Halliday Parte

One Month Old

2011-01-15T15:41:00.001-08:00

So Reese is offically 1 month old!!! Where does the time go? I don't really know because I am kinda in a dream world of sleeplessness. But I do love this time of sweetness, where you can make them cuddle with you and you can kiss their cubby, soft cheeks and they can't pull away.

Aww, getting a few hours of relaxing sleep. Doesn't she look comfy?

All the Hall kiddos. I ventured out to the grocery store with all three of them the other day and it was the first time I felt like, whoa, our family is getting kinda big. Myk and I are now out numbered and I think i will be doing most of my grocery shopping at 9:00 pm. Welcome to the world of three kids, right?

Reeses Pieces

2010-12-18T15:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some post hospital pictures that are always a little cuter since the swelling goes down and you can see a bit more what they look like. What do you think, does she look more like Talmage or Elle?

Proud Brother of yet another sister that he is just very cute with. He loves babies.

She finally has her real live doll. Lets hope she doesn't hold her like one of hers!!!

Giving loves!!

Bundle o' Joy

2010-12-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

We would like to welcome our little bundle of Joy for the holidays!!!

Reese Noelle Hall

December 14, 2010 7:10 pm

6 lbs 12 oz 20 1/2 inches

She has had a warm welcome from Talmage and Elle. They love her to pieces!! I am not going to lie and say there are no jealousy issues with Elle. She is never mean to Reese, but she is just fighting for some attention that she has never really had to share since she is Elle!! But she is always kissing and loving her!!

I also need to thank ALL the MANY friends and family that helped us out during our time in the hospital and after to take care of our children. I know that there were many sacrifices made and things changed to help us out and i know that our kids were loved and cared for the whole time!! We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family in our life. So THANK YOU!!!!

What Will It Be?!?!?!?

2010-08-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the big, big day. It is one of my favorite days during pregnancy because I can finally stop calling my baby, "baby" or "it" and actually refer to the baby as a boy or a girl!!! And for some reason, once i know, the baby seems so much more real. So what do you think? Will I be spending an extra 20 seconds or 20 minutes doing hair on Sunday mornings? Will i be spending $100 or $200 every time it comes to clothing a child for the new season??

Well, i better wake up a few minutes earlier and myk better get a little raise because we are going to have................................................

A Little GIRL!!!!!

Whoo hoo!! and we are actually really lucky with the clothes situation because she will be born in December just like Elle, so we shouldn't have to buy too many new clothes (just really cute ones!!) In fact, according to the ultrasound today, the due date is December 25!!! But i am pretty positive we will be having her before then!!!!

here's a little recap of how each child responded

Elle: (jumping up and down in elle like fashion, and shouting in her elle bell voice that is very distinct) "I have a baby sister. yeah, baby sister. Sister, sister sister."

Talmage: (right in the ultrasound room) "Ahh, I thought it was going to be a boy!! Why isn't it a boy, i wanted it to be a boy!

We had a little chat as we were walking out of the doctors office and he asked
"Why isn't it a boy mom?"
Me: "Well, Heavenly Father knows that we need to have a girl next in our home and so he sent a girl. And it will be great to be the older brother of 2 girls. You get to watch out for them and protect them!"

Talmage: (thinking) "Ok, but Jesus will send us a brother next time, right?"

Me: "Hopefully"

Basement Now Open for Vistors!!!

2010-07-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

Well, we are finally done with this big project that we started oh so many years ago!!! We got carpet in the beginning of June, just in time for the hot summer and we LOVE going down stairs to cool off!! So here is a tour of the finished project (except the bathroom, Talmage keeps reminding us).

Above and below are two different angles of the family room. We have to put a back panel on the entertainment box still so you won't see into our storage room!!

The hallway, not much else to write about a hallway!!

This is our work in progress bathroom. We have to put in a toilet and a vanity type thing and put in the baseboards. So yes, we still have so work to do, but if you really had to go, just use the tub!!! Just joking, please don't!

Yeah for the toy room!!! We absolutely LOVE having a place for the toys DOWNSTAIRS to keep the upstairs from having less clutter. whoo hoo!!! Don't worry it is really never this clean, i hurried and took the picture right after i cleaned it up.

Go Cougars!! This is T-Dawgs room in BYU blue. We still need to decorate it with some choice cougar gear, but all in due time and money!!

And this my friend is our summer get away room to beat the heat and it is also where any of our MANY family and friends that live out of state can come and visit us!!! Grandma Vehar and Chris and Kim have already enjoyed it, so please do the same!!!

Crusin' it Up, Baby!!!

2010-04-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

Where do I even begin?!?! We decided to go on a cruise about a year ago when Jake started talking to Myk about going. When Myk came home and actually sounded interested, I was knew we had to take action so that Myk would still be on board!!! Needless to say, we sailed out on February 28th from New Orleans with our good friends, the Raymonds, to the Western Caribbean. Here we are on our ship with the New Orleans Skyline behind us ready to set sail! I was squinting so hard because we came from Utah in February, so the Sun was a little too much for me apparently!!! I actually am horrible at keeping my eyes open in pictures!

Our first stop was Costa Maya, Mexico. That day we spent relaxing on the beach in the morning and then we went snorkeling in the afternoon. We had an awesome guide who took us out on his boat to some reefs farther from the beach. He found a sting ray hiding down in the ocean floor that he scared out so we could see it!!! It was such an amazing experience!!!

Mandy and I chillin' at the beach, enjoying our virgin strawberry daiquiris (i don't know if i even spelt that right?)
Don't look at the kissing!!!! This is what happens when you go on a cruise together!! everyone should try it sometime!

This is the only picture that we have of the outside of the boat. It was fun to eat what ever we wanted and just relax. There are not many times in everyday life when you can just sit back and relax. it was much needed.

