Memorial Weekend

We decided to go camping for Memorial Weekend. We were too late to go to Zion but started to look around at other options. A few months ago I had hooked up with my cousin using Facebook - which is the best way to find people! Well, I decided to ask if we could come and visit over the long weekend. She lives in Pinetop Arizona and I thought it would be an adventure. She was up for the chaos. As the week started out we were watching the weather get worse and worse. Cherilyn called on Thursday to tell me it had dumped rain all day. UGH. Is there anything worse than camping in the rain for 3 days? Scott was determined to go so here we go....

The kids were okay, things were cramped but everybody was in. We survived the Hoover Dam... with delays as usual. The bridge they are building is quite impressive - and frightening. Can you imaging driving that far above the gorge?

Cherilyn, David and their 5 kids went camping with us on Friday night. We spent Saturday hiking around, catching up around the fire and taking rides on the funnest toy ever. Eliza couldn't get enough of it and poor Cherilyn was forced to take her out.

Family is great! You can miss each other for 10 years and meet up and its like time stood still. The girls had fun with their new friends. And guess what - no rain until we were in our tent on Saturday night. Here is the georgeous area we camped in. It was so nice and the weather was perfect.

Emily found another great toy...poor thing was about dead by the time the kids got done with it.

Jenna doesn't look like she was having fun at all! Here's the whole fam! We really did have a blast. The girls were so happy and dirty!

Jenna cuddled up with the rock for quite some time. She'd pet it and talk to it and want me to give it a little love...um, no thanks.

Here's my sweet cousin who put up with our craziness for 3 days!

And what camping trip would be complete without the potty making its way home for the next trip!

Thanks for a great weekend Halls Family! We had a blast!

Memorial Weekend - Part II

As if the weekend couldn't get better it did...it was actually at the beginning but it made for fun throughout the weekend. As we pulled into Pinetop we were meeting Cherilyn's husband at the third circle K. Yes, directions are in the number of circle K you passed. We were just hanging out when David pulled in. I met him a long time ago... the details are quite fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure I did. Anyway, Scott looks over and says, "I know this guy." Sure enough he had served in their ward in Cleveland while on his mission.

They even carved Halloween pumpkins together. Who knew! The world just got a bit smaller!

I'm lovin this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fhallsfamily%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded

Why Giving Matters

I really enjoyed this talk. It is about 35 minutes but well worth it! Thanks to my brother Bryce for finding it.

http://www.byub.org/talks/Talk.aspx?id=2998

What Can I Say... I'm Trying

So I decided it was time...time to take control. Scott was in full support a few months ago when I decided I would join Weight Watchers after I had James. I had planned on waiting until Scott was out of school but good grief - enough fat already. I joined two weeks ago... It is a really good program. One really hard part for me is that I really enjoy baking. The best time for me to do it is in the afternoon when I'm not in a hurry. I love trying new recipes and sharing them with Scott. But, Scott isn't around in the afternoon, so I felt obligated to eat most of it. This habit had to stop. I have gone from baking all sorts of sweets in the afternoon to cleaning and scrubbing more. My scrapbook is actually caught up through James' blessing and my desk is 80% clean (I'm sure the other 20% will never be clean!). I have stopped a lot of bad habits and replaced them with better ones. I have learned good eating habits and portions! It's a great help for me and I have really enjoyed it. However, Scott threw a wrench into the plan.
We have lived without cable for almost two years. As a reward for surviving the year of school Scott decided to sign up for the summer months so he can relax a bit more. I'm not particularly thrilled about the idea but he doesn't ask for too much so we got it. Now, one channel that I have always loved is the food channel. I love watching the cooks throw together meals so quickly with a smile on their face. I'd like to see them do it so cheerfully with three kids...that's beside the point. I do love getting ideas from them though. However, the problem is I can't make 90% of the recipes any more. Paula Dean is a frightening thing to watch with my new perspective. "Just add another stick of butter!" "Here's a glob of mayonnaise...stir in a bit of melted butter...pour it over some pasta...top with cheese!" Good grief! I could eat all my "points" in one meal with her around.
Now I watch the food network with new understanding...those meals are for special occasions. I still love to bake and just hope to do it less frequently with better recipes when I do. Hopefully the whole plan will have positive affects.

