Hallie turned 11 months old last week but I haven’t gotten around to taking a picture of her until now.  So she is now 11 months and one week old. 🙂  I swear she gets cuter and more silly every day. I also swear she can’t be 11 months old. Didn’t I just go through labor a few months ago?!

I was thinking the other day about what word I would use to describe her. I have heard several of my friends call their babies sweet or an angel. Not that Hallie isn’t those words but I think that FUN and ENERGETIC describe her perfectly. She honestly never stops going. She loves peek-a-boo and playing with her toys and all of mommy’s things around the house. It is impossible to keep the house clean with her around. Hallie learned how to go up and down our stairs this past Friday. She’s very profiecent at it and does it just for fun most of the time. She has also started to stand up by herself without anything to hold on to. Plus she can bend down and pick things up from a standing postition without sitting or knealing down. Pretty impressive!  Hal loves to watch people. Often when we go places she will get in this serious mood and just observe people. So many people are like “wow so serious” and then they try to get her to smile and she rarely does. It’s pretty funny watching her stare at them like “stupid people I’m way smarter than you.” Her serious moods are only while we are around people these days which too me makes it even funnier. Hallie has also started talking quietly. She mumbles all this funny stuff constantly and she always talks back when we ask her a question or say something to her. It’s cute!!  She absolutely loves climbing and will try to climb anything she can, which often gives her bruises. She eats and sleeps good these days which is such a blessing for me.  The only time she gets cranky is when she needs a nap-big change from her earlier in life!!!! And last but not least she loves to laugh. Our favorite is her fake laugh which she does when other people are laughing. You have to hear it!!!!

This was our second fourth of July in the Nation’s Capitol and we can’t think of anywhere better to be on our Nation’s birthday. We love living here, especially on holidays like this one. Our wonderful adopted family the Stoker’s took us down town to the national mall where we spent the day filling our belly’s with Carol’s yummy food and chatting away with good friends. Last year it was soooo hot but then again I was also sooo pregnant and that in itself increases your temperature by like 10 degrees. 🙂 Anyway, this year the weather could not have been better. It was over cast for most of the day with a slight breeze yet it never rained or got unbearably hot. PERFECT! We were worried about how Hallie would do staying up way later than her normal bedtime but she did really good-that is until we got in the car to go home. Poor Stoker’s having to listen to Hallie scream herself to sleep.

The fourth of July is one of my top holidays. Second only to Christmas and tied with Thanksgiving. I love the history of our Country and I love fireworks! I am so grateful to live in America and enjoy all the freedoms that we enjoy. I just hope we don’t give up too many of them hoping to be safer. Anyway, I won’t get political on you. haha

Here are some pictures of our fun day.

Our spot

My new favorite photo

Hallie Bug

Hallie finally taking a nap in Dad’s arms

Hallie and Gabe playing

Hal discovered that now with 4 teeth she could eat an apple!

And boy did she eat it!!

That’s amazing!!

Hallie got nervous when the fireworks started, but she never cried. I’m covering her ear in the picture not restraining her. 🙂  She looks miserable in these two pictures-poor thing. At least the fireworks kept her attention she couldn’t take her eyes off them.

My old mission companion Sarah was in town and spent the afternoon with us. I love her!!

Most recent family photo

Thanks again Randal and Carol for bringing us along!! We loved it!

I’m finally getting around to posting ONE picture from my 5k. Honestly there is nothing attractive about running a 5k in pouring rain! I guess it wouldn’t be Virginia if it didn’t rain. Although you are only getting one picture of the race I will tell you three stories.

1st story- I have been wanting to run regularly for quite some time. I decided to pray and ask for the Lord’s help in A: Finding someone to watch Hallie. B: Finding someone to run with. C: Both!  The Lord answers prayers!!! Soon my friend Cheata expressed a desire to train for a triathlon or something of that nature. I was all over that! Since we both just had babies and are out of shape we decided to start small with a 5k and see what we work up to.  We have been going running regularly while her husband watches our kids. WONDERFUL!!

2nd story-So with this being my first race and all I would volunteer the fact that I am very naive when it comes to both running and races. I knew we were going to get a shirt with our “packet” on the day of the race so I assumed that we were supposed to wear the shirt DURING the race. Therefore I wore a regular ol’ T-shirt thinking I would change. (Running in VA’s heat and humidity REQUIRE me to run in as little clothing as I can. So a running tank top is my normal attire.) Anyway, when I got to the race I found out that we didn’t have to wear our shirts and in fact, according to Cheata’s husband, only LOSERS wear the shirts that they give you during the race. Hello there’s no way I’m running in that shirt if it has loser written all over it. So hence the red t-shirt in the picture. I know, I know long story with really no point but hey next time I run a 5 or 10k and post a picture you better believe I will be wearing a more “running appropriate” shirt. 🙂

3rd story- Ben “filmed” me with our video recorder as I finished the race only to find out later that he didn’t push record. Big Bummer. However, he did film Cheata coming in. 🙂

With shirts and the lack of presentable pictures aside I had a blast running the 5k. There were a TON of people there and I met my goal of finishing in 30 min. My time was 29:18 and I came in 173 out of almost 500 runners.