Our next stop was Santo De Castilla, Guatemala. This was such an amazing beautiful place. It wasn't a tropical beachy place, but it had big mountains just covered with lust green jungle plants. So this day we went and saw some Mayan ruins. It was a 1 1/2 hour bus drive through the country and i actually loved just lookin out the window at the amazing scenery and culture. it was actually a very humbling experience to see the conditions that they lived in and how much i take for granted. We are so very blessed to live where and how we live.

Just one of the many ruins that we saw.

This is a little friend that we found just walking among the same grass we were walking in around the ruins!!!! AHHHHH, was all i had to say about that. My stomach is churning right now just thinking about it! I walked around the rest of the tour looking at the ground so i wouldn't have another one of these near my feet!

The Raymonds and me hiking up the ruin steps. Pretty amazing that they could build all of this back then!

The next port was Belize. This was one of the funnest days we had. We decided to go cave tubing and then zip lining. We had to take a drive up to the mountain/jungle. Then we got to hike through the jungle for about 45 minutes. It was really cool to see everything i get to watch on national geographic and nature shows!!! (i know i am a nerd, but i love to watch it!!) Any way, we made it to the start of the cave system that has a river flowing through it and we got on our tubes and turned on our flashlight. Our tour guide was so funny and fun. He would disappear under the water and then pop up right by the side of someones tube to scare them. It worked, i screamed like child when he did it to me!

This is us after the tubing, we didn't have a waterproof camera to take pictures of the actual tubing, but it was such an amazing experience!!

This was the other part of our day in Belize. We got to go zip lining. Woo, what an adrenaline rush!!

So for our last port, we were in Cozumel, Mexico. i unfortunately did not get any pictures there because we were in the water most of the time. We got to go and swim with the dolphins. That was a once in a lifetime experience!!! We got to give the dolphin a hug, the dolphin kissed us and we got to shake it's fin. Then we got to be pulled by two of them as we held onto their dorsal fins. Finally, (this was the coolest part) the two dolphins used their noses to push on the bottom of your feet and push us up out of the water for a little ride. It was SICK!!!

The entire trip was so much fun and something i will always remember because i had so many things that i did for the first time!!!

We're Almost There!!!!!

2010-02-17T21:05:00.000-08:00

Well, we have found one way to make the winter seem like it is flying by. Finishing our basement. It has been quite the fun project and why i have not even been on the computer for weeks. We are getting so, so close to being done and we can't wait. We took these pictures saturday morning before we started primeing all the raw wood and now we are ready to go to town painting. Whoo hooo!!!

Here is T-Dawg helping us prime the closet shelves. He is our good little helper!!! He decided to put both hands on the paint lid so this was the result. And, if you notice, he has a bit of it in his hair, which is totally my fault, i wasn't watching where i was waving my brush. The problem is it is not washing out of his hair very well, so if you look closely on the left side of his head, he still has white paint in his hair, whoops!!

And this is a random picture of our teenagers that still like to dress up like superheros and princesses. I just have to chuckle a little in my heart when i see them sitting there listening to the $10 MP3 player, jammin' out to music. I think "wait a minute, aren't you only 4 and 2, not 14 and 12. " And then it makes me sad because that is only 10 years away and it goes so fast!

You've Had a Birthday Elle Bell!!!

2010-01-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, our spunkie little Elle Bell turned 2 years old about a month ago (december 7). Sorry for the lateness of the post but better late then never!! What do i say about our cute little girl. First of all, life would for sure have less to smile and laugh about without you!! You are so full of fun and curiosity. You love to follow me around and do everything i do. Which is such a great help. You dance whenever you hear music and you request song all the time by doing the motions of the songs (snowman, duckies, froggies, ect) so that we sing them to you. You are such a happy and fun little girl and our family is so blessed to have you be a part of it.

Grandpa and Grandma Hall came down to celebrate with us and they brought another birthday girl, Grandma Boheme (and Grandpa Boheme). It is fun for elle to share a birthday with our dear Grandma Boheme. We were so excited to have them and some good family friends to celebrate with. Here are a few cute pictures of the birthday girls cuddling on the couch and then in front of the birthday cake.

She LOVED her birthday cake.

Opening one of the many presents she got!! she loved them all so thank you everyone!!

Another attempt at making a fun birthday cake for elle. Luckily found a really easy recipe for a butterfly cake. I must have impressed talmage because he informed me that he wants me to make a bumblebee transformer cake for his birthday!! i may be calling on the expertise of the Smith's bakery for that one because i am not going to try to tackle that!! Some things should be left to the professionals!

He did have a good point!

2010-01-06T14:16:00.000-08:00

So, myk and i have been working on finishing our basement in full force lately, so you can imagine what our kids have been up to just running a muck upstairs. I had to share a funny thing that happened while we were downstairs working. First of all, talmage loves it because then he thinks he is the boss of elle because he is "watching" her. So he sends her to timeout if she doesn't obey him or whatever. But the other day, i heard her crying, so i asked talmage to come here and here is how the conversation went.....

ME: What happened talmage? Why is Elle crying?

Talmage: I hit Elle

Me: Why did you hit her?

Talmage: Well, I asked her, "Elle do you want me to hit you?" And she said YES, she should have SAID NO, but she said Yes!

What was i supposed to say to that? And of course i could not hide my laughing but after i composed myself, i of course had to explain how elle is little and doesn't understand!!

But i guess i couldn't get too mad at him because she did say YES!

Family Pictures

2009-11-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

We have to give a shout out to our good friend Mike Bird who agreed to take our family pictures. As you will see, he did such an amazing job and we are so, so greatful for all the time he took to do these for us! These are just a few of the wonderful shots he took. Thanks again!

