009-04-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun this Easter! Our Easter kicked off a little early this year. First off on Tuesday, the city hosted an "Egg Walk" on the historic mainstreet of town which basically consisted of us walking from store to store and the girls receiving handful after handful of candy. Zoe kept calling her basket her "butterfly halloween basket". Hilarious I know but seriously how is she to know the difference it basically was halloween minus the costume for her but she did see a grown man shake his grove thing in a bunny costume.

We took the girls to say hi to the Easter bunny at the mall on thursday night. Zoe thought that was AWESOME! She was all smiles and giggles the whole time. Isa wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing but she did finally give him five.

Mike had to go out on alert on Saturday and didn't get home until Sunday afternoon so we celebrated Easter on Friday morning. Isa, of course, woke up first at 6:45am. (My easter present wasn't a good nights rest). Should couldn't stop from picking up all the eggs hidden in plain sight in the hall.

Shortly after Zoe and daddy joined us and well what can I say there was a lot of candy eating going on!

The Easter Bunny brought Mike a Framing Nail Gun! That Easter Bunny must be AWESOME!

This year we decided to for go the Easter dress because we were not able to go to church on sunday and they still have dresses from Christmas that haven't been worn yet.

I talked to the girls about the true meaning of Easter and Zoe (ever so enthralled with the topic of Jesus Christ lately) chimed in "Jesus made my eyes mommy and I'm a daughter of God". I love that kid! What a little smarty!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter and was able to celebrate the true meaning of Easter. I am so grateful for a Savior who loves and cares for me and who sacrificed his life for me so that I may return to my Father in Heaven.

Thats right its April!!!

2009-04-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

So we took this pic about a week ago in our front and back yard! I think it speaks for itself.
Luckily just a week later we took these pictures. Since the last ones we have had about a week straight of temperatures above freezing. YIPPEE!! We dug out all the outdoor toys, set them up on the porch and let the girls play. Since that day all I hear out of little Isa is "Side, side".
I still feel guilty letting her go out there for to long because we are still struggling to get her healthy. Here is a picture of her getting a treatment. The poor kid looks so pathetic.

One thing that never ceases to make me laugh are my copy cat girls. If one does something the other thinks is funny than they just do it over and over giggling all the way!

This last picture is a great one. It never fails that our kids poop in the tub. It has yet to happen to Mike. For some reason they always do it on my watch. I must be soooooo lucky!

PINEWOOD DERBY FOR THE FAM!!!!!!!

2009-04-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

Okay so Mike is in the Elders Quorum presidency for church and they planned a ward activity that was a pinewood derby.
Mike "made" a pretty sweet car that he was sure was going to come in first. He must not have realized that Brother Jenks majored in pinewood derby in college! (The Jenks fam took 1st 2nd and 3rd). Mike "helped" (if you've seen down and derby you know what I mean) Zoe make her car with some last minute finshes by me. It was red hot and super fast, well at least fast enough that she thought it was cool.
I made one for Isa which I forgot to get a picture of it so if you look you can find it, but I basically sanded the corners a little painted it yellow and drew in black windows on the front and sides, thats right school bus style. It was a very intricate build that was completely areodynamic! The only person the bus lost to was the little girl who took first place! (Darn those Jenks kids) It was so much fun!
Mike made trophies to give away and I must say he did an excellent job!

All in all it made for a night of fun for everyone and I got such a kick watching the little kids cheer on their favorite car!

Conversations with Zoe! Hilarious!!!

2009-04-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

Me: Zoe come help mommy make some lunch.

Zoe: Mom I want "Girl" Cheese and tomato soup!

On a normal morning Zoe comes into my room around 7:30 and says "Mommy I wake up!". this morning I heard this. Her door fly open, the sound of the toilet lid being put up, the sound of a pull-up hitting the floor, the obvious following, her running and giggling back to her room, her dresser drawers being open and shut and her closet door opening and shutting. I finally went in to investigate. There I found my completely dressed child looking for her boots because in the words of Zoe "the suns out mom I'm all done sleeping"

Isa started crying because she was super tired so Zoe at the top of her lungs starts singing twinkle twinkly little star right next to Isa's sad little face.

Me: Zoe don't sing so loud in her face that's making her more sad.

Zoe: Mom, I'm singin to make sister happy. Don't cry Isa beeps!PS Isa no longer has a paci. Normally this would have happened long ago but the kid has been so sick I felt guilty taking it from her. We finally did it and it has definitely been harder for her than it was for Zoe but we are surviving!

When you're the best of friends!

2009-04-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

There are very few things that are absolutely certain in our crazy military life. One of them is we will always have to say goodbye to good friends! So for many of you who read this blog you are those friends we have had to say good bye too. My girls however have started to see this first hand. Zoe's best friend literally since she was born just moved to DC somewhat unexpectedly. We were really sad to see them go and She is certainly going to miss seeing her friend Parker. She still reminds me daily that "I'm a big girl, Parker is a big boy, Parker is my friend". Here are some pics of them saying goodbye!

Floods ..... Floods ..... and more Floods!!!

2009-03-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

So as many of you know we are up in crazy North Dakota where the snow never ends. Don't worry though we are 2 hours north of Bismarck and 4 hours Northwest of Fargo. The flooding that you are seeing all over the news has only affected us because we have deployed people from here to help sandbag. Now a little history.

In 1969 there was a really bad flood here very similar to what you are seeing in Fargo. The National Gaurd was brought in along with some engineers and they widened and rerouted the river that runs through the center of town. (keep in mind the reason why the disaster with flooding here are so huge is that we are a farming state so most of our cities are developed around the rivers banks) They are distributing sandbags here at the public works building for precaution and we have seen some flooding but it was purely due to all the snow in our yards and not because of the river. Hopefully we will continue to only have localized flooding ie. basements getting water through the foundations. However to alleviate concerns you will be happy to know if it does flood here we will be safe.

Minot is basically built around a valley and two hills. Most of the houses are up on the hills while some do ly in the valley by the river. We are up on one of the hills and out of the flood plain. Keep our state in your prayers, people are going to need all the help they can get. Thanks for all your concerns!

Recent picture of Bismarck flooding.

Recent picture of Fargo flooding.

Picture from the flood of 1969 in Minot.

A One Stop Pharmacy!

2009-03-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

Amoxicillin.......check
Albuterol...........check
Pulmicort..........check
prednisone........check
singulair..............check
baby motrin......check
teething gel........check

This is a list of all the medications poor little Isa is currently on. Thank goodness she is such a good baby or else things could be a lot worse! She just has childhood asthma but apparently does not handle it very well. She has been wheezing since December (no lie), retracting off and on, running fevers, having chest x-rays to find continuous fluid/mucus in the lungs, diarhea from all the meds and of course on top of it all she is teething. Needless to say none of this slows her down so when I try to do one of her 8 treatments through the nebulizer a day a basically have to tie her down and sing every song I know and read every book we have with sounds. Hopefully this will be "but a small moment" in her life.

BTW don't mind the coke in her hand. That is what Mike likes to drink for a treat and of course its the one thing Isa consistently pulls out of the cupboard. I have found them in so many places the latest are my snow boots!

