NOEL

Noel means in Hebrew: to bring forth new birth. In English it is another word for Christmas. Christmas for me is a time renew my faith in Christ. I love to set up all my nativities and adorn my living room with the remembrance of what to remember ALL year. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a renewal of Faith. I am blessed to have such a wonderful family. Looking forward to achieve new goals this coming year. I will for sure love on these kids.....'cause look how fast they are growing! Aren't they handsome! Especially the one with less hair! Cute, huh!

Katie is in a singing group called the "Whole Notes". It is instructed by a very talented, Brook Black, who teaches these children the joy of music~ Katlyn is lucky to have such an experience!

We don't change our family motto. Every year it is this:

WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!

Happy 2010!

November.....Thankful rocks.

November 2009

A Month to be Thankful.

My parents , along with Laura and Rob and little Harrison came for Thanksgiving. My folks always try to make a trip to our home, once a year. That is so important. We look forward to them visiting our stomping grounds.

We gathered the morning of Thanksgiving and wrote our feelings of thankfulness on rocks. Solid. Never changing. We read them around the table of food. We could tell whom had written upon them. We are mostly thankful for this year:

1. Family

2. The Savior and His gospel on this earth.

3. Parents

4. Doctors and Medicine that can fix sick people.

5. Sewing machines: Mom, Laura and I threw together some nice bed covers for the boys beds. Winter is here. More warmth is needed! I am keeping these rocks.......

The boys got on top of the roof to adorn our home with the annual Christmas lights!

My sweet nephew, Harrison. He is so calm and wonderful.The table before the food....

The head guests of our feast!

Yummy food, good movies, two quilts made, craft store ambushed by three Hallen women and plenty of Memories.

Honesty is the Best Policy.

I want to be honest.........

The last three months have felt like they way Shane and I look in these photos. (EEEEEKKKKKK!!!!) We have had things that have stretched us and have made us better people! But, it was hard! Very hard!

1. It all started with a little something that happens between a man and a wife.....martial discord. You see, these fifteen years of marriage have been blissful. Shane and I have always gotten over things quickly. We have done stupid things, but got over them. I was the one to blame this time. A thing that can happen to anyone, if your not watching carefully. It hurt us. I have never felt so sad, that I hurt US! Of course, my husband took action....rekindled our feelings of being FOREVER....and since then have worked even harder of making US important! He's amazing that way! I work hard to tell him sweet nothings and focus on US. Be Careful....Satan is out to break the FAMILY up!

2. My counselors from primary were taken away from me in August. I was told that I was to stay and put a primary program together....without them! And, then I would be released. I felt punished! I got the very best woman in our ward to help me. Sister Chelsie Bishop. We did the best we could. It wasn't the best program I have done. The primary program was tooooo looonnngggg! But....the children were so great! All of them had their parts memorized.

I was released two weeks ago. I felt like a load was lifted, yet I miss the load. I mostly miss teaching the children. Time to learn something else. That is how His church works. Learning and growing.

3. Beginning of Sept. my sweet husband had a terrible reaction to ACCUTANE. He was feeling so nervous that he couldn't sleep at night. He immediately went to the doctor and was told not to take it anymore. It took a good six weeks of that nasty medicine to leave his body. That is always a challenge when a spouse is not feeling well. That experience made our marriage even stronger.

4. School starting is always a busy time. Kids love Maya Angelou. Dylan loves Chiawana. I love my job. Love the kids I teach. Love the Ms. Julie. Couldn't do it without her!

5. In Sept., we got a call from Shane's mom that her mother died. We knew we needed to be there. The morning we woke up to drive...Dylan complained of body aches. As we drove along, Dylan continued to complain. He was burning up! Oh NO! What else could we do? We made it to Utah and attended the funeral. The funeral was lovely!

Unfortunately, when we returned to Wa. we found out, Dylan had the SWINE FLU! I felt terrible that he had spread it to our Utah relatives! We immediately got on Tamiflu to tamper our symptoms...since we were for sure going to get them. (Driving in the car for 24hours can do it to ya!) Got home Sunday, Hunter and Katlyn got symptoms Monday and Shane and I got symptoms on Wed. We all laid around moaning and groaning. It was horrible. I couldn't imagine having the swine flu without the Tamiflu. We had two families from Utah end up getting it as well, along with Grandpa and Grandma. Felt so so bad!

6. In Oct. get a call from the school that my Katie is below average. Duh! I have known that since she was four! And....have begged for extra help from the school. I am finally going to see some action taking place, besides working hard at home. We have a meeting with her school on Friday. Cross my fingers that we can figure out how to help her. She is so sweet and good. I can always count on her at home. Her fingers and hands are good working hands. She is going to be a great mother and wife. She is loving and dependable. Not everyone gets straight A's! She learns differently. That is what we are trying to figure out! I love her!

7. Halloween, Halloween! Love holidays! This year we had a WEEK of Halloween. Katie wanted to invite friends over to an evening of Halloween fun! I was more excited for her! We had a outdoor scavenger hunt, making trick or treat bags,good food, face painting and musical chairs! Loved every minute of her cute friends. The screamed and danced and painted everyones faces!

