Rigby Lake 2009

Here we are once again spending some time at Rigby Lake!! All of the girls love coming here, accept maybe Katie. She heard that you could get really sick from swimming in this lake so she went, but didn't have nearly as much fun as the rest of us because she didn't want to play in the water. She really missed out, and guess what? None of us even got sick! Next time we go I hope Katie decides to join in the fun! The little girls had a blast playing in the sand and trying to build things. I don't think they ever really built anything but they loved getting dirty. We took Cocoa with us and even she had fun. I didn't post any pictures of her, but she was hilarious. We would throw her in the water and make her swim and she would swim for her dear life, which was usually to either me or ChristyAnn. I have some really funny pictures of her rolling around in some kind of dirty moss or something. Whatever it was, she loved it! We all did and we will definitely be going again next summer.

Chesterfield

This has taken me awhile but I am finally taking the time to post again. These pictures were taken in a little town called Chesterfield, ID. They have tour guides that take you through all the houses and other buildings that have been restored to what they were like back in the 1800's and they tell you the history of each one. Everything was amazing and due to our bad timing we didn't get to finish the tour because we had to get back to camp for dinner which was a huge bummer because it was so neat and even the kids enjoyed it. These pictures don't even begin to do the homes and the things we saw much justice at all. So, I guess if you want to experience it to it's full affect you might just have to take a little trip. It's definitely worth it! Katie got to visit Chesterfield once before with a Young Women's group and she was lucky enough to go on the entire tour. And she still loved it, even the second time around. We had so much fun and if we get the chance again we plan to make time for the entire tour the next time!!!

Hall Family Camp Out

This past weekend I took Katie, Ashley, Lacey, Aymara, and Alaya to Big Springs for our Annual Hall Family Camp Out. Other than the bugs, the dirt, and the stinky out houses it was a lot of fun! I'm not that incredibly fond of camping, but the girls all loved it and I guess that is what matters. Right? Okay, I guess I will agree with myself! These pictures were all taken while we were on a little hike and at the top the kids waded in the ICE COLD water which I wasn't about to go in, but had fun taking pictures instead. Katie said that the water was so cold that it felt like it was giving her feet a "Brain Freeze"!! She said that is the only way she could describe what it felt like. It was a fun little hike and the kids really enjoyed it. I even enjoyed it a bit myself! Poor little Aymara was having lots of fun, but unfortunately the water was so cold she didn't feel a rock cut the bottom of her foot until the numbness started to wear off and she could feel the pain. It was pretty ugly, but we bandaged it up with my nifty little Melaleuca First Aid Kit and she was good to go. Once she realized she wasn't going to die from her injury anyway!! I have many more pictures to post of our weekend so hang tight and I will get them on here in the next couple days or so.

Recent Projects

I decided to share with you some of the projects that I have finished the past few days. The project above is one I came up with while lying in bed one night trying to fall asleep. I had been thinking about something fun to do for the girls for a chore chart and this was my idea that I thought of and FINALLY put it together and I love it. You can't see it as well as I would like, so I will explain how it works. Each of the clothes pins has one of the girls' names on it. Each outfit has been laminated and on the back in dry erase marker I will write down a chore. Each Sunday I will have the girls pick an outfit from the clothes line and whatever chore is on the back, then the outfit they chose will be hung by the clothes pin that has their name on it and that chore will be their responsiblity for the week. Then on the next Sunday I will erase the chores from each outfit and replace it with a new one and then the girls will get to pick again. This way they won't have memorized what chores are on the back of the outfits! Personally, I think it is a pretty cute idea myself!!