Also for all of you who knew and are wondering. I did get my results back and everything was benign. They found a cyst in each thyroid. The one on the left was much bigger because it was actually a cyst around a cyst. The doc said the first cyst bled causing the second cyst to form around it to protect the body. My thyroid levels on the other hand are abnormal so who knows what they will do about that. Sigh of relief from me though I am finally sleeping (what little sleep I get right now) better! thanks for your thoughts, calls and prayers they all did wonders!

A Girl Can Dream ....... Can't She?

2009-03-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

So this post is for all you people just waiting for me to blog the more human side of my life. lately I have found that the girls are messier than I could have ever imagined. I had hoped they could inherit my disdain for being messy, but to no avail!

In this pic I can only blame myself. I had tried to get some really fun potty training treats for Zoe a while ago and decided that since I loved fun dip as a kid she would too. Um hello apparently I completely blanked out on the disgusting mess I must have always been afterward! Thanks mom for being patient. I would show you the couch but the picture didn't turn out.
This is our version of "Miss Independent". Isa looooooves to feed herself and insists on it no matter what it is! the worst thing so far has been tomato soup but yogurt was more noticeable!

And last but not least here are some pics of what will hopefully soon be called a second full bath. Yippee!!! I have waited a while for this project to get rolling! Here is the before stay tuned for some after. Did I mention that sometimes I feel like I live in a construction zone!

Pretty in Pig tails!

2009-03-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

Okay so I know every mom thinks it but seriuosly! My girls are sooooo cute! I have finally realized that I can put Isa's hair in pig tails. It looks so cute especiall ysince I can leave some down and curly! Zoe as usual is a beautiful little girl. I think I was meant to have girls because I love doing their hair and dressing them up! Anyway here ya go......

Out for a for a walk!

2009-03-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

So last Friday my neighbor called and asked if I could take their dog out on Saturday. Not thinking to check and make sure Mike was off I said yes.........Oooops! So of course Mike had to work and there was a dog that needed walking at 3 and two little girls that needed watching. What to do...... So I bundled them up as best I could, covered them in blankets, and put them in the double stroller. We got Charlie (the pup) and off we went, -5 degree weather and all. After about an hour of walking through the 5 foot walls of snow we returned home. I had been worried the whole time that my kids were going to be cold so I kept checking them in the beginning. they seemed to be doing fine. When we got home I realized that Zoe had completely zonked out and Isa was having a blast being outside! I think I just might do that again!

Conversations with Zoe!

2009-03-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

Me: Zoe lets eat some lunch. do you want left over pizza? (homemade mind you)

Zoe: Ummm No thanks

Me: Do you want some pepperoni, cheese and oranges

Zoe: No Thanks

Me: How about some noodle soup

Zoe: Mom just no thanks maybe tomorrow, I'm not hungry yet

What do you do when your child politely declines you three times.........Blog about it!

Zoe: Mom look!

Me: What is it?

Zoe holding a magnet of chic from Cars: It's a maggot I call him chic!

Rescue Blues!

2009-03-01T18:59:00.001-08:00

So about a year ago Mike saw this radio and new that Zoe would love it so he got it for her at Walmart for 5 bucks. Well the thing drove me crazy because she would turn it on full blast on the gospel station (nothing against gospel music its just not exactly what I want to listen to on full blast while cleaning). Soooooo I hid it. Well I just came across it the other day and gave it back to her. That thing has not left her side. We are constantly finding her lieing on her bed or on the couch or just basically anywhere with the radio rockin out. She apparently does not like an audience for her performances though as you can see.

Do A Little Dance!

2009-02-24T10:48:00.001-08:00

Lets see who can be the first to guess which movie Zoe got her dance moves from!

2009-02-20T07:10:00.001-08:00

Its a good thing North Dakota Doesn't impose the same laws as California or else poor little Isa could be arrested. This little girl is such a pre-teen!

Okay so I know what you are thinking......I crimped her hair. The answer is a big fat no I just braided it and yes I think it is soo cute! I took this pic while we had some friends over and were couch jumping so her hair is a little crazy but I wanted to show that my daughter can totally sport such an 80's trend! I was going to upload a video but stinking blogger is not making it easy so maybe next time! MMe: "Zoe come sit down so we can eat"

Zoe: "What are we eating momma?"
Me: "Roast"

Zoe: "I don't like Gross mom I don't like it! I don't want Gross"

Zoe: "Mommy can I have some apple juice"

Me: at the computer with my back to her "Not until you eat more of your lunch"

Zoe: "Mommy don't talk to me backwards! You have to look at me momma!"

Michael and I having a conversation (this is not just another word for arguement we really were just having a converstion)

Zoe: "Don't talk to Daddy like that momma. You have to be nice to daddy."

Me: "I am being nice to daddy we are just talking."

Zoe: "Mommy say sorry to daddy right now."

Growing up toooo Fast!

2009-02-16T13:53:00.000-08:00

So I am really late getting this up but here is a cute video of Isa walking!!! She started walking at about 13 1/2 months! This child is hilarious with her big belly waddle!

Remodled kitchen... Almost!

2009-02-15T13:42:00.000-08:00

Okay so I was going to save these pics until we replaced teh counter tops but it looks like its going to be a little bit before we do that! So here you go the before and afters of the kitchen! It only took two week of working on it after the kids went to bed so I think we did a fairly good job!

Now how do I convince Mike to get me the matching stove!

2009-02-11T16:59:00.000-08:00

I have actually been thinking of doing something random like this and sending a few peops some presents sooooo... look what I found on my girlfriends blog! Alright peops heres how it works. The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. BUT, in order for you to leave a comment on my blog, you have to post this on your blog first. (That means that sometime during this year you will send a gift to 3 people as well.) Get it? So, the first 3 people to comment on this post will be the lucky ones! Good Luck!

2009-02-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

Alright so a new wave of blogging is about to begin! My sister as some of you know ahs left me. (sob sob) So here is a photo tribute to Allee:

Allee we love ya and we totally miss you and can't wait for you to come back and visit!

On a different note I have another sister who by the way I do not have a pictures of on this computer so you'll just have to use your imaginations! This is an Ode to Britt.......Ahem

Ode to Britt:

She was one of the very few people who was there for me nearly every day with my crazy pregnancy with Zoe despite the fact of having two kids and a busy husband she always found time to check in on me and see how I was doing! It meant a lot!

This is the sister who helped me develop a passion for playing cards! All inspired by our many late night escapades with Rummy 500.

She is the one who inspired me to explore my crafty side as she is one of the most talented crafty people I know!

This sister has four kids lives far from family and helps out many without complaining!

Britt gave me my true love for sleeping on the floor because there were many late nights as teenagers when she would say from her room to mine "Jenny are you awake, do you want to come sleep on my floor?" Truthfully this was because she did not like the dark but I always thought it was because I was super cool!

Happy Birthday Britt!!! To a sister who takes the cake on being one awesome woman, mom, sister and friend!

ATTENTION PRIVATE BLOGGERS!!

