Ward Christmas Party

Here are some pictures from our Ward Christmas Party.  It was a lot of fun.  We had a breakfast with different kids of breakfast casseroles, lots of fruit, muffins, and beverages.  We had a couple of performances on stage including the primary children.  There were fun activities for the kids where they made their own manger, decorated cookies, colored pictures, and played bingo.  We also got to see Santa.  The children's request this year:  McKay - XBox 360, Erica - jewelry box, and Kason - a new puppy.  Hmmmm.

Christmas Letter and family photo

Dear Family and Friends:

We have had a wonderful year this year.  It has been fun for me to go back and reflect all that has happened.  We took some amazing trips as a family to SLC to go to Lagoon and other sites around that area, Canada and Alaska on the Adams family reunion Disney Cruise, and for Christmas this year we are heading back home to So. Utah.  We are still happily living in Meridian, Idaho, and love it here.  We have wonderful friends and a great ward and everything has been great.

Kory is doing well at his work at Micron.  He is always very busy with lots of projects he is assigned to do there.  This year he was called to be the 2^nd counselor in the Bishopric.  He loves it.  It keeps him very busy and humble and he has become very spiritual and a better husband and father as he has the opportunity to serve many people in our ward.  He has been very busy and so on the weekends he likes to rest if he can.  He has not had the opportunity to work on our house too much this year.  We spray foamed our garage and attic and worked outside a bit on our yard.

Sharese has been busy taking care of the family, working part-time for St. Luke’s, and currently serving in the Relief Society helping with the monthly activities.  She is taking turns with other moms teaching Erica’s preschool group.  She took up sewing for awhile and made a skirt for her and some aprons for the kids.  She is learning how to make bread and learning more about food storage and provident living and trying to incorporate it into our lives, very slowly.  We recently found out we are having another baby.  Our fourth child will be due in July next year.  Sharese has been dealing with the sickness accompanied with it, but all is going well.

McKay is in 3^rd grade this year and doing very well.  He turned 8 this year and was baptized by his dad just before we went on our cruise.  He has a really good friend named Vincent who lives in our neighborhood that he and McKay play together often.  They are Lego buddies.  They each build Lego’s and then trade them with each other.   McKay played two seasons of soccer this year but does not like it anymore.  So starting next month he will be trying basketball.  I think he will do really well with that as we try out a new sport.  McKay started taking piano lessons and LOVES it and is doing so well.  I think we found something that he will be really good at throughout his life if he continues to enjoy it and practice.

Erica is 4 and enjoying going to preschool twice a week and also is in ballet.  She is often dancing around our home and practicing.  She is really enjoying it this year.  She plays with her friends and her brothers.  She is a happy girl and loves to help her mom with things around the house and very obedient and good.

Kason is 2 and a very good boy.  He loves to play with his brother and sister.  He had surgery on his eye this year to help lift it and give him more control of it.  He is seeing better now and the surgery was a success.  He will need some more down the road because it is still a bit droopy but at least it will not be as traumatic.  He loves to watch shows on TV, run around the house, and watch his mom cook.  He is a joy to have around and so cute.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that next year will be a great one with God’s love surrounding you and your family every day.  Come see our blog at koryhall.blogspot.com.

Love:  The Halls

Thanksgiving, New Beds, Working Hard, Big News

THANKSGIVING

We have been busy since my last blog.  I will start with Thanksgiving week.  McKay had the whole week off from school and Kory took 3 days off as well.  It was a great week.  We mostly lounged around our home in our PJs.  We stayed busy at our home moving rooms around for the new beds, enjoying the kids playing together, going to places like the library and Carl's Jr. play place, putting up Christmas decor, watching shows, etc.  It was a fun week and I really enjoyed sleeping in a bit.  I feel terrible.  I did not take any Thanksgiving pictures.  I was going to but was so busy preparing food and I forgot to take my camera with me to the Thanksgiving feast.  Oh well.  We spent that morning in our PJs (of course) watching the Macy's Day Parade and the Dog Show afterwards.  I was busy making 5 pies, green salad, jello salad, and rolls.  We then went over to my brother Jared's home and enjoyed Thanksgiving with their family.  After we ate we watched a movie, played hide-and-seek and the domino train game, and had a piano recital.  We had a wonderful time!