SPoooKy Times

2009-11-02T22:19:00.000-08:00

Whoo hoo for Halloween!!! Halloween becomes so much fun when you have kids. #1 because you get to raid their candy bags and eat all the good candy bars cause they really just want the dum dums and pixie stix. #2 They get so excited and i love it. (#2 is really number 1. i really am a good mom)

Talmage is lovin' Transformers right now, so naturally he wanted to be Bumblebee. He is his favorite transformer and for the last 2 months, his favorite color changed from blue to lellow (yellow). He wants yellow everything!
I was happy to bring this little treasure out of the costume box for elle to wear this year (i made this for talmage to wear when he was 1 1/2). I figure you only really have 2 years of each childs life as a mom to choose your kids costumes, so take advantage of it while you can. She does make the cutest tube of toothpaste i've ever seen and she learned very quickly how to say trick or treat. who wouldn't when you get free treats for it.

Talmage and his buddy Porter LOVE to play transformers, and Porter is always Optimus Prime and Talmage is Bumble bee. They have been so excited to dress up as them for Halloween and they were trying to convince Mike (porter's dad) to dress up as Megatron so they could fight him. They came to the trunk or treat with us so the two could fight the Decepticons together!

Myk and i were invited to a very fun Halloween party put on by the Craney's and the Bennetts. You were supposted to disguise yourself so that people would have to guess who the person was under the costume. Myk was the creative one and decided to make a robot costume. I was amazed at the way his mind thinks. He used everything we had around the house to make all the different details of his costume. He is just so creative. I did, however, have the song "Mr. Roboto" from Styx stuck in my head the whole week he was working on it. What a fun song.
oh, and i was a cave woman. We had fun ratting my hair and putting leaves in it. We also blacked out some teeth and put brown face paint all over to make me look dirty. I'm sure you could imagine my excitment to brush out my hair that night!! Ouch!

St.George Marathon

2009-11-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

So i have always a goal in life to run a full marathon. I have had the opportunity to run a few half marathons and at the end of each i think, there is no way i could turn around and run another 13 miles. At any rate, i was not plannning on running one at this point in my life because i know that it takes alot of time and i was just not ready to take that much time to train. Well, my friend and her friend got into to the St.George Marathon(which is a lottery to get into). Her friend got pregnant and couldn't run. So, needless to say i ended up buying her registration and running under her name.

This is somewhere in the middle of the run. We forgot to grab the camera, so these are just what i could download from the sight. They are a little small, but it's kinda better the way cause who really likes the way they look when they run?

The finish line is in sight!!! I heard that sometimes your emotions can get out of wack during a marathon and i have to say my emotions got the best of me. It first started at mile 23 when I came out of the canyon and all of the sudden the streets were just lined with people cheering everyone on. I started to cry but then i couldn't breath very well, so i had to control myself. The next couple miles seemed to go on forever because i kept thinking, "ok, i only have 2 more miles, 2 miles is nothing, the finish line is so close." After the longest 2 miles, i saw my wonderful, supportive husband and the finish line at the same time, and then i lost it. It was such an amazing experience and i am so glad that i did it!!

Whoo hoo, i am finally done!! and yes, that is a smile on my face because i am so happy to cross the finish line and for some strange reason i remember thinking, "that was so fun, i have to try it again."
I must say that i really did love the course of the marathon also. It was so beautiful and perfect running weather. The only bummer is that there were quite a few crazy hills and alot of rolling hills the first 18ish miles but the last bit was great!

He's a Soccer Maniac

2009-11-02T19:44:00.000-08:00

So Talmage played his first season of soccer this fall. He was so excited to play and i must admit, i was soooooo excited/sad to realize that i have a kid old enough to play in an organized sport. Myk was lucky enough to be the coach of the team and i must say, i was quite proud of how well he handled himself with his competitive nature. He did great. And talmage, well, we are hoping that maybe next season he will get into knowing how the game works and actually trying to be aggresive and get the ball. If that fails, at least through the experience i found out that he may be more interested in wrestling because he was the one on the opposite end of the field, wrestling another kid. It was entertaining to say the least.

Can I Get a What, What?

2009-10-06T20:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, i know you are all jealous of that title, but i just couldn't get that phrase out of my mind as i was thinking about what to title this. So there you go.
We have been out of the internet world for months now, and it has actually been kinda nice. But i have missed seeing all of my families and friends blogs. So sorry i have not been commenting on anyones in the last 6 months.

Here is an update on what we've been up to since Easter.
(note: these are chronologically backwards because i can't get the pictures to move at all.)

Doin' a little jig for the first day of preschool this fall.

ELLE, need i say more? I can't remember what she got into, but she enjoyed it. and i am sure i did her hair earlier that day, but you can't tell cause she pulls it out any chance she gets. Actually, chances are i didn't do it cause what's the point? She makes me laugh.

I had to throw these painting pictures in here again to show how completely different two children can be coming from the same parents. Notice, talmage is showing his one litte area on his body that he got paint on (whoo wee, his finger of all places). And then there is elle, she proudly displays that there is not a spot left that does not have paint on it. I love having both personalities because i don 't have to clean up so much after talmage, but i love elle's spunk.

Talmage graduating from Barneck Preschool in May. He had so much fun there and met some good friends.

Now that Talmage is almost 4 1/2 years old now, i thought i should show some pictures from his 4th birthday. He was going through a spiderman and batman phase, so i thought i'd join the "make an awesome cake that actually looks like something besides just frosting a regular cake" mom's club. I don't know if i'll ever do it again, but i can say i tried it once. It acutally was really fun and they are really just big cupcake things, so it was alot easier then doing a real spiderman cake. My dear friend Heidi helped with the whole presentation of it all, as you can tell. She is an amazing women and has such great talents in all the areas that i lack. Needless to say, Talmage LOVED it and because of that, i probably will try it again sometime.