2009-02-02T11:27:00.000-08:00

Okay so I don't know how else to fix this little dilemma other than this. Tenille and Jeff, Mandi and Sheldon and Melinda and Jason I missed the whole going private phase while my computer was out! I really do want to see your blogs and how you guys are doing so when you get around to checking mine again please send me the link to mcgeester88@hotmail.com. Greatly appreciated! If I missed anyone else please do the same. Thanks

I followed the trail to find the Perp!

2009-01-31T09:02:00.001-08:00

So the other day I had some errands to run and left Mike home with the girls! He wanted to go outside to "work" on our snow situation so he bundled the girls up and took them out with him! It was our first day in quite a while where one would even consider doing this based on teh temp outside! This is what I found when I came home! One Frozen Snow Angel!!!

I Got A Big Treat!!!!

2009-01-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

Okay so as a lot of you know we have been trying to potty train our beautiful little Zoe for quite some time now. She wasn't openly against potty training she just wouldn't do it. Number 2 was the hardest for us so that has been our hold up. I will have you all know that after many pleadings from me, Mike begging and Zoe saying "Oh man, sowy mom" We are officially on our way. We still have an accident here and there but I feel I can official say we are potty trained!! YIPPEE for me. Now I just need to figure out how to tell her she doesn't get a "BIG TREAT" every time she goes!
Isa's newest favorite thing is to put on sunglasses (actually any glasses her favorites have no lenses). She always pushes them up in the middle like a little old grandma.
Our sweet little Isa has finally decided that she would like to start walking. We have only had a sequence of about 4-6 steps so far but as we all know once that happens there is no stopping them. I am so excited for her to be able to play like her big sister which has really been the reason why she decided to start venturing out! She gets so excited everytime she takes steps and usually falls over due to her celebratory giggling and clapping! What a doll this little one has turned into!Okay so for all of you competitors in Utah who have had a lot of snow this year... check out the winter we have had. They haven't had this much snow since 1916 (literally we looked it up). There has been 51 inches of snow so far this winter with a promise of more to come. It may not sound like that much but when it never (and do I mean never) melts it creates quite the problem. Our roof isn't covered anymore because Mike climbed on top and shoveled it off. Just to let you know how bad it is even Wal-Mart closed for a full week for snow removal from the parking lot and their roof and in the process a man fell through the ceiling because the roof had been weakend by the snow. The K-mart roof collapsed as well as many homes here in good ol North Dakota. I never knew how hard it was to not have a Wal-Mart until last week. Haha embarassing I know but seriously this is non sense. Check out all the snow we have in our yard. I think we are going to hire someone to come move it away from our house because as you can see this is a job for more than just a snow blower and snow shovel. We need some seriously heavy duty equipment. On the up side we have finally had a week above 0 degrees so I would say we are making some progress
Zoe put on her own hat to go play in the snow. Umm excuse me Zoe I think its on backwards!

Dinosaur Museum!

2009-01-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

When we were in Utah we went to Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum with Josh, Michele and Savy. The girls had a blast looking at all the different exhibits and search for the bones.

I am certain though that the money was best spent on Josh and Mike who could have spent all day building sand castles in the sand pit (I believe this is for kids but hey what can I say). Just imagine the sand was a bug zapper and Mike and Josh were the bugs... it was kind of like that. I pretty much had to pry them away because the kids were ready to move on.

Isa was so cute crawling all over the place and exploring. She thought it was so much fun to sit on the big scale they had.

This was probably Zoe's favorite thing we did the whole time we were in Utah. She absolutely loves dirt and unfortunately the seasons are too short up here for her to enjoy it. Good thing she got her year supply there. I was seriously finding dirt on her for a few days after this excursion

Zoe and Savy were like long lost best friends they ran from one thing to the next together!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

2009-01-12T08:22:00.000-08:00

Alright so now we are finally on to the Halloween photos. We decided to plan our trip to utah over the halloween holiday so our girls would actually get to trick or treat outside this year. We first went to Mike's parents ward halloween party.

Zoe got to play musical chairs and though she didn't quite catch on she still had a lot of fun because she got to sit next to Bell!
We went trick or treating in my parents neighborhood and that was a lot of fun! We started at about 5:00 and ended at about 7:30. The girls were completely wasted but had a lot of fun. Zoe got to go as Tinkerbell and Nana got her some Tinkerbell boots to wear with her costume.
Isa went as a Tulip Fairy, check out her shoes!

While Zoe was running from door to door Isa munched on a sucker in the stroller. It was so funny because Zoe would go to the door and say trick or treat and then when they would give her candy she always said "I need some for Isa" then she would run back to isa to give her the loot!

Carving Pumpkins with Nana

2009-01-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

Okay so this is where I admit to my lame momness. For halloween I did not want to deal with the hassle of carving a pumpkin so Zoe and I painted pumpkins. My mom however thought that was totally lame (which I can certainly agree with) so she bought two pumpkins and carved them with Zoe. Of course Zoe had a blast and it turned out really cute! Isa as you can see just sat and munched on a lemon and watched the progress made!

Hogle Zoo

2009-01-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

When we were in Utah in October (Yes thats right I said October) we went to the Hogle Zoo for the first time with Nana and Aunt Allee! The girls had a blast. I am pretty sure the Carousel ride was their favorite part of the trip but they also enjoyed riding on the train! Zoe had so much fun I couldn't even get her to stop and take a picture!

I Call This The One Way Conversation

2009-01-06T17:47:00.000-08:00

The other day I made one of Zoe's favorites for lunch, grilled cheese and tomato soup. I got everyone situated (Zoe, Isa and I) and sat down with mine and a Christmas letter to read. A Few seconds later this is the conversation that took place:

Zoe: "Mommy eat your soup"

I took a bite of my soup

Zoe: "mommy eat your sandwich"

I took a bite of my sandwich

Zoe: "Read mommy read"
Zoe: "Eat your soup mommy eat"
Zoe: "Read mom you have to read"

Me: "Zoe chill out chica I am eating and reading as fast as I can"

Zoe: "Mom you just have to read and eat"

Birthday Girls!!!

2009-01-05T15:36:00.000-08:00

Both of the girls had their birthdays in December and It was one party filled month! I had so much fun getting everything ready for the girls birthdays.

Isa's was the 7th and we just had three babies her same age over and let them crawl around and play with her new toys. They also had a blast tearing into the cake.

There are very few things that Isa is completely obssessed with so far one of them is the caterpillar on the Baby Einstein videos. That is how we decided on her cake.

Isa was not to thrilled at the idea of diving into her cupcake. She just picked at the frosting for a while and then finally pushed it aside. I must say I was quite surprised! She did however have a lot of fun opening her presents and with a little help from Aunt Allee it was a complete success!

We had a lot of fun at Zoe's party as well. Her parties are getting to be a lot of fun. She has two really good friends here, Parker and Maddy, so we had them over for a princess and pirate party (We threw in the pirate part just for Parker because had he shown up with out a costume he gladly would have put on a princess dress for Zoe).

We got Zoe a Snow White dress to wear and I made her a Snow White cake. It was a learning experience to say the least.

I also turned our kitchen table into a castle for the kids and that is where there treasure hunt ended, treasure chest and all.

She got lots of toys from friends and family and has had a blast playing with them all!