 NEW BEDS

McKay has been wanting a bunk bed for years.  We told him someday we will get one.  We finally found one that we were happy with and got a good price on through Craig's List.  This was an early Christmas present for our kids.  We could not keep it a secret for long.  Right away McKay spotted it in the garage and was SO excited.  He did not know exactly what it looked like but knew it was a bunk bed.  He would often go out and just stare at it in the trailer thinking of what it was going to be like and asking us quite frequently when Christmas was going to be thinking he would get it then.  We left it there for a few days and then Kory needed to use the trailer to get some gravel so it was time to put up the beds a bit early before Christmas. 

 Here is Erica when the bed was in the trailer.

 This picture should be the first one not second one.  This is what we did during the Thanksgiving holiday, played a lot (in our PJs)!!!!!!

 This used to be McKay's bed since he was 3 years old.  Now it is Erica's.  Her bed was falling apart and we would find her almost every night sleeping on the floor because either she did not like the bed she was in and would rather sleep on the floor or she was falling off.  This time she is in a huge bed and is staying in it.  She loves it.  She will get her own room, lucky girl.

 Here is the bunk bed.  It has a desk and drawers on one side and shelves on the other.  Right now it is in the girl room (yellow).  We thought it would fit better here.  But after having it up for awhile now and contemplating the situation, we have figured out a way to get it into McKay's boy blue room.  That will be the next big project for Kory.  He will have to move this into the blue room and Erica's new bed into this room.  This way we will not have to paint in the future (we were kind of dreading that because it took forever to get these two rooms just right).

 Kason gets the lower bunk.  We transitioned him from a crib to this bed.  We were not sure how it would work out, but we have had very little trouble with him staying in his bed and he sleeps great at night.  It is a miracle (we had a lot of trouble with Erica transitioning when she was 2 and so we feared this happening again).  On each side of his bed there is a small space so we put the 2 crib matresses we have and stuffed them in the sides so he won't fall out of his bed and hurt himself.  We are going to have to think about something else when we need to use the matresses again in the future.

 This was McKay's dream for years, THE TOP BUNK!  He is in heaven.  I told him the only disadvantage to the situation is that he now has to share a room when before he had his own room.  He does not seem to mind at all.

WORKING HARD

Kory took advantage of the 3 days off from work to get some work done around the house.  Our back yard is a little swampy and so to fix the problem he dug holes in the ground and got to rent a machine to drill the holes and then filled the holes with gravel.  He also did this with some of our garden.  This will hopefully help the water to drain better and the swampy grass and garden will be no more.  He worked really hard shoveling and hauling dirt, and fixing sprinklers, and lots of manual labor.  I don't think he was used to it because he wore himself out and was exhaused each day.  He awarded himself with all the hard work though when he went to a BSU football game on Saturday with a good friend and enjoyed that.

BIG NEWS

We found out recently that we are expecting our 4th baby around the end of July next year!  This is not a surprise.  We have been trying to concieve for about 5 months.  We were in no hurry so this was a pleasant surprise that we are very happy about.  Morning sickness has kicked in and I am sick all day.  Sometimes it is really strong and other times I am fine.  Sometimes eating makes me feel better and sometimes it makes it worse.  Oh well, I knew it was coming and mentally I was preparing before it hit me.  This time also my pants don't fit me already and my hips have widened out and my stomach is already protruding!  I thought this was strange.  It has never happened this early before.  It's really not fun.  I have to wear sweats all day because they are the most comfortable thing I have and that fit me right now.  I am not prepared to get out my maternity pants quite yet.  I am now worried about what the future holds with this pregnancy and what my body is going to go through.  I am going to be huge!!!!  "Maybe its twins", my mom says and my neighbor.  I think if it were, I would be a lot more sicker.  I guess I will find out in December at my first Dr. appointment.  Until then, I think with each child I have, my body size is just going to increase.  Lots of fun.

