Just practicing! 🙂

This past weekend was marvelous!! I love when Ben is home and spends all of his time with us. It seriously doesn’t get better than that! We went shopping at Costco and ate all their free samples, organized our house, watched movies, stayed up late talking, ran a 5k, applied for our passports, went to a BBQ and met new friends, watched the BYU game, played softball, played at parks, went on a bike ride and ate chocolate cupcakes! I wish it didn’t have to end, but alas life must go on and somebody’s gotta bring home the bacon. So off to work Ben goes. 🙁

Here are some of the things I managed to take pictures of.

Hal loves helping with laundry. She climbs right in but struggles getting out. lol

We went to a playgroup at a nearby park. Hallie loved just wandering around. She even learned how to go down the slide by herself!

My friend Nicolette and I took our kiddos on a train ride at Burke lake. It was so much fun!!

I ran another 5k. This time it was in Arlington and supported firefighters, police, etc. I thought it was fitting considering my dad is a stud of a firefighter. I finished in the same time I did my first race. No improvement but also not worse so it’s a good thing. 29 mins.

Ben and Hallie came to support me. This is them chilling before the race started.

This is just a fraction of the people who ran. I wanna say there were about 4000 runners. That’s a lot!

*Funny story-  While we were waiting to start we saw a girl dressed in a Redskins jersey, cowboy boots, and some sort of skirt/panties. She stood up on a wall so she could look for someone and a man stood in front of us and was taking her picture. Ben and I laughed and I was disgusted. When he finished up he walked right past us and I asked him “Did you get her?” He responded with, “kindof”. He had to be in his 50’s and he was nasty!!!!!  At first I just kept thinking how repulsed I was at this man, but then I realized that the girl WANTED the men to look at her like a piece of meat. So…stupid man, stupid girl! Okay now I’m off my soap box.

Hallie was out on the drive home. She was such a good sport. LOVE her hand under her chin. So cute!

This weekend we also went for a bike ride with Hallie. (Thanks Lee and Stacey for letting us borrow your wagon!!)  Hallie loved it. She is seriously so cute!!

What a great weekend. I love my life!!

When we moved from our little apartment into our townhouse I got crafty. I mean with all our room and no T.V. what’s a girl to do? Answer: CRAFTS!! 🙂

Here are a just a few I’ve been working on the last couple of months.

This is our $25 Craig’s list dresser (give or take a few drawers that were being painted). I wanna say it was made around the 1940’s?

The knobs before I spray painted them.

The finished product. I love it!! It seriously looks so much better.

Another project I did I found on a craft blog (love those!) Our landlord left a bunch of plain lamps and said we could have them. I went and bought a new lamp shade, printed off a silhouette and traced it on the lamp shade with a black SHARPIE. I know….how cool is that.  (I did two of them and also painted our night stands black to match the dresser.)

This is another thing our landlord left behind. I decided to paint a castle on the side and buy baskets for the shelfs. It fits perfectly into Hallie’s room.

So far I am very happy with how all my projects have turned out. I have SOO many more to finish. I’m sure Ben wishes I would hurry up already because they have taken over our dining room. haha

Spending all day at home with Hallie gives me lots of opportunities to take pictures. Lately she has been doing some pretty cute things.

My favorite: My friend Stacey made this super cute purse for Hallie for her birthday. (She even made it pink and green which is my favorite combo.) Anyway, Hallie LOVES her purse! I have never seen her get so attached to something. First thing in the morning she finds her purse, puts it over her shoulder and carries it everywhere. She even stuffs things in it. I’m confident that she got a shopping gene from my side of the family.

Like Grandmother, like Mother, like Daughter.  We love to shop!

Cutest pictures EVER!

Now if I could just catch her with her cell phone up to her ear and her purse strapped on at the same time. 🙂

Something else that Hal has loved doing lately is watering our plants (and herself at the same time). This has become almost a nightly occurrence. If we turn on the hose she INSISTS that she do it! Which means taking off her clothes and just letting her play. (Boy can she can throw a fit-I swear she’s supposed to be 2 before the terrible two’s hit!) Ahhh, but just look how cute she is and besides she does a pretty good job.