All and all Zoe had a blast and ever since her birthday everytime she sees a fun toy at a store she says "I want that for my birthday!"

I love these two girls so much I can't imagine life without them. Zoe never ceases to make me laugh with her fun loving personality. She is such a sweet sister to Isa and always tries to help her learn new things. I posted some of her new funny sayings so be sure to check those out. Isa is a doll as always. This kid is going to be even funnier as she gets older. She loves her momma and can't ever seem to get enough of her big sister Zoe. She is learning new things all the time and is sooooo close to walking I can't even believe it!

A is for Allee

2009-01-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

This is for those of you who have been wondering what Allee has been doing since she moved up here with us! As you can see she has been very busy!

Family Photos .......... You Be the Judge!?!

2009-01-01T16:22:00.000-08:00

So while we were on vacation to Utah in October and November we had our family picures taken. I was really excited to do it and had this vision of what they would look like in my head.......I am obviously not a true artist with the ability to turn my "visions" into reality because they looked nothing like I had imagined!

My first mistake: I thought because we had scheduled an appointment that we would actually be taking pictures at that time, our photographer would be prepared, and stay for the time she had scheduled once there. My bad! (I will say this though she tried very very hard to get my kids to smile and for that I thank her)

My second mistake: White does not look good on just anybody, especially when you yourself are the color swatch they used to make the fabric you are wearing

My third mistake: I assumed the "chin down method" removed all noticeable double chins

My fourth mistake: I believed I looked like Jennifer Aniston when in reality I looked like .... well this...

My fifth mistake: Because my children would laugh and play all day if they were outside than obviously outside would be the best place to get happy pictures. This became a mistake when I confused picture taking with playing

Honestly this list could go on for days but I will let our pictures do the talking. I need everyone to vote for which picture they like best so I can figure out which one to frame and put in our house. Here ya go...

PS Kelsie I cannot find that disc you put the pictures that you fixed on. If you by any chance happened to save them let me know, if not I will keep looking.

Do you ever feel like you are having an out of body experience!

2008-12-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

I still have no camera :(. Hopefully though I will soon. I am getting one for Christmas with a lot of help from my mom but I have been waiting for Mike to have some free time to go with me to find one we will like. Hopefully I will get one either today or tomorrow. I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted a real post but here is my attempt to brief everyone on teh last two months!

1.) We went to Utah and saw all the family and had a blast.

2.) Trick or treating was a great success we finished just as the rain hit so we were pretty proud of our timing.

3.)We went to the Hogle Zoo and the Dinosaur museum and the girls had a blast.

4.)We had a get together with all Mikes Clogging friends and can I just say its a wonder that all those guys married so well. just kidding We laughed the whole night! (Thanks Michele)

5.)Mike has worked like crazy since he has been back. I have just been plain crazy.

6.)We had a babysitting swap with a friend of ours and Zoe hurt her arm while playing with their little boy. (Jumping off little kid chairs into ball pits on a cement floor has now become a big fat no thank you in our house)

7.)Four doctor visits via the ER, the base clinic, and the orthopedic clinc, 6 doctors, 8 x-rays, and six days later it was finally discovered that Zoe had a nursemaids elbow (dislocated elbow) and was reset. I don't know what we would have done without the help of our Bishop!!!

8.)Zoe has been in a slpint for 4 weeks and has had about ten more x-rays since but has become quite the pro of out patient care.

9.)If there is a family that needed a babysitter in minot lets just say that baysitter was me and it was sometime in the last two weeks.

10.)Isa turned one and cut 6 teeth within 2 months!!

11.)Isa stands on her own!

12.)Isa says momma, dadda, silly, this, ta da, bye and (while mimicking Zoe) I mad.

13.)We have put new meaning to the Griswald family Christmas ..... AGAIN!

14.)Some crazy person backed into Mikes car while it was parked in our driveway..... Oh wait that was me in the Mini van. (This should be on confessions of a taxi cab driver)

15.)We hosted Thanksgiving here with three other families and a single guy. (props go out to cameron for an excellent Turkey and stuffing)

16.)Our computer completely quit working for a few days until we could buy a new one.

17.)And last but certainly not least I have finally convinced a family member of mine (besides my awesome mom who comes when I need her most) to come visit. I came in the form of torture I think ..... just kidding Allee moved up here to stay with us for a while and it has been a blast for us I hope she can soon say the same!

So there you all have it the update on why I have not been blogging! My life is crazy and certainly blog worthy but sheesh with out a camera or a computer how do you blog! I will not torture you all with a long post with all the pics you have missed but I will put up a slide show of the pictures we have not been able to post! Now I can finally catch up on all of you! By the way I think quite a few of you went to private over the past few months if you did and I missed the opportunity to be included please leave a comment with your email so I can send mine on to you! Heather I got yours today but Jeff and Tenille I know for sure I missed! Thanks guys!

Help!!!!

2008-11-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

So for the past few days there has been a new word in our house to be heard round the world...........Ayudame (I hope I spelt that right). Okay so here is the story. I will be going about my usual day when suddenly Zoe yells out "Ayudame, Ayudame mommy"! I can not stop laughing. So now that she knows how to ask for help in spanish does that make her bilingual?

Success At Last.......

2008-11-13T19:10:00.000-08:00

Well at least for him who shall remain nameless. For months now Mike has been intentionally trying to ruin our computer so that he can have an excuse to buy a new one. For those of you who think I am exagerating I can assure you that this is no lie. Alas he has finally begun to see success. Our computer has completed malfunctioned in both of our USB ports and we cannot seem to fix it. The result no pictures to blog about. I know I know you can go ahead and cry with me. I will see if I can convince him that without blogging I will have nothing to live for! Wish me luck! Hopefully we will soon have pictures to update you on our three week excursion to Utah.

ODE To A New Roof!

2008-10-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

Alright so maybe you all are at the edge of your seats waiting to see what a new post will bring or maybe you are thinking this woman can make the longest posts but seriously I haven't had a boring week in a year!

We called our insurance to come and assess our roof for hail damage and wouldn't you know it they are giving us money to replace it and it wont effect our monthly rate. SWEET! Mike being the handy man that he is decided to do it himself so we could pocket the extra money. Luckily we have some great friends and missionaries here willing to help! It looks awesome! These guys have worked so hard they deserve some serious treats!

This is our friend Justin who was visitng his girlfriend (Maddy's mom Ali) and even though he was on vacation he still helped. Check out the cute out fit he had to wear!It has actually been a year exactly since we moved in. We have done some serious work on this house:

stripped wall paper

painted (literally every wall and ceiling)

installed baseboards and crown molding in every room

installed chair rail in the master

removed track lights on walls in three rooms

re wired five rooms

installed 9 new light fixtures (this includes cutting holes in the ceiling for them)

installed 8 new doors and frames (what a pain can I just say)

installed 3 ceiling fans

replaced all the upstairs bathroom fixtures and hung a mirror

removed a cabinet hung over the bar and patched the ceiling

replaced the refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer

ripped out an outdated bathroom in the basement

cut out and installed an egress window

framed a storage room in the basement

replaced the old water heater for a much bigger and nicer one!

framed, sheetrocked, mudded, textured, wired, painted, carpeted and all those minor details a

brand new room in the basement!