Halloween

Halloween has come and gone.  It was a fun holiday for our family.  McKay was Zorro.  I bought his outfit last year when Walmart had costumes for $2.00.  It did not come with a hat though, so we spent quite awhile looking for one.  I found a simple black hat at Kidz Again for I think $3.00 and then went to a fabric store and bought the gold trim to make the Z and some more zing to the hat.  He loved it and looked great.  Erica started out as a witch for preschool and then was a horse for a Halloween birthday party she went to and on Halloween ended up a penguin.  Kason was a cow, just like last year.  I have been blessed with kids who do not request being certain things each year and I have to go out and find them the costume.  They are just happy being whatever we have on hand in our house.  It's great.  On Halloween night we went to the park across our street and walked around getting lots of candy that way.  It was pretty cold and windy that day so after we did the park thing we came home and no one wanted to go out to any houses, so we just stayed home and I worked, Kory worked in our garage, and the kids handed out candy to those that came to our door and thought that was lots of fun.  It was a quite, great night and we are still eating lots of candy left over.

What has been going on around the Hall home

We have been busy around here lately that I have not had time to blog about it.  So I got done with work a little earlier tonight and felt that I needed to get some blogging done before I do some laundry and then go to bed.  It is busy around here.  So in a nutshell here is what we have been doing:

First of all we have been trying to be a little more provident in our living and have been using some of the veggies in our pitiful garden, grinding wheat, and buying and freezing massive amounts of chicken.  We are getting prepared for the long, cold winter ahead.

 Here is McKay next to some chicken breasts that I purchased from a company called Zaycon Foods at a smokin deal at $1.49 a pound!  Look up their website if you want deals like this on meat.  It is amazing.  I think they only sell chicken once a year in the fall.  I got some last year and we did not have enough to last us the whole time, so I decided to be more prepared and double it.  So on the morning of my birthday, I spent all morning packing up 80 pounds of chicken.  Our freezer is very happy to be a little fuller now and hopefully this will last us until next fall.

 My mom got me an automatic wheat grinder last Christmas and I have never broken it out of its box and used it.  It seemed a little intimidating.  Well for the last many months I have been making my own wheat bread and have stopped buying it at the store.  Once I finally found the winning wheat bread recipe that works everytime I use it and it is super easy, I have been making my own since.  I usually get all my wheat flour from the bins at Winco.  One day though I needed to make some bread and I ran out of wheat flour and I was not going to make a trip to the store just for the flour to make the bread and so I decided it was time to pull out the new machine.  It was actually really simple and I finally used up some of my storage wheat and grinded a big bag of wheat to use for the next month.  Amazingly the flour is so much finer than the store bought kind and my bread tasted a lot better as well.  Another great discovery when I finally get my wits up and use my Christmas presents.  Thanks Mom, I love it!!!

 My garden did not do so well this year.  We got 2 tomato plants, 1 cucumber plant, a few jalapeno plants, and in the spring some strawberries.  That was all.  I planted and replanted and replanted again many times many different kinds of veggies and none came up.  Kory said it was time to dig out the dirt and buy some new good dirt and topsoil for next year.  My garden next year will be a glorious jungle, I can't wait!!  At least this year I had a few ingredents to make some salsa.  I made quite a few batches and froze them this last week.  It won't last us long though because it is so good and we are eating it up fast.

 I had a birthday a few weeks ago.  I am now 32.  It was just a normal day but then got better as the day went on.  As I said before, I froze chicken all morning, cleaned the house, and Kory and I went on a date and ate at Carino's for dinner and went to the mall in search of another suit for Kory which we were unsucessful with.  We picked up the kids and then ate Krispie Cream donuts for dessert.  A sweet lady in our ward dropped off a big cupcake with a candle and we used this to sing Happy Birthday.  It was a good birthday.

