The Hall Family

Had some fun pictures taken of the kids last week.  Look to the end of the blog for the gallery of pictures from the week. 

Well, the weekend was fabulous!  Thanksgiving was super fun at Jeremy and Heathers.  The food was great, and the Wii games were fun.  They just got Dance Revolution.  I actually tried it.  For those of you that know me, you know that I have absolutely no rhythm.  But I held my own on the game.  :)  I didn’t do well at all, but I didn’t do any worse than anyone else either.  So it is all good.  Garion and Kayla spent the night and Jason took Brynn back over the next morning after she woke up.  Michelle and I left at 4:30am Friday to go shopping!  It was CRAZY!!  Walmart was so busy I can’t adequately describe it.  We got there at 5am.  The parking lot was full.  I mean full!  There were no shopping carts and once we got into the store, there was no moving.  Most isles were so packed, the people were at a stand still.  It took us about 15 minutes just to get from the front of the store to the toys!  Then we grabbed what we wanted in about 10 minutes and then spent about 40 minutes in line.  It was claustrophobic!  Luckily, Walmart was the busiest place we went.  We also visited Lowes, Walgreens and the University Mall.  I had so much fun!  I got almost all of my Christmas shopping done with the exceptions of a few stocking stuffers and an iTunes gift card.  :)  After Michelle and I got back, our husbands went out for the rest of the day.  Then to top off the day, we chatted with Jamison and Michelle till 1 am, laughing so hard my sides were hurting.

Saturday was another highlight of the weekend for me.  My mom and I have started to do our genealogy.  She has done a little more work then I have, but on the same set of names, she prepared them for the temple and I found all their census records.  It was so neat!  I found out information my grandmother didn’t even know about my great grandmother!  Once the names were recorded in temple ready we were ready to take them to the temple.  I realize there are several people reading this that may not know what that means.  When we take a name to the temple, we act as proxy for them to be baptised, receive the Holy Ghost, and take part in all the other ordinances the temple has to offer.  We believe that these individuals still have the choice to accept or reject the gospel, just as they did when they were alive.  However, since they are dead, they need someone to act as proxy for them if they do choose to accept the gospel.  That is where Jason and I come in.  On Saturday, we took my first family names through the temple.  It was such a sweet experience!  I was very nearly in tears the whole time we were there.  We acted as proxy for 5 women and 4 men.  My two great grandmothers, 2 great, great grandmothers and my 3xgreat grandmother.  Jason acted as proxy for my grandpa, great grandpa, and my two great, great grandfathers.  I wish I could convey that depth of my joy at having given my family the opportunity to accept the gospel.  I often feel a wall up between my family and myself as far as things spiritual go.  They do not believe the way my mother and I do, and I wish that they did.  Just so that we could connect on a much deeper level.  And even more so, I wish they could have the joy and peace that comes from knowing our Saviour.  I am really looking forward to going back to the temple to perform the other ordinances for my ancestors.  I get a shot of adrenaline and excitement  in my veins whenever I think about it!  After the temple, Jason and I babysat both the Law kids and the McNair kids while they doubled and went to see Savior of the World.  It was really fun.  The kids played, danced, ate, watched a movie and finally fell asleep on the family room floor watching the Christmas Tree lights.  Jason and I get to go see Savior of the World in December with our family.  I am so excited!

Sunday was definitely a hangover day.  I spent the entire day in bed with a Migraine headache.  I think I had too many  late nights and maybe even too much fun!  Noo…just too many late nights. :)  When I was finally able to pull myself out of bed about 5:30pm, we put up the rest of our Christmas decorations.  The kids had a BALL decorating the tree.  Every year we each get a new ornament.  This is a tradition that my family has done since I was a baby.  So we have a great time every year reliving the previous Christmases through the different ornaments we have.

Last night we had family home evening and I have posted a video of Kayla singing to us.  We let each kid pick a song to sing at the beginning of the evening.  Last night, Kayla wanted to sing to us instead of all of us singing together.  She is so darn cute!!  On this note, I have to mention Garion.  Over the last few weeks and for the coming 10 weeks we are on a quest to memorize the articles of Faith.  We are doing one a week for FHE and then review it off and on through out the next week.  Jason already knows them all, but Garion and I have now memorized the first 3.  I am really amazed at how fast Garion is picking them up.  We review it a couple times at FHE and then he is good to go.  Some of the ones coming up are quite long, but I am not worried at all.  It has been really fun actually, because just with the first 3, we have been able to explain parts of the gospel to Garion that he had questions about.  Things that we hadn’t covered in previous lessons, or things that are a little more advanced that what he would learn in his primary class in school.
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I am sooo sad to hear of Elder Wirthlins death last night.  He was one of my favorite apostles.  I pray that his testimony can now live on through each of us.