Seriously I dont know how we were able to accomplish so much but some how we did! We couldn't have done it without great friends! Next stop probably the family room in the basement!

I will post the finished product of the roof in a bit!

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow!

2008-10-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

Alright ladies and gents, we officially had our 3 weeks of fall and winter is here! We woke up this morning to it snowing. I can't believe that winter is already here I feel like I missed all the goodness of fall. If you need me for the next 7 months I will be in hibernation!On a much lighter note Little Isa has been trying to accomplish the whole pulling up thing. She can almost do it on her own but not quite. Here is a pic of this little ones adventures!This is the face Isa makes literally the whole time every time we have the missionaries over and she makes sure that they see it!

Newest pics of girls!!!

2008-10-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

Okay so I finally decided to try the whole upload thing of the girls pics and though I still can't get it to work in a post it worked great if I put it on the side bar and heading so be sure to check them out (as if you could resist)!

Falling For Fall

2008-10-03T07:49:00.001-07:00

Its autumn time its autumn time the leaves are falling down! Okay so Mike was outside doing a "little" clean up on the yard before the winter hits which could be any minute now. Anyway he decided he would "trim" my lilac BUSHES. Apparently Mike was thinking they should be trees because that is what they now look like. My poor lilac bushes have been destroyed. Oh well good thing they will grow back.

The girls had so much fun playing in the leaves as we cleaned them up. It was funny to watch Isa's reaction to the great outdoors. I guess this is one way to get this baby on the move to sit still becasue she did not want to move.

After the cleanup Zoe and Mike decided to reward themselves by getting some apples from our apple tree. This usually just means Mike shakes it until some fall down. Zoe for some reason loves these apples even though they are really sour!

Isa had seen Zoe eat the apple so she decided to give it a go unsuccessfully though she was so funny holding these apples and trying to get a good bite!

I bought mini pumpkins for Zoe and Maddy to paint and they had so much fun doing it!

Mike thinks its hilarious when Isa goes to crawl from her sitting position because she inevitably always does a side split. It is quite entertaining to watch her.

Last but not least Ms Zoe got a hair cut. I much needed one I might add. I have trimmed it about three times before but this time we went for the gold and chopped it. She was a little nervous at first but she did surprisingly well. So here she is about six inches later!

Congratualtions Baby Burke!!

2008-09-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

No I am not announcing I am pregnant (nice try you wishful thinker you)! This is a shout out to Britt and Travis for having baby boy number four! Burke is the name he shall be known by but if you want any more info than that you will have to ask them for it! If I get a picture of this studdly dude soon I will post it for you guys! Congratulations guys we are so excited for you! PS hey Travis will you mail Mike some of what you have been drinking we would really like to figure out that boy thing for the next one?

Sleeping Dooty

2008-09-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

We have all heard of Sleeping Beauty but how do you think Aurora would feel if she knew my child pronounced it "Sleeping Dooty". I personally could not stop laughing.

I say adventure is all "Relative"

2008-09-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

So your saying this isn't lotion. Well at least glue is easy clean up!

The tomato soup was soooo good she decided to share it with everything she came in contact with!

On the crawl!

So in case the world wasn't lazy enough these days, Isa discovered a new way to play with this toy while laying down!

Gone fishing with Grandma Christian and Wendy

Some day I will get to take a nap until then I will just catch everyone else taking theirs.

So Zoe is in gymnastics and she has a blast. They usually set up a little circuit for the girls to do everytime and Zoe can hardly contain herself. She does a really mean somersault and almost has the backwards one down!

Look what Grandma brought!!!

Mikes family came to visit us for a week. This was a pretty exciting moment for me considering the only visitors we have had have been right after one of the girls were born so we were determined to make the most of it. We went to the Zoo, splashdown (waterpark), bowling, toward the base and Mike's job, did the whole mall thing, planet pizza (our equivelant of chucky cheese though I think ours is better) and played lots of games. It was so fun to have visitors! Thanks for coming to visit Halls and Dooses!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

2008-09-12T19:29:00.001-07:00

That felt good! So this week has been so crazy I don't even want to go there but I will say this as soon as my husband returns from code change I am demanding a raise. I don't think I get paid enough for the shenanigans I dealt with today.

I am currently watching another little toddler evey day along with my two girls which has actually not been too bad but man these girls are just tornadoes. I am constantly going from one mess to the other (if I weren't OCD about a clean house it probably wouldn't make me crazy but tell that to my alter ego). The worst happened at about 4 pm. I was on the phone with some customer service dude for travelocity (who by the way only spoke arabic or something along those lines because I understood very little this man said so I was very frustrated)

In the background I can hear Zoe but nothing that she is doing is really registering. I had set these little glue bottles on the counter earlier when I gave the girls some craft stuff so they wouldn't play with them. Zoe had gotten ahold of them and thinking they were lotion just lathered her body. When I finally realize it I held all my frustration in (I should have thrown them away earlier) and just put her in the tub filled it with water and bubbles and then went to answer the door.

Enter Maddy's Grandma ready to pick her up. After chatting with her for a minute a birthday suit Zoe comes in to tell me she pooped in the potty (those who have potty trained know how exciting this is) So I ran in the bathroom with her to find a little poop in the toilet which is obviously not where it originated since I can see smeared poop all over the tub, toilet and floor. I immediately tell Lerri I need to go and she left me to clean up. I cleaned it all up removed toys to be disinfected showered Zoe and went off to make dinner.

While I made dinner Zoe had a peeing accident so we changed that. We ate tomato soup and grilled cheese (daddy's not home so we call this dinner right now) and Zoe spilt it the tomato soup all over herslef. So we cleaned that up. While I was cleaning up dinner the phone rang again so Zoe who was in the other room comes running in minus her clothing to hand me a phone with the whole roll of toilet paper wound around one hand with poop smeared all over it and herself. We immediately returned to the bathroom to find poop smeared all over the toilet again!
So thats how I ended up here. Seriously its days like these when I seriously consider going to work and making Mike be a stay at home dad. Mostly just becasue Misery loves company though!

To end I would just like to say "I have a dream that one day" Zoe will poop only int he potty!

The Next American Idol

2008-09-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

I hope you are all ready for Zoe's debut we are still recording her first album but here is a little preview! PS these are just a few of the songs we sing every night before bed!

New Photos of the Girls!

2008-09-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

Okay so we finally got some more pics done of the girls! I think they turned out pretty good considering everything that was going on that day! Unfortunately I have no Idea how to shrink the scanned file so I can put them on the blog. I am officially frustrated! Sorry folks I guess you only get to see the ones from Jen's studio!

Two Front Teeth!

2008-08-27T05:58:00.000-07:00

Well it has finally happened. Isa officially has two front teeth. She looks so cute with her little teeth sticking out. She is always playing with them with her tongue. She is sooooo dang cute!

Too many babes in this bed!!!