This last picture is hilarious. Hal woke up early and I was really frustrated with her sleeping habits. I mean she’s ONE!! Anyway, she woke up early and I decided to just let her hang out in her bed until the normal time I go and get her. When I went to go get her this is what I found.

She had gotten one arm out of her P.J’s. What the heck?!

Oh and her 12 month stats:

Height: 36%

Weight: 34%

Head: 62%

Well we have been back from Utah for about a week now. I love Utah but I also love Virginia. I just wish they weren’t across the country from each other!! I learned on this trip just how much I LOVE Grandparents! They are so wonderful. It was great to have a babysitter who was eager to watch Hallie and even change her diapers. My poor Mom even got peed on and didn’t bat an eye. (Love ya Momma!)  Ahh Grandparents- life is better when they are around!!

We were only in Utah for 5 days and they were JAM packed. Friday we spent the day out at Utah Lake waterskiing. It was PERFECT!! I had the best ski of my life and boy did it feel great!! I wish we could go more often. Water skiing is something I really really enjoy.

Is it bad that I love this picture? Hallie’s face kills me! Hallie absolutely HATED the lifejacket. Go figure- she hates anything that restrains her!

Still not a happy camper.

Life jacket off + food + Grandma = Happy Hallie!!!!!

Hallie snuggled right up to Grandma which was crazy because she’s not really a snuggler. She’s always too busy to hold still. Grandma’s are the best!!

Tyler, Ben’s brother, on the wake board. The pic’s of me and Ben are on my mom’s camera.

We (our little fam and my parents) RUSHED home from waterskiing, showered and then did our makeup in car so we could be on time to get our pictures taken. (We didn’t want to leave the lake.) They turned out wonderful and I am spending way too much money ordering them all. lol You can take a peek at britneybphotography.blogspot.com

That night we drove up to Idaho for Ben’s family reunion the next day. It was so fun to see all of the family. I LOVE Ben’s family and had a blast visiting with them.

Ben was born on a farm and feels at home in Idaho. Maybe some day….

Grandma and Grandpa Stoker. They have 45 grandchildren and 44 great grandchildren.

Hallie and 2nd cousin Jaida (Hal’s tan twin-lol) playing the piano. Hal LOVES playing the piano!!!

Ben comes from a HUGE family and this last year there were 10 babies born. WOW! Needless to say Hallie loved playing with all them and made lots of new friends.

Sunday we went and saw Ben’s other set of Grandparents who also live in the same town. They are a crack up and I love how relaxed their house is.

Monday was filled with Birthday party preparations. We were so BUSY!  That night we had a wonderful 1st Birthday party for Hal. Lots of friends and family came and it was so great to see everyone. I wish we could have stayed out all night talking and catching up. Thanks so much everyone for coming. It was great!!!! (Thanks Mom for throwing such a FABULOUS party!)

Hal starting to eat her cake. A little unsure…

Doing a little better….

And BAM it’s gone!! She ate the whole thing!

Emily, Tiff, and Me  (old roommates)

Me, Marci, Baby Kyler, and Lena (High school friends)

Ben’s family. Minus Brogan and Alix

Hallie sharing some of her cake with my mom.

Hallie’s two GOOD LOOKING grandpa’s. Ben’s dad and my dad.

My cousin Jessie and her cute family- Aaron and Brooklynn (a.k.a Brookie) Brookie is only a couple months older than Hallie.

Going for a ride on the Motorcycle!  Hal loved it. She clapped her hands almost the entire ride. (Just around the block)

Does it look familiar?

Maybe this will help…

Yes, that is me in my wedding dress. That is how we left our reception. Pretty sweet if you ask me! We love Motorcycles! I fell in love with Ben because he had a motorcycle and he fell in love with me because I had a boat. lol

On the way home the airline needed two people to change flights because they booked the flight too full. We decided it would be worth the extra hours because they reimbursed us very well. (Now we can go to my Best Friend’s wedding in Washington State next May. YAY!!! Tiff the three of us are coming!!!!)

Anyway this picture is of us in St. Louis. Because we had a FOUR hour lay over we decided to get on the metro and go see the famous arch. It was a fun little rushed adventure. (It was far away and we couldn’t miss our plane.)

Ahh I love Utah!! And I love our family and friends that live there. I wish we could go more often.

Anyone want to come visit us?