Happy 1 month birthday Bear!

Serving our community

It is important to me that we do service projects as often as we can to help show the kids the importance of serving.  I want it to come natural for them.  So, while bike riding today, we each took a bag and collected trash.  I was surprised that we collected 4 full bags just from our neighborhood.  Cade even said, "that felt good to make the streets look nice".

Cupcake time with Gamee

Caelin and Gamee made emoji cupcakes today and we were all quite impressed!  Poop emoji cupcakes were the biggest hit, but Caelin even got to draw emoji faces on several others as well.  They turned out well, and of course everyone loves Gamee's cooking!

Mark Lowry and Girl time

The boys went to go see the comedian Mark Lowry at church with Gamee and Grampee.  Cade loved it and I am continually amazed at his wit and understanding of jokes.  Cade is blessed with a beautiful personality, so I had no doubt this would prove to be a fun thing for him.  Not to mention he was able to spend time with Daddy/Gamee/Grampee.  While the boys were away, Caelin and I made the most of our girl time with making friendship bracelets, playing school, watched a Barbie movie, and then enjoyed a cake from the Easy Bake oven.  This Easy Bake oven is not always the easiest or tastiest, but this stuff wasn't bad.  Ha!

3D "Trolls" movie, Geocaching and Starbucks treats

I had been wanting to see the movie forever and it was finally out in the dollar theatre, so we had to go.  We all laughed during the movie and then did some geocaching to spend a little time outdoors.  We finished up the family day with treats from Starbucks.  The kids love getting the cake pops and even I got a treat and tried the new Cascara latte.  Cade wanted to draw me something special in the foam of my latte.  I thought it was a heart...but was informed it was a poop emoji.  Oh the joy of having boys!  Thank you Lord for this beautiful day of sunshine and memories.

Friday family movie night continues...

Every Friday night is family movie night with pizza/sushi.  It is something that we look forward to all week.  I am happy to announce that we are not always having to watch animated films now and are watching some "bigger kid" movies.  Ha!  These two always have excitement though.  We watched Underdog for Friday family movie night tonight. We also enjoyed some wrestling excitement in which Caelin sat on Cade. Then, Caelin smelled Cade's feet for the price of a penny and said they smelled like rotten pickles...so...its shower time! Oh and for inquiring minds, yes...we are in Christmas Pajamas.

Meeting "Bear" for the first time!

Guess who we visited today...our 2 week old standard poodle baby! We had a few names in mind, but when we saw him for the first time all 4 of us agreed right away his name should be "BEAR"! So, meet the most PERFECT new member of our family, baby Bear. It will still be about 6 more weeks before we can bring him home, but our hearts are so happy. He is tan with some reddish tones and a white patch on his chest. Although he was #11 in the litter, he is the biggest pup in the bunch. He loves snuggling and being in the middle of his siblings while sleeping. Now for the overload of cute puppy pictures...

Happy Birthday Daddy

Today Daddy would have been 68 years old. It is hard to imagine that 2 years ago we celebrated with him yet today will be a quiet day and we cannot call and make him laugh by singing. Yes, he is with Jesus. I would never want him to come back to Earth and give up the greatness of Heaven. I know these things and believe them with all my heart. However, a part of my heart is still missing and I know always will. It is hard to explain the pain in my heart when I go to dial his number or listen to old voicemails.  For 34 years of my life I had a man love me unconditionally.  It didn't matter what I had done or what I forgot to do.  I honestly cannot think of a question that I never asked or was afraid to ask.  Why?...because I knew he would never think less of me, be honest, and love me regardless of my sins.  What a legacy and a true Daddy he was.  I pray that one day when I am in Heaven, Cade and Caelin will say the same for me.  I hope I show them unconditional love and about forgiveness and grace.  So many times I did dumb things and my Daddy could have turned his back on me, but he didn't.  I am confident it never even crossed his mind.  What a beautiful love that is!  Most people do not see that kind of love in their lifetime.  However, my Mom, Mendy and I lived it.  To celebrate the day, it is tradition that everyone eats ice cream (Daddy's favorite).  So, while Mom and Mendy/kids went to Baskin Robbins in Round Rock, we celebrated with our ice cream at home.  Thinking of you today and always Daddy. We love you.

A Proposal

I want Cade and Caelin to always know what a special day January 4th is...therefore, it shall go in the blog books! 

14 years ago, we were in Grapeland, TX for what I thought was a weekend of relaxation and fishing with our families.  However, it was so much more.  It was a magical evening surrounded by both sides of our family, and I had no idea!  Charles' parents, my Dad and Grandmother "Mumps" had snuck off and lit about 100 candles forming a walkway down by the dam.  Rose petals covered a walkway toward a bench.  Once we got down there, Charles led me to the bench (while I kept telling him we had to leave cause we were gonna ruin someone's surprise!).  When we arrived at the bench, he read me some verses from the Bible and then reached into his boot where he had hid the ring.  Immediately he dropped to one knee...and well the rest is history.  After our excitement, we drove back to the house where we were greeted by our parents cheering.  We celebrated by going to a local Mexican Restaurant ("Little Mexico" in Palestine, TX) where they sang "For he's a jolly good fellow" to us while we wore sombrero hats.  So, happy 14 years of engagement to us!

Welcome to 2017!

This is going to be a great year with lots of new beginnings!  To celebrate the start of greatness, we slept in and then headed over to Gamee/Grampee's to have lunch and spend the day with family.  For lunch we had ham, fruit salad, black eyed peas, baked cabbage, green beans, and broccoli/cheese cornbread.  We all had our filling and then spent the afternoon relaxing, doing fireworks, and chatting.  The kids enjoyed being with their cousins and getting spoiled with dessert as usual.  When we reflect on this upcoming year, we smile.  2017 will be the year we add a new family member, the year we grow in who we are, a year of learning more in school, Caelin starts Kindergarten and Cade 2nd grade, the year the kids turn 6 and 8 years old, Charles/I's 13th wedding anniversary, starting our 15th year in Education...and so much more.  Life sure has a way of rolling on.  As the country song goes, "Life ain't always beautiful...but it's a beautiful ride."  Welcome to 2017 from the Hall's!