2008-08-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

When we were growing up I remeber this poem my mom used to tell us I believe it goes like this:

There are too many kids in this tub

Too many elbows to scrub

I just washed a behind

That I'm sure wasn't min

There are too many kids in this tub

It always made me laugh because it was soooooo true, we had 7 kids for 1 bathroom (which we never fought over while getting ready right Britt?!). We now have a similar situation in Zoe's bed. Here is the list of things she is currently insisting on taking to bed with her (These are really the names she has given them):

Baby

Baby Doll

Cabbage Patch

Dolphin

Swiper Airplane

Dora Pa-Pack

Ball

Cup

Red Blanky

Pink Blanky

This is not to mention the books she pulls into bed with her, her pillow, and her actual blankets that go on the bed! This kid cracks me up!

SLEEP AT LAST!!!!!

2008-08-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

BEFORE.....

AFTER...

So we conquered the task of remodeling our bedroom! Woohoo!!!!! It looks awesome and I can't believe we did it all in 2 1/2 days. So here is the story to go with it. While we were remodeling we obviously couldn't sleep in there so Mike slept on the couch and I slept in the extra bed in Zoe's room. It was pretty ridiculous because I would sneak in after she went to sleep everytime so she wouldn't know I was there and this is why. I was so exhausted at this point from all the remodeling late nights that in the middle of the night Zoe woke up several times (as usual) and instead of me trying to get her back to sleep I shushed her. It went a little something like this: Zoe "ahhhhhhhhh mommy mommy ahhhhhhh", Me "shhhhhhhhhhh" , Zoe "ahhhhhhhh mommy mommy ahhhhhhhhhhh" , Me "shhhhhhhhhhhhhh" (thats where it all went wrong), Zoe "Get out mommy! Get out right now mommy! Get out!" I finally left and hung out in the kitchen in the dark at 4 in the morning for thirty minutes until she went back to sleep! AHHHHH! Well luckily I am back in my bed and the universe is once again at peace! Here are the pics of our room let me know what you think!

Yes we're alive and kickin' (Thats for all you cheerleaders out there)

2008-08-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

So don't worry we did not fall off the face of the earth I have just felt so crazy busy the last couple of weeks. I finally have some time to recap and let you all know of what has occuppied our time! First off Isa. She is such a handful she rolls all over the place!

The North Dakota State Fair is held here in Minot so we made a day of it and enjoyed all of the festivities. They had a military appreciation day which gave us free lunch and some discounts on things so that was a lot of fun! They had a lady painting flags on kids at the lunch so naturally Zoe was all for that. We are as they say "Proud to Be an American"

Zoe got to go on a lot of rides and enjoy the heat. She had so much fun she was so upset when we told her that we were done for the day.

They also had a huge sand box for all the kids to play in with tons of toys, and a bubble machine that blew out hundreds of bubbles non stop all day.

Later that day Maddy came over and when she saw that Zoe was in the tub she couldn't wait to join her. They had so much fun I thought they were going to turn the whole bathroom into a tub!

Isa has turned into the funniest sleeper. We find her in all sorts of positions but here are a couple. My favorite part is that she put her paci in her mouth and that must have done the job because she is out cold!

Okay so we were a little late in the game at that whole kiddie pool thing but alas we finally got one! Zoe has a blast in it. We got her a cheap fishing pole at the dollar store and well all we ever hear is "I wanna wear my baby soup!" Don't worry that wasn't misspelled that is how she says it!

As some of you know I am now the big 26! I can't believe it myself but it is true. My birthday started out as just another day until I realized I had been slacking on my laundry and that it needed to get done so this is what I folded on my big day!

Mike threw me a birthday Luau and it was a ton of fun!! We had skewers of chicken and pineapple that were marinated and vegetable skewers that were marinated as well. All catered by none other than Mike himself. The food turned out really good and I think everyone had a lot of fun. Thanks to all those who were able to come. Mike and I have really been working out a lot check out the Abs on that guy!

Despite our requests our friends all came with presents which what can I say other than I was soooooo excited! This is a shout out to all those who came!

Mike got me an I-POD probably so I will stop stealing his. My mom also got me a double jogging stroller which I have been wanting for quite a while now. Its been so much fun because I have been able to take the girls roller blading everyday since I got it! Okay also as you can see in my picture that might be mistaken for Gisele I am modeling a beautiful hawaiian hat. Mike insisted that I wear this hat the whole night despite the fact that it didn't fit on my big head. So sad I know.

We have bee going to the Zoo a lot lately with our friends so here are some pics of that. Zoe and Maddy have so much fun together they just run, giggle, laugh and play the whole time!

Isa just enjoys being outside and as you can see she came for the stroller straps.

Last but not least check out these models. There favorite thing to do together now is to play dress up and do they ever dress up! I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Well so there you have it our crazy life for the past two weeks. Oh and also we are ready to paint the basement bedroom now and we have been out trying to pick out carpet. No pictures yet but I will post some when it is completely finished!

Tagged

2008-07-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

And the Tags go on. I have had quite a few tags lately which I really enjoy so here ya go!

1-What's your husband's full name? Mike – I am stealing Nikki’s response - No way I'm putting his full name on the Internet for some crack-pot to access.

2-How long have the two of you been together? We started dating March 2, 2004, got engaged August 14, 2004 and married December 18, 2004. So 4 ½ years according to that time line!

3-How long did you date? Long enough! Dating is over rated!

4-Who eats more? Hands down Mike. The man eats more than anyone I know! Seriously you know that friends episode where Joey is eating a sandwich before Thanksgiving dinner to stretch his stomach. That is Mike he always has a meal while I am preparing dinner!

5-Who said, "I love you, first?" I did to which I got no response. Keep in mind we were already engaged. Seriously people we started out with issues but look how far we’ve come. Needless to say there isn’t a day that goes by without him saying it now.

6-Who is taller? Mike by about 4 inches

7-Who sings better? Me of course because Mike refuses to sing even though I know he has a pretty decent voice. PS I am better than Barbara Nikki and I am sure you are too.

8-Who is smarter? Depends on the subject. Mike can learn anything he sets his mind to and is quite possibly the Jackest of all trades (I made that word up)

9-Who does the laundry? I do though Mike for some reason will help fold occasionally if it is late at night and he wants to do a different kind of laundry.

10-Who does the dishes? The crazy OCD lady that lives in our house. She even washes them before they go into the dishwasher!

11-Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? It depends on where we live. I am certain that I can have whichever side I want assuming that side is the one closest to the door so I can get the children in the midnight hours

12-Who pays the bills? Mike and he will never relinquish control. I think he thinks I don’t know how, which is exactly how I want to keep it!

13- Who mows the lawn? Whoever doesn’t carry the children for nine months its in our pre-nup

14-Who cooks dinner? I do because ketchup bread isn’t dinner to me

15-Who drives when you are together? It depends on how you look at it. Mike is in the drivers seat with me telling him how to do it the whole time. I will completely admit to my nagging in the car. I get really carsick

16-Who is more stubborn? Mike and I don’t want to hear another word about it!

17-Who kissed whom first? Mike kissed me of course. Hello who wouldn’t want to kiss me first

18-Who asked whom out first? I don’t know if you call “hey come over to my house and play risk tomorrow night” asking out but as you can see it led to great things!

19-Who proposed? Mike it went a little something like this “So I think we should get married what do you think?”