This project was made for a friend that I work with and just love. Her name is Katie and she is such a sweetheart!! She is such a little mother to everyone that works at Roberts and we all just adore her. On the top of the board I picked the work "INSPIRE" because she is such an inspiration to all of us and inspires us to be better people and she always has us smiling. Tomorrow is her birthday and I had this idea to have everyone who wanted to pitch in and pay for the board and then I would decorate it. They will be celebrating her birthday this evening and I am bummed that I won't be there, but I took the finished project in earlier so everyone could sign the back of it. I hope she likes it and knows how much we all appreciate her!! Happy Birthday Katie!!
This magnetic board I made for Ashley and ChristyAnn's room. I have had so much fun decorating their room the past few weeks. It is decorated in flowers and butterflies and the colors are: yellow, pink, green, blue, and orange. It turned out even cuter than I thought it would and Ashley is home now (from her dad's the past six weeks) and she absolutely loves it!! She can't wait for ChristyAnn to get here to see it. I still have a couple of little things to do in there but the most of it is done. They are so excited to finally have a room they don't have to share with any little sisters and they better keep their word and keep it clean now!!

Dump Cake! Yummy, Yummy!!

Since I don't have anything to post at the moment I will post another recipe! This one is soooo delicious! It is Kokie's favorite dessert. She requests it every year for her birthday instead of the traditional birthday cake. It is so incredibly easy to make and so worth it when it is done! It's good to eat either hot or cold, by itself or with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. A great dessert any time of the year, especially for big get togethers! Hope you try it and enjoy it!!

LAGOON!!

A couple of weeks ago, after all the other girls left, Fred and I took the two little ones to Utah for a bit of a get-a-way. The first day we got there we were going to go to the Hogle Zoo, but low and behold, it was lightening and thundering and POURING down rain. We decided to skip that idea, obviously! So, we ate some lunch and went and checked into our hotel to hang out and swim for awhile. For dinner we drove to Lehi to have dinner with some family there. Jorge and MaryKate were wonderful and the food was incredible!! Thanks for the delicious dinner and the fun visit. Anyway, the next morning we got up and the girls thought they had to go swim again so Fred took them down to the pool for about a half hour.

We arrived at Lagoon at about noon and had lunch at Subway before we went into the park, because you know how they just rip you off when it comes to eating in those places!! Seriously, it's outrageous! We decided to get the girls a ice cream cone and for a one scooper we paid $3.00 a piece!! HELLOOO, could they rip us off any more? Okay, so enough about that. We took the girls on some rides and they thought it was the best thing ever. They both had a blast and I am so glad we took them, even though it cost us $150.00 to get us all in and the girls maybe rode a total of about 10 rides. Fred made me stand in all of the lines with them and most of them I got to ride too because Alaya was too little for them and they required a parent to ride with them. It was fun, and none of the rides even made me sick!! The trip was mostly for the two little bugs anyway, so it was worth it, and it was fun to get out of town for a couple of days.

Meet Sophie!

I think this little puppy has to be the CUTEST thing ever! Meet Sophie, she is a Shnauzer and she is my parents new little puppy that I just love! I think I just might have to doggynap her!! So watch out mom and dad!! I have already got to doggysit her a couple of times and for only being eight weeks old she is already so smart and has the cutest little personality ever. She is already house broke! Can you believe that? Of course when she is here, our little dog Cocoa gets so jealous she can't hardly stand it. She wines and growls and her eyes turn as black as night with jealousy!! I think it's rather funny myself! Fred even likes her, and he really isn't much of a animal person so I think these pictures are so sweet with Sophie sitting on his shoulder. Anyway, I promised Katie, Ash, & Lacey that I would post some pictures of the cute little pooch because by the time they see her she will be much bigger. So girls, this post is for you! Love you!!

These are some pictures I took just messing around while we were out getting Kokie's Senior pictures taken, and I thought since I haven't posted in awhile that I would just post some of these photos. By the time I got around to getting these pictures there were just too many shadows and I had a hard time getting some without. Later this summer I am planning on taking all of the girls out to get some photos of them and hopefully we can catch a good day and a good time where I won't have to worry about fighting with the shadow issue. The girls all loved it though, especially Aymara, she was posing like a little model, so I'm not worried about not getting any good shots of her. Alaya on the other hand, she just doesn't seem to have that photogenic gene. When I try to get a cute picture of her and I tell her to smile, she totally cheeses it. She is so dang cute but man it's hard getting a good picture of her! Anyway, so after our next photo shoot I will post some of them and we well see how they turn out.

