Christmas Vacation

We started our Christmas vacation with a trip to Utah to see Keith, Courtney and Lucy. 

Courtney is too close to her due date to come for Christmas.

We watched movies, and played in the snow for 10 minutes.

Then we made some Christmas cookies.

We made it home for Christmas.

Scott likes his pop tarts.

We had a little breakfast.

Scott, make that Richard, and Callie were very fashionista.
Sorry, sometimes I get them mixed up.

 Then, we had a visit from this little guy.

After we played for a few days, we took him and his family to Salt Lake so they could fly home.

We meet up with Keith and Courtney.  

Grandpa and Lucy went looking for fish.

We were waiting for the lights to turn on and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.

After we got Todd and Katelyn on the plane we went to Music and the Spoken Word.

We even ran into our friend who is in the choir. 

It was a great holiday.

Here, There, Everywhere

As we approach the holiday season, I realize that our family is here, there and everywhere.

Here:  Jerome Idaho

Wes is teaching math at the High School and is still in the bishopric.

I am working with English language learners in the nearby Wendell, Idaho.  I still love spending my spare time quilting.

Richard (15) is a Junior and involved in speech, drama, baseball, and driving us crazy.

There: Utah

Scott came home from Canada and went to Redfish Lake Lodge to work.  He is now in Logan going to Utah State.

Callie stayed in Provo this summer.  Her jobs included keeping the scoreboard for the BYU baseball team, and woman's soccer team, as well as working at a dry cleaner .  She is still a student at BYU.

Keith is teaching Special Ed. at the High School in Roosevelt.  Courtney and Lucy (2) hang out at home and are waiting for a new baby girl in January.

Everywhere:  Wisconsin

Toad and Katelyn graduated from BYU in the spring and moved to Wisconsin.  Todd works for Epic- a software company- and Katelyn is staying home with Peter (4 months).

What can we say?  We love them and love to visit them.

Merry Christmas and may God be with you in the coming year.

Love Always,

All the Halls.

Christmas Projects

When we took our little trip here and listened to the stories of my family,

It made me remember a picture I had at home.

This is a picture Melba Empey painted and it is called

The Hills of Empey.

It is a picture of the my great grandparents summer ranch home.
They had 10 kids, and they stayed here all summer.

I showed it to my dad and his cousin, and they both loved it.

So I scanned in my color copy of a copy and had it printed up.

I love the way it turned out.

I also put together a few of these for a Relief Society meeting.

Did I ever tell you how much I love Pinterest?  

Gifts

I just looked down and saw that Lucy left me a present.

I don't know about you, but I think she has some potential. 

Thankful for a Birthday Weekend

I have to admit that I was seriously thinking of selling the China.

But then, when Thanksgiving comes around, what would I put on the table?

I was happy to have Scott home for his birthday.

I was also thankful that we gave him some new cloths for his birthday.

We left the baby with a sitter and had a family temple trip.

We enjoyed it very much.

Then it was time for the other birthday party.

Callie and I worked together on the cake.

When I say worked together I mean that 

I made the cake and the icing, 

and that Callie decorated it.

She liked it.

I have enjoyed my week off, but I am about ready to go back to work.

Boise Temple

Last week I went with a few of my friends to the open house of the Boise Temple.

It was a cold morning, but we enjoyed it.

A Family Visit

I feel really blessed that we were able to go see Todd and Katelyn.

When they moved, I really didn't know if we would be able to pull it off, 

but things have a way of working out.

Of course, going to Wisconsin with Wes required us to find deep fried cheese curds.

I passed.

We spent most of our time trying to get a good picture of this guy.

We did visit Todd's work place at Epic.

This was in an elevator.

This was also there.

They live a cute little town.  One of the little stores had a tool museum in it.

Wes loved it. 

Here is a family at work.

And after church.

Then we had to come home.  

Hope to get back there in the summer.  

There is so much more to share.

On a lighter note

We usually carve pumpkins the Monday night before Halloween.

But this year, Rich is having dress rehearsals for a play later in the week,

so we did it a day early.

Father and son

Son and kitty

So here is my question, When do we get to stop carving pumpkins?

I mean, really, does it end?