Well, we actually did a lot more than that this summer, but i forgot to take my camera everywhere we went, so sorry, no pictures. But we did spend MANY fun weekends up at the cabin this summer with family and friends. We got to go camping, swimming, waterskiing, and had a ton o' fun playing with friends. Over all, fun was had by everyone and we partied hard baby!!!!

Summer Part I

2009-09-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

We have had a crazy/fun summer and so we thought we would post a few pictures of our fun. Be prepared, there will be more to come soon!!!

Here are Elle and Talmage helping plant the garden.

These are of Talmage and Elle experiencing the joy of sidewalk paint.

A couple of pictures from James and Melony's wedding.

Easter 2009

2009-04-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love Easter? We had a very busy/fun Easter weekend. On Saturday, we were able to head up to Grandma and Grandpa Hall's house for Melony's (James's fiance) bridal shower. We were also able to dye eggs and have the big Hall family easter egg hunt. I think there were something like 150 eggs to find and it is quite the competition between the brothers. Luckily i was with elle, so we were going at her pace, nice and slow. We came back sunday for church and meetings and then had our own little easter egg hunt around our house. Then we headed back up to Myk's parents house to spend time with the family. It was so much fun spending time with family. We love all of you!!!

Here are the cute little chillin's before church. We were trying to get elle to smile so i was saying, "yea, yea" and smiling, but i forgot she always claps when we say that, but it did get her to smile and to be excited about it.

This is our exciting easter egg hunt around the house. I was so suprised at how much elle got into it. Right after we were done finding eggs, she got down on her belly and was looking under the couch for more, it was funny. She also loved when one egg popped open during the hunt and she found the little treasures inside. She just kept trying to open the eggs.

Talmage was the master at finding eggs. He was also so good about leaving some for elle to find. He is just at such a fun stage with holidays right now. Its so much fun to see your kids get so excited about everything!!!

It's a March 27th Miracle

2009-03-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it really been two months since i've posted? That's why it's a miracle that i am acutally doing this. So here is an update on what we've been up to the last little bit. Actually, it's just what we've taken pictures of, so it's not a bunch of big events, but just little fun things here and there.

T-Dawg got to go sledding with Myk one saturday afternoon while elle was sleeping. Myk decided to let him go down by himself, but he also went off a little jump and ended up crashing and scrapeing his face on the icey snow. He had some pretty cool battle wounds to show off to the girls to prove how hard core he is, because your not hard core, unless you sled hard core.

Valentines Day

What a fun little holiday for the kiddos. Talmage of course had a valentines day party at preschool and still loves to look at all the valentines and ask who they are from. Then we got to have another valentines party with some friends. The kids got to play a candy walk game and decorate some cookies, which apparently talmage takes very seriously, note the tounge out for concentration purposes.

Elle and her Hat
This is pretty much Elle to a "T" these days. She LOVES to get in my plastic tupperware cupboard and put containers on her head. Its funny because most kids at this age rip anything that is put on there head off, but she just puts these on and then goes about her business playing and such. She is so funny.

Sunday Afternoons

Yip skip, we have 9:00 am church!! Myk and I love having church in the morning and then having the rest of the afternoon to be together as a family. It's also the perfect opportunity to make a delicious special treat for the fam. The only problem, which you can witness below, is Myk starts to get creative and likes have a little fun with the kids. He is the one who put the brownie mix all over elle's face and then later makes her look like a little goon/elf girl with her hood on and her pants pulled up over her jacket. Once again, poor little defenseless elle. (I must admit, they do make for good pictures so i guess it's ok.)

Tim Tam Slam

Mmmm, is all I have to say about this little ritual from Australia. So Myk served his mission in Australia and a friend from there sent him some of these Tim Tams (Thanks so much Karlene, you're a gem!!). So heres how the Tim Tam slam rolls. Tim Tams are chocolate covered chocolate cookie (kinda wafer/creamy on the inside) so what you do is bite one corner off of each end of the cookie. Then you place one end of the cookie in hot chocolate and the other in your mouth and use the cookie as a straw to suck the hot chocolate up. But then you can feel the cookie start to fall apart, so you have to manuver the cookie up into your mouth, without using your hands and let the deliciousness melt in your mouth. It is amazingly delicious. Now, I am telling you, I am a chocolate lover, but i could only handle doing 3 of these, because part of the slam is drinking all the hot chocolate after that. Myk is the man because one time on his mission he did the entire package, which is 11 cookies and then drank the hot chocolate. Wow, I would've been sick.

#4 Picture Tag

2009-01-29T20:07:00.001-08:00

So I was tagged by my sweet sister-in-law Maria. This is the way the tag works, you are supposted to post your 4th picture in your 4th file and then explain about it. Well, I was relieved to see this cute little picture pop up, because there are some very embarrasing pregnant photos floating around in my files. This is one of my favorite pictures of T-Dawg. He was young enough that he didn't have a say in what he was being for Halloween, so Myk wanted him to be a tube of toothpaste. It was super easy to make, I just got a pillow case, cut some holes for the head and arms and then wrote Crest on it. What you can't see is above the Crest sign, it's written "travel size" He was so dang cute in it and don't be suprised when you see Elle in it this year. Our kids are gonna love us!!

The 4 people I tag are: Cheree L., Misty B., Casey V., Katie H.

Christmas in AZ

2009-01-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

So we sucessfully made the trip down to Arizona, to my parents house, for Christmas. We were a little nervous with all the snow we've been getting and we weren't sure how the children would handle the 12 hour drive down there, but both conditions turned out amazingly well. We rolled into my parent's house on Christmas Eve at about 1:00 pm. We have the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve, which is always pj's. So this is our family plus my cute little niece Kammy, in our christmas pjs.