The ward had a fabulous Halloween Carnival! And 168 trick or treaters came to our door this year.....minus the two adults! Why do adults trick or treat? I don't get it?

Katie and her Phantom of the Opera Dead lady costume....and Hunter wanting to be just like his Sister!

Time goes on and I have learned many things from these last three months. Play with your kids...they only get older and sassier, Hard work pays off, make your spouse number one, never feel punished, the only way to get over a nasty virus it to REST!

Hop in-Hop out-Summer 2009

The Collins' and Hatches' Camp out!

Sabrina loved Dylan! Cute!
We've done lots of great things this summer. We finally planned a camping trip with the Collins' family. We went camping up by Toucanan. We found this lake with tons of frogs in it! I posted pictures of frogs....seeing how many you can see! They were so hard to catch! But we managed to catch a few!

Look very closely~!

A little fishing.....

Swimming lessons.....every morning! Proud of my two kids. They both passed levels this summer! Thank goodness this year we had great swimming towels! Thanks Grandma!

Summertime....Summertime.....Summertime!

Fishlake 2009

I've been one lazy blogger lately. I haven't really done anything extra. I'll I've done is play with my two youngest. Swim lessons in the mornings, lunch in the park, friends over to play, reading our allotted amount to win prizes at the library, scrap booking for the very first time in 15 years, making dinners every night, laughing at my oldest, yelling at my oldest, being smothered by my oldest (he thinks I will forgive him for his insane amount of game playing if he gives me hugs and Eskimo kisses!!!!!) I even watch t.v. at night, without cutting, sorting, pasting or coloring for the next preschool day. I loved watching THE BACHERLORETTE! I hate and love that show! It is sooo rigged....just to keep fans to continue to watch. I love to watch SYTYCD!!! Summertime to me is WONDERFUL!

This was our get away....Fishlake, Utah. My family (Parents and Brothers' and families) drove from Cali and we met them there. Mom and Dad decided to entertain the children by giving them a list of jobs to accomplish while staying at the cabin. If they passed these jobs off...they received a "Halla-Buck". Mom would set up a store of fun prizes in the garage and the kids could redeem their "Halla-Bucks"! The kids loved it! Some really loved it....some really didn't love it! I thought it helped the children do things they normally don't do at Fishlake...and lessened our load of chores!

We fished, played cards, laughed, had our annual Talent Show, hiking, watched movies, ate, played a little game of t-ball even.

This year the mom's all brought a craft for the children to do! I think I loved it more!

I love Fishlake.....memories of my childhood. Now my children can have those memories too! We are waiting for more of the little ones to grow older so we all can have a grand game of KICK THE CAN~ Soon to come~!

I think the most tender memory of this trip was when we were performing our family talents. Our sweet Peter, whom had cancer, was up in front singing to the top of his lungs "SUNBEAM"!! He was even doing actions! I teared up thinking we would've lost that little guy....but he made it! And is strong and feisty as can be! Love that kid! His cancer is completely gone! Miracles never cease! (Pictured below)

A horrible thing happened...after I left. My darling mother...you know the one that bribes children to work! She fell down the stairs! Backwards, and hit her head, back and arm on a big metal crate! They took her to the hospital...everything was fine....but she really hurt herself! Poor thing! It is hard seeing your parents get hurt! OUCH!

Oh, yeah....did I tell you Hunter got his first trophy for playing T-ball for Parks and Rec! He was thrilled! Can you tell?

Promise to post more ....before my summer ends!

100th POST ~Silly, Stinky and Annoying......True Love!~

Preschool Graduating class of 2022

What a wonderful experience! Finally, I found a big enough space for this event. The last graduations were wonderful, but tight! I am glad my bishop let me have it at the church.

These sweet children sang their little hearts out! They also spelled their first and last name...without hesitation. I was so at ease....knowing that all would go well. They are ready for Kindergarten! I love these children. I also love Ms. Julie. What would I do without her calm and collective personality. She has brought so much to our preschool!

Dylan...Graduating from MAC 8th.....Chiawana High here he comes!

Katlyns' singing and dancing group. Brooke Black is her teacher!

She did a great job! I would always ask her after each lesson, what she is learning. She would say, "You will see at the performance..." I was so surprised at how cute the performance was....and she had a solo!
She didn't even tell me! That is just her~

Look at that smile! Love it!

For some reason it has taken me forever to get my 100th post! I have no offerings, no giveaways.....I just have my everyday life posting.

You know, I do this for my posterity. My posterity means alot to me. I have always lived my life with them in mind. I have made plenty of mistakes in life for them to learn from. I want them to know that life isn't easy. Everyday I get out of bed to see whats' going to happen. I look forward to life lessons learned. New people to meet. People to serve. People to love.

But, what I mostly live for are my children. I never thought I would love someone so intense. It is a different love, than a spouse or a friend. It is a love that one can't explain. It is a love that will never end. No matter how silly, stinky, and annoying they are. I love them. I love to watch them grow, learn from mistakes, smile when they figured something out. I love to hold their hands, snuggle with them, smell them. I love to talk with them and see the light of the future in their eyes.

Happy Summer.......love on those kids of yours!