20-Who is more sensitive? Neither we are both to stubborn to be the sensitive one

21-Who has more friends? Mike, the man knows every person we see and they were all his best friend and one point or another.

22-Who has more siblings? Me, there are seven of us McGee’s gracing this earth

23-Who wears the pants in the family? We don’t wear pants in this family. Except that I do and he hasn’t realized it yet

Hey if you like this tag and you want me to read one about you (which I will) then I tag you!

WATER LOGGED!

2008-07-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

I didn't feel like the pictures of Isa drinking water did her justice, so we got it on video! PS just so you know we had worked on the basement all day. This explains the wendy's dinner in the video. This kid is hilarious

TAGGED

2008-07-07T15:11:00.001-07:00

I got tagged by Rochelle to #1 Get the closest book #2 Find pg. 123 #3 Find the 5th sentence #4 Post the 5th sentence #5 Tag 5 more people! Here it is. (This seriously was the closest book and cracks me up what I found. "If you want to use your bike to get fit, first you have to make sure you fit your bike." Are the bike gods trying to tell me something here? ... I tag ... Lori, Heather, Kelsie, Michele, and Britt.

THINGS I'VE LEARNED THIS WEEK!!!

2008-07-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

There are a number of things I learned about my family this week here are just a few caught by the camera!

This is Zoe's happy face for pictures!

Isa Loves to drink water from a glass!
You can never over accessorize (even if you are wearing knee pads with high heels)

Isa is on the move (what little freedom I had left will soon be gone and replaced with a rolling scooting busy baby)

One Word - Bumbo. Throw those happiest baby on the block books away ladies this is all you need No meal is complete without a muchkin. Seriously these things are awesome. What will they think of next!

Mike accomplishes a whole lot more when I am with him (I still dont quite get this because I hardly did anything compared to what he did so I will just say I must have been his motivation)

I am an expert holder! Seriously though we don't have any pictures of this but let me tell you I hold a mean two by four, sheet rock, two by four, hammer, two by four, tape measure, two by four, electrical box, two by four and cam light housing! It was actually a lot of fun to see so much progress done on the basement. Did I mention I held a lot of two by fours?

STRONG ENOUGH FOR A WOMAN, BUT PH BALANCE FOR ... ZOE!

2008-06-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who are thinking that my blog is turning into a praise my family blog it really isn't. Life just seems to be leading me to blog about these things going on in our lives. Little Miss Zoe has been having a few tests done at the Docs lately and can I say this girl really is fearless! They had to draw some blood from her so they brought an extra guy to help hold her down. They stuck her and she didn't even flinch! I tell ya, even when I get blood drawn I want to kick and scream the whole way and then of course cry (lets be honest sometimes I do cry). I even tell them not to tell me when they are going to do it. She did awesome they thought it was hilarious that she didn't even care. She thought the band aid was a sticker and well we were on our way. I love this little chicky so much! She makes me laugh every day. I don't think I could ask for a sweeter girl! Make sure to check out her Zoe ism's and you will see why I laugh so much with her. She sounds like the little shake n bake girl that says "It's shake n bake and I helped"

PRAISE TO MY MAN!!!!

2008-06-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

Well for days now I have been telling myself to write this post! I am certain that you all think that your husband is the best. I do not doubt that even some of you believe it but ... let me just say that you are wrong because that position has been filled by Mike. He is one awesome dude! This man can do it all. He is currently working about 70+ hours a week and taking classes to finish his masters which is another 12 hours on top of that. Some how with all this he still finds time to remodel our house! I knew this house was going to be a project but I never could have anticipated how tedious it was going to be! This week he cut out and installed an egress window in our basement (can you believe that! seriously crazy I know). He has never complained about it though. Despite my constant whining (and I asure you it is constant) he still has not complained about not having enough time in the day! He has turned out to be the jack of all trades. Many of you know that my man can move like a pro on any dance floor but he also knows how to fix pretty much anything on a house! In fact he has somehow turned into a neighborhood handyman! His best talent though has got to be his Daddy skills!
He is always having fun with the girls and making them laugh (No easy feat when you are exhausted). Zoe loves her daddy, even when she wakes up in the middle of the night she rarely cries for me it is usually "Daddy". Isa laughs so hard everytime he gets going with his silly giggles. She thinks he is so cool she can't help but smile everytime she sees him.
I love this man! I may complain sometimes (Cut a girl some slack I'm not the perfect one) but he treats me pretty good and I couldn't ask for more. Thanks babe for all you do I love ya!

2008-06-14T08:02:00.001-07:00

Isa is 6 months now so I thought I would do a post all about Isa. She had her Dr.'s appointment on Friday and we found out she weighs 19 pounds 4 ounces, is 26 1/2 inches long and well her head is still over the 100 percentile (what can I say I guess she gets that from me, according to the doc anyway)! She is such an awesome baby! We have so much fun with her. She is always happy loves and loves to giggle! Zoe can never seem to get enough of her. Wherever the baby is you will find Zoe also, especially if it means laying on the floor under a jungle gym! Isa is a great sleeper. All I do is wrap her up put her paci in her mouth and shut the door and the girl is out for the count! She loves to eat which is probably why she is a such a full figured woman. Here are some pics to help you see how far she has come!

So Long, Farewell

2008-06-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

Okay so I just have to start out by confessing something so ridiculous that I hope it gives you all a good laugh. I caught myself feeling something just now when I was preparing to update the blog. I was feeling guilt because i was about to move these pictures of the "most beautiful children ever" (I think that obviously because I am the mom and because its true, right?!?) to the next space down on the blog. They will no longer be at the top even though I am replacing them with more pictures. So then of course I had to give myself a little reality check. Hello I am seriously lame! I can't even believe that it brought a tear to my eye to do this. So if you find me checked into a mental institute for losing my mind you will all be witness as to how it all began...

Anyway so here is the scoop! Zoe has this little friend named Maddy. Her grandparents live down the street and she comes to visit every other weekend but for the last three weeks has been here the whole time. Zoe got so used to playing with her every day and going to the Zoo with her that now that she is back home my mornings go like this every morning:

me: "Hi there sweet pea did you sleep good?"

Zoe: "I wanna go see Maddy"

me: "Maddy went back home"

Zoe: "See animals, see maddy"

me: "Maddy isn't here but we can see the animals"

Zoe: "Seeeeeeeeee Maddy?"

me: "Maddy isn't here"

Zoe: "Seeeeeeeeee Maddy?"

Obviously it is a very intelligent conversation that only the educated would understand so I will summarize...ZOE MISSES MADDY! So here is our ode to there friendship.

LITTLE BIG GIRL!

2008-06-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

Its official, our little Isa is not so little anymore! She is growing by the minute and doing it with style I might add. She is now old enough to try out some new toys so this week we gave them a whirl. She absolutely loves them and I have found a new source of independence. Can I just say Sweet! I might actually get to catch up on my house now!

She also started eating solid foods this week and well for those of you who have gone through this phase you know that it can be a challenge. With Zoe we fought her to eat solids from the very beginning. I have been worried that this same thing would happen with Isa and thats when I realized. My life has been blessed! Thats right you heard me right! What is this blessing you ask, well the first time I fed Isa solids it was Carrots and she ate the whole jar without pausing and it has been this way ever since.

