Branding Heifers

Dean got 120 new heifers this winter and my dad and brothers came up to help him brand. CJ got to come too, grandpa is a sucker for CJ and lets him go everywhere with him. I took CJ down for a while to see the boys work and he kept saying he wanted to go home. The next day he told everyone at Sunday dinner that grandpa would snap the cows necks (catch them in the head catch) and cut off their ears (give them new ear tags) and the cows were crying. It sounds really bad when you put it that way. He did say that he got to ride Pete with his dad so I guess it wasn't all terrifying. I felt bad, I thought he just wanted to go home because he was cold, apparently he was traumatized.

Naturally Curly

Josie's hair is naturally curly. I love it and it's so cute until... She takes a nap!

Alice Lake, WY

Dean went with his friend Doug to Alice Like, Wyoming last weekend. I googled it to try to get a feel for where he would be... this is the picture I got.

I zoomed out and still got nothing. It is obviously in the middle of nowhere, just the kind of place Dean would like. They spent Three days snowmobiling and never saw another person. He said he had the time of his life... I guess that doesn't say much for the last four years of our marriage. I'm just glad they came home safe, he didn't have any cell service and I was worried the entire time.

Busy Lady

While I was getting ready for church Josie was busy making this mess. She was so busy she just kept jabbering to herself. When I finally paid attention to her she held out her arm to show me her pretty bracelets (hair elastics) and then clapped. She was so proud of her jewelry that it didn't even bother her that her arm was bright red and loosing circulation.

Road Trip

Dean had to get a load of cows from Montana. 12 hours... In all reality it was a short drive, from where he usually picks them up at. However for me it was forever. My sweet neighbor watched Josie for me and I invited myself to ride along with Dean. It makes me nervous him driving all that way alone, so I decided I would go and keep him awake. Turns out I slept most of the day and the roads were so icy I couldn't have driven for him to sleep anyway. I really do enjoy being with him even in the truck. He is my best thing!

Josie enjoying the left overs from the New year

New Year's Day

Blake, Casey, Johnny, Dean, Mckay, Collin. There were three more but they didn't come for the picture. Every New Years these boys come for a snowmobile ride at my house. I'm pretty sure they each took a turn trying to back out this year because it was sooo cold, in the end they all manned up and came.

Ang and the kids went sledding with Dean's brothers and sisters but no one else could stand the cold weather. Emilee did a great job getting lunch ready for the boys, while Ang shared her make-up with Josie.

New Year's Eve

Addy was planning on coming for New Year's and her entire family got crazy sick, so they had to stay home. So my Mom, Ang, the kids, and Maddie came to stay. We went to the stake activity for a little while and the kids played games and danced. Leann's dance group preformed 3 or 4 numbers. They are so talented and my mom really enjoyed watching them. Dean is such a party animal he stayed home and tended Josie.

Don't forget about the boy

Janale gave me a gift on christmas, it was a little suit and tie. I opened to bag and automatically handed it back to her and said I think this one is Kason's. She looked at me shook her head and said read the card its for baby boy fox. That never crossed my mind, it's not that I forgot about him I just totally don't think about it like that. It was weird for me when I held it up, its like seeing something for him to wear made it more real. I'm getting more and more excited to meet the little guy. Dean and I have some names picked out but I don't like to talk about it, I'm just not 100% sold yet. I went to the Dr. today, everything looks good with this baby. He is very active, crazy active, its painful and makes me motion sick. I'm pretty sure its a good thing though, I hardly ever felt Josie so hopefully this is a BIG boy.

My friends got together in Utah for the day. It was so fun to see them again. We went to lunch with all our kids and Angela and Jordan came too. We didn't get a picture, it may have been to crazy to even think about pictures, but it was fun. We missed Jessica by only an hour she headed back to Omaha but will return for good it just a few short months. Later that night We all got babysitters and did a little shopping and had dinner. We went back to my moms and she made us hot chocolate and we visited for far to long. It was so fun to catch up with them and just hang out. Shawnee came back to Idaho with me for a few days and was good company.

Toddler?

I didn't know if this day would ever come but I finally have a toddler. She started walking a few days before christmas and has just taken off. I can officially say she started walking when she was 16 months even though was was really close to 17. She is so funny, she never crawls anymore and cries to get down and walk in the grocery store - thats a problem.

Deck the Halls...Or don't

We did get a christmas tree this year. We did wrap presents. We just didn't have any decorations. Josie was so sick for a couple days after we cut our tree down and by the time I was ready to bring it in from outside it was covered in snow and hadn't had any water, it was ruined. Well there was no sense in bringing up all the christmas boxes if we couldn't decorate the tree so we didn't. Low and behold Christmas still came to our house and we really enjoyed it.

