My feminine little ballerina

Tonight Nora tried on her new outfit. She gave us a cute little demonstration of how a ballerina dances. Then she ran to me and said, "I just farted in ballerina clothes."

Nora's Prayer Tonight

Dear Heavenly Father
Please bless I won't cough anymore
Bless I will sleep
Bless the snow
Jesus Amen

Lady Bug Cake Day

Nora turned three yesterday. She is getting so big so fast. Where does the time go? Anyway, she absolutely loved her birthday- especially her cake.

You see about 4 months ago she decided she wanted a lady bug cake for her birthday. No joke, 4 months. So whenever anyone mentioned her turning three she would say, "Yeah, and I'm gonna have a lady bug cake." No pressure right. Well, I've seemed to adopt a Hall family saying into my own life-- "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing!" I've always been a "less is more" kind of a girl, but I guess I'm slipping. Although I'll admit when it comes to food I always try to go the extra mile, especially birthday cakes. Hence, Nora's lady bug cake was a bit complicated. It was a simple chocolate cake, cut into layers, homemade chocolate mousse between each layer, ganche frosting (white and milk chocolate), and lots of sprinkles. When Nora woke up on her birthday I showed her the cake. She was so happy, and giddy.

We had to run some errands (I wanted to find black rope licorice for antennae), and everywhere we went I'd say, "Nora tell them what today is!". To which she would reply, "Lady bug cake day!" Then I'd say,"No, tell them it's your birthday." Then she would say, "Today is my birthday and I get to eat a lady bug cake." True story.

Midday, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. It's a tradition!

So my brother, sisters, parents, cousin, and friend came over for a party. It was fun. We ate pulled pork, coleslaw, hot crash potatoes, and bread...Yum.... And then dined on lady bug cake. It was good.

Nora got beautiful gifts and had a wonderful day. She is funny, smart, sweet and beautiful. I love her so much! Happy Birthday Nora, or should I say Happy Lady Bug Cake Day!

Can I get a what, what!

Obsession

I have an obsession with food. I love good food. The kind that you dream about after you eat it. The kind that makes your mouth water thinking about it. The kind you have at a restaurant, and can't wait to go back again. That is the kind I'm talking about.

So recently we ate at a restaurant named Wallaby's. SO GOOD. I got their mashers, coleslaw and pulled pork. They serve it with a piece of white bread. It was love at first bite. I couldn't stop thinking about it! So finally (because the restaurant is kinda far from our house) I decided I had to take matters into my own hands and figure out an alternative. I searched the internet for days trying to find what sounded like a good recipe for the most divine meal I'd ever eaten.

Fate! I found three perfect recipes. You can find them here.

Of course the one thing I couldn't find a substitute for was the BBQ sauce, so I went to the restaurant and bought a bottle. Well worth the $5.

If you want make someone VERY happy on Valentine's Day, then make this dinner for them!

Nora lines stuff up

This one is for you mom. And for all you other people who read my blog but never comment. Oh well, I'm getting used to it. And by the way thank you to Rachelle, Bethanne, Janette, and Emily for always making me feel loved in the comment section. Ok, now I'm starting to sound a bit whiny!

So I'll get back to business... the other day Nora and I went to Broadbents, my new favorite store on the planet! It's a quilters dream. The fabric there is to die for. I. Love. It.

Nora found a little section of toys and started doing what she does best, organizing and putting into rows. She loves things to be in rows.She is so cute! I know I say that a lot, but I love the rows. We were there for about 45 minutes, and I just sat there and watched her. It was a lovely morning.

Carving Pumpkins?

Ok, so are there ever those posts you meant to do, but never got around to. Well, this is one of those. I think I've mentioned before that we love Halloween in our house. A lot. Every year we carve pumkins. But this year there was a new development. Here let me show you:

Here is cute little Nora. She loved every minute of digging her hands into the slippery goo of the pumpkin guts. She love weilding a knife (with daddy's help, of course!). And I don't know how, but her pumpkin even ended up looking like her. It's her pumpkin doppleganger.

Brian thinks he's hilarious. I've learned that this "vomitting" out the pumpkin innards is a family tradition. You can't break tradition! Ok, so I think it's pretty funny too. But don't tell Brian.

Then there's Ethan...
He has decided that the worst smell on the planet is pumpkin pulp. He could barely stay in the room. He was gagging and almost throwing up every time he got a whiff. He would not come near the pumpkins.

I eventually tied a bandana around his face ala old west train robbers. That helped for a little while. It was so funny.

Nora loves it, but check out Ethan in the background. I made butternut squash the other night and Ethan wouldn't eat it because, "It smells like pumpkin."


Last year:

Oh well.

Family Get-togethers

Chris and Kristy came to visit. So what did we do for fun? We made dioramas of course!
Let's just say I was getting rid of a lot of shoe boxes. I have this thing about keeping the shoe box... I'm not alone right? Anyway, it's no fun to just throw all the shoe boxes away, you gotta DO something with them.

Here is the monumental mess we made, so fun!

This is Ethan's masterpiece, he called it "California Dreamin'"

Brian's was very abstract (and disturbing). He took the longest. Actually it wasn't disturbing, it was very interesting, and I loved it.

Here is my tropical paradise. I seemed to have a lot of flower papers and blue colored paper, so I went for it. Notice the tiki hut. Brian asked me, "What is a tiki anyway?"