The last week or so, Kayla has been having some really weird dreams.  Just thought I would share .  I bet they will make you smile. :)  The first one happened while we were driving in the car.  She fell asleep and when she woke up she said she dreamed she was in her car seat, but upside down and her pee came out her nose!  A couple days later she had a dream that our house had big, fat lips and that it ate her up!  :)  I wonder what goes on in her mind….but then I Think, who am I to talk.  I have some weird dreams too.

This morning was a wonderful morning.  Garion got up and dressed all the way to his shoes and got breakfast for himself and Brynn, since I slept in an extra 20 minutes.  Then, while I made his lunch, HE read the scriptures to ME while I made his lunch.  This is the first time he has had the ability to read the scriptures.  A lot of the words are pretty complicated.  It goes to show how much improvement he has made in reading this year.  He is definitely deserving of the Principles 200 Club Award he got last week for improvement in reading!

Tonight is the Twilight movie release!!  I am so excited, I can hardly sit still!!!  A group of 15 of us are going to the midnight release.  I am leaving at 8pm with my friend Jana and going to dinner and then the rest of our group is going to meet up with us for dessert about an hour later.  Then we will go the theater and browse the vendors they have there.  We have assigned seats and very good ones at that.  It is so nice to have assigned seats so we don’t have to wait in line for days to get a good one. :)  Like Jason and I had to do for the Lord of the Rings release and a couple other movies we are die hard about.  I have heard great things about the movie!!  We are going to the District theater and our friend Summer is a manager there.  She said there are 20 theaters, and all 20 of them are sold out for the midnight showing, so they opened a 2:30am showing, which is almost all sold out as well!  Crazy!  I will letyou know tomorrow how awesome it was!!

This last week and a half has been a very fun one!  My last blog I was leaving for Denver to visit my brother for his wedding reception.  Josh and Jackie were actually married in July in Puerto Rico, which was the trip of a life time and I am very blessed to have been there with my entire family!  But not everyone could be there, so they had a reception for everyone else last weekend; technically two weekends ago now.  It was a cocktail party at the beautiful home of a close family friend named Debbie.  So, to start at the beginning, Kayla, Brynn and I left Friday morning and drove 4 hours without stopping once to Glenwood Springs, where we met my parents, Grandmother, Josh and Jackie.  They drove up from Denver to meet us and to see the city where Jackie’s family has taken family vacations since childhood.  After a good lunch at Rib City and a walk around the town, we headed on to Denver.  It was VERY nice to have my mom with me for this portion of the ride.  It is really hard to drive long distances and I have a bad habit of sleeping in the car.  I am always terrified that I am going to fall asleep behind the wheel.  The longer the drive, the more worried I am.  So, the last part of the drive was fun and full of stimulating conversation. I was very proud of my girls!   They didn’t fight or complain once the whole way there!  We had pizza for dinner and had a great evening talking.

My sister Megan and her fiance’ Chuck arrived around Midnight, but the girls and I were already asleep, so we saw them in the morning.  It was wonderful to see Megan!  It has been about 2 years since I saw her last.  It was also the first time I have met Chuck.  They are to be married on June 20th, 2009!  I can’t wait!  I really liked Chuck a lot.  He seemed to be the perfect gentleman.  They make a great couple and I am very happy for them.

After breakfast, the girls and I took a nice little drive to Brighton to visit my best friend, Lori.  We spent the morning and early afternoon with her and Jonathan.  It was sooo good to see her again!  We talked, ate Chinese food

and after lunch, we took the kids to the park!  The only down part of the day was that Jonathan threw up in the car on the way to the park.  Poor guy!  But he then played and seemed fine at the park.  Lori and I have been friends since 5th grade.  I am so grateful that she lives somewhere I can visit her often!  At least as often as I get to visit my brother! 

Saturday night, we hired some babysitters for the three kids and after we got all dolled up, we went to the cocktail party!  I was so mad because I forgot my camera!  So, when I get pictures forwarded to me from my mom or Megan, then I will post some from the party.  It was FABULOUS!!  There was a beautiful appetizer table, a chocolate fountain, the amazing cake, an open bar, and a poker table.  The party started at 7 and we made it home around 1am.  I was worried about being at a party that late.  It seems that since I have had kids, I get so tired so early!  But we had the most wonderful time I didn’t even notice the hour!  I was the desiganated driver to get Josh, Jackie, Megan and Chuck home.  Although, Megan didn’t really drink that much and could have driven also.  But I was happy to take on the role.  If you can believe it, that was the first party I have ever been to that served alchohol.