This year we got to spend Christmas with Ryan and Shannon's family, Spencer and Casey's family and of course my parents. With all the little ones, my Dad read the story of Christ's birth as the kids acted it out. Talmage got to be a wiseman and elle was a lamb. She was obviously one of the lost sheep cause she kept wandering off. Afterwards we sang some good christmas songs as a family. This is always my favorite part of Christmas because the scriptures and music always bring the spirit and helps me remember my Savior and His humble birth and life here on earth.

This is Christmas morning. We dug into our stockings first and then tackeled the presents. Talmage loved every minute of it. Elle, of course, just liked to go around on climb on the boxes and play with the paper. It was fun.

It was fun this year cause I got to get Elle her first little dolly and stroller. She still doesn't really play with the doll but she likes to push her stroller around.

So on our Saturday night in Arizona, we went to a fun little train park they have in Scottsdale. We had so much fun on the ride. There were all sorts of lights, big blow up things and tunnels with lights. Talmage loved it. I know we look all crazy bundled up in our winter things in Arizona, but it really does get pretty cold at night. It was rainy a couple of days we were there, but the last couple of days were beautiful (in the low 70's) so we got to go to the park and Talmage got to ride his bike he got for Christmas. This was just one of the fun things they had at this park. I must say my kiddos are cute.

They also had a Carolsel at this park. The metal polls were freezing and the metal horses froze our behinds!!! But hey, the kids loved it!

And lastly, we have the tradition of making gingerbread houses with my family at Christmas time. It was really fun for talmage cause he got to help us this year. I can't take much credit this year because I getting Elle ready for bed during most of the making of it. So Myk and Talmage did a great job. I think we like making the things around the house more than actually decorating the house.

We got home from Arizona on Tuesday night and then woke up the next morning to head up to Bear Lake with the Halls to celebrate New Years. We went from playing at the park in AZ to snowmobiling and sledding in Bear Lake. Kinda extreme!! Then we stayed up with myk's parents and Gavin and Katie playing games till 12:00 am to kiss, say "Happy New Year" and good night.

Overall, it was a crazy and eventful Holiday season, but I wouldn't have it any other way because I got to spend it with the people I love most and we made great memories. I am so greatful for the Christmas season to remember my Savior and the love He has for me and my family.

Happy Happy Birthday Elle Dear

2008-12-08T20:41:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been a full year since my baby was born. So Elle got to celebrate her birthday for 3 days. LUCKY!!! Saturday we went down to my bro, Tylor's house for his son, Andrew's baptism. Because my parents were in town from arizona, and more family was around, we had a little celebration with cake and icecream for her there. Then Sunday was her actual birthday and, well it was sunday so we didn't do much but wish her a happy birthday. Then on Monday, Mike's parents came down for dinner and another round of cake and icecream. So Elle got to go at a piece of cake 2 times. She poked at the frosting at first and then liked to crumble the cake and play with it. She had fun!!! She also had her 1 year check up today and she is still measuring tiny. She weighed 15 lbs 12 oz. Poor girl won't be turning around to a forward facing car seat till she's 18 months at the rate she is going. That's gotta be so boring staring at the back of the seat. So my doctor told me to feed her all the high calorie foods possible. once again, LUCKY!!! I wish my doctor ordered me to eat fatty, high calorie food cause I was too little. yeah, wait, that will never happen.

A Time for Graditude

2008-11-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take a minute and write the many things I have to be thankful for. I am doing this today cause I doubt I'll even turn the computer on tomorrow. So, I am thankful for.....

1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I consider myself so blessed to have been sent to this earth with a knowledge of this gospel. I am so thankful for the testimony of my Heavenly Father and His love for me. I know that He lives and that His greatest concern is His children and I am so thankful to feel of his love daily.

2. An amazing husband. What a blessing it is to have someone to share this life with. I was so lucky to meet and fall in love with such a tender, considerate, hardworking, compassionate, determined, fun, funny, guy. He makes my life happier and I am just so greatful that we have eternity together.

3. Two beautiful, healthy children. Sherri Dew once said something to the effect that in the preexsistence, when we women learned of our role as mother here on this earth, we were so grateful and humbled for the opportunity. I truly feel this way, to be blessed to bare and then teach and love my children has been one of my greatest blessings ever. Talmage is just so full of life and ready to learn. He is tender hearted and is such an obedient and good boy. Elle is a busy body and into everything, but is learning so much. She has a sweet spirit and is always ready to laugh.

4. Friends and Family. I am so grateful for the choice family I was able to grow up with. My parents were stricked, but that just showed how much they loved me. They taught me so many things, hard work, love, charity, how to be a good citizen. The list goes on and on. And I absolutley love all my brothers and sister. We had so much fun together, when we were not fighting. I was the youngest, and each one set an amazing example to follow, and a high standard to live up to, so thank you. I am also grateful for the great family I was blessed to marry into. I love my in-laws and absolutley love spending time with them. The are truly some of the most kind, christlike people that I know and I am so grateful to have them as my family.

Friends are such a blessing in my life. I have always been blessed to have been surrounded by such good friends who I was able to enjoy life with. I LOVE to have fun, and I just have to thank all my friends through the years who have made my life so much fun.

I know that I have recieved all of these wonderful blessings through my Heavenly Father.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Halloween, Halloween, What Does it Mean?

2008-11-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

Talmage and Elle on the front porch on Halloween night.The family at the trunk or treat

T-Dawg at the Pumpkin Walk

Elle and Aubrey at the pumpkin walk. Aubrey was so cute, she kept Elle entertained the whole time!!