Last week we had a company come to our home to spray foam our garage attic and some of our garage.  Our bathroom sits mostly above our garage and it is always cold.  Kory lined up getting it spray foamed to make it warmer and to protect against mold.  When they came they put this thing in our front door with a fan that pushed the cold air outside into our home so that they could find any cracks that need to be sealed and also to keep the fumes from coming into our home.  It was a bit scary but they said we could stay there and it was perfectly safe.  It got really cold in our house that morning and they were there for like 4 hours.

Some other things that have been keeping us busy are this last Sunday we had Stake Conference and I was asked to play a flut solo in the adult session the Saturday before.  I was really nervous but we did a good job and everyone seemed to like it.  I love to be able to share this talent I have been given.  It is really fun and I love to play my flute.  I need to play more though so I can get used to performing again in front of people and not get so nervous.

Kason is now 2-1/2 and very whiney and fussy.  He is super silly though and reminds me of his dad with a sense of humor to him.  He keeps me very busy trying to meet his every need all the time.  He loves to torment Erica as much as possible and that seems to make him the happiest.  I hope he grows out of this soon.

Erica luckily gets to get away from Kason every so often and go to preschool which she loves.  She is very happy and smart and recently learned to ride a bike without training wheels. She goes outside everyday and rides her bike for about an hour or more and loves it.  I don't know what she is going to do when it gets too cold to do that anymore.

McKay is finishing up soccer this week with his final game this Saturday.  He does not like soccer anymore so this is his last season.  He is going to try basketball for the first time this January and we have him all signed up and ready to go.  He is taking piano lessons and LOVES it.  I only have to remind him once and awhile to practice.  He usually remembers himself and is really doing well.  He goes far and beyond his practice time and often goes back and reviews songs that he has already passed off.  He is playing Christmas songs preparing for a recital coming up.  I think he is meant to be a musician and not a sports boy, but we will see how he likes basketball.

Kory is super busy with his new calling in the bishopric.  In my eyes, he seems to really enjoy it though and learning a lot.  He is a lot happier when he comes home from meetings and other things that involve his calling.  He spoke a few weeks ago at church about revelation and the temple and did such a good job.  He is amazing and I love to watch him grow spiritually and see him becoming more gentle and kind and loving to us all.

The kids are all excited about Halloween and that will probably be my next post.  See you then!

Kory's Birthday and New Calling

It has been a busy couple of weeks as we have experienced some new changes in our lives.  I realized I never posted earlier about Kory's birthday.  He turned 34 on September 7.  He is getting older, but better looking with age (I am a lucky girl).  We did not do much for his birthday.  He was sick and had to work so did not want to do much..  That evening, we went out and bought a new TV stand for the new TV Dad gave us and then ate a simple dinner at Arctic Circle.  I made him a banana cream pie and we sang Happy Birthday and he blew out the candles!  The kids and I decorated the house with streamers and balloons.  He got cards from his and my parents.  His biggest gift was just before school started when he decided to take McKay on a trip to California to go to Lego Land.  They left the weekend before school started and flew down on an airplane and stayed at one of our Worldmark resorts.  The first day they visited an aircraft carrier in San Diego.  The second day they were at Lego Land all day having a great time.  The third day they spent lots of time in the airport as they flew home.  They had their ups and downs like any trip, but overall it was a great bonding time for father and son with wonderful memories.