After months of waiting for the chance to go swimming OUTSIDE we were finally given the chance. A day without rain-not on a Sunday! Here are some adorable pictures of Hallie that I took at the pool. She is for SURE a water baby.

This is when I start to love summer!

This past weekend was full of some of the happiest days I can remember. We went to the Temple on Friday to celebrate our anniversary by performing sealings. It was a great reminder of what we promised each other and the Lord two years ago. I’m so grateful for the Temple, especially the DC, so many memories! Saturday I ran my 5k (I will post pictures later). Sunday was Ben’s first Father’s day and I hope it was a special day for him. I’m so grateful he is the father of my child (ren). Church was great, dinner was great, and dessert was even off the charts (I will post recipes later). Finally Monday was our actual anniversary and we celebrated by getting a babysitter (thanks Lee and Stacey!) and going to the batting cages. I know romantic huh…. actually I loved it!!!! Ben really went all out and gave me a gift that I will always cherish. Here is a picture of it.

It is a picture of our little family surrounded by some of our text messages from the past two years. Plus, he really went all out and got it printed on a frameless canvas (My favorite!) Did I already mention that I love it!

This is what I printed out and framed for Ben for Father’s day. It’s for his office at work.

Father’s Day family photo

She is becoming more and more of a Daddy’s girl.

It has been two years since I married the sexiest, strongest, smartest,wittiest, ambitious and good looking man on the planet. Man life is GOOD! Marriage really is what God intended when He said for us to be happy. I LOVE being married!! It is fascinating to me how love GROWS. I’m so grateful I am married for eternity, I can’t imagine life without my MAN. YAY for the past two years.

    

  

 

Now ladies don’t be jealous. I know I am a lucky woman! 🙂 

Hallie is just two months away from turning one year old. I know I say crazy a lot, but CRAZY!! I love her soooo much. She is my little best friend who I can’t get enough of (except in the middle of the night LOL)

She is at the funnest age! She is always going a million miles a minute. When people see her energy they call her a “busy bee” and ask if she is always like that. We reply with an astounding YES!

She jabbers constantly and has discovered that her voice can go very loud. 🙂

She still throws tantrums when we take something away from her, but gets over it quickly.

She loves playing with friends and cruising all over. She hasn’t tried walking at all, except when we hold her fingers. She can cruise pretty fast by crawling so she seems to be content with that.

She loves eating real people food. Anything she can hold in her hand and feed herself is perfect. She is like our little puppy, whenever we eat she is always at our feet begging for food. 🙂

She is a little snatch and likes to steal other little kids toys. We will be working on that in the future!

She is getting her two top teeth which has been traumatic for her. Poor little thing!

She loves when we Skype on the computer with her grandparents. She is a little actress and puts on a show for them.

She is constantly laughing and has a fake laugh that is HILARIOUS! We love when she does it.

Lately she has started dragging things with her as she crawls. Silly girl.

She has started playing in her car seat like it is a teeter-totter and when she is in the car she often talks to herself or reads a book out loud.

She puckers her lips and says “OOOO” all the time. 

She prefers pots and pans to her baby toys.

She just learned to flush the toilet and does it repeatedly until we pull her away.

She still loves to pull my hair. Ouch!

She is getting more snugly which we love. 

She sleeps in her own bed but still gets up several times a night.

She actually has hair it’s just so light you can’t see it.

She waves bye bye.

Our crazy little girl

Ten months old! 

  

She is a climber! 

  

Playing in her car seat. 

  

What happens when Daddy babysits. The Diaper Mullet!!

One of my favorite blogs to check is The Meanest Mom.  Jana is hilarious!! She is a stay at home mom with four kids, three of which were born in the same calender year. HELLO! I think that automatically gives her Saintly status. Ben often asks me to read her blog posts to him because he too finds them hilarious. 

 

She is currently having a Father’s Day giveaway from Western Union. $100 bucks no strings attached. Go leave a comment on her blog to enter.

Yep, she’s a beauty and we love her already. 

2008 Toyota Yaris

    

This is the newest car either one of us have ever had. Don’t worry we didn’t get rid of the multi colored Camry. Due to our upcoming move we will need a second car. Currently Ben rides his bike, walks, or I take him to a commuter lot which is about a mile away, from there he slugs to work. Our new house will be quite a bit further away so we decided it was time to break the one car rule in our home. Hallelujah!!!!

 

P.S. After we got home Hallie snuggled with Ben for like 15 minutes. (She NEVER does that!) Ben sang songs to her and said that it made his month. In fact he said that buying a new car doesn’t even compare to snuggling with his baby girl. So cute!!  I love having a family.