So I am kinda late with posting these, but they are still cute, right? This years Halloween was so much fun. Talmage is at the great age of getting all excited over holidays and I love it!! We went to the Syracuse pumpkin walk the week before with the running crew. Then on Halloween, our ward had a trunk or treat. After the trunk or treat, I took T-Dawg out trick or treating just on our street. I figured he needed to have the door to door experience for the memories. Myk and I finally decided to dress up the night before Halloween. Talmage had been asking me all week, "What are you going to be for halloween mommy? I want to you be a witch." So my friend Mandy came to the rescue with a witch costume for me and a pirate costume for Myk. Needless to say, we were Talmage's heros. He loved it.

Quirks Tag

2008-10-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged!!! I am supposed to explain 6 quirks about myself. Pretty scary, but here goes

1. I am a spot-the-spider freak. I can enter a room and if there is a spider in it, I will see it. Seriously, my eyes are just drawn to the tiniest or biggest spider anywhere. It comes from being dealthly scared of spiders and if there is a spider spotted by me, you better believe that spider's life is over.

2. I wash my hands and my children's hands a million times a day. I am constantly thinking of the germs that could have gotten on them after the things we do during the day. I just get so grossed out at what could get spread throughout my house and into our bodies. So if you've ever noticed how cracked and bleedy my hands get in the winter, now you know why. I wash my hands probably way too much!!!

3. I am a workout fanatic. I am actually a little bit better then I used to be before I was married, but if you ask Myk, it's still bad. If I miss a day, I feel like a loser. I just love the way I feel during and after a workout. It's also my time to think about life and the things I need to get done.

4. Now this next one might shock of few of you. I have to have a special treat more than once a day. In fact, every couple hours of a day. Anyone that knows me knows that I have a horrible sweet tooth. I try to make a goal to only eat one a day, but then I make it to about lunch time, I eat one, then all is lost. I do really good at the store and try not to buy them, but then I go home and make a whole batch of cookies or brownies and eat one here and there and some how they disapear. I probably need help!!!

5. I ALWAYS have a song stuck in my head. I am like my own personal DJ. I wake up singing a song and if I get sick of that certain song, I think, hmm, what should be the next song stuck in my head. Actually during the day, it is usually a song from one of Talmage's cartoons or a toy. Other times its just regular songs. My recent picks: I'm Yours by Jason Maraz. I sing it out loud so much that it is now Talmages favorite song.

6. I love playing with extra skin. I know this sounds extremly weird, but when I am just sitting around or thinking, I play with the skin in the fold of my elbow or the skin on my eye lid. You'd be suprised at how stretchy it is. I just play with the skin between my fingers and push it underneath my finger nails. I know, weird.

So there you have it. I will probably have lost some of you as friends after some of the stuff I admitted, but I still love you all!!!

Here are the Six people I am tagging

1. Randall McGee
2. Kermit D Frauge
3. Rainbows
4. Grandma Rollins
5. Hiccups
6. Sweet Lazer Blasters!

Alright, that list was just a joke by my sweetness of honey, Myk. Here are the real six people I am tagging to continue on this quirks tag.

1. Cheree L.

2. Jen C.

3. Heidi B.

4. Shannon V.

5. Dana V.

6. Casey V.

You better do this, or something bad will happen to you in the next 5 days. I am just joking, I made that up. Just wanted to spook you during this spooking season!!

What, Husbands Need Some Lovin'?

2008-10-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

So I have to thank my dad for giving this book to me for my last birthday. I should have read it earlier, but i kinda got caught up in the Twilight series this year and it fell by the way side. But I have to say that this book was really very good. I know the title sounds crazy, but it really did help me realize that I need to change how I treat my husband. The most beautiful thing about it is that the more you treat your husband with love, respect, compassion and pretty much put him first, the better he will treat you. Because, really, it is our responsiblities as wives to be kind and respectful of our husbands needs and feelings. I love the way Dr. Laura holds nothing back when it comes to the way women can treat guys. At any rate, I just wanted to suggest this book to anyone who would like to improve their marriage. I am sure most of you all treat your husbands great, but I know as I was reading it, I could see myself as the wife in some of the real life examples she gave and I realized I had some work to do.

Post Script: You really can't click on the book and look inside like the picture says. It was the first picture I could find on the internet and it came along with it. Sorry to disappoint you!

Go Cougars!

2008-10-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

So this blog wouldn't be a true Vehar blog without a post about the Cougars. I am just a bit late with posting these, they are from the UCLA game. This has been the first year in a while that we didn't have season tickets. So we just got to go to the amazing blowout of UCLA and we are saving our money to hopefully go to the bowl game. The kids did so good, Talmage is a natural at the games, he can sing the fight song with the big dogs. We brain wash them young. Anything red (toys, footballs, what have you) is thrown down and he says "eww, that's the Utes." Way to go my boy!

Elle and I ready to go cheer on the Cougars!

Talmage singing the cougar fight song after one of many touchdowns that game.

Random Blog

2008-09-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

So I have clearly not updated the blog in a while, so I just have a bunch of random stuff we've been up to lately. I am kinda sad to see summer slipping away, but I have enjoyed the cooler weather and the fall is my favorite time of the year so I guess it's ok. With the end of summer came Talmage's first day of preschool. It was bitter sweet to see him go. He is absolutley loving it so far. I have to share a funny story. We carpool with the raymonds, so when I was taking peyton in my car one day, he was all "can your baby talk?" talmage said, "no, she just goes, goo goo ga ga." Peyton then says "no, talmage, that's spanish." then they both proceeded to say, "no, this is spanish" and then come up with some weird words. I just sat in the front seat laughing. kids are so funny!!! When Elle takes naps in the morning, Talmage and I like to play outside, mostly riding bikes. So lately, he likes to do his cool trick, which consists of him singing the song "I can ride my bike with no handle bars, no handle bars, no handle bars." (you know the one that is on the radio) all while he really does ride his bike with no handle bars. I must say, it really is a pretty cool trick.