Here is Kristy's work of art. Notice it is peaceful, uncluttered, well thought out, and very clean and neat. Also, the boy is reading his scriptures. It is very well-made.

So when is the last time you made a diorama? It is quite thereputic, and very very fun for the kids. Oh who am I kidding, I was the one having fun. The kids ran off and did something else about 20 minutes after we started. Go make a diorama, that's an order!

Hop-Scotch

We went to IKEA today, to get out. Here is a cute video of Nora learning to hop-scotch.




I love that girl!

Christmas Images

2009

I'd said I'd be back in the new year, and here I am. I know you missed me.... My kids have been saying a bunch of funny things lately, and I haven't been writing them down! So I forget! Aak.
Here are two I remember because I've retold them many times, but I want to write them down so I never forget:

Ethan
We were going out to eat for the first time in over a month (thank you Brenda for the gift card). And Ethan starts arguing with us about where we are going. Finally Brian says, "Ethan, that is enough, I don't want to hear anymore arguing from you." To which Ethan replies, "Dad, I started this confrontation, and I'm gonna end it!"

Nora
For the first time Nora was going to spend the night at grandmas house without Brian or I, she was VERY excited. She was telling me all about how it was going to be just her and nobody else going. Then she looked down and a bit concerned and said, "but mom, you're gonna hafta take me, cause I can't drive."

Christmas Break

Brian is done with finals (woo-hoo)!!! So I'm going to take a little Christmas break from blogging. See you in 2009.

Reader's Digest

I'm an avid Reader's Digest reader (I know you are so shocked). I love everything about it, but my favorite is the funny little stories and jokes they have spread throughout the magazine.
Over the years there have been many they have made me laugh myself silly, but there are two that are my absolute favorites. The first is a joke, and it's only funny if you actually imagine it (ok, a bit morbid too), and the second is a real story that made me laugh til I cried and my sides hurt.

Joke:
Q: What goes "Ho, ho, ho, thud."???
A: Santa laughing his head off.

Story:
For the holidays one year, rather than send gifts, my friend decided to enclose checks in her greeting cards. Inside each card she wrote "buy your own presents" and then sent them off.
A few months later, she discovered the checks she'd "mailed" under a pile of books.

Road Trip

So all of these babies were being born in Texas and I had to go and move to Utah. So, I decided that there was no other option than to load the kids up in the car and head to Texas. My dear sweet sister Emmeline agreed to go with me so that I would have some help and not go completely insane on a road trip of this magnitude with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. Here was the agenda:
Day 1 Drive to Colorado Springs
Day 2-3 PLay at Brother's house in Colorado Springs
Day 4 Drive to Dallas
Day 5-7 Hang out with family in Plano/McKinney, meet new niece
Day 8-10 Drive to Austin and hang out with sister and new baby twins
Day 10 Drive back to Plano/McKinney
Day 11 Drive to Colorado Springs
Day 12 Michael's (Nephew) birthday party
Day 13 Drive HOME to Utah

Total miles: 3150

Rest Stop cuteness

Nora taking it easy

Trying to get a picture with all the grandkids

Megan and Emmy (my sisters) holding the twins, James and Lincoln

Me holding the twins.

Nora and Graydon

Girls in curlers, so cute! Brian asked me what the point of putting curlers in Nora's hair is...

My niece Russia. See I told you there were a lot of babies.

Ethan took some photos.

A really cool sunset.

Well, we spent a lot of time in the car, but it was so worth it. The trip was so much fun. It was great to see everyone. I wish I could have went to my ward on Sunday, but Nora was very sick for a couple of days (puking and fever). I loved getting to meet my new niece and nephews.

Goodbye For Now

Don't worry I'll be back! The kids and I are going to Colorado and Texas for the next 2 weeks. I'll come back with stories and pictures, I promise! There are babies to visit, a Nana to hug, cousins to play with, a sister and brother to hang out with (not to mention all the in-laws), and so many more fun things.

Miss me while I'm gone!

28

Happy Birthday to me! Here are some strange facts about how I was brought into the world. My dad was at work and my mom was up early doing the dishes cause her back hurt. Her water broke, so she called my dad and told him to get his tookus home. So he finished up what he was doing and went home. And when he got home he found my mom lying on the kitchen floor with a newborn baby laying on her. That's right, my mom had me all by herself, on the kitchen floor. Oh, and it was the day that Ronald Reagan was elected President.

That right there folks is a chocolate flan from Cafe Rio... My favorite dessert on the planet.

I'm not a huge fan of cake so for my birthday we usually have something different. This year we had blackberry cobbler and Brian brought me home the chocolate flan (he loves me).


I'm still learning how to share. I let the kids help me blow out the candles, but I drew the line when they wanted to share the flan with me. I'm not THAT nice.



Twenty eight doesn't look too bad on me. And I did have an extra day being 27 with leap year and all. So, happy birthday to me!

PS You better ALL go vote tomorrow!!!

Grand Finale

And since I started off this trip down memory lane with a picture of Brian as a child Halloween star. I'll end it with the only two pictures I could find of me on Halloween when I was a kid.

Raggedy Ann

Witchy-poo

Some finale, eh?

Halloween 08

Sorry to disappoint! Two posts earlier are pictures from this year! I didn't mean to give a spoiler. We had a trunk-or-treat, and I couldn't wait to put up pictures. We are Mama Witch, Daddy Zombie, Spidey, and Geisha...

Remember Last Year?

Just the coolest Star Wars family EVER!

Did I mention...

....that we love Halloween?!