Cute as a Bug!

Isn't this little man just so dang cute? This is my baby nephew and he is such a cutie and it seems like when I am around him he is always happy and smiling. He is about six months now I think. Anyway, I am posting this announcement that I made for my sister to send out to her friends and family announcing that his adoption will be absolutely final on June 11, and after that she finally gets to have him sealed to them for time and all eternity! I am so excited for them and terribly bummed that I will miss all of this because Fred and I will be in New Mexico for our nieces wedding. I feel like such a loser sister and I really wish I could be there to support Lorraine and her family on such a special occasion. I love you Rainy and I hope you know I will be with you in spirit (or on speaker phone)!! :)

Senior Photos

I just posted a picture of Nichole's Graduation Announcement that I made and I decided that I should probably post some of the pictures that I took as well. This is a layout of just a few of the pictures that I took. I think we ended up taking about 85 shots of her so we would have plenty to choose from. I had so much fun taking pictures of her and I even got a few shots of some of the other girls while I was at it, just for the heck of it. I will make a layout of them as well and post it later this week. Kokie is such a cutie!!

Kokie's Graduation!

When Nichole ordered her graduation pack she only ordered 25 announcements and that wasn't nearly enough to send to all of the family she has. She wanted me to take her Senior photos, so we finally went and got those done, which by the way, we got some great shots if I do say so myself. Anyway, I used some of those photos and my amazing Creative Memories digital program and made her some more announcements to send out to the rest of the family. I think they turned out pretty dang nice and I was excited that she liked them just as much as I did. She is so beautiful!

Lacey's Baptism Day

Lacey's Baptism went great! I am so proud of her and the decision she made to be baptized and confirmed a new member of the church. She was baptized by her dad that lives down in Pocatello and she was confirmed by her big brother, Jordan, who is from the Seattle, WA area. She was thrilled to have him here and to finally meet him and spend some time with him. Lacey was absolutely adorable, and she was so excited to have so many people there that love and support her. She had a lot of friends and family there to share this amazing and special day with her and I know that she loved having them all there and appreciated all the special gifts that she was given. She is such a sweet and beautiful little girl and I love her so much. I am so grateful for her and the happiness she brings into my life and to our family. Thank you to everyone that came to support her and to share such a special event with her. We love you all! It truly was a great day!

Update About Lacey's Baptism

This is just an FYI for everyone that is planning on going to Lacey's Baptism. I know I have told everyone that it is at 12:00 p.m., but it has now been changed to 11:00 a.m. It is a Stake Baptism and three of the children's plans changed and they won't be baptized that day. So the ward that is in charge of the baptism asked the stake to change it for an hour earlier than originally planned. I hope this isn't a big inconvenience for anyone that is planning on attending. Thank you for your understanding.

Coloring Eggs!

Easter is always such a fun time! Especially when the girls are young and all the excitement is still there. Coloring the eggs is an experience all in its own! Alaya was egg coloring crazy!! As soon as she would put her egg in one of the dye cups she would pop it right back out and go for another one. We had to watch her and make her keep the eggs in long enough to at least get some color! Alaya and Aymara both loved coloring the eggs and even Renae was having fun! I think all in all we colored about 50 eggs! It was so fun watching the little girls and all the fun they were having. Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Bowling!!

Aymara got to go bowling with her pre-school class for one of her field trips! She absolutely loved it and was sad when it was over. The first thing she asked me when she found out the game was over was, "Can we come back here again some time?" I told her that we would most definitely have to come back. Maybe for Family Night or something. It was so funny watching her. I showed her once what to do and after that she wouldn't let me help her again for nothing. She is so independent and definitely likes to do things her way! Going bowling was a first for her and she thought it was Great! For not letting me help her she actually did pretty dang good. Of course the bumper bars were up, but I was still really proud of her and of how great she did! I am glad I got to go and get some pictures of her. She was so cute!