And here is our sweet little Elle. My good friend Heidi Bird is a master at girls, hair and cuteness. I on the other hand, need some help in that category. So she did Elle's hair all cute and girlie and I loved it. I think she looks so cute. I have tried it since and I have alot of practice ahead, but I am learning.The boys in the family, exercising? I see I am starting to rub off on them. Talmage loves to find my workout video's and say "Let's excercise" so we put it in and he lasts through the warm ups and says, "Whoo, I had a busy day, I need a popsicle." That's the reason I work out too, so I can eat whatever I want afterwards!!!

2008-08-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to present our families longest camping trip this year. We started out Thursday morning by going to Lava Hot Springs to go swimming at the pool there. I am sad to admit that I am clearly a huge wimp because I did not jump off the tallest high dive. I jumped off the lowest one and that was high enough for me at the moment. It must be a mommy thing because back in the day, I was a lot more daring!! oh well. We proceeded from Lava to our camping spot, which took FOREVER to find cause everything was full and we lost our way a bit, but we finally found a wonderful camp ground in emigration canyon. We had about 45 minutes when we got there that night before it started down pouring. luckily we had everything barely set up and spent the rest of the evening in the tent trailer. Friday we spent just chillin' at our camp site, eating, playing games with the Burtons, breaking sticks over our heads, hiking, biking, what have you. It was quite fun, the only bummer was that it rained again Friday night so we couldn't do some roasting of mallows or any other delicious treats. Saturday we headed to Bear Lake to stay at the Hall family cabin and play at the beach.

To sum it up:

August camping trip = trip o' fun

Our camp site turned out to be one of my favorite places I've camped. There were a ton of trees and it was just so pretty.

Strongest 3 year old ever!!! Rock on Talmage

Elle hearts the sand!!!

Rise and Shout!!!

2008-08-02T15:02:00.000-07:00

All I have to say is that it was an amazing night at Lavell Edward's Stadium. Mandy and I just mentioned our interest in going to the BYU Football Women's Clinic in our husband's presence and they were on top of getting everything ready for us. That same week, Jake got us the registration forms and both of them were making sure their work schedules were cleared so we could go. It was quite funny to see how excited the boys were for us to go. So yeah, we got there and Bronco Mendenhall gave us a little talk and then they had a question and answer session with him and then with some of the players. After that, we had a chance to get signatures of the players. Then we proceeded to my favorite part, the football drills right on the stadium field. We got to do offensive line, quarterback, linebacker, runningback, ect. drills. It was so much fun. We are totally going next year, but want to get a big group of any other women who are big fans or if there husband's are big fans, so let me know!!

Me and Bronco!!!

Mandy, Harvey Unga, Me

Oh, the memories

2008-07-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

I got this from my friend's, Kate, blog and thought it was fun

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Giddy Up

2008-07-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yee Haw!!! So Myk has a wonderful co-worker who has horses and invited us come over to ride them. This is Talmage's first ride ever and he did way good. He was so funny, through out the day we were getting him so excited saying "Talmage you get to ride a horse today, lucky"' and such, so when we were getting ready to go he was like "I'm going to say 'Giddy Up Horsey' okay mom?" It was so funny. Anyway, he had so much fun and wanted to bring one home with him, but then he said it was too big and wouldn't fit in his room.

Of course Elle couldn't miss out on the action!!

They had a billy goat there also, named Pedro, so talmage was fortunate enough to be able to feed it.

Summer Fun

2008-07-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Since we've posted last, we have been having a ton o' fun. So here is the list of things we've been up to.

We got a bunch of strawberries this year in our garden and was able to make 9 batches of strawberry jam. Here is just one of the many bowl fulls of strawberries we picked.

this is a picture of the funkiest strawberry this year!!!

For the Forth of July we had a fun weekend. On Friday, we had a little breakfast with our friends, then we went and saw Walle. Talmage had some fun with sparklers the night before with his friend next door. On Saturday, we headed to Bear Lake and played with myk's family. Talmage got to go water skiiing for the first time with myk and it was Elle's first experience with the beach and Bear Lake. We had so much fun.

Summer=BBQ time. So we had an extremely fun bbq with our next door neighbors Katie and Eric. They had a big blow up water slide that the boy's played on for a while, then we ate a delicious bbq.

Anniversary Slamiversary, that's what I always say.

2008-06-21T20:22:00.001-07:00

As you may or may not know, I am Michael Kevin Hall, husband to the sweetness of honey, Chalyse Noelle Hall, who I love. Today is our five-year anniversary. Wow that went fast, but we have had tons of memories. I just want everyone to know how totally rad that Chalyse is, especially for putting up with me. But her 'rad'-ness is nothing compared to her awesomeness, because she has done an awesome job of raising two wonderful little chillen' (Talmage and Elle) and one dad (Myk) - Yes she is raising me. I think that is why we are to be together forever, because that is how long it will take her to raise/train me. Anyways, enjoy the pictures I posted below, they are my tribute to Mrs. "Rad cool Rad, of all sweetness, totally neat, boom diddle, compassaion PHd."

Anyways, we have taken a decent amount of pictures in our 5 years and I think these two are a couple of my favorite, probably because I think this is when she is the most beautiful - for she is most beautiful. Peace! All in all, I love her!

This is Chalyse and Talmage.

This is Chalyse and Elle.

ps. Chalyse approved of this post.