Sunday Morning, we all got a bit of a slow start.  My girls had me up bright and early before 7.  I told them to go find Chuck!  :)  SInce he so kindly volunteered to get up with them in the morning!  :)  But before Kayla made it to him, she found Steve, who was nice enough to get her breakfast and turn on some cartoons.  However, Brynn had me out of bed only a half hour later.  I was hoping to see Josh and Jackie open their gifts, but unfortunatley, we had

to leave to drive home before everyone was ready for that.  We left about noon, after lunch and a power nap for me.    The drive home was long, but not too bad.  We made it to Green River in one step, then stopped there for dinner.  After that, Brynn had had it in the car and cried the rest of the way home.  She slept for about 30 minutes in the middle, but before and after that, she cried.  Needless to say, I went as fast as I could to get home without guaranteeing myself a ticket.  Luckily, no ticket and I made it home about 9 that night.

Garion and Jason had an awesome father/son weekend.  Friday night, Jason helped his mom move to her new room at Jamestown while Garion played at his friend, Tyler’s house.  Then on Saturday, they went shooting, to Cabelas, to a movie, to dinner, and they rode on Jason’s

motorcycle!  Guy heaven!

The week since then has been a good one.  No huge happenings, just school and church and the normal.  Jason had Plug meeting Wednesday night and after the kids went to bed, I took the baby monitor and hang out with my neighbors.  It was fun to be with them since we haven’t really hang out for  awhile.  We use to get together all the time!  But school had throw our schedule off and I miss them!

We had a great experience this weekend with Garion.  He really is turning into a young man with wisdom and understanding.  It was a simple thing, but it made me proud.  He came to me Saturday morning with tears in his eyes saying he wanted to fast that day.  Let me preface this story by saying that on fast Sunday this month I approached him and asked him to fast with me.  I just figured that since he is turning 8 in the beginning of the year, he is old enough to learn this principle.  I explained to him that once a month we fast, or give up two meals to show  Heavenly Father that we are willing to sacrifice to show our gratitude for the blessings we have received and to show that we are willing to sacrifice to receive blessings.  I told him that we fast with the ward once a month for the members of the ward and we have the ability and opportunity to fast any other time we want to if we have a special need or desire or problem.  Fasting helps us to become closer to the spirit to hear the promptings of the Lord.  After my explanation of fasting, Garion refused.  He said he didn’t want to give up breakfast and be hungry.  I wasn’t surprised, he is only 7 after all.  But I fasted that day that he would have a desire to fast so he could gain a testimony for himself of the blessings and peace that fasting can bring.  So this weekend, when he came to me telling me he wanted to fast, I knew my prayer had been answered.  It just isn’t in the nature of boys to give up their food willingly. :)  I asked him what he wanted to fast about.  He had tears in his eyes so I knew it must be something dear to him.  He said he wanted to fast for Willow.  Our cat.  I asked why to which he responded “I don’t want her to die!”  Willow is 16 years old and has a huge tumor on her neck.  She is losing weight and has no teeth.  We are sure the end is fairly near for her.  Garion must have heard Jason and I talking about it sometime in the past.  I suggested to him that we wait and fast the next day, Sunday, when we didn’t have any big activities planned.  Also, that way we could start our fast during our bedtime prayers that evening.  I also suggested that we only fast until lunch time, since it was his first time.  He agreed.  So, at bedtime, Garion and I started our fast for Willow.  When he woke up in the morning, he remembered his purpose and went without food even though Kayla, Brynn and Daddy had breakfast in front of him.  About 10 am, he said he was starting to feel sick from hunger, so we said a prayer that we would be strong, that the hunger pains would leave and that we would remember Willow and be guided as to how to help her and if we cannot, that we would have the strength to endure.  That was the only time throughout the fast that Garion complained.  He made it until 12:30pm.  At which time he ended his fast with a prayer and ate lunch.  At bed time Sunday night, he told me he wants to fast for Willow again on the upcoming fast Sunday.  Only he wants to go all the way till dinner.

It makes my heart sing to see Garion turning to the Lord with his feelings and trials.  Nothing is to trivial for Heavenly Father and when we place our faith in Him, he will always answer our prayers and guide us.  I know this from my own personal experience.  And now, Garion is learning it for himself as well.  The blessings of the Lord abound!  I am grateful!