This last weekend Kory was sustained as the 2nd counselor in our Bishopric.  The original 1st counselor was moving leaving a vacancy.  They moved the previous 2nd counselor up to 1st counselor and called Kory to replace the 2nd counselor position.  Jared and Hailey came to the sustaining in our ward.  It was such a wonderful meeting where Kory was able to bear his very humble testimony and to see him sitting on the stand for the first time right next to such wonderful men in our stake and ward was so amazing to me.  I felt very proud at that moment that he had decided to live his life in a way that would allow such a calling to come upon us at this time.  We both kind of new that something was coming.  We have had impressions, especially Kory, to prepare us for this.  They have put Kory right to work wtih attending meetings and a big stack of manuals to read and memorize and learn.  Kory's parents are coming up this weekend to set Kory apart as a High Priest and then he will be set apart for his calling by one of the Stake Presidency.  We have had a different spirit in our home since first being asked to fill this position over a week ago.  It has been so strong.  Kory seems like a different person, much more gentle and humble.  He also seems overwhelmed at times with so much going on right now with work, church, and personal issues with refinancing our home and just being busy with the kids' activities.  I am hoping things will balance out soon and the learning curve will go by quickly so we can get into a normal routine with his new calling.  We are so excited though.  It will be hard not to have him around as much, but what a wonderful learning experience for Kory and to have the ability to serve his fellow ward members is priceless.  He is such a wonderful man!  I feel sooooo blessed and honored to be his wife and to stand by him during this time in his life and hopefully be a support to him.

Hair Cut

I have been growing my hair out now for quite awhile.  I can't even remember the last time it was short.  I would just go in every so often and get it trimmed.  Well one day I had a terrible headache and my head just felt so heavy and I just wanted to get rid of my hair so that that heavy feeling would go way and I would be free of the head throbbing.  I also noticed when I look in the mirror that my hair was getting very bushy and my ends were splitting very quickly when I had just got it trimmed.  It was nice to have it long because I could do all these cool hairstyles, but it still just seemed like the same old thing.  I was sick of my long hair.  So I did a drastic thing, warning Kory in advance, and chopped my hair off.  Not completely, but it is quite a bit shorter.  I was hoping it was long enough to donate to the Locks of Love program, but it wasn't.  Oh well, maybe next time.  I love my new haircut.  My head feels lighter and it is a lot faster to get ready.  It was a good change.

School

McKay started 3rd grade this year.  His teacher is Mrs. Payte.  She is an older lady with lots of experience.  She is very calm and loves the children.  Her room is also slightly darkened with the lights to create a calming atmosphere in her classroom.  McKay is faced with lots of reading, math, and book reports this year.  It is starting to get harder.  He is excited to learn his times tables and cursive writing.  Her are just a few pictures I got when he was getting on the bus the first time for the new school year.  Erica is still doing the co-op preschool this year with her friends, with me taking a turn with the teaching, and she will go to kindergarten next year.  Kason gets to spend time at home with me while his brother and sister are at school.  It's a good year.

Kason's Eye Surgery

Kason had his first eye surgery to lift his droopy eyelid on September 1.  My parents came up to help with the other kids and get them off to school because our appointment was at 7 a.m.  Kory and I took a couple days off work and so we were all set.  We went in and we were happy and excited.  Kason was calm and relaxed and the nurses were really kind.  They gave Kason some Versed with Tylenol to make him a little loopy.  They would then take him to the operating room and give him some gas and then put the IV in for fluids and further sedation.  They would have to put a breathing device in his throat so he could breathe during the operation.  It took him about 20-30 minutes after the Versed was given and then as Kory was holding him he started looking tired and became a bit out of it.  It was actually pretty funny to watch.  Right then they laid him down and wisked him off.  I totally lost track of time as we waited in the waiting room and I don't even know how long the surgery took.  Then they came out and said he did great and was recovering.  Then soon after a nurse came in and said he was waking up and hurried us along to where he was.  Another nurse was holding him and he was crying.  From then on it was really hard as he became very violent and uncontrollable.  He was screaming and pulling on his IV.  Then he was pulling and rubbing at his eye that had the surgery done.  Three of us had to hold him down.  The nurse pulled the IV out and we just had to hold him down until he finally fell asleep.  Any movement would wake him up and he would start all over again.  We had to be there for about an hour so they could make sure his breathing was fine.  Each episode got a little bit easier.  Finally they let us go home.  Once we got him home and in a familiar enviornment he calmed down and the rest of the day he watched TV, ate, and slept.  Towards the evening the medicine was not working and he was crying and nothing I did would soothe him.  He was in pain and I was worried he would not sleep that night.  We said many, many prayers and the Lord blessed us.  He slept through the night and when he woke up in the morning, he was completely free of pain and back to his usual self, happy and full of energy as if nothing happened.  From then on he has been fine.  At his postop appointment the doctor said they will need to make some adjustments and lift it higher but we are not sure when that will be.  Kason has to work on strengthening his eyebrow lifting.  They surgery is a big improvement in his eyesight.  It is high enough now that it does not block his pupil and he is slowly gaining more control of it.  This surgery has been a blessing to us all.

