Alyssa's First Birthday

She is ONE and such joy! I got her pictures taken at target last week and she started off shy and ended up with faces like these. The photographer said, looks like we got all her emotions except crying. I replied, nope she doesn't really cry, so it looks like we got them all! It is so true, she is such a great baby. I love that I can go places with her and she is so content to sit and play. She loves her brother and sister and is constantly trying to follow them around and be involved with what they are doing.

Aunt Alisha gave Alyssa this cute shirt and bow for her birhday (the skirt we borrowed from Sydney for the pictures-so cute, right!)



This dress was Nadine's when she was one and she wants all her grandkids to have a picture in it when they are one. Isn't she adorable in it.




Grandma and Grandpa Hall celebrated early when they came to visit. They brought Alyssa a baby doll with accessories. She is very into feeding the baby and loving the baby. If you show her what to do, she will copy it.


Her actual birthday was the same day as my Grandpa's funeral which was nice because the family was all together for it. I made her cake...it was supposed to have a fondant bow and be really cute, but I need to learn how to do fondant first! Then I made mini cupcakes which turned out great for all the little grandkids running around-less mess (not no mess, just less!)
I loved watching her open her presents...mostly because it involved so much help from others. Spencer helped open several and Sydney found the ones that suited her and took off with them. She got a baby doll from Grandma Gardner and was bouncing up and down waiting for Heath to get it out of the box, it was so cute.



I love how she devoured her cake! It took her a minute, but as you can see she really got into it and made a great mess!
Happy First Birthday Alyssa!

Springtime feelings in the middle...beginnning of March!

What a nice day today. We started by riding our bike/biketrailer and backpack to the library~a whopping 3 blocks, but hey it was nice to not drive in freezing cold weather!
Then came home and after naptime painted fingernails and toenails...everyones! I painted Alyssa, Hailee and Spencer's and Hailee did a great job painting mine-it was her first time and she was having a great time. She wanted to paint Dad's as soon as he walked in the door but he said no:( that fingernail polish was not for boys and that one day soon Spencer would not like it either. (Well I have pictures somewhere that prove he got his toenails painted when he was a bigboy...) but oh well she got over it!)
We then went for a walk and got Slurpee's at 7-eleven. It was warm, but maybe not warm enough for slurpee's without hats and coats! They were still good and seeing as 7-eleven is across the street from the park, I might be spending time there this summer!
Can't wait for Spring to really get here!

The Little Man has turned TWO!

Spencer is Two years old! I can't believe it-well yes I can, he's huge and acts so grown up that it is surprising to most people that he just turned two. But he's still my little guy and I love him so much.
Some of his favorites:
~#1 has to be He-Man Masters of the Universe. Heath introduced him to He-man and he has loved it ever since. For Christmas he got a season of He-man episodes and loves to watch them and repeat what they say. He knows all their names and says them quite well (Like Granomyr, Trapjaw, Clawful, Battlecat, Duncan, Teela, etc. I could go on but I don't remember all their names nearly as well as he does.) He also has to have his sword with him whenever he watches so that he can copy He-mans moves-so cute. That is also why I decided to make him a sword cake for his birthday, he was pretty excited about that too.


~Hot dogs, sausage, steak, hamburger, meat in general. For his birthday he ate three hotdogs and still wanted bites of Grandma's. He left no room for cake and ice cream!

~Hailee and Alyssa. He loves to play with Hailee and is always sad when she is not here (he also loves to fight her... Best of friends worst of enemies!) He absolutely adores his little sister Alyssa and constantly wakes her up from her nap because he misses her.

~Cowboy boots and cows. Living in Oak City got to the boy. He loved having a farm across the street and loves to see the baby cows. He likes to wear his cowboy boots everywhere he goes.

~Cooking. He loves to help me cook. Probably because it involves food! He loves to pour things in and stir and he especially loves to taste it to see if it is ready!

He is such a fun boy. As a little guy he has been so mellow and sweet that everyone can't help but love him. As he's grown up he's gotten a bit more fiesty and can throw a good tantrum if he wants to, but he's got his mom wrapped around his little finger and can usually get his way-his cute face is too hard to resist.
It has been so fun watching him grow and develop his own personality. He has been saying the cutest things lately like; Mom, guess what,-and then doesn't really know what he's supposed to say after that. or You're my favorite ____(mom, sister, etc.) I love when he climbs on my lap and says "I love you mom!" I feel like he has quite a large vocabulary and I love having converstaions with him. Lately his side of the conversation is always a question and the last word is said in a really high voice-I need to catch this on camera) I love my baby Spence and am so glad he is a part of our family.






Happy Birthday to Spencer and also to my Little Bro, Stephen!"

Merry Christmas

Alyssa was so much fun this Christmas. She was so happy to play with everything and just in a great mood about all the festivities. There were plenty of toys strewn about the room and she is very mobile these days, so she was all over that. On Christmas Eve she learned how to pull herself up in her crib...she hasn't learned how to get down yet so naptime is a little more difficult. The timing of that was great though because Santa brought her a activity table which she loves to play at, until she falls! She has been such a good natured little girl, but I'm worried that her patience with me is leaving now that she can motor around. She is often found crawling after me when I leave a room-and she's not happy about it! On Tuesday her first tooth poked through and now her second one is on its way!