Now Ms Zoe this week has been as usual a handful. I think we are finally done taking naps and I have wanted to cry for two days because of this. The night time was becoming unbearable with her not going to sleep and waking up a million times (I know you think that is an exaggeration but I counted and its not) so the obvious solution to Mike was no nap. I must have been in denial because I am still not sure thats the way to go! She is of course still so dang cute so what can you do. we spent some time at a work picnic and she could not contain herself with all the excitement. thats all for now.

AHHHH THE LIFE OF SOMEONE ELSE!

2008-06-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

Okay so do you ever have those moments where you think man I wish that were me right now. This happens to me on fairly regular basis with my kids and Mike! I was busy in the kitchen making dinner and cleaning. The girls and Mike were in the living room trying to "stay out of my hair" (whatever that means, I just say that cause my mom used to). So here is the before and after photos of what I found. This was all while watching the Lion King. I slipped Isa out in the middle to eat and take a nap. Life must be rough! So the real question is how in the world when I battle Zoe all day to sit still and be good and then later to battle her to take a nap does Mike just waltz in and have this happen?! All I can say is at least someone in this family has the magic touch!

WE FINALLY GOT A PET!!!

2008-05-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

For way too long our family has been deprived of a pet. Many of you out there have tried to give one to my children or even worse Mike has even tried to force one on me. Well ladies and gents I have finally caved..........................We got a turtle and she shall be known as..........................ZOE!!!

Okay so not really a pet but the funniest thing she sits in the bumbo until it gets stuck on her legs and then she crawls around saying and I quote "LOOK MOMMY IM A TURTLE!"

Fun with the Family!!!

2008-05-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

So this will be an extremely long post from me but keep reading or else you too might have to live in Minot!!

So it got up to the high 70's one day so we decided to let Zoe play in the water. Mike took all this time setting up the slip and slide for about 4 slides of fun. I am fairly certain that it was more fun for us than her though because as you can see Mike had to throw her down the slip in slide in order for her to do it.

As for little Ms. Isa she is such a funny baby. I am sure all of you moms have seen this before as have I but............I am showing you anyway. Isa loves to play with her paci. The funniest thing though is when she flips it upside down in her mouth and continues to suck on it that way. As soon as you catch her she gets this big grin and pulls it out like I was being silly just for you!

Apparently I should command in all things. Just look what happens when daddy is left to do bath time for Zoe!

A friend of ours gave Zoe all of these old school stamps she had from when she was growing up. Of course they were all dried out but as any Scientifically minded person can tell you better yet as any person with any mind can tell you when dry ink gets wet..........All together now........Its wet again!!! Needless to say Zoe was dirtier when she came out than when she got in.

A&E'S NEW INTERVENTION

2008-05-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

Okay so I don't know if you all know about that show intervention (I have never watched it but seen the previews). Anyway I am going to be calling them for Mike. So here is the situation Mike loved to tease me and say I was addicted to blogging until the last week. Every night he has been at the computer leaving comments, snooping through others blogs for old friends and oh yes he has even asked to learn how to modify our blog. In fact just today I went to leave a comment on my girlfriends blog (Rochelle) when I realized we had already commented. And by "we" I mean Mike. Ladies and Gentlemen it is time for an INTERVENTION!

HALLELUJAH!!!

2008-05-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

Well its official and I know how much you have all been anticipating this announcement but.........................I am done nursing! I must say that I was just not genetically engineered to do it. After gaining 10lbs, waking up every 2 hours for 5 months, drinking 20 ounces of water every two hours, and taking reglan literally every day to keep my milk up we decided that in my case a happy healthy mom is a bottle feeding mom at least for now. I must say I kind of miss it and so did Isa at first but we are all now doing great! So this should actually be titled "Ode to All Moms Who Nurse"! I raise my hate to all you moms out there who know what I am talking about!

ITS BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

2008-05-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

Okay so yesterday it only got up to be about 37 degrees. We knew it was cold but never could have expected what happened next. This is what Mike woke up to when he went to work at 6:00 AM. Thats right 6 inches of snow on May 10th. It doesnt get much colder than this. So who wants to come visit?!?

CONFUSED BY THE SUN

2008-05-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

Alright, though it is warmer out side it is by no means summer. Today it got up to around 65-70 degrees. We are always excited when that happens. I decided to water the lawn and Zoe insisted that she had to go swimming because of it. "Go swimmin momma go swimmin." After many attempts at telling her it was too cold I just decided to let her figure that out on her own. Soooo...swimsuit and all she went head first into the sprinkler. It was the funniest thing that didn't last long. Indeed it was too cold and we went inside and took a nap but it was fun while it lasted!

Zoe got a stick pony from a garage sale and ever since has been running around with it between her legs saying "giyup". Its quite entertaining until she wants you to do it with her! Never thought I'd be riding stick ponies at 25!

The Grass Is Greener On Our Side

2008-05-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Well we have finally had a few days above 30 degrees so we thought we would take advantage and do a little cleanup. Mike got ambitious and aerated, through seed down and fertilized the lawn. If the grass isn't the greenest in the neighborhood I think he will be disappointed.

Zoe helped by watering the lawn after Mike was done. She had a blast which was evident by her mud soaked clothes.

Isa just hung out in the hood with momma and had a blast. I bet she's the cutest baby in a beanie you have ever seen!

Family photos

2008-04-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

Well we got family photos with Mike's fam when we went back to Utah in March. I don't look good in any of them. I keep telling myself I just had a baby but for some reason the pictures don't look any better after that. haha. Oh well the sacrifices we make for our little ones. I love the girls they look great in the photos. Especially the one of Zoe pouting in the cousin photo (I couldnt find it to add). Isa is as cute as ever with her big open mouth. I expect you all to now leave a comment and lie to me and tell me I dont look bad I loot great!

Priceless

2008-04-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

-Bunk Bed 200 dollars

-Mattress 100 dollars

-Bedding 50 dollars

-Sleeping on the floor with just your blanky and pillow PRICELESS!

Little Steam Roller

2008-04-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well its official our little chunker is on the move. She has rolled over now three times and I am certain this is only the beginning. It was a lot of fun to watch her to struggle and then finally accomplish it. She was so excited when she finally rolled over!!

I Pity The Fool!

2008-04-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

So here is my woe is me statement. This weekend we had stake conference in Bismarck (for all the non LDS people that is a more general meeting of church with more people from surrounding cities). Anyway Mike was obviously supposed to come with me because we were staying Saturday night and coming home Sunday. Wouldn't ya know it at 4:00 in the morning on Saturday Mike got a call that someone had base in his squadron had just gotten a DUI and they all had to report in by 5:30 AM. When he got there he was informed that they would not be able to leave the local area or drink (we dont) until otherwise told. Lucky for me I trucked two kids to Bismarck without my husband and it was a lot of work. So now you must be wondering why I love the military ... and the answer is ... ME TOO!! I still love them but I don't have to like them right now! haha. Welp I guess I better get used to them changing our schedule at a moments notice because its sure to happen again.