Lacey's Baptism!

Just to let everyone know! Lacey is getting baptized on Saturday May 2. She is soooo excited and can't wait for this big moment in her life! This is the announcement that I made up for her special day and I will be making copies of them tomorrow to give to friends and family. For those of you who would like to come, Lacey would be absolutely thrilled to have you there. Isn't her little dress just so incredibly gorgeous? I love it! And if you ask me, Lacey is pretty dang gorgeous as well! Of course, it could just be that I am her mommy, and proud of it if I do say so myself! What a doll she is!

Yummy Meat Loaf!!

Just thought I would share another recipe with you using my SWEET digital software again! This is a Meat Loaf recipe to try out on your family! I absolutely despised meat loaf when I was younger, but this recipe is fantastic. I thought my girls would just gag when I made it for the first time. But low and behold, every single one of them LOVED it! It has so much flavor and the girls actually ask me to make it when we haven't had it for awhile. It is absolutely DELICIOUS!!

So, Katie had a project she had to do for one of her classes and writing a poem was part of her project. It all had to do with World War II and the Holocaust. Another part of her project was making a album of Anne Frank. The album turned out amazing and she did a great job, even while being terribly sick. She started the poem and gave me some great ideas, I helped her with it and ended up doing most of it, but she did a good job helping me get started. To get the facts that I did I pulled up Adolf Hitler's Biography on the web and got the information from that. Anyway, just wanted to share it with you. Just don't be too critical!

Adolf Hitler, An Evil Man

A mojor part of our history
Is unfortunately of World War II,
When a man named Adolf Hitler
Killed and tortured millions of Jews.

He sent them to concentration camps
And worked them all to death,
Without even batting a single eye,
Or stopping to take a breath.

In August of Nineteen Thirty-nine
World War II officially began.
The world stepped in to fight a fight,
And put a stop to this evil man.

At first the Germans seemed unstoppable
Until the Battle of Stalingrad,
That is where the tide had turned
And life for Hitler began to get bad.

He controlled his regime from a distance,
And he hid in a bunker underground.
Until he was no longer safe there,
That's when our luck started to turn around.

In April of Nineteen Forty-five
The pressure was just too strong.
On April the 30th, Hitler took his own life,
Yet the pain of his reign lingered on.

The world fought such a valiant fight,
And in the end we believe we won.
But can we really even say that,
When so many lives were completely undone?

My New Digital Software!

Okay, so I totally had to blog something that I have done with my new Creative Memories Digital Software that my BFF Jill gave me for my birthday. She makes the absolute cutest recipe cards with her program, so I thought I would take a stab at it as well. So far I have created 8 recipe cards and personally, I think they turned out pretty cute. This one is for German Pancakes which my girls absolutely love. They are sooo yummy! Anyway, thank you Jill! I love my new program. I can't wait to play with it even more and try more things with it. Maybe I will even try a storybook! Maybe!!

The Elk Refuge

This picture is of "Jack and Jill", they were the mighty horses that pulled our sleigh. Aren't they beautiful?
Daddy and our sweet little Alaya.
Kelsie, Kokie, Katie, Renae, and Ashley enjoying the ride in the back of the sleigh.
Here is the whole family (minus ChristyAnn), just look at all those girls! Poor Fred! Maybe that's why he is always at work ;) All of these pictures were taken on a day trip we took to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Grandpa and Grandma Hall went with us too (because we don't have a vehicle big enough to fit us all) not really, we invited them to go because we have been telling them about how neat it is and they have been wanting to go too. We all enjoyed the trip and had so much fun. Every year Fred and I go to Jackson together and go on this sleigh ride through the Elk Refuge and this year we really wanted to take all of the girls with us. We were so bummed ChristyAnn wasn't there because she also would have loved it. We all had so much fun and got some awesome pictures! The pictures that I have posted just don't even do the trip justice. I have loved it every year and I plan on going back again next year as well! I would definitely recommend this trip to everyone. It is absolutely amazing. The girls loved seeing all of the elk, the Bald Eagle, and the coyote that was running around. The ride lasts about an hour, and the guides are full of lots of information and facts about the refuge. It is so worth going and it's a fun family day trip. When you are done you can pet the horses and take pictures with them.