,

Spencer is such a great little guy, full of energy and imagination! His dad introduced him to the wonderful world of He-man and the boy is in LOVE! He finds anything long and straight and pretends it is a sword and gets so excited when he watches He-man pull out is sword and says the words right along with He-man. "By the power of grayskull, I am He-Man" He refers to himself as He-man more often than Spencer. Alyssa gave Spencer and Hailee swords for Christmas and that was far and away the favorite toy. He has also been practicing his singing and loves to sing "Santa Claus is coming to town" he practiced during preschool with Hailee's class and has gotten quite good for an almost 2 year old. Another favorite of Spencer's is meat. He always asks for that when it is time for dinner, Heath made salami for our Christmas Eve dinner and Spencer loves to eat it-and boy can he pack it in!
He's not afraid to play princesses with Hailee either and loves the princess flip flops that Santa gave Hailee. Luckily Santa gave her three pairs because Spencer has claimed the Cinderella ones as his own (notice the picture of him in bed with his sword and princess slippers-that was Christmas night)


Hailee was so excited about Christmas and could hardly stand it when I made her wait to go see her presents. She wanted to get Spencer and get out there. She loved unwrapping presents, which turned out great for her because Alyssa needed help and Spencer was more interested in playing with the toys he already had unwrapped so she got to do lots of opening! She really made the whole of Christmas fun and exciting for everyone, with all her counting down and constantly asking if it was Christmas yet. Hailee is also very into He-man, only she is She-ra. (notice she slept with her sword and slippers too! -not staged, I promise)

We had a great Christmas this year. It was our first one at home with just our family and we had lots of fun. Heath had Christmas eve off so we spent the day playing with the kids and tracking Santas latest delivery online. For dinner we kept his families tradition of different meats, cheeses and breads along with chips, wassail, hot chocolate, cheeseballs and crackers and plenty of other treats. We went to the Oak City Town Hall for their Christmas celebration and saw Santa one last time before he stopped by our house. Back at home Hailee and Spencer were both very excited to dress up as Mary and Joseph, Alyssa did pretty well as baby Jesus too. I am so proud of Hailee and how well she has learned the Christmas story. She loves to hear it told and asks about each part ..."is this when they are traveling?" "Where is the angel?" etc. I hope everyone's Christmas was as good as ours was! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A bit about Hailee

Happy Halloween

I am working on a major update seeing as we changed jobs, moved to Oak City, had a baby and haven't posted for 6 months, but until then enjoy the Halloween pics!

We have been spending alot of time together since Heath is home by 4 everyday. We love having him home and been able to do lots of fun things as a family. This year we made the week of Halloween one big party.
On Monday we carved pumpkins...probably too early, they froze:(
Tuesday was a ward Halloween party. Hailee got so many compliments on how cute she looked she came home so excited about the party and wanted to call Grandma and Grandpa and tell them all about it.
Wednesday we watched The Black Cauldron
Thursday we had a Halloween party of our own, bobbing for apples, singing songs, donuts on a string, and Halloween bingo!
Friday...we took a break!
Saturday we went Trick or Treating, thank goodness the rain stopped. My kids loved it. Hailee started off walking up the street swinging her bag and singing Halloween songs. Spence told everyone he was a cow and loved that he got candy at every house, then he'd say C-ya later when we left. Alyssa and Dad stayed home to pass out candy!

I am happy to have a new computer and the internet so hopefully I can rejoin the blogging world! I've missed it! More to come.

Our newest addition

I haven't posted in so long that I have many many many things and pictures to post, but I thought I would start with the biggest news in our lives as of late...

Alyssa Hall was born on April 16, 2010 she weighed 6lb 10oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.

My due date was May 11, so she is a few weeks early but she came all on her own and is healthy and strong-everything went really well.
I went in to my appointment that morning after having a bit of bleeding the night before and contractions the day before coming every 5 minutes-but they didn't hurt so I didn't worry too much. I asked the Dr. to check me since I had alot going on in the next 2 weeks with Mindy's wedding and all. He checked me and I was dilated to a 2 and 70%-with the contractions I was having he recommended that I not go anywhere unless they quit completely. I stopped at Wendy's for lunch and headed home to rest. Heath called around 1 and I told him I was having contractions and that my back was starting to hurt-but probably just because of how I was laying on the couch.
Around 3:30 everything changed-my water broke(or at least I thought it did) So I called Heath and my neighbors who weren't home. Then I started panicking a bit because I needed to get to the hospital. I finally found some neighbors that could watch my kids and one that gave me a ride.
I arrived at the hospital at 4:08 and Heath met me with a wheelchair and wheeled me up to labor and delivery. The nurses were in no rush but after my epidural they checked me again and realized I was about to have this baby before their shift ended at 6. So after a frantic rush to get the room ready and a few pushes by me Alyssa arrived at 5:37p.m.!
(this is the shortened condensed version for your reading pleasure)
Now she is two weeks old and such a sweet baby. She is still very sleepy so that has been nice for me to help me adjust to having 3 kids. Spencer loves her and is very good at being soft, but loves to check on her and touch her whenever he can. Hailee thinks that she is 'so cute' and is adjusting to having another sibling at home. I am doing well and am happy to say that I have once again met my goal of fitting into normal jeans by two weeks after-that makes me happy. Heath is loving being a new daddy again and having a little baby to snuggle on his chest again during a Jazz game.
I apologize for those of you who wanted a pregnancy profile picture of me. I'm not very good about that, but I was planning on taking one the next day-that is when I would have been 371/2 weeks which is when I had Hailee and took one of Spencer to compare-I was just a day early.

and here is where i must stop for the time being...my children need me!

One week old


My gift from Dad, Hailee and Spencer


Alyssa, Spencer and cousin Sydney


More one week shots-isn't she a cutie!



At the hospital