Shout Out to Husband of 5 years

2008-06-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'd like to give a shout out to my wonderful husband on our 5th year anniversary. I really can't believe 5 years have already gone by, but they have been some of the greatest!! I just want Myk to know how much I truly love him. I am so blessed to have such a thoughtful, understanding, fun, neat, cool, hot, stud muffin for a husband. It has been such an amazing adventure these last 5 years and i can't wait to spend the rest of this life and eternity with my favorite person in the whole world, Micheal Kevin Hall!!!
I love you tons!!!

1st Camping Trip of 2008

2008-06-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

We got started a little later this year because it's been just too cold, but we finally had a decent weekend. it was still really cold at night (elle woke up in the middle of the night and her hands were frozen, poor baby) but we survived. I love when kids go camping because after about 1 hour of being in the outdoors, their faces and hands are all grubbed over with dirt. You don't ever see them actually rolling around on the ground, but it sure looks like they did. Needless to say, talmage had so much fun running around and sleeping in a tent. There was a little stream flowing through our camp site, so on saturday, myk thought it would be fun to put talmage's head in the 'drink'. well, that turned into having everyone put their heads 'in the drink' (the stream) I was content with just myk, me and talmage doing it, but myk had other plans. poor defenseless little elle ended up getting put in the drink also. she suprisingly was ok with it. sometimes dad really does know best.

IT'S A MIRACLE!!!

2008-05-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

so, it's clearly been a few months since i've blogged last. pretty pathetic, i know. so katie, i am sorry i promised i would when i talked to you last. but seriously, our computer called it quits on us a bit ago, and let me tell you, life is pretty hard with out one. at any rate, here is the low down on what we've been up to cause we have been having a ton o' fun baby!!!!!

ARIZONA TRIP

well, we went to arizona, but i can't seem to find those pictures. they will be forth coming!

MOAB TRIP

so myk had the week off inbetween switching jobs so we decided the week before to head down to moab. so we packed up and headed down south to do some hikin' or as talmage would put it, "climb the mountains." the first full day, we hiked the landscape and double o arch. it was quite the long hike, but the kids were so good for us. the next day we did the delicate arch, which is kinda longer also, and then a few of the shorter hikes to some other arches. Talmage absolutley loved hiking and was sad to leave, he wanted to go "climb more mountains" when we were driving out of moab to go home, but then fell fast asleep cause he was so tired!!

oh yeah, we also went swimming at the hotel pool while we were there, so here are a few pictures

HALF MARATHON

so the day finally arrived for the big race. i was so excited/nervous the day and night before that i didn't sleep well. my biggest fear was that i'd have to go potty during the race like the salt lake one. so myk made me a deal that if i finished the race under two hours, without taking a potty break, he would take me and jen out to lunch. ( I love to eat, especially after running alot of miles). I was so excited when i finished the race in 1 hour 55 minutes. It was a may17th miracle. the race was so much fun. i thought it was well put together and there were just a ton of runners. they also had good food and stuff after. I am kinda sad to be done with it cause now i feel lost without anything to train for.

post script: i was so excited to eat, we went to costa vida and about 3/4 of the way through my big fatty burrito that i love so much, i found a lady bug. oh, i was so sad, so we went and got shakes to make up for it. nothing like a shake to turn my frown upside down!!!

Elle's Blessing

2008-03-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

We were so blessed to bless our baby girl on March 2nd. I made the mistake of just carrying her from the car to the church instead of in her car seat. well, it was pretty breezy, so i tried to keep a blanket over her face, but she is seriously so clastrophobic and freeks out when things are close to her face, so she gulped in a bunch o' air. needless to say, she was quite cranky, but the Grandpa's did great to keep the binky in during the blessing, thanks!!! Myk did a wonderful job and we had a great time with family afterwards. So thanks everyone for your support and party on.

2008-02-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

So we are working on fininshing our basement and these boys like to get messy. talmage has so much fun "helping" and playing downstairs while we work.

In the morning, i like to put elle into bed with talmage. he always wants asks if he can put the blankets on her and he pulls them up for her. then he asks, "i poke her eyes?" and somehow the answer always ends up as a no, but he thinks i might change my mind sometime.

wow, these kids look so happy!!! this is talmages FAVORITE toy. he calls it his bus ride. it is just a diaper box with a rope tied to the end of it. he loves to get pulled in it and then he puts all sorts of things in it and pulls it around. And of course once Elle was born he wanted her to ride too. so we let her join in the fun once in a while.

2008-02-17T19:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our blog!!! I have been meaning to get all computer savy and set up a blog because everyone else was doing it and i had to fit in (he he). So here it is.

We have been doing great. Myk is now working at Deloitte and has been extremely busy. Talmage, Elle and I are just enjoying the cold, snowy weather. We have had so much snow this winter, i'm stayin' in shape shoveling our driveway. I am dreaming of the day I can get out and mow!!!

Here's a sweet video of some Tremonton fun. The other day we were up visiting Grandma and Grandpa Hall and Myk and his brother decided it would be fun to sled off the roof, into the tall snow banks. They each tried it a couple of times while Talmage watched. Naturally, Talmage had to do it if Daddy was doing it, so he joined in the fun!!! Luckily I wasn't outside the first time he went cause I'm not sure it would have happened. But he LOVED IT!!!! He kept saying "It's not scary Daddy. It's good for me." He just couldn't get enough. When I finally decided to take a turn, I was kinda stalling cause I was nervous and Talmage reasured me by saying "it's not scary mommy; three, two, one, Blast Off!!!"

Here is our dear sweet Elle. She is growing so fast. She likes to smile and baby talk. If you talk to her, she is so happy to coo and make little noises. She has been such a good baby. Talmage loves her!!

We were lucky enough to have two family pictures taken last year. This one includes our newest family member, she was just in my tummy at the time.