Christmas

Dean was so good to me this year he got me great gifts and they were all very thoughtful. We spent Christmas morning with Dean's family, we all got spoiled. It was fun to see Josie and Kason play together or mostly just play with each others toys. Josie was fun but totally didn't care or get the concept of opening gifts, Santa used that to his advantage and didn't bring her anything. Don't worry her grandparents totally covered it.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to my moms. The boys went snowmobiling all day and that night We had a wonderful dinner and program. Then came the presents. Josie was in love with baby Koen and would not stop kissing him and patting his head. Cameron let Josie hold him and she didn't want to let go. I called Dean to tell him to hurry home form snowmobiling so he could shower and be ready for dinner, he told me there was a terrible accident on the road and he would be late. Turns out he just had some christmas shopping to do. The funny part was some was for me (music box) and some was for him (stuff for his snowmobile). He is so good to make sure we are both taken care of.

Wife of the Year Part 2

I'm not so much wife of the year. I picked out the perfect snowmobile for Dean. The engine blew up, don't worry the guy took it back. Dean got a new one. I'm not as cool as I thought. Before it broke Josie did get some sledding in with Dean and aunt Jenna.

Wife of the Year!

Pretty much I'm the best wife ever! Or possibly the worst because I couldn't listen to it any more. Dean told me he was going to buy a snowmobile this year. Fine with me, but he spent a lot of time looking at KSL, a lot of time calling dealers, and a lot if time talking and talking to people about sleds. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. Dean told me if he could just find one like my neighbors then he would be happy. So what do I do... call the neighbor and buy it. It wasn't really for sale but he let me buy it anyway. I couldn't hold out until Christmas so he went to pick it up. Now we are both happy! Last night Dean took me for a ride, pretty much my eyes were closed the entire time anyway so it didn't matter that is was dark, I was a little scared for my life but it was exciting. I love him! Merry Christmas Dean

My husband is like a Dr... he just doesn't get paid as much.

Dean has a tender heart.

He rides this horse a lot but doesn't really love him. Since he got hurt he only has good things to say about him. (That is probably how my funeral is going to be).

Just who she is...

I love these pictures it just shows Josie this winter. She has been wearing a lot of hats this winter, she keeps them on pretty good, she pulls out her piggies, and its cold so it works. He face is usually dirty from m&m's. It just makes me want to squeeze her.

Hall Family Christmas Party!

We had our annual Hall Family Christmas Party last weekend. It's one I always look forward to. We used to get together on Christmas eve but the crowd was getting too big so we had a move it to a church and do christmas eve as smaller families. My grandma and grandpa have 107 members in their family and I love them all it was so fun to visit and mingle. Most everyone showed even my aunt from California. We had a nice dinner and program and played the traditional Tommy Right white elephant game. I love my family and have such fond memories with my cousins. I'm so lucky to have been raised as a Hall and have a love and respect for that name. My grandpa always talked about not do anything to embarrass our last name. I truly do love my family and my sweet grandparents.

The Doctor... just so I remember

For a while Josie would eat by herself... noodles, green beans, cereal, lasagna etc. but then she stopped. She wouldn't eat anything, so for over one month every meal I would feed her by spoon, do a dance, sing a song, let her color, and so on while I tired to pry her mouth open and make her eat. It was so much work, and we both hated it. I took Josie into the doctor 10-18-10 and she weighed 17.2 I took her in 12-10-10 she weighed 17.11 which is progress however she had started throwing up again with texture and didn't eat for 3 strait days after this appointment. I took her back in 12-13-10 and she was back to 17.2. I pretty much lost it in the Dr. office; I started crying telling him how I can't keep forcing her to eat, its exhausting and obviously not working. He sent us to get a bunch of test - thyroid, hormone levels, pituitary gland, cystic fibrosis etc. they all came back normal, he made me an appointment at Primary Children's in January. I also met with a dietitian that day that much to my relief told me I could stop forcing her to eat. Though by doing it she was gaining weight she wasn't learning the responsibility of feeding herself. She told me to feed her three high calorie meals and two snacks and if she didn't eat that was her problem and put the food away and try again the next meal. I love that lady. Sometimes she eats sometimes she doesn't, but we are both a little saner. She was so sad after getting poked three times for blood, sitting through a sweat test, and listening to the dietitian, she fell asleep before we even left the parking lot. It was so cute she looks like she is faking but she slept just like that all the way home.