Before Surgery

Starting to get loopy



After Surgery



My big boy.  Almost 2 weeks later and he is looking great!

Disney Cruise

I am finally getting to posting pictures and telling about our AMAZING summer vacation.  My parents paid for all the family, including grandchildren, to go on a Disney cruise this summer as our family reunion.  There were 31 people total!  It was an Alaskan cruise that left from Vancouver, Canada and we traveled from there to Alaska and went through Tracy Arm to see a glacier, then on to our first port-of-call Skagway, then to Juneau, and last to Ketchikan.  We drove all the way from Boise to Canada in one day, took about 12 hours.  That is the furthest we have ever driven.  The kids did great, as long as we kept the movies coming and stopped often.  We stayed at a hotel in Vancouver and the next day got on a shuttle and went to the cruise ship.  We went a little late and had to wait in line forever (about 2 hours) to get onto the boat.  It was really rough on the kids and once we got on the boat we had to find the family and get some lunch.  We were tired and grumpy that first day but eventually got everything figured out.  Then the party started and the kids went swimming right away and we had a great time from then on.  We mostly ate, watched movies and theatre shows, watched the scenery, went swimming, napped, took the kids to the kids clubs often and were with them there, and enjoyed being with the family.  The food was amazing.  We ate a lot, but it was healthy and lots of seafood.  Every night we went to a fancy five course meal.  Some nights the kids would fall asleep at the table, other nights they were crying and very fussy, and other nights they were angels.  Kory was very daring and decided he would pick foods that he has never had before.  Some things he tried were Sushi and Escargo (snails).  I even ate one.  One night at dinner Erica complained that her stomach hurt.  I tried to get her to go to the bathroom but nothing.  She was tired and wanted to just go to sleep.  I was not done eating and wanted to finish before taking her down to our room so I just held her and waited for the food to come when she threw up all over me.  It was terrible.  It was such a mess to clean up.  That night she continued to throw up and luckily felt better in the morning and we no longer had any more problems.  That was the worst part of the trip.  The port-of-calls were great.  While moving through the Tracy Arm, we liked to look out the windows and find all the seals that were in the water and sitting on the icebergs.  It was really windy and cold so we had our heavy coats on and stayed on the lower deck while Kory braved the top where he got the great views and all the people who joined him.  At Skagway we just walked around town and bought some souvenirs.  Kory and McKay went with other family members on a hike.  At Juneau the whole family got on a bus and traveled to Mendenhall Glacier.  We went on a hike to get to a beautiful waterfall and see the glacier close up with amazing icebergs.  We tried to find a bear but no luck.  We did see lots of eagles.  At Ketchikan it was Sunday and we decided not to go out.  It was actually really nice to walk around the boat and do various activities while no one was there.  The weather was really nice, 60 to 70 degree weather, and one time it rained.  The entertainment was great and very clean.  We loved going and getting hot chocolate every morning and also throughout the day.  It was the greatest vacation and we cannot wait to go again.  Maybe in a couple of years! 

 Look for the whale

 Eagle

 Grandparents and grandchildren

 My parents and siblings

 Tea party