I wanted to post the pictures on a scrapbook page with my new digital software that Jilly Bean gave me for my birthday, which I absolutely love by the way, but I haven't been feeling well and have just been too lazy. So I decided I better get with it and just post it anyway, before Jill starts telling me what a loser I am instead of just thinking it! I know you love me anyway Jill, even if I am a slacker! Now that I have my AWESOME new software I will try and be better about making some cute posts with it and keeping up on my regular ones as well.

Shop With A Cop--Kmart

Every year Kmart sponsors a program called "Shop With A Cop" and it is really fun to go and watch the excitement of the children that get picked to go shopping. Ashley and three of her friends get to go and help Santa. They had a lot of fun and enjoyed being little "elves". The program is done through donations from Kmart customers and a certain amount of the money is given to each child to shop for their family members. Each one gets paired up with a police officer that takes them through the store and helps them pick out the items that they will purchase. It is usually children that are in the foster system or children that come from a low income situation. One of the reasons they do this is to show the children that police officers really are great people and that they aren't scary or out to hurt anyone. Their job is to help and protect us.

Miss Peeps!

Introducing Miss Peeps! There is a story that goes along with this adorable little elf. And so it goes. She happened to show up at our house the morning after Thanksgiving day, and her name is Miss Peeps (or Mr. Peeps if you prefer), because she sits and watches the children in the house. Then, every night she returns to Santa to report who has been naughty and who has been nice. Each morning when the kids wake up she is sitting in a different location somewhere in the house so they believe she has been gone, come back and moved. You see, she is a magical elf and to keep her magic she cannot be touched (by the children that is). She will do this until Christmas Eve and that is when, and only when you may touch her, then she must be placed on the Christmas Tree somewhere to give her final report to Santa when he comes to deliver the presents. So when Santa comes he will then take her back to the North Pole with him until it is time for her to return the next year. I have a copy of the poem if anyone is interested in doing this with your children next Christmas. Just let me know and I will get you a copy. It was so much fun! My little girls loved it and couldn't wait to see where Miss Peeps was sitting and watching each morning. It really did make them think twice when they wanted to be little stinkers! I would just simply remind them that "Miss Peeps" was watching them! I even had the big girls playing along with me and they also thought it was a fun and really cute tradition to start.

Katie's Birthday

I know, I know! I am such a slacker at keeping up on my blog! Sorry Jill. My life has been so crazy lately with the holidays and my job at Robert's Arts & Crafts. Which I totally love by the way and will blog about later. This blog is about Katie's Birthday. She is now officially 14 and at her little birthday party we had she made me so mad because she refused to look at me while I was taking pictures! She is such a stinker, but I guess I can't blame her, she gets that from me. I also hate getting my picture taken, but I am trying to be better about it because I figure that my girls will want those memories of me later, so I just need to be nice, get over it and smile! I can't believe Katie is 14 now. It is scary for me to think that she will only be home for 4 more years and then she will be all grown up and moving on to bigger and better things in her life. It seems like just yesterday when I was in the hospital, holding her in my arms for the first time. Breathing in her new baby scent and being in awe at how amazing she was. I remember holding her and trying to absorb everything about her. Her tiny fingers and toes, the funny little faces she would pull, and just being amazed that I had actually given birth to such a perfect and beautiful little person. I love her so much and I am so grateful for her. She is such a wonderful daughter and a beautiful person both inside and out. Happy Birthday my Katie Bug! I love you!