James Connor Leavitt - 2 months

How great is this kid! He is sleeping through the night, is an angel most of the day and can handle being aroun his sisters. Really, he's great! Yesterday we took him the the DR and he is healthy too. He is a whopping 13lbs 14 oz! He's gained almost 5 lbs since birth! He's huge!

Life with Jenna

I'm not sure where to start with this. Jenna is quite a busy little girl. Last Sunday I was talking to my sister on the phone. I hear this little "tink, tink, tink" out the back door. I instantly knew it was Jenna...somewhere, doing something. I ran upstairs and threw the phone on the bed before I got to Jenna. She was standing in my window with the shutter open and screen pushed out. She was pulling off the stucko from around the window and throwing it down. Thank goodness it was hitting the AC or I would have never known. I was so sick to my stomach seeing how close she was to going out the window. I do keep a close eye on her but in reading the next stories you may think I'm a little unobservant but trust me, she's just busy.

Yesterday I heard James starting to wake up from a nap. He was just sitting in the living room in his little bouncer chair. Eliza came in and said, "mom, Jenna kicked James out of his chair." I didn't hear him screaming so asked Eliza if he was on the floor...she said yes. I go out there and there he is laying on the floor. Yup, Jenna had kicked him out of the chair. She likes to lay under it and put her feet on his back. Usually she doesn't push that hard...good thing he's a good baby and a big boy!

Today Jenna decided she didn't want to get out of the shower. I told her James was crying and she needed to get out. I gave her the option to stay in the shower and be cold or to let me help her out. She decided to stay. I was only gone a few minutes getting James changed...Jenna was MAD at me. Decision making skills are not part of a two year olds understanding. We'll work on that.

I also decided to take them all to the library. Shoot me please! We made it into the library and picked up my hold and made it upstairs to the kids area pretty well. Things were going so well I decided to stick around for story time. All four of us happily went into the story room. Eliza had met a little girl in line and was thrilled to sit with her instead of me. Jenna wandered between me and Eliza until the last book which was about a cat. I should have left right there. Jenna stood directly in front of the lady reading. Then she pulled out a stuffed cat. All the kids just looked at it except Jenna. She wanted it - BAD! She stood there and looked at the cat on the table trying to figure out how much she could do with it. I was quite far away from her so couldn't do anything to help her. The lady had already taken the cat away from her then Jenna decided she really needed it. She pulled the table over, which had pictures and a container of water. Thankfully there weren't any kids in the way and even Jenna moved enough to miss her toes. She was a little more willing to sit with me then and we made it through the rest of the book.

As we were ready to get on the elevator a girl grabbed me and introduced herself. I haven't seen her for 5 years... anyway, I was a little distracted and kids were getting on the elevator. The doors started to shut and I was plugging up the entrance for other moms to get on... thankfully one of the moms was quick thinking and started pushing the button until it opened again. I got on, should have apologized to the other mom but was trying to hide under the stroller, and made it to checkout.

Our library has gone self-serve on this little deal. Why? Because someone in charge has never brought a two year old to the library! I need help! I was swiping the books and turn around and no Jenna. I yelled, yes yelled in the library. The lady behind me asked if the little girls at the top of the stairs was her. Yup, who else. At that point I left James and Eliza to manage the stroller and got Jenna. I strapped her into the stroller, which she didn't like, and managed to finish checking out. She did manage to pull a sign down while we were doing that, but that was fixed quickly.

She is a sweet little thing, just busy. Oh, yesterday she also decided to give her three dollies a bath. I didn't think too much about it and gave her a towel to dry them off and went on my way. About an hour later I went into the bathroom and realized she bathed them in the toilet. I just caught her doing it again in Maggies